News Briefs
EVERYBODY knows that an gels are musical. For one thing, they are usually depicted playing harps. But the angel whose portrait is a high light of the exhibit of art treasures from the Vatican now touring this country is shown playing a lute. He was painted by Melozzo da Forli in the fifteenth century.
In show business the term "angel" refers to someone who provides financial backing for a play or similar enterprise. Texaco, for example, is the "angel" behind the radio and TV broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, and Exxon is the "angel" behind the Great Performances series on public television.
Oil companies do not have a monopoly on angeldom or angelhood. Philip Morris Incorporated is sponsoring the exhibit officially titled "The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art" with a grant of $3 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the show is on view until June 12. It will be at the Art Institute of Chicago from July 23 to October 16 and at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco from November 19 to February 19, 1984.
The English firm that manufactures du Maurier cigarettes has played angel to a number of recording projects, including the first digitally recorded set of all the Beethoven symphonies. The latest du Maurier project is a series of digital recordings of the Tchaikovsky ballets The Nut cracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake conducted by John Lanchbery.
Dame Margot Fonteyn has endorsed this series. She said, "It is a particular joy to hear this splendid du Maurier Record Collection, conducted by John Lanchbery with his unique sensitivity to the light and dark sides of the music the highlights and the tragic moments. He leads a wonderful orchestra in the Philharmonia, and the digital process gives the recording a purity of sound one could not find any where else." The label on which the Tchaikovsky ballet series was released in the United States is, of course, Angel Records. W.L.
Good news to anyone short of the $1,900 it takes to buy the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians is the launching of a spin-off series of individual biographies drawn from it, beginning with Haydn, Handel, Mozart, and Schubert. Each book includes the complete list of the composer's works and bibliography appended to the individual entries in the dictionary. In this series, published by W. W. Norton, the hardcover editions are $12.95, the paperbacks $7.95.
THE Best Classical Album of 1982, as chosen by members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and announced at the Academy's 25th annual Grammy Awards ceremonies, was Glenn Gould's CBS Masterworks recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The same recording, released only a month before the pianist's death last October, was also voted Best Classical Performance by an instrumental Soloist. RCA's recording of the Mahler Seventh Symphony by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony received a Grammy as Best Orchestral Recording. Both were picked as 1982 Records of the Year by the editors Of STEREO REVIEW. . . .
Other Grammies went to the Philips recording of Wagner's Ring cycle con ducted by Pierre Boulez, the Berlioz Damnation of Faust conducted by Sir Georg Solti for London, and the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas played by Richard Stoltzman on RCA.
Levine and the Chicago Symphony were also honored for their Mahler Seventh by the Gustav Mahler Society of Los Angeles, which gave them its Best Mahler Recording of 1982 award.
The "other" French prize-giver for outstanding recordings (after the Academie du Disque Francais, reported on here last month) is the Academie Charles Cros, which passed out its awards in March. Top honors, the Prix du President de la Repub lique, went to the Deutsche Grammophon coupling of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Ete and La Mon de Cleopture, sung by Kiri Te Kanawa and Jessye Norman, respectively, under Daniel Barenboim, and the Philips recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde led by Sir Conn Davis, with Norman and Jon Vickers. 0 THE Wolf Foundation, which has previously cited outstanding achievement in the sciences and the fields of agriculture and medicine, has announced its first award in music. The $100,000 prize will be shared by the pianist Vladimir Horowitz, the French composer Olivier Messiaen, and the Israeli composer and musicologist Josef Tal. ...
Two composers were included among the thirteen new members elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters this year. They were Stephen Sondheim, whose work has been almost entirely in the commercial theater, and Betsy Jolas (born to American parents in Paris), who has served as Messiaen's assistant at the Paris Conservatory since 1971. Sondheim's scores for such shows as Sweeney Todd (RCA) are, of course, well known to American audiences and record buyers; Jolas is represented on records at the moment by only one work, her Third Quartet, on the CRI label. . . . The American pianist Van Cliburn was given the Albert Schweitzer Music Award in ceremonies at Carnegie Hall in April for "helping human kind transcend its national boundaries and ideologies through a pro found respect for musical excellence." The British painter David Hockney, who has designed important productions for the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera companies (the latter via Glyndebourne), has received the Hamburg Foundation's $10,000 Shakespeare Prize for his contribution to the arts over the past twenty years. . . . Included in the New Year's honors list of Queen Elizabeth II was the conductor John Pritchard, who was knighted Sir John, and that jack of many trades, including opera production, Jonathan Miller, who was made a Commander of the British Empire.
DIRECTOR Franco Zeffirelli's lavish new film version of Verdi's La Traviata stars tenor Placido Domingo and soprano Teresa Stratas (above right), with James Le vine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra. "If anyone can make opera accessible, it is Franco Zeffirelli," says Stratas. Zeffirelli, who is as much at home in movie studios as in opera houses, is careful to point out that this picture is "not just a filmed opera." Critics have agreed. Declaring the picture a triumph, both vocally and histrionically, the International Herald Tribune said, "Musical drama and the true art of the cinema-moving pictures--have been united with exquisite artistry." After a New York opening late in April, La Traviata is scheduled for national distribution, and a soundtrack recording on Elektra will follow.
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Disc and Tape Reviews
By RICHARD FREED DAVID HALL GEORGE JELLINEK STODDARD LINCOLN ERIC SALZMAN
C. P. E. BACH: Trio Sonata in C Major.
Explanation of symbols:
eight-track stereo cartridge
stereo cassette
digital-master recording
direct-to-disc 1:23 = CX-encoded
Monophonic recordings are indicated by the symbol
The first listing is the one reviewed; other formats, if available, follow it.
J. C. BACH: Trio Sonata in B-fiat Major.
GOLDBERG: Trio Sonata in C Major. Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman (violins); Timothy Eddy (cello); Samuel Sanders (harpsichord). ANGEL O DS-37815 $12.98, 4XS-378 I 5 $12.98.
Performance: Warm
Recording: Fine
The two trio sonatas here by J. S. Bach's sons are welcome additions to the catalog since they show this genre in its last phase, when elegance of melodic writing outshone countrapuntal interest. Johann Gottlieb Goldberg is more famous as the performer of the thirty variations by Bach Pere dedicated to him, but his sonata here is a fine work written in the high Baroque style. Al though Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zuker man approach the music in a thoroughly twentieth-century manner, they are such superb violinists, and so perfectly matched, that one can only admire their sensitive mu sic making. S.L.
BARTOK: String Quartets Nos. 1-6 (see Best of the Month, page 65)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio No. 6, in B-Bat Major, Op. 97 ("Archduke"); Piano Trio No. 7, in B-fiat Major (WoO. 39). Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano); Itzhak Perlman (violin); Lynn Harrell (cello). ANGEL 13 DS-37818 $12.98, 4XS-37818 $12.98.
Performance Superb
Recording Excellent
Three superb soloists become an integrated ensemble to perform a sublime piece of chamber music. What more could you ask? Ashkenazy, Perlman, and Harrell achieve a perfect balance in their reading of the Archduke, which is spacious and warm in the first and third movements and spiced with just the right amount of earthiness in the scherzo and finale. The Trio No. 7 is a mi nor, but delightful, one-movement work that followed the great Archduke by only a year. Let's hope for the rest of the Beethoven piano trios from these artists.
S.L.
BLOCH: String Quartet No. 1. Pro Arte Quartet.
LAUREL LR-120 $8.98.
Performance Intense
Recording Shrill in spots
A surprisingly wide range of music by Ernest Bloch is represented in the current Schwann catalog, ranging from scripture-inspired masterpieces such as Schelomo and the Sacred Service to more eclectic scores such as the Concerto Grosso No. 1, the two violin sonatas, and the Sinfonia Breve. Before this release, however, only Nos. 3 and 5 of his five string quartets had ever appeared in stereo disc format.
The First Quartet is something of a blockbuster, some fifty-six minutes long and consisting for the most part of highly charged music in a post-Franckian structural framework. The music itself, however, is more along the lines of middle-period Bartok, especially in the ferocious Allegro frenetic second movement. Among the loveliest things in the score is the slow movement, which evokes the Swiss homeland of the composer's youth.
The present performance of this huge work by the Pro Arte Quartet has great intensity and all the virtuosity required for its effective communication. I would have liked a slightly closer, less reverberant sonic envelope and more body in the lower register throughout much of the first movement.
The scherzo, where low-register scoring plays a significantly larger role, sounds just fine, however. D.H.
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1, in C Minor, Op. 68. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini cond.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 0 2532 056 $12.98, 3302 056 $12.98.
Performance. Big-scaled Recording: Full-bodied Carlo Maria Giulini's reading here of the Brahms First Symphony reflects more the grand-scaled Continental tradition epitomized by Furtwangler than the more volatile approach of his countryman Toscanini.
Giulini and his players make nearly every thing work magnificently, with particular attention paid to blending and balances of timbres so as to allow the fullest appreciation of Brahms's orchestral colors. The slow movement, for me the high point, is set forth with a noble intensity. The introductory pages of the finale verge on the apocalyptic-most effectively so-and for the most part the body of the movement is splendidly done. My main complaint about the performance concerns the disconcertingly slow pace of the big tune in the finale.
Giulini elicits a very full tone from his string players, and praise is also due the solo horn player. The sound overall is full and rich, the miking fairly close up.
D.H.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BRITTEN: Canadian Carnival, Op. 19;
Young Apollo, for Piano, String Quartet, and String Orchestra, Op. 16; Four French Songs; Scottish Ballad for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 26. Jill Gomez (soprano, in the songs); Peter Donohoe (piano, in Young Apollo and Scottish Ballad); Philip Fowke (piano, in Scottish Ballad); City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle cond. ANGEL 0 DS-37919 $12.98, 4ZS-37919 $12.98.
Performance Fresh, fun
Recording Beautiful
BRITTEN: Gloriana, Symphonic Suite; The Prince of the Pagodas, Prelude and Dances.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Uri Segal cond. ANGEL 0 DS-37882 $12.98, 4ZS-37882 $12.98.
Performance. Very good
Recording. Nice
Benjamin Britten was a relatively prolific composer, and he was, it seems, good and prolific right from the start. We're getting a lot of early Britten on records these days, and it is welcome.
The Four French Songs are certainly early (1928) and pretty good stuff for a four teen-year-old. What is impressive is not so much the technical skill as the emotional depth of feeling suggested by these settings of Hugo and Verlaine. Eleven years later, at the ripe old age of twenty-five, Britten left war-torn Europe for North America, where he spent several years. The other three pieces on the first record above are from Britten's American period.
The most American and the most impressive is the Young Apollo, which the com poser inexplicably withdrew shortly after its premiere (1939). The music is lean, direct, imaginative; it has profile and color. Canadian Carnival, written in the same year, is similar in style and appeal, although, at twice the length, it is a bit less coherent and sustained. The Scottish Ballad, written a year or two later and slightly better known, is actually a somewhat more pompous and conventional piece. Still, everything here is fresh and fun to hear. It is also beautifully performed by an excellent group of soloists, a fine English orchestra, and a very good conductor, Simon Rattle. Beautiful digital recording too.
Another reading English orchestra per forms the suites from two of Britten's least-successful large stage works, Gloriana, written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and The Prince of the Pagodas, a ballet written for John Cranko and the Royal Ballet. It is certainly nice to have some of this music in an accessible form, though Britten at his most official is not al ways Britten at his most original or most moving-there are a lot of fanfares on this record. It is the ballet score that commands the most attention. The suite is not by Brit ten but by Norman Del Mar, and it omits the Pagoda-land music, which is said to show the influence of the Balinese gamelan.
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Beethoven's Late Quartets From Two Fine Ensembles
The Hollywood String Quartet: left to right, Felix Slatkin, Paul Shure, Alvin Dinkin, Eleanor Aller
THE Amadeus Quartet, which celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary last year, is not only one of the very few string quartets to perform uninterruptedly for so long but also, I believe, the only one ever to exist for so many years with no change in personnel.
It is, moreover, surely the most distinguished such ensemble to be formed in Britain. The Hollywood String Quartet, which was organized by Felix Slatkin in the same year as the Amadeus (1947), did have a personnel change or two in its regrettably much briefer history, but it was at least arguably the finest such group ever to have been formed in our own country.
Both the Amadeus and the Hollywood ensembles are represented in new releases of recordings of the late quartets of Beethoven, which must be the most awesome handful of related works in the entire chamber-music repertoire. In the case of the Amadeus, it is an anniversary remake on Deutsche Grammophon; in the case of the HSQ, it is a belated reissue on the EMI label (available here as an import), the second installment of HSQ revivals from this source. (The first set, "The Legendary Hollywood String Quartet," RLS 765, came out a year ago; its three discs offer works by Schubert, Brahms, Smetana, and Dvorak.) Both of the Beethoven sets are enormously welcome, especially the HSQ's, which ought not to have been allowed to disappear in the first place. There was less of a need for the Amadeus set, perhaps, since that group's earlier one is quite decently recorded and is still in circulation (in a ten-disc DG "Bargain Box" of all the Beethoven quartets). But the remakes-which are not quite brand new, having been taped be tween 1978 and 1981-are in general more interesting than the earlier performances, good as those were (and are). The overall intensity is a bit deeper now, most conspicuously in the somewhat broader tempos taken throughout the set-quite tellingly, I felt, in the slow movements of the grand –scaled Opp. 127, 130, 131, and 132.
The scherzos in Opp. 127 and 135, I'm afraid, are less tidy here, and the Grosse Fuge had more character and more power in the earlier set, but the superbly played finale of Op. 135 and the profoundly affecting realizations of the big three--Opp. 130, 131, and 132-offset these lapses. When we hear such works performed as movingly as they are here, it seems churlish to complain about a misstep or two elsewhere in so large an undertaking. In any event, these performances of what may well be the three greatest works in the string-quartet literature are on that exalted level at which comparisons may serve to describe differences but not to measure superiority.
The sound on the Amadeus set is realistic, well balanced, and totally honest through out the eight sides. Much the same may be said of the mono sound on the Hollywood String Quartet set, though these recordings go back more than a quarter of a century, to 1957. The sound is astoundingly rich and vivid for its time; one would hardly suspect the recordings' age or notice that they are not stereophonic. The performances, to be sure, make sonic considerations secondary, but the splendid sound quality does enhance their appeal. That appeal is considerable, based equally on profundity, vigor, and brilliance. For sheer articulation of the notes, the playing at times approaches the miraculous, and the more demanding Beethoven's music becomes, both spiritually and technically, the more splendidly the HSQ rises to meet its demands.
In general, the Amadeus performances, with those broader tempos, are more gutsy--in Opp. 130, 131, and 132 in particular--while those by the younger Hollywood group, with their fleeter speeds, show more sweetness and regard for tonal beauty (the Op. 130 presto has incomparable light ness and grace). The HSQ's recordings of Op.132 and the Grosse Fuge exhibit a spiritual power and dramatic tension rarely matched in other recordings of these works, and that of Op. 131 is not far behind. There is more to come in this series of HSQ reissues, I hope, and some of the repertoire could be very interesting, but there is nothing more worthy of preservation than this set of the late Beethoven quartets.
When the HSQ's Beethoven recordings were originally issued here by Capitol, the Grosse Fuge and Op. 135 each had a side to itself on the fifth disc in the set. Both of the new four-disc sets are laid out with Op. 135 filling out side two of Op. 127 and the Grosse Fuge on the same disc as Op. 130, for which work it was the original finale.
-Richard Freed BEETHOVEN: String Quartets: No. 12, in E-flat Major, Op. 127; No. 13, in B-fiat Major, Op. 130; No. 14, in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131; No. 15, in A Minor, Op. 132; No. 16, in F Major, Op. 135; Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. Amadeus Quartet.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2740 265 four discs $43.92.
BEETHOVEN: String Quartets: No. 12, in E-flat Major, Op. 127; No. 13, in B-flat Major, Op. 130; No. 14, in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131; No. 15, in A Minor, Op. 132; No. 16, in F Major, Op. 135; Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. Hollywood String Quartet. EMI RLS 7707 four discs $31.92 (from International Book and Record Distributors, 40-11 24th Street, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101).
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Even without it, there is enough here to make me want to hear the original score--and see the original ballet. Colorful stuff.
The performance and recording are, if not quite equal to that on the other disc, quite decent. An interesting feature is that the recording was supported by Harvey's of Bristol (the Cream Sherry people), apparently the Bournemouth Symphony's main sponsor since 1975.
E.S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BUXTEHUDE: Sonatas for Violin, Viola da Gamba, and Harpsichord: B-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 4; A Major, Op. 1, No. 3; G Mi nor, Op. 2, No. 3; E Major, Op. 2, No. 6.
Boston Museum Trio (Daniel Stepner, vio lin; Laura Jeppeson, viola da gamba; John Gibbons, harpsichord).
HARMONIA MUNDI HM B 1089 $7.98.
Performance Poetic
Recording Very good
This sampling of sonatas by Dietrich Buxtehude, the organist and church composer who led the way to Bach, comes as a pleas ant surprise. Unlike their Corellian counterparts, these sonatas free the viola da gamba from its usual chore of continuo sup port and give it an active role in the contrapuntal texture. Harking back to the canzona tradition, the works have no set number of movements but, rather, a dramatic series of contrasting sections of tremendous variety. The music is both witty and passionate, with a strong melodic profile, lich harmonies, and masterful counterpoint.
The Boston Museum Trio eloquently proves the validity of reviving early instruments. The pure sound of the strings with its controlled decay gives Buxtehude's tightly worked melodies and intricate counterpoint great clarity and naturalness.
Careful articulation enables the listener to follow each melodic thread as it pursues its course over the harmonic support of the harpsichord. In short, these are wonderful works, real discoveries, and the Boston Museum Trio presents them in the best possible light. S . L.
FRANCK: Symphony in D Minor. Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kiril Kondrashin cond.
PHILIPS 0 6514 119 $12.98, CD 7337 119 $12.98.
Performance. Dramatic
Recording: Good location job
FRANCK: Symphony in D Minor. Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, Pierre Bartholornee cond. RICERCAR RIC 009 $11.98 (from AudioSource, 1185 Chess Drive, Foster City, Calif. 94404).
Performance: Solidly traditional
Recording: Clean
It is a rare conductor who can bring the Franck Symphony in D Minor to its peak of affirmation for today's listeners. I heard Rafael Kubelik carry it off with the Boston Symphony in the Sixties, and others have done it justice on discs, but neither of the realizations under consideration here quite measure up. The late Kiril Kondrashin, recorded in public performance complete with coughs and concluding applause, seeks to infuse an extra element of drama into the end movements, with a resultant loss of flow. He is at his best in the slow movement and imparts a fascinating Brahmsian flavor to the extended coda. Digital mastering or no, however, some of the solo balances seem a little off, the French horns (not always on pitch) being rather too prominent in the opening movement.
The Ricercar disc from AudioSource is of interest if only because it offers the symphony performed by the orchestra of Franck's home city of Liege, Belgium. Neither the Berlin Philharmonic nor the Chicago Sym phony need fear for their laurels in terms of finesse and virtuosity, but Pierre Bartholomee offers a good traditional reading throughout. The winds are unusually prominent, with the solo English horn being very front-and-center in the allegretto middle movement. The room sound is clean and bright but rather highly colored. My review copy was warped, and side two was pressed off-center.
GOLDBERG: Trio Sonata in C Major (see C. P. E. BACH)
HOLST: The Lure; Dances from "The Morning of the Year"; The Mystic Trumpeter. Sheila Armstrong (soprano, in The Mystic Trumpeter); London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton cond.
LYRITA SRCS 128 $13.98
(from International Book and Record Distributors, 40-11 24th Street, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101).
Performance. Committed
Recording Vivid
People who know The Planets and a few other Hoist pieces generally feel they have digested the composer's style and know what to listen for in his works. The newly recorded The Mystic Trumpeter, which goes back to 1904 and apparently has yet to see print in score, may throw such knowledgeable listeners a curve or two. That year, as the composer's daughter Imogen points out in her annotation to this Lyrita release, was "a turning-point" for Hoist, then emerging from his Wagnerian thralldom but not yet active in the English folk-music revival. Walt Whitman was a popular source for English composers: Delius set some of Whitman's verses, and Vaughan Williams was setting others in his A Sea Symphony at the same time Holst produced The Mystic Trumpeter. Why the work has remained buried away for so long is hard to imagine; Imogen Hoist advises that her father revised portions of it "in his search for what he called 'the musical idiom of the English language.' " It is no lost master piece, but it is definitely worth hearing, not least for the light it sheds on the formation of this intriguing composer's personal style.
No one would pretend that either of the purely orchestral pieces on the other side of the disc is a masterpiece either, but they too are eminently worth hearing. Composed in the 1920's, they exhibit plenty of the familiar Hoist characteristics. The Lure was composed in 1921 to fit a ballet about moths and a flame; The Morning of the Year, a choral ballet, was written in 1926 1927. The music of both has been newly edited by Imogen Hoist and Colin Matthews. (Matthews, who had a hand in the late Deryck Cooke's performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, also edited The Mystic Trumpeter.) The marvelous orchestral coloring clearly and unmistakably identifies the composer of The Planets and The Perfect Fool-and, indeed, there are actual motifs and rhythmic patterns that recall those works.
All three works recorded here receive re ally committed, expert performances. Sheila Armstrong handles her high-lying soprano part with apparent ease as well as conviction, and the orchestra under David Atherton seems to relish its assignment.
The recording too is just about all one could ask-rich, well balanced, and vivid.
R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
POULENC: Gloria; Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani. Sylvia McNair (soprano, in Gloria); Michael Murry (organ); Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Shaw cond.
TELARC O DG-10077
$17.95.
Performance: Lively
Recording. Superb
Poulenc's music is either witty and a bit heartless or sincere and heartfelt. Sometimes, as in the Organ Concerto of 1939, it is both. The result is a small masterwork.
The Gloria, like Poulenc's other later work, is simple and deeply felt. These works, which 1 used to disdain (or, at best, tolerate), seem more appealing all the time.
This recording of the Organ Concerto played on a beautiful instrument in Atlanta and performed with panache by both soloist and orchestra-has spirit and freshness.
Even the very backward-looking Gloria (of 1961!) does not seem so much nostalgic as regretful. Poulenc's voice is small and sweet, but it is distinct. Sylvia McNair's voice is big and beautiful. The choral singing is good, the orchestral work lively, and it is all very well recorded. The organ, in particular, leaps out in a most effective way, yet it is always, somehow, still in balance with the vivid orchestral sound.
E.S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
RAMEAU: Pygmalion. John Elwes (tenor), Pygmalion; Mieke van der Sluis (soprano), Cephise; Francoise Vanhecke (soprano), Statue; Rachel Yakar (soprano), Amour; Chorus of the Royal Chapel; La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt cond.
PRO ARTE PAL-1082 $9.98, PAC- I 082 $9.98.
Performance Exquisite
Recording. Bright
Pygmalion, the first of Rameau's eight one-act ballets, is probably the most accessible one to modern audiences. Once Cephise, Pygmalion's justifiably outraged wife, storms off stage, the action centers on bringing his statue to life, teaching it to dance, and singing the praises of victorious love. Rameau took the animation of the statue as emblematic of love's awakening in a young girl, and his music for it is some of his most luminous. The Graces' dancing les son presents a series of delicious snippets of courtly dances until the statue is sufficiently instructed to move through the paces of an elegant sarabande. The populace rejoices, Pygmalion is celebrated with a fiercely florid Italianate aria, and all join in the concluding dance sequence.
The music for Pygmalion-exquisitely sung by John Elwes--is difficult not only because of its extremely high tessitura but also because Rameau combined both the French and Italian vocal styles in his writing. Elwes nevertheless moves easily from the heavy ornamentation of the French style to the florid phrasing of the Italian.
The women too are excellent. The secondary roles of Cephise and the Statue involve only the French style, but Rachel Yakar, as Amour, must carry off her large part, like Elwes, in both national styles.
Rameau's orchestration is particularly sparse in this work, but, under the direction of Gustav Leonhardt, La Petite Bande negotiates the ornate lines with delicate precision. The practice of taking all of the appoggiaturas quickly makes the music sound rather erratic sometimes, but one soon adjusts to this somewhat arbitrary approach.
The subtle intricacies of the score could not possibly come across on modern instruments, and the players' early instruments and technical assurance serve Rameau's genius well. This year is the three hundredth anniversary of the great French composer's birth, and this exquisite recording commemorates it with appropriate style. S . L.
SAINT-SAENS: Cello Concerto No. 1, in A Minor, Op. 33 (see SCHUMANN)
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129.
SAINT-SAENS: Cello Concerto No. 1, in A Minor, Op. 33. Lynn Harrell (cello); Cleveland Orchestra, Neville Marriner cond. LONDON 0 LDR 71068 $12.98, LDR5 71068 $12.98.
Performance: Very good
Recording Resplendent
The most recent previous pairing of these two works listed in the current Schwann is that of Jacqueline Du Pre as soloist with her husband, Daniel Barenboim, conducting the New Philharmonia; it dates from 1969, so no one can complain of being inundated with duplications.
Lynn Harrell is certainly nimble-fingered enough for the Saint-Saens, and his tone is big enough to stand out from Schumann's sometimes opaque orchestral textures with or without help from the engineers. In Neville Marriner he has a thoroughly sympathetic collaborator, and the Cleveland Orchestra, recorded in Cleveland's acoustically resplendent Masonic Temple, produces a musically potent setting. Harrell may sound a bit larger than life on his first entrance in the Schumann, but the orchestral sound, enhanced by London's digital mastering, is not at all reticent. Harrell's brilliantly executed cadenza in this work is his own. The Saint-Saens concerto, as always, is a real charmer, and it is performed altogether brilliantly here.
D. H.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symph. No. 5, Op. 47 (see Best of the Month, page 61)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
WAGNER: Lohengrin. Rene Kollo (tenor), Lohengrin; Anna Tomowa-Sintow (soprano), Elsa; Dunja Vejzovic (mezzo-sopra no), Ortrud; Siegmund Nimsgern (baritone), Frederick of Telramund; Karl Rid derbusch (bass), King Henry; Robert Kerns (baritone), the King's Herald; others. Chorus of the Deutsche Oper; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan cond.
ANGEL SELX-3829 five discs $50.90, 4X5X-3829 $50.90.
Performance. Grandiose
Recording: Very good
Heroic romance and grand flourishes are the essence of Wagner's Lohengrin, and both elements appeal to Herbert von Karajan's theatrical instincts. The drama he so vividly captures here commands our admiration, if not always our wholehearted approval. As has been the case with so many of Karajan's more recent opera recordings, the tempos here are at times extremely slow. The Bridal Chamber Scene has more ebb than flow, and the tenor hero is compelled to deliver his Grail Narrative as if each phrase were wrenched from his reluctant throat. But there are enough fine moments to compensate for such excesses: a Prelude of almost inhuman smoothness, beautifully executed transitions between scenes, a fabulously vivid handling of the closing ensemble of Act II. The climaxes are spectacular, and the superbly balanced, luxuriant orchestral tone is a consistent wonder.
While compliments are in order to EMI/ Angel for assembling a cast of today's pre eminent Wagnerians for this production, a doleful comment must again be made about how today's "best" falls short of the ideal.
Only baritone Siegmund Nimsgern reaches that peak in this recording. Nimsgern prop erly portrays Telramund as a proud but somewhat stolid warrior who is at the mercy of forces beyond his comprehension. He pours out torrents of powerful sound, yet, for all his vehemence, we retain sympathy for the character.
Although no one else in the cast matches Nimsgern's achievement, dedication and involvement are in laudable supply. Rene Kollo once had the potential to develop into an ideal Lohengrin. He has the right lyric timbre for the music, and he still knows how to deliver the tender appeals to the Swan with an insinuating mezzo voce. There is even a touch of poetry in his characterization, a quality rarely found in Wagnerian singers. What Kollo lacks is tonal amplitude and steadiness above the staff, and Karajan's deliberate tempos are not particularly helpful.
Conversely, the region above the staff is where Anna Tomowa-Sintow truly sparkles. Elsewhere her tone tends to be uneven and the pitch marginally flat, though her singing seldom loses its shimmery appeal.
In terms of expressiveness, neither she nor Dunja Vejzovic make much of the text. Vejzovic handles the "Entweihte Goner!" out break impressively, but she lacks a truly menacing quality. Karl Ridderbusch copes bravely with the King's merciless tessitura, but to say that he triumphs over it would be an overstatement. Robert Kerns is acceptable in the Herald's almost equally demanding part.
The recorded sound is topnotch, though there are a few of the balance eccentricities (mainly inaudible choral pianissimos) that often show up in Karajan recordings. G.J.
COLLECTION RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
HUAPANGO. Moncayo: Huapango. Revueltas: Sensemay & Ocho x Radio. Chivez: Sinfonia India. Galindo: Sones de Mariachi. Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, Luis Herrera de la Fuente cond. Vox CUM LAUDE O D-VCL 9033 $10.98, D-VCS 9033 $10.98.
Performance Splendid
Recording. Likewise
It would be nice if one new collection of Mexican music did not include the Sinfonla India, Sensemayci, and Pablo Moncayo's Huapango. This is the third disc to appear in the last two years with all three of these titles, and there is yet another containing both the Chavez and Sensemaya. Nonetheless, this is a stunning release in every respect. I'm delighted to have Blas Galindo's ingratiating Sones de Mariachi back in the catalog, and Luis Herrera de la Fuente gives a much more persuasive account of both this piece and the Moncayo than he did with the Orquesta Sinfonica National on Capitol some twenty-five years ago.
There does not seem to be another recording of Revueltas's Ocho x Radio at present either, and this piece is also worth having.
The digital recording captures the splendid sound of the Xalapa orchestra, and the Vox pressing is first-rate.
R.F.
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Katia Ricciarelli (Alice Ford) and Renato Bruson (Falstaff) Giulini's Falstaff: A Voyage of Discovery MUCH has been made of conductor Carlo Maria Giulini's recent return to the opera house after an absence of fifteen years. His return to opera on records is also a fairly recent phenomenon. Verdi's Rigoletto, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 1980, and the digital version of Verdi's Falstaff, just released by DG, are the only full-length opera recordings Giulini has made in over ten years. More important, the new Falstaff is the first recording of a work from the operatic mainstream to be made in the United States in a decade. (The last previous one, a recording of Bizet's Carmen conducted by Leonard Bernstein, was, coincidentally, also a Deutsche Grammophon release.) But if it takes another decade for a recording as good as this to come along, it will have been worth the wait.
Falstaff has been a favorite of Guilini's for many years. It was the opera with which he made his British debut with the Glyndebourne Festival company in Edinburgh in 1955 and one that he conducted at Covent Garden in London until he withdrew from live performances of opera in 1967. Consequently, when all his requirements were met and he got ample rehearsal time for the cast of his choosing, along with an orchestra that he had himself honed to a fine edge, it was not surprising that he went back to Falstaff for this project.
As has been widely reported, the production on which this recording is based was a collaboration between the Los Angeles Philharmonic (which Giulini has served as mu sic director since 1978), Covent Garden in London, and the Teatro Communale in Florence. When the production was mounted in each of these cities, Giulini con ducted substantially the same cast of singers but used the local house orchestra.
The new Deutsche Grammophon recording derives from the initial performances in Los Angeles last year. While it can be called a "live" recording, it is actually a meticulously edited mix-down of a number of performances plus a short fix-up session at the end. The last few hours in the studio were required because in some passages it was impossible to edit out the enthusiastic applause of the Los Angeles audiences.
Much of the freshness and spontaneity that come across in the recording can be traced to the fact that the forces involved had embarked on a voyage of discovery under Giulini's firm control. Ronald Eyre, a respected London stage director, was coming to opera for the first time, and so was the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Most of the cast, including Renato Bruson as Falstaff, were singing their roles for the first time; hence none of them had preconceived notions from earlier productions. Therefore, a sense of discovery grips the listener here as well, for Giulini reveals a great deal, not only in the clarity and finesse of the playing he elicits from the West Coast musicians but also in the vocal characterizations he draws from his principals.
Reviewing it in the opera house, some critics found this Falstaff too clinical and dispassionate. Referring to it as "Giulini's Falstaff," they complained that the conductor had polished the life out of it. In London the Financial Times called it "a dull Falstaff, its sparkle dimmed, its effervescence flattened." Listening to a recording, however, is quite different from experiencing a performance in the opera house, and what I got from this recording is certainly quite different from what I expected after having seen the production at Covent Garden last summer. For one thing, the orchestral playing on these discs and tapes is absolutely stunning. As good as the Covent Garden orchestra is, it is obvious that the Los Angeles Philharmonic is today in much better form.
But, more than that, a somewhat dour aspect that seemed to becloud the performance in the opera house is totally absent from the recording. The music is, of course, notable for its many ensembles, alight with gleaming high spirits and busy chatter, alternating with such impassioned monologues as Ford's jealous outburst in Act II and Falstaff's evocation of the joys and sol aces of wine in Act Ill. All this moves for ward with great gusto and grace. The momentum never flags, yet under Giulini's careful direction nothing is forced, and the wit, the swagger, the sudden flashes of temperament, the fine tracery of the fanciful are all there as needed. Throughout, DG's digital sound fairly glistens.
The men in the cast are perhaps a little stronger than the women. Bruson's portrayal of the title role might be described as a thinking man's Falstaff-more sensitive to irony, more rueful, mellower, and more autumnal in spirit than any other on records. His wonderful characterization is insightful and carefully shaped, and it is beautifully sung as well-really sung. Leo Nucci's Ford is resonant and full bodied, and Dalmacio Gonzalez is a suitably ardent Fenton.
Francis Egerton's Bardolfo and William Wilderman's Pistola are nicely realized, but Michael Sells's Dr. Cajus would have benefited from a bit more finish. Lucia Valentini-Terrani has great fun with the role of Mistress Quickly. Katia Ricciarelli is a radiant Alice, Brenda Boozer a stylish Meg, and Barbara Hendricks a pure delight as Nannetta.
Compare this recording with any other Solti's, either of Karajan's, or even Bernstein's. For all their many strengths, I think there is no question that Giulini sets a standard in this Falstaff that none of them can challenge.
-Christie Barter
VERDI: Falstaff. Renato Bruson (baritone), Sir John Falstaff; Leo Nucci (baritone), Ford; Katia Ricciarelli (soprano), Alice Ford; Barbara Hendricks (soprano), Nannetta; Brenda Boozer (mezzo-soprano), Meg Page; Lucia Valentini-Terrani (contralto), Mistress Quickly; Dalmacio Gonzalez (tenor), Fenton; Michael Sells (tenor), Dr. Cajus; Francis Egerton (tenor), Bardolfo: William Wilderman (bass), Pistola. Los Angeles Master Chorale; Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini cond.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2741 020 three discs $38.94, 3382 020 $38.94.
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