16 Jan 2007
SHOSTAKOVICH: The Complete Symphonies
Recording a Shostakovich cycle has become de rigueur in recent years — a conductor’s mandatory right of passage, like recording a Beethoven or a Mahler cycle.
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Le Monde Reviews Lamento
Cela arrive rarement, le souffle coupé dès les premières notes. Une minute entière à retenir sa respiration dans une apnée d’émotion totale pour recevoir la première phrase du Lamento pour contralto, de Johann Christoph Bach, d’après les Lamentations de Jérémie, son ascension douloureuse, ornée de sanglots, puis les deux accords d’une longue plainte instrumentale, avant l’entrée, magique, de la voix de Magdalena Kozena. “Ach, dass ich Wassers g’nug hätte.” “Ah, si ma tête était remplie d’eau, si mes yeux étaient une source de larmes.” L’insouciance a été jusqu’alors votre lot ? Vous, toi, nous tous, pécheurs, allons connaître ce que pèse le lourd fardeau de nos iniquités – et la récompense de cette connaissance : 7 minutes 22 d’une pure splendeur musicale.
MOZART: Le Nozze di Figaro
Recorded in Tokyo on October 23, 1963, this live recording of Nozze di Figaro boasts fine sound, a top cast, and the leadership of a conductor of great skill and experience. The label, Ponto, has joined the ranks of such other companies as Opera D’oro and Gala in making available broadcast and in-house recordings at affordable prices. Sometimes these releases are not even worth the modest price asked for; this one may well have more to offer than higher-priced studio sets. After a slightly hesitant first few moments, the sound quality settles down and becomes admirably strong and well defined. There is relatively little stage noise, the voices have a natural presence without being too forwardly placed, and Böhm’s orchestral control can be relished. His may be an old-fashioned reading, but it never lags or lacks for humor or beauty. The audience can be heard laughing from time to time at the stage antics; applause only interferes with the musical pleasures at the end of Non piu andrai, when unrestrained clapping covers a bit of Böhm’s ironically happy martial send-off.
WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde
Elsewhere on Opera Today readers can find a recent review of a live recording of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro from the Ponto label, a company that has joined the ranks of Opera D’oro and Gala in offering, at budget price, live recordings of various provenance. At their best, as with that Nozze, these recordings offer in acceptable sound (sometimes better) performances of such quality they rival their more expensive competitors. At less than the best, however, even the budget price becomes exorbitant. This Tristan und Isolde, recorded on January 25, 1967, unfortunately belongs to the latter category. Unless one has a strong personal reason for wanting a keepsake of this company or the artists involved, the recording is unlikely to please most listeners. The primary reason is the sound. While not unlistenable, the recording is clearly an “in-house” affair, and probably from an audience member, as some of the coughing is more up-front than the singing. Worse, during the climax, some audience members are whispering as Isolde enters the Leibestod. One would love for a Jon Vickers to have been present to yell out, “Stop your damn whispering!”
BOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Bolcom is arguably the preeminent American opera composer of today. His third commission for Lyric Opera of Chicago, A Wedding, recently opened to mostly positive reviews. His previous work in the form, A View from the Bridge, had a successful run at the Metropolitan Opera following its premiere in Chicago.
VERDI: Il Trovatore
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BACH: Matthäus-Passion
On an accompanying CD and in the liner notes, interviewer Klaus J. Schönmetzler asks conductor Enoch zu Guttenberg, “Why another St. Matthew Passion?” This is a fair question considering the glut of recordings ranging from the overtly romantic to the idealized “authentic” (and mostly fast) Baroque editions. To his credit, Guttenberg responds to this question by acknowledging an aversion to interpreting Bach overly Romantically while desiring a Baroque sensibility. As a theologian, zu Guttenberg understands an undeniable conviction in Bach’s theology, particularly in the chorales, which he acknowledges can lead to a more Romantic interpretation. Zu Guttenberg’s attempt to capture this devotion coupled with the reality of twenty-first century instruments and performers, produces a St. Matthew stuck in a mediocre middle ground between a Baroque “ideal” and a Romantic interpretation.
Lamento with Magdalena Ko
The imposing figure of Johann Sebastian Bach has loomed large for Magdalena Ko ená throughout her career. It was her first disc of Bach arias on Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv label that brought the golden-voiced mezzo to the attention of the music world as early as 1997. Word then quickly went round that Magdalena was the perfect choice for Bach recordings. ”This disc that started my international career also was my introduction to the great Baroque conductors, including the wonderful scholar and musician Reinhard Goebel, with whom I’ve worked on my new disc, Lamento.” Although the title may suggest wailing and gnashing of teeth, this is a sublime and eclectic mixture of music by J. S. Bach, his relations and contemporaries. ”There’s a very optimistic feeling to this CD,” says Ko ená. ”Although all these pieces are about how horrible it is on this earth, they are really celebrating how great it will be afterwards. There’s a message of hope throughout.”
Gramophone Reviews Le Comte Ory
Colour, wit and life abound with a star turn from the Rossini tenor of the moment Comte Ory Le Comte Ory is the first great French-language comic opera. A late work (Paris, 1828), sensuous, witty and exquisitely crafted, it has...
Bullfrog Films' Don Giovanni: Leporello’s Revenge
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Recordings
The Shostakovich centenary in 2006 brought new attention to the composer and resulted in a barrage of recording projects, including the reissue of Haitink’s classics from the late 1970s and early 1980s with the London Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw; a collection put out by the composer’s son Maxim Shostakovich with the Prague Symphony; and even a boxed set by the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony of Milan, conducted by Oleg Caetani. Meanwhile, among several earlier releases still available, the most prominent ones are those by two conductors who, like Maxim Shostakovich, can boast a direct link to the composer, but who are arguably better musicians than he: Mstislav Rostropovich who recorded his cycle in 1998, and Rudolf Barshai, whose 2003 set with the WDR Sinfonie Orchester Köln is (at least according to Victor Carr Jr. at ClassicsToday.com) still “the one to beat.”
The Shostakovich cycle by Mariss Jansons released by EMI this past September stands out even in such illustrious company, and not just for its stunning Sotz-art décor. The set has been a life-long project for the conductor, spanning eighteen years of his career and involving eight different ensembles across two continents. Starting with a harrowing rendition of Symphony no. 7 by the (still at the time) Leningrad Philharmonic on its 1988 Scandinavian tour, it presents Europe and America’s premiere orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic in Symphony no. 1 and the London Philharmonic in no. 15; the Philadelphia Orchestra in nos. 10-11 and the Oslo Philharmonic in nos. 6 and 9. There are live recordings of Symphony no. 5 by the Vienna Philharmonic and of no. 8 by the Pittsburgh Symphony; and the superbly engineered studio recordings by the Bavarian Radio chorus and orchestra performing Symphonies 2-4 and 12-14 (finished in 2005, these are the most recent ones in the set). Finally, the symphonies are supplemented by excerpts from the Gadfly Suite (London Philharmonic) and the two Jazz Suites, as well as the inimitable Tahiti Trot (all Philadelphia Orchestra), and even a rehearsal fragment of the 8th with the Pittsburgh Symphony, with Jansons talking about the war symphonies.
Throughout, Jansons draws uniformly superior performances from the ensembles with which he works. His crisp woodwinds sparkle in their virtuoso passagework at break-neck speeds; the strings are alternatively sonorous and intense, the brass powerful but not overbearing; the solos are excellent almost without exception, and cataclysmic tutti climaxes are compelling, particularly in the 4th and 8th symphonies. Furthermore, the conductor manages to downplay the peculiarities of each orchestra’s sound and imprint a single, unified vision onto the cycle that bears his own recognizable signature, particularly in his impeccable sense of timing and in his relentless, terrifyingly mechanical driving rhythms. His tempos tend to be on a faster side, which privileges the sarcastic and grotesque over the soulful and lyrical in his interpretations — in Shostakovich’s case, almost always a winning strategy. There is much of Mravinsky recognizable in Jansons, although some of the maître’s edginess seems to be softened at times — perhaps too much so in some moments of the 5th (this criticism, however, does not apply to the work’s truly extraordinary finale).
Mariss Jansons’s cycle is a remarkable achievement from a remarkable musician. Like Rostropovich and Barshai, he possesses that coveted “born-in-the-USSR” label to boost his Shostakovich credentials, but unlike them, his principal training was as a conductor, leading to an apprenticeship with Mravinsky, still the definitive Shostakovich interpreter, and a long fruitful association with the Leningrad and then St Petersburg Philharmonic. While still keeping the City on the Neva in his artistic blood, so to speak, this one-step distance from the composer brings a unique color to Jansons’ approach. He addresses a Shostakovich score as an interpreter who demonstrates an affinity with and appropriate reverence for his source yet allows himself a certain creative license in bringing the music to life. An interview with the conductor included in the enclosed booklet is particularly illuminating in this respect. For instance, Jansons defends his decision “not to follow too faithfully Shostakovich’s metronome markings” by invoking the authority of “the people who knew Shostakovich personally” (p. 12), that is, appealing to the original source. At the same time, his penetrating comments about the “emotional tightrope” the composer had to walk, and the multiple layers of meaning hidden “behind the notes” of his music (p. 11) reveal his comprehension of that music’s message primarily from the point of view of its contemporary Soviet listeners. Apart from Evgenii Mravinsky, few conductors can claim that particular interpretive pulpit. Mariss Jansons is one of these select few; and his voice is certainly worth hearing.
Olga Haldey, Ph.D.
University of Maryland—College Park