NO UGLY DUCKLING
Heinrich Schutz: Der Schwanenge sang (Opus Ultimum). The Hilliard Ensemble, The London Baroque, The Knabenchor Hannover; Heinz Hennig, conductor. EMI 27 0275, digital, two-record set (import).
Even among the most dedicated Schutz lovers, of which there are plenty in the U.S., there are probably quite a few who have not heard of this work, "The Swans' Song." It was composed around 1670, 11 sizable pieces plus two extras, but probably was not much performed and soon faded away. Only one segment, the final "German Magnificat," has been around and is familiar. Schutz, in his 80s when this music was composed, was the greatest pioneer of German church music for the Protestant faith-but what can you do when your boss and king, the Elector of Saxony, converts to Catholicism? Start all over again in Latin? What we have here, now that the actual music has at last been assembled completely enough to work out a performance (appearing in unexpected finds from 1900 to as recently as 1970), is a "scholarly edition" according to newer ideas as to how Schutz must be brought into sound: Very much amplified from the original notes.
Schutz was conservative for that late time. He didn't say much of anything, but expected a lot-an organ and a very considerable collection of instruments, plus solo voices to contrast with the double chorus, all added ad lib.
Today, we have to realize all this as best we can, a tough and controversial job for anyone who tries. There can be no definitive version.
All the more remarkable to hear what grand, big music this can be. For Ger man music it is strikingly like Monteverdi, who wrote a generation earlier, and quite unlike the more familiar late Baroque of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and (er) Pachelbel. The older manner prevails, many short segments at different speeds, joined together in quick contrasts. None of the long stretches based on one or a few ideas that we hear especially in Bach. Instead of Bach chorales we hear their antecedents, Gregorian chants and the similar (and related) early Lutheran hymns.
Two choirs of voices, and choirs of contrasting instruments (added), bring plenty of drama and complex sound to the words of Psalm 119, a very long one, taken verse by verse in the exuberant German text. Solos and combi nations of a few voices-boy sopranos, countertenor, and bass-alternate with the mostly joyful chorus. It is a wide stereo expanse, big and live, and, when your ear adjusts, it can grow impressive.
I would rate these 13 motets (the technical designation for each of the separate movements) as still some what transitional in the performance, not entirely jelled into one style and manner. The diction is superb and un failingly clear, the accuracy and verve are terrific, the speed-thank the Lord-is "up to time," at a speaking tempo in respect to the words them selves. The instruments are of an authentic type from recorders to trombones (no strings-the high voices and recorder take care of that). But the various voices are too dissimilar; some sing minus vibrato, some with quite a lot, some are throaty, some reedy and edgy. Not too good a blend and often a bit distracting. A more integrated sound would have been better, but this is not easy to achieve, today, when singing styles are changing so fast.
Schutz in digital! This British-made LP is not part of EMI America's catalog, but imports are often around, or can be ordered. Try.
Lost in the Stars--The Music of Kurt Weill: Various Artists A&M SP-9-5104, $9.98. Sound: B- Performance: A+
Lost in the Stars is a celebration of the dramatic music of Kurt Weill, who is best known for The Three-penny Opera and his other collaborations with Bertholt Brecht. A wildly diverse collection of artists performs on this album, the third in a series that Hal Willner, coordinator of live music for Saturday Night Live, has assembled. The previous two honored Nino Rota and Thelonious Monk. All three are albums of startling performances by artists doing things you'd never expect them to, and there is brilliance throughout. Lost in the Stars is the best yet.
Sting offers a stark reading of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" in a different translation from the German-more brutal and violent than the ones made famous by Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong. Marianne Faithfull is appropriately jaunty, rough-hewn and melodramatic, by turns, doing the chilling "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife." The presentation of "Alabama Song" alternates vocals by Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs, pop singer Ellen Shipley, and jazz singer Bob Dorough over Ralph Schuckett's wonderfully clangy chart. Tom Waits is brilliantly cast to sing the cynical and violent "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" as is former Wall of Voodoo vocalist Stanard Ridgway (remember "Mexican Radio"?) for the black wit of "The Cannon Song." Dagmar Krause conjures up images of smoky, late-night movie scenes in the famous "Surabaya Johnny," with a spectacular rendition that segues to the dirge-like "Oh Heavenly Salvation" featuring the great New Orleans voices of Johnny Adams and Aaron Neville.
Todd Rundgren's contribution is a surprisingly effective modern treatment of "Call from the Grave." The album's only real clinker is Lou Reed's "September Song," on which his coy mono tone conveys neither sarcasm nor romance-whichever of the two he was trying to express.
Carla Bley and Phil Woods offer a dreamy instrumental version of the title song. (It would have been nice to have Maxwell Anderson's lyrics printed with the album notes, since we don't hear them, but you can't have everything.) Charlie Haden and Sharon Freeman do equally well with "Speak Low." Other contributors include the inimitable Van Dyke Parks, Steve Weisberg, John Zorn, and the Armadillo String Quartet.
This is an uncommonly intense al bum to listen to. Selections are ordered intelligently and often provocatively to heighten irony. It becomes a challenging thrill-ride through some very dark and dangerous places.
The album was recorded in nearly as many locales as there are contributors, but it is still consistently wrought. For atmosphere, many selections have tricky little dramatic effects involving voices heard through filters (such as the radio voice echoing the lyrics late in "Alabama Song"). Throughout the album, horns are given warm and loving treatment. Lost in the Stars is a very classy recording. The only problem is that the generous length of the sides, 30 and 30 1/2 minutes, leads to difficulty in maintaining levels-a problem that doesn't crop up on cassette. (Of course, with the cassette package you don't get the detailed annotation that comes with the album; all you get is two biographical paragraphs about Kurt Weill.) The Compact Disc release of Lost in the Stars is even longer than the LP, with the addition of "Meatball Song" by Elliot Sharp and "The Great Hall" by Henry Threadgill. It also sports extended versions of "Oh Heavenly Salvation" and "Johnny Johnson" by Van Dyke Parks.
Lost in the Stars is truly extraordinary. It throws a lot of light on a com poser whose music grows more vivid with time, and reveals unsuspected facets of several very well-known artists. Best of all, it is a riveting listening experience, both on musical and dramatic levels. It is a milestone of an album.
--Michael Tearson
Janaek: Lachian Dances, Idyll. The Rotterdam Philharmonic, James Conlon. RCA Erato 75191, digital, $10.98.
Leos Janacek-from the name, he is obviously out of the land of Dvorak and Smetana, once collectively called Bohemia as a part of the Austrian Empire.
Janaek is a good 19th-century com poser who lived on well into the 20th, incongruously continuing to compose in the "modern music" era. His late operas are really getting around now, and for good reason; he is, we might say, more modern than old Richard Strauss-roughly a contemporary but old-fashioned enough to appeal to a lot of ears.
However, this music is something else again. The "Lachian Dances" date from 1890 and purport to be folk music. But in those days "folk" meant crude and, of course, subject to cleaning up as "art" music, which is what you will hear. Indeed, this thickly scored work goes along with every thing from Brahms and Dvorak and Smetana to Grieg, as a pleasing and juicy dance suite. But both Grieg and Dvorak sound more modern than this bland yet tuneful Jankek.
The "Idyll" is even earlier, one of those lovely, strings-only suites that were so popular, again from the same familiar composers. This one was com posed when Janacek was 24, in 1878-it is early "late-Romantic" and far, far from the 20th century. Though harmonically more conventional than the "Dances," the "Idyll" is a strong and youthful work which seems per haps more timeless than the composer's later music.
A resonant and rather distant re cording here, not good for the some what thick "Lachian Dances," which are blurred and smeared in a golden acoustic haze. Nor did I much enjoy the peripatetic James Conlon's direction of the Dutch orchestra. It is technically correct but smoothly dull, and too often sloppy around the edges. Maybe he was just off the plane, and perhaps the orchestra had only a few run throughs before facing the digital recorder. It happens. On the other hand, the all-strings "Idyll" takes fire, is much more expressive and is more accurately played too. Moreover, the string orchestra is more at home in its acoustics than the full orchestra of the first LP side. Aha! One notes that the first side was recorded in June, the second side in October, and the sound engineers were different! That could explain a great deal. Curious art, this jet-style recording we do today.
Ein Straussfest. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel. Telarc DG 10098, digital, $12.98.
Telarc is busy on its "pops" series, using its home-town (well, almost home-town) orchestral forces. Ein Straussfest features music of the Waltz Strausses, led by big brother Johann Jr. Oddly enough, there is only one waltz on the first side and one on the second-the rest are the less familiar but more energetic polkas, galops and so on.
There's more. Telarc interestingly goes into a zany "sound effects" tradition that dates back acoustically to the days of Mozart and Haydn-echoes of which you will know in such items as the Haydn "Military" symphony, the many "Turkish" cymbal-like effects in works of the time (and through Beethoven), and, of course, the preposterous "Toy" symphony, apparently by Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang's papa. The fad for all sorts of incongruous noises reached right into the 19th century, but by the time of the waltzes and polkas from the Strauss family, it was more of a conscious reminiscence, just for the fun of it.
I won't go into a studious list of Telarc sound effects in these foamy little dance pieces, but needless to say, they are very well designed to exercise your home fi. As on the CD version, there is a warning about very loud (and very soft) sounds and potential danger to equipment! Rightly so. Have fun and be careful.
(Audio magazine, Jul. 1986; Edward Tatnall Canby)
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