It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, who passed away 14 July aged 84. Sir Charles has left an awe-inspiring legacy of operatic and orchestral albums, having recorded for Czech label Supraphon for over 30 years (championing the music of Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů above all) as well as for Hyperion, Chandos, Opus Arte and more. He lives on through this remarkable body of work and will continue to enrich the lives of all who experience it for many years to come.
reviews
August 2010, Limelight Mozart Violin Concertos Richard Tognetti, the Australia Chamber Orchestra BIS | BISSACD1754 | 7318599917542 | SACD
‘Mozart for the Masses’
Committing themselves to filling an entire CD with music composed only by Mozart inevitably has an air of strategy about it, as the ACO moves forward through its six-disc collaboration with BIS. This one should certainly keep the deal sweet, even if purchasers come to it knowing or caring little about which label they are buying into. The content and the quality of this performance are all they need to hear.
These two violin concertos represent Mozart only just moving out of his teens, at a creative high point. He would soon be ready to start thinking about how his future might unfold if he were to change his lowly status under patronage in Salzburg for the lure of independence in Vienna – or perhaps he had already taken the plunge. As if in belated reply, Tognetti takes his ensemble eagerly through the challenge of giving the young master as much of an encouragement as he might ever have hoped for.
This engrossing performance balances precisely the articulation of each individual player with the overall impact of the sound produced by the group as a single unit. Clarity and luminescence bring every note to life, the lightest of trills, the gruffest of responses. For a composer whose circumstances make the value of Tognetti’s instrument look silly, Mozart can still sound very exciting.
27 May, The Age Green Guide Dvořak Violin Concerto, Legends Richard Tognetti, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Christian Lindberg (conductor) BIS | BISCD1708| CD | 7318590017081
****
WHAT is it about chamber orchestras? There was a time when they were a rarity but now they have multiplied and become the darlings of the listening public. The phenomenal success of the Australian Chamber Orchestra during the past 20 years is a case in point. No wonder then that the leader of the ACO has collaborated with another chamber orchestra in this fine recording. Dvorak's music benefits greatly from the textural clarity and rhythmic energy that are hallmarks of the chamber orchestra experience.
Tognetti gives a gutsy account of the concerto. He obviously enjoys its changing moods — from the Teutonic-style drama of the opening to the melancholy musings of the adagio through to the balletic finale. The engineering brings him very much to the fore without sacrificing orchestral detail. The Op.59 Legends began life as pieces for piano four-hands but are infinitely more interesting in Dvorak's sensitively orchestrated version. Christian Lindberg handles them expertly, bringing out their individual character and eliciting some superb playing from his band.
15 November 2009 - The Age Green Guide Bach Cantatas Vol. 1 - 10 Soloists, Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki BIS | BISCD902426 | CD10 | 7318599024264
5 stars
Masaaki Suzuki's acclaimed Bach cantatas are being released again at budget price in four sets of 10 CDs for the price of three. That would be tempting, but when the performances are as superb as these it becomes irresistible. Volume 1 has 34 cantatas. The performances are so fresh and lively, it sounds as though Suzuki and Collegium Japan just discovered the works and how to perform them at the same time. No hint of the museum here, which over-reverent Bach can tip into, yet no overstepping the mark. Excellent sound, fine notes, plus all the texts (often missing in budget releases).
Key track: Cantata 75 is Bach showing off his utter mastery of everything there is to master in this form. Thrilling.
21-22 November 2009, The Australian Dean Water Music Sharon Bezaly (flute), Rascher Saxophone Quartet, Swedish Chamber Ensemble, Brett Dean (conductor) BIS | BISCD1576 | CD | 7318590015766
4 ½ stars
Since returning to Australia in 2000, after 15 years as a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Brett Dean has become one of the country‚s most influential musicians, whether as a performer, composer or artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music. Recorded in Sweden in 2006 and 2007, this CD showcases works for chamber orchestra written during a 10-year period.
Dean‚s music is strongly atmospheric and texturally imaginative, his considerable technique never on display for its own sake but always subjugated to serve his musical intentions. Throughout this recording we witness Dean‚s unerring ear for finely judged, attention-grabbing sonorities and nowhere is this more apparent than in Water Music, a kind of concerto for saxophone quartet and chamber orchestra. The movement titles say it all: Bubbling, Coursing, Parched Earth, these attributes of water, or indeed its absence, caught vividly by Dean. The earliest work here is Carlo (1997), a homage to composer Carlo Gesualdo, who murdered his wife and her lover in 1590. Dean‚s compelling score has a haunting restlessness and, at times, a sense of deranged anguish as he quotes, distorts and transforms snippets of Gesualdo‚s madrigals. Pastoral Symphony and The Siduri Dances are virtuosic works, complex and energetic, and receive exciting performances here by solo flautist Sharon Bezaly.
August 17-18, Sydney Morning Herald Stravinsky Oedipus Rex, Les Noces Sergei Semishkur, Ekaterina Esemnchuk, Evgeny Nikitin, Gerard Depardieu (narrator), Marriinsky Orchestra and Chorus, Valery Gergiev (conductor) MARIINSKY | MAR0510 | SACD | 822231851028
****
Readers who attended the striking Peter Sellars production of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at this year's Sydney Festival may be interested in this excellent recording from the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus under Valery Gergiev. Stravinsky's work is a fascinating study in the way conventions of archaic style can be repointed to endow them with expressive force. With Jean Cocteau, he rewrote Sophocles's drama, retaining its sense of a tightening net and adding an informal narrator's part, spoken resonantly here by Gerard Depardieu. The narrator comments in much the way traditional Greek choruses did, while the chorus proper is projected forcefully into the drama with music of spare ritualistic force.
Sergei Semishkur, Evgeny Nikitin and Ekaterina Semenchuk sing the set-piece arias with precision and brilliant poise. The accompanying work is Stravinsky's 1923 masterpiece, the dance cantata Les Noces, which takes fragments of texts and Russian melodies to assemble a brilliant tapestry.
With its spiky accompaniment of pianos and percussion, the recorded sound is slightly more remote than the full-bodied chords of Oedipus but the performance is richly coloured and engaging.
LIKE THIS? TRY THIS: Robert Craft/Philharmonia, Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex, Les Noces
August 12, The Age Green Guide Schumann Violin Sonatas Daniel Sepec (violin), Andreas Staier (fortepiano) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC902048 | CD | 794881944026
The short but fascinating life of Robert Schumann began 200 years ago this year and this excellent disc is a fitting tribute to a famous but often misunderstood composer. Opening with a dramatic and inventive arrangement of Bach’s solo violin Ciaconna that includes a piano ‘accompaniment’, the program reminds us of Schumann’s reverence for Bach. Such a treatment of Bach may make purists shudder these days but it reveals Schumann’s sensitivity for harmony and texture, a sensitivity that is also present in his two violin sonatas.
Both performers have a finely honed sense of rubato that allied with Sepec’s singing one, breathes life through the long phrases of the sonatas and gives the music a wonderful flexibility. This disc is all the more valuable because of Staier’s use of an Erard piano from 1837. Erard was a French maker whose instruments were played by Clara Schumann. In these days, when piano recordings seem to be predominantly of one maker’s instrument, it is good to know there are other styles of piano tone. Between the sonatas Staier plays the piano suite Gesänge der Frühe (Dawn Songs) to demonstrate the subtle, mellow tone of the Erard. An enjoyable disc well worth investigating. –Tony Way
31 July – 1 August, Weekend Australian Dvořák Piano Quintets Goldner Quartet, Piers Lane (piano) HYPERION | CDA67805 | CD | 034571178059
4 ½ stars
Pianist Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet have previously collaborated on recordings of piano quintets by Frank Bridge and Ernest Bloch, and this new CD of the two quintets of Dvořák has all the appeal one would expect from these eminent musicians. While Dvořák’s mature second quintet is a popular standard, his first work in this genre is much less known, having remained unpublished during his lifetime. After the work’s premiere, Dvořák was so disappointed that he tore up and burned the score. Fortunately a copy was saved for posterity by the pianist, allowing Dvorak to make considerable revisions some years later. Pairing the two works in these well-crafted performances makes a strong case for the earlier quintet, even if its melodic invention is less memorable, its musical direction less consistently focused than in its later sibling.
The Goldner String Quartet is a beautifully blended ensemble with a warm, generous sound that suits this music perfectly. In a recording that keeps the strings in the foreground, the quartet’s playing is luxurious and inviting. The string solos are always delivered with great care and finesse. Lane plays with characteristic brilliance and clarity; a finely judged balance of heroic strength, beguiling lyricism and virtuosity. An impressive aspect is how the playing captures Dvořák’s heightened romanticism, without affectation or overstatement. –Mark Coughlan
22 July, The Age Green Guide Wagner Gotterdämmerung Hallé Orchestra, Soloists including Australian baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, Mark Elder (conductor) HALLE | CDHLD7525 | CD5 | 5065001341151
Also available in mp3 edition (CDHLM7530) * * * *
Sometimes you don’t have to be in an opera house to experience the best performances. This excellent live recording of Gotterdammerung (the final part of Wagner’s Ring) was made in Manchester over two nights in May last year as part of the Halle Orchestra’s season under its chief conductor, Mark Elder. The advantage of two nights can be heard in the freshness of the singing and in the orchestra, which plays superbly.
The Scandinavian Brunnhilde and Siegfried, Katarina Dalayman and Lars Cleveman, could not be better matched: there is youth in their voices as well as heft. Peter Coleman-Wright and Attila Jun are supremely dramatic as the Gibichung half-brothers, Gunther and Hagen; Andrew Shore and Nancy Gustafson shine as Alberich and Gutrune. Members of the choruses of the Halle, London Symphony and BBC Symphony are marvelous in their declamations in Acts II and III. But Elder and his orchestra are the real heroes – presenting the drama as one long paragraph, sure of pace and immaculate in execution. This is Wagner as it should always sound. A real blood-stirrer but also intensely moving and profound. –Michael Shmith
August 2010, limelight Beethoven Piano Concertos Complete Paul Lewis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek (conductor) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC90205355 | CD3 | 794881966226
English pianist Paul Lewis has already recorded for Harmonia Mundi an acclaimed cycle of the Beethoven sonatas, and now turns his attention to the complete piano concertos. Here are all five, housed in a handsome three-disc cardboard digipak. Even if you have individual recordings of these concertos, this set is a tremendous way to survey them all.
Lewis’s performance partner is Jiri Belohlavek, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Belohlavek is more usually heard conducting opera, but that is no liability. In fact, the dramatic sense he brings to these works is part of what makes these recordings so effective. There is nothing in the booklet notes to state whether these are live performances or not. They are made in conjunction with BBC Radio 3, which suggests they were the next best thing – especially recorded for broadcast, with the same zest and spontaneity of a live concert recording. Paul Lewis is an assured pianist in this repertoire, growing in authority through the cycle until its apotheosis in the grand Fifth, Beethoven’s ‘symphony for piano and orchestra’.
The acoustics are really quite extraordinary – strong and sonorous, with piano and orchestra truly at one. This is about the finest-sounding recording of these works I’ve heard, and the artistry is as good as any in the catalogue. This is Beethoven as I imagine he heard himself in his imagination, after he went deaf. It’s a larger- than-life reading of works by a colossus.
July 17-18, Sydney Morning Herald Bruckner Symphony No.2 (original version) Philharmoniker Hamburg: Simone Young OEHMS | OC614 | SACD | 4260034866140
Concert promoters and critics have often unfairly ignored Bruckner's first three symphonies (the First, the so-called No. 0, and the Second), regarding the Third as his coming of age. Simone Young champions not only the Second Symphony here but also its original version of 1872.
Listening to this tonally rich, rhapsodic performance by the Philharmoniker Hamburg, one would have to ask why they couldn't keep mum. Almost all Bruckner's symphonies hark back to Beethoven's Ninth. The first movements often begin by reaching out in the infinite and, on this recording, the distinctive woodwind and brass combined with fluid breadth of phrasing capture the visionary essence of Bruckner's germinal idea.
The logic of long, silent pauses mostly cut from later versions today sounds unassailable. Bruckner's Scherzos follow the Ninth's long sequential paragraphs and rhythmic games. What seems like a baldly stated idea plays subtle tricks with the first beat of the bar. Like all Bruckner's slow movements, the third (later put second) builds on Beethoven's variations on two themes evolving to a visionary culmination. Hearing a fine orchestra play the original finale provides insight into this misunderstood composer's musical thought. –Peter McCallum
Dvorak's Violin Concerto had a long gestation due to the not-always-helpful advice of the violinist Joseph Joachim and the publisher. Both of them seemed to have hoped for something more akin to the recently completed concerto by Brahms. It is a tribute to Dvorak's individuality that the work retains his folk-inspired charm and a distinctive form, with the first two movements linked imaginatively.
The first movement is infused with a searching spirit both improvisational and meditative, as though always leading up to something. Richard Tognetti plays the opening cadenza with imaginative flair and the first movement has restless yet flexible freedom. The connecting passage to the slow movement and the second movement has some of the finest playing for its glowing warmth tinged with melancholy. The third movement, with its persistent, dance-like theme, is playful and skittish.
The Nordic Chamber Orchestra under Christian Lindberg gives a generally well-characterised, though unsentimental, reading of Dvorak's cycle of 10 Legends, Opus 59. This is not a performance where the players linger lovingly over particular instrumental combinations, though the reading has its own logic and weight.
June 19-20, The Weekend Australian To Notice Such Things AVIE | AV2190 | CD | 822252219029 Jon Lord (composer, piano),Jeremy Irons (narrator), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor)
4½ stars
Few could have guessed that Deep Purple’s Jon Lord would end up composing tranquil pastoral pieces for orchestra in the vein of Bax, Bridge and Vaughan Williams. Bus since his Durham Concerto in 2007, the ex-heavy metal keyboardist has increasingly been turning his efforts to classical composition. Not that this should come as a total surprise, because way back in 1969 his Concerto for Group and Orchestra, one of Deep Purple’s more ambitious undertakings, revealed his strong talent as an orchestra writer.
It’s a remarkable wistful, unboisterous Lord that one encounters in his newest disc. The centerpiece is To Notice Such Things, a suite written in memory of the screenwriter John Mortimer, for whom Lord played piano in the long-running stage show Mortimer’s Miscellany during the 1990s. Wispy flute solos and warmly harmonized strings and piano make this an affectionate, tender-hearted portrait. The two best pieces, however, are first an instrumental version of Evening Song, from Lord’s 1998 album Pictured Within. It has a lovely drifting vein and shows just how much of a master harmonist he is. Even more fragrant is For Example, which pays homage to the first classical composer in whom Lord found inspiration, Edward Grieg. Lord’s compositional voice throughout is bewitchingly attractive. –Graham Strahle
8 May, The Weekend Australian Dvořák Symphonic Poems Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras
SUPRAPHON | SU4012 | CD | 099925401221
4 ½ stars
The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first public performance in Prague in January 1896, conducted by none other than Antonin Dvořák. It was at this time that Dvořák also started work on his set of symphonic poems, inspired by the ballads of popular Czech writer Karel Erben. Although not generally thought of as a composer of programmatic music, his writing in the four works presented here is imaginative, confident and excitingly dramatic. Plush romantic sonorities contrast with sparser woodwind textures and there are some colourful characterizations, such as the use of the bass clarinet to represent the evil witch in The Noon Witch. It’s somewhat surprising that these appealing and eminently programmable works are not heard more often.
It would be difficult to imagine an orchestra with a greater affinity for this repertoire than the Czech Philharmonic, especially under the baton of Charles Mackerras. The performances here are all first rate and expertly paced, and vividly capture the intensity of each tableau. The works range from 14 to 26 minutes and Mackerras skillfully negotiates the long span of The Golden Spinning Wheel, creating a compelling sense of journey through its sectionalized form. The orchestral playing throughout is vital and committed with strong attack and unanimity from the strings and wonderfully blended sonorities and musical characterization from the winds. – Mark Coughlan
2 July, The Age Green Guide Prokofiev String Quartets Nos 1-2 Pavel Haas Quartet SUPRAPHON | SU3957 | CD | 099925395728 * * * *
The past decade has seen the emergence of many new string quartets whose young, talented members have ably communicated the joys and rewards of working as chamber musicians. Founded in 2002, the Pavel Haas Quartet has more than youthful ardour and technical prowess to commend it. There is a beauty and evenness of tone that gives this group’s performances a special appeal.
Prokofiev’s quirkily attractive chamber music commands a wide timbral palette from the players but it is always delivered with poise and elegance; the same qualities that seem to seep out of the music, no matter how ‘rustic’ or ‘Soviet’ the composer was trying to be. String Quartet No.1, a commission from the US Library of Congress, is classical in tone while String Quartet No.2 is based on folk themes from the Kabardinian region in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. By way of interlude, we are given the rarely heard Sonata for Two Violins.
All the performances are excellent and for sheer joy of listening, this quartet is hard to beat. –Tony Way
22 April, The Age Green Guide Wagner Das Rheingold, Die Walkure La Fura dels Baus, Soloists, Zubin Mehta
4 stars
The Catalan creative company of La Fura dels Baus was recently at the Adelaide Festival with its ingenious production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre. But the company’s astonishing stagings also include Wagner for the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia, in Valencia, Spain. As the first two operas, Das Rheingold and Die Walkure prove, La Fura’s sense of imagery is immaculately wedded to the music. Rheingold has real water for the Rhinemaidens; Walkure real fire for Wotan’s farewell.
How these elements are displayed is the real triumph. The use of projections, and also a host of silent extra people and how they interact with the score and texts, makes the vital difference and proves how sometimes opera can work brilliantly on the small screen. Under the sure guidance of Zubin Mehta, whose Wagnerian skills should never be underestimated, and a fine cast – it includes Peter Seiffert as Siegmund, Jennifer Wilson as Brunhilde and a dramatic Wotan from Juha Uusitalo—these productions come closer than most to Wagner’s vision of all-embracing artworks. Often, the beauty of the singing and transcendent orchestral playing equals the imagination of the production designs. –Michael Shmith
April 10-11, Sydney Morning Herald Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata, Diabelli Variations Michael Leslie (piano) TELOS | TLS110 | CD2 | 881488001105
4 stars
Michael Leslie is an Australian pianist Australians ought to know more about. Resident in Germany, his trips here are intermittent, but this disc of Beethoven's two most monumental works for the piano the Hammerklavier Sonata in B flat, opus 106, and the Diabelli Variations, Opus 120 reveals him as one of this country's finest players of Beethoven.
Monumentality was a theme in Beethoven's music in the decade leading up to the Ninth Symphony, when these works were written, and the challenge of sustaining musical concentration over the long term and creating epic architectural structures clearly interests Leslie. Yet his performances are in no sense craggy. He works with fastidious respect for the composer's intentions, teasing out Beethoven's fabric with care, without embroidering.
Those who follow the score will be engaged by how he achieves interest and weight through punctilious attention to every marked change of dynamic, speed or articulation. The Hammerklavier Sonata burst from Beethoven's pen in 1818 after a relatively unproductive period and returns to a four-movement style of sonata that would have seemed conservative but for its scale and expressive ambition. Leslie makes great pillars of the outer movements and his performance of the ground-breaking fugue in the finale is an outstanding display of control and mastery. –Peter McCallum
February 20-21, The Australian Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin Alina Ibragimova HYPERION | CDA676912 | CD2 | 034571176918
5 stars
If you haven’t heard of Alina Ibragimova, then prepare to be stunned by this recording. The young Russian-born violinist was only 23 when this disc was recorded little more than a year ago, yet her playing is remarkably refined: a thrilling mix of exuberance and poise, delivered with breathtaking technical aplomb.
Ibragimova represents a generational change in performance training in that she studied baroque and classical period-instrument practice alongside romantic and contemporary styles. As a consequence, her Bach playing is fresh and imaginative, rhythmically vital and with a sense of improvisatory freedom. The slow opening movements of the three solo sonatas are unhurried and spacious, their melodic contours languidly shaped with a beautiful, pure tone that sings despite minimal vibrato. By contrast the fast movements are often taken at a dazzling pace, Ibragimova’s articulation stunningly clear and precise.
The prelude to the E major partita springs to life with energetic excitement yet with such sophisticated phrasing that it never sounds like just a continuous stream of semiquavers. The rhetorical nature of her playing is particularly evident in the famous chaconne that concludes the D minor partita. In one of the best-known violin works, Ibragimova creates a masterly performance with virtuosic flair. She often pushes interpretive boundaries and her playing can seem impetuous, but her musical instincts are reliable, the results fabulously convincing. –Mark Coughlan
What do the music of Chopin, the bowler hat and the paintings of Mark Rothko have in common? Only someone as thoughtful as Stephen Hough would pose such a riddle and provide such an interesting answer. Hough’s thoughtfulness is also brought to bear on the riddle that is the music of Frederic Chopin. Doubtless this year’s Chopin bicentenary will delight diehard romantics but it will also reinforce just how difficult it is to capture the emotional essence of his music.
Hough is most at home in the miniature world of the mazurka and the nocturne, where the prevailing sentiment remains fairly constant. Here Chopin’s demands for exquisite tone colour and transparent texture are well met. The serenity of the F-sharp major barcarolle and the D-flat major berceuse that bookend this program is also beautifully realized. In the emotionally volatile world of the B-minor sonata and the Polonaise-Fantasy, the task of making sense of changing moods is more challenging. Hough’s ploy of extreme restraint giving way to utter abandonment works well in the Polonaise-Fantasy but his account of the sonata errs on the side of caution, leaving the listener to imagine what a walk on the wild side might be like with this accomplished artist.
3 July, Sydney Morning Herald Dvořák String Quintets Goldner Quartet, Piers Lane (piano) HYPERION | CDA67805 | CD | 034571178059 * * * *
Dvorak apparently destroyed his first piano quintet manuscript and it is only through the foresight of a friend who took part in the first performance that it has survived. In terms of musical merit, its loss would have been regrettable but not calamitous. Dvorak, however, decided he would like to take another look at it and borrowed his friend's copy, leading him eventually to write a completely new work, which became the quintet in A major, Opus 81, which is among the most significant piano quintets by any composer.
The performance here by the Goldner String Quartet and Piers Lane has sinewy strength and expressive flexibility, with a rich recorded string sound counterpoised by piano playing of distinctive colour and clarity, and subtle musical charm from Lane. This is most prominent in the poignant and melodically sweet second movement, written in the style of a Dumka, a generally mournful folk ballad punctuated by sections of vitality and energy. The expressively expansive first movement has flexibility and a sound sense of structure.
The fast music in general, however, has vivid immediacy and vitality, so the whole performance captures Dvorak's distinctive contribution to music's architectural principles - the balance of reflective beauty and exuberance.
LIKE THIS? TRY THIS
Richard Tognetti, Christian Lindberg, Dvorak: Violin Concerto
February 13-14, The Australian Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Valery Gergiev, LSO LSO LIVE | LSO0682 | SACD2 | 822231168225
5 stars
Rarely does a new recording supersede all before it, but that is the case with the London Symphony Orchestra's new performance of Prokofiev's ballet score, Romeo and Juliet. It uses a reconstruction of the first, 1935 version of the ballet prepared by Princeton scholar Simon Morrison, who discovered additional music the composer had written for its four acts. Comprising dances, variations and bridge passages, much had to be reconstructed from an autograph piano score. There's a lot more colour in each scene. A scurrying Morning Dance and lively Tarantella add great sparkle to the opening, and strumming mandolins make an extraordinary surprise in the second act. The epilogue, depicting Juliet's death, is much expanded, with deepened pathos as the main themes return for a final time.
Coupled with Morrison's reconstruction comes a freshly conceived, thoroughly magnificent live performance from the LSO with Valery Gergiev at the helm. Many tempos of the more familiar numbers are different. Some are blisteringly fast while others are considerably slower than usual. But Gergiev has reassessed the mood of each scene and delivers them with heightened pictorial intensity. Tybalt's funeral march initially sounds very slow, but it gains a huge monumental quality. The LSO plays with warm, tidy spaciousness and a lovely feeling for line. The grace of dance is present throughout. This is an indispensable release. –Graham Strahle
March 13-14, Sydney Morning Herald Mahler Symphony No 4 London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, Laura Claycomb LSO LIVE | LSO0662 | SACD | 822231166221
Mahler's music was born at the dawn of the recording age and the history of Mahler performances resembles an apostolic succession of performers who trace their lineage back to the conductors with firsthand connections to the composer - Bruno Walter, Willem Mengelberg and Otto Klemperer.
The rush of Mahler recordings in this year's sesquicentenary of his birth is welcome, bringing younger perspectives to bear on music which, in its melding of powerful expression and deep uncertainty, transcendence and neurosis, appeals so strongly to our age. Gergiev's measured tempo in the first movement of the fourth symphony, the lightest and brightest of the set, allows the mixture of pseudo-Mozartian phrasing to gleam and the ironic peasant quality of the second movement, with off-key fiddle, is well-pointed and admirably clear.
The slow movement is powerful, while soprano Laura Claycomb is coloured though not quite perfectly pitched in the "child view of heaven" that makes the finale. The woodwind playing is excellent and the sound revealing in its detail.
– Peter McCallum
March 20-21, Sydney Morning Herald Stravinsky Pulcinella, Symphony, Etudes Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Roxana Constantinescu, Nicholas Phan, Pierre Boulez (conductor) CSO RESOUND | CSOR901918 | CD | 810449019187
Any recording of Boulez conducting Stravinsky is worth acquiring and this, one of his emblematic neoclassical works by the Chicago Symphony, with its distinctively brilliant brass and wind, is no exception. Boulez often said neoclassicism was a dead end, like making a toy model of an old temple. However in Pulcinella, Stravinsky’s rewriting of music then thought to be by Pergolesi (for a Diaghilev ballet based on 18th-century commedia dell’arte) he takes delight in Stravinsky’s brilliant, witty and irreverent orchestration and obliterates historicism (witness the trombone slides and double bass in the Vivo movement).
Boulez’s care with balance also brings out the orchestral genius in the writing of the Four Etudes, written just after the huge success of the Rite of Spring. The performance of the Symphony in Three Movements is outstanding for its carefully pointed precision, particularly the first movement.
–Peter McCallum
February Limelight Great Operatic Arias Cheryl Barker, London Philharmonic Orchestra CHANDOS | CHAN3161 | CD | 095115316122
4 ½ stars
This recording was funded by the British Peter Moore Foundation, which has the aim of preserving and perpetuating opera in English – not English opera, but world opera in translation, by such composers as Verdi, Catalani and Tchaikovsky, all of whom feature on this disc. They are joined by Richard Strauss, Leoncavallo, Cilea and Boito, along with English-language composers Jake Heggie from America, and our own Malcolm Williamson.
We in Australia have a special affinity with Cheryl Barker, even though she finds her major career overseas. Cheryl, who is as beautiful on disc as she is on stage, is a consummate singing-actress completely adopting the persona of her character. The inherent truth she finds in that character infuses this recording...
...Cheryl Barker’s clear enunciation and radiant intelligence makes this disc a must-have. The only surprise is the lack of Puccini or Verdi arias. Perhaps there’s a perfect follow-up album there?
July 10-11, The Australian Rachmaninoff Aleko BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda (conductor) CHANDOS | CHAN10583 | CD | 095115158326
* * * * *
Aleko is the earliest of Rachmaninoff’s three completed operas, composed when he was 19 and studying at the Moscow Conservatory. Based on Pushkin’s poem The Gypsies, it was the composer’s first great success, winning him the conservatory’s highest prize and catapulting him to fame when the Bolshoi Theatre staged it the following year, in 1893. Tchaikovsky loved it. Although rarely heard today, Aleko is a remarkably accomplished work that shows how swiftly Rachmaninoff gained mastery as a composer. In its melodic invention, orchestral colour and all-round compositional craft, it stands comparison with his finest mature works.
The only problem is its scenic disjointedness. Thrown into a single act are ballets and an orchestral interlude that impede the narrative of its story, about a deserter from high society (Aleko) who joins a band of gypsies but ends up murdering two of them. Nevertheless, it’s beautiful music and Chandos does it justice. The singing is superb, headed by Sergey Murzaev in the title role and Gennady Bezzubenkov as the Old Gypsy. Their heavy, guttural Russian accents add much to the authentic power of this performance. Svetla Vassileva and Evgeny Akimov as the murdered victims are lighter voices but well suited to their younger roles. Noseda brings brilliant shine and animation to the score. It’s a gorgeous, richly atmospheric performance. –Graham Strahle
8 May, Sydney Morning Herald Bruckner Symphony No 5 Residentie Orchestra The Hague, Neeme Järvi CHANDOS | CHSA5080 | SACD | 095115508022
4 stars
Although only nine years older than Brahms, Bruckner had more or less finished his fifth symphony (though he was to revise it, as he always obsessively did) by the time Brahms had completed his first in 1876. Yet, unlike Brahms, Bruckner's symphonies had uneasy careers as they were launched upon a sceptical and highly politicised Viennese public and he never heard an orchestra play them.
Bruno Walter, who knew Mahler but not Bruckner, thought that, like Mahler's fifth, it marked the transition to mature mastery. This performance, by the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague under Neeme Jarvi, captures its carefully crafted slabs of sound and polyphony, wrought with such obsessive care, with reverent precision and wonderful tonal balance. In the solemnly plangent second movement, Jarvi maintains strict tempo discipline, so the cross rhythms against plucked strings and the mournful oboe theme sound fateful and monumental. The finale, perhaps in imitation of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, starts with a brief snapshot of the music of the earlier movements before rushing into a vigorous fugue. Jarvi shows incisive and cogent understanding throughout.
The Residentie Orchestra has a connection with Sydney: Willem van Otterloo made his name with them before his distinguished period as the Sydney Symphony's chief conductor. –Peter McCallum
6 May, The Age Green Guide Sullivan Ivanhoe CHANDOS | CHAN10578 | CD3 | 095115157824
4 stars
Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan can now hear the serious side of composer Sullivan with the first professional recording of his 1891 ‘romantic opera’ based on Sir Walter Scott’s most popular novel. Eschewing the obvious characteristics of French, German and Italian opera, Sullivan hoped Ivanhoe would be the foundation of a truly English school of opera, and its initial run (155 performances) was a remarkable beginning.
Around the colourful cast of Saxons, Normans and Knights Templar, Sullivan weaves a musical tapestry that is consistent in its melodic appeal and distinguished by the gift for orchestration that delights in his collaborations with Gilbert. Tenor Toby Spence essays the eponymous role with aplomb but the baritones make the strongest impression, particularly James Rutherford as Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Neal Davies as Richard Coeur-de-Lion. Janice Watson shines in Lady Rowena’s lovely soprano aria, O Moon, Art Thou Clad? And bass Matthew Brook makes the most of Friar Tuck’s rollicking drinking song, Ho, Jolly Jenkin. The singers’ diction is exemplary and the accompanying notes and libretto are a splendid introduction to the work.
2 January 2010, The Australian Elgar, Symphonies 1 & 2, Enigma Variations Sydney Symphony, Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor) EXTON | EXCL00027 | SACD EXTON | EXCL00028 | SACD EXTON | EXCL00029 | SACD
Sydney Symphony's sudden burst of recording activity under new principal conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy began with a five-disc boxed set of Rachmaninov orchestral works last year. Now, under the same Japanese label, Exton, come three discs of Elgar recorded live and in session during its 2008 Elgar Festival. The less happy news is that just four works are presented: the two symphonies, Enigma Variations and, oddly, one of his minor orchestral pieces, This is in the South (Alassio), a vigorous but undistinguished concert overture indebted to Richard Strauss. So sadly there's no introduction and allegro for strings or the wonderful symphonic study Falstaff. For what one gets, however, these are absolutely superb recordings. Ashkenazy takes a distinctive approach with the composer, one that's elegantly restrained and dreamily poetic. The Enigma Variations are wistful rather than heroic. The famous Nimrod variation emerges slowly as if from the mist and, although not as climactic as other performances, it radiates great beauty. Ashkenazy shows equal delicacy in the symphonies. Symphony No 1 begins slowly but gains a majestic grandeur that emphasises the romantic rather than the stentorian. There's a wonderful roaming, free quality in the way ideas ebb and flow. He gives Symphony No 2 an exalted tone that suits its more stiffly upholstered but honest character. The slow movement is sublime. Throughout, the Sydney Symphony plays with exceptional refinement. Graham Strahle
2 January 2010, Sydney Morning Herald - Spectrum Onslow String Quartets Quatuor Diotima NAÏVE | V5200 | CD | 822186052006
Despite his English-sounding name, George Onslow (1784-1853) was a French composer whose music is in the Austro-German tradition and a contemporary of Weber (though he lived longer). The three quartets here (from Onslow's total of 36) seem closest to Mendelssohn in their combination of classical form and the sense of awe that informed the new romantic spirit.
The quartet in E flat major, Opus 54, opens with a reflective passage that, like Mendelssohn's Second Quartet, seems to be a response to hearing Beethoven's epoch-making late quartets. The slow movement of the D minor quartet, Opus 55, is interrupted by a portentous section of tremolos evoking the dramatic romanticism of Weber, while the C minor quartet, Opus 56, has a surging first movement and a fine slow movement.
The Quatuor Diotima captures the style with vigour, though the intonation is not at the top rank of quartet playing. Peter McCallum
26 December 2009, Sydney Morning Herald - Spectrum Chopin Chez Pleyel Alain Planes HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC902052 | CD | 794881924721
During Chopin's life, the piano evolved into a stronger, more powerful instrument to fill out the bigger halls that were needed for the larger audiences that flocked to hear the great virtuosi of the day. Some argue this was at the expense of some of the distinctive timbres and this recording uses an excellently restored 1836 Pleyel piano, which was Chopin's preferred instrument.
Planes has reconstructed a program based on a concert in which Chopin participated (along with others) in 1842 and the instrument used gives some indication of the colours open to the composer, which are more delicate and within a narrower range than those of a modern instrument, and the singing style of the upper melody in the nocturnes has light sweetness.
I found the colour of the baritone range somewhat disappointing so that, for example, the inner voices in the Study in A flat, Opus 25, Number 1, lacked mellowness, and Planes' speeds in works like the Ballade, Opus 47 were somewhat laboured. Peter McCallum
27 March, Sydney Morning Herald Bach Goldberg Variations Andreas Staier (fortepiano) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC902058 | CD + DVD | 794881950324
3.5 stars
Andreas Staier uses a richly toned, multi-voiced instrument to produce a recorded harpsichord sound that combines brilliance and subtlety of colour, while avoiding clatter and jangle. The virtuosic toccata-style variations at the close of each half have a joyous sense of exuberance and Staier's manner in the darkly chromatic variations captures Bach's sense of harmonic tension.
In the famous Aria, I found Staier's speed a little slow, lending the opening a somewhat mannered, over-stylised type of expression. However, in the ensuing music, this sense of style becomes a telling point of contrast for each variation. Staier's understanding of the expressive connotations of the genres Bach adopts as he develops the theme - a toccata, a fugue, an allemande, an overture, and, famously at the end, a quodlibet (meaning a hotch-potch of tunes) - is intelligent and born of deep understanding of the baroque.
Bach's variations are grouped in threes, each containing a genre piece, a canon and a piece in the form of a finger exercise. In the impressive variation that opens the second half, in which, with true compositional virtuosity, Bach uses the bass line of the opening to create a complete French Overture and fughetta, Staier makes an impressive punctuation point, lending intelligibility to the structure of the whole. –Peter McCallum
5-6 December 2009 - The Australian Saariaho L’Amour de Loin German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Kent Nagano (conductor) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC80193738 | SACD2 (boxed set) | 794881924264
4 stars
Finland’s Kaija Saariaho has emerged as one of the most interesting modern opera composers in Europe. Her first opera, L'amour de loin, had its premiere in 2000 and has had several international productions. This new recording conducted by Kent Nagano makes a case for it to be more widely seen.
The libretto by novelist Amin Maalouf is based on the historical figure Jaufre Rudel, a 12th-century troubadour and proponent of a poetic mode called amour de loin ("love from afar"). Rudel is dissatisfied with courtly life and aspires to an idealised love that may never be fulfilled. A pilgrim tells him his lover does exist: she is the Countess of Tripoli, Clemence. She at first rejects him; when at last he crosses the sea to be with her, he dies in her arms. The atmosphere of transcendent desire may evoke Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, but Saariaho's opera is its own musical world: a sonic landscape distant and strange but enormously involving.
This is music of vivid textures rather than conventional melodies and harmony, although the vocal lines are long-phrased and expressive. The three principal roles are sung by Ekaterina Lekhina (Clemence), Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Pilgrim) and Daniel Belcher (Jaufre). Nagano, who conducted the world premiere at the Salzburg Festival, gives a lyrical account of the score with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
December 2009 - Limelight MacMillan Seven Last Words from the Cross The Dmitri Ensemble, Ross NAXOS | 8570719 | CD | 747313071975
5 stars
The Seven Last Words (or to be more accurate the seven last utterances) of Christ have long fascinated composers, starting with Heinrich Schutz in 1645, then of course Haydn‚s most famous setting in 1787, Cesar Franck‚s in 1859 and then in our time Sofia Gubaidulina‚s Seven Words in 1982 and James MacMillan‚s setting here in 1993. These seven sentences are immensely powerful statements with enormous dramatic potential.
MacMillan‚s setting is the most successful of all the above, and is rightly considered his masterpiece. His musical language straddles the modernist world and the holy minimalist world of Tavener and Pärt, but is drawn from the Celtic tradition rather than their Orthodox world. One striking feature of MacMillan‚s writing is his torn-off statements that hang in the air during unusually long silences, which he uses so effectively in both the second movement ŒWoman, behold thy Son‚ and the opening of the last movement, ŒFather, into thy hands I commend my Spirit‚. This is music that is truly heartbreaking. Most performances of it plunge the audience into floods of tears and if MacMillan had only written this work, his position in the lineage of English music would be assured (although he would remind people that indeed he was Scottish).
The Dmitri Ensemble under Graham Ross are simply magnificent, the singing and playing are utterly committed and cannot be more highly praised. This is a masterwork of our time perfectly captured by a profound performance. Chris Latham
28-29 November 2009 - The Australian Bernstein Mass Jubilant Sykes, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop NAXOS | 855962223 | CD2 | 636943962220
5 stars
How Leonard Bernstein, reared a Jew, came to compose a Catholic mass is but one question that surrounds his extraordinary ‘theatre piece for singers, players and dancers’, as he subtitled the Mass he composed in 1971. When you consider its musical ingredients, including electric guitars, rock organ, marching band, bongos and kazoos, the astonishing scope of this work becomes apparent.
Commentators were unkind about Lenny’s Mass from the outset, taking exception to its welter of popular styles. The lyrics are an utter jumble, mixing words from the Tridentine Latin mass with additional texts by Bernstein, Stephen Schwartz (author of Godspell) and Paul Simon. It’s a breathtakingly original work though, overflowing with inspiration. Quotations from Mahler and Beethoven are coupled with deliciously astringent harmonies, quirkily infectious rhythms and brilliant brass writing.
Marin Alsop, who studied conducting under Bernstein, delivers a hugely cogent, taut performance as she directs the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and 150 sundry singers. But baritone Jubilant Sykes is the star. Taking the role of the Celebrant, he is effusively emotional, covering the full spectrum from sobbing to hysterical. The effect is absolutely right, though absolutely Bernstein. The performance answers absolutely to his conception and never drops a beat. It is so good that it has you itchily wanting to hear it again and again.
This year’s BBC Proms season will feature for the first time ever, one pianist, Paul Lewis, performing all Beethoven’s Piano Concertos. His complete set of the Beethoven sonatas enjoyed extraordinary acclaim, culminating in the prestigious ‘Recording of the Year’ award from Gramophone for the 4th volume in 2008. Encouraged by this worldwide success, Paul Lewis now turns his attention to the five piano concertos with the BBC Orchestra. Lewis gives Beethoven recitals in Australia during June and July for a national tour supported by Musica Viva.
Beethoven Piano Concertos Complete Paul Lewis (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek (conductor) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC90205355 | CD3 | 794881966226
Whitacre Choral Music Elora Festival Singers NAXOS | 8559677 | CD | 636943967720
In this podcast, Eric Whitacre talks about choosing poetry for music, his love of e.e. cummings, his Youtube choir, and his brand new music theatre piece Paradise Lost.
Whitacre is now the unquestioned superstar of American choral composers. Whether he is setting the poetry of Octavio Paz, e.e. cummings, Rumi or the Bible, his marriage of poetry with beauty of sound creates a unique and enchanting sonic world. This sound world is beautifully captured on this CD by the Elora Festival Singers, pianist Leslie De’Ath, percussionist Carol Bauman, and conductor Noel Edison.
Dohnanyi Variations on a Nursery Song Eldar Nebolsin (piano), Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta(conductor) NAXOS | 8572303 | CD | 747313230372
This podcast features an interview with JoAnn Falletta in which she discusses the music of Dohnanyi, and the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Buffalo Philharmonic, an orchestra she has led for more than a decade.
Erno von Dohnanyi was one of many European composers whose work was overtaken by 20th-century history. Thanks to people like conductor JoAnn Falletta, pianist Eldar Nebolsin, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, new generations of listeners can now re-discover his music!