Wednesday, 12.31.08, 6:00 am
January in Music
Happy 2009!
A new year of great performances and interesting musical discoveries awaits us. Here’s a list of the concerts in January that hold particular promise.
Sunday January 4th at the National Gallery will feature the National Gallery String Quartet in collaboration with one of the musical treasures of this country, Menahem Pressler. At the keyboard he sheds his years with every successive movement and it is ever palpable how much fun he has making music. Fortunately for the listener, it’s also great fun to listen to him, because even if his fingers are not as nimble as they once were, his musicality and enlivening spirit shine strongly through all that he touches. Mozart and Schumann will be touched in this concert. (6.30pm)
Jens Elvekjaer’s piano recital on Sunday January 11th at the Music Room at Dumbarton Oaks looks interesting and ambitious at once. Interesting because he will play the Theme and Variations by Carl Nielsen, ambitious because he will also tackle Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In between his program might turn toward something more conventional with the first of the last three Schubert sonatas – the c-minor “Winterreise” Sonata D958 – but what a beautiful work it is. (7pm –Tickets are available by subscription only. When available, additional tickets may be purchased the week before the concert. For any questions, you call the “Friends of Music” office at 202-339-6436.)
Also on January 11th will be a performance of the Smithsonian Consort of Viols (organized by the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society) at the Renwick Gallery with music of Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, and Christopher Tye. This is music one usually has to go a little out of one’s way to listen to, but music that will always reward having done so. (7.30pm)
I loved it as a kid, but for many years Ballet simply hasn’t been my thing. Except: if I was privileged only to see spectacular dancers (like Evgenya Obraztsova or Svetlana Zakharova), I might regain my taste for it. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of that to be had in Washington, and the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet’s pit-stops at the Kennedy Center don’t usually change that fact, either. Unlike the Bolshoi (look forward to their Corsaire in Washington in June!), the Kirov doesn’t take its foreign stops behind London very seriously and they don’t bother brining their best dancers all this way to perform in their hoary, cliché-fulfilling productions. That will apply to their Don Quixote, too, so whether it will be worth seeing depends wholly on the presence of at least one superlative dancer. I am told, by those in the know, that the only dancer to look forward to in this year’s Kirov production is Diana Vishneva. She is scheduled to appear at the Kennedy Center Opera House on Tuesday January 13th , 2009 and Friday, January 16th. (7.30pm)
Ilan Volkov is an exciting conductor, Leif-Ove Andsnes an inspired, occasionally fish-kissing, pianist, and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto a barnstormer sure to please. (Andsnes’ recording of it is quite good, too.) There’s no harm if people should attend this NSO concert for Rachmaninoff, but Volkov, for one, has the potential to shine even more in Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes and the inclined listener will find most to listen for in George Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape (1984). This orchestral work for lots of wind and brass, ridiculous amounts of percussion (from cow bells to kabuki blocks and everything in between), amplified piano, and strings sounds a bit like scuttling Varèse twice around the world in 20 minutes, except it achieves an uncanny sense of quiet. It all happens at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Friday January 15th, Saturday the 16th, and Sunday the17th. (8pm, Friday 7pm)
Additionally or alternatively, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra offers Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Franck’s Symphonic Variations, and Ravel’s La Valse. Ravel’s imperial Waltz-gone-horribly wrong is rightly a standard of concert halls, although the Rachmaninoff is usually little more than a brash affair with lots of dogged determination and quite short on grace. Notable here is the Franck piece – a de-fact piano concerto, as beautiful as it is unassuming, that has a bit of history for the BSO: Leon Fleisher played it at the opening of the Joseph Meyerhoff Hall over a quarter century ago. Frank Braley will perform it on January 15th and 16th at Meyerhoff Hall in Baltimore (8pm) and on January 17th at Strathmore. (8pm). Perhaps the best reason to go: Stéphane Denéve will conduct the concert. His Verdi Requiem didn’t convince me entirely when he made his debut in the region (Tim Page showed more foresight); subsequent encounters with his art have since opened my ears to the likelihood of Denéve being one of the conductors of his generation to watch.
Li Yundi (李云迪) played the Ravel piano concerto beautifully on a relatively recent release with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Berlin Philharmonic – and he’ll play it again with the NSO on January 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. It’s such a gorgeous concerto that every opportunity to hear it live should be considered. Especially when a pianist of Li’s caliber tackles it. Emmanuel Krivine accompanies him and will also conduct Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique and give the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Apex, a work originally intended for Krivine and the Orchestre national de Lyon. Dusapin (*1955) has, among other things, written two operas that are available on CD and DVD respectively: the substantially beautiful Perelà, Uomo di Fumo and Faustus, the last Night, a work the potential of which far exceeds its greatness, vacillates between the weird and monotonous, and is undermined by a production (from Lyon, by Peter Mussbach) too witty and gorgeous for its own good. But since Faustus is inventive, intense, high quality music – except too much of it, for too long – a short orchestral piece of his bodes well for listener beguilement. (8pm, Friday 7pm)
I’ve quite enjoyed BSO performances under the baton of Carlos Kalmar, and when’s the next time you’ll be able to hear an oboe concerto? Martinů would be your man, Katherine Needleman your oboist-woman, and Thursday, January 22nd the date (at Strathmore, 8pm). Martinů might be an uneven composer, but at his worst he’s curiously charming and at his best he’s woefully underrated. The oboe concerto tends much more toward the latter than the former. The concert will be repeated in Baltimore on Friday the 23rd (8pm) and is rounded out by Haydn’s “Military” Symphony (No.100) and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances.
If you are into piano recitals, Yevgeny Sudbin’s at the Terrace Theater on Saturday, January 24th, is one you can’t afford to miss. WPAS will present him in Scarlatti, Haydn, Medtner, and Ravel. With a bit of luck, there might be a ticket left for what will surely be a sold out performance. (2pm)
Pierre Alexandre Monsigny’s 1769 Le Déserteur is the frizzy, bubbly cure for Fidelio hangover. Leonore is Louise, Fidelio is Alexis. She’s not in drag but he’s in prison - thanks to a (more or less political) plot. There is a good deal of spoken dialogue, and she comes to the rescue. The overture – this was novel at the time – hints at events to come — a faint but extant relation to Leonore III. However, the whole thing is funny, not tragic and the music is rather French and resembles that of, say, A.M. Grétry or J.C. Bach. The opera was once hugely popular in Europe and the United States, apparently being performed up and down the east coast, and especially in New Orleans, but then fell out of the repertoire, quickly and hard. Opera Lafayette will make it heard in US for the first time in about two hundred years.
Ryan Brown conducts the 31-piece period instrument Opera Lafayette Orchestra, while artistic director and choreographer of the New York Baroque Dance Company Catherine Turocy directs an actor and a (pantomiming) dancer in what is otherwise a concert performance at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater on January 29th. (7.30pm) The dialogue, essential to the plot, was newly written – in English – for this performance. A condensed, family-friendly performance of this opera, with young artists taking the principle roles, will be given on January 31st at the Atlas Theater. Adults $2, Children free. .(2pm) There’s a clip on YouTube of the only (?) other recent production of that opera. Opera Lafayette Orchestra will record the opera for Naxos.
Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony is as gloomy an affair as it gets, even for Shostakovich’s standards. So it’s only right that with Tchaikovsky’s (First) Piano Concerto the great Stephen Hough will bring an altogether lighter, gayer mood to the BSO’s concerts conducted by Vasily Petrenko. The incredibly young eleve of Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov, and Esa-Pekka Salonen has turned around the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, made some fine Suk recordings with the orchestra of Berlin’s Komische Oper, and is one of the fast-rising young Russian conductors alongside Vladimir Jurowski, and the Israeli-Russian Volkov. Now he’ll bring this all-Russian program to Baltimore, topping it off with Anatoly Liadov’s evocative – luminous and eerie – tone poem Kikimora. Liadov is in some ways the link between the older Russian school – “The Mighty Handful”, having studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and learned from Mussorgsky – and the next generation of Russian composers, having been the teacher of Prokofiev and Mussorgsky. The concerts take place on Thursday January 29th and Saturday January 31st at Meyerhoff Hall at 8pm.
Monday, 12.29.08, 6:00 am
The Berlin Philharmonic Online
The age of the digital concert hall is upon us. Not to replace the real thing, of course: records didn’t do this, DVDs didn’t do this, and internet streaming won’t, either. But it’s yet another option to enjoy classical music among the many options we already have. In this case, it means the option to hear Simon Rattle’s Berlin Philharmonic in most of their concerts – archived and live. Approximately thirty concerts will be shown live on the Berlin Philharmonic’s website every season; after their initial live broadcast they can be viewed in the concert-archive. The video platform created for this purpose is called “The Digital Concert Hall”, which has been accessible to the public since December 18th and will broadcast its first live concert on January 6th.
Sir Simon was even willing to sign his name beneath this PR sound-bite: “When the idea of the Digital Concert Hall occurred to us, I was immediately certain that this is the way of the future. I believe it is a marvelous thing for both the orchestra and the public. And it is a wonderful feeling to be able to welcome far more people to the Philharmonie than before.”
That would be what they say, but how close is the internet experience of the Berlin Philharmonic to being at the Philharmonic Hall? No closer than watching a DVD, of course, but then so much is obvious. The astounding feat of this venture is that the internet broadcasts, recorded by automated cameras installed in the hall and in no need of extra lighting, bring you just about as close to it as a DVD does. The picture quality, choosing at least the “medium bandwidth picture quality” option, is very good – and truly excellent on the high bandwidth broadcast. Watching archived concerts on the latter setting, I’ve found it advisable to close most other programs to ensure uninterrupted play .But even running concerts with half a dozen other programs open, including other video applications, the sound (and picture) didn’t skip a beat set at medium bandwidth.
The sound quality is such that your computer deserves being run through the stereo system, not your computer speakers. Preferably this is done from you computer through a digital link into your amplifier via a good A/D converter, but a regular cable with an audio jack (TRS connector) on one side and an RCA (cinch) jack on the other connecting the headphone / soundcard output to the auxiliary input of the amplifier will do just fine.
I’ve quite enjoyed revisiting the Wagner/Messiaen program I had already heard the Philharmonic with in Salzburg, the Schreker/Bruckner combination with players from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, or Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs (interrupted by applause, alas) with Kelley O’Connor under David Zinman in a concert also featuring Luciano Berio’s Boccherini arrangements and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Similarly, Trevor Pinnock in Mozart with a razor sharp G-major Symphony No.25 K183 (Pinnock directs from the harpsichord), and a crisp and buoyant Jeunehomme concerto with Maria João Pires was delightful to listen to. Concert experience? Not quite. But a great way to check in on what the Berlin Philharmonic is doing, beyond the recordings it issues.
Somewhat annoying can be the automatic log-out. You can’t just stop a concert, go about different business for an hour, and then return to your session without having to log in again, chose the concert you were listening to, and find the spot in the music where you left off. What’s neat – although it will take a few seconds – is that you can switch from one bandwidth to another without being reset in the progress of the concert. Being able to chose a playlist would be nice, too, instead of having to go back to the menu every time I want to switch between works or watch another work, even if it was part of the same concert.
None of this is free, of course. A single live broadcast runs you €10, the archived footage of which can then be watched for the next two days. A season ticket, enabling one to watch all live concerts and archived broadcasts at any time, costs € 150, except for this season, the rest of which can be had for € 90.
Sunday, 12.21.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #1
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the tenth and final installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
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#1 (New Release) – D’Indy, Orchestral Works, volume 1, Rumon Gamba, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Chandos 10464
I know I’ve come across – and dismissed – the music of César Franck-student Vincent D’Indy (1851-1931) before. I faintly remember an old EMI disc with a symphony and I seem to recall a Marco Polo disc with a selection of chamber works. I remember that - and being unmoved. But my ears have been opened now, by a new Chandos release that makes me re-evaluate d’Indy at once and thoroughly. Instead of being in my mind an also-ran of French music of the turn of the last century somewhere well behind Ravel and Debussy, I find him catapulted to the forefront of French symphonic writing, all courtesy of Rumon Gamba’s recording of three tone poems with the marvelously performing Iceland Symphony Orchestra. This is “Volume one” – I very eagerly anticipate forthcoming releases. (Full Review)
#1 (Reissue) – Bach, Motets, Sigiswald Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Accent Plus – ACC 10087
Two years ago Sigiswald Kuijken recorded the motets for Challenge Classics – in accordance with the latest in One-Voice-per-part (“OVPP”) Bach-dogmatism. I’ve not heard it yet, but after hearing his re-issued earlier recording (on the mid-price Accent Plus) I wonder what he could have improved on. Even next to as splendid a new recording of the Bach motets as Peter Dijkstra’s with the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Channel Classics), which would have made it onto this list, had it not been for this Kuijken-re-release from 1992, said reissue shines! For many listeners, the standard recording for Bach’s Motets (usually six, although “Lobet den Herren” is more than doubtful and not included on the latest Kuijken disc) might still be Eric Ericson’s (EMI), but it doesn’t stand comparison well at all. Lacking verve and esprit, the motets, except for a fairly explosive “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied”, sound deflated; Ericson’s famed choir is slightly off on more than one occasion. Compare to that Kuijken who leads La Petite Bande and his soloists (Greta de Reyghere, Katelijne van Laethem, Martin van der Zeijst, Sytse Buwalda, Hans Hermann Jansen, and Johannes-Christoph Happel) in readings of palpable joy, freshness, with just enough, yet generous, orchestral support that, crucially, never plays itself into the foreground. It has just slightly more of an edge than the incredibly mellifluous Dijkstra (who employs minimal basso continuo accompaniment on a recording of demonstration-class sound), which makes the whole affair more involving to these ears.
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Saturday, 12.20.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #2
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the ninth installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6- 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
#2 (New Release) – Stravinsky, Firebird, Le Sacre du Printemps, Mariss Jansons, RCO –RCO live 08002
Gramophone Magazine wanted to list the 20 best orchestras in one of its last issues – a daft and highly entertaining venture. What they ended up doing, inadvertently, was crowning Mariss Jansons the luckiest conductor alive. Even without a list to tell us so, I’ve long been happy to point out that he did in fact have the best deal in (orchestral) conducting: He heads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (voted No.1), one of the supreme “Old European” orchestras that has, more than most other bands, preserved its distinct voice even at the highest levels of playing – and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (voted No.6), one of the most skilled and flexible orchestral bodies in the world. Negligible travel time between the two cities sweetens the deal for a conductor who increasingly suffered from the effects of jet lag.
When Jansons took over the RCO in 2004, it coincided with them issuing CDs on their own audiophile record label. As I have pointed out in the “Almost Best of 2008” list, I had looked forward to every release with immense anticipation and excitement – and all too often found that if the conductor didn’t suffer from jet lag anymore, at least the performances did. They were – are - all-round excellent as far as the playing is concerned, but at their best they lacked that last kick to make them special and at their worst they were dull run-throughs that happened to sound pretty good.
A little bit of that last kick – or in this case: bite – might be lacking from Janson’s second Stravinsky recording with the RCO, too, but the combination of sensational, superlative playing and fantastic sonics overrides all possible other concerns on this disc with the Firebird and Le Sacre du Printemps. In particular the Firebird here is stunningly rich and colorful, with plenty ‘oomph’ and the softness of its hues contributing greatly. Le Sacre can be had with sharper rhythms and tarter climaxes, but once Jansons gets the score rolling, it develops an unstoppable force here, too. In any case, the all-around gorgeousness of this release overrides any and all such quibbles. If you want to hear why the RCO is so highly thought of, and if you can’t make it to Amsterdam any time soon, this (and the Mahler Fourth below) should give you all the answers you need.
#2 (Reissue) – Messiaen, Complete Edition, DG 001226902
Big boxes have traditionally fared well in my End-of-Year lists (Scarlatti 2005, Messiaen 2006), and 2008 – with the several, various anniversaries Vaughan-Williams, Messiaen, Carter, Britten (95), and Haydn’s coming up – was particularly rich in them. Deutsche Grammophon’s Messiaen cube includes 32 CDs, which contains the entire official output of the composer that Messiaen himself sanctioned as worthy of publication. It starts with the 8 Preludes for piano (1929) and ends with the Concert à quatre (1992). It includes the only recording of his (rather difficult and very long) opera: Saint Francois d’Assise (Nagano, Upshaw, van Dam, Hallé Orchestra, full notes and text included!), which makes it unique and surpass the only other comparable collection, Warner’s 18-CD set re-issued in 2006. Other highlights are the complete organ works with Olivier Latry on the organ of Notre-Dame (as good as it gets, as far as I am concerned), Myung-Whun Chung’s recordings of the Turangalîla Symphony (1948), Des canyons aux étoiles (1974), and Eclairs sur l”Au-Delà (1991), Pierre Boulez’ Cleveland recordings of Chronochromie (1960), Et exspecto… (1964), Poèmes pour Mi (1937, also included in the piano version), Réveil des oiseaux (1953), and Sept Haïkaï (1962), the Concert á quatre played by its five dedicatees (Holliger, Loriod, Rostropovich, Cantin, Chung), Yvonne Loriod & Olivier Messiaen playing Visions de l’Amen, and Thème & variations (1932) with Argerich and Kremer.
Roger Muraro plays the piano works (Yvonne Loriod plays them for Warner, I also cherish Håkon Austbø on Naxos), the quartet for the end of time with Barenboim and Desurmont (not the newer recording with Chung, Gil Shaham, Jian Wang and Paul Meyer). Hardened Messiaen-fans might already have a good number of these recordings, and for anyone but hardened Messiaen-fans, this might be excessive. (There are some strange pieces included, after all – the chicken chorus-like a capella Cinq Rechants, or the surprisingly enchanting “Fête des belles eaux” for ondes Martenot Sextet!) But for the price (a hefty $255 on Amazon.com, but just €77! on Amazon.de) individual discs, this ought to be attractive even to those wishing to get to know the music of the most important French composer of the 20th century.
For those who – understandably – find the effective, ecstatic orchestral works a sufficient introduction, the 8-CD (nine hour) Hänssler Box set might be more interesting: Sylvain Cambreling and the South-West Radio Symphony Orchestra extract the greatest variety of subtle colors out of this music; create a diaphanous rainbow of sound; are capable of colorful acoustic stasis. On average he manages to be even more interesting, and certainly more catholic, than Chung or Nagano. The included liner notes (French, English, German) are most exemplary, the works very conveniently arranged chronologically, starting with Les Offrandes oubliées from 1930 and moving up by way of L’Ascension (’34), Poèmes pour Mi and Turangalîla (’48), Réveil des oiseaux (’53), Oiseaux exotiques (’56 – both with Roger Muraro), Chronochromie (’60), Et exspecto… (’64), La Transfiguration… (’69), Des Canyons aux étoiles (’74), La Ville d’En-Haut (’87) and Un Sourire (’89) to, finally, Éclais sur l’Au-Delà, Messiaen’s last large work.
Friday, 12.19.08, 9:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #3
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the eighth installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6- 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
#3 (New Release) – Mahler, Symphony No.4, Bernard Haitink, Christine Schäfer, RCO –RCO live 07003
There was no shortage of Mahler recordings in 2008: From Gergiev and his LSO we got Symphonies One, Three, Six, and Seven (mostly disappointing, so far), early in the year Boulez finished his cycle on DG with the Eighth (good but decisively not “triumphant”), Rattle recorded a new Ninth (first rate but overrated, us usual), the ongoing Zinman cycle continued with Symphonies Four and Five (a fine Fourth following an excellent Third), a beautiful Fourth with Sinopoli from Dresden surfaced (Profil), Gianandrea Noseda and Danny Harding both put down the Tenth (Cooke III versions, reviews forthcoming), Haitink played the Sixth with the Chicago Symphony, issued on the CSO Resound label.
But only one Mahler recording issued in 2008 really, truly stands out among the lot – and that’s the Concertgebouw’s performance of the Fourth Symphony with Bernard Haitink conducting and Christine Schäfer taking the soprano part. A Fourth Symphony can easily be undone by an inappropriate soprano (Gielen/Whittlesey, Abbado/Fleming), but it can’t be ‘made’ by a great singer. Well, maybe Schäfer could actually, because her soprano is simply perfect for “Das himmlische Leben”. Clarity and beauty of tone are a given with her, but the innocence, the angelic ring that she believably exudes is exactly what the symphony (and Mahler) asks for. In theory a treble might be better, still, but put into practice it simply doesn’t work.
Fortunately Schäfer doesn’t have to rescue anything here, she’s simply the crowning glory of what is already a superb performance. Haitink is generally short on cutting and acerbic tones in Mahler and long on beauty. So here. The Fourth Symphony benefits greatly from beauty and suffers not from the absence of tortuous and biting sounds, as for example the Sixth would. Generous, rich, and yet transparent, there is plenty of that beauty to go around here. The RCO plays with near-perfection (this is a true live recording, not patched from several performances). Its usual gorgeousness and grandeur of sound is caught perfectly by the recording engineers. This sumptuous performance has now replaced my long-held top choice for the Fourth, which had been Inbal’s recording with Helen Donath (Denon/Brilliant).
#3 (Reissue) – Wagner, Bayreuth Operas – Decca 001123902
Almost every year and to my great delight, a ring cycle is re-released. Janowski in 2004, Barenboim in 2005, Keilberth in 2006. This year it was Haitink (EMI) – but more importantly Karl Böhm’s recording has been re-issued (again) as part of Decca’s “Wagner from Bayreuth” box, which is an unbelievable bargain of some of the finest Wagner recordings there are. Sawallisch’s Lohengrin with Jess Thomas, Anja Silja, Ramon Vinay and most importantly: Astrid Varnay as Ortrud is a dream, his Tannhäuser (Silja, Bumbry, Windgassen) and Dutchman (Silja, Crass, Greindl) are nearly as good, Böhm’s Ring (as mentioned) possibly unsurpassed, his Tristan with Windgassen and Nilsson a rightful classic. Silvio Varviso’s Meistersinger is so-so, but James Levine’s 1985 Parsifal – unavailable for years – would be worth the box alone — to some: Even more elegiac (crawling) than his 1991 studio recording for DG, with Waltraud Meier as Kundry (instead of Jessey Norman) and Peter Hofmann (instead of Plácido Domingo) and yet overcoming its lengths with a chamber-music like sense for the intricacies of the music. 33 CDs with almost all the Wagner you need or at least with Wagner you’ll want to have.
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Wednesday, 12.17.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #4
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the seventh installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6- 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
#4 (New Release) – Langgaard, Symphony No.1, Thomas Dausgaard, DNSO – DACAPO 6.220525
I would have included Mikhail Pletnev’s set of Beethoven Piano Concertos here, a wonderfully played, mildly wilful, at times spunky but also genial account that could offend thin-lipped purists but delight most everyone else. (Review here.) Except it still doesn’t seem to have been issued in North America. No matter, there’s a CD of a composer dear to my heart whose achievements have remained largely unsung so far… except that the Danish record company DACAPO is joining the chorus of vocal supporters of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952). It was the second volume of the Dacapo recordings of Langgaard’s Violin Sonatas that turned me on to this marvelous, lovably strange, utterly romantic, occasionally acerbic, short-lived 20th century composer. Since then, I’ve tracked down most Langgaard releases – especially his symphonic œvre. Alas, not until Dacapo started recording the symphonies with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard (on hybrid SACDs, no less), were there truly credible, excellent versions of these works available - the laudable and fine efforts of Ilya Stupel (and the “Artur Rubinstein State Philharmonic Orchestra”) or various Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra performances (Danacord) notwithstanding. I reviewed Symphonies 12 through 14 earlier last year (“There is Something Wonderful in the State of Denmark”) and the latest release with Symphony No.1 is in some ways even more impressive.
That’s in most part due to the work itself. Although written when Langgaard was still a teenager (1908-1911, premiered by an enlarged Berlin Philharmonic off 100+ musicians on April 10th 1913), it betrays a master craftsman and – most importantly – a master melodist. Langgaard, who went on to found a music society to “counterbalance the horrors of modern music”, never adjusted to (much less adapted) the dissonant and dodecaphonic style of his contemporary composers. Consequently he was shunned by critics after 1918.
Langgaard is not ashamed of the occasional Tchaikovskean melodic phrase (four minutes into the first movement, check for yourself if you resist the urge to figure skate to that music), Wagnerian bombast, and it’s all put to perfect, sumptuous use in this five movement symphony. Although programmatic music (the symphony depicts a hike from the rocky shores of a mountain to its pinnacle, the movements are named “Surf and Glimpses of the Sun”, “Mountain Flowers”, “Legend”, “Mountain Ascent”, and finally: “Courage”), it works perfectly well as absolute music. It’s a bold, audacious, uninhibited, unabashedly pleasant symphony – perhaps like early, very frivolous Mahler – minus the Angst and the chromatic twists. Or might it be described as de-kitsched Rachmaninov? Whatever the case, it’s a glorious sixty minutes played exceedingly well and captured in glorious sound. Urgently recommended to anyone who likes romantic orchestral music, whether Tchaikovsky or Sibelius, Bruckner or Respighi.
#4 (Reissue) – Karajan Symphony Edition, DG 001211702
Another big box: This time for Karajan’s 100th birthday a re-issue of all his important symphonic cycles for Deutsche Grammophon. You may have other favorites for each composer, but Karajan’s survey of Beethoven (75-77) is absolutely terrific, his smooth Mendelssohn my favorite, despite strong competition, his Brahms unarguably among the best, his Bruckner not the last word (in part marred by their digital sound) but among the most interesting cycles, anyway. His Tchaikovsky (thankfully the analogue 70s recordings) is terrific and widely regarded so, his glossy Schumann more a matter of personal preference but, and certainly his Haydn and Mozart (only the late symphonies with Mozart, the “Paris” and “London” symphonies for Haydn) have no claim to being ‘library versions’. I understand why they didn’t include one-off symphonic masterstrokes like Shostakovich’s 10th, Mahler’s 9th, or Prokofiev 5th. But why they didn’t throw in the Sibelius recordings, I don’t know (at 38 discs, three more would hardly have made the difference), but it’s a deal as it is – even for those (like me) who generally look at Karajan’s achievements with a healthy modicum of criticism.
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Monday, 12.15.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #5
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the sixth installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
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#5 (New Release) – Haydn, The Creation (engl.), McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort – Archiv 477 7361 (001086502)
In a discussion among musicologists and musicians on whether harpsichord continuo in all of Haydn’s Symphony No.98 was appropriate, necessary, or neither, I believe it was Armin Raab, head of the Cologne Haydn Institute, who mused whether “Historically Informed Performers” weren’t just interested in reducing everything to the minimum of players necessary to play the music. And how he’d never see them, for example, follow Haydn’s instructions for “The Creation” to double the winds and horns for any venue bigger than the Schwarzenberg Palace (like the Burgtheater), and redouble them again for any still bigger venue. Haydn with eight horns? Hardly.
Enter Paul McCreesh, among the first One-voice-per-part Bach performers to have married Joshua Rifkin’s preaching of the skinny-Bach gospel to high-quality music making. He doesn’t use eight horns, but he uses a (relatively, given what’s typical for modern Haydn) huge orchestra, doubling (tripling?) winds and adding a large choir in alleged accordance with the official premiere at that Burgtheater. The Gabrieli Consort & Players thus beefed up to over 100 musicians and singers each, deliver a magnificent, broad, sweeping, punchy, and fresh performance that is drunk on its own grand sound and the glorious music Haydn wrote. The continuo playing is done on a fortepiano – whose mellow sound, compared to a harpsichord, blends nicely with the orchestra (a fact I also much appreciate in René Jacobs’ Le Nozze di Figaro).
The whole thing is performed in English, one of the ‘official’ languages of this oratorio, and with the recitatives reworked by McCreesh & Co. to better fit the English text. William Christie’s “Schöpfung” on Virgin, released just before McCreesh’s, might have been a worthy recommendation had I heard no other “Creation” this year. But next to McCreesh it is reduced to a quick whimper. And Roger Norrington’s “Schöpfung” just released on Profil 07074 (but made in 1990) packs as much a punch as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (and the very excellent RIAS Chamber Choir) can deliver, but it’s a bit muffled and, compared to McCreesh, a tempest in a teapot. Aside, with Sandrine Piau (!), Mark Padmore, Neal Davies, Peter Harvey, and Miah Persson, McCreessh has the superior vocal team to any Creation since Harnoncourt (2002, DHM) and Bernstein (1986, DG), who feature excellent casts, too.
#5 (Reissue) – Sibelius, Symphonies 5 & 7, En Saga, Colin Davis, BSO – PentaTone PTC 5186 177
Colin Davis’ Sibelius is probably overrated, but his Philips cycle with the Boston Symphony Orchestra least so. In fact, there is greatness among those recordings and it’s most evident in the Fifth and Sevenths Symphonies. These are terrifically well played, sweeping performances in great sound and in sound that has only gotten better with PentaTone’s reissuing them on a hybrid SACD. (Which also allows you to hear them in their original “Quadro Recording” state that never took off when Philips experimented with it in the 70’s and 80’s.) But even in stereo this is first rate stuff, and with half-decent speakers at your disposal, you will feel like the timpanist is in your living room, sitting atop the stereo.
Along with Blomstedt (Decca, 5th) and Segerstam (Ondine, 5th and 7th), this is one of the great performances of these symphonies that also offers great sonics. Better still, PentaTone throws in En Saga and the performance (hitherto not available on CD in the US) and sound are equally good here. If you don’t already have the two Philips Duos that constitute Davis’ first Sibelius cycle (the Fifth on volume 1, the Seventh on volume 2), or wish to benefit from the SACD sound – stereo or 4-channel surround – this hopefully first in five (?) BSO/Davis Sibelius re-issues on PentaTone is most highly recommended.
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Saturday, 12.13.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #6
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the fifth installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
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#6 (New Release) – Mozart, Piano Concertos No.12 & 24, Maurizio Pollini, WPh – DG 4777167 (B001099402)
Getting further up in this list means an increasing certainty that I won’t be able to include other recordings that suddenly seem worthy of inclusion, too. I’ve already created an “Almost Best of 2008” list, and still I can think of recordings that could easily be in this spot as well. Isn’t Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s third volume (in part as a stand-in for the equally excellent previous two releases) a marvel? (Chandos 10467) Or how about the invigorating performance of the Brahms Horn Trio and First Violin Sonata by Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, and natural horn player Teunis van der Zwart? (Harmonia Mundi 901981) Anyone who likes Bartók ought to listen to Ahmed Adnan Saygun’s Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2 – perhaps the best of a series of Saygun releases this year. (cpo 77 289-2) Bach-lovers should be steered toward the one-voice-per-part, “one liturgical year” cantata cycle that Sigiswald Kuijken is recording on hybrid SACDs and to which I am warming more and more. (Accent 25307) And the first volume of Carl Nielsen’s String Quartets with the Young Danish String Quartet was on my 2007 list, and volume two is wonderful, too. (Dacapo 6.220522)
Alas, an old acquaintance makes the cut: Maurizio Pollini appears again after doing so with Beethoven in 2004 and a Schumann re-release in 2005. This year it’s not for his Beethoven op.2 or his Chopin recital, nor even the re-issue of the excellent Piano Concerto set with Claudio Abbado, but for his Mozart Piano Concertos. Only last year did Pollini return to these works after not releasing an official recording of Mozart since 1976. This is the second of the recent (live) Mozart recordings which are with Pollini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Understated, sunny, and genial – that’s why this (as well as the preceding) recording is such a delight. The early A-major concerto K.414, among the first that Mozart wrote to introduce himself in Vienna, is a gentle delight – sophisticated in its simplicity and receiving precisely that kind of a treatment. No-nonsense, arguably understated, in pianistic perfection – in the big c-minor concerto these attributes remind me of Keith Jarrett’s Mozart playing, but with ‘warmer’ results not the least thanks to the accompaniment from the Philharmonic’s radiant strings and sonorous, perfect winds.
Pollini plays Mozart’s candezas for K414 (and the second available cadenza for the second movement). For K491 no cadenza by Mozart has been found, which is why Saint-Saëns wrote one, as did Fauré, J.N.Hummel, Humperdinck, Carl Reinecke, J.B.Cramer, Reynaldo Hahn, Brahms, Smetana, and Busoni. Many pianists use their own – like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder, Géza Anda and Paul Badura-Skoda. George Szell wrote one, too, which Clifford Curzon uses in this concerto. Pollini uses Sicilian contemporary composer Salvatore Sciarrino’s – which are, unlike the Kalevi Aho cadenzas for the flute concertos, not in any way modern but Mozartean, predictable, harmless, lovely, even unnoticeable and not particularly spontaneous. That’s not a bad thing at all, because this disc isn’t going to be purchased for “Sciarrino cadenzas” but for Mozart – and the cadenzas are never in Mozart’s way. There are other lovely recordings of K414 or 491, of course (Goode, Curzon), but when a record like this is in the CD player, comparison becomes pointless; enjoyment paramount.
#6 (Reissue) – Prokofiev, Complete Symphonies – Chandos CHAN 10500(4)
Prokofiev’s seven Symphonies can be tough nuts to crack – at least numbers 2 to 6. That must be the reason why there are relatively few complete cycles of them available; eight, by my count: Walter Weller was the third with the LPO and LSO (1974-78, Decca), behind the iron curtain Zdenèk Kosler recorded them with the Czech Philharmonic (1976-82, Supraphon). In 1985 Chandos issued Neeme Järvi’s set with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra which became an instant hit. A little later Rostropovich followed (French National Orchestra, 1985-87, Erato), then came Ozawa (Berlin Philharmonic, 89-92, DG), then Theodore Kuchar (Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra, 1994/95, Naxos), and finally Valery Gergiev with the only live recordings of the bunch (LSO, 2004, Philips). Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya), Martinon (Vox), and Kitajenko (Melodiya) seem to have fallen by the wayside. Kitajenko has put down a new cycle (Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Phoenix Edition) which, if it is as good as his Shostakovich cycle (Capriccio), will be a hot item.
The recent Gergiev cycle was much hailed of course; as a whole, I found it curiously unsatisfactory. Something didn’t seem right, even if the grittier approach, compared to Ozawa, certainly benefited Symphonies Three or Six, which are very fine with the brooding, sloppy Russian maestro. The sound is good, but not great and dry, the playing very good, but not outstanding. Almost all the symphonies have great moments, but none an unbroken arch. The Seventh lacks pensive beauty. So far I preferred Kuchar’s Naxos cycle (I’ve not heard Rostropovich’s or Kosler’s) if it had to be a complete cycle at all. But now Chandos has reissued its Järvi cycle in a slim, inexpensive box and the performances simply knock your socks off. The recorded sound is great, the Scottish National Orchestra plays like a world class band, and the symphonies don’t just have bite (or that pensive beauty as in the case of the marvelous, charming, sweeping Järvi Seventh), they are coherent and unified structures. Like Gergiev, Järvi includes the 1930 original version of the Fourth Symphony (concise, restrained) as well as the 1947 revised version (epic, sprawling-impressive), and both get first rate performances. Making due without resorting to exaggeration, Järvi gives the spiky works a beauty I’d never heard or even expected. At the same time, he doesn’t let a brutal work like the Third fall victim to harmlessness. There’s still blood on the floor when Järvi is finished with it, just not as much (and fewer crushed bones) than when Muti (Philips) goes through it. All in all, this is not only a set to complete your Prokofiev collection, it’s also the one to start it (if you haven’t yet).
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Thursday, 12.11.08, 6:00 am
Best Recordings of 2008 #7
In 2004, 2005, and 2006 I came up with “Best of the Year” lists, in 2007 I restricted myself to listing “A Few of My Favorite Things”, and this year, the inherent presumptuousness notwithstanding, there’s another such “Best of” list. Listing my ten favorite new releases and re-issues would be too long for one post, so I am working my way up. This is the fourth installment.
WETA’s partner ArkivMusic.com has put together a page with my choices for “Best Recordings of 2008″ and put all of them on sale: ArkivMusic, WETA Best Recordings of 2008
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6- 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
#7 (New Release) – Bruckner, Symphony No.7, Karl Böhm, BRSO – Audite 95.494
I don’t know which one of these recordings to nominate: never have I received two such excellent performances of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony in one year. Both are live and both are with conductors known for their Bruckner but not known to be “Bruckner conductors” (in the way, say, Wand, Celibidache, or Jochum were.) There is Bernard Haitink’s recording taken from four performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May of 2007 and issued on their own label, CSO Resound. And then there’s a new live recording of Karl Böhm with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from thirty years before – recorded on April 5th 1977 in the Herkulessaal. Audite has issued the Bavarian Radio tape of it and since it has never been available before, it doesn’t count as a re-issue.
Both conductors bring a gentility to the work that exudes moving tenderness: elaborate, reticent and glowing at once in Haitink’s recording, slightly tighter in the outer movements with Böhm. Both include the cymbal crash. Haitink’s CSO plays Bruckner better than I’ve ever heard that orchestra do (certainly better than the uncondonable Bruckner of Solti and even Barenboim’s better efforts) and Böhm’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra outperforms the Vienna Philharmonic. Not in Böhm’s VPO studio recording of the same work from 1976 (DG), which is also excellent albeit ‘on a tighter leash’, but certainly their anemic 1965 effort (also with Solti). The CSO appeals with playing that’s anywhere from luminous to luxurious to blazing and ever precise, while the BRSO reveals the music’s structure beyond the notes, playing more lively and with great understanding of Bruckner’s symphonic build up - without resorting to epic swooning and booming. I hate to chose between the two, especially since both offer first class sound. Haitink, also available as an SACD hybrid, a notch better (as you’d expect), but not by much. In the end I’ll have to go with Böhm, whose sparse Bruckner discography contains only the Fourth (on Decca – a reference recording, also), the Seventh (trice), and the Eighth (also trice) of which this is the finest Seventh. Yes, technically both of these discs were released in late 2007, but they got around to me so late that they need to be included here.
#7 (Reissue) – Brahms, Complete Chamber Works – Hyperion CDS44331/42
This box of the complete Brahms chamber works is a treasure to behold – compiled of releases the worst of which are good, most of which are superb, and a good few of which are reference material. I’ve discussed it in great length in October (part 1, 2, and 3) and I repeat my conclusion: exceptionally well engineered recordings that offer a continuity of great sound, extraordinary production value, and a dozen performances that are my favorite versions make the Hyperion set my pick among the four complete such sets (two of which are currently unavailable, anyway).
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