Amadeus, Original Soundtrack Recording. The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner. Fantasy FCD 900-1791-2.
A genius can be just as imaginative in his social life as in his artistic expression. Thus, although in Mozart's music we hear a world of exquisite good taste, polish, and perfection, the Mozart we see in the film Amadeus based on known facts about the com poser's personality-is superficial, shallow, and lewd.
In some ways, the musical selections found here reflect the side of Mozart that the movie depicts. For in stance, the Rondo theme of the "Piano Concerto" is an absurdly air-headed tune-what a composer might whistle while walking to the post office. But Mozart molded that trivial tune into a masterpiece. He plays games with your expectations,, especially at phrase endings, teasing you into believing the music will go in one direction when actually he's about to merrily go off in another. That precarious balance between the silly and the sublime is a basic aspect of his personality.
This recording sounds clean and spacious. However, wispy clouds of analog distortion are evident, and the choral selections suffer the most. Quiet and medium-level passages sound fine, but when the sopranos start to soar, that familiar hollow, pinched, analog distortion appears. A digital re cording by the same performers of the "Symphonie Concertante" (Philips 411 134-2) is especially revealing. When you come back to Amadeus, its fuzzy edges are obvious.
But this is still an especially good analog recording, and the production complements the music. In the "Symphonie Concertante" producer John Strauss keeps the solo violin and viola slightly separated spatially. Their 'similar but distinctive timbres are so accurate that we can follow them independently, just as if we were watching a live performance or reading the score.
Ambience changes from track to track because the acoustics of various rooms are integral parts of the way the film tells its story. A good example is the rehearsal of "The Marriage of Figaro" attended by the Emperor. This is the sound of an empty theater, not a full house.
Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields made new recordings especially for the film, and they are among the best Mozart performances available. For those who don't know Mozart's music, the album is an excellent introduction. For those who do, listening to these superbly per formed selections is a joyous experience. A second album already has been issued, both on LP and CD.
At one point, the fictionalized Salieri is describing the third movement of the "Serenade for Winds." "On the page, just a pulse, like a rusty old squeeze box, and then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe-a single note hanging there unwavering, until a clarinet took it over, sweetening it into a phrase of such delight, filled with such unfulfillable longing. It seemed that I was hearing the voice of God." That describes Mozart's essential musical gift: His ability to mold the simplest gesture into a sophisticated musical expression of in credible beauty.
-- Steve Birchall
Richard Strauss: A Hero's Life. The Dresden State Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt. Denon 33C37-7561.
Strauss' autobiographical tone poem, "A Hero's Life (Ein Heldenleben)," romps hilariously through his musical world. He pokes fun at his critics and music in general with subtle good humor. But many listeners, distracted by the late 19th-century, larger-than-life style of the piece, may over look the humor.
Strauss' gigantic sonata/allegro form is so large a forest that it disappears; all we see are the trees. He compounds that joke in many ways. At the end of the first theme's exposition, he throws the gauntlet down to his critics with a loud, pompously pyramided dominant seventh chord. But he leaves it hanging, unresolved, until after a brief silence, when the critics answer with the chattering chaos of the second theme.
In the expanded coda, a poke at the "Eroica" symphony, Strauss quotes from his own works, including, with sly humor, "Don Juan." Later, in track 6, the critics' voices once again rise, and Strauss quotes the "Jousting with Windmills" passage from "Don Quixote." Wryly, he tosses in some "bleating sheep" (muted trumpets) and an imitation of the wind machine (cymbal roll) as well.
In 1944, Strauss recorded "A Hero's Life" with the Vienna Philharmonic (now available on the Vanguard LP set SRV 325/29). His tempos were a bit brisker than what we are used to hearing now, and he tended to separate phrases rather than to connect them smoothly. Perhaps the most interesting difference is the way he treated his melodies. Instead of long lines with convoluted contours, his melodies of ten turned out to be rather simple, with added ornamentation-more like Mozart, in a certain sense. Clearly Strauss wanted that quasi-Classical approach to the piece. Blomstedt and the Dresden State Orchestra come fairly close to realizing Strauss' point of view.
Although I like Denon's use of track designations to mark the various sections, the booklet notes are confusing, and wrong on what takes place in tracks 4 and 5. The location of the recapitulation is unmistakable; Strauss wrote it in large, bold brush strokes.
The booklet says it starts at the beginning of track 5, but on the disc it actually occurs at 6:04 in track 4, and track 5 starts at an irrelevant point later on.
This disc's most immediately attractive characteristic is the resplendently reverberant hall sound. Not only is it a properly big, spacious sound, but the quality and character of that sound are excellent. At times, in the loudest pas sages, I would like to hear more of the inner voices. The offstage trumpets in track 4 sound distant but not muffled.
The Dresden brass play with awe some strength and power, especially in the "Battle Scene." In quiet pas sages, the horns have a wonderfully dark tone and a flowing legato. You'll hear some unusual colors in the wood winds, particularly the double reeds. Peter Mirring's solo violin tone is extremely bright, enabling him to stand out from the darker massed strings while still playing softly.
Blomstedt leads the Dresden Orchestra in an exciting, well-controlled performance. From the fury of the "Battle Scene" to the tenderness of the "Hero's Helpmate" to the quiet contentment of the closing passages, this is an outstanding recording.
Steve Birchall Lush Life: Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra Asylum 9 60387-2.
Lush Life is a rich, extravagant aural delight, a Compact Disc of the very first rank technically. Artistically, the real star is arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle, not vocalist Linda Ronstadt.
The late Riddle exhibited sheer genius in his arrangements for the singing voice. No one knew better how to cradle, support, and highlight a singer, how to weave a totally appropriate orchestral framework that lived and breathed in tandem with each vocal shading. His work with Frank Sinatra is legendary.
All 12 classic pop songs on this generous Compact Disc are touched by Riddle's magic wand. Working with concertmaster David Frisina's four-piece combo, Riddle eases his orchestra, glistening with strings, mellow with horns and bass, through the slow torchers "It Never Entered My Mind," "When Your Lover Has Gone," and "I'm a Fool to Want You." He kicks it into high gear, with brasses blaring and feisty, for the up-tempo "You Took Advantage of Me" and "Can't We Be Friends." The magic of Riddle's touch is apparent in the brilliant instrumental accents and underpinnings for Ronstadt's voice throughout-the exquisite solo acoustic guitar drifting behind her in the intro to "When I Fall in Love," the melancholy muted trumpet woven into "Mean to Me," the honey-gold harmonica flowing through "Skylark," the classic blast of massed horns in "You Took Advantage of Me." And the strings, those magical strings! Under Riddle's guidance they soar sweetly above orchestral clouds, twinkle in CD-silent space, or form calm, sonorous rivers of supportive sound.
Linda Ronstadt makes an admirable attempt to handle this splendid material. Her voice is sweet and clear with remarkable range and savvy. Unfortunately, the savvy is based on rock technique, and these selections are of another musical dimension. Despite Ronstadt's lengthy career and serious vocal training, the sweetness of her voice evokes an aura of innocence, but this material requires a worldly-wise voice, a voice with a psychologically ragged edge. Ronstadt may one day achieve the stature of the female greats of the genre like Billie Holiday, Julie Wilson, Carmen McRae, or Ella Fitzgerald, but right now she too often goes for the big belt instead of the smoky understatement. She does best on up-tempocuts, but simply lacks the resources for the rest. "Sophisticated Lady" and "Lush Life," two of the finest and most difficult songs in the popular catalog, are utterly beyond her grasp.
Technically, this disc is CD dream stuff. Ronstadt's voice, lightly dusted with reverb and placed front and center, floats up from the disc with sparkling clarity and real intimacy. Solo instrumentals are cleanly placed one step back, and another step beyond lies Riddle's fabulous orchestra. Aural space is brilliantly defined by producer Peter Asher, and the dynamic range is astounding. The silence between cuts and passages is the raison d'être of digital recording.
Don't wait for Ronstadt to grow into this material. Give her an A+ for effort, and consider this CD a triumph in the pop domain.
---Paulette Weiss
Richard Strauss: Excerpts from Salome and from Die Liebe der Danae; Four Last Songs; Malven. The Toronto Symphony, Andrew Davis; Eva Mar ton, soprano. CBS MK 42019.
This is the kind of Compact Disc recording (digital in every phase of production and, although recorded at a live concert, painstakingly thought out as to placement, separation and so forth) that justifies the CD revolution.
What a glorious concert! What orchestral clarity! And what art from Eva Mar ton, whose American reputation has risen so swiftly!
The selections begin with the "Dance of the Seven Veils," that 9 1/2-minute orchestral accompaniment to Salome's legendary writhing. The castanets and xylophone, which Strauss did not include for mere grace notes, shimmer here as they never did on LP or cassette. The flutes' lethal playfulness and the high pizzicato on the violins are stunning-in fact, the ineluctable movement of this piece, from apparently friendly waltz tempo to the final frenzy, is almost overwhelming.
This is powerful music whose effect has to be respected. You wouldn't want to live too long within it.
Then comes Miss Marton, to sing the quarter-hour final scene. Her Salome is no puppet: Caught between Herod's politics and lust and her mother's jealousy, she shares both the psychosexual obsession of one and the single mindedness of the other. "Ich lebe noch, aber du bist tot, and dein Kopf gehort mir" has never sounded so frighteningly Pyrrhic a victory.
Davis and his orchestra, and the CBS production crew, have come up with a masterwork of a disc. "Your voice was a censer," Salome sings to the severed head of the Baptist, "and when I looked at you, I heard a strange music." On those last words, Strauss reverts to the notes of John's first prophetic announcement, from prison, at the opera's beginning. Marton conveys the whole terrifying arc of the story. I shuddered at the blasting finale.
An orchestral interlude follows: The restful, lush, symphonic fragment of the seldom heard "Love of Danae." Then Marton returns for the "Four Last Songs," in the third of which ("Time to Sleep") her voice caresses us like a welcome dream. Davis plays piano for her 90-second delivery of the "Zueignung," as he does for the final cut--the "Malven," which was discovered just over a year ago, after the death of soprano Maria Jeritza. The short song was written and sent by Strauss to Jeri tza just before his death in 1949, and when she left us in late 1984, we had to revise our Strauss list. At 84, Papa Strauss was still in control of his genius. I think Madame Jeritza would be pleased-delighted, even-with Marton's canny artistry. You will be.
-Donald Spoto
Saint-Satins: Symphony No. 3. The San Francisco Symphony, Edo De Waart; Jean Guillou, organ. Philips 412 619-2.
The Saint-Saens Third Symphony, a big, bravura display piece. for organ and orchestra, has long been a favorite of audiophiles. The organ is a very important part of this score, and in my opinion a truly successful recording of this symphony demands the use of a real pipe organ. Unfortunately, many recording halls do not have pipe organ installations. In those cases, the producer may elect to substitute an electronic organ or may decide to record the organ parts on a pipe organ in another location, be it a hall or a church, and then dub in those parts with a recording of the rest of the orchestra to make a composite.
This latter procedure is fraught with peril, because the acoustic character of the pipe organ's location is usually quite different from the acoustics of the orchestral hall. While a few composite recordings have skillfully integrated organ and orchestra, most of them are quite unsatisfactory and some verge on being ludicrous.
The music on this Philips CD was recorded in the new Davies Hall in San Francisco, which appears to be an ideal venue for this Saint-Satins symphony.
The magnificent new Ruffatti organ in stalled in Davies Hall is said to be the largest concert organ in North America. It certainly has the immense power, tonal resources, and huge, 32-foot pedals necessary to give grandeur and majesty to the symphony's organ parts. Moreover, the approximately two-second reverberation period of Davies Hall gives the organ great clarity and articulation, allowing the organ sound to be completely integrated with that of the orchestra.
Edo De Waart's performance mirrors the sound, being a model of clarity. He achieves a fine balance between organ and orchestra, a very lyrical exposition of the second movement, and a wide range of dynamic expression.
Throughout the third movement, De Waart maintains a brisk momentum.
The finale is appropriately grandiose, with De Waart providing an exciting and propulsive thrust to the music which culminates in tumultuous and triumphant outbursts from organ, brass, and percussion.
Sonically, this recording has no peer. If you have a really good sub-woofer, you will find the thunder of the bass pedals truly awesome. At the beginning of the second movement, the pulsating throbs of the mighty 32-foot pedals reach the most subterranean level of musical sonority. Of the five recordings of the Saint-Satins Third Symphony currently on CD, this clearly is the one of choice.
-Bert Whyte
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Francesca da Rimini. The Cleveland Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly. London 414 159-2.
Here is a blockbuster CD that will challenge the capabilities of even the biggest, most elaborate and expensive of audio component systems. Engineer Colin Moorfoot has provided a recording of enormous dynamic expression, without sacrificing clarity or upsetting orchestral balances.
The "Romeo and Juliet" on this CD is of more than usual interest, because the same music, with the same Cleve land Orchestra in the same Masonic Auditorium, was also recorded by Telarc. Both are fine recordings with surprisingly small differences. Here, the engineers opted for a slightly more distant acoustic perspective, so there is a bit more air around the instruments in this recording. In the opening pas sages of the work, the contrabassi in this version are somewhat darker and have more weight, and the bass drum is of lower pitch and has even more impact than the famous Telarc drum! The performances, though, are fairly similar, with Maazel on Telarc taking the piece at slightly faster tempi than Chailly.
However, the gem is Tchaikovsky's infrequently performed "Francesca da Rimini." If you like the music of Tchaikovsky but are not familiar with this particular work, you'll probably find it overwhelming! For "Francesca da Rimini," Tchaikovsky wrote some of his most flamboyant music. In its unabashedly heart-on-sleeve romanticism, it be comes a searing emotional experience. Tchaikovsky's depiction of hell is a marvel of orchestration, with heavy use of brass and percussion. The love theme that follows is one of the most exquisite melodies Tchaikovsky ever composed. The finale is simply shattering, with huge brass fanfares and a barrage of bass drums, accented by explosive tympani strokes and the crash of cymbals and tam-tam. The final moments are cataclysmic, with the entire orchestra playing furioso and triple fortissimo.
The Cleveland Orchestra plays all these fireworks with their usual precision and élan. Musically and sonically, this is one of the best and most exciting CDs currently available.
--- Bert Whyte
(adapted from Audio magazine Jun. 1986)
Also see:
Compact Discs -- Telarc Treat (July 1983)
London/Polygram ADRM compact discs (ad, May 1986)
Remasters of Living Stereo (Aug. 1993)
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