The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal. Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms do occur.
Among the recent recordings of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Valery Gergiev’s release on the LSO Live label is an excellent addition to the discography of this work.
While not unknown, the songs of Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) deserve to be heard more frequently.
Recorded on 5 and 6 May 2008 and 17 and 18 January 2009 at the Lisztzentrum (Raiding, Austria), this recent Bridge release makes available the piano-vocal versions of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder performed by mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, accompanied by Russell Ryan.
Contraltos rarely achieve the acclaim and renown of sopranos. Assigned few leading roles in opera, they are condemned to playing the villain or the grandmother, or to stealing the castrati’s trousers in en travesti roles.
Following their 2011 Decca recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts (1566), I Fagiolini continue their quest to unearth lost treasures of the High Renaissance and early Baroque, with this collection of world-premiere recordings, ‘reconstructions’ and ‘reconstitutions’ of music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and their less well-known compatriots Viadana, Barbarino and Soriano.
Eternal Echoes is an album of khazones [Jewish cantorial music] for cantorial soloist, solo violin and a blended instrumental ensemble comprising a small orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony is an outstanding contribution to the composer’s discography.
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Based on performances given in Summer 2010 at the Lucerne Festival, this recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio is an admirable recording that captures the vitality of the work as conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was one of the most popular composers of his day in Poland, and of the many works he wrote for the stage, two are performed from time to time, Halka (1848) and Strazny dwór [The Haunted Manor] (1865).
The Polish alto Jadwiga Rappé is a familiar voice in various stage and concert works, and the recent release of a selection of songs by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) is an opportunity to hear her performing artsongs.
Originally released on multiple discs in 1981 this reissue on two CDs is a comprehensive collection of art songs by Italian and French composers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
An exciting contribution to the discography of this popular opera, the live performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome from the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden is a compelling DVD.
Released in late 2011, Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the new staging of Berg’s Lulu at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona is an excellent contribution to the discography of this fascinating opera.
A recent release by the Metropolitan Opera, this two-disc set makes available on DVD the famous performance of Berg’s Lulu that was broadcast on 20 December 1980 as part of the PBS series “Live from the Met.”
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Since his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1971, conductor James Levine has come to represent the house’s commitment to artistic excellence — reliable, professional, and immaculately presented.
I have long been accustomed to the grumblings of my German and Italian colleagues concerning the pronunciation and expression of musical works in their native languages by English-native singers and choirs. I had chalked it up to benevolent xenophobia, but this beautiful recording gives me new insight into their perspective.
George Frederic Handel, Athalia HWV 52
Simone Kermes, Olga Pasichnyk, Trine Wilsberg Lund, sopranos; Martin Oro, counter-tenor; Thomas Cooley, tenor; Wolf Matthias Friedrich, bass.
Kölner Kammerchor and Collegium Carthusianum, conducted by Peter Neumann.
MDG 332 1276-2 [2CDs]
I have long been accustomed to the grumblings of my German and Italian colleagues concerning the pronunciation and expression of musical works in their native languages by English-native singers and choirs. I had chalked it up to benevolent xenophobia, but this beautiful recording gives me new insight into their perspective.
I should first start with pointing out that this is an inherently valuable project since it is one of a very few recordings of Athalia available (though an extraordinary Academy of Ancient music performance released more than two decades ago, with Dame Joan Sutherland in the title role, is still available) — and it is arguably the best recording yet. Given the proliferation of Messiah and Jephtha CDs, it is great to have this gem available to complement the plentiful offerings of more well-known oratorios. This early example of the genre is all the more interesting to those of us who know Handel's later choral works, since it is so clearly indebted to the English anthem tradition on which Handel drew self-consciously in his invention of the "English Oratorio". Choruses from his later and more famous oratorios contain large and elaborate polyphonic passages, as Handel brought to bear his chops as Lutheran sacred composer; here the choruses are for the most part lighter and more homophonic (but equally grand) in the style of the anthems of Purcell and Blow. In these passages, the ensemble brings out the wonderful subtleties of texture, and the crispness and flexibility is as remarkable as the apparently effortless beauty of tone and tuning.
The soloists also have spectacular voices, and the recording space chosen absolutely brings out the resonance and individual color of each voice (with three sopranos as leading roles, this is important to follow the interaction between the parts). But here is where I join the curmudgeonly perspective of my German and Italian friends: the English pronunciation is uniformly quite stilted, and the singers (with the exception, interestingly, of native-English speaking Cooley) seem to revel in their tone quality to the point of sacrificing enunciation and clarity of text. Martin Oro, in particular, has a delightful counter-tenor, but does not seem too concerned with the fact that the words he is singing have consonants as well as vowels. Granted, the stereotype of "the early music sound" as requiring complete subservience to enunciation, to the detriment of beauty of tone, is fortunately a thing of the past. Still, especially in the recitatives, this reviewer might have wished not to rely on the printed libretto in order to understand the words.
In any case, the linguistic awkwardness does not in any way take away from the supreme beauty of the soundscapes that Neumann and his ensembles — and the silver-voiced soloists — create. Each of them has a marvelous sound, and the contrast in dramatic character between the evil queen Athalia and the pure Joas and Joad are conveyed with great expression. But if the listener's native language is English, there should be no expectation of being able to follow the story without reliance on the booklet (which is very well prepared, with great background on Athalia and some thoughtful comments on performance practice). Of course, that doesn't generally bother us when we sit down to enjoy a recording in a language that we don't know well, so perhaps this is proper payback for the self-assuredness with which English singers have butchered other European languages for a very long time.
All in all, a beautiful and much-recommended recording, a great companion to a CD of Messiah or Jephtha to bookend a Handel-lover's collection of the remarkable genre of English Oratorio.
Andrew Dell'Antonio
The University of Texas at Austin
[Editor's Note: Click here for a discography of Athalia and other oratorios by Handel. No claim is made regarding its completeness.]