Pictures Archive

MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; CHERUBINI: Symphony in D; BACK: Intrada – Orch. del Teatro “La Fenice”/ Sergiu Celibidache – IDIS

by Audiophile Audition | Feb 20, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

A spectacular Celibidache concert from Venice demonstrates his capacity for drama and vivid colors – always. MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; CHERUBINI: Symphony in D Major; BACK: Intrada – Orch. del Teatro “La Fenice” di Venezia/ Sergiu Celibidache – IDIS 6708, 68:34 [Distr. by Naxos] ****:  The live concert offered here, 31 October 1965, under the direction of Romanian maestro Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) proffers somewhat standard, spectacular fare, with the exception of Sven Erik Back’s 1964 Intrada, a percussive, convulsive work that tests the battery section of any ensemble. Back (1919-1994) had a role in contemporary Swedish music-making, and his sense of scoring certainly proves resonant, in a style that resembles Gottfried von Einem, at least in that most of the sound clusters fall within the traditional tonal syntax.  But the clash of timbres and choirs within the large ensemble – their sense of entries and silences – have more in common with contemporary Japanese classical music and the concept of Ma, space.  At the end of the ten-minute virtuoso piece, a slightly baffled audience reluctantly approves of what has transpired. The 1792 Cherubini Symphony in D opens with a lovely galant combination of strings and winds prior to its […]