Classical Record Reviews

by EDWARD TATNALL CANBY

SILENCES AND SIZZLES

Richard Toensing

Richard Toensing: New Music for Piano and Organ. Peter Takács, piano; David Shuler, organ; John Galm, percussion. Owl 27, $8.98. (Owl Recording, P.O. Box 4536, Boulder, Colo. 80306.)

Records like this one, it seems to me, should be of great interest to audio listeners. Why? On many fronts, only one of which is pure, musical content.

Let's begin simply: This is the quietest LP surface I have yet to hear-at least on side one, the piano-solo variations.

In the numerous quiet parts of the music, there is no sound, no turning-of-the-table; it is as though the turntable had stopped. One could call it the CD effect--but on LP. Is this significant, out of a very small and highly music-oriented record label? Contemporary music, at that! (On side two, the natural ambience of a church, like the sea in the proverbial conch shell, is the noise that we hear behind the organ and percussion.) Hi-fi? This isn't digital, it seems, but it is extraordinary sound even so. My own home system still can take Tchaikovsky and Brahms and Stravinsky, but it broke up, helplessly, under these sonic lashings of incredibly sizzling cymbals, violently percussive drums, the positive screech of high-powered, high-register organ notes, drilling holes in your ears. A hi-fi "test" record? But yes! Uniquely so. (And the piano, too, strains everything you have.) Also, a remarkable, if perilous, balance between a battery of percussion instruments and a battery of organ sounds just two men, controlling a huge "orchestra" of effect, done with, shall I say, crue' finesse from the recording viewpoint! A recording to command respect, given the incredible high-power sonic material.

And the music. Is it music? Who cares? Music is merely a word, used to cover a lot of sound and new sounds all the time. Edgard Varese, way back, had the right impartial term for this kind of stuff: "Organized sound." That fits Mozart, too. In any case, Richard Toensing is a super-high-voltage contemporary composer whose musical language is pile-driver-strong and laser-sharp. By no coincidence, he happens to be a university prof in charge of an electronic lab in the music department, though these recorded works are "live," produced by conventional musico-mechanical means.

Does he live in the same world as ours in audio? Of course! So Carver puts out a 201/201-watt stereo amp in a little box a few inches on a side, and Toensing puts out an ear-tingling piece for vast organ and whole battery of percussion produced by only two sets of powered arms and feet. You see the drift of my thinking. The music itself, on this disc, goes right along with everything else that is of this modern age.

Can you afford to be bored by it? Not if you have any curiosity as to what's going on in audio these days.

Side one, piano, is more for the musicians among us, though at the beginning-such is piano progress!-I thought I was hearing a taped synthetic reverb. It is densely built around a hearable sequence of a dozen extremely dissonant chords, a sort of chaconne. variation form. Side two is for the hi-fi enthusiasts among us such a novel use of the big, modern pipe organ as a source of short, violent, percussive blasts and peeps and honks, surrounded by long, quiet sustained tones. To their credit, a number of organists have taken up this music for public performance. It'll shock, all right, but what interesting sounds! When the percussion is added (the last piece) the impact is magical. A potent ending. But when it is all over, note that on side one, via reverberating piano strings, Toensing used a device that Schumann used almost 150 years ago. And by combining percussion and organ he echoes a well-known work by Saint-Satins, that Organ Symphony that everybody plays. Good composer-of organized sound-this man Toensing.

Zoltán Kodály: Missa Brevis, Te Deum. Budapest Symphony, Arpád Joó; Hungarian Radio Chorus, soloists. Sefel SEFD 5011, digital, $15.98.

This is another in the deluxe, super-series of Hungarian-based recordings (Sony digital, Sony-plus-Soundstream processing) that comes out of Canada's golden boom town, Calgary, Alberta. (A recent National Geographic mentions this label as part of Calgary's great surge of culture.) Boom town or no, the music is all-Hungarian, both in composition and performance. Maestro Joó, an earnest young man with brown hair and a black, tailored beard, is Hungarian by birth but studied in this country. And, by no coincidence, he is Zoltan Kodály the maestro of the Calgary Philharmonic. Shades of Texas! Big, fat, long music for large orchestra and chorus here, ever so definitely post-Romantic, though of relatively recent composition, post-WW II. Hungary's two famed musical leaders, Bartók and Kodály, are actually very different: Bartók, the inward-turning, reticent, shy personality with the force of a hurricane inside-and in so much of his music; Kodály, a more benign, peaceful, outgoing personality whose music is much revered but far more easygoing than anything by Bartók. You'll enjoy it, until maybe its sheer length and verbosity bore you. It did that to me.

"Missa Brevis"-"short Mass"? I had to laugh. It is on the most enormous scale and goes on and on and on, chorus, four soloists, vast orchestra, like the Beethoven Ninth but 10 times looser. All very' friendly and direct, if mildly modern. The similar-sounding "Te Deum" lasts a mere 20 minutes. I have one by Henry Purcell of England that lasts maybe three minutes-but says plenty.

Arpád Joó, by the way, is a first-rate, young conductor, in this and in his numerous Bartók recordings for Sefel.

If he can make the Calgary performers operate as well as these Hungarians, you'd better plan your next music festival expedition for Alberta, Canada.

Logumkloster. Peter Langberg, klokkespil and orgel; Kirsten Kolling Lang-berg, orgel.

Paula #6. (Available from Editions Orphée, P.O. Box 364, Prudential Center Boston, Mass. 02199.) We've suddenly been receiving a batch of Danish imports, all in virgin Danish dress; this was the first I tried.

The first side is the klokkespil, not unrelated to the German glockenspiel, actually an outdoor carillon of bells, as depicted on the cover. This is a weird one, set on its own mod tower, a sort of squat Eiffel shape with halfway balcony and a hideously hanging staircase in space spiraling up to it-nobody would get me up those stairs. The music is, well, carillon music. I found it unusual but dull on the whole. That labored, heavyweight approximation of "real" indoor musical harmonies, replete with varied clunks and clanks and overlapping bell-type overtones which, of course, clash with the intended harmonies like crazy. Never did like carillons much. If you do, try.

The second side features organ music, played by both performers, two hands, two feet and four hands, four feet. The old music isn't much; the organ is not suited to it and the performance is not very knowledgeable. Skip it. The recent music by Gade (Danish, of course) and Langlais, is better of its kind, but it isn't for everybody. Lovely Danish-English in the notes. "He godt a campagnologist diploma"-a bell-ringer's degree.

Audio? Perfectly adequate, nothing spectacular.

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COMPACT DISCS

CLEVELAND'S CLASSIC CHRISTOPH

Christoph von Dohnanyi -- Schubert: "Unfinished" Symphony; Beethoven: Symphony No. 8. The Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi. Telarc CD-80091.

Christoph von Dohnanyi is the new conductor and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, replacing Lorin Maazel, who made a number of memorable recordings for Telarc.

Mr. Dohnanyi has gained quite a reputation for his performances with the major European orchestras. As he is more oriented to the classical tradition of Beethoven and Brahms, Telarc decided their first recordings with him should reflect that philosophy.

Thus we have this pairing of the Schubert Eighth ("Unfinished") Symphony and the Beethoven Eighth Symphony. A felicitous coupling, this, and with a total playing time of 52:11, a good CD value.

Telarc's president and recording engineer, Jack Renner, told me this recording was made in Severence Hall in Cleveland because of the unavailability of the Masonic Auditorium, a venue much favored by Jack for its superior recording acoustics. He feels Severence Hall can be a shade too reverberant for some scores. With these two works, then, he was compelled to use his spaced array of three Schoeps omni microphones a bit closer to the orchestra. Consequently, the high strings are a little bright-sounding compared to most Telarc recordings.

Nonetheless, Jack has struck a good balance between the hall acoustics and orchestral definition. All orchestral choirs are well delineated and have a nice textural richness. The imaging and sound field are excellent, with an almost three-dimensional presentation.

Mr. Dohnanyi's performance of the "Unfinished" is well paced and quite eloquent; he is obviously a master in his control of the inner balances of the orchestra. The Beethoven Eighth receives one of the most spirited, ebullient performances I've heard for some time, and the Clevelanders respond to his direction with a bravura display of their virtuosity. An auspicious recording debut for Mr. Dohnanyi on the Telarc label.

As an aside, Christoph is the grandson of Ernst von Dohnanyi, famous composer and pianist, whose most familiar work is his witty and delightful "Variations on a Nursery Song." In 1960, I had the pleasure of recording him playing some of his works and some Beethoven pieces for Everest Records. He was over 80 at the time, but gave a strong and persuasive performance. Unfortunately, several days after the recording sessions, Mr. Dohnanyi passed away.

Bert Whyte

John Williams: Star Wars Trilogy. The Utah Symphony Orchestra, Varujan Kojian. Varese Sarabande VCD 47201.

For those who have a chip on their shoulder and don't like the CD format, this Star Wars Trilogy recording could well be the catalyst to change their minds.

Irrespective of CD, this is one of the best recordings of its type I have ever heard. It would certainly make a great impression on LP, but given the advantages of pure digital recording, the sound here is simply overwhelming. It has great clarity and high definition, and, all the great variety of percussion instruments John Williams has incorporated into the scores are heard with breathtaking fidelity. The tympani and bass drums have an impact and acoustic output that is startling. The great fanfares from trumpets, trombones, tubas and French horns have a clean, brazen brilliance and projection which generate a lot of excitement. The hall acoustics are splendid-just the right amount of reverberation and warm, spacious ambience. The orchestra is beautifully balanced for this perspective.

I was surprised to find out that the recording engineer who did such an outstanding job was Bruce Leek. Heretofore, Bruce had been familiar for the fine cutting of master lacquers he does for Telarc. On the strength of this recording, he should devote more time to this new pursuit. Bruce used four Schoeps CMC3U microphones, with Mark II capsules, in a spaced array in front of the orchestra, plus a few AKG 414s and Neumann KM-86s as discreet sweeteners. Multi-mike to a degree, but done with restraint and intelligence. These were fed into a console and mixed directly to a two-channel Soundstream digital recorder.

The Utah Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Varujan Kojian, was recorded in their new Symphony Hall, which obviously is blessed with acoustics particularly suitable for large-scale recording. They played the brilliantly orchestrated "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" suites with great panache, with Maestro Kojian showing obvious respect for John Williams' scores.

Those who rightfully abhor the edgy, strident, high strings on many CDs will appreciate the exceptionally smooth, clean string tone on this recording.

I suppose many people will dismiss these pieces as mere musical trifles which accompanied galactic horse operas. Be that as it may, no one can deny the skill of the colorful orchestrations, nor the excitement they generate in a recording of this really outstanding quality. Bert Whyte

Ravel: Piano Concertos & Orchestral Works. L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Charles Dutoit; Pascal Roge, piano. London 410 230-2 LH.

The Ravel piano concertos are among the most colorfully scored in all of piano literature. This splendid recording, another of demonstration quality from Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the London engineers, reveals every strand of the complex orchestration.

Pascal Roge affords a very dynamic, high-tension performance of the concertos, and he is expressively lyrical when the score demands this quality.

The piano sound is very clean, with realistic transient attack. It is beautifully balanced, slightly forward of the orchestra in the lovely, warm acoustics of St. Eustache Church. This church has become one of the premier recording venues for the London engineers, and records carrying the St. Eustache imprimatur are a virtual guarantee of superior sound.

Dutoit, as usual, elicits a well-played, very sonorous accompaniment from his ever-improving Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The overall sound is very clean and highly detailed. The scoring of the low-level opening of the "Concerto for Left Hand," which in most recordings is amorphous and murky, is clearly revealed here with this high-definition sound. Of course, the noiseless CD recording never intrudes in quiet passages such as this.

Three short orchestral works by Ravel fill out this good-value CD, providing over 59 minutes of music.

- Bert Whyte

Respighi: Pines of Rome, Feste Ro-mane, Fountains of Rome. L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal Charles Dutoit. London 410 145-2 LH.

Here is another winner from Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The ever-familiar "Pines of Rome," "Fountains of Rome" and "Feste Romane" add up to a CD containing 60 minutes of spectacular sound.

As usual, the London engineers and St. Eustache Church acoustics work their wonders. The huge brass sounds are almost palpable in their projection, and percussion is clean and thunderous. Some extremely high-pitched high strings in the beginning of the "Pines of Rome" are scored to be played with great vehemence and intensity, so don't confuse them for an anomaly of digital recording or poor mike technique.

Dutoit's readings of the "Pines" and "Fountains" are first-rate and very expressive, and he fully exploits their great dynamic range. His "Feste Romane" is headstrong, tumultuous, even frenetic in the "tarantella" section, but he displays much tenderness in the lyrical sections. Mark this as one of the best-sounding CD recordings thus far. - Bert Whyte

Brahms: Symphony No. 1. The Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein.

Deutsche Grammophon 410 081-2.

Here is the sort of Compact Disc recording that makes you gnash your teeth in frustration.

Leonard Bernstein is at the top of his form, with an impassioned, dramatic and very compelling performance of the Brahms First Symphony. He elicits wondrous playing from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The great, noble french-horn motif, which appears shortly after the opening of the fourth movement, is intoned most vividly and soars effortlessly into the spacious acoustics of the recording hall. The broad, hymn-like chorale that follows the repeat of the horn motif is richly sonorous.

So, why the gnashing of teeth? Same old DGG story of multi-miking excesses. Yes, every single strand of the orchestration is heard, but with all sorts of exaggerated instrumental spotlighting and the ever-present grating edginess of the higher strings. I reported some time ago that DGG was aware of many complaints about these aspects of their sound quality and was going to take remedial action in the form of simpler, more natural-sounding microphone techniques. To date, no sign of this, and thus much great music-making on DGG recordings continues to be marred by this kind of sound. - Bert Whyte

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben.

The New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta. CBS MK 37756.

Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic are in good form in what is certainly Richard Strauss' most monumental tone poem. Mehta provides a powerful, well-paced performance that may not be as insightful as that of von Karajan, but it has an exciting, propulsive energy. The battle scene is particularly well done, highly dramatic, seething with tension. Notable, too, is the splendid playing of the New York Philharmonic.

The multi-miked sound has massive sonority; the opening chords on the contrabassi are just wonderful. Unfortunately, there is spotlighting of some instruments and an edginess to the high strings, although not as pronounced as in other CBS recordings.

The important solo violin part is beautifully performed by concertmaster Glen Dicterow, and it is cleanly recorded.

Particularly notable is the sound in the dense, complex scoring in the battle scene. This is the most highly detailed, most revealing sound I have ever heard in this difficult section. Here again, the digital recording, with its lack of noise, is of great aid in ne delineation of the pianissimo sections, especially during the long solo violin part. It goes without saying that the great dynamic contrasts in Ein Heldenleben benefit greatly from the CD's availability of 90 dB of dynamic range. - Bert Whyte

Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5.

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman. CBS MK 37290.

Pinchas Zukerman is one of the most highly regarded of the younger violin virtuosos. In this recording, he assumes the role of conductor as well. In both cases, his performance is excellent, a finely wrought, sensitive and expressive traversal of these two great violin concertos composed by Mozart when he was 19. The playing of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is very good indeed and clearly illustrates why this is one of the premier chamber orchestras in this country.

Unfortunately, the sound quality here negates all the performance values.

The violin/orchestral balance is nicely handled in both concertos, even though they were recorded in different halls. However, once again, upper strings are thin and wiry. Mr. Zukerman's violin does not seem to have much resonance, to the point of sounding like some of the harmonic structure is missing. The fairly close-up perspective also emphasizes what can only be described as a glassy tone. It is hard to understand these sonic anomalies, because apparently the main microphone complement was the excellent and normally quite smooth AKG 414EB and C-12. Perhaps it is equalization or the electronics of the input console. I am sure the anti-digital types will point an accusing finger at the digital recorders. The Mitsubishi, Sony, and 3M recorders were used.

and it has been rather well documented that excellent digital recordings can be made on all of these machines.

- Bert Whyte

Music of Cage, Cowell, Lundquist, and Taira. The Kroumata Percussion Ensemble. BIS CD-232, $18.98. (Available through Qualitone Imports, 39-28 Crescent St., Long Island City, N.Y. 11101.)

BIS is a very important Swedish label whose catalog must number somewhere around 200. Much of the music is indigenous to Sweden, and the performers are largely unknown in this country. To those of us who have witnessed the passing of the entrepreneurial spirit in American classical-recording production, the success of this small label stands out as something to be admired.

The Swedish Kroumata Percussion Ensemble plays these works brilliantly, and the CD shines where the LP never could. Quiet passages are just that, and loud sounds emerge out of utter silence the way they are supposed to.

This music will certainly not be to everyone's taste, but if you are interested in hearing the full dynamic range that can be contained on a CD, then get this one. - John M. Eargle

Ravel: Bolero, La Valse, Pavane, Daphnis et Chloé. Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim. Deutsche Grammophon 400 061-2.

Barenboim furnishes idiomatic performances of these Ravel chestnuts, embellished with good playing from the Orchestre de Paris. The multi-microphone recording sonically crosses every "t" and dots every "i." Unfortunately, this makes the music rather bereft of any sense of atmosphere, and the by-now-infamous DGG upper string sound is as wiry and strident as ever. - Bert Whyte

Mahler: Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection." The St. Louis Symphony & Chorus, Leonard Slatkin; Kathleen Battle, soprano; Maureen Forrester, contralto. Telarc CD-80081 & CD-80082, two-disc set.

Jack Renner, Telarc's recording engineer, has made many splendid recordings, but surely this new one of Mahler's Second Symphony is his crowning achievement. Sonically, the recording is simply stunning, certainly the best ever of this symphony and a formidable musical achievement as well.

Leonard Slatkin's performance may not be on the inspirational level of a Bruno Walter or Otto Klemperer, but it is a very fine, heartfelt and deeply expressive reading-obviously a labor of love. His St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus give him playing of very high order, both in precision of ensemble and in richness of tonal resources.

Soprano Kathleen Battle and famed contralto Maureen Forrester sing like angels in their important parts.

In this work of violently contrasting dynamics, Slatkin, aided by Jack Renner's engineering, explores the outer regions of dynamic expression. This is what digital recording is all about, what 90 dB of dynamic range means. In the gigantic finale, just after the distant offstage horn and trumpet fanfares have completely decayed, the chorus enters at an ultra-pianissimo level. Their sound is at the threshold of hearing, just above the noise floor of your listening room. Set your volume control at this point, and you better have a big amplifier and bulletproof speakers on hand. The orchestral/choral sound levels become higher and ever higher, culminating in a stupendous outpouring of full orchestra with massive brass fanfares, full-throated chorus, orchestral bells and organ. It is positively cataclysmic, leaving you limp and emotionally spent! Jack Renner achieves an ideal balance between hall reverberation and orchestral detail. I could go on and on about this Resurrection, but only by listening to this masterpiece will you understand the splendor of the sound. For Mahlerites, it is simply a must. -Bert Whyte

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(Audio magazine, Aug. 1984)

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