Monday, 10.26.09, 6:00 am
Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love (Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek)
Somber and very dark beauty is exuded by the “Four Songs of Prayer and Repentance on words from the Bible” that Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek (of “Donna Diana” fame) composed in 1913. This is very different music than his light-hearted, Richard Strauss-heavy work that is most gloriously exemplified by the tone-poem “Schlemihl”, Reznicek’s ‘Anti-Heldenleben’. Of course these four orchestral songs, only between two and four minutes long, still contain slight hints of Strauss, Reznicek’s friend, model, and great influence, but no more than the few hints of Gustav Mahler that also run through it. They are unquestionably gorgeous in their own right. The harmonies are not as advanced as those of Othmar Schoeck or late Mahler can be, but significantly more chromatic than in his Symphony No.1 (1903), the imposing 55 minute work that shares CD space with the songs.
A late-romantic symphony, not particular cogent, and with little sense of purpose, that First Symphony (titled “Tragic”) is still remarkably lovely as it saunters through its four movements with melodic leisureliness. Only the nervous, wispy second movement has any sense of momentum; the three other movements are languid affairs full of quotes from any romantic composer within reach. Instead of wondering what a better orchestra might have been able to extract from this work (a world premiere recording, since the manuscript of the Symphony had been lost until recently), we can enjoy—with a little patience—the performance of the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder) under Frank Beermann for the class act it is. Together with mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaja (just the right, dark mix of husky and dramatic) they’re even better in the Prayer’n’Repentance songs which, even at only a sixth of this CDs 66 minutes playtime, are the primary reason for purchase and discovery. (The liner notes are a mess, the ‘English’ translation plain incomprehensible.)
Previously and since in Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Ludwig Thuille, Piano Quintets
( 2 ) – Joseph Marx, String Quartets
( 3 ) – Franz Mittler, String Quartets
( 4 ) – Felix Weingartner, String Quartets
( 5 ) – Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, String Quartets
Previously and since in Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Friedrich Ernst Fesca, Symphonies
( 2 ) – Max Bruch, Swedish & Russian Dances
( 3 ) – Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Orchestral Songs, Symphony
Thursday, 10.22.09, 6:00 am
November in Music
November is loaded with music, with one or more attractive concerts to chose from almost every day… and that’s after selecting only those events that I reckon have the greatest potential for excellence, discovery, and delight. And better yet: No premature* Christmas concerts need to be circumvented yet.
Till Fellner continues his Beethoven Sonata cycle at the National Gallery of Art with Sonatas nos. 4 (op.7), 15 (op.28, “Pastoral”), 24 (op.78 “À Thérèse”), 25 (op.79), and 27 (op.90—one of my most dear Beethoven sonatas). He will perform at the National Gallery of Art at 6.30PM on November 1st. The concert is free, but you will have to fight for your seat.
If you are in Baltimore, free Bach (courtesy Bach Concert Series) might be a fitting alternative: Cantata BWV 80 (“Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott”) will be performed at Christ Lutheran Church at the Inner Harbor, 701 South Charles Street. (4PM) The concert opens with a little introduction to the music.
Noontime Cantata Bach (“Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132”) on Tuesday, November 3rd at the Church of the Epiphany.
Later that night—also free (reserve tickets early through Ticketmaster or try your luck at the door on the night of the performance)—at the Library of Congress you can hear the Zemlinsky Quartet. If it’s got “Zemlinsky” in the title, I’m already interested. But beyond their name, this youngish quartet has many impressive performances and a few neat recordings under their belt and their program includes their namesake composer, Mozart’s most intriguing string quartet, and a quartet by Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006) that I’ve never heard (or knew existed), except that on account of Kalabis’ Harpsichord Concerto alone I am superbly interested in what it might sound like.
Thanks to WPAS and their sponsors, Vadim Repin was finally brought to Washington last year. Seems like his rather more subtle brand of excellence and unflashy musical authority has caught on, because he’s back now with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Brahms concerto under Alexander Vedernikov who gives his US conducting debut, also serving up Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony. Serves the Washington Audience right to hear one of today’s very finest violinists. Performances take place at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall Thursday through Saturday on November 5th (7PM), 6th (8PM), and 7th (8PM).
The Szymanowski Quartet (CD review on WETA) follows the Zemlinsky Quartet at the Library of Congress just a few days later. What is true for the former Czech group is equally true for their Polish counterparts—next to Apollon Musagete they’re the Polish quartet of its generation. Haydn-Szymanowski-Mendelssohn. Free. What else could one desire on a Friday night? November 6th (8PM).
November 7th (5PM) and again on November 15th (2PM) at the Kennedy Center Opera House, the Washington National Opera performs—but does not stage—Götterdämmerung, the final opera in the Ring Tetralogy. To avoid the company’s own Götterdämmerung, what would have been the last installment of Francesca Zambello’s American Ring had to be axed. (Co-producers San Francisco Opera, who have arrived at Die Walküre this year, managed without canceling, somehow.) That’s a shame, because for all its clattered confusion (Rheingold and Walküre (p)reviews here), the “American Ring” was intriguing stuff and its tame controversy very healthy for the Washington opera scene. Perhaps a concertized Götterdämmerung will bring closure… or perhaps the necessary funds to stage the production as a cycle, after all. Dependable regulars like Alan Held, Gordon Hawkins, Gidon Saks, and Elizabeth Bishop (as second Norn) make it an attractive affair, as does the opportunity to hear—presumably—the orchestra outside the pit and thus many musical details otherwise lost in live performance.
For the purposes of hearing Bruckner’s Quartet alone you should consider a trip to the National Academy of Sciences. They, too, have a (free) program of chamber music and their venue, which looks like something between a 1970’s Star Trek movie set and an inverted Eulitz-cut diamond, has a fine acoustic. On Sunday, November 8th (3PM), they present the Fine Arts Quartet in Haydn (“Sunrise Quartet”) and Schumann’s op.41/1, apart from the Bruckner.
Spirited performances and an intriguing, even eclectic mix of composers are hallmark signs of the “Musicians from Marlboro” series at the Freer Gallery of Art (also free). The first of these concerts takes place on Thursday, November 12th (7.30PM) and features Mozart’s Flute Quartet, Brahms’s third Piano Quartet op.60; Messiaen’s Louange á l’Immortalité de Jésus (violin and piano); Takemitsu’s A Bird Came Down the Walk; and Kaija Saariaho’s Mirrors.
I have never claimed that Jean-Yves Thibaudet is anywhere near my favorite pianists, but in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F I can really imagine him as splendidly entertaining, especially when embedded in an all-Gershwin program with Marin Alsop at the helm of the B’more SO. On November 12th, 13th, and 15th they will perform at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, on Saturday, November 14th (8PM), at the Music Center at Strathmore.
François-Frédéric Guy has dilly-dallied in Washington before, but no more of that when he sits down to play a complete (!!!) Beethoven piano sonata cycle in just ten days. It’d require considerable stamina even on the listener’s part to sit through all 32 sonatas in the nine sessions at La Maison Française (never mind the performer), but what an opportunity, also. He’ll start on Friday November 13th (7PM), continues with two performances on Saturday (4PM and 7PM), then one each until and including the 17th; he then finishes the cycle (played more or less in numerical order) on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd. Always at 7PM—except Sundays, when the recitals will begin at 4PM.
I don’t know the Ibis Chamber Music Society, but I do know that there isn’t a much more tender, more moving French song than Duparc’s L’Invitation au Voyage to be had, especially not in its slightly orchestrated version with flute, harp, and strings. If you don’t know the few songs that Duparc’s short and very troubled life have left us to adore and marvel at, do go and listen to it. If you know Duparc, you probably need no encouragement. The rest of the program looks intriguing enough: Piazzolla (“Histoire du Tango”), some De Falla, Pierne, Dvořák, and Corigliano. All on November 14th, (7.30PM) at the Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington.
Early choral music on November 15th can either be had courtesy of the Choral Arts Society of Washington and their program of antiphonal music, sung from all corners of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at 4PM… or at the National Gallery of Art when the National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble performs music by Gevaert, Janequin, and Rameau. (6.30PM) The Choral Arts Society also includes the Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin as well as works by Britten, Tavener, and Biebl.
Not a concert, but still important: WPAS presents a Lecture by Alfred Brendel, titled “On Character in Music”. To hear Alfred Brendel talk is the best thing after hearing him play live is no longer an option, and probably better than hearing his occasionally, curiously dull recordings (his Haydn be explicitly exempted). The talk—undoubtedly he’ll illustrate at the Boesendorfer—takes place at the Embassy of Austria, Monday, November 16th (7PM) and will sparkle with the wit he displayed on stage and be saturated with his ferocious, unpretentious, and never overwhelmingly employed intelligence.
The welcome addition to the Noontime Cantatas continues for those near the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Center where on Thursday, November 19th, you get Cantata BWV 93 (“Wer nur den lieben Gott last walten”) at the Bach Cantata Series’ free concert. (1.30PM)
Prokofiev, Grigory Krejn, Joseph Achron, Julius Chajes, and Osvaldo Golijov are on the innovative program of the Vogler String Quartet when they appear at the Terrace Theater on Thursday, November 19th. This mix of composers is part of their “ZIMRO” project of combining Jewish art music with more standard chamber music repertoire and which is being captures on CD by Hänssler. Beautiful music, bits of which you can sample here. (7.30PM) For what it is worth, this is my concert tip of the month.
A Musorgsky-Schumann-Larcher project from Leif Ove Andsnes on November 20th (7.30PM) promises to be a tasteful but grand multi-media experience. “Pictures Reframed” can be previewed on Youtube and takes place at the Terrace Theater.
Too bad attending Andsnes show means missing the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt at the Library of Congress on the same Friday (or vice versa). With soprano Lorna Anderson and tenor Jamie MacDougall they present a program of Haydn Trios (their recording of the complete Piano Trios is available on Phoenix Records) and best of all: Haydn’s Scottish Songs. I’ve written about them before and I maintain that these are must-hear marvels, whether on CD or better yet: live. They’ll further spice the concert up with the US premiere of Lalo Shifrin’s “Elegy & Meditation”, written for and dedicated to the group. (8PM)
If Bach is your ticket, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra (2009/2010 schedule) can provide the necessary fix in either of their two “Brandenburg Festival” programs dedicated to the eternal composer. Both feature two Brandenburg Concertos, one Cello Suite or Violin Sonata, and a concerto or chamber piece.
You’d be forgiven if you tried to avoid concerts of the New York Philharmonic; too many 9-to-5 attitude concerts have ruined their reputation thoroughly with any discriminating orchestra lover. But if there’s one conductor who they cannot turn into an accomplice of disciplined boredom, it’s Riccardo Muti. So you’ll probably have to go, after all… for a little Liszt, Elgar, and Prokofiev. WPAS, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Saturday, November 21st. (4PM)
Gounod’s Faust is an outstanding opera; for all the trepidation with which this subject matter has been approached by composers, the results are outstanding more often than not. Busoni did well, as did Berlioz; Schumann got off to his most promising operatic start, Schnittke, Boito, and Gounod positively excelled. (Dusapin… not so much.) The Washington Concert Opera, with its small budget but inexorably high standards, will perform the work on Sunday, November 22nd (6PM) at the Lisner Auditorium.
German violinist Viviane Hagner could well be one of the future great violinists; if you haven’t heard of her yet, it’s because she builds her career steadily, solidly—not by being a flash-in-the-pan violin girly. In that regard—and roughly in age—she’s similar to Julia Fischer and especially Arabella Steinbacher. At the Terrace Theater she will play promising mix of Turnage, Schubert, Bartók, and Schumann. WPAS presents the recital on November 24th. (7.30PM)
The 64th American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art features several interesting performances—the one that I find most interesting is on Wednesday, November 25th, at noon (free), by the Ensō String Quartet in music by Steve Reich and Pierre Jalbert. 
* In light of all the soon to be ringing and jingling bells, trails of snow-from-a-can, and randomly attached antlers, it’s good to remind oneself that Christmas(tide) starts on December 25th and lasts through Epiphany on January 6th. The carol’s not called “Fifty-six days of Christmas”.
Monday, 10.19.09, 6:00 am
Haydn 2009 – The String Quartets (Part 3)
op.17
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Haydn’s op.17 quartets are closely related to his set of op.9 quartets and were composed in 1771. Haydn listed them in his catalogue of works (the “Entwurf-Katalog”) in the order of no.2, 1, 4, 6, 3, and 5—the numbering attached to them nowadays stems from the first edition by J.J.Hummel (Amsterdam). What is true for op.9 (“Like all quartets before op.33, they get short shrift—like all quartets of Haydn that get short shrift, they’re still superb. [F]or the ambitious Haydn lover, they’re joyously requisite listening…”) is equally true of op.17. If anyone could have reason to complain about these works, it’s the second violinist who gets much less interesting work assigned than the soloistic first violinist—for a greater share of melody, the second violin has to wait until the later quartets. But that’s hardly a concern for the listener who concerns himself with the lovely results, not the particular division of labor employed to get there.
Haydn was alone at the forefront of the four-movement string quartet when he wrote these quartets in 1771; the fruitful back-and-forth with Mozart did not start until the years after his 1781 set of op.33 quartets. So he experiments on his own, although given the similarity in structure to op.9 (Moderato opening-Menuet-Adagio-Presto/Allegro Finale), the process might better be understood as one of maturing and cultivating the form, rather than experimenting with it. (Something Haydn was more prone to do in ‘wayward’ ways in his early symphonic writing.) The progress is very subtle (especially compared to the difference between the opp.1 & 2 Divertimentos and op.9, or op.17 and op.20), but when pointed out, the slow movements can be noticed to be more complex (“opera without words”), the instruments slightly more evenly weighed, the Menuets have less an entr’acte character, and there is a deliberate juxtaposition of extremes.
Recordings of these early quartets are slowly beginning to sprout, after they had been available only as part of complete surveys. That’s still the case with most of the choices, but at least the more recent additions to the Haydn String Quartet bonanza are also available separately. If some of the recordings mentioned below are not yet easily available in the US, they will be within due time. (Specifically the Arcana and Tacet labels are in the process of smoothing out North American distribution.)
The Auryn Quartet (Tacet) have a cultured elegance about them that is not to be mistaken for “boring”. It simply means that they produce a cultured sound, play in tune, and offer wonderful ensemble work in a generous acoustic. They, the London Haydn Quartet (Hyperion, HIP) and the Quatuor Festetics (Arcana, HIP) play all the repeats, unlike the completion. The latter HIP quartet, whose op.9 I commented on as being the work of “spirited amateurs” (which wasn’t actually meant derisively), are difficult to pin down; as a historical performance quartet, one might expect them to go into Haydn quartets with gusto and brisk speeds, but throughout op.17 they tend to be very leisurely. Their first movement of op.17/2 (Moderato) makes the Kodály Quartet (Naxos) sound like regular speed demons, which is a rare achievement. (The Naxos-Hungarians sound like they are vibrato-sailing through these works like on a big piece of butter.) But where the Buchberger Quartet (Brilliant, HIP) sounds as though they never had enough rehearsal time for op.17, the Festetics rarely leave something to be desired as regards intonation and coherence (the Presto of op.17/5 is a right mess, though). Their darkly sinewy tone (they are the only ones to tune down to A=421Hz) is not conventionally beautiful in the way the Auryn’s or Kodály’s is, but much more satisfactory than the Buchberger’s.
The latter, though not without truly exciting moments, are just too uncouth. This has nothing to do with a choice of “excitement over prettiness”, it’s simply a matter of not playing consistently well in these op.17 quartets. The first violinist is downright sloppy in the faster movements and in that case the spacious, yet very dry acoustic doesn’t help. It’s a really a shame, because all that which is good about the Buchberger’s is very good; they do manage for a joyous liveliness that’s great fun and demonstrate individual moments of very involving ensemble work. But then they irritate and give it all away with some blunder again… like a murderously dragged op.17/4 Menuet. Yikes.
The slow, detached way of the London Haydn Quartet may not be to everyone’s taste, but it offers an intonation that no other ensemble matches even remotely. That’s not to say that all others are sloppy, nor even that such painstaking precision (the Hagen Quartett has nothing on these guys) is necessary. It isn’t. But it is impressive and very notable in direct comparison. Since they take all repeats, slow movements with them can take twice as long as with the repeat-skipping others. If your temperament allows you to move along leisurely through their finely honed exploration of Haydn, rather than scurry about in the assumption that blundering is historically more correct than sauntering, then the London Haydn Quartet and their finely nuanced performances could just be the ticket. Otherwise nuance could be their downfall: Anyone lacking the patience to hear their Adagios out might miss the fact that every detail—dynamics, phrasing, voicing—is lavished with extraordinary care. And lest anyone get the idea that they are only relaxed, their last movements are the fastest among these five groups; blazing feats that sacrifice none of the dead-on precision of their (truly) slow movements.
The Auryn offer the recording about which one can’t make any complaints; it has no kinks, no weaknesses, no extremes. It’s a celebration of feel-good Haydn without making it quite as obvious as the Kodály. The matter-of-fact playing of the Quatuor Festetics is difficult to pin down; spirited it may be, but not immune to sounding stodgy when they slow down: Their short-breathed phrasing can’t always withstand the slow tempos as well as the long-spun lines of the London Haydn Quartet can. Not just because it’s nice to get the repeats (I’m not ideological about it and in live performance might prefer an elegant incision, but for home-consumption this music lends itself to hearing in full) the choice would be between Auryn, LHQ, and Festetics for op.17. It’s a most ungrateful task, solvable only by choosing two: the Auryn for non-HIP beauty and moderation and the LHQ for their detail and remarkable contrast between furiously fast movements and their otherwise calm pace. Their thin-ish HIP sound is made up for with plenty elegance.
This continues “The String Quartets (Part 1)” and “The String Quartets (Part 2)“
See also:
Haydn 2009 – The Seven Last Words
Haydn 2009 – Fricsay’s Symphonies
Haydn 2009 – Minetti Quartet(t)
Haydn 2009 – Harmoniemesse
Friday, 10.16.09, 1:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Murray Perahia in Bach & Beethoven
"New Releases" posts are regular columns that feature reviews of new CDs that are, for one reason or another, truly outstanding among the many I come across every month.
Murray Perahia will start out his recital on October 17th at the Kennedy Center with a Bach Partita, in line with his latest recording on Sony where he adds Partitas 1, 5, and 6 to last year’s recording of 2, 3, and 4. Perhaia’s Bach is marvelous in its very distinct way. I feel enduring fondness for his Goldberg Variations, because they don’t make apologies for being played on the modern grand piano. It only makes sense: if the choice of instrument is such a very different one as a Steinway D9 is to the early 18th century Michael Mietke harpsichord Bach would have used, there is no point in trying to hide its abilities or pretend it is something less or other than it is. Perahia makes full use of his instruments when he plays Bach, but he never gets carried away, never distorts any of the substance.
There is something unapologetic in his suave and fine-toned approach to Bach that makes it immediately likeable to all but those who think that the emaciated piano sound of Gould’s perpetual staccato Bach (Gould’s shtick, though hugely impressive in its own way) is the only way to transfer Bach from the cembalo to the piano. If András Schiff’s Bach—and the same could be said of his respective Beethoven interpretations—is tasteful-artistic, with overtones of boring, Perahia goes for a wholly pianistic way of playing Bach, exciting to the last drop but never ridiculously romanticized. Bach on the piano is its own kind of genre, but that doesn’t mean it should sound like a Busoni-Bach transcription, either. Perahia exceeds at getting that balance right.
At the WPAS recital he will follow Bach with a Beethoven sonata, a cycle of which he has also started to record, bit-by-bit. Earlier this year he added Sonatas 9, 10, 12, and 15 (“Pastorale”), at the recital he will play the late Sonata No.30 (op. 109). The maturity and unhurried confidence with which Perahia very simply plays well, without caring to make any particular point or service any particular musicological fad, makes this such a delight that the idea of questioning its ‘validity’ simply wouldn’t come to mind. Schumann and Chopin will also be on the program.
It is an immense pleasure that Murray Perahia, who was long and twice plagued with a career-threatening hand injury, is back again… and the time he had to spend away from the keyboard seems to have only improved him. While I haven’t always liked every one of his earlier recordings, I am now, since his Goldbergs and certainly since these two latest recordings, treasuring every new release of his. Whether it’s age, wisdom, confidence, or the ability to discern the essential from the superfluous, Perahia is well on his way of becoming the foremost American pianist of our age, pace Richard Goode and Stephen Kovacevich. You’ll have the opportunity to judge for yourself when Murray Perahia performs on October 17th at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Perhaps it will prove some consolation for not having been able to hear Nelson Freire earlier this month. 
Thursday, 10.15.09, 6:00 am
Creative Destruction: How Labels Like LSO Live and BR Klassik Revive Classical Music—Part 2
This continues “Creative Destruction”, Part 1
This Fall, the classical channel of Bavarian Broadcasting (BR) launches BR Klassik, a label for its own orchestras and choir. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and one of the best orchestras in the world, the Munich Radio Orchestra (with its focus on light classical music, Italian opera, and educational work), and the Bavarian Radio Chorus now each have the opportunity to pick the finest performances in any given season and immortalize them on record. The model of LSO Live is behind this new venture, too, but there are significant differences. As a public radio station, with the aid of radio license fees and a cultural mission to fulfill, the BR already records all the concerts of its musical bodies. “Rather than having to decide beforehand what to record (with the subsequent pressure to publish it, no matter the result), the artists and artistic advisors can pick the best from the lot”, says Stefan Piendl, Label Manager of BR Klassik. Among the first releases, Mahler and Bruckner Symphonies with Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons have been chosen. Like LSO Live, BR Klassik issues new releases in the Super Audio CD format with surround sound. But Piendl says that SACD is no dogma for the label, simply a matter of using the high definition surround master that the radio provides. “We broadcast in surround sound, so we might as well make use of that quality and put it on CD. But who knows what the future will hold, with the maturing of BluRay and the like.”
Since the cost of recording is offset because BR records the concerts anyway, releasing rare and ‘difficult’, but artistically important works with modest commercial prospect is made much easier. “That makes it easier to offer recordings like Klaus Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus with the Munich Radio Orchestra or the BR Chorus’ release of Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir”, Piendl explains, and points to the philosophy of the label, summarized by its motto: Those possessing treasures should share them. “Sharing our best musical moments, and to decide ourselves, independent of traditional labels and their naturally different criteria of what makes a successful release, was one of the main motivations behind the founding of BR Klassik.” Sharing treasures especially applies to the BR’s vast archives with an estimated 20,000 recordings accumulated over the last 60 years. Incorporating the who’s-who of classical music in memorable performances that were only once broadcast on radio, the Archives are going to be an essential source for BR Klassik. Three or four recordings from the vaults are projected to see the light every year, alongside a couple new releases from each musical body, for a total of ten, twelve releases annually.
American orchestras, kept out of the recording business for years due to the insurmountable challenges the unions (of musicians and especially stage hands) caused, have lately gotten back into the important business of attesting to their artistic virility by issuing new recordings. While the Minnesota, Cleveland, and Philadelphia Orchestras have managed to get record contracts with traditional labels again (BIS, DG, Ondine), others like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO Resound) and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO Classics) have taken the in-house label route, following the American forerunner in that field, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra that founded its own label as a platform for its Mahler cycle. All of them cater to the audiophile segment, including high resolution downloads, which will be the next big thing in the classical music market.
In that classical market BR Klassik (available world-wide, thanks to an international distribution deal with Naxos) is the latest example of the beauty of creative destruction. Out of the detritus of the old recording companies spring dozens of new labels with thousands of recordings, offering more choice and rarer works than were ever available. As we near the 10thanniversary of the declaration of the industry’s imminent death, LSO Live and BR Klassik are emblematic of the astounding vitality of Beethoven & Co. on CD.
Part one was published on October 14th and can be found here.
Wednesday, 10.14.09, 6:00 am
Creative Destruction: How Labels Like LSO Live and BR Klassik Revive Classical Music—Part 1
The classical music industry has been declared dead several times over in the last few years, but it simply refuses to die. What is happening, however, is that it changes in many ways. The ways of recording, distribution, and promotion are changing, and the companies that once dominated the market have either adapted or faltered. But a new trend aims to keep classical recordings from becoming a taxidermist’s project.
As estimable names in the industry fall by the wayside, new models of production arise. One of the most successful projects has been the establishment of classical labels by orchestras. As exclusive contracts with the big labels—EMI, Deutsche Grammophon/Decca, Sony/RCA, Telarc/Warner—became scarce, and their recording projects fewer and fewer, orchestras thought of new ways to reach new audiences with new recordings. Recording technology had advanced significantly in the last 20 years so that recording concerts live is no longer just an inexpensive but inherently hampered way to preserve an otherwise un-replicable musical event. “Recording technology is so mobile that there are no qualitative differences between studio and live recordings”, says Chaz Jenkins, head of the London Symphony Orchestra’s own label, LSO Live. LSO Live was practically the first label of an orchestra to enter the market this way (the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s earlier effort was contained locally).
Mr. Jenkins, one of the pioneers of the orchestra-record-label industry, has been with LSO Live from the first hour since its founding days in 2000. The concept of the label has by now been replicated by many other orchestras, which the London Orchestra’s efforts have paved the way for. The London Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Mariinsky, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra (in a joint venture with Signum) now have their own labels, to mention just a few, and plenty of them have gotten advice and help from Jenkins and his team.
The goal of LSO Live was not to replicate what labels have done in the past, to do something different, and especially to catch the orchestra’s work in the concert hall. “With 2000 people in front of them, there’s a very different energy and emotion available” Jenkins explains the particular appeal of many of its releases. “When recording companies started to rely on re-releasing recordings, the alarm bells were ringing at the LSO. Concerts and education are core activities for the LSO, but a wider public cannot partake in that. Instead they just see an anemic record industry. If no new recordings are released, then the public starts to see the whole industry as dead, a museum-culture. But there is still plenty interest in concerts and no decline in audiences, so why assume that people are not also interested in new recordings? There should be Beethoven for and from each generation.”
Or Hector Berlioz, as it were. One of the main reasons to found the label and record around the turn of 1999 was the opportunity to record conductor Sir Colin Davis in one of his specialties, Berlioz’ orchestral and choral music, of which the then-music director of the LSO conducted a complete cycle. Success followed afoot. The first Grammy was awarded to the label in 2002 for the recording of Berlioz’ massive opera “Le Troyens”, which sold an astounding 100,000 copies. That grabbed attention for the label which has issued some 70 albums since and sold over three million copies. For the LSO, unlike traditional record companies, the label is not something that needs to be boosted with a marketing campaign, it is a marketing campaign.
Like subsequent orchestra-owned labels, LSO Live also made the decision to go for the small, but important audiophile market, recording in the multi-channel capable, high-resolution Super Audio CD format. “We decided early on to record in the best possible sound, even if only a few people listen to it the finest nuances that the SACD format catches. The quality of CD recordings is limited and our setup was going to be able to capture so much more, so we wanted to produce the best that technology can offer”, so Jenkins.
Part two will follow October 15th and can then be read here.
Sunday, 10.11.09, 6:00 am
Dresden’s Gain is Munich’s Loss: Thielemann Signs With Staatskapelle
Earlier today it became official: Christian Thielemann has announced to sign a contract to be the next Music Director of the Staatskapelle Dresden starting 2012. This does not come entirely unsuspected—the orchestra and conductor have been considered a natural and likely fit since the news of Thielemann’s contract not being renewed in Munich first broke. (As reported here, here, and here.) But the news also comes at a time when there was increasing hope for a compromise in Munich that would finally end the kindergarten-level quarrel over responsibilities.
Great for Dresden
This is a coup for Dresden and the incoming Intendant Ulrike Hessler (who also comes from Munich, where she is currently head of public affairs for the Bavarian State Opera). With Christian Thielemann they have bagged the best German conductor, one who even detractors (of which there are many) will credit with having genial moments. Supporters grant him outright genius-status. Thielemann is perhaps the conductor with the greatest sense for a musical moment, as a former member of the Munich Philharmonic attests him, and with an uncommon sense for flexibility of tempos. In German opera, Thielemann is truly at home; everyone who has heard his Wagner in Bayreuth or Vienna knows it to be unsurpassed. And of course there is scarcely a better place for conducting his favorite opera composers Strauss and Wagner than Dresden with its rich history of performing their works.
It’s a fine match for Thielemann, indeed. The tradition of the orchestra caters to his musical preferences, he gets to conduct as much opera as he could possibly wish for (something he missed in Munich), the quality of the orchestra, even if it needs a little dusting off and molding, is easily superior to that of the Munich Philharmonic and the musical body has a traditional German, varnished sound that Thielemann likes.
Presumably the Dresden Staatskapelle, one of the oldest orchestras in the world, continuously performing for nearly 500 years, knows that Thielemann is a difficult character. And presumably they are aware that after the lukewarm years with Fabio Luisi as music director, he can help them attain once again a reputation and quality that will rival that of the very best orchestras in the world. If the combination of Staatskapelle-Thielemann-Hessler isn’t torpedoed by antagonism, the chance for Dresden to reign supreme in Thielemann’s—limited—repertoire is within close reach.
Loss for Munich
Munich critic Klaus Kalchschmid reacted to the news saying that he was “almost glad the back and forth is finally over. The orchestra will have a hard time finding a conductor of nearly the same quality and reputation who is willing to put up with them, but they have brought this on themselves and they will have to deal with it. The whole affair reflects poorly on everybody involved, but especially the orchestra. And the Munich concert goers are the ones that bear the brunt of that decision.” Politicians may get the blame for letting Thielemann go, but behind the scenes it was the orchestra that, well, orchestrated his departure by attempting to curtail his powers after a signature-ready contract had already been worked out, trying to force him to give up control over guest conductors and their repertoire.
That move was indicative of the discontent among a significant part of the musicians with Thielemann’s unwillingness to tolerate greatness beside him, but it was also indicative of their foolishness in thinking they could put as willful a man as Thielemann ‘in his place’. Even with two years time to find a successor it will be difficult to get a replacement that can achieve the levels of musicianship with this orchestra better known for its exaggerated opinion of its own capabilities than inherent quality. The prestigious CD and DVD contracts with Deutsche Grammophon and Unitel, a projected Ring Cycle and US tour will also go out of the window. Discussions about potential successors will abound; one of the most promising prospects circulated already is the possibility of attaining the services of Daniele Gatti who recently conducted one of the most impressive guest conducted concerts with the Philharmonic in years. Incidentally his contract at the Zurich opera house runs out in 2012, when none other than current Dresden’s music director Fabio Luisi will take over the Swiss opera house.
Friday, 10.9.09, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love ( 5 )
"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.
Wilhelm Bernhard Molique—also spelled Molik and Molick—was born 1802 in Nuremburg, son of a free lance city musician originally from Alsace-Lorraine. He learned instruments early on, becoming proficient enough to be singled out for praise by Louis Spohr, who also taught the— now teenage—lad for a while. By 1818 he had become an orchestra violinist in Vienna, the classical atmosphere of which would be his second great influence, after Spohr. There are rumored and almost-encounters with Beethoven and Schubert stemming from his time in Vienna, and a friendship with Moscheles that ensued.
His legacy was made in 23 years in Stuttgart where he served as concert master and royal music director from 1826 until 1849. Because the conservative musical tastes better suited him he moved to London. With Wagner and Berlioz anathema to British audiences, Molique must have seemed downright progressive in Britain. In his eleven years there, he made it to professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He went back to his ‘felt’ home—Swabia—in 1866, to die there in 1869.
Eduard Hanslick mocked the Viennese audience’s expectations and romantic stereotypes rather than the performer’s appearance when he described Molique as a stout man wearing “neither a bleeding broken heart on his sleeve, nor long hair. Instead—what horror—horn rimmed specs!” And of his compositions he spoke warmly, if without particular enthusiasm.
If the two String Quartets on this second volume (I’ve not heard the first but will now seek it out) allow conclusions about the rest of his chamber music output, we have many very worthy cpo releases ahead of us. Bernhard Molique might have intended to pay tribute to Beethoven with the opus-numbering of his quartets (quartets three through five are op.18, 1-3, quartet no.9, quite out of order, was given the opus number 59), but he doesn’t emulate his sound.
Not sounding like Beethoven is no disadvantage here: both, op.18/3 and op.28, are string quartets of the highest quality. They are true string quartets in the sense that all voices are equal (no “1+3”), and “classical romantic” in the Spohrian mould. That is to say: Without Beethoven’s refined seriousness nor any newfangled chromatic shenanigans. But it also isn’t light fare, much less shallow. The quartet in EI is convivial, the F minor quartet intense to the point where I am reminded in spirit, if not actual notes, of Mendelssohn’s op.80. Both are instantly enjoyable and—more importantly—still interesting after much repeat listening: Perhaps the best such quartets I’ve heard by an un-famous composer of that era.
There’s always the danger of obscure repertoire not getting the full commitment of the recording artists—either because the artists willing to learn the new music are not of the highest caliber or because no competition and comparison need be feared. Fortunately the Mannheim String Quartet doesn’t just “capably” plow through here, they perform with real commitment and first-rate execution. The reason I wonder anyhow how this music might sound if a world class ensemble like the Quatuor Ebène or the Minetti Quartet were to tackle it lies in the quality of the music that more than deserves the competition.
A maddening point worth repeating with cpo releases: the English translation of Wolfgang Binal’s very fine liner notes is the usual, awkward travesty, courtesy Susan Marie Praeder.
Previously and since in Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Ludwig Thuille, Piano Quintets
( 2 ) – Joseph Marx, String Quartets
( 3 ) – Franz Mittler, String Quartets
( 4 ) – Felix Weingartner, String Quartets
( 5 ) – Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, String Quartets
Previously and since in Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Friedrich Ernst Fesca, Symphonies
( 2 ) – Max Bruch, Swedish & Russian Dances
( 3 ) – Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Orchestral Songs, Symphony
Wednesday, 10.7.09, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Beethoven Crusellified
"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.
Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838), best known for his clarinet concertos which put him in the company of Spohr and von Weber (which is, when it comes to clarinet concertos, only one rung below top dog Mozart), knew a thing or two about wind instruments. So much is again demonstrated by a new release of the rarity-happy Sterling label. The CD credits Crusell in bold letters, but contains just as much Beethoven, namely his—Beethoven’s—Septet in Crusell’s arrangement for wind instruments.
Why, just why did the Östgöta Blåsarsymfoniker under Olof Boman have to record this, even if it is—no surprise here—a world premiere recording? The George Leigh Mallory answer might be: because it is there. Or perhaps because we are fast running out of worthy repertoire that doesn’t already exist in multiple versions?
Or because so-called music-for-use—and that’s in a way what this arrangement is—no longer serves its original purpose, with musical media fast replacing the traditional way of spreading music around by performing it in whichever modified form to get an idea of what’s out there.
All three points have merit, actually, but the suggestion that there is little inherent worth in these sort of pieces being preserved on CD does not actually apply. At least not in this case. Why? Because Beethoven’s Septet in Crusell’s all-wind version sounds stupendous. It isn’t at all pushed into the oompah-band direction nor does it become a dreary affair like those highly tedious Mozart opera arrangements for brass I encounter all too often.
“Better” or “worse” are pointless categories here, comparing the arrangement to the original. But I have no compunction stating that I prefer this Crusellified version. It has something of the refined sonority of Mozart’s writing for wind in his late operas… it flows along very nicely so that its 42 minutes fly by in half the time. You needn’t be a clarinet-love to feel that way… though the writing for the EI and two BI clarinets is very smooth, indeed.
The filler on this disc, the Fantasy on Swedish National Melodies (for wind, with added percussion) is a much more immediate reminder that Crusell wrote this music specifically for his Linköping military band.I don’t know much about the battle field capabilities of the early 19th century Swedish armed forces, but boy, they sure could have dominated a battle of the bands. I’m tempted to write something about their top brass wielding a mean trumpet, for pun’s sake, before I admit that this Fantasy, its merits notwithstanding, is really just best considered the filler to the surprisingly delightful, blown-up “Septet”. My only problem with this disc that I don’t know where to file it.
Monday, 10.5.09, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Barefoot & Beautiful: Allan Pettersson’s Music on BIS
"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.
Difficult to say whether the eight—of 24—Barefoot Songs on this BIS disc owe their gorgeousness to Allan Pettersson’s wistful melodies, or Antal Dorati’s sensitive, empathetic (and very extensive) orchestrations.
Who cares. The result is a lushly morbid collection of very fine orchestral songs with a central European romantic heart and darkly Scandinavian air surrounding them. Anders Larsson’s baritone is nicely suited to this. Everyone of those Barefoot Songs makes one wish that Dorati had orchestrated all 24—and then regret that Pettersson only set two dozen of his own Barefoot Poems (out of over 100) to music in the first place. (All 24 in their un-orchestrated guise can be found on a cpo disc with Monica Groop and Cord Garben.)
Then again, that might be too heavy a program for an Allan Pettersson disc—which is where the refreshing astringency of the Concerto No.1 for String Orchestra (1949) comes in. Pettersson’s prescription for the performers was: “Expression, great urgency, wildly alternating and striking rhythms take precedence over accuracy of intonation in a dense mass of sonority. So do not reduce the tempo in order to get the details pedantically correct.” The Nordic Chamber Orchestra Sundsvall under Christian Lindberg (a famous trombonist during the daytime) gets both right: urgency and accuracy. Maybe not at breakneck speeds but certainly never pedantic.
Concerto No.2 for String Orchestra wasn’t performed until eleven years after its 1956 composition, perhaps because Pettersson thought it a cutting room floor project: Michael Kube’s fitting description from his liner notes points out that “passages in the 3rd movement seem like parts of a rejected development section from the 1st movement of the earlier Concerto No.1 for String Orchestra.” Throw in overt references to Barber’s Adagio for Strings and you have a touching and tender, albeit episodic work that fits in with Petterson’s paean to music from the soul (and by extension against avant-garde excess): “When will the angel come and give back the song to your heart, so simple and so clear that a child will stop crying?”