CLASSICAL CDs for FEB/2001, Pt. I
A pair of interesting and valuable chamber music discs from Naxos, which has replaced Lyrita and Decca as the most important classical producer of British music =
BAX: Quintet for harp and strings; Elegaic Trio; Fantasy Sonata; Sonata for flute and harp - Mobius - Naxos 8.554507.
Arnold Bax (1883-1953) belongs in the group of English late romantic composers that include Elgar, Holst, Vaughn Williams, Bridge and Ireland. Perhaps better known for his vast orchestral output, his chamber music contains similar romantic, colorful and atmospheric music but its more succinct and compact, avoiding the long, rambling larger scores that sometimes overstay their welcome. There is an element of fantasy in chamber works with harp that in Bax's case recall his romance with the country of Ireland, a favorite dwelling place for him. The Elegaic Trio (1916) is a sorrowful and nostalgic response to the Irish uprising of 1916 in which many of his friends were killed. Although it was premiered only 6 months after Debussy's late masterpiece, Sonata for flute viola and harp, there is no evidence that Bax was familiar with the score. It's a beautiful work, especially the slow epilogue which concludes the piece. The Quintet for harp and strings (1919) was written after Bax's first visit to Ireland after World War I and echoes the nostalgic mood of the Elegaic Trio, but the scoring is bolder and colorfully orchestral in nature. The Fantasy Sonata for Harp and Viola (1927) was written in a more virtuosic manner for harpist Maria Korchinska who came into prominence in Britain in the mid 1920's. The combination of the lyrically tangy viola and the edgy but luminous harp create an intellectually stimulating work. And yet, the expressive lento hardly lacks deep emotion. The Sonata for Flute and Harp was commissioned by Korchinska and her husband but was never published and is now owned by the Sir Arnold Bax Estate. A gorgeously wistful middle movement is framed by two more animated outer movements. It's the most optimistic piece on this CD. The performances by the British group Mobius are superb, as is the sound. A disc to savor for lovers of impressionistic-romantic chamber music.
- Robert Moon
WALTON: Piano Quartet; String Quartet (1947) Maggini Quartet. Peter Donohoe, Piano. Naxos 8.554646.
William Walton (1902-1983) is primarily known for his film music, concertos and orchestral scores, but this disc combines his early Piano Quartet with the more mature masterpiece, the A minor String Quartet. The Piano Quartet was written in 1918-19, but the composer rewrote it several times throughout his lifetime. It was first performed in 1929 and he dedicated it to the Right Reverend Tomas Banks Strong, the Bishop of Repon, who encouraged the young composer and supported him financially in his early years. The first two movements and the last are works of strong drama. The Andante tranquillo shows the influence of Ravel and has a short but beautiful viola interlude that forshadows Walton's affinity for that instrument that was fully realized in the Viola Concerto written for William Primrose.
The A minor Quartet was written after the war and was transcribed (with Malcolm Arnold's assistance) in 1971 into the Sonata for Strings. The Maggini Quartet brilliantly captures the rhythmic thrust of the first two movements. The edgy, jagged Presto seethes with caged energy. There is a cool ardor (the viola is muted) to their playing in the beautiful Lento that reflects the slightly melancholic flavor of this movement. The final Allegro molto explodes, abruptly changing the mood, yet the viola's lyrical theme is fully exploited. Those who love this work as I do should hear the Hollywood Quartet's classic version, but it lacks the emotional expressiveness of the fine Maggini Quartet. Sonics are a little harsh in the first movement of the Quartet, but they do reflect an element of this movement. A superb disc.
- Robert Moon
MASSENET: ManonManon: Angela Gheorghiu
Le Chevalier Des Grieux: Roberto Alagna
Lescaut: Earle Patriarco
Le Comte Des Grieux: José Van Dam
Guillot de Morfontaine: Gilles Ragon
De Brétigny: Nicolas Rivenq
Poussette: Anna Maria Panzarella
Javotte: Sophie Koch
Rosette: Susanne Schimmack
Chorus Master: Renato Balsadonna
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Libretto: Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the story by Antoine-François Prévost's novel L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731).EMI 7243 5 57005 2 (3 CDs).
Although Manon is labeled Opéra comique, its subject matter (two lovers torn asunder by eighteenth-century morality) suffuses this work with a tragic inevitability. And although it's three hours long, the opera is a fast-moving pastiche that never alights anywhere for long. In consequence, even musically transporting passages feel hastily put together and prematurely truncated. In spite of these drawbacks, however, Manon has remained Massenet's most popular opera since its completion in 1883.
Massenet wrote Manon as a showcase for the prima donna, and in this performance Gheorghiu does an admirable job of remaining faithful to the composer's intentions. Gheorghiu almost singlehandedly carries the entire opera, conveying the eponymous heroine's girlish innocence and flightiness with great artistry. Her singing is flexible, translucent, and expressive, with some lovely legato and many interesting accents and highlights. Gheorghiu's former tendency toward heaviness is not in evidence here. The Act 1 aria "Je suis encor tout étourdie" (I'm still completely dizzy) is pure cotton candy-light, airy, and sweet. And in the Act 3 paean to youth she reaches the high notes smoothly and with great ease.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Alagna. With a few exceptions, he seems uninvolved with the role and produces a rather muddy and bland sound. His Act 3 aria "Ah! fuyez, douce image" (Ah! Vanish, sweet memory), although ardently sung, is marred by sloppy enunciation, which is often the case with native speakers who feel they don't have to make the effort to pronounce clearly. In Act 5, when Des Grieux is moved to pity by the sight of Manon being led as a prisoner ("Manon! Pauvre Manon!" [Manon! Poor Manon!]), Alagna does sing with feeling, but even here his sweet-timbred voice sounds forced.
The secondary characters are well developed. Van Dam, as Des Grieux's father, is suitably noble, sober, and compassionate; Patriarco's Lescaut is wordly and expressive and conveys the drama effectively.
This set is worth having if only for the pleasure of hearing how Gheorghiu infuses the role with crystalline charm.
- Dalia Geffen
HANDEL: Theodora--(complete opera) Susan Gritton, sop./Susan Bickley, mezzo/Robin Blaze, counter- tenor/Paul Agnew, tenor/Neal Davies, bass/Paul McCreesh, cond./Gabrieli Consort and Players--Teldec 469061 (3 CDs).
Theodora was written in 1749, the next to last of Handel's sacred oratorios, and the only one to deal with other than a Biblical subject. With a libretto derived by the pious Rev. Thomas Morell from a contemporary recounting of a story of early Christian martyrdom, it's full of expressions of faith, loyalty, duty, and self-sacrifice. The meager "plot" describes the plight of Theodora, a virtuous Christian lady of Antioch, who is condemned to the brothels because she refuses to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. What little dramatic tension there is results from the efforts to save her from dishonor by Didymus, a Roman officer and fellow Christian who loves her; in the end they both go happily to their death. Appropriately, the music is mostly serene and stately, but along the way we get a succession of the most astonishingly beautiful arias and some of the most thrilling and exalted choruses Handel ever wrote. He's said to have thought it was the best of his works and to have been disappointed by its reception; fortunately we can judge for ourselves, and its unsentimental spirituality and subtle beauty make it deeply memorable.
McCreesh presents the full, uncut version sung at its first presentation in 1750, complete with da capo repeats and orchestral interpolations, plus an alternative version of Part II Scene 2. Gritton as Theodora and Bickley as her friend Irene have lovely, clear, rather small voices, and provide effective characterizations and easy coloraturas, with tasteful ornamentation. So does Agnew as the sympathetic Roman soldier Septimius, and Davies is forcefully dramatic as the tyrant Valens. Countertenor Blaze suffers from the imprecise focus and intonation common to his breed, but he is a sweet-voiced and entirely acceptable Didymus. McCreesh conducts briskly and knowledgeably; his Gabrieli Consort--recorded in excellent sound--plays with precision and warmth, and his chorus is well-disciplined and well-blended. There are several other good recordings, let by Somary (Vanguard), Harnoncourt (Teldec), and McGegan (Harmonia Mundi), and you won't go far wrong with any of them, but McCreesh offers the most consistent cast and much the best sound, and probably should be your first choice.
--Alex Morin
JANÁCEK: The Diary of One Who Disappeared--Peter Straka, tenor/Dagmar Pecková, contralto/Marián Lapcansk, piano--Supraphon 3378-2931
In 1916 a Brno newspaper published a set of poems purporting to be the work of a village lad, telling the story of his love for the gypsy girl Zefka and his sad decision to leave his family and home to be with her and their child. (It later turned out they were actually written by the poet Ozef Kalda.) The poems impressed Janácek, who read and wrote for the newspaper, and he set them to music as 22 brief songs for tenor, contralto, women's voices, and piano, with a piano interlude dividing them at the halfway point. The work is a compact chamber cantata, often very beautiful, combining into a dramatically effective whole the composer's use of impressionism, Moravian folk and speech idioms, and contemporary harmonies and modalities. It's primarily a vehicle for the tenor protagonist, with the contralto contributing a few sensual interpolations as Zefka and three offstage women's voices adding to the effect. Straka is excellent, using his sweet tenor expressively in both lyrical and dramatic passages as he tells his story, and Pecková is equally effective in her brief songs. Lapcansk is an experienced and first-rate accompanist, and fills out the disc with an excellent account (though in somewhat clangorous sound) of Janácek's Sonata 1 ("From the Street"). This is a valuable release, well worth hearing.
--Alex Morin
PIANISTS AS COMPOSERS: Compositions and transcriptions by Bauer, Casadesus, Chasins,
Cherkassky, Cortot, Friedman, Gabrilowitsch, Gould, Hamelin, Hofmann, Horowitz, Iturbi, Johannesen, Levitzki, Levy, Lewenthal, Pennario, Philipp, Rosenthal, Sancan, Sapellnikoff--Donald Manildi, piano--Élan 82415.
Donald Manildi is curator of the International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland, a distinguished scholar and critic, and a capable pianist. He has had the interesting idea of putting together a collection of pieces by pianists who were primarily known as performers rather than composers. As he says in his typically well-written program notes, this was common practice among earlier generations of pianists, though generally limited to short works for their own use, often as encores. The 21 brief selections here are all unfamiliar--12 of them are first recordings--and widely varied in nature. None of them is particularly memorable or demanding, but all of them are attractive, and Manildi makes as much of them as can be expected. A nice idea, and a nice disc, in excellent sound.
--Alex Morin
BACH: Cantatas and arias--Ian Bostridge, tenor/Fabio Biondi/Europa Galante--Virgin Veritas 7423 5 45420
This release offers two complete Bach cantatas--"Ich habe genug", BWV 82a (the high tenor version), and "Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht", BWV 18--plus arias from four others. All of them are among Bach's most deeply felt works, reflecting the pietistic preoccupation of his time with personal sin, death, and redemption, and all of them are very beautiful. Ian Bostridge has an exceptional voice that's eminently suited to this music, clear and accurate; with impeccable diction and great sensitivity to the texts; he sounds stronger and weightier here than in his previous recordings, which is all to the good. He invests everything he sings with compelling intensity and expressiveness, drawing the listener into the music in a quite remarkable way. Fabio Biondi's Europa Galante is among the best period instrument groups active today; they are always idiomatic, playing with warmth and accurate intonation, and provide much pleasure both as accompanists and in the three sinfonias interspersed among the arias. Excellent sound and notes add to the value of this splendid disc, which belongs in the collection of every lover of Bach's music and of vocal artistry at its best.
--Alex Morin
Two modern but very accessible ballet scores next =
PHILIP FEENEY: The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Northern Ballet Theatre
Orchestra/Singers of Opera North/John Pryce-Jones - Black Box BBM1009:
Young composer Feeney has already composed original full-length scores for this same ballet company based in Manchester England. The first was Cinderella and the second Dracula. Now we have the story of Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Frollo. The score is in three acts, sounding at times almost as though it could substitute handily for the existing score to the Charles Laughton classic film on the subject. Naturally much is musically made of bell sounds. An interesting and very accessible modern ballet score, and another winner from this very enterprising new classical label.
- John Sunier
JOHN McCABE: Edward II, ballet in 2 acts - Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Barry Wordsworth - Hyperion DCA67135/6:
This is also the third original ballet score for composer McCabe, who also had three of his abstract works transformed into ballets. He used a plot derived mainly from the play Edward II by Christopher Marlowe. While the score follows the onstage action closely, it is full of soaring melody and catchy rhythms and fine for just listening to. The treatment of the characters of the King and his lover Gaveston strongly explore their emotional depths. McCabe has created many original themes redolent of medieval music but the orchestrations are rich and varied in a modern style, making for a fascinating contrast. Certain moments of high tension call for the highly unexpected electric guitar in the orchestra. An important addition to the ballet music field, with luxurious sonics recorded by engineer Tony Faulkner in the familiar acoustics of Walthamstow Assembly Hall in London.
The flute and variations thereof are central to our next two new releases =
KEITH GATES: Flute Works - Suite Comique for flute, piano and strings; Sonatina for flute and
piano; Concertino for flute and winds; Cajun Waltz for flute and guitar - Judy Hand, flute/Gates, piano/Lake Charles Wind Symphony/Stephen L. Hand - Summit Records DCD 254:
Gates studied at Julliard with Vincent Persichetti and Hugo Weisgall. He has composed in all forms, including several operas and commissions for concert and military bands. This CD presents his very idiomatic and beautifully melodic works for the flute in several different settings. The opening suite was commission by flutist Ransom Wilson and is virtuosic with a taste of Ravel. Flutist Hand can also handle it with aplomb. And conductor Hand has a good hand in the success of this plus the Concertino as well. (Sorry, couldn't resist that.) All three works, plus the encore, are completely captivating. Anyone with a penchant for the flute will have to pick up this terrific CD.
- John Sunier
Piccolodeon - Works for piccolo & flutes, harp & percussion - Laurence Trott, piccolo/flute/alto flute; Sara Cutler, harp; Wm. Moersch, marimba/hammered dulcimer/vibes - Fleur de Son Classics FDS 57937:
Moving up the frequency chart a bit, we have a performer with the unique credit of having performed the first all-piccolo recital ever given in New York City. Trott has also been heard on NPR and has recorded for several other labels previously. He has transformed the possibilities of this small instrument much as Larry Adler did the harmonica. Piccolodeon is the name he gave his unusual chamber music trio. It possesses a wide range of tonal color and sounds, as demonstrated on this fun CD. Much of the music is of folk or world music origin: A Peruvian Suite, Irish Folk Fest and Appalachian Suite. Then there is the strongly folk-flavored Sonatina by Bartok, the Children's Corner Suite by Debussy, and a work called "Kestrel," which is a tone painting of the falcon-like bird.
- John Sunier
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