More Symphonies from Sergei

The Prokofiev Symphonies recordings keep coming. Here is the latest album in the fine BIS series from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton, following very well-reviewed discs of the 6th Symphony in 2013 and the 5th in 2015. Again we have that superb, warm, alive sound from the BIS engineers, and an expansive, vibrant reading from Litton. I especially love the way the nostalgic, deceptively simple 7th comes across here. This music is full of charm, but somewhat brittle, due to the composer's distressed circumstances in 1952, the year before his death. There's sometimes a tendency to either lighten the mood too much - recapturing the innocence of the 1st Symphony is no longer possible - or to make too big a meal of things. Litton is safely in the middle here, but rather than being pallid it often sparkles. The 1947 version of the 4th Symphony, a re-working following the 6th Symphony, is nearly a new work. The Bergen Philharmonic shines in this music, especially the tragic, heroic first movement. Prokofiev always seems to come up with the perfect orchestral sounds for his material. Litton keeps dark moments from becoming turgid, and rays of optimism, as ill-fated as they are, seem real rather than sentimental. This is an unqualified success. Released on August 9, 2016.

Charlie in a trance

This remarkable 2-CD set of historic recordings is most welcome. These are all remarkable readings by the great Charles Munch, with marvellous singing by excellent choirs and star soloists, and outstanding orchestral playing. The sound is generally good, relative to the recording periods, though there are inevitable issues related especially to broadcast recordings.

For me the stand-out is the Debussy Martyre de Saint Sebastien from 1956, with the Boston Symphony, the New England Conservatory Chorus and soloists Florence Kopleff, Catherine Akos and the late Phyllis Curtin. This is an RCA recording that appeared on a mono Victrola LP, and was later released (in stereo) on a RCA Gold Seal CD, coupled with Iberia. The soloists are really excellent, as is the choir, though the French diction of the American singers has been questioned. Don't ask me about that, by the way. I can tell a really bad French accent - here in Canada we sometimes talk about 'Diefenbaker French', named for the Saskatchewan-based Canadian prime minister in the 1950s and 60s - but the subtleties at this level escape me. Also, Charles Munch himself provides the French narration. This atmospheric addition to the score - it sounds like something out of a classic French movie from the 40s - is a real plus for some. An Amazon reviewer says "Now, whenever I hear this music WITHOUT the haunting voice of Charles Munch, it feels empty." I can relate. I remember the LP with real fondness, and there is a positive nostalgic vibe here for me as well.

Another fine Debussy recording is La Damoiselle Elue, taken from a Boston Symphony broadcast from April 11, 1955, and originally released on West Hill Radio Archives. Again we have fine singers, led by the incomparable Victoria de los Angeles and the Radcliffe Choral Society. And again the amazing Boston Symphony shines. This is gorgeous music, played superbly well.

This recording of Poulenc's Gloria is especially historic; it's the world premiere performance from January 1961, with soprano Adele Addison and the Chorus Pro Musica. After some problems in rehearsal, everything worked out beautifully. Here is Poulenc's report, in a letter to his friend Pierre Bernac (from D. Kern Holoman's excellent 2012 biography Charles Munch):

Monday, 23 January 1961: And so, my dear, for a triumph it was a triumph! You know that because of the snow, the Friday concert was postponed until yesterday, Sunday. Saturday night was OK. Very good, very lovely, success, but Munch less inspired than usual. Yesterday, by contrast, with the critics there, a sublime performance. Charlie in a trance, but careful; the chorus amazing, La Addison unbelievable, and thus ovation on ovation. They told me this morning that the press was excellent. Marlene Dietrich was there: kisses, photos, and all.

Besides making me want to rush down to the library to get books of Poulenc's letters - what a sublime writer! - this makes me feel pretty good about this recording.

The Vaughan Williams 8th Symphony comes from a Tanglewood broadcast, and has previously been released on a Pristine CD. The stereo sound is pretty good, and I hope it's not getting boring for me to praise the interpretation and performance. This is one of my favourite VW symphonies; I like the way he goes all out with interesting orchestration and a non-standard structure. "I feel the thing is a symphony, and it is going to remain one," he said; he felt he had to say, that is, considering the oddness of the music compared with the bulk of his symphonic output. I love the way Munch presents a polished French sound when appropriate, but makes the fabulous Scherzo sound as English as possible. This is such a genial performance! (My goodness: now I'm writing like Poulenc!)

With the 2nd Symphony of Arthur Honegger we come to the first piece with compromised sound. This is from an HMV recording made in 1942 with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.  The symphony is a favourite of Munch's; he made recordings for RCA in Boston in 1953, with the Czech Philharmonic in 1957, the Orchestre national de France for Auvidis-Valois in 1964, USSR State Academic Orchestra for Meloydia in 1965, and the Orchestre de Paris for EMI/Angel in 1967. Munch and Honegger had developed a close friendship, and in 1942 were trying, not always successfully, to navigate the problematic politics of living and working in Occupied Paris. Holoman's book is especially good in this period; I recommend it highly!

The album ends with the 1957 RCA (studio) recording of Barber's Adagio. Munch conducted a famous concert which featured this work at Chartres Cathedral during the BSO's European tour in 1952. And it was played by the Boston Symphony at the memorial service held for Munch in Boston on November 14, 1968, conducted by assistant conductor Charles Wilson. I find this version very moving not because it is so expressive - though it is, of course - but because it is so restrained. Charlie is again in a trance - but careful!

Charles Munch (26 September 1891 – 6 November 1968)

Bach the Terminal Point

Heitor Villa-Lobos called Bach "...a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound."  He mined a particularly rich Bachian vein throughout his career, as have so many other composers, including Mozart, Chopin, Debussy.  "Study Bach," said Brahms, "there you will find everything."  One way to pay back this influence is to write music in homage: Villa's Bachianas Brasileiras, Stokowski's orchestral adaptations of preludes and fugues, Shostakovich's great Preludes and Fugues for piano, Penderecki's St. Luke Passion. There are hundreds, thousands, of others.

For this project Matt Haimovitz commissioned six composers - Philip Glass, Du Yun, Vijay Iyer, Roberto Sierra, David Sanford, and Luna Pearl Woolf - to write music for solo cello that would naturally lead into six different movements from the Solo Suites. In a process that Bach the every-day professional musician would have found familiar, these commissions interrupted the composers' current work - on Glass's opera Appomattox and Woolf's opera Better Gods - or started a back-and-forth collaboration between composer and performer, as happened between Haimovitz and Iyer. The composers' ideas encouraged Haimovitz to explore new techniques: microtonality in the music of Du Yun, the jazz bassist's repertoire of pizzicato and a different forms of scordatura with David Sanford, and an exploration of the five-string cello piccolo in the work of his partner Luna Pearl Woolf. He uses a variety of bows - Baroque and modern - throughout. None of this trial-and-error and technical innovation gets in the way of the music; it all sounds completely natural and organic. There is similarly no jarring transition between the new music and Bach, which is a tribute to the composers, the performer, and genius of Bach himself.

As with all the best encounters between artists, the more each composer focusses on Bach the more personal the music becomes. Haimovitz is demonstrating in these commissions and his superb Bach performances the truth of Borges' statement in his essay Kafka and His Precursors: "The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future."



"Bach is a terminal point," Albert Schweitzer once said. "Nothing comes from him; everything merely leads up to him." So all music in homage to Bach is really a kind of overture.

The Pentatone CD will be released September 9, 2016.

Earthy fun from Maestro Suzuki

If I had to choose one major recording project this century I think I'd go for the Bach Cantatas series on BIS with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki (I'd cheat and add Bach's other major choral masterworks). Suzuki never lets us down; he chooses the right singers, his choir and instrumentalists are scrupulously prepared, his tempi are nearly always bang on, and most importantly through all of this he has something interesting to say related to Bach and Baroque music, and religion and history and performance practice. Throughout this project Suzuki, along with his gifted musicians and the just-as-gifted BIS producers and engineers, communicates a gentle peace, but keeps a strong joy bubbling just below the surface.

All of this is obviously apparent in the Passions and the Mass, but it's even more appreciated in the lesser works, and those that come from the quotidian working musician rather than the great genius communing directly with God. The Peasant Cantata has always been fairly popular; I counted about 25 different versions on Amazon.com. There are some great tunes here, and a chance for the vocal soloists to characterize and even ham it up a bit. But its popularity also comes partly because it fits well on a CD with the Coffee Cantata, and partly because the record company gets to put on the record cover a cool Breughel-style picture of Flemish peasants having a grand time. Suzuki, though, comes through with something that sounds close to what Bach might have written for the opera stage. There is, of course, no real dramatic spark here, nothing like what is evident in even the earliest operas of Mozart. But there's a proto-singspiel feeling, with a fairly coherent libretto by Picander about young lovers, quotations of popular folk songs and the introduction of popular dance rhythms. Suzuki brings a vital, earthy feel to my favourite number, the final duet Wir gehn nun, wo der Dudelsack, by adding very cool drone sounds. I haven't heard any other version using this (I just listened to a dozen on the Naxos Music Library), and there's no indication in the liner notes as to how it was accomplished. The scoring indicated reads only "Corno, Flauto traverso, Violino I, II, Viola, Soprano, Basso, Continuo, Cembalo", but I suspect maybe it involved trumpet mouthpieces or, who knows?, kazoos. I'm not sure if anyone has ever staged the Peasant Cantata, but it sure sounds like it might be surprisingly effective, perhaps as part of an opera gala. But only if it's played and sung as perfectly as this.

Rather than the Coffee Cantata, we have for fillers two Italian cantatas of doubtful authorship. What isn't doubtful is the quality of the music, which is very high. There's no slacking off by the Suzuki and his forces, of course; this sounds like medium- if not top-drawer Bach to my untutored ears, though of course it's odd to hear Bach sung in Italian. So it's a surprisingly fun hour and a bit from BIS and Maestro Suzuki, though I guess it's no surprise it's so good. This CD is due to be released on September 9, 2016.

Stravinsky with a distinctive British sound

This is the second new Stravinsky choral disc I've come across this summer; it's due for release on August 26, 2016. When the music is as beautifully played and sung as it is here, by the Choir of St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Duncan Ferguson, and in Philippe Herreweghe's disc with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, you can only sit in wonder at the genius of the great composer, and listen gratefully to such artful construction and spiritual depth.

The works on this Delphian disc are in most cases earlier and less austere. The writing is easier on the ear, though always Stravinskyan. Since the high voices are sung by trebles there is an English (whoops, better say British) sound to the music which I often found quite appealing. Incidentally, St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh was the first cathedral in Britain to use girls as well as boys in its choir. They sound fabulous:

There's only one short piece that the two new discs have in common: the first of the Gesualdo motets that Stravinsky edited, Da Pacem Domine. Again, there's a distinctive sound from the Scottish choir, though I think the Belgian singers come out just ahead in this instance. Nevertheless, this is a fine recording, and one I'm sure I will listen to often in the future.

Exquisite, uncompromising late music by Stravinsky

I recently read Edward Said's insightful book On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain, and now I keep coming across examples of late works unexpectedly. This new disc from Phi brings together a group of choral works from Stravinsky's final years. It includes two major works, Threni and the Requiem Canticles, that are relatively under-performed and under-recorded, for such important pieces and such a popular composer. Said brings up examples of "...artistic lateness not as harmony and resolution, but as intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction", and there is an aspect of this in some of the works on this superb new album from Philippe Herreweghe, with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. It's true, for example, of the great Threni, the first of Stravinsky's works to use dodecaphony throughout. The "intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction" here is by no means an indication of any problems the composer had with a new system of composition, since the 12-tone regime is completely integrated into the Stravinsky sound. Rather, the whole project, from text (taken from the Book of Lamentations) to the textures of voices and instruments and its odd structure, with canons and pitch-less chanting, is an expression of Stravinsky's own contradictory personality and religious/spiritual life.

Not that there is a complete lack of consonance or surface beauty. Even within the uncompromising scheme in Threni there are fine moments of consolation, and there are even more in the Requiem Canticles. Stravinsky scrupulously avoids sentimentality, and Herreweghe does the same, but there is a fine feeling one might call human welling up in this music. Here is the exquisite (and exquisitely sung) Exaudi from the Requiem Canticles:

The disc ends with a short motet by Gesualdo, Da Pacem Domine, which is 3 minutes and 20 seconds of pure beauty. It retains the style of the Mantuan master but sounds completely modern. Perhaps this says more about Gesualdo's time travelling magic than Stravinsky's editing, which consisted of the addition of a missing bass line only. In any case, it's a fitting close to an outstanding album, one of the best choral discs of the year.

Fresh Beethoven

The challenge in presenting music from Beethoven's early period isn't necessarily to bring to bear all of one's musical capabilities as one would when playing a mature or even a transitional work. Beethoven was in his early twenties when he wrote the three piano trios that he published as his Opus 1, and he put everything he had into this music, which was sometimes a bit more than the music could bear. Put everything you have into playing them, and things might come crashing down. There has to be some slight distance, a musical smile when things get too fraught, a bit of ironic detachment: more Seinfeld than Breaking Bad. My ideal for this music is the wondrously joyful, and obviously fun music making of Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline du Prez and Pinchas Zuckerman (those were happy days!):



You can guess that the vital TrioVanBeethoven are probably going to do fine when you see the wide smiles on their faces on the cover of this album, volume 3 in their Piano Trio series for Gramola, due to be released on August 12, 2016. And they do a really marvellous job with this trio (as they did with number 1 in volume 1; I'm assuming number 3 will be part of volume 4, to come). I especially liked the Rossinian gallop of the splendid Presto Finale. Likewise, they play the slight Allegretto WoO 39 with real grace and the tiniest bit of mock heroism, which I believe Beethoven wrote into the piece himself; he was 42 at the time.

We move into a different world entirely with the E-flat major Trio, the second the two trios of op. 70, written in 1809, when Beethoven was approaching the end of his thirties. There are dark clouds overhead that the musicians should take note of, but not to the detriment of the nostalgic beauty in the lovely third movement, or the determined almost-optimistic mood of the Finale. If the final degree of gravitas is missing in this, a favourite, under-rated work, these fine musicians make up for it with their fresh approach to all of this music. 5 stars!

Here they are, playing the op. 1 no. 2 trio at King's Place in 2015: