Discs and tapes reviewed by Robert Art Richard Freed David Hall Stoddard Lincoln
BACH: Thirty-Eight Chorale Preludes; Eight Little Preludes and Fugues (BWV 553-560). Werner Jacobs (organ). ANGEL 0 DSB-3986 two discs $23.98, 4D2S-3986 two cassettes $23.98.
Performance: Noble
Recording: Excellent
BACH: Thirty-Three Chorale Preludes. Joseph Payne (organ). HARMON IA MUNDI HMC 5158 $11.98, HM 40.5158 $11.98, HM 90.5158 $17.
Performance: Fine
Recording: Very good
The Lowell Mason Collection at Yale University contains a manuscript, called the Arnstadt Organ Book, of eighty-two chorale preludes by various early eighteenth-century German composers. Thirty-eight of these pieces were written by the young Johann Sebastian Bach, but thirty-three of them were not officially authenticated until 1985.
Among academics it is very stylish to point out faults in Bach's early chorale preludes, glossing over them in a con descending way and crediting them only for contributing to an understanding of the master's compositional pro cess in a genre that eventually led to the famous Orgelbuchlein, or Little Organ Book, of his middle years. There is no denying that this music is early Bach, but it is Bach, and even in his youth he was formidable.
Of these two first recordings of Bach's chorale preludes from the Yale manuscript, the Harmonia Mundi album contains only the thirty-three newly authenticated works, while the two-disc Angel set includes both those and the five previously known ones as well as a group of early preludes and fugues generally attributed to Bach.
Werner Jacob, on Angel, plays the magnificent Silbermann organ built in 1759-1761 at the Catholic Cathedral in Arlesheim, Switzerland. His readings are noble, and his imaginative registration brings out the chorale melodies in high relief against the background of Bach's intricate accompaniments. On HarmoniaMundi, Joseph Payne is heard on a fine Bozeman-Gibson organ at St. Paul's Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. His readings are vigorous and workmanlike, but though his registrations are colorful, the chorale melody is frequently obscured by an overbearing accompaniment.
If your interest is merely in hearing the "new" pieces, the Harmonia Mundi recording is serviceable and certainly cheaper. But if sensitive organ playing is a consideration, opt for the Angel collection. S.L.
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8, in C Minor. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini cond.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON CD 415 124-1 two discs $19.96, 415 124-4 two cassettes $19.96, 0 415 124-2 two CD's no list price.
Performance: Tender
Recording: Very good
Not unexpectedly, Carlo Maria Giulini probes the far-reaching lyrical vistas of Bruckner's mighty Eighth Symphony (in the Nowak edition) rather than emphasizing its granitic masses. While his tempos are generally broad, he lavishes special care on details of development, though without fussiness, and the solo wind players of the Vienna Philharmonic do themselves proud.
I would have preferred a less legato treatment for the main sections of the windswept, bell-haunted scherzo, but the lyrical episodes are something to treasure. The vast slow movement, lasting here almost half an hour, is per formed with the utmost blend of passion and tenderness. The finale's opening pages come off somewhat less militantly than usual, but Giulini gives an interpretation of shattering power to the central episode with its bell-like timpani, paving the way magnificently for the monumental coda. The Vienna Philharmonic responds superbly, and the sound on CD is among DG's better efforts in the medium. D.H.
CHOPIN: Impromptus Nos. 1-3; Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor, Op. 66; Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60; Berceuse in D-fiat Major, Op. 57; Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 49. Murray Perahia (piano). CBS 0 IM 39708, IMT 39708, no list price.
Performance: Elegant
Recording: Limpid
It would be hard to think of any music and any pianist more obviously suited to each other than these particular Cho pin pieces and Murray Perahia. Nothing is trivialized (the pearly tone is never made an end in itself), and nothing is monumentalized (though the approach is generally large-scaled). The pianist achieves the precise emotional shading in every work by emphasizing structural solidity, proportion, and substance.
There may be nothing new to say about such familiar music, but it is refreshing to have its integrity and vitality so handsomely reaffirmed. The limpid, full-bodied piano sound most effectively enhances the virtues of Perahia's playing without in any way calling attention to itself. R.F.
ELGAR: Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61 (see Best of the Month, page 71) LISZT: Sonata in B Minor; Grandes etudes de Paganini. Cecile Ousset (piano). ANGEL DS-38259 $11.98.
Performance: Stunning
Recording: Excellent
Every one of Cecile Ousset's records that I've heard has been enormously satisfying, and here she proves to be a truly distinguished Liszt player. Her remarkably cogent and powerful account of the B Minor Sonata is on the exalted level of the great recordings of that work by Horowitz, Brendel, Wild, and B let--a level on which there are no "competitors" but simply titans able to grasp the organizational and emotional factors almost intuitively and to meet the technical demands with ease yet without minimizing the element of challenge that gives the work its excitement and grandeur. Ousset faces no competition in the six Paganini Etudes.
Hers is apparently the first recording of this fascinating set in many years, and none in my memory has come close to it in terms of either performance or sound quality. It is this side, in fact, that makes the record really indispensable--and provides a welcome justification for adding yet another splendid version of the sonata to the three or four that serious Lisztians are likely to have already. R.F.
MOZART: Mass in C Major (K. 317, "Coronation"); Missa solemnis in C Major (K. 337). Margaret Marshall (soprano); Ann Murray (contralto); Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor); David Wilson-Johnson (bass); King's College Choir, Cambridge; David Briggs (organ); English Chamber Orchestra, Stephen Cleobury cond. ARGo 411 904-1 $10.98, 411 904-4 $10.98, 411 904-2 no list price.
Performance: Splendid
Recording: Splendid
These radiant, outgoing works happen to be not only the last Masses Mozart composed in Salzburg but the last such works he actually completed. The so called Coronation Mass K. 317, is very familiar and has been much recorded.
The C Major Missa solemnis, K. 337, every bit as appealing, has been relatively neglected; in fact, the only other recordings of it available at present are two on the Musical Heritage Society label, neither of which compares either musically or sonically with the new one on Argo.
Neither K. 317 nor K. 337 has ever sounded quite so attractive as in Stephen Cleobury's splendid performances. He has achieved an ideal balance of warmth and vigor, his singers and players are first-rate, and the fine sound makes the most of these musical virtues without calling any undue attention to itself. R.F.
REICH: The Desert Music. Steve Reich and Musicians; Chorus and Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas cond.
NONESUCH 79101-1 $11.98, 79101 4 $11.98, 79101-2 no list price.
Performance: Definitive
Recording: Excellent
The Desert Music takes its title from a collection of poetry by William Carlos Williams, three of whose poems provide the text sung by the chorus. There are five interconnected movements, forming a more or less symmetrical arch, with lines on man's survival framing the tripartite middle movement.
The large instrumental ensemble, divided into three groups, includes synthesizers and a good-sized but hardly extravagant percussion battery. In con cert performance the winds, the chorus, and two of the violas are miked, and four monitor speakers are positioned above the chorus along the back of the stage. The constant pulsation and the unusual harmonies provide a good sense of tension and contribute to an overall dreamlike effect.
All of composer Steve Reich's re marks printed on the record jacket reflect an imaginative and compassion ate creative impulse, and the work has been called a masterpiece of the minimalist genre. Even some determinedly sympathetic listeners, though, are likely to respond to the whole minimalist phenomenon with thoughts of the Emperor's new clothes.
Commissioned jointly by the West German Radio and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Desert Music was introduced in Cologne in March 1984 and was given its U.S. premiere in Brooklyn last October by the same per formers who now have recorded it. No composer could ask for a more dedicated or capable advocate and collaborator than Michael Tilson Thomas is here. The performance itself is superb, and it is recorded with brilliant but unexaggerated vividness. So accomplished a presentation excites admiration in its own right. R.F.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107; Cello Concerto No. Z Op. 126. Heinrich Schiff (cello); Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Shostakovich cond. PHILIPS 412 526-1 $10.98, 412 526-4 $10.98, 412 526-2 no list price.
Performance: Splendid
Recording: Likewise
Both of Dmitri Shostakovich's cello concertos were written for Mstislav Rostropovich, who has made definitive recordings of them. Rostropovich has, however, encouraged other cellists to take up these works and has even con ducted No. 1 with his pupil David Geringas as soloist. He has also played the solo part with Maxim Shostakovich, the composer's son, conducting, which means that the conductor on this new Philips disc has had unique opportunities to study these works with both the composer and the dedicatee. In any event, I suspect Rostropovich must be happy to have works so close to his heart so well accounted for by these younger colleagues.
In the now-familiar First Concerto, Heinrich Schiff and Maxim Shostakovich manage to convey both tension and expansiveness with a superb sense of balance and momentum. They make a fine case for the more introverted Second as well, and what a solid, gripping work it is, after all! Completely free of any superficial or superfluous gesture, it is lit softly from within by lyricism, gentle wit, a degree of nostalgia, and a sort of hard-won, smiling-through-the-tears serenity. If you have the Rostropovich recordings you will not want to part with them, but if you don't have the Second Concerto, the opportunity provided here ought not to be missed, even if it means duplicating the First. The sound on CD is vivid, ideally focused, altogether realistic. Those who opt for the LP will be happy to find the thirty four-minute Concerto No. 2 fitting snugly on a single side. R.F.
SOR: Sonata No. Z in C Minor, Op. 25; Variations on the Scottish Air "Ye banks and braes;" Six airs from Mozart's "Die Zauberllote"; Le Calme, Ca price, Op. 50. Lex Eisenhardt (guitar).
ETCETERA ETC 1025 $11.98, cass XTC 1025 $11.98.
Performance: Fine
Recording: Fine
Now that the classical guitar has come into its own, players are digging deeper into the literature and turning up some good music. The major offering on this album of works by Fernando Sor, one of the most prolific composers for the instrument during the early years of the nineteenth century, is a charming sonata. The shorter works on the reverse side also display Sor at his best.
Lex Eisenhardt, an accomplished guitarist who has edited the complete works of Sor and written a biography of him, takes the music very seriously- sometimes perhaps too seriously. He performs on a Viennese guitar made during the composer's lifetime, and his readings are straightforward and techni cally sound. S. L.
R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier. Ana Pusar-Joric (soprano), Marschallin; Ute Walther (mezzo-soprano), Octavian; Margot Stejskal (soprano), Sophie; Theo Adam (bass), Ochs; Rolf Haun stein (baritone), Faninal; others. Chorus of the Staatsoper Dresden; Staatskapelle Dresden, Hans Vonk cond.
DENON OX-7297-7300 four discs, 100C37 7482-4 three CD's, no list price.
Performance: Enjoyable Recording: Skillful Recorded over a five-week period in January and February of this year and culminating in a "take" of the first performance on February 14, 1985, in Dresden's newly reconstructed Semper Opera House, this set is a triumph of the recording engineer's art. It has been edited to provide a musically satisfying performance with the added pleasures of live-performance sounds not found in studio-made recordings.
Among the artists, only Theo Adam is well known to American operaphiles, but all are equal to their assignments, singing musically and tastefully and with a sense of the dramatic intent of both composer and librettist. The Act I colloquy of the Marschallin and Octav ian touchingly evokes their love as well as Octavian's somewhat callow youth and the Marschallin's sense of fatality.
If Margot Stejskal sounds slightly steely in the Presentation scene, she performs with dramatic conviction throughout, leading us to forget that Sophie is often presented as a pretty-faced cipher.
Adam's well-sung Ochs is properly boorish and yet sufficiently aristocratic to make his presence in the Marschal lin's boudoir believable, and Rolf Haunstein offers an amusingly touching Faninal, a self-important fuddy-duddy for whom you can only have sympathy.
A special commendation goes to Ute Walther for singing through the horse play at the beginning of Act III and for creating a properly comic situation without reducing it to slapstick, which it can so easily become.
While I'm unfamiliar with Hans Vonk as a conductor, I am impressed by his sensitive but sure control of orchestra and chorus, both of which perform very well indeed. While Karajan's re cent Rosenkavalier is an "orchestra's" performance of the opera, Vonk's is a "singers' " performance. I listen to Ka rajan's impressed-no, awed-by the tonal tapestry he weaves. I hear Vonk's as music theater, conveying a warmth of spirit and joy. The jubilant atmosphere generated by the reopening of the old opera house in Dresden is at all times evident. R.A.
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WAGNER'S RING CYCLE ON CD
Brannhilde's Awakening. "Siegfried," lithograph (1935) by Adolf Dehn.
DIGITAL technology has given a new lease on life to the three great analog recordings of Wagner's four-opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. All three were cast with the best Wagnerian singers of the 1960's, and each cycle was led by an authoritative music director who knew the Ring intimately from having con ducted it in the opera house-Karl Bohm (Philips), Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche Grammophon), and Georg Solti (London). All three sets have now been digitally reprocessed and rere leased on Compact Discs, and they sound better than ever.
A failing of classical record companies today is that they bring out too many pedestrian performances of standard repertoire. Recording the Ring, however, has never been a routine matter, and each of these three versions required a considerable commitment of time, money, and musical resources.
Beginning with the London Rheingold in the late Fifties, the release of each of the operas in the Solti and Karajan cycles was treated as an important artistic event, and so was the release of the complete Bohm set in 1972.
Many of the singers of leading roles appear in more than one of these three recordings, which complicates the pro cess of choosing a set to buy. Since each of them has strengths that make it treasurable, you will not go completely wrong no matter which one you select.
If you have a marked preference for one of the three conductors, that should simplify matters for you.
Karajan has been said to take a "chamber-music" approach to the work. He exacts the usual precision of playing from the orchestra, and his tem pos tend to be slow as he savors the instrumental color of each phrase. In selecting the singers, he emphasized the lyric quality of the Ring by choosing lighter voices over the more heroic ones in the London and Philips sets-Regine Crespin and Helga Dernesch as BrUnnhilde, for example, instead of the more powerful Birgit Nilsson in the other .two versions. He has Jon Vickers (Siegmund) and Gundula Janowitz (Sieglinde) practically croon the famous brother/sister love scene at the end of Act I of Die Walkare in contrast to the customary ecstatic interpretations of Crespin and James King (London) and Leonie Rysanek and King ( Philips).
The Karajan version is not lacking in excitement. Brunnhilde's Awakening and the final scene in Siegfried are re splendent, and I especially like Crespin as a vulnerable, feminine Brunnhilde in Die Walkare and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the young Wotan in Rheingold.
Solti takes a symphonic approach to the cycle, whipping the orchestra up to climactic fortes that at times are almost unbearably exciting. The first complete version on records, this Ring has been my reference standard ever since it came out. In addition to Nilsson as all three Brunnhildes, it has the great Kirsten Flagstad as the Rheingold Fricka with George London as Wotan and Set Svanholm as Loge. Gottlob Frick is particularly menacing as Hunding and Hagen.
London's version was engineered for stereo in its early years, and some of the producer's special effects have always struck a few critics as gimmicky. To some ears the balance between singers and orchestra favors the latter too much. But in grandness of scale, Solti's Ring is unsurpassed.
The Bohm version can be described as theatrical in two senses of the word.
Bohm's approach to the work is similar to Solti's in emphasizing the exciting climaxes in the cycle. This version is also "theatrical" in that it was recorded in live performances at the Bayreuth Festivals of 1966 and 1967 in the theater built to Wagner's specifications with the orchestra pit partly under the stage. The result is a balance that favors the singers a bit more. This set's origin in Bayreuth gives it a feeling of unchallenged authority and great documentary value as well as providing the listener with the sense of being present at an actual performance.
In the Bohm cycle Martha Moll (a noted Brunnhilde of the Fifties) gives a vivid interpretation of the small role of Waltraute. Stimulated by the presence of an audience (which makes almost no intrusive sounds), some of the other singers give better performances here than in the London set. James King is a notable example. Even Nilsson sounds better in some scenes, but not Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried), who dies more effectively in Gotterdammerung for Solti. All told, the Philips set makes a very good compromise choice between the sensuous, more intimate Karajan interpretation and the epic, sometimes athletic Solti version.
Back in the Sixties it was common to deplore the scarcity of singers who could perform Wagner well. These three recordings make that decade look (and sound) like a more fruitful period of Wagnerian interpretation than we realized at the time. The Bible warns us not to put new wine in old bottles. What we have here is the reverse: the cream of the crop of several excellent vintage years digitally remastered and served up in sparkling, crystalline Compact Disc form. It's very heady stuff.
William Livingstone
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Hotter, James King, Christa Ludwig, George London, Jean Madeira, Gustav Neidlinger, Birgit Nilsson, Gerhard Stolze, Wolfgang Windgassen, and other soloists. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti cond.
LONDON-- Das Rheingold 414 101-2 three CD's, Die Walkare 414 105 2 four CD's, Siegfried 414 110-2 four CD's, Gotterdammerung 414 115-2 four CD's, no list prices.
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen. Helge Brilioth, Rdgine Crespin, Oralia Dominguez, Gundula Janowitz, Zoltan Kelemen, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Stewart, Jess Thomas, Jon Vickers, Erwin Wohlfahrt, and other soloists. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan cond.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON-- Das Rheingold 415 141-2 three CD's, Die Walktire 415 145-2 four CD's, Siegfried 4T5 150-2 four CD's, Gotterdammerung 415 155-2 four CD's, no list prices.
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Theo Adam, Josef Greindl, James King, Martha Modl, Gustav Neidlinger, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Martti Talvela, Wolfgang Windgassen, Erwin Wohl fahrt, and other soloists. Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Bt3hm cond.
PHILIPS-- Das Rheingold 412 475-2 two CD's, Die Walkare 412 478-2 four CD's, Siegfried 412 483-2 four CD's, Gotterdammerung 412 488-2 four CD's, no list prices.
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STARKER'S BACH SUITES
IN the notes for Janos Starker's new Sefel recording of the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, the cel list recalls his long association with this music, beginning with recordings he made in the early Fifties. By 1965 he had made his second complete recording of the six suites, for Mercury, and that set is still available in the label's Golden Imports series. Harold Lawrence, who produced the Mercury re cording, also produced the Sefel set, which was recorded digitally and has been released on Compact Disc as well as on LP.
Starker notes that he hadn't prayed the full set of suites in public for a decade before making the new recording, though he did play them subsequently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York about a year ago. Since he turned sixty in 1984 and plans to retire in 1989, the Sefel recording represents what we must assume are his final thoughts on the music.
In the last few years Starker's playing has become markedly more expansive.
Whereas in the past he was noted for a somewhat cool, austere sort of perfectionism, there is now a more outgoing quality with more warmth and expressiveness. "Decades ago," Starker recalls in his notes, "I said that any attempt to classify a performance of this music as a truly Bach presentation would be futile and baseless. This holds true today and forever, notwithstanding all the re search data and the pretensions they spawned. So the issue becomes, which elements of the music will one focus on:
purity, simplicity, and balance must be maintained, technical proficiency must be pursued, but then beauty of sound must be given more significance. A lovely string instrument should sing as much as possible." Those italics are mine, but the emphasis is Starker's in these Bach performances. The cello does sing; there is an element of lyricism here that was not hinted at in the earlier recordings. The performances have an affectionate, sunny quality-even a hint of geniality in the bourrees of Nos. 3 and 4-but with no diminution of Starker's characteristic elegance or vitality, or of the pro found purposefulness of his approach.
The sound, in fact, is downright gorgeous.
A little caveat is in order for CD collectors. While the packaging, the notes, and the disc labels all indicate a total of eighteen individually timed tracks on each of the two discs-one for each movement in each suite-there are, in fact, only three tracks per disc, one for each entire suite. The individual movements are indexed, but there is nothing to make the user aware of this.
Richard Freed BACH: Suites for Unaccompanied Cel lo (BWV 1007-1012). Janos Starker (cello). SEFEL 0 SEFD-300 three discs
$34.95, SECD-300A/B two CD's no list price.
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