The unknown audiophile Acousence label has released a live recording of Mahler’s First Symphony that might not be notable for the playing of the Philharmonic Orchestra Hagen led by Antony Hermus (although they do their job beautifully), but because it is a performance of the 1893 Hamburg version of the work (“Titan—A tone poem in symphonic form” split in two parts: “From the Days of Youth” and “Commedia humana”). Apart from extant programmatic titles that means inclusion of “Blumine” as part of its natural environment, rather than having the movement simply tacked on a performance of the otherwise revised version (as is the case with Judd, Zinman, Rattle, Ormandy, et al.). It’s also notable for its absolutely gorgeous recorded sound: Politely distant, elastic, very vivid yet refined and atmospheric. More of a dark horse recording, still, than Judd’s. Too bad 
Wednesday, 11.4.09, 5:00 am
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.1 (Part 1)
Johannes Brahms had just finished his Third Symphony and not yet embarked on his Fourth when Mahler sat down in 1884 to begin composing his First Symphony, not then already called—or thought of as—a “First Symphony”. It took Mahler four years to bring the first, revised version to a close. Toscanini had by now conducted his first opera in Italy and Brahms, to stick with him, finished his Double Concerto. On November 20th, 1889 Mahler premiered the work to a baffled Budapest audience that could make little of the first three movements, and less still of the two that followed in the second part. The symphony-to-be was called “Symphoniai költemény két részben” (Symphonic Poem in Two Parts) and included an Andante as a second movement that Mahler had culled from earlier incidental music (“The Trumpeter of Säkkingen”) he had written while Kapellmeister in Kassel.
When he performed the symphony again on October 27th, 1893 in Hamburg, significantly revised and still notably different from today’s commonly played version, new titles were added. The slow movement was now called “Blumine”, the symphony had acquired the moniker “Titan”. That’s not a reference to the parents of the Greek Gods (as tempting an idea that might be), but to a novel by one of Mahler’s favorite authors, Jean Paul. That particular “Titan” is an obstacle-hurdling artistic genius, a romantic idealist—which is in line with the original romantic program Mahler had constructed. There are more references to Jean Paul all over the symphony: The title “Blumine” is taken from an 1827 book of collected Jean Paul stories. Ditto the programmatic subtitle of the first movement (“Flower-, Fruit-, and Thornpieces”). And the woodcut “The Hunter’s Funeral” (pictured below) that inspired the warped funeral march of the Symphony is by Moritz von Schwind—after Jacques Callot—published in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke in the manner of Callot… with a preamble by—Jean Paul.
The third performance in Weimar (June 3rd, 1894) still saw the “Blumine” movement (now called “Bluminenkapitel”), but already he had second and third thoughts about it. The negative review singling out “Blumine” might not even have been necessary for Mahler to discard and disown it. He went on to further revise the symphony, modifying the instrumentation, adding the exposition repeat in the first movement and another repeat in the Scherzo, and assigning the third movement’s Frère Jacques-ditty from the whole group of double basses to “solo”… an indication which is, as of late, reversed or re-interpreted as meaning a ‘solo’ for the entire group of double basses, assuming they are capable of playing the difficult part on the bass’ highest register, which back then they were not.
“Blumine”, which is sometimes included in, or attached to, recordings of the 1906/10 version of the First Symphony (Frank Brieff, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa, James Judd, Simon Rattle, David Zinman, Zubin Mehta, Michael Halász among them), makes more sense as part of the work to which it actually belonged, namely the 1893 Hamburg version. Wyn Morris, Hiroshi Wakasugi, Ole Kristian Ruud, Roger Norrington [?], and Antony Hermus recorded that or the “Weimar” version (no differences that I am aware of). Then again Mahler authority Donald Mitchell, after expressing sympathy for occasional “Blumine”-performances, says about those efforts in The Wunderhorn Years: “As for those who laboriously reconstruct a set of performing materials from the 1893 [score] and then solemnly play an orchestration much of which Mahler spent years revising and refining—this seems to me to be musicology (if that’s what it is) run mad.” I tend toward playing “Blumine” as a stand-alone orchestral movement as the most satisfactory solution, and I would go to Paavo Järvi for that purpose, who has thrown together a very smart program of four ‘stand-alone’ Mahler movements for Virgin Classics.
M. v. Schwind: “Wie die Thiere den Jäger begraben”. Wood engraving after a drawing by J. Callot.
From: Münchener Bilderbogen No. 44 “Die guten Freunde” (Munich, 1850)
(Click to enlarge)
In Symphony No.1, the “Titan”, the choice for a first recording is fairly uncontroversial and surprisingly easy: Rafael Kubelik’s unfussy, energetic style suits this early symphony—in some ways very far from the modern sound world of later Mahler—extremely well while at the same time inoculating it against excess. Kubelik was the first conductor to mount a complete Mahler cycle (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) and his studio recording of the 9 + Adagio, the first such to be conceived and finished as a cycle, still holds up well. His first is available separately on DG Originals, and rightly so. If there is anything to be objected to, it’s that he skips the first repeat of the Scherzo and that the sound is a tad shallow, minimally brittle. I have heard (very few) people complain about woodwind vibrato… it’s a complaint I don’t quite follow or share.
This would be the first choice, too, were it not for a later recording of the same conductor and orchestra. A one-off broadcast recording of the Bavarian Radio from November 2nd 1979 on Audite finds Kubelik in very similar mood and his band in better form yet. The third movement is impossibly intimate and, even with all ritardandos and accelerandos, guided by a gentle, unintrusive pulse. It is, for all practical purposes, a mistake-free performance—not always the case in these unpatched Kubelik live performances. But most importantly, the sound is deeper, richer and altogether better than one might imagine from a live recording. Audience noise—a little rustle between the second and third movement—is negligible. Because DG’s inclusion of the Songs of a Wayfarer with Fischer-Dieskau makes for an enticing filler, the choice between the two recordings isn’t easy. Their inclusion may not, on its own, justify having both recordings, but should make those feel better who don’t have the Audite recording.
The heaviest among the “Titans” comes courtesy of Bernstein’s second version with the Concertgebouw. An imposing, impressive, massive, self-important recording, the impact of which is undeniable. Portentous for sure, it ends with a bang. (Literally: Bernstein accentuates the very last note with a spurious bang on the kettle-drum.) It can drive purists mad and delight those who are looking for a show in what can admittedly be seen as Mahler’s showiest symphony. Those who won’t stand for that, might enjoy Boulez bringing out the best in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (so much more appropriate than the possibly impressive, but completely unidiomatic and foursquare Solti version with the same band). This is not a “cool” Boulez reading… although wherever Bernstein parades the music around, Boulez can tend towards mild understatement in the finale. (Solti’s earlier account (1964) with the London Symphony Orchestra is altogether a happier, more eager affair than his remake—good enough to keep listening to, not good enough to seek out.) The most recent CSO recording with Bernard Haitink—on their own “CSO Resound” label (
)—is excellent again; more along the lines of Pierre Boulez’. Although Haitink is slightly on the relaxed side as regards tempos, he packs a punch and thrills: the sound is fantastic, the brass glorious (but still tasteful, because Haitink doesn’t give in to the temptation of letting them do their tacky, blazing thing), the rhythms swinging, the eruptions explosive. At the last minute this reading supplanted the Boulez/CSO recording in the “American Cycle” played in the first week of Classical WETA’s Mahler Month. 
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Today in Mahler:
Today, 100 years ago, Gustav Mahler conducted his first concert as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. On the program were Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture and Eroica Symphony, Liszt’s Symphonic Poem No.6, and Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel.
Gustav Mahler. Postcard by Hans Boehler.
Courtesy of the Carnegie Hall Archives
Tuesday, 11.3.09, 5:00 am
Gustav Mahler – Introduction (1.2)
Here is the second part of an introduction and discussion of all Mahler symphonies (through favorite recordings) which will take place all through November, Classical WETA’s Mahler-Month. The first part was published separately, earlier this year, and can be read here.
The struggle, the crisis of identity and faith, the uncertainties and the challenge of a creeping modernism that radically undermined life as people knew it… all seem to be reflected in the clashes and crashes of Mahler’s symphonies. And it seems only fair to assume that it is this quality that makes Mahler one of the most popular composers of our time, an object of passion, obsession. Mahler is not a composer for times of (moral) certitude but instead for times of a general flailing about. This innate element of human existence is always going to be with us, perhaps cyclically, and thus Mahler’s music will always find a way to appeal as personal statements that reflect a greater uncertainty about life.
All that may not exactly sound like a whole-hearted effort to sell Mahler’s music as great—but that is exactly what Mahler’s symphonies are. With their Klezmer-meets-forest-birds tunes, with cow herds and marching bands crashing into each other and riding the fairy-wheel together, with its dozens of hiccups but also its few unearthly, beautiful long lines, with its unpredictability and frenzy, its fears and bouts of poise and conviction, the marriage of the most sophisticated and the crass, the sardonic parts and the heart-wrenching longing, these works just about do justice to Mahler’s own ambitious, if not pompous, claim (to Sibelius), that ‘the symphony must contain the world’. Or, as he said in reference to his third symphony to Bruno Walter (who marveled at the Alpine landscape when visiting Mahler in 1896 at the Attersee) on only a marginally smaller scale of ambition or pomposity: “Don’t bother looking, I’ve already composed all of it.” (“Sie brauchen gar nicht mehr hinzusehen – das habe ich schon alles wegkomponiert.”)
Given the personal nature of these symphonies and the many ways one can interpret them in, picking “best” recordings is an undertaking that presumes a good amount of vanity and audacity: There is, after all, no one “best” way of doing Mahler, nor is there a way to objectively declare a recording of a given interpretive type superior to any and all others of its type and audibly so to all potential listeners. But then that is the problem with all such ‘best of’ lists (or indeed all criticism) and I am comfortable with the subjective element so long as I have good reason to believe in my choices. Certainly a good amount of exposure helps (I must average well over a dozen recordings of each symphony—and take into consideration the views of a number of other critics and ‘acquainted ears’) and might well be enough to justify such a list and to hope that the mentioned recordings pique your interest. All top choices on this list are—by design—currently and easily (that is: usually on individual discs, not in boxes) available in North America. Where less easily attainable copies offer must-hear versions, I make note of it.
A meaningful discussion of complete sets of Mahler would be another article of this length and does not seem as useful. What every critic or record guide will tell you is true: None can adequately match everyone’s taste in each symphony, be it because of the conductor’s or the listener’s particular preferences and style. There are several good sets available, though, most notably Kubelik / DG and Inbal / Brilliant (in the ‘safe’ category), Bernstein (extroverted and raw on Sony, wilful and polished on DG), Bertini / EMI (of which I’ve only heard a couple symphonies but which gets only the highest praise), Chailly / Decca (clean and plenty polish), and Gielen / Hänssler (analytical and explosive in turn). Sinopoli / DG seems to rub some critics the wrong way, but his set is the most complete (all the orchestral songs and cycles) and everything I’ve heard of it (all but the third) is between good and excellent. It’s certainly not “safe”—but gritty and highly engaged. I would avoid Solti, Maazel and most of the obscure cycles (Tabakov, Neumann, De Wart, Segerstam). Abbado (Vienna), Haitink (Concertgebouw) and Ozawa (Boston) are not available in the U.S. and there is little that suggests they need to be sought out at great effort and even greater expense while other fine sets are available. [Since I first set out on writing this essay so many new cycles and almost-cycles have been started and even finished—Gergiev (LSO Live), Fischer (Channel), Stenz (Oehms), Schwarz (Artek), Boulez (DG)—that a roundup and review might well be worthwhile, but not before next year. Individual recordings from these, where available, have been considered in the discussion of the symphonies.]
Also missing from this review is a discussion of the song cycles and collections except Das Lied—for several reasons, not the least of which is my relative lack of exposure to enough different versions that would have warranted inclusion. I also feel that Mahler said most everything he had to say in his symphonies—and perhaps more successfully so. Often enough he includes material from the songs in the (first four) symphonies (i.e. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in the First Symphony, Des Knaben Wunderhorn in the Fourth) where they find their final, liberated (?) form. Still, I want to mention his most neglected, first major composition: Das klagende Lied, which is one such vocal work; a secular cantata that foreshadows Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.
There are just a few recordings of this work and of the few there are, fewer still seem currently, or easily, available in the U.S.. Sinopoli’s* and Rattle’s recordings are available as part of their complete box sets (DG, EMI), Michael Tilson Thomas’ 1996 RCA recording is again attainable from San Francisco Symphony media, remastered in the hybrid-SACD format. Haitink’s Concertgebouw Third, re-issued, happily comes with the two-movement verison of it. Inbal is hard to come by and Nagano out of print, but at least the excellent Chailly (Decca) is available again. At least that is more than just a few years ago, which is good because Das Klagende Lied is not only a beautiful work (whether in three, or—as revised—two movements), but also echt-Mahler. As such, it might even seem more confident than his First Symphony with its oversized, glued-on tail. In Das Klagende Lied can be discerned the seeds of material that Mahler would later harvest—notably for the Songs of a Wayfarer, but even as late in his career as when writing Das Lied von der Erde. [* Sinopoli’s recording has since been made available via the ArkivMusic service]
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Recommended Recordings:
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Bernstein made more of a splash with his Mahler cycle, and it is fair to say that the American conductor did more to bring Mahler back to concert-hall ubiquitousness. But Czech conductor Kubelik was ahead of the trend and programmed a complete Mahler cycle well before Bernstein recorded his, and Deutsche Grammophon recored his self-effacing interpretations at the same time Columbia recorded Bernstein. Kubelik eschewed Mahler-as-a-platform-for-personal-neurosis, he doesn’t further wind up the already overwrought music. Mahler knew about conductors’ ‘interpretations’ and he didn’t like what he heard. So he tried to make his symphonies “idiot proof” by indicating every minute detail to prevent conductors from adding (or taking away) elements that are not in the music. Few conductors get as close to just playing the music as Kubelik, whose incredibly even cycle, despite its (audible) age remains among the finest contenders.
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I have always thought the praise of Bernstein’s Mahler, and especially the dogged insistence on his earlier cycle on Sony being a first choice, as rooted in nostalgia rather than objectivity. I’m not ready to change my verdict entirely (too uneven, sometimes scrappy), but the latest re-issue and superb re-mastering of that cycle, issued in collaboration with Carnegie Hall, has made an already attractive bundle even more desirable. The presentation can’t be lauded enough, it is simply optimal. Every symphony gets its own CD (or set of two CDs), so there is none of that exacerbating skipping forward three tracks on disc 7 to get to Symphony 6, which then continues on disc 8 which in turn contains the beginning or last movement of yet another symphony… Everything is well designed, the sleeves containing the discs are sturdy (they even have a spine) and with all the pertinent information clearly printed on them. Interviews with New York Philharmonic musicians who knew Mahler top off the budget friendly re-issue of these overexcited yet in their own way earnest interpretations.
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Michael Gielen isn’t alone in approaching Mahler as the first modern composer rather than as the epitome of romantic composers, but at his best (6th, 9th, 2nd, 7th) he not only keeps the textures clear and the progression as organic as possible in this music, he also injects intense fervor usually the prerogative of his romanticizing colleagues. His cycle can’t score on price compared to those that have been issued and re-issued for the umpteenth time, nor is his orchestra the lushest, and the intriguing modernist couplings of the individual disc are not part of the box… but of available modern cycles this is my favorite right now. His 10th is also among the best, but curiously not included in this box. It is Gielen’s cycle that will be the third, integral cycle played on Classical WETA during Mahler Month.
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Sunday, 11.1.09, 6:00 am
I Don’t Love Mahler
I don’t love Mahler.
Bruckner, I love. Bach, I revere. Beethoven, I admire. Not Mahler… Mahler is an addiction. Something that, if you catch it, gets in your blood and lives on, indelibly, subcutaneous.
Part of that addiction, something shared by many fellow Mahlerians, is obsessive-compulsive Symphony-collecting disorder. Despite offering just over a dozen important works, Mahler still manages to make for more recordings in my collection than all other composers except Bach and Beethoven. The home-collection must by now comprise Mahler recordings somewhere on the far side of 250, which is itself only a small fraction of the Mahler discography.
Classical WETA has made November “Mahler Month”, which gives me the opportunity to bring my obsession to some productive use. I have been allowed to pick three Mahler cycles, two including Das Lied von der Erde and, if all works according to plan, all three with complete performances of the 10th Symphony. Alongside I will publish short articles on Mahler’s symphonies from the angle of the available recordings. This is a project that has germinated from an innocent request by a music teacher, some four years back, about which recordings of each of the Mahler symphonies—in print and available on single discs—were ‘the best’ to be had. Originally a simple list, it has grown completely out of shape and over the next few weeks I will attempt to cast into manageable form.
Monday will ease Classical WETA listeners in with the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony; the first cycle will begin Tuesday. The first set of Mahler symphonies is the “American Mahler Cycle”, with at least one American participant on the recording—either the conductor or the orchestra or both. The second cycle is made up of my favorite non-American recordings. The third is an ‘integral’ cycle for which I have suggested Michael Gielen’s insightful traversal with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The “American Cycle” will begin with Bernard Haitink recent recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on its own label, CSO Resound. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Orchestra are represented with the next two symphonies (including Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Second Symphony)—all on the label the orchestra founded just for the Mahler cycle. Esa Pekka Salonen leads the LA Philharmonic in the Fourth and is aided by Barbara Hendricks (Sony). Bernstein’s “Frankfurt” Fifth (with the Vienna Philharmonic) displays everything Bernstein’s personal Mahler stands for, including—often for the better—excess.
If we only judged Christoph Eschenbach’s tenure in Philadelphia by the recordings that orchestra (finally, again) made, we’d conclude that everything went swimmingly. It is their gutsy Sixth (Ondine) that will be played. Pierre Boulez leads the finest American orchestra—the Clevelanders—in the Seventh (DG). Bernstein is back for the Eight (DG), also a live recording with the Viennese, this time from Salzburg. Vowel-happy Eiji Oue leads the Minnesota Orchestra in Das Lied (Reference Recordings). Michael Tilson Thomas again conducts the SFSO in the Ninth Symphony and Lopez Cobos (Telarc) conducts the Cincinnati Orchestra in Remo Mazzetti’s performing version of the complete Tenth Symphony. Enjoy!
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Update:
Two small changes: The Third Symphony will now be the performance with Esa Pekka Salonen conducting the LA Philharmonic (liner notes by Tim Page, btw.) and Das Lied von der Erde will be with Michael Tilson Thomas / San Francisco Symphony instead of Eiji Oue / Minnesota.
This week’s Mahler schedule can also be checked here.
Tuesday, November 3rd, 9PM
Symphony #3 (Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen)
(Also at 4:07PM
Symphony #3, 2nd Movement [San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas])
Wednesday, November 4th
Symphony #1 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink)
Thursday, November 5th
Symphony #4 (Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen)
Symphony #10 (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Jesús López-Cobos)
Friday, November 6th
Symphony #5 (Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein)
Saturday, November 7th
Symphony #6 (Philadelphia Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach)
Das Lied von der Erde (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)
Symphony #8 (Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein)
Sunday, November 8th
Symphony #2 (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)
Symphony #7 (Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez)
Symphony #9 (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)
Monday, 10.26.09, 6:00 am
Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love (Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek)
Somber and very dark beauty is exuded by the “Four Songs of Prayer and Repentance on words from the Bible” that Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek (of “Donna Diana” fame) composed in 1913. This is very different music than his light-hearted, Richard Strauss-heavy work that is most gloriously exemplified by the tone-poem “Schlemihl”, Reznicek’s ‘Anti-Heldenleben’. Of course these four orchestral songs, only between two and four minutes long, still contain slight hints of Strauss, Reznicek’s friend, model, and great influence, but no more than the few hints of Gustav Mahler that also run through it. They are unquestionably gorgeous in their own right. The harmonies are not as advanced as those of Othmar Schoeck or late Mahler can be, but significantly more chromatic than in his Symphony No.1 (1903), the imposing 55 minute work that shares CD space with the songs.
A late-romantic symphony, not particular cogent, and with little sense of purpose, that First Symphony (titled “Tragic”) is still remarkably lovely as it saunters through its four movements with melodic leisureliness. Only the nervous, wispy second movement has any sense of momentum; the three other movements are languid affairs full of quotes from any romantic composer within reach. Instead of wondering what a better orchestra might have been able to extract from this work (a world premiere recording, since the manuscript of the Symphony had been lost until recently), we can enjoy—with a little patience—the performance of the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder) under Frank Beermann for the class act it is. Together with mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaja (just the right, dark mix of husky and dramatic) they’re even better in the Prayer’n’Repentance songs which, even at only a sixth of this CDs 66 minutes playtime, are the primary reason for purchase and discovery. (The liner notes are a mess, the ‘English’ translation plain incomprehensible.)
Previously and since in Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Ludwig Thuille, Piano Quintets
( 2 ) – Joseph Marx, String Quartets
( 3 ) – Franz Mittler, String Quartets
( 4 ) – Felix Weingartner, String Quartets
( 5 ) – Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, String Quartets
Previously and since in Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Friedrich Ernst Fesca, Symphonies
( 2 ) – Max Bruch, Swedish & Russian Dances
( 3 ) – Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Orchestral Songs, Symphony
Thursday, 10.22.09, 6:00 am
November in Music
November is loaded with music, with one or more attractive concerts to chose from almost every day… and that’s after selecting only those events that I reckon have the greatest potential for excellence, discovery, and delight. And better yet: No premature* Christmas concerts need to be circumvented yet.
Till Fellner continues his Beethoven Sonata cycle at the National Gallery of Art with Sonatas nos. 4 (op.7), 15 (op.28, “Pastoral”), 24 (op.78 “À Thérèse”), 25 (op.79), and 27 (op.90—one of my most dear Beethoven sonatas). He will perform at the National Gallery of Art at 6.30PM on November 1st. The concert is free, but you will have to fight for your seat.
If you are in Baltimore, free Bach (courtesy Bach Concert Series) might be a fitting alternative: Cantata BWV 80 (“Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott”) will be performed at Christ Lutheran Church at the Inner Harbor, 701 South Charles Street. (4PM) The concert opens with a little introduction to the music.
Noontime Cantata Bach (“Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132”) on Tuesday, November 3rd at the Church of the Epiphany.
Later that night—also free (reserve tickets early through Ticketmaster or try your luck at the door on the night of the performance)—at the Library of Congress you can hear the Zemlinsky Quartet. If it’s got “Zemlinsky” in the title, I’m already interested. But beyond their name, this youngish quartet has many impressive performances and a few neat recordings under their belt and their program includes their namesake composer, Mozart’s most intriguing string quartet, and a quartet by Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006) that I’ve never heard (or knew existed), except that on account of Kalabis’ Harpsichord Concerto alone I am superbly interested in what it might sound like.
Thanks to WPAS and their sponsors, Vadim Repin was finally brought to Washington last year. Seems like his rather more subtle brand of excellence and unflashy musical authority has caught on, because he’s back now with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Brahms concerto under Alexander Vedernikov who gives his US conducting debut, also serving up Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony. Serves the Washington Audience right to hear one of today’s very finest violinists. Performances take place at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall Thursday through Saturday on November 5th (7PM), 6th (8PM), and 7th (8PM).
The Szymanowski Quartet (CD review on WETA) follows the Zemlinsky Quartet at the Library of Congress just a few days later. What is true for the former Czech group is equally true for their Polish counterparts—next to Apollon Musagete they’re the Polish quartet of its generation. Haydn-Szymanowski-Mendelssohn. Free. What else could one desire on a Friday night? November 6th (8PM).
November 7th (5PM) and again on November 15th (2PM) at the Kennedy Center Opera House, the Washington National Opera performs—but does not stage—Götterdämmerung, the final opera in the Ring Tetralogy. To avoid the company’s own Götterdämmerung, what would have been the last installment of Francesca Zambello’s American Ring had to be axed. (Co-producers San Francisco Opera, who have arrived at Die Walküre this year, managed without canceling, somehow.) That’s a shame, because for all its clattered confusion (Rheingold and Walküre (p)reviews here), the “American Ring” was intriguing stuff and its tame controversy very healthy for the Washington opera scene. Perhaps a concertized Götterdämmerung will bring closure… or perhaps the necessary funds to stage the production as a cycle, after all. Dependable regulars like Alan Held, Gordon Hawkins, Gidon Saks, and Elizabeth Bishop (as second Norn) make it an attractive affair, as does the opportunity to hear—presumably—the orchestra outside the pit and thus many musical details otherwise lost in live performance.
For the purposes of hearing Bruckner’s Quartet alone you should consider a trip to the National Academy of Sciences. They, too, have a (free) program of chamber music and their venue, which looks like something between a 1970’s Star Trek movie set and an inverted Eulitz-cut diamond, has a fine acoustic. On Sunday, November 8th (3PM), they present the Fine Arts Quartet in Haydn (“Sunrise Quartet”) and Schumann’s op.41/1, apart from the Bruckner.
Spirited performances and an intriguing, even eclectic mix of composers are hallmark signs of the “Musicians from Marlboro” series at the Freer Gallery of Art (also free). The first of these concerts takes place on Thursday, November 12th (7.30PM) and features Mozart’s Flute Quartet, Brahms’s third Piano Quartet op.60; Messiaen’s Louange á l’Immortalité de Jésus (violin and piano); Takemitsu’s A Bird Came Down the Walk; and Kaija Saariaho’s Mirrors.
I have never claimed that Jean-Yves Thibaudet is anywhere near my favorite pianists, but in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F I can really imagine him as splendidly entertaining, especially when embedded in an all-Gershwin program with Marin Alsop at the helm of the B’more SO. On November 12th, 13th, and 15th they will perform at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, on Saturday, November 14th (8PM), at the Music Center at Strathmore.
François-Frédéric Guy has dilly-dallied in Washington before, but no more of that when he sits down to play a complete (!!!) Beethoven piano sonata cycle in just ten days. It’d require considerable stamina even on the listener’s part to sit through all 32 sonatas in the nine sessions at La Maison Française (never mind the performer), but what an opportunity, also. He’ll start on Friday November 13th (7PM), continues with two performances on Saturday (4PM and 7PM), then one each until and including the 17th; he then finishes the cycle (played more or less in numerical order) on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd. Always at 7PM—except Sundays, when the recitals will begin at 4PM.
I don’t know the Ibis Chamber Music Society, but I do know that there isn’t a much more tender, more moving French song than Duparc’s L’Invitation au Voyage to be had, especially not in its slightly orchestrated version with flute, harp, and strings. If you don’t know the few songs that Duparc’s short and very troubled life have left us to adore and marvel at, do go and listen to it. If you know Duparc, you probably need no encouragement. The rest of the program looks intriguing enough: Piazzolla (“Histoire du Tango”), some De Falla, Pierne, Dvořák, and Corigliano. All on November 14th, (7.30PM) at the Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington.
Early choral music on November 15th can either be had courtesy of the Choral Arts Society of Washington and their program of antiphonal music, sung from all corners of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at 4PM… or at the National Gallery of Art when the National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble performs music by Gevaert, Janequin, and Rameau. (6.30PM) The Choral Arts Society also includes the Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin as well as works by Britten, Tavener, and Biebl.
Not a concert, but still important: WPAS presents a Lecture by Alfred Brendel, titled “On Character in Music”. To hear Alfred Brendel talk is the best thing after hearing him play live is no longer an option, and probably better than hearing his occasionally, curiously dull recordings (his Haydn be explicitly exempted). The talk—undoubtedly he’ll illustrate at the Boesendorfer—takes place at the Embassy of Austria, Monday, November 16th (7PM) and will sparkle with the wit he displayed on stage and be saturated with his ferocious, unpretentious, and never overwhelmingly employed intelligence.
The welcome addition to the Noontime Cantatas continues for those near the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Center where on Thursday, November 19th, you get Cantata BWV 93 (“Wer nur den lieben Gott last walten”) at the Bach Cantata Series’ free concert. (1.30PM)
Prokofiev, Grigory Krejn, Joseph Achron, Julius Chajes, and Osvaldo Golijov are on the innovative program of the Vogler String Quartet when they appear at the Terrace Theater on Thursday, November 19th. This mix of composers is part of their “ZIMRO” project of combining Jewish art music with more standard chamber music repertoire and which is being captures on CD by Hänssler. Beautiful music, bits of which you can sample here. (7.30PM) For what it is worth, this is my concert tip of the month.
A Musorgsky-Schumann-Larcher project from Leif Ove Andsnes on November 20th (7.30PM) promises to be a tasteful but grand multi-media experience. “Pictures Reframed” can be previewed on Youtube and takes place at the Terrace Theater.
Too bad attending Andsnes show means missing the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt at the Library of Congress on the same Friday (or vice versa). With soprano Lorna Anderson and tenor Jamie MacDougall they present a program of Haydn Trios (their recording of the complete Piano Trios is available on Phoenix Records) and best of all: Haydn’s Scottish Songs. I’ve written about them before and I maintain that these are must-hear marvels, whether on CD or better yet: live. They’ll further spice the concert up with the US premiere of Lalo Shifrin’s “Elegy & Meditation”, written for and dedicated to the group. (8PM)
If Bach is your ticket, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra (2009/2010 schedule) can provide the necessary fix in either of their two “Brandenburg Festival” programs dedicated to the eternal composer. Both feature two Brandenburg Concertos, one Cello Suite or Violin Sonata, and a concerto or chamber piece.
You’d be forgiven if you tried to avoid concerts of the New York Philharmonic; too many 9-to-5 attitude concerts have ruined their reputation thoroughly with any discriminating orchestra lover. But if there’s one conductor who they cannot turn into an accomplice of disciplined boredom, it’s Riccardo Muti. So you’ll probably have to go, after all… for a little Liszt, Elgar, and Prokofiev. WPAS, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Saturday, November 21st. (4PM)
Gounod’s Faust is an outstanding opera; for all the trepidation with which this subject matter has been approached by composers, the results are outstanding more often than not. Busoni did well, as did Berlioz; Schumann got off to his most promising operatic start, Schnittke, Boito, and Gounod positively excelled. (Dusapin… not so much.) The Washington Concert Opera, with its small budget but inexorably high standards, will perform the work on Sunday, November 22nd (6PM) at the Lisner Auditorium.
German violinist Viviane Hagner could well be one of the future great violinists; if you haven’t heard of her yet, it’s because she builds her career steadily, solidly—not by being a flash-in-the-pan violin girly. In that regard—and roughly in age—she’s similar to Julia Fischer and especially Arabella Steinbacher. At the Terrace Theater she will play promising mix of Turnage, Schubert, Bartók, and Schumann. WPAS presents the recital on November 24th. (7.30PM)
The 64th American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art features several interesting performances—the one that I find most interesting is on Wednesday, November 25th, at noon (free), by the Ensō String Quartet in music by Steve Reich and Pierre Jalbert. 
* In light of all the soon to be ringing and jingling bells, trails of snow-from-a-can, and randomly attached antlers, it’s good to remind oneself that Christmas(tide) starts on December 25th and lasts through Epiphany on January 6th. The carol’s not called “Fifty-six days of Christmas”.
Monday, 10.19.09, 6:00 am
Haydn 2009 – The String Quartets (Part 3)
op.17
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Haydn’s op.17 quartets are closely related to his set of op.9 quartets and were composed in 1771. Haydn listed them in his catalogue of works (the “Entwurf-Katalog”) in the order of no.2, 1, 4, 6, 3, and 5—the numbering attached to them nowadays stems from the first edition by J.J.Hummel (Amsterdam). What is true for op.9 (“Like all quartets before op.33, they get short shrift—like all quartets of Haydn that get short shrift, they’re still superb. [F]or the ambitious Haydn lover, they’re joyously requisite listening…”) is equally true of op.17. If anyone could have reason to complain about these works, it’s the second violinist who gets much less interesting work assigned than the soloistic first violinist—for a greater share of melody, the second violin has to wait until the later quartets. But that’s hardly a concern for the listener who concerns himself with the lovely results, not the particular division of labor employed to get there.
Haydn was alone at the forefront of the four-movement string quartet when he wrote these quartets in 1771; the fruitful back-and-forth with Mozart did not start until the years after his 1781 set of op.33 quartets. So he experiments on his own, although given the similarity in structure to op.9 (Moderato opening-Menuet-Adagio-Presto/Allegro Finale), the process might better be understood as one of maturing and cultivating the form, rather than experimenting with it. (Something Haydn was more prone to do in ‘wayward’ ways in his early symphonic writing.) The progress is very subtle (especially compared to the difference between the opp.1 & 2 Divertimentos and op.9, or op.17 and op.20), but when pointed out, the slow movements can be noticed to be more complex (“opera without words”), the instruments slightly more evenly weighed, the Menuets have less an entr’acte character, and there is a deliberate juxtaposition of extremes.
Recordings of these early quartets are slowly beginning to sprout, after they had been available only as part of complete surveys. That’s still the case with most of the choices, but at least the more recent additions to the Haydn String Quartet bonanza are also available separately. If some of the recordings mentioned below are not yet easily available in the US, they will be within due time. (Specifically the Arcana and Tacet labels are in the process of smoothing out North American distribution.)
The Auryn Quartet (Tacet) have a cultured elegance about them that is not to be mistaken for “boring”. It simply means that they produce a cultured sound, play in tune, and offer wonderful ensemble work in a generous acoustic. They, the London Haydn Quartet (Hyperion, HIP) and the Quatuor Festetics (Arcana, HIP) play all the repeats, unlike the completion. The latter HIP quartet, whose op.9 I commented on as being the work of “spirited amateurs” (which wasn’t actually meant derisively), are difficult to pin down; as a historical performance quartet, one might expect them to go into Haydn quartets with gusto and brisk speeds, but throughout op.17 they tend to be very leisurely. Their first movement of op.17/2 (Moderato) makes the Kodály Quartet (Naxos) sound like regular speed demons, which is a rare achievement. (The Naxos-Hungarians sound like they are vibrato-sailing through these works like on a big piece of butter.) But where the Buchberger Quartet (Brilliant, HIP) sounds as though they never had enough rehearsal time for op.17, the Festetics rarely leave something to be desired as regards intonation and coherence (the Presto of op.17/5 is a right mess, though). Their darkly sinewy tone (they are the only ones to tune down to A=421Hz) is not conventionally beautiful in the way the Auryn’s or Kodály’s is, but much more satisfactory than the Buchberger’s.
The latter, though not without truly exciting moments, are just too uncouth. This has nothing to do with a choice of “excitement over prettiness”, it’s simply a matter of not playing consistently well in these op.17 quartets. The first violinist is downright sloppy in the faster movements and in that case the spacious, yet very dry acoustic doesn’t help. It’s a really a shame, because all that which is good about the Buchberger’s is very good; they do manage for a joyous liveliness that’s great fun and demonstrate individual moments of very involving ensemble work. But then they irritate and give it all away with some blunder again… like a murderously dragged op.17/4 Menuet. Yikes.
The slow, detached way of the London Haydn Quartet may not be to everyone’s taste, but it offers an intonation that no other ensemble matches even remotely. That’s not to say that all others are sloppy, nor even that such painstaking precision (the Hagen Quartett has nothing on these guys) is necessary. It isn’t. But it is impressive and very notable in direct comparison. Since they take all repeats, slow movements with them can take twice as long as with the repeat-skipping others. If your temperament allows you to move along leisurely through their finely honed exploration of Haydn, rather than scurry about in the assumption that blundering is historically more correct than sauntering, then the London Haydn Quartet and their finely nuanced performances could just be the ticket. Otherwise nuance could be their downfall: Anyone lacking the patience to hear their Adagios out might miss the fact that every detail—dynamics, phrasing, voicing—is lavished with extraordinary care. And lest anyone get the idea that they are only relaxed, their last movements are the fastest among these five groups; blazing feats that sacrifice none of the dead-on precision of their (truly) slow movements.
The Auryn offer the recording about which one can’t make any complaints; it has no kinks, no weaknesses, no extremes. It’s a celebration of feel-good Haydn without making it quite as obvious as the Kodály. The matter-of-fact playing of the Quatuor Festetics is difficult to pin down; spirited it may be, but not immune to sounding stodgy when they slow down: Their short-breathed phrasing can’t always withstand the slow tempos as well as the long-spun lines of the London Haydn Quartet can. Not just because it’s nice to get the repeats (I’m not ideological about it and in live performance might prefer an elegant incision, but for home-consumption this music lends itself to hearing in full) the choice would be between Auryn, LHQ, and Festetics for op.17. It’s a most ungrateful task, solvable only by choosing two: the Auryn for non-HIP beauty and moderation and the LHQ for their detail and remarkable contrast between furiously fast movements and their otherwise calm pace. Their thin-ish HIP sound is made up for with plenty elegance.
This continues “The String Quartets (Part 1)” and “The String Quartets (Part 2)“
See also:
Haydn 2009 – The Seven Last Words
Haydn 2009 – Fricsay’s Symphonies
Haydn 2009 – Minetti Quartet(t)
Haydn 2009 – Harmoniemesse
Friday, 10.16.09, 1:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Murray Perahia in Bach & Beethoven
"New Releases" posts are regular columns that feature reviews of new CDs that are, for one reason or another, truly outstanding among the many I come across every month.
Murray Perahia will start out his recital on October 17th at the Kennedy Center with a Bach Partita, in line with his latest recording on Sony where he adds Partitas 1, 5, and 6 to last year’s recording of 2, 3, and 4. Perhaia’s Bach is marvelous in its very distinct way. I feel enduring fondness for his Goldberg Variations, because they don’t make apologies for being played on the modern grand piano. It only makes sense: if the choice of instrument is such a very different one as a Steinway D9 is to the early 18th century Michael Mietke harpsichord Bach would have used, there is no point in trying to hide its abilities or pretend it is something less or other than it is. Perahia makes full use of his instruments when he plays Bach, but he never gets carried away, never distorts any of the substance.
There is something unapologetic in his suave and fine-toned approach to Bach that makes it immediately likeable to all but those who think that the emaciated piano sound of Gould’s perpetual staccato Bach (Gould’s shtick, though hugely impressive in its own way) is the only way to transfer Bach from the cembalo to the piano. If András Schiff’s Bach—and the same could be said of his respective Beethoven interpretations—is tasteful-artistic, with overtones of boring, Perahia goes for a wholly pianistic way of playing Bach, exciting to the last drop but never ridiculously romanticized. Bach on the piano is its own kind of genre, but that doesn’t mean it should sound like a Busoni-Bach transcription, either. Perahia exceeds at getting that balance right.
At the WPAS recital he will follow Bach with a Beethoven sonata, a cycle of which he has also started to record, bit-by-bit. Earlier this year he added Sonatas 9, 10, 12, and 15 (“Pastorale”), at the recital he will play the late Sonata No.30 (op. 109). The maturity and unhurried confidence with which Perahia very simply plays well, without caring to make any particular point or service any particular musicological fad, makes this such a delight that the idea of questioning its ‘validity’ simply wouldn’t come to mind. Schumann and Chopin will also be on the program.
It is an immense pleasure that Murray Perahia, who was long and twice plagued with a career-threatening hand injury, is back again… and the time he had to spend away from the keyboard seems to have only improved him. While I haven’t always liked every one of his earlier recordings, I am now, since his Goldbergs and certainly since these two latest recordings, treasuring every new release of his. Whether it’s age, wisdom, confidence, or the ability to discern the essential from the superfluous, Perahia is well on his way of becoming the foremost American pianist of our age, pace Richard Goode and Stephen Kovacevich. You’ll have the opportunity to judge for yourself when Murray Perahia performs on October 17th at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Perhaps it will prove some consolation for not having been able to hear Nelson Freire earlier this month.
Thursday, 10.15.09, 6:00 am
Creative Destruction: How Labels Like LSO Live and BR Klassik Revive Classical Music—Part 2
This continues “Creative Destruction”, Part 1
This Fall, the classical channel of Bavarian Broadcasting (BR) launches BR Klassik, a label for its own orchestras and choir. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and one of the best orchestras in the world, the Munich Radio Orchestra (with its focus on light classical music, Italian opera, and educational work), and the Bavarian Radio Chorus now each have the opportunity to pick the finest performances in any given season and immortalize them on record. The model of LSO Live is behind this new venture, too, but there are significant differences. As a public radio station, with the aid of radio license fees and a cultural mission to fulfill, the BR already records all the concerts of its musical bodies. “Rather than having to decide beforehand what to record (with the subsequent pressure to publish it, no matter the result), the artists and artistic advisors can pick the best from the lot”, says Stefan Piendl, Label Manager of BR Klassik. Among the first releases, Mahler and Bruckner Symphonies with Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons have been chosen. Like LSO Live, BR Klassik issues new releases in the Super Audio CD format with surround sound. But Piendl says that SACD is no dogma for the label, simply a matter of using the high definition surround master that the radio provides. “We broadcast in surround sound, so we might as well make use of that quality and put it on CD. But who knows what the future will hold, with the maturing of BluRay and the like.”
Since the cost of recording is offset because BR records the concerts anyway, releasing rare and ‘difficult’, but artistically important works with modest commercial prospect is made much easier. “That makes it easier to offer recordings like Klaus Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus with the Munich Radio Orchestra or the BR Chorus’ release of Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir”, Piendl explains, and points to the philosophy of the label, summarized by its motto: Those possessing treasures should share them. “Sharing our best musical moments, and to decide ourselves, independent of traditional labels and their naturally different criteria of what makes a successful release, was one of the main motivations behind the founding of BR Klassik.” Sharing treasures especially applies to the BR’s vast archives with an estimated 20,000 recordings accumulated over the last 60 years. Incorporating the who’s-who of classical music in memorable performances that were only once broadcast on radio, the Archives are going to be an essential source for BR Klassik. Three or four recordings from the vaults are projected to see the light every year, alongside a couple new releases from each musical body, for a total of ten, twelve releases annually.
American orchestras, kept out of the recording business for years due to the insurmountable challenges the unions (of musicians and especially stage hands) caused, have lately gotten back into the important business of attesting to their artistic virility by issuing new recordings. While the Minnesota, Cleveland, and Philadelphia Orchestras have managed to get record contracts with traditional labels again (BIS, DG, Ondine), others like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO Resound) and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO Classics) have taken the in-house label route, following the American forerunner in that field, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra that founded its own label as a platform for its Mahler cycle. All of them cater to the audiophile segment, including high resolution downloads, which will be the next big thing in the classical music market.
In that classical market BR Klassik (available world-wide, thanks to an international distribution deal with Naxos) is the latest example of the beauty of creative destruction. Out of the detritus of the old recording companies spring dozens of new labels with thousands of recordings, offering more choice and rarer works than were ever available. As we near the 10thanniversary of the declaration of the industry’s imminent death, LSO Live and BR Klassik are emblematic of the astounding vitality of Beethoven & Co. on CD.
Part one was published on October 14th and can be found here.
Wednesday, 10.14.09, 6:00 am
Creative Destruction: How Labels Like LSO Live and BR Klassik Revive Classical Music—Part 1
The classical music industry has been declared dead several times over in the last few years, but it simply refuses to die. What is happening, however, is that it changes in many ways. The ways of recording, distribution, and promotion are changing, and the companies that once dominated the market have either adapted or faltered. But a new trend aims to keep classical recordings from becoming a taxidermist’s project.
As estimable names in the industry fall by the wayside, new models of production arise. One of the most successful projects has been the establishment of classical labels by orchestras. As exclusive contracts with the big labels—EMI, Deutsche Grammophon/Decca, Sony/RCA, Telarc/Warner—became scarce, and their recording projects fewer and fewer, orchestras thought of new ways to reach new audiences with new recordings. Recording technology had advanced significantly in the last 20 years so that recording concerts live is no longer just an inexpensive but inherently hampered way to preserve an otherwise un-replicable musical event. “Recording technology is so mobile that there are no qualitative differences between studio and live recordings”, says Chaz Jenkins, head of the London Symphony Orchestra’s own label, LSO Live. LSO Live was practically the first label of an orchestra to enter the market this way (the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s earlier effort was contained locally).
Mr. Jenkins, one of the pioneers of the orchestra-record-label industry, has been with LSO Live from the first hour since its founding days in 2000. The concept of the label has by now been replicated by many other orchestras, which the London Orchestra’s efforts have paved the way for. The London Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Mariinsky, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra (in a joint venture with Signum) now have their own labels, to mention just a few, and plenty of them have gotten advice and help from Jenkins and his team.
The goal of LSO Live was not to replicate what labels have done in the past, to do something different, and especially to catch the orchestra’s work in the concert hall. “With 2000 people in front of them, there’s a very different energy and emotion available” Jenkins explains the particular appeal of many of its releases. “When recording companies started to rely on re-releasing recordings, the alarm bells were ringing at the LSO. Concerts and education are core activities for the LSO, but a wider public cannot partake in that. Instead they just see an anemic record industry. If no new recordings are released, then the public starts to see the whole industry as dead, a museum-culture. But there is still plenty interest in concerts and no decline in audiences, so why assume that people are not also interested in new recordings? There should be Beethoven for and from each generation.”
Or Hector Berlioz, as it were. One of the main reasons to found the label and record around the turn of 1999 was the opportunity to record conductor Sir Colin Davis in one of his specialties, Berlioz’ orchestral and choral music, of which the then-music director of the LSO conducted a complete cycle. Success followed afoot. The first Grammy was awarded to the label in 2002 for the recording of Berlioz’ massive opera “Le Troyens”, which sold an astounding 100,000 copies. That grabbed attention for the label which has issued some 70 albums since and sold over three million copies. For the LSO, unlike traditional record companies, the label is not something that needs to be boosted with a marketing campaign, it is a marketing campaign.
Like subsequent orchestra-owned labels, LSO Live also made the decision to go for the small, but important audiophile market, recording in the multi-channel capable, high-resolution Super Audio CD format. “We decided early on to record in the best possible sound, even if only a few people listen to it the finest nuances that the SACD format catches. The quality of CD recordings is limited and our setup was going to be able to capture so much more, so we wanted to produce the best that technology can offer”, so Jenkins.
Part two will follow October 15th and can then be read here.