CLASSICAL CD REISSUES
FEBRUARY 2001
STRAVINSKY and PROKOFIEV Conduct Their Own Works: STRAVINSKY: Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fee; Dumbarton Oaks Concerto; PROKOFIEV: Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64b
Igor Stravinsky conducts Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (Divertimento); Dumbarton Oaks Festival Orchestra/Serge Prokofiev conducts Moscow Philharmonic
Parnassus PACD 96023 68:09
While Igor Stravinsky and Serge Prokofiev were excellent pianists, their abilities on the podium were limited; Ansermet used to tell the story of how Stravinsky led "Le Sacre du Printemps" at a slow tempo because of his deficiencies, then claimed everyone else's tempo was wrong! Prokofiev learned the conductor's craft from Nikolai Tcherepnin (and Nikolai Malko), and he gained a fairly adequate technique in leading his own music, as well as music by Verdi and Beethoven. Stravinsky left a considerable legacy as a conductor, not only in his own music, but in that of Tchaikovsky as well; the 1941 Divertimento with the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico fairly coincides with his Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in New York with Erica Morini, which survives from a radio broadcast.
The 1947 recording of the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, made for the Keynote label, celebrates the tenth anniversary of this spirited, angular work, written for the 30th wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. The pickup orchestra is in fine form, and it consists of talented players like Alexander Schneider, Bernard Greenhouse, and Samuel Baron. Both Stravinsky performances are solid, idiomatic readings of his work. The Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss is a melange of Tchaikovsky melodies (particularly the reprise of the Op. 10, No.3 Humoresque) in pretty and unexpected colors. Excepting some surface swish the transfer is quite clean. The Dumbarton Oaks record plays with little distraction. Prokofiev's 1938 ensemble, on the other hand, is somewhat ragged, especially in the string tone. His tempos are brisk and forward-moving; his Friar Laurence does not dawdle. The scene at Juliet's grave is quite noble in conception, ret! aining that "Medieval" quality of a courtly dance of death. Another nice addition to the Composer Series of concert staples, it is special to have one of Stravinsky's rarest discs--the Divertimento--restored to the active catalogue.
-Gary Lemco
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57; String Quartet No. 2 in A, Op. 68
Dmitri Shostakovich, piano/Beethoven String Quartet
Vanguard Classics OVC 8077 62:05 (Distrib. Allegro)
No recording date informs this reissue from Vanguard's extensive Russian collection, but I assume it derives from the mid-1950's, given its occasionally harsh, monaural sonics. The original Moscow Conservatory Quartet (founded 1923) had changed its name to the Beethoven Quartet , and its leader was Dmitri Tziganov, who made a number of transcriptions of the Shostakovich piano preludes. Working in concert with the composer, the resulting ensemble is a brilliant, acerbic and often painfully delicate pastiche of sound, particularly in the Quintet's Adagio, a magnificent, polyphonic lament for the state of the world (1940's war-torn Europe).
Equally compelling is the Scherzo in B, whose accumulated momentum takes on a Lisztian ferocity.
The Second Quartet, from 1944, is a Manichean struggle from darkness to light, more in the Aeolian mode than in A Major, and rife with inner turmoil. One might read "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" to this music. Violinist Tziganov has some wondrous moments in the Recitative and Romance, a kind of concertante meditation in the manner of a Moussorgsky aria.
The latter composer's lachrymose sentiments seem to dominate the final movement, a theme with eighteen variations that might also owe something to the Tchaikovsky Trio in A Minor. What the disc captures is the mastery Shostakovich achieved over traditional sonata-form, while subsuming the structure to his melancholy, powerful, personal idiom. Strong stuff, grandly conceived and executed.
-Gary Lemco
SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto in F# Minor, Op. 20; Reverie for Orchestra, Op. 24; Prometheusthe Poem of Fire, Op. 60
Heinrich Neuhaus, piano (Concerto)
Alexander Goldenweiser, piano (Prometheus)
Nikolay Golovanov conducts Orchestra and Chorus of the All-Union RadioMusic Boheme CDBMR 908087 52:38 (Distrib. Albany)
Adding to the restoration of the Scriabin legacy inscribed by Nikolay Golovanov (1893-1951), this disc gives us recordings made in 1946 and 1952 in faded, lackluster sound but filled with passionate intensity. Scriabin began his orchestral writing career with the extended prelude, Reverie, in 1898. Beginning in the woodwinds and working up a melodic lather in the strings, it forecasts the yearnings of the later poems and symphonies. The youthful 1897 Concerto, which has had acolytes as diverse as Solomon and Ashkenazy, finds a faithful follower in Heinrich Neuhaus, even if the piano sound is tinny. The 1910 Prometheus celebrates the most often cited Titan of the Romantic era, the giver of divine fire and plastic form to Man, utilizing the spheres of light and music, with piano, chorus and orchestra blended into a pagan frenzy of voluptuous ardor. Can this piece really be related to Beethoven's equally curious Op. 80? Goldenweiser's poised, distant, Arctic touch seems to balance the histrionic pantheism latent in all this artistic self-worship. This music would go well with 'the River' section of Hesse's "Siddhartha." Having reviewed the Scriabin Second Symphony with Golovanov on the same label, I stand by my former comments as to the authenticity of these readings. They are highly mannered but potently apt for this self-indulgent music. In a way, the First Symphony, with its hymn to Art (which Scriabin always spelled with a capital "I"), culminates this sensibility. To be savored in your personal hothouse.
-Gary Lemco
Paul Jacobs, piano: BUSONI, BACH, BARTOK, BRAHMS, MESSAIEN, STRAVINSKY
Arbiter 124 66:16; 78:37 (Distrib. Qualiton)
Paul Jacobs (1930-1983) was, along with Charles Rosen, Ursala Oppens, William Masselos, Webster Aitken, Glenn Gould, and Peter Serkin, a true "modernist" in his choice of contemporary repertory and in his approach to the more traditional keyboard works. Both pianist and harpsichord virtuoso, Jacobs became the official pianist of the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein: his association with the music of Elliott Carter, Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Copland, Boulez, Berio and others became a matter of course, and the level of his musicianship gained the attention of Teresa Sterne of Nonesuch Records, who signed him to a recording contract. Arbiter has gathered together the 1976-79 records Jacobs made for Nonesuch, whici include all of the Busoni transcriptions of Bach and Brahms, the latter made with the composer's approval. We must suppose Jacobs' Debussy inscriptions are slated for future release.
The dominant composer in this set is Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), a composer whose time has still not come, a brilliant pianist-composer in the manner of Liszt, but whose intellectual tradition derived almost exclusively from Bach polyphony, with the exception of his harmonic theory, which resembles aspects of both Scriabin and Schoenberg, minus their idiosyncratic dogmas. With the exception of the more comprehensive compilation by Douglas Madge, Jacobs' is a generous portion of Busoni's work, including the Six Short Pieces for the Cultivation of Polyphonic Playing (1923) and the six Sonatinas (1910-1919), works that hearken to The Art of Fugue even as they exploit digital and contrapuntal possibilities that have more in common with the multi-voiced motets of an even earlier age. Jacobs' cool, clear renditions of these works comes from a lifetime of study and devotion: he takes even further along, into micro-rhythms and polytonality in the music of Messaien and Bartok: the former's Four Rhythmic Etudes and Bartok's 3 Etudes from 1918 each exploit dimensions of chordal color and graded dynamics in bold combinations. Add Stravinsky's Op. 7 Four Etudes, and the penetrating, cascading combinations of polytonality and polyrhythm have their spokespersons for infinite permutations, some of which pulverize the meter in a manner worthy of Webern.
The remainder of the program is devoted to Busoni transcriptions, those "hyphenated" pieces derived from Bach and (late) Brahms organ chorales, and promulgated by pianists ranging from Lipatti, to Kempff, Horowitz and Michelangeli. Of particular note are two different renderings of "Herzlich thut mich verlangen," one militant, one elegiac, with alternate harmonizations. The same is true for Bach's rendering of "Adam's Fall," with its serpentine, chromatic bass figures, suggestive of the serpent in the Garden. Jacobs plays chorales with more legato than is his wont, but without sacrificing that aloof, occasionally frigid objectivity he commands. Few pianists have taken such pains to clarify modern, polyphonic textures as Jacobs (and Glenn Gould, in a thoroughly different context). What emerges from this set are the forward-looking images, the sheer, ardent vitality of these musical minds, each committed to the piano as an instrument of vision and color. If the colors and contours are harsh, disturbing, unnerving, so much the better!
These are prophets, and Paul Jacobs is their acolyte. If one is to confront this confrontational music, let Jacobs render the glass less darkly. . .If nothing else, Jacobs makes one rethink his elements of music theory. Recommended.
-Gary Lemco
DELIUS: Orchestral Works, Volume 2
John Brownlee, baritone
London Select Choir
London Philharmonic
Royal Philharmonic (in The Walk to the Paradise Garden)
Sir Thomas Beecham conducting, 1927-1936Naxos Historical 8.110905
The music of Frederick Delius (1862-1934) found its first great champion in Sir Thomas Beecham, and these inscriptions, made under the auspices of the Delius Society, were classics of their kind. This second of three reissues from Naxos gives us The Walk to the Paradise Garden from A Village Romeo and Juliet, Sea Drift, Intermezzo from Fennimore and Gerda, In a Summer Garden, and Over the Hills and Far Away. Idyllic and pantheistic, Delius is a composer of landscapes, utilizing melodic fragments that like shades of woodwinds and sudden, throbbing crescendos in the strings. It is 'effective' music, and I have always categorized it along with the music of Respighi as somewhat decadent. It is nevertheless pretty, and it shows off Beecham's superb players, like Leon Goossens' oboe and Reginald Kell's clarinet, to distinct advantage.
The big piece in this volume is the Sea Drift, set to words of Walt Whitman, and performed in 1936 with the London Philharmonic and baritone John Brownlee. I find the Australian Brownlee's a nasal baritone with a raspy middle, but his diction is clear. The choral sections have a shouted quality, but there is little shatter at the top. The dreamy pieces, Walk in a Summer Garden and Over the Hills and Far Away, maintain that exotic, contented-in-Shangri-La quality that marks most of his landscapes. The musical curio is the Intermezzo from Fennimore, dedicated to Beecham, and spliced together by Eric Fenby from preludes to scenes ten and eleven, with a few extra bars to make an independent concert piece. The recording from 1936 is its world premier. As remastered from HMV originals by David Lennick, these are fine, quiet restorations of a special repertory that every Beecham lover, and any serious devotee of Delius, will covet
-Gary Lemco.
Stokowski conducts - BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7; BRITTEN: Young Person's Guide;
FALLA: El Amor Brujo
Leopold Stokowski/BBC Symphony Orchestra
Gloria Lane, mezzo-soprano (Falla)BBC BBCL 4005-2 75:18
Taken from Promenade Concerts given 1963 (Beethoven, Britten) and 1964 (Falla), this disc repeats some material already available from other sources like Music & Arts, but in improved sound. The director of the festival, William Glock, had decided to make the Proms more "international" by inviting "foreign" conductorsgiven that Stokowski had been born in Londonand extending the repertory beyond the easily palatable fare that usually marked the concerts. Stokowski had originally proposed Schoenberg's "The Lucky Hand," but he substituted Falla's passionate pantomime El Amor Brujo with mezzo Gloria Lane. Having just performed it back in Philadelphia with Shirley Verrett-Carter, the score was fresh in Stokowski's mind and his sense of its sanguine drama undiminished.
The Beethoven Seventh is among Stokowski's favorite Beethoven staples: this 1963 version is comparatively relaxed and gentle; still within the rhythmically volatile parameters we expect, but decidedly less volcanic and fulminating than can be Stoky's wont. Stokowski opens with Britten's familiar Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, the so-called Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34. It is a pearl of a performance, with each section's savoring its transmutation of rhythm and color to the full, especially in the "Spanish" episode. As per expectation, the audience goes wild, the whole "concert," blended as it is from two distinct dates, is a keeper for the lover of great ensemble.
-Gary Lemco
SIBELIUS: Finlandia, Op. 26; Spring Song, Op. 16; The Countess' Portrait; Excerpts from The Tempest, Op. 109 and Karelia, Op. 11; Suite for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 117; Valse Triste; Pelleas and Melisande, Op. 46: Entr'acte and The Death of Melisande; Tapiola, Op. 112
Dong-Suk Kang, violin
Osmo Vanska conducts Lahti Symphony OrchestraBIS CD 1125 DDD 78:27 (Distrib. Qualiton)
These are relatively new "historical" recordings, this disc's being a compilation of performances made 1992-1999 with the talented Sinfonia Lahti (estab. 1949) under Osmo Vanska, who has a real passion for this music. For the veteran collector of Sibelius, the freshness of the conceptions, their heroic melodiousness, will be a selling point. What is attractive beyond the old wine in new bottles is the appearance of pieces like Spring Song (1903) and the andante The Countess' Portrait (1907), a lovely work writen in response to a poem by Topelius; Sibelius' piece was not even published until 1994. The Spring Song is another of those spun-out pieces of melody and color, much as Sibelius and Dvorak can weave these bits of musical magic. The late work, like the Suite for Violin and Orchestra, comes from 1929, when Sibelius was contemplating an Eighth Symphony. The Suite easily hearkens back to the Humoresques of Op. 87; it was Vanska who premiered this unpublished piece in 1990. The remainder of the program, the more popular symphonic pieces like Finlandia, Tapiola and Pelleas, will have their devotees from the ranks of Beecham, Rosbaud and Karajan, and Vanska's fervent readings will not displace them. But for that happy union of repertory and packaging, this is a fine Sibelius collation, impressively mounted and consistently rewarding.
-Gary Lemco
Anna Moffo: MOZART ARIAS
Alceo Galliera conducts Philharmonia Orchestra
Testament SBT 1193 64:55 (Distrib. Harmonia Mundi)I had the pleasure of interviewing soprano Anna Moffo in Atlanta some years ago, when she appeared with the Atlanta Symphony. I brought with me her RCA LP of her collaboration with Leopold Stokowski in Songs of the Auvergne, the Rachmaninov Vocalise, and the Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 (LM 2795). She lit up and told me without hesitation that working with Stokowski was one of the great learning experiences of her career. A great personal beauty, Moffo possessed a natural, light coloratura, something in the manner of Erna Berger and Roberta Peters, but perhaps needing a bit more effort to maintain her top voice. Her musical phrases and periods are rounded and well formed: she could do Norina in Don Pasquale or Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto with facility, and her fluid melismas permitted heroines from Donizetti and Giordano. Popular as she was at the MET and Aix-en-Provence, Moffo married David Sarnoff of RCA and secured herself all kinds of recorded goodies as a major star.
The group (actually derived from two separate sessions) of Mozart arias with the talented and under-represented Alceo Galliera comes from 1958. It includes selections from Le Nozze, Giovanni, Figaro, Seraglio, Cosi, Pastore and Zauberflote, along with the ubiquitous "Alleluia" from K. 165 and one concert aria from Metastasio, "Miserera, dove son?" K. 369 and two excerpts from the C Minor Mass. If lovers of Leontyne Price and Rita Streich are going to give up their CD's for this collation, I rather doubt it, but it does show off Moffo to good advantage. Her Cherubino is ingenuous without being cloying. I find her Pamina less convincing; it just seems too staid and premeditated. The Mass excerpts, the Laudamus te and Et incarnatus est are quite natural, with some nuances and touches that suggest oratorio was a hearty medium for Moffo's voice and its occasional transition to spinto tessitura. Moffo's Giovanni is a bit of a puzzle for me: I concluded that her "Batti, batti o bel Masetto" simply needs more maturity in the conception. Still, for style, flexibility of voice and a good sense of musical personality, the Moffo phenomenon held audiences in thrall for the 15 years so from the late 1950's to the early 1970's, and this disc shows us why.
-Gary Lemco
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