Colourful works performed with zeal
Erik Levi is impressed by this set of early orchestral pieces by Paul Ben-haim
Ben-haim
Symphony No. 1; Pan*; Pastorale variée**
*Claudia Barainsky (soprano),
**John Bradbury (clarinet); BBC Philharmonic/omer Meir Wellber Chandos CHAN 20169 60:45 mins
Born in Germany, Paul Ben-haim moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1933 after Hitler came to power, eventually establishing himself as a leading figure in Israeli music. The three compositions here chart Ben-haim’s path towards maturity, reflecting influences from both Europe and the Middle East.
Yet despite obvious differences in emphasis throughout the programme, the composer’s armoury remains remarkably consistent, not least in demonstrating his superb feeling for instrumental colour.
The earliest work, dating from 1932, is Pan – a gorgeously opulent symphonic poem for soprano and orchestra that derives much inspiration from Debussy and Richard Strauss. It is beautifully sung here by Claudia Barainsky with wonderfully atmospheric support from the BBC Philharmonic under its principal conductor, Omer Meir Wellber. A much more restrained aura surrounds the Pastorale variée, an extremely accessible work for solo clarinet and strings played by John Bradbury with great finesse.
The First Symphony is the most substantial work here. Composed during the early years of the Second World War, its fiercely dynamic outer movements – a combative Allegro energico and an obsessively rhythmic finale marked Presto con fuoco, performed with mesmerising urgency by Wellber and the BBC Philharmonic – surely reflect the turbulent political environment the composer faced at the time. In total contrast, the central slow movement is more lyrical and impassioned, an oasis of relative calm which inspires some tremendously eloquent playing. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★
Clarinettist John Bradbury plays with great finesse
This, unbelievably, is the first release dedicated entirely to her orchestral works. It’s not before time.
Hidden Landscape dates from
1973 and is conducted here live at the Proms by Norman Del Mar. The digital remastering is excellent and the piece, if maybe a little lengthy, has a powerful inner drive, with orchestration stormy and shadowed in colour but clear in texture. Columbia Falls is played by the RTE National Symphony Orchestra under Colman Pearce: again it evokes the outdoors and perhaps the mystical correlation between the outer state and the inner. The short Threnody (2014), based on Brendan Kelly’s adaptation of The Trojan Women, packs an emotional punch as curtain-raiser to the climactic work, The Crimson Bird.
You need to feel strong before listening to this: a 25-minute songcycle on poetry by John Fuller exploring the bond of mother and son in a war zone. Lefanu’s musical language has evolved to acquire perhaps more immediacy and she delves deep into these raw images and devastating emotions. Soprano Rachel Nicholls’s concentrated, edgy tone cuts across the orchestra, febrile, heart-rending but strongcentred. The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov is malleable, persuasive and chiefly well balanced. In the end the mother is left not knowing if her son has died as hero or murderer. The setting is every bit as agonising as it needs to be. Jessica Duchen PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Mahler
Symphony No. 9
Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra/ Ádám Fischer
Cavi-music AVI8553478 79:03 mins
In his personal note to this new recording, Ádám Fischer tells us he feels Mahler’s Ninth is not only about the process of dying, but also becoming reconciled to it. Accordingly, his tempos in the outer movements are relatively moderate and forward-moving compared with certain other ponderously fraught performances; he seems less inclined than some to make an expressive meal out of every melodic turn or string portamento, and his reading of the final page of dissolution, though measured, is less tremulous with regret than many. As such, it is a convincing enough reading, variegated with pungent detail in the second movement ländler, real drive in the savage ‘Rondo burleske’ and some touching playing in the chamber-like passages of the finale.
If much of the opening Andante and the heavily scored tuttis of the finale prove more problematic, this is partly because Mahler’s contrapuntal textures reached a new level of complexity here, and many details and balances that might be adjusted by spotlighting in a studio recording are covered in the live concert hall ambience of the Düsseldorf Tonhalle. Among comparable recent releases of the work, Herbert Blomstedt’s
2019 recording with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (on Accentus) retains the edge in sound, playing and interpretation. Bayan Northcott PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★
Prokofiev
Symphonies Nos 1-3
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/ Andrew Litton
BIS BIS-2174 (CD/SACD) 86:33 mins
It’s not a bad start, to say the least, that this Classical Symphony is the liveliest and most nuanced I’ve ever heard. Every phrase brims with character, dynamics are respected – how magically the Larghetto floats at what is for the most part pp – and dance rhythms crisp or toyed with (as in the Viennese-y hesitation on the upbeats in the Gavotte). In what is the first time Prokofiev’s first three symphonies have appeared together on disc, you hear for the first time how the Ds in which the Classical ends blast out on the three trumpets at the start of the steel-age Second, wrenching towards an embattled C major. Hard to believe this was composed a mere six years later in 1924; it inhabits a different universe. Litton highlights the melodic themes encased in elaborate metalwork and terraces the climaxes so that the biggest is the return of firstmovement material in the stomp of the second’s Variation Seven.
It’s a less extreme leap from the Second Symphony to the
Third, the subject matter of which remains wrapped in the evilsmelling textures of its parent opera about demonic possession, The Fiery Angel – despite Prokofiev’s protestations to the contrary. Yet how Litton loves and caresses the late-romantic themes, full of yearning portamenti in the strings, and gives extra space when needed. Nevertheless the first movement, one of the finest in the whole 20th century, moves excitingly towards a devastating climax. The eeriness persists towards the final heavymetal thrash, thrillingly vivid like everything else thanks to the exceptional BIS sound. A fitting climax to a wonderful symphonies series. David Nice
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Schmitt
La tragédie de Salomé*†, Oriane et le Prince d’amour – suite; Musique sur l’eau*; Légende** *Susan Platts (mezzo-soprano); **Nikki Chooi (violin); †Women’s Choir of Buffalo; Buffalo Philharmonic/joann Falletta
Naxos 8.574138 60:39 mins
These four works, covering some 40 years of Schmitt’s long career, display his magisterial writing for orchestra, full of varied colours and equally satisfying in the quieter, more delicate moments. His symphonic poem La tragédie de Salomé, shortened in 1910 from the full ballet but scored for a larger orchestra, reminds us of Gustave Moreau’s many paintings of the princess and the terrible story surrounding her. It’s dedicated to Stravinsky and, although he was later scathing about Schmitt’s music, this followed a cooling between them over another matter. At the time Stravinsky was profoundly impressed by the work, and not least by the irregular rhythms that anticipated (influenced?) those in
Le Sacre. They are given the right brutal treatment here, as are the rich orchestral colours.
The two later works, Oriane et le Prince d’amour and Légende, are equally attractive, but lack the drive and concision of Salomé, Légende in particular tending to drift with no clear purpose. This is a first recording of the piece in its transcription for violin from the original saxophone, as is the utterly gorgeous orchestral version of the song ‘Musique sur l’eau’. Composed for voice and piano in 1898, Schmitt orchestrated this in 1903, the same year in which his friend and fellow Fauré pupil Ravel was working on his orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade, and the two soundworlds have much in common. Beautifully sung by Susan Platts, it is one of the highlights of this interesting disc. Roger Nichols PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★
Schubert
Symphony No. 9 ‘Great’ Residentie Orkest The Hague/
Jan Willem de Vriend
Challenge Classics CC 72863 57:07 mins Period or modern style? This third instalment of Challenge Classics’s Schubert symphonies cycle explores both approaches: while modern instruments are evidently used, articulation is deft and neat, the strings’ vibrato is restrained but