Friday, 10.31.08, 6:00 am
November in Music
November starts off strong with musical choices. On November 2nd you can either see the Verdi Requiem performed by the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (3pm), hear the Guarneri String Quartet at Shriver Hall in Baltimore (5.30pm), the Kronos Quartet (“Alternative Radio”) at the Clarice Smith Center (7.30pm) or – what would be my preference – a double bill of the Handel cantata Armida Abbandonata and the Haydn cantata Arianna a Naxos performed by Opera Lafayette at La Maison Française (7.30pm).
Tuesday, November 4th, is Noon-Bach-cantata Tuesday at the Church of the Epiphany (Lobe den Herren, BWV 137), your monthly lunch-time haven of sanity. On November 5th, at 7.30pm the Emerson String Quartet will present their first installment of the second half of their Shostakovich String Quartet cycle (9-12) at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. (The first half took place in February of 2007.) Alternatively you could see Leonard Slatkin showcasing Leonard Slatkin with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore that night (8pm), presenting his composition “The Raven” and Sibelius’ 2nd Symphony. I have a feeling he might be interested in showing himself from his best side (as a conductor, at least), so it could turn out to be one of those inspired concerts that have every potential to be quite terrific.
Friday, November 7th, it’s time to head to the Library of Congress to hear three ladies and Christian Tetzlaff (appearing as the eponymous “Tetzlaff Quartet”) in a intriguing program of Mozart’s Quartet in D minor, K. 421, Berg’s Lyric Suite and the rarely heard Sibelius Quartet in D minor (“Voces Intimae”). Even without a (free) ticket, you can get to hear it if you get to the Library early (~6.30pm), pass the metal detectors, sniffing dogs, body searches, and then stand in line for an hour.
You won’t be assumed a terrorist if you go to the Clarice Smith Center on November 9th, to hear the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, but it’ll cost you a little. I recommend it independently of the fact that WETA 90.9 is the “media sponsor”, because the offered music Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür are eminently worth hearing, and the thrown in Vivaldi Beatus vir for two choirs and orchestra won’t do any harm, either. (3pm)
You can’t hear enough Bach, so if the drive down Route 193 is too far, the Harman Center for the Arts hosts the Washington Bach Consort the same night, in cantatas BWV 50 (“Nun ist das Heil”), 80 (“Ein feste Burg”), 207 (“Vereinte Zwietracht” – a theatrical cantata of sorts). (Also 3pm)
The only excuse for missing the beloved, adored, and admired Takács Quartet that day (5pm, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art), is that you can might catch them at the Library of Congress on November 14th (8pm) when they will perform again with the Hungarian folk group Muzsikás as they had already in a most memorable concert a few years ago at the Freer Gallery. This time Muzsikás will not get lost in the traffic on 16th street, not arrive late, and not curse like truck-drivers behind the scenes. It was rhythmically compelling the last time already, this time it’ll be harmonious, on top.
On November 14th, the Kirov Orchestra with Valery Gergiev will stop by the George Mason University Center for the Arts. If you have no qualms with Gergiev’s heavy handed political escapades, you can enjoy the (uninspired but interesting enough) program of Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite No. 3, act 3 from Romeo and Juliet, and Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (pianist Alexei Volodin, 8pm).
But if Russian fare is you thing, you might – nay: should – prefer the WPAS sponsored recital of Vadim Repin and Nikolai Lugansky on November 15th, at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at 4pm. I’ll opt for hyperbole here: If you only go to one classical performance in November, make it Repin/Lugansky. Repin, arguably the finest violinist of his generation, has never before made it to Washington – make his first appearance a memorable one, as he will your attendance!
Back to Bach on November 16th, when the Washington Chorus presents the Mass in B Minor at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (5pm) and on November 18th, when master-harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï will play the German master and his exact contemporary Domenico Scarlatti. No one has recorded Scarlatti (on harpsichord) as well as Hantaï and he’ll be at La Maison Française at 7.30pm.
Alternatively you could let yourself be swept away by the (live-only) excitement that Gustavo Dudamel exudes in his appearances. Even the Israel Philharmonic will kick into a higher gear when the new LA Philharmonic MD pushes them through standard repertoire of Mendelssohn and Brahms (each composer’s Symphony no. 4) at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at 8pm.
Washington has fared well with a conductor’s younger conducting brother taking on the NSO as Principal Conductor. The NSO is bound to fare well, too, with a different conductor’s younger conducting brother leading them through Dvořák, Mozart (Piano Concerto in d-minor with Lars Vogt!), and the excellent Fourth Symphony of Franz Schmidt. It’s Yakov Kreizberg I’m talking about (who has also recorded one of the finest versions of that symphony) – and he is the younger brother of Semyon Bychkov. It’s the orchestral concert I’d least want to miss in November – and it will take place on November 20th (7pm), 21st (8pm), and 22nd (8pm).
Of course Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle is a work well worth hearing, too. But if it would mean skipping the NSO, there’s no reason to expose yourself to the doings of the Washington National Opera Orchestra struggling with the music under the guide of a modest conductor. That’s not to say that they might not surprise with accidental excellence – which they could do either on November 21st (7.30) or 22nd (7pm). In case you needed another reason (not) to attend: the featured “tenor” is Andrea Bocelli.
November 21st, is could also be spent with the Capuçon-Capuçon-Angelich Piano Trio. Washingtonians who were at one of their concerts know that the two Capuçon brothers are a wonderful musical team – nor is the almost-French (but actually American) pianists Nicholas Angelich a stranger to these parts. The program promises Haydn, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn trios and is hosted by WPAS at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater at 7.30pm.
Emanuel Ax has evidently forgiven Yefim Bronfman for canceling his wedding after Ax had already bought the wedding present. The two friends will unite for an evening of piano duos at the George Mason University Center for the Arts which, regardless the exact program, promises to be a romp and a hoot. You can catch it on November 23rd, at 4pm.
Wednesday, 10.29.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (Chamber Music – 3/3)
"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.
There are many favorites in the Clarinet Trio. I’ve not yet heard the most recent recording with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and Ricardo Morales (whose Brahms Clarinet Quintet much impressed me much at the National Academy of Sciences in DC, over four years ago) on Koch which came out last month. But the 2005 BIS release of Martin Fröst (with Roland Pöntinen and Torleif Thedéen) was predictably excellent. It’s not unlike Richard Hosford’s with the Florestan Trio on these hyperion discs: flawlessly played with extraordinary command over the instruments and superbly balanced by the engineers. The BIS sound is caught even more closely and naturally (warts – if that’s what you want to call key-clicking and breathing noises – and all), and Fröst manages more hushed pianissimo phrases. Neither, however, have the beautiful long, unhurried lines that Karl Leister manages – either in his 1968 recording on DG (with Christoph Eschenbach and Georg Donderer) or on Nimbus (just re-issued on Brilliant Classics) with Berlin Philharmonic colleagues Ferenc Bognár and Wolfgang Boettcher. Hyperion would have had another option for this set, too: Thea King with Clifford Benson and Karine Georgian (hyperion 66107)– who deliver a performance rivaled in warmth only by Stoltzman/Ax/Ma on the classic Sony recording. But even amid an embarrassment of choices, Hosford/Florestan stand their ground proudly and give little reason why their version shouldn’t be anyone’s first choice.
For those who cherish Dame Thea King, good news come with the Clarinet Quintet and the Clarinet Sonatas. The Gabrieli String Quartet and Mme. King deliver a splendid, unified performance. Instead of string quartet and a dominating clarinet, they are five equal players where King’s warm clarinet is just one of five voices. Especially in the first movement it’s surprisingly humble, bordering self-effacing – fans of extroverted playing will have to look elsewhere. The competition is similar to the above: Stoltzman with the Tokyo Quartet (RCA), (better than the Tokyo Quartet with Joan Enric Lluna on Harmonia Mundi), one of the many Leister recordings (on DG with the Amadeus Quartet, on Brilliant with the Brandis SQ4t, or – perhaps most compelling – with the Vermeer Quartet on Orfeo). Add to that Sabine Meyer with the ABQ (EMI), Herbert Stähr and the Berlin Philharmonic Octet members (Philips) and you have half a dozen alternatives that (nearly) reach the heights of King & Co who compare well even to my current favorite – Paul Meyer and the Capuçon brothers on Virgin (where it is the filler to a mildly disappointing Brahms Double Concerto.)
King’ is every bit as good in the Sonatas (still available on a low-mid priced Helios CD), and the competition largely the same: Stoltzman/Goode (RCA), Fröst/Pöntinen (BIS), Leister/Oppitz (Orfeo) and especially a newcomer from Harmonia Mundi USA with Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu. King’s tone is beautiful, accurate – like Manasse’s – but more clear, more assertive than the latter’s. Turn it around and you have Manasse with as soft (yet haze-free), round tone like I have rarely heard. Together with the similarly inclined Jon Nakamtsu, he emphasizes a bit more than King: Slow and moderate movements are a bit slower, fast, lively movements a bit faster. Both recordings are excellently recorded and well balanced – Thea King’s clarinet slightly ‘behind’ the piano, Manasse’s right on top of it.
Arriving at the Cello Sonatas I am inclined to say: “finally” a recording where direct comparison leaves room for critical remarks. Steven Isserlis’ first recording for hyperion – with Peter Evans – is included here, and while they are relatively vigorous performances (often Isserlis is too bland, too careful for me) in the usual splendid sound, I miss the assertive glory of Rostropovich/Serkin (DG), or the warm musicality and glow of Starker/Sebők (my favorite recording – Mercury), or the virtuosity put to such good use in the first Ma/Ax recording (1984 RCA, not 1991 Sony). Steven Isserlis didn’t have the Feuermann Stradivarius cello in his hands when he made this recording in 1984 (it belonged to Aldo Pariso until 1996), which is probably why he remade them with Steven Hough some 20 years later. Longer cello lines, a more subdued (not to say monotonous) air, better (more individual, independent) pianism, and a still richer sound mark the latter recording… an improvement only in some ways.
The matter is different with the three Violin Sonatas: Krysia Osostowicz and Susan Tomes may offer the least name recognition among the artists on this box-set, but their Violin Sonatas (1990) have been my beloved favorite ever since I bought them on hyperion’s Helios sub-label. I simply love their touching and melodious way with the music. No pair of musicians that I’ve heard plays these works so naturally, with such musical unobtrusiveness, as they do – which is why I favor them over all the competition that aims more for virtuosity and pronounced dynamics. Listening to it is like witnessing chamber music in the moment of being created, rather than ‘interpreted’. Absolute control over their instruments is a given, anyway, with these artists. The F-A-E Scherzo in c-minor has been tacked on for completisms’ sake – Mme. Osostowicz recorded it with Simon Crawford-Philips just this May. Other favorites of mine, like Suk/Katchen (Decca), Dumay/Pires (DG), and Capuçon/Angelich (Virgin), bring me great joy, too. But if I had to keep one, it’d be Osostowicz/Tomes.
I approached the final disc – the viola transcriptions of the op.120 sonatas and the clarinet trio – with some trepidation. Not my favorite works to begin with, and less so with the viola. But at least the viola-bias is an attitude attained from relatively limited, not always pleasurable, exposure. At the ARD competition, Sergey Malov played op.120/1 very well, indeed – hearing Lawrence Dutton (of Emerson Quartet fame) in both works was less enjoyable a few years back. Fortunately Lawrence Power (violist of the Nash Ensemble and the Leopold Trio) is more than up to the challenge and manages for dark, unfussy readings that I found not just bearable but even enjoyable. My memories of Zukerman/Barenboim on DG are vague, but negative; of Shlomo Mintz/Itamar Golan (Avie) vaguely neutral, of Kim Kashkashian with Robert Levin a rare case of delight (ECM). Maxim Rysanov (with Katya Apekisheva) on Onyx isn’t coming out in the US until in November, but that disc will include the viola transcriptions of the Horn Trio and the first Violin Sonata as well, and might be interesting for anyone looking specifically for those works. While it would not be my first choice bought individually, Power with Simon Crawford Phillips (and cellist Timothy Hugh) leave no complaints, ending this 12-disc set on a high point.
Looked at (and listened to) as a set, the merits are much higher, still, than “leaves no complaints”. Even if the DG and Philips sets were still available (which they currently are not), they wouldn’t be a threat to Hyperion’s – merely competition. DG has some spectacular highlights with the Rostropovich/Serkin Cello Suites and the Italiano/Abbado Piano Quintet. But even DG has stronger performances of some of the other works in their own catalog that are not included on the compilation: The Hagen Quartett with Gérard Caussé in the String Quintets and Emil Gilels with the Amadeus Quartet (or Argerich ‘with friends’) in the First Piano Quartet, for example. Philips has the Beaux Arts Trio, who were caught at the height of their powers and are particularly effective in the Piano Quartets with violist Walter Trampler. The Cello Sonatas with Sebok & Starker are my (emotional) favorite, anyway, and Sebők / Grumiaux are fine in the Violin Sonatas. But the clarinet works and the String Quartets (the Quartetto Italiano on auto-pilot) are not top drawer.
The Hyperion box’s less than brilliant spot (weakness would be too strong a word) is probably the disc with the Cello Suites. Perhaps a missed opportunity in not having been generous and thrown in Isserlis’ new recording with Stephen Hough… though, in all honesty, even then I would still recommend supplementing your collection with either “Slava” or Starker. Brilliant Classics has a box out (Brilliant 99800), and it’s as complete as Hyperion’s. It happens to be one of the strong points of their complete Brahms box (which runs about the price of the Hyperion Chamber Works) and should not be dismissed. But Hyperion’s excellent interpretations are added by extraordinary production value – not the least the exceptionally well engineered recordings that offer a continuity of great sound that Brilliant’s pick-and-patch collection can’t match. Differences in individual tastes will inform the choice between the sets – but with at least a dozen performances that are my favorites even on individual discs, the Hyperion set is my pick among the bunch.
This review covers CDs nine through twelve of the Hyperion Brahms Chamber Music Box. The previous installments can be found here:
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (1/3)
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (2/3)
Previous posts on Brahms have covered the First Piano Concerto, Double Concerto, Symphony No.1, and Exposition Repeats.
Saturday, 10.25.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (Chamber Music – 2/3)
"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.
Among Brahms’ Piano Quartets, the first – op.25 in g-minor – is by far the most popular. A popularity exemplified (and maybe, partly caused) by Arnold Schoenberg’s oft recorded orchestration of this substantial, 40 minute long work. (Coincidentally, cpo has just issued a new recording thereof – coupled with Luciano Berio’s orchestral arrangement of the clarinet sonata op.120/1.) A couple of years ago an all-star cast of Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, and Mischa Maisky was assembled to record op.25 for DG. Fortunately the four full-blooded musicians celebrated Brahms, not their egos. The result is a brilliant and fiery reading that might never be surpassed in that regard.
While theirs and the Amadeus Quartet’s recording with Emil Gilels (another gem in the DG catalog) sound a little like the Little Symphony That Couldn’t (many of Brahms’ chamber works started out intended to be orchestral works), there are more chamber-music like approaches, too. For example the Trio Wanderer with violist Christophe Gaugué (HMU), or of course the Beaux Arts Trio who are at their best here with violist Walter Trampler (Philips or Pentatone). The players around Isabelle Faust and Derek Han (for Brilliant Classics) show all their promise in a fleet reading not just of the first, but all three Quartets. That’s stiff competition for the players on the Hyperion set, the Leopold String Quartet (Marianne Thorsen, Lawrence Power, and Kate Gould) who perform with that most nimble-fingered of all pianists, Marc-André Hamelin. And for a recording of all three Quartets, their strongest competition might not be the Beaux Arts or Wanderer Trio, but the Piano Quartet “Domus” on a budget Virgin re-issue.
Although I’ve cherished the Domus recording for many years now, I’ve never bothered to look up (or remember) its members. What a surprise then – or rather: how perfectly logical – to find that Domus is essentially the expanded Florestan Trio with Susan Tomes (piano) and Richard Lester (cello), violist Timothy Boulton and, instead of Anthony Marwood, the genial duo partner of Tomes’, Krysia Osostowicz, on violin. (Before disbanding, Domus had also been taken onto Hyperion’s artists roster.)
Hamelin’s slightly dryer and more enunciated playing and the closer recording make the Leopold String Trio’s performances more straight-faced and less reverberant than the modestly indulgent Domus. The chugging cello line of the op.25 second movement sounds so refined with the Leopold’s Ms. Gould, she could pass as playing the viola. And while the Leopold/Hamelin combination sounds incredibly and impressively fast in the concluding Rondo alla Zingarese, there’s not the sense of a turbulent, hair-down execution as with Domus (much less Argerich & Co.). For those in favor of leaner, longer lines in Brahms, the immaculate and civilized Leopold/Hamelin combination (exploring technical extremes without ever sounding challenged) might be the preferred version. Whatever the case, few would likely complain if these were their only versions of the Quartets.
There is little in the repertoire where the Florestan Trio would not be my first choice – and that goes for the Brahms Piano Trios as well. Without giving in to the temptation of romantic indulgence, this is superbly played, detailed, and compelling chamber music making that ranks right up there with the Beaux Arts Trio who can be a bit more generous and warmer (more ‘continental European’, if you wish), but don’t play quite as impeccably.
Their Horn Trio with Stephen Sterling has all the same qualities, and especially the precision of the musicians and the exceptional hyperion recording pays dividends here. Susan Tomes’ pianism is just the right mix between assertive and delicate – giving it, apart from the much superior sound, an edge over the 1957 Dennis Brain/Max Salpeter/Cyril Preddy collaboration (BBC Legends). The horn never dominates Anthony Marwood’s violin (as it does with Tuckwell/Perlman/Ashkenazy – Decca, 1968). Of the versions I know, only MDG’s 1995 recording is as well engineered. An interesting comparison would have been the new Harmonia Mundi release with Theunis Van der Zwart playing the work on the Waldhorn (as intended by Brahms) together with his colleagues Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov – alas it just came out this October and I haven’t gotten my ears on it, yet.
This review covers CDs five through eight of the Hyperion Brahms Chamber Music Box. The remaining 4 will be covered in a post in the next few days.
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (1/3)
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (3/3)
Previous posts on Brahms have covered the First Piano Concerto, Double Concerto, Symphony No.1, and Exposition Repeats.
Thursday, 10.23.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (Chamber Music – 1/3)
"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.
Not to denigrate his songs or orchestral works, but Brahms’ chamber music is, with a few exceptions, his most pleasing and most admired output. I’d never pick a fight with anyone questioning whether the string quartets or the op.120 sonatas really belong in the Parthenon of chamber music. But the String Sextets, the Quintets (Clarinet, Piano, String), the Piano Quartets, the Trios (Clarinet, Piano, Horn), and the Cello- and Violin Sonatas are many musicians’ (very appreciated) daily bread and easily accessible to casual listeners as well. You’d have to be a pretty hardened Brahms-hater to feel, much less think, otherwise.
And because it’s all so terrific, it only makes sense to offer it all in one convenient box. Deutsche Grammophon has done so, as part of their complete Brahms Edition. A year later or so, Philips followed suit with a box of Brahms’ complete chamber music of their own. Both were setting very high standards, both are – inexplicably – out of print right now. In 2003 Brilliant assembled a collection of their own, which is now also available as part of their 60 CD complete Brahms set.
Now Hyperion has entered the fray, and it is most welcome, indeed. On 12 well filled discs, Hyperion gives us a survey of Brahms’ chamber music of consistent high quality – possibly unmatched by any of the competition. Many included performances that are not just good, but favorites and among the finest available. There are no particular weak spots in this assemblage and the sound quality of these modern recordings (the oldest is from 1983, the most recent from earlier this year) is as high as we have come to expect from the label.
The Raphael Ensemble’s String Sextets (including Roger Tapping) and Quintets would do any company’s catalogue proud. There’s nothing what might be construed as ‘stereotypically British’ here. And although all but two members have changed from the 1988 recording of the Sextets to the 1995 recording of the Quintets (both engineered by Tony Faulkner), the playing is of a seamlessly high quality: glorious, with total precision, and most importantly: with lots of heart. Other recordings (Sextets: ASFM Chamber Ensemble [on Chandos] and Leipzig String Quartet++ [MDG], Quintets: Hagen Quartet with Gérard Caussé [DG] and Leipzig String Quartet+ [MDG]) might match, but none surpass the Raphael’s versions.
When it comes to Brahms’ String Quartets, I don’t generally enthuse (“undisputed master of composing without ideas” [H.Wolf] and such…) and I don’t here, either. But having heard it so often lately – live and on CD – I’m more and more getting used to them. The New Budapest Quartet, which Hyperion chose to include in their entirety (instead of patching with their brand new Takács Quartet recording) aren’t bad at all.
I know hearty little about András Kiss, Ferenc Balogh, László Barsony, and Károly Botvay, except some of their recordings on Hyperion and Marco Polo (e.g. Bartók, Borodin, Beethoven, and lots of Spohr – most of them re-issued on the mid-price Dyad and Helios sub-labels). In these Brahms works, they go well beyond the ‘capable’ and make engaging, very Central European music out of it, downplaying the seriousness and without belaboring any phrase or musical point to long. This isn’t replacing my first choice Alban Berg Quartet (EMI) recording for all three quartets, or the Mandelring Quartet in op.51/1, but it pleases plenty. Were I to listen through this whole box again, as I have a few times already, I’d never think of bothering to skip these renditions in favor of others. For one, I’d not want to miss their Piano Quintet, which they play with Piers Lane.
Nostalgia has me consider stormy Leon Fleisher and the Juilliard Quartet (Sony via Arkiv) for that Quintet; I shall always cherish the smooth, sometimes detailed, sometimes bashful Quartetto Italiano with Maurizio Pollini (DG Originals), nor let the exacting, superbly sonorous, occasionally strident Hagen Quartett with Paul Gulda gather dust (DG via Arkiv). But splashier recent releases like said Takács with Stephen Hough (too nervous) or Emerson with Fleisher (too ungainly the execution of the piano part) can’t touch Lane & Budapest.
This review covers the first four CDs of the Hyperion Brahms Chamber Music Box. The remaining 8 will be covered in two posts in the next few days.
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (2/3)
Aimez-vous Brahms… a Lot!? (3/3)
Previous posts on Brahms have covered the First Piano Concerto, Double Concerto, Symphony No.1, and Exposition Repeats.
Thursday, 10.16.08, 6:00 am
Winners from the ARD Music Competition (String Quartet)
The royal discipline at the ARD competition isn’t piano, or violin, it’s string quartet. Not only for the luminaries that include past winners, but also for the simple fact that right from the start, the listener gets to hear ‘real’ music. In the first round, for example, it was one Beethoven op.18 or one Haydn quartet, followed by a 20th century quartet from a list of a good dozen. Twelve groups had made the cut, 11 quartets made it to Munich – and although the unofficial word was that the 2008 crop wasn’t cut out for greatness (for which “there’s no Quatuor Ébène, this year” was code) – one quartet after another delivered music-making at the highest level. Only the Quartet Feruz, who had come all the way from Uzbekistan, wasn’t really competitive. (And even they had not come entirely in vain: they won the Bärenreiter Urtext-prize, € 1000,- worth in music vouchers.)
The Canadian Afiara String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the San Francisco State University, dug deep in the first round – and came up with incredible riches in Berg’s Lyric Suite. Transparency and tenacity were right next to each other, from the wispy opening of the third movement (like an electrical storm) to the fourth movement, the performance – replete with hushed voices, shivers, and lots of spunk - got more and more involved as it went on. The Suite must have made such an impression on the jury that they were still thinking about it during the finals, when they awarded the Afiara a second prize even though the quartet took their ‘night off’ just then, butchering Beethoven (op.59/2) after a fine Bartók Third String Quartet where their incredibly synchronous violins shone with true ppp pizzicatos and splendidly unnatural metallic sul ponticello passages. They’re impeccable dressers, too, and American audiences will see much of the Afiara Quartet in the future.
The Berg wasn’t the only case where the jury rewarded a performance of ‘difficult’ 20th century piece over other quartets doing something more fun (like Schulhoff or Schnittke). The German Gémeaux Quartett chose Schoenberg No.3 (as tough a nut as there is in the repertoire, for listeners and players alike) to follow their civilized, though not very playful, Haydn, and they played with so much commitment and detail that they wouldn’t run out of momentum until the finale, when they were awarded a controversial third prize. Controversial for the crowd because they had lapped up ‘their’ quartet’s Death & the Maiden and Bartók’s Fourth Quartet – and controversial for me, because their severe, humorless style was the quintessence of anti-music for me. Precise, ‘impressive’, checking all the boxes, playing all the notes, and missing all the music. Their grim determination, even during the no-pressure prize-winner recital, made it seem as though they felt that having fun with classical music was verboten.
Their Schoenberg, meanwhile, got me thinking about the psychology of ‘advanced music lovers’ which is such that they will actually find a work like Schoenberg No.3 enjoyable, and maybe even beautiful. It is, of course, no more beautiful than a bulldog or boxer – which is to say: ugly, by any sane, objective standard. But just ask any owner of such a dog and they will give you a lecture on how very beautiful their extraordinarily misunderstood little pooches are. Sort of the same with Schoenberg – despite the fact that it has considerably less obvious beauty than the (also difficult, though much more rewarding) Lyric Suite.
Being afflicted by the very same warping of aesthetic values, I am finding the Schoenberg String Quartets (and not just the bona fide romantic, dainty unnumbered ones!) more and more pleasurable, in a refreshing, tart way. As is the case with an expert rendition as the Gémeaux’, the perfectly dissonant music suddenly becomes alive with rhythm and can even (very occasionally) wax poetically and indulge in accidental harmony. One ceases to ask the music to make sense in any conventional way and discovers its own, autarkic, sense. Beautiful, though, such quartets are not. And Schoenberg No.3 least of them. Not the least because after three movements at the latest, the ears simply ran out of benevolence.
Too bad that just after I had thus rationalized again why we should love dodecaphonic music at its most austere, a work like Erwin Schulhoff’s String Quartet No.1 came along, and in the Duch EnAccord Quartet’s performance, it was immediately charming, unbridled fun. The work, hitherto unknown to me, was nothing short of a revelation and to see the EnAccord players not make it to the second round a harsh disappointment.
Every other quartet would merit comment, too, especially the all-fun, superbly entertaining Heath Quartet from South Africa/UK. But space dictates I restrict myself to the two most impressive among the remaining: the Apollon Musagete from Poland and the Japanese Verus String Quartet (the youngest among the participants). Apollon Musagete, four boys averaging 28 years, showed an absolutely homogenous sound lead by a very ‘first’ violin in Haydn, added a ‘whiskey & chocolate’ tone to Janáček, made the Lutosławski quartet suspenseful and subjectively shorter than it is, celebrated a relative triumph with Mozart’s “Dissonance” Quartet K465 (C-major) as the only ones (next to the Verus players) who knew how to elicit sunshine from Mozart, even under competition conditions.
Hugo Wolf’s Serenade was delivered in a Vienna Coffee-house version whereas the Afiaras played it as a pre-Bergian modern work, Heath and Gémeaux as a North-Texan, chicle chewing saloon girl eying her potential ‘visitors’, and the Verus Quartet as absolute, absolutely beautiful music. The Apollon Musagete’s hight point, amid an otherwise disappointing final round, was their “Heiliger Dankgesang” (and the following section “Neue Kraft fühlend”) in Beethoven’s op.132. Unspeakably moving, in a sound so completely otherworldly that not even the description “organ-like” or “chorale-like” would do it justice. Even if the rest of the Beethoven went down from there, that added enough to their performances so far to be awarded the first prize and the OEHMS Classics prize (a record deal for one CD which will be the Szymanowski and Lutosławski quartets).
“Absolute music” was what the Verus Quartet, students of the Tokyo Quartet, often delivered. Mature beyond their years, their cultivated and clear sound, their ability to create delicate tension in everything they play, their polish and most of all their supremely honeyed, full bodied sound impressed throughout, except the second round. Their Mozart K387 “Spring” Quartet was polished without being too driven or all-too-skimpy, displaying an exactness without that aggressive pressure with which Mozart had been treated by the other quartets in the semi-final. There may not have been anything overtly “Mozartesque” about the Verus’ reading (which also means an absence of clichés), nor did they chose the casual style of the Apollon Musagetes, but there was plenty of their civilized, mature sound and groomed playing that simply has its own, very rewarding merits. Although this isn’t at all my aesthetic credo, hearing this I had to admit: Beauty is – sometimes – an end in itself.
Their Beethoven – op.18/4 and op.59/2 in the final – is, for better or worse, the Beethoven of our time: Not afraid of extremes, with aggression, but – thanks to their round, superlative sound – never harsh. With exclamation marks, but nothing questionable about their intonation or note-accuracy. brought forth with great explosiveness and followed by energetic pianissimos. And their muscular determination in Bartók No.3 stood out for its extraordinary hushed moments of something approaching silence, never allowing the music to be lax even in the softest passages. They only got a third prize at the competition, but they have the potential of being one of the great quartets of the future.
Other reviews & articles from the ARD Competition:
Saturday, 10.11.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Wagner on Record – A Holy Fool in East Germany
"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.
Herbert Kegel was not known for Wagner interpretations when he performed and recorded this Parsifal in the Congress Hall of Leipzig in January of 1975. Edel Classics (of which Berlin Classics is a sub-label) has just re-issued the GDR Eterna recording of that performances for the second time. In 2005 it became available as a super-budget edition on their “Reference” line. Now it comes in a deluxe edition with full libretto, an essay, extensive bios, all in a very sturdy box, and – astonishingly – scarcely more expensive than before.
Listening to this re-issue (in exceptionally present sound) it becomes clear that Kegel wasn’t a Wagner interpreter, indeed. But before you stop reading now, consider the possibility of this being praise, not criticism. If Kegel doesn’t seem to interpret the music, it’s because he takes the music at face value. There is no incense hanging above the music, there is no dwelling on numinous orchestral passages. Instead it’s a brisk march through crisp air; unsentimental and unconcerned with the recorded interpretive legacies of Parsifal that go back to Carl Muck and Hans Knappertsbusch. (The latter leaving Wieland Wagner to complain about “Slow-motion piety”.) With Pierre Boulez’s 1970 recording (four of six of his Bayreuth Parsifals still await publication), Kegel’s is the fasted uncut Parsifal on record (~ 3h 40m); Clemens Krauss (1953), and Horst Stein (1981) follow.
Tempos don’t tell the whole story, of course. And depending on the conductor, they don’t tell a story at all. Pierre Boulez might be a speedmonger on paper, but he can create the illusion of gravitas even as he keeps the orchestral playing transparent. Christian Thielemann’s Parsifal lasts a very average (if anything mildly speedy) 3 hours and fifty-plus minutes, but his tempi inside the opera are anything but average. He can be sinuous and quickly flowing like Clemens Krauss one minute, then broad and celebratory like “Kna’” – with inaudible gear-changes that bring Furtwängler’s Tristan to mind.
In Kegel’s case, the tempos do tell the story. As Klaus Kalchschmid writes in his Parsifal discography (WagnerSpectrum, v.7 June ’08), the knights of the grail are marching in quickstep, the trumpets’ snaps are just about obscene, and the grail’s bells ring as secular as never before. It is easy to speculate, but hard to tell, whether this is a conscious or subconscious result of performing this Sacred Festival Drama (or better “Festival Play for the consecration of the stage”) for the first time (!) in the officially atheist East German Republic.
In any case, the result has so many positive elements that it would be a shame to dismiss this Parsifal only because it’s streamlined in a way not done again until Hartmut Haenchen’s 2008 Paris performance. The absence of oratorio-feel and palpable reverence gives way to a dramatic performance that dashes through the usually broad highlights and tightens the rather ‘lengthy’ moments that invariably sag with all but the very best among the ‘slow conductors’. Whether the latter makes up for the lack of the former will be up to each listener’s preferences.
Lack of name recognition can’t keep Ulrik Cold from delivering a melodious, sonorous Gurnemanz: less authority than Kurt Moll, but never less beautiful than he or René Pape. Gisela Schröter’s Kundry causes all kinds of reactions: from “showing unprecedented presence and versatility” (Boris M. Gruhl) to “strident, one-dimensional” (Jed Distler). Take me down for “acute, homogenous, and ultimately unspectacular”. She has plenty presence, but tries a little hard in her vibrato-heavy seduction scene and I don’t find the three characters of her transformed Kundry very distinctive.
René Kollo, who had already been Solti’s Parsifal, and Theo Adam’s veteran Amfortas can be comfortably pitched against the best of the competition without fearing to disappoint – although James King (Kubelik) and even Siegfried Jerusalem (Barenboim) do more for me, dramatically.
Brass kinks are inevitable in a live performance, but here they rare enough not to diminish the enjoyment of repeat listens (as they can when one anticipates errors, which is worse than the error itself). The rest of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Leipzig plays splendidly throughout, and the recording ensures that you can hear everything they do. The choirs are even better: clear and audible in every word they sing.
There are only a few Parsifals from the ranks of which one could pick a ‘first’ or ‘top choice’: Knappertsbusch (in a category of his own – most impressive perhaps in his last performance in 1964 [Orfeo D’or]), Kubelik (Arts Archives, 1980), Barenboim (Teldec, 1989) – and possibly Solti (Decca).
But there are many other recordings that a Wagner- or opera enthusiast will want to consider having. Thielemann’s flexible conducting needs to be heard (DG, 2005), the young Waltraud Meier makes Goodall (oop, EMI, 1984) somewhat interesting, Boulez’ dramatic reading and his fluidity (DG, 1970) make his Parsifal one of the most compelling ‘second choices’. James Levine may stretch things out well beyond his ability to maintain the tension and arc, but in his most glorious moments, he is most glorious, indeed. If a ‘Parsifal Highlights’ CD could ever make sense, it’s (only) with Levine – either live from Bayreuth (Philips/Decca, 1985) or in his New York studio recording (DG, 1991). Clemens Krauss’s “Italianate” reading (Archipel, 1953) is insightful, showing that even in the 50s the inspired creep’n’crawl of Knappertsbusch wasn’t the sole way to perform this opera at Bayreuth.
Kegel’s Parsifal certainly enters this second list for the excellent over-all quality (presentation, sound, singers, chorus, and orchestra) and the unique, uncompromising non-interpretation. As the exact antithesis to Goodall, Kegel’s Parsifal never leaves the impression of a neighbor who, though pleasant in principle, lingers annoyingly in the door for another hour after saying goodbye. Even next to a dozen Parsifals, this well produced set – as likely to find ardent supporters as vociferous opponents – gladly receives the little shelf-space it needs.
Sunday, 10.5.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Wagner on Record – The Mastersingers
"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.
Stereotypes exist because they relate to some reality, even if they lack nuance, tact, and are misleading when we fail to distinguish between sweeping claims and individual instances.
Applied to musicians they can attain a life of their own, especially the negative ones coloring our perceptions before we’ve even heard the artist in question. Maurizio Pollini is a “cold” pianist, Lang Lang shallow, Pierre Boulez an ‘analytical’, fast, and emotionless conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch invariably slow, Herbert von Karajan slick and polished.
Of course Pollini can be coolly technical on some recordings. But he’s just as likely involving and dazzling in concert. Boulez conducts Wagner slower than Sawallisch or Kraus, and some of his Mahler recordings are among the most charged and fervent. Even Karajan occasionally allowed for grit and Lang Lang has delivered concerts and recordings that go well beyond the notes and sheer facility.
The stereotype about Sir Reginald Goodall, the very English conductor of German repertoire, is that he is very, very slow. Judging only from his recordings, this is not just a stereotype, it’s the plain truth. His Mastersingers performance, thanks to Sir Peter Moores for the first time available on CD, starts with an in-cred-i-bly slow overture. From there, these Mastersingers (just minutes shy of five hours!) proceed slowly generally, sometimes to wonderful effect, sometimes without the slothfulness being bothersome, and sometimes making matters garrulous. But there are also surprisingly lively moments in between – or are they perhaps just moments of normal tempos that seem lively amid the rest?
There are plenty stage noises in this live recording from 1968, but not too intrusive to disturb. A little disturbing is the applause after the quintet (because the curtain went down) – which is then belatedly hissed down. What makes this set interesting to Wagnerians even outside English-speaking countries are the fine voices so well caught, even if the sound quality isn’t all that great (too muffled, for one). Goodall had an eye and ear for promising young British singers – and he championed them through his entire career. The cast he assembled for the Mastersingers is one of young, yet old-fashioned sounding singers. If you compare to another live recording from the same year, Karl Böhm’s Bayreuth with Waldemar Kmentt, Theo Adam, and Gwyneth Jones (on average a few years older than their British colleagues), you will find the latter present a much more modern style of Wagner-singing.
But old-fashioned doesn’t mean ‘bad’ at all, and Norman Bailey (Sachs), Derek Hammond-Stroud (Beckmesser), Alberto Remedios (Stolzing), Margaret Curphey (Eva), and Gregory Dempsey (David) make for a terrific ensemble of strong, carefully enunciating voices superior to many in more famous recordings. It culminates in the very nice and nicely recorded nightwatchman of Stafford Dean. He’s got a terrific voice and sings most melodiously.
“Die Meistersinger” in English works – as does the Ring – surprisingly well. (Since I’ve heard and liked the Ring, I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me.) It’s easier to understand – even for German native speakers – than most recordings in German are. Not only does English lend itself curiously well to Wagner, the pronunciation and diction of each cast member is impeccable. The translation (Frederick Jameson, revised by Norman Feasey and Gordon Kember) is terrific and has only two, three moments that compare obviously negatively with the original to these ears.
The stage-action during the Volksfest is a hoot, a boisterous and raucous affair, realistic to the point of challenging the music. It’s excellently done: from the midst of noisy carousing arises the choir – and the exclamations of “Silentium!” really make dramatic sense. It’s a choir very charmingly engaged with all they’ve got, including early entries and all.
Listening to meaningful opera in the original language is hugely overrated – authenticity is worth little when it comes at the cost of incomprehension. In opera houses and on DVDs, the solution of super- and sub-titles offers a working compromise. But on CD it’s nicer to comprehend something while listening, rather than arduously trying to follow the action by reading a multi-language libretto in minuscule print. This is not supposed to be an argument to replace all your recordings of non-Italian operas (better off not understanding the text of “Il Turco”, I say) with versions done in your vernacular (not likely available, anyway), but it’s to suggest that this recording being in English need not be seen as a detriment when it can be a bonus. In any case the singing is so fine and the interpretation has so many neat moments that, at least for me, it ranks with a good handful of the most desirable (see list on the right) available versions.
Thursday, 10.2.08, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Christine Schäfer Sings SchoenBerg
"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.
This is a CD that elicits raves and frustration. The excellent Petersen Quartet teams up with the sublime Christine Schäfer and present us Arnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet op.10 (for two violins, viola, cello and soprano), Anton Webern’s heavenly Langsamer Satz, and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite with the “secret part for voice” that was found out to exist some time in the late 70s. It’d be a dream of a CD if you appreciate the tamer, romantic reaches of the Second Viennese School. Except that for some reason Phoenix Edition (the unofficial successor to Capriccio) decided that they would not record the complete Lyric Suite, but only the “Largo desolato” that contains the vocal part.
Normally I’d try to view this not as an incomplete CD with the first five movements of the Lyric Suite missing, but as a CD which throws that last movement in as a bonus. But with a running time of 47 minutes, that’s a little difficult. I don’t usually mind CDs with a short run-time, either. There is no point in squeezing extra material onto a finished product for the sake of playing-time. But the two issues in combination, and seeing how the rest of the Lyric Suite would have brought this recording up to a good hour of music, it’s difficult not to feel a little cheated. Especially since and the playing and especially the singing is so excellent throughout, that the CD really ought to be heard by anyone who loves the Berg and Schoenberg pieces.
Schoenberg’s Second Quartet (op.10) is easily digestible stuff when compared to his Third – its chromatic intensity veering much more towards the romantic idiom than the modernist. Little wonder then, that it’s the most commonly recorded of Schoenberg’s five string quartets. Born out domestic crisis (Gustav Mahler had left for America and Schoenberg’s wife Mathilde associated all-too closely with their common friend, the painter Richard Gerstl, who consequently killed himself), he composed the four movements between March 1907 and July 1908. The strained tonality (f-sharp minor, C-major, a-minor, d-minor, e-flat minor) makes for a feeling of faint harmonic familiarity throughout, even as the tonal relationships begin to dissolve. That’s particularly notable when Schoenberg adds the voice to his string quartet, the first time that the traditional boundaries of the string quartet had been thus expanded. Two poems by Stefan George – “Litany” and “Rapture” – form movements three and four.
The very atmospheric playing for Schäfer’s tender entry in “Rapture” (“I sense air from another planet”) is so gently woven, that the thin air into which we are to ascend (Schoenberg, “Remarks about the four string quartets”) seems to flitter. Among Schoenberg String Quartet cycles, the aron quartet’s on Preiser Records is my favorite (the Kolisch-, LaSalle-, Leipzig-, and Schoenberg Quartets have also recorded all five quartets, the New Vienna Quartet omits the early D-major Quartet, and none but the aron quartet include the even earlier Presto and Scherzo movements). But as good as Anna Maria Pammer sings with the Viennese aron quartet, Christine Schäfer’s purer, more focused tone and the Petersen’s very subtle way win the day here. The Pražak Quartet’s take of op.10, (recorded in 1994), is a more nervous one than the Petersen’s – and Christine Whittlesey’s well controlled soprano considerably more severe and earthier than that of Schäfer who mines Schoenberg’s lines for greater beauty. At least for those who absolutely need their Schoenberg as intense as possible, the Pražak disc (Praga Digitals) will be preferable.
Webern’s Langsamer Satz, one of the most magnificent late-late romantic string quartet statements, never fails to be gorgeous. The Quatuor Ébène gave it an indulgent, romantic reading for their Salzburg recital. The Petersen Quartet’s reading is a bit tighter, more muscular, forcing the work’s beauty in compellingly tense ways. Since there always is room for another favorite version of this work, the Petersen’s recording is gladly granted a spot next to those of the pristinely controlled Emerson- (DG), the Artis- (Nimbus), and the Psophos (ZigZag) String Quartets. Now if you can get over the disappointing Berg-incompleteness, this might be your Second Viennese School CD of the year.
Complete versions of the Lyric Suite with the soprano part have been recorded by the Kronos Quartet on a CD-single with Dawn Upshaw (Nonesuch) and the Pražak Quartet which has recorded the Suite in its regular guise and and the Largo once more with Vanda Tabery (Praga Digitals).