Arensky • Tchaikovsky
Arensky: Chamber Symphony (arr.
Prooijen); Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
Amsterdam Sinfonietta/
Candida Thompson
Channel Classics CCS 37119 57:10 mins Not least of the problems presented to performers by Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings is its disarming title, which refers not to the work’s emotional content but rather its relative formal simplicity and concision when compared to the expressive and structural complexity of his symphonic music. Candida Thompson gets it just about right, fusing the chamber-scale precision and sensitivity of Neville Marriner’s celebrated Academy of St Martin in the Fields 1968 Argo recording with the near-overwhelming emotional heft of Herbert von Karajan’s 1980 Berlin Philharmonic remake for
DG. Some might long for the opulent luxuriance of Karajan’s Berliners or Eugene Ormandy’s ‘fabulous’ Philadelphians (CBS/SONY 1960); yet to hear these gifted Amsterdam players savour Tchaikovsky’s exquisite string writing with such lustrous finesse has its own rewards.
The unusual yet logical coupling is Arensky’s elegiac
String Quartet No. 2, composed in memory of Tchaikovsky. It is scored unusually for violin, viola and two cellos and features a central movement based on a Tchaikovsky song that later found fame in Arensky’s arrangement for string orchestra as the Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky. The captivating arrangements of the outer movements by doublebassist Marijn van Prooijen were commissioned by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in order to form the chamber symphony recorded here. This might not possess the melodic indelibility of Arensky’s Violin Concerto or First Suite for two pianos, yet the sincerity of his feelings can hardly be doubted after hearing the chant-like opening movement, which at times builds up a head of emotional steam to rival the Serenade’s exemplar.
Julian Haylock
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 ‘Choral’
Anja Kampe (soprano), Daniela Sindram (mezzo-soprano), Burkhard Fritz (tenor), René Pape (bass); Vienna Singverein; Vienna Symphony Orchestra/philippe Jordan
Wiener Symphoniker WS 017 63:13 mins With a work recorded as much as Beethoven’s Ninth has been, new competitors need to be more than good, and this recording had a very promising line-up. The opening is mistily mysterious, and as the theme comes into view the textures are transparent, with the woodwinds particularly expressive. Philippe Jordan’s touch in the fugal Scherzo is light and bracing, and the overall effect lithe; the Adagio sings softly and sweetly and has a properly organic momentum. What Wagner called the ‘horror fanfare’ which ushers in the finale is here more redolent of a modest little car-crash, but all proceeds satisfactorily until the soloists and chorus come in.
From that point on, however, this recording gives no pleasure.
The sound-quality lacks clarity of detail; the soloists don’t come into proper close-up, either individually or as an ensemble, and two of the performances are disappointing. René Pape comes in too fast for his initial solo, and his voice lacks the necessary burnish, while Anja Kampe’s sound has none of the beauty we expect. The chorus also comes in too fast, with the sopranos tending to scream at the top of the register. Crucially, Jordan fails to weld his disparate elements into an aesthetically coherent whole, with the result that the last few minutes are scrambled rather than triumphant. Michael Church PERFORMANCE ★★
RECORDING ★★
Bruckner
Symphony No. 7
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/ Alan Gilbert
Sony Classical 19075979532 66:26 mins Bruckner’s Seventh, by wide consent his loveliest symphony, certainly gets the loving treatment here. That’s not to say that it’s all soupy and unmeasured. Far from it: Alan Gilbert’s approach to long-term pace and shaping is highly convincing, with the four movements well-contrasted and the ending bringing the sense of squaring the circle, which is always a sign that that the voyage has been efficiently captained.
I do have a couple of small quibbles along the way: the generous opening out at the beginning of the first movement recapitulation doesn’t quite work for me here any more than it normally does (and it isn’t really necessary if you take Bruckner’s initial Allegro moderato marking seriously), but Gilbert recovers from that very quickly.
The NDR Elbphilharmonie plays beautifully throughout, making a sound that is ripe and deep (excellently recorded too) without being too plush. Yet aren’t there meant to be occasional moments of asperity even in this symphony? What is most gratifying about this performance, however, is that in an age when conductors tend to ‘monumentalise’ Bruckner the human element is there too – it’s a very expressive performance, even if it isn’t quite ‘fiery’ (Bruckner’s own self-description). I’d definitely listen to this Bruckner Seven again and expect to gain from the experience. But it isn’t quite a library choice. Stephen Johnson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Eric Coates
Orchestral Works Vol. 1: The Jester at the Wedding – Suite; Two Symphonic Rhapsodies; London Suite; By the Sleepy Lagoon; The Merrymakers, etc BBC Philharmonic/john Wilson Chandos CHAN 20036 70:39 mins
Eric Coates’s light music is so determinedly English in its fastidious skill, small horizons and emotional reserve that it comes almost as a shock to find the album’s booklet notes also supplied in German and French. But from the moment when John Wilson’s baton swirls the BBC Philharmonic into the galloping crotchets of The Merrymakers overture, happiness should be guaranteed even for audiences new to Coates’s output, long threaded into British life through its supply of BBC radio
Dohnányi
Symphony No. 1;
Symphonic Minutes
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-pfalz/
Roberto Paternostro
Capriccio C5386 67:74 mins
‘We find this symphony to be a work of great resource and imaginative charm, with nothing actually weak in its five movements and showing a degree of controlling power over the demonic spirit of the modern orchestra which is truly astonishing in so young a man.’ So opined the Manchester Guardian’s reviewer of the first performance of Ernö Dohnányi’s First Symphony, given by the Hallé Orchestra under Hans Richter in January 1902. Yet although Dohnányi’s First can justifiably claim to be the most significant Hungarian symphony of the late-romantic era, it never really captured the public imagination to the same extent as the symphonic works by his immediate contemporaries such as Mahler, Strauss and Josef Suk.
Still, the juxtaposition of passages of Hungarian flamboyance, especially in the evocative slow movement, with unmistakeable allusions elsewhere to Bruckner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and even Richard Strauss, makes the Symphony an attractive work. Furthermore, given that its only two previous recordings were made as long ago as 1998, there is certainly room for a modern alternative. In this new release from the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinlandpfalz under Roberto Paternostro, however, the orchestral playing is competent rather than polished, and the recording exposes some strangely balanced and fuzzy textures. Ensemble is not always watertight, especially in the fast and furious Scherzo, a flaw that also surfaces in the fleetingly Mendelssohnian passagework in the later Symphonic Minutes. In almost every respect, the Chandos recordings of both works, featuring the BBC Philharmonic under Matthias Bamert, provide far superior orchestral playing and greater interpretative insight. Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE ★★
RECORDING ★★★
Stuart Hancock
Variations on a Heroic Theme; Violin Concerto; Raptures – Suite for Orchestra
Jack Liebeck (violin); BBC Concert Orchestra/levon Parikian
Orchid Classics ORC100111 60:24 mins There should be nothing to fear in wide-eyed, big-hearted music that makes you feel, and it seems Stuart Hancock couldn’t agree more. In this debut disc of concert works by the British composer, the BBC Concert Orchestra makes a joyous hour of large, lyrical music. Hancock’s passion for film music is evident in the orchestration, drama and dynamics throughout. This is no more apparent than in the opening Variations on a Heroic Theme, a thrilling homage to the music of John Williams.
At the centre of the disc is Hancock’s 2005 Violin Concerto, here performed by Jack Liebeck with weighty orchestral accompaniment. Like the other works, melody is at the heart of the piece, which pivots between enveloping passion and humble, pastoral hues. Liebeck’s performance is committed and engaging; he makes every note count and demand attention.
Colour abounds on this disc and Hancock works from an immense palette. In the final five-movement Raptures there’s cinematic storytelling, balletic motion, a wonderful festival atmosphere and moments of light and shade. The spirit of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev is apparent here and there for sure; Hancock is a worthy successor and surely destined to write for the ballet stage. Michael Beek
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
R Schumann
★★★★
★★★★
Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 4 (original 1841 version); Genoveva Overture
London Symphony Orchestra/ John Eliot Gardiner
LSO Live LSO 0818 (hybrid CD/SACD) 69:04 mins
These live performances from the Barbican in March 2018 are a further stage in John
Eliot Gardiner’s advocacy of Schumann, whom he – no longer as unfashionably as he suggests – regards as an original master of orchestration. To make his point clearer, he plays with an almost skeletal London Symphony Orchestra, so that the strings are rasping rather than warm, and the overall effect, in all three pieces, is of an abrasiveness which goes oddly with the glowing melodies of which Schumann was so adorable a master.
Gardiner begins with the Overture to Schumann’s one opera, Genoveva. It’s a fascinating, highly original piece – unfortunately the only part of the opera which commands any interest. Then follows the first version (1841) of the Fourth Symphony, actually the first of the symphonies to be written, but ten years later, in the face of criticism of his orchestration, Schumann radically rewrote it and made it much longer. The later version has almost always been preferred, but Gardiner shows, to maximum effect, how striking the 1841 version is, in its concentration and its unromantic austerity of tone. It still seems to me that there is a place for both versions, especially since they were recorded by some of the greatest conductors of the mid-20th century.
The last work, No. 2 in C major, is problematic, though certainly well worth hearing. Much longer than the Fourth, it isn’t always clear that Schumann was in full command of its structure, but there are too many valuable things in it for it to be overlooked. Michael Tanner PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★
Shostakovich
Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/mariss Jansons
BR Klassik 900184 73:11 mins
This is at least Mariss Jansons’s third recording of the Leningrad, a work of some personal significance as the conductor himself grew up in that city. In this new version with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jansons’s broad and noble characterisation of the Symphony’s opening, rather too expansive for Allegretto, is certainly not as arresting as the vigorous and purposeful start of his previous recording with the Royal Concertgebouw (RCO). However, the general impression of a world at peace, occasional jarring note apart, plausibly sets the scene for the ‘invasion’ theme. Fussily deliberate and mechanical, the falsity of its upbeat major-key demeanour is evident here from the start. The sudden key change after the long crescendo may not exactly be hair-raising, but Jansons and his orchestra nonetheless build tension, and the frog is well and truly boiled once the rasping trumpets and trilling strings usher in fullthrottled terror.
The rest, though adequately done, is not on the level of Jansons’s recording with the RCO. That earlier account, and indeed a good number of other versions (such as Petrenko’s on Naxos), more readily convinces one that the Leningrad is a great symphonic masterpiece rather than an overlong exercise in illustrative music. Daniel Jaffé
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Alexander Veprik
★★★
★★★★
Dances and Songs of the Ghetto; Two Symphonic Songs; Five Little Pieces for Orchestra; Pastorale; Two Poems
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Christoph-mathias Mueller
MDG MDG902133-6 (hybrid CD/SACD) 74:51 mins
The conductor Christophmathias Mueller discloses in a booklet note that after his first experience of music by Alexander Veprik (1889-1958), he ‘sat for a long time hardly daring to breathe’. It’s a sensation that others might well experience in this pioneering album of orchestral music from a long-forgotten Russian composer previously located only in intimate group portrait albums of Jewish music from the early Soviet era.
He is, for one thing, a master orchestrator; but the coup de grace comes with his powerful skill in shaping a musical drama and wrenching your heart in the process.
Listen to the slow-fade ending, so magical, so affecting, of his Five Little Pieces of 1930: a musical symbol, so it seems, of the steady suppression of Jewish culture as Stalin’s grip intensified. For Veprik at his most distinctively Jewish, we have the kaleidoscopic, rhapsodic Dances and Songs of the Ghetto (1927). In later pieces, all superbly played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, nationalistic folk notes rise to the fore, though the Jewish hearttug remains, along with the despair of a composer who through the Stalin years suffered loss of work, imprisonment, and four years in a labour camp. Pastorale, heard in its final version of 1958, is particularly moving for the melancholy ache puncturing its attempted calm – an emotional mix heightened further in the substantial Two Poems from the same period. Veprik needs to be reclaimed by music history, and this splendidly-recorded album is the perfect flag-bearer for the cause. Geoff Brown
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
L’impatiente
★★★★
★★★★
Haydn: Symphony No. 87; Ragué: Symphony in D minor; plus arias by Gluck, Lemoyne, Vogel & Gretry Sophie Karthäuser (soprano); Le Concert de la Loge/
Julien Chauvin (violin)
Aparté AP210 61:13 mins
No. 87 was the last of the six symphonies Haydn composed for Paris in 178586; as it’s less familiar than some of its nicknamed companions, such as ‘The Bear’ and ‘The Hen’, Julien Chauvin, leader and conductor of the Concert de la Loge, encouraged his audiences to come to its rescue by thinking up a title for it. They came up with ‘L’impatiente’, which encapsulates the exceptionally energetic character of its outer movements. That’s an aspect of the music which Chauvin captures well – perhaps too much so in the finale, which he takes at breakneck speed.
The D minor Symphony by the now obscure Louis-charles Ragué begins promisingly, with excited syncopations. But Ragué doesn’t seem to have had much talent for developing into his material, and the central section consists of no more than a long sequence of rising arpeggios. Ragué was a leading harpist of his day, and Chauvin has incongruously rescored the slow movement – originally just for strings – to include a prominent part for harp.
Of the vocal numbers, all finely sung by Sophie Karthäuser, perhaps the most striking is the extract from Phèdre by Jean-baptise Lemoyne. It’s a recitative with much trembling in the string parts reflecting the singer’s state of mind. Also impressive is the recitative prefacing the aria from Grétry’s Les Mariages samnites. The aria itself features parts for solo viola and bassoon, but the music is too easy-going to convey the dark thoughts being expressed. This enterprising disc comes with an informative and lavishly illustrated booklet. Misha Donat PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★
★★★★