Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, first heard in 1907, once seemed important. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Met premiere in 1911 with Farrar and later arranged some of its music for a 1947 recording with his NBC Symphony.
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.
Oliver Knussen burst into British music with an unprecedented flourish. In 1967, the London Symphony Orchestra premiered Knussen’s First Symphony, with István Kertész scheduled to conduct.
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.”
The novels of Sinclair Lewis once shot across the American literary skies like comets, alarming and fascinating readers of that era, but their tails didn’t extend far behind them.
Once the province of only the most dedicated opera fanatics, mid-20th century recordings of privately taped live performances have become more widely available.
Flute players in opera orchestra around the world must look forward to the frequent appearances of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, knowing that while the stage spotlight in the mad scene will be on the soprano, the orchestral spotlight will be on their instrument.
A little over a year ago Bach scholar Michael Maul found himself in the exceedingly unusual position of having discovered a hitherto unknown Bach composition, a birthday ode for Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, entitled “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn.
The discovery of Bach works is not unknown in our day—the Neumeister chorale preludes saw light of day in 1984, for instance—but the occurrence is rare and much to be celebrated, as in this first recording of the ode from the Bach forces of John Eliot Gardiner.
For Bach, “Alles mit Gott” is something of an unusual piece: a strophic continuo air for soprano in twelve stanzas with lengthy instrumental ritornello between the strophes. The text is by Johann Anton Mylius, who penned the ducal salute as a trope on the duke’s motto, “Omnia cum deo et nihil sine eo” (All things with God, and nothing without Him). Both he and Bach imbedded separate patronal gestures in the ode itself: orthographically Mylius creates an acrostic of the Duke’s name; Bach, drawn we suspect to things numerological, supplies the continuo introduction to the air with fifty-two notes, corresponding to the Duke’s fifty-second birthday (1713), which occasioned the ode itself.
The discovery of any work by Bach is significant, and “Alles mit Gott” rewards the listener not only with the aura of novelty, but also with an engaging lyrical lilt in the dialogue between soprano and bass. Does the lilt wear out after twelve successive stanzas? We are not given the chance to find out, as Gardiner opts for a three-stanza abbreviation, likely a smart choice where listeners are not closely attuned to the details of the text. The length of the poem raises a significant issue of proportion with regard to the string ritornello, as well. In the abbreviated version, the nineteen string bars seem long relative to the thirty-some odd measures for the voice. With twelve stanzas, however, the need for a substantial variety is a more pressing one, to say nothing of the singer’s need for vocal rest, and the length of the ritornello would meet these needs well.
Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas sings the ode with a congenially youthful sound, light and bright with notably clear articulation. The string band is wonderful in its blossoming of major downbeats and also in its fluent ornamentation on repetitions of the ritornello.
The remainder of the recording is devoted to live cantata excerpts from Gardiner’s millennial Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, celebrating both the dawn of the new millennium as well as the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. In a mammoth undertaking, Gardiner led performances of the entire corpus of Bach’s surviving church cantatas on the appropriate liturgical dates in churches throughout Europe and in the US from Christmas, 1999 to Christmas, 2000. The present recording offers a number of movements from Pilgrimage performances, mostly arias,that highlight the rich interplay of voice and obbligato instruments. All are accomplished renditions, and one of the pleasures of the disc is the opportunity to hear so many different soloists in a unified context—four different sopranos, singing arias “side-by-side” is here a treat of riches. Of the four, I would particularly single out Gillian Keith, whose performance of “Süsser Trost” from Cantata 151 is memorable for her focus of tone and elegance of execution. Keith is joined in this aria by flautist Rachel Beckett who brings to Bach’s ever-inventive line a remarkable choreography of decorative grace.
Peter Harvey’s performance of “Es ist vollbracht” from Cantata 159 with oboist Xenia Löffler is hauntingly beautiful, as well. One of Bach’s most sensuous arias, “Es ist vollbracht,” weds a slow-moving oboe line to string haloes and exquisite suspensions that underscore Bach’s affective depths. Harvey’s ability to keep the slow motion alive—a formidable challenge of control—and his lean and yet resonant tone combine to make this one of the best in the anthology.
Steven Plank
Oberlin College