SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews
BRAHMS: Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80; Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53; Haydn Variations, Op. 56a - Yvonne Naef, alto/ Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hans Vonk - PentaTone
A musical memorial to the noted Dutch conductor who died last year
Published on October 26, 2005
|
BRAHMS: Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80; Alto Rhapsody, Op.
53; Haydn Variations, Op. 56a - Yvonne Naef, alto/ Netherlands Radio
Symphony Orchestra/Hans Vonk - PentaTone Multichannel SACD PTC 5186
045 42:42 ***:
Intended as a memorial for the late Hans Vonk (1942-2004), this all-Brahms group from 18-21 August 2003 could have spliced to the late conductor’s reading of the Brahms D Major Symphony offered on the same label (PTC 5186 042). But aside from the merely music-for-your-money consideration, these are thoroughly thoughtful, even affecting realizations of music obviously dear to the conductor’s heart. I heard and met Vonk only once, and he urged that I seek out more of his work through his long association with the Hague Residenz Orchestra.
The elegiac Alto Rhapsody, clearly a valediction for the dying conductor as much as it is Goethe’s evocation of spiritual longing, has the graceful power of the classic renditions from Kathleen Ferrier and Marian Anderson. Ms. Naef’s plaintive voice more than once reminded me of Maureen Forrester. The opening C Minor Academic Festival Overture has the athletic wit and fervent rhetoric we who relish the George Szell version can well appreciate. The Haydn Variations, with its eight variants and concluding passacaglia, is clearly a study-piece for the later E Minor Symphony. Vonk, who conducted all three works from the confines of a wheelchair, elicits wonderful interior effects and some subtle degrees of nuance from his responsive orchestra. All of the interpretations fall well within the middle European tradition we imbibed from Bruno Walter and Eduard van Beinum. The liner notes for the album include a touching reminiscence from Job Maarse, the record producer who had worked with Hans Vonk at the Hague in the late 1970’s and then again for the final sessions at PentaTone. Mr. Maarse calls Hans Vonk a great one, and many auditors of his two Brahms SACDs may well concur.
--Gary Lemco
Intended as a memorial for the late Hans Vonk (1942-2004), this all-Brahms group from 18-21 August 2003 could have spliced to the late conductor’s reading of the Brahms D Major Symphony offered on the same label (PTC 5186 042). But aside from the merely music-for-your-money consideration, these are thoroughly thoughtful, even affecting realizations of music obviously dear to the conductor’s heart. I heard and met Vonk only once, and he urged that I seek out more of his work through his long association with the Hague Residenz Orchestra.
The elegiac Alto Rhapsody, clearly a valediction for the dying conductor as much as it is Goethe’s evocation of spiritual longing, has the graceful power of the classic renditions from Kathleen Ferrier and Marian Anderson. Ms. Naef’s plaintive voice more than once reminded me of Maureen Forrester. The opening C Minor Academic Festival Overture has the athletic wit and fervent rhetoric we who relish the George Szell version can well appreciate. The Haydn Variations, with its eight variants and concluding passacaglia, is clearly a study-piece for the later E Minor Symphony. Vonk, who conducted all three works from the confines of a wheelchair, elicits wonderful interior effects and some subtle degrees of nuance from his responsive orchestra. All of the interpretations fall well within the middle European tradition we imbibed from Bruno Walter and Eduard van Beinum. The liner notes for the album include a touching reminiscence from Job Maarse, the record producer who had worked with Hans Vonk at the Hague in the late 1970’s and then again for the final sessions at PentaTone. Mr. Maarse calls Hans Vonk a great one, and many auditors of his two Brahms SACDs may well concur.
--Gary Lemco
on this article to AUDIOPHILE AUDITION!
Email this page to a friend.
View a printer-friendly version.
