A perfect American pops concert in Vienna

2019 Sommernachts Konzert: music by Bernstein, Johann Strauss II, Gershwin, Max Steiner, Sousa, Barber, Ziehrer, Dvorak, Copland

Gustavo Dudamel has chosen a great program for an American-themed Sommernachts Konzert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Like every great pops concert, this has something for everyone. The Candide Overture of Leonard Bernstein is a great opener; it still sounds fresh after hearing it so many times during last year's Centennial. And it sounds absolutely fabulous as played by this great orchestra. That, by the way, goes for the entire 70 minutes of this CD. Other highlights for me include the 8-minute suite from Casablanca, prepared, I believe by the composer Max Steiner. The suite begins with the great Warner Brothers Fanfare, which is probably Steiner's greatest work. Steiner's own, relatively modest, atmospheric music for the film is soon forgotten every time the two great non-Steiner songs appear: La Marseillaise and Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By. Umberto Eco's summary of Casablanca applies very much to this musical pastiche:

It is a hodgepodge of sensational scenes strung together implausibly; its characters are psychologically incredible, its actors act in a manneristic way. Nevertheless, it is a great example of cinematic discourse, a palimpsest for the future students of twentieth-century religiosity, a paramount laboratory for semiotic research in textual strategies.

If I were choosing an American-themed pops concert, I would have kept going with this movie theme; Dudamel has done such a great job over the years presenting the music of John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, and other great film composers. But there are fine pieces from the concert repertoire as well: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings sounds predictably sumptuous when played by the Vienna string players, and it provides a serious centre of gravitas in the middle of the program. An American work with a central European flavour is a natural for this venue: Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. And if there's not enough star power with just The Dude, how about Yuja Wang playing a vivid, sparkling Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue?

Of course, you can't have a Sommernachts Konzert without some waltzes. Dudamel leads the orchestra (or do they lead him?) in two fetching works by Johann Strauss II and Carl Michael Ziehrer. A final encore of Aaron Copland's Hoe-Down from Rodeo ties things up with a red-white-and-blue ribbon. This was fun! Bravo to these fine musicians.



This disc will be released on August 16, 2019

More Rembrandt than Hals

Dvorak: Piano Quartets no. 1, op. 23, and no. 2, op. 87

The Busch Trio received very positive reviews for the first disc in their projected complete Dvorak chamber music with piano series, a piano trio disc released on Alpha Classics in 2016. Now comes a recording of less familiar but still quite marvellous Dvorak: his two piano quartets. Miguel da Silva, the violist from the Ysaÿe Quartet, fits in very well with his younger colleagues. The youthful first quartet could have perhaps used a somewhat lighter touch, but the mature second work, a true masterpiece, is a great fit for the dark, Brahmsian way these musicians have of playing Dvorak. Torn between the bucolic and the cosmopolitan, Dvorak puts his somewhat protean music out there, and musicians have the lovely opportunity of filling in much of their own emotional content. In this instance we have a pretty sophisticated, dramatic interpretation more in the style of a brooding Rembrandt than Frans Hals celebrating life's pleasures. Even with perhaps too much light and shade, I enjoyed this interpretation a great deal.

This disc will be released on September 22, 2017.

More fine Dvorak from Wit, from Navarre

Dvorak Mass in D; Te Deum

I'm a big fan of the conductor Antoni Wit. His Naxos discography is extensive, and a string of awards has people paying more attention to his new releases. The discs I've enjoyed the most have been with the excellent Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, including a very fine 2015 Dvorak Requiem. Wit is also (since 2013-14) the Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra, and this I believe is his first recording with this orchestra.  The Mass in D and the Te Deum are both very appealing works from a choral composer of the first order. Though both are smaller in scope, they reach the same peaks of pathos, awe and consolation as Dvorak's Requiem. The lovely swinging opening Kyrie of the Mass is sung and played by Wit's Spanish musicians with the utmost delicacy, though Wit teases out the backbone as well. Dvorak's Brahms and Beethoven models are perhaps more forward than they might be with a Eastern European orchestra. The choral singing from the Orfeon Pamplones is superb, and all four soloists are strong, with soprano Ewa Biegas a stand-out.

This disc is due for release on May 12, 2017.

Nézet-Séguin's dramatic Dvorak from London

On his way to one of the great peaks of music, the Music Directorship of the Metropolitan Opera, which begins in the 2020-21 season, the Montreal-born conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin made a number of stops. Besides his three current main jobs, with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Nézet-Séguin was Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony beginning in 2003, here on Vancouver Island where I live. We're proud of that connection, and pleased to see his continued success. But probably more important in his continued upward rise was his tenure from 2007 to 2014 as Principal Guest Conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Nézet-Séguin's rapport with the LPO musicians is clear from this new two-disc set of live recordings on LPO's own label. It includes an outstanding performance from May 2009 of Dvorak's 7th Symphony. Nézet-Séguin lets loose the full range of orchestra, which is considerable, and makes the best possible case for considering this one of the greatest symphonies of the 19th century. The brass is especially impressive, along with a solid, silky string sound providing such a delightful variety of musical textures. You can hear in this music, perhaps, an echo of Nézet-Séguin's mentor, Carlo Maria Giulini. The 6th Symphony and the Othello Overture are both more recent recordings, made in September 2016 as part of Google Play's Classical Live project. Like Giulini, Nézet-Séguin's experience in the opera pit bears fruit in his orchestral recordings. Not every conductor can effectively release the drama that Dvorak builds in to his symphonic works, most especially in the 7th Symphony, but also in lesser but still impressive works like the 6th and the Overture. We're lucky to have such an accomplished conductor recording so often in both the operatic and orchestral realms. And kudos should go as well to the LPO for their openness to new marketing and technology partnerships to help promote such high quality music.

This disc will be released on March 3, 2017.

Warm music from the Cold War

The latest edition in Audite's excellent series of The RIAS Amadeus Quartet Recordings is volume V, entitled Romanticism.  It's a six-CD set containing music by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvorak and Grieg. About a third of the works have never appeared on CD by this distinguished group, so it's a welcome release indeed.

RIAS stands for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor (Broadcasting in the American Sector), a radio (and later TV) station set up in 1946, which broadcast from West Berlin throughout the Cold War. I listened to RIAS on shortwave (on the 49 Meter Band) back in the late 1960s and early 70s, though probably not to The Amadeus Quartet. I remember receiving a QSL card like this one, which shows the former IG Farben branch office on Kufsteiner Straße, RIAS broadcasting centre from 1948, and now headquarters of Deutschlandradio Kultur.  Our recordings were made in this building.

The Quartet itself is from this period; the group was created in 1947 and played with its original founding members until 1987, when the Berlin Wall was still up. And child of that period that I am, "Amadeus" sounds like "String Quartet" to my brain. I wore out the Deutsche Grammophon LPs of the Beethoven Quartets, and later their Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. So this music seems natural and authentic to me; I love their close ensemble and polished sound. To me this sophisticated approach is intuitively the proper style for chamber music of the 19th century, though I've also come to appreciate other more individual, less genteel ways of playing.

These recordings come from the 1950s and 60s. They represent the useful compromise of the broadcast studio rather than the recording studio, with a controlled acoustic environment, a comfortable and increasingly familiar space for musicians and technicians, but with less focus on technical perfection and more of the excitement of a live performance. And speaking of familiarity, the guest artists who appear here, violist Cecil Aronowitz, pianist Conrad Hansen, and clarinettist Heinrich Geuser, are all well used to playing with the Amadeus Quartet. They all shine here as brightly as these four great string players: violinists Norbert Brainin and Siegfmund Nissel, violist Peter Schidlof and cellist Martin Lovett.

Style, authenticity and tradition

In his especially perceptive liner notes to this new Busch Trio Dvorak disc from Alpha, Jan Smaczny talks about the composer being pulled by two opposite forces: the folkloric music of Bohemia and the Austro-German style of Brahms and his circle. This dynamic of nationalism versus trans-national style can be seen in many other composers: Villa-Lobos, for example, navigated between the modernism of Paris and the particularly Brazilian melding of folkoric traditions. Similarly, Aaron Copland's music saw Americana struggling with that same Parisian style, and Vaughan Williams was in the middle of a tug-of-war between Ravel and English Folk Song. But whether acknowledging Brahms' musical mentorship and personal friendship, or harking back to his roots, Dvorak was always authentic, and his music speaks in his own voice. The young musicians of the Busch Trio have caught that voice in the manner of a great actor creating a historic figure, with technical assurance and style.



They also are playing in the tradition of a great musician, their namesake Adolf Busch. This is about more than just the fact that violinist Mathieu van Bellen plays Adolf Busch’s own 1783 Guadagnini violin; rather the group has the same lean and brilliant way of attacking the great music of 19th century Europe.



From the liner notes:

A strong program for strings and guitar

I've sometimes thought of certain composers as soldiers of fortune, but always in a metaphorical way. Antoine de Lhoyer (1768 - 1852) was literally both. He was an "elite member of Gardes du Corps du Roi, a Knight of the Order of St John and a Knight of the Order of St Louis", as Wikipedia tells us, though I have no idea how impressive that actually is. I wouldn't place him in an elite category as a composer, but he seems to have been quite a virtuoso on the guitar. Based on the evidence of the work included on this very good disc, the first recording by the Basel-based Chamber Orchestra I TEMPI, Lhoyer had a way with melody, and he writes a light and transparent orchestral accompaniment to allow his sometimes virtuosic solo part to shine through. For some reason, though, Lhoyer only wrote two movements in his Guitar Concerto. It seems to be standard practice to insert the Adagio movement from his A major Duo concertante, with one of the guitars discarded. Here it fits well, though I prefer Lhoyer's original version (all three of his Duos are worth listening to). The main competition for this version of the Concerto is a 2004 Naive disc, with guitarist Philippe Spinosi and the Ensemble Matheus conducted by his brother Jean-Christophe. I prefer the new disc for its stronger string sound and clearer, more focussed recording, and for guitarist Stephan Schmidt's excellent playing.

The competition for the remaining pieces on the disc - the Dvorak E minor and Elgar Serenades - is much, much stronger.  In an old Parlophone disc Charles Mackerras and the English Chamber Orchestra present the Dvorak as a perfect Watteau painting, ripe with youthful verve and nostalgic sorrow, and always perfectly beautiful. Gevorg Gharabekyan gets a more than competent performance from his young musicians, but the final layer is missing. Gharabekyan rushes through all three movements of the Elgar; this is excellent playing, but I'd rather hear Barbirolli's more serious, more romantic (though sedately romantic, to be sure) version with the Sinfonia of London, which is just this side of self-indulgent. Again, this is on an even older Parlophone disc, which I once had on LP. Parlophone wasn't just for the Beatles, you know!

An impressive debut

This is Marita Solberg's debut solo album, and it's a real winner. I know her only from two Grieg discs on BIS: the complete Peer Gynt from 2009, and Grieg Orchestral Songs from 2010. Listening to those again, it's clear to see that with such a strong, pure voice Solberg had a great future in opera. I'm actually a bit surprised that Solveig's Song isn't included in the this program; it seems to be a bit of a signature song:



Other than that omission, I'm impressed with the program, which shows off Solberg's voice and her range.

The aria by Catalani from La Wally, made famous in Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 film Diva, is a great opener. It shows off the powerful yet creamy quality of Solberg's voice while the more controlled Mozart arias that follow, the Countess's arias Dove sono and Porgi amor from The Marriage of Figaro, demonstrate her dramatic intelligence. Two other songs stand out: the drop-dead gorgeous Song to the moon from Dvorak's Rusalka, and an affecting Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello. The strong accompaniment from conductor John Fiore and the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra contributes to an outstanding disc, and they're given their own little encore near the end: the beautiful Interlude from Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae.

An impressive, nearly perfect, debut!

Available for pre-order at Amazon; the release date is April 8, 2016.

Super Super Audio

From October 1, 2015:

I came late to multi-channel Super Audio recordings, but even with my modest audio setup, I’ve really come to appreciate the extra dimensions it brings as I listen to new CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of classical music. The expansive, dramatic Dvorak Cello Concerto is the perfect piece to show off Super Audio, and this new Pentatone disc immerses one in a concert hall setting with a strong orchestra and a superb cellist. Johannes Moser’s playing is vivid, tender and tragic, but with strong support from conductor Jakub Hrusa, he keeps this often emotional music from veering into melodrama. The Lalo Concerto isn’t at the same high level as the Dvorak, which is very much a tough act to follow. Since the work has such a different sound world, though, it is here a real joy to listen to. The German-Canadian Moser seems to have a special feeling for French music, as he made clear with his very first recording, of Saint-Saens’ music for cello and orchestra. This is very highly recommended.

Here is a very cool video promoting the project:

Drama in the New World

From July 15, 2015:

The Seattle Symphony’s house label is one of the best; they’re pretty much batting 1.000 with their releases since Seattle Symphony Media was launched in the spring of 2014. This welcome new disc provides more of the same: sparkling orchestral playing under the inspired direction of Music Director Ludovic Morlot, with high production values and an appealing package. I love the juxtaposition of the great modernist work Ameriques and a towering work of the previous generation, Dvorak’s powerful 9th Symphony. Both are presented as dramas of exploration and discovery of a new world, and each work illuminates the other. Bravo!

An outstanding Dvorak Requiem

From February 4, 2015:

Dvorak’s Requiem is a big work full of amazing tunes, awesome effects of instrumentation, choral and solo voice writing, and emotional peaks. Written for an English audience more familiar with oratorios than opera, it doesn’t have the same dramatic logic of that other great 19th century Requiem, Verdi’s. What’s needed in a great recording of Dvorak’s work is a well-matched set of soloists with musicianship at least matching their strong voices, a very good orchestra and an outstanding choir. But above all one needs a conductor with a vision of the work as a whole, and the ability to keep the fire lit under everyone in its not infrequent valleys as well as its peaks. Antoni Wit has the experience, the background, and the intimate knowledge of his forces to do just that. This is a recording to match his best, such as his Grammy winning Penderecki disc, or (since Wit is about much more than Polish music) his amazing Mahler 8th Symphony. Back in 2011 Wit mentioned in an interview that Naxos wanted him to record all of Dvorak’s choral music. I hope that happens, and that he can continue the excellent work begun with the Requiem, with his Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.

Fresh Dvorak from Bournemouth

From May 2, 2014:

Dvorak had strong links to Britain. The 7th Symphony was commissioned and premiered by London's Philharmonic Society, and it finds another British champion in the Bournemouth Symphony, under the direction of the Uruguayan conductor Jose Serebrier.

The first disc in Serebrier's Dvorak series from Warner Classics was well-reviewed, with "fresh" being the most common word used to describe the oft-recorded Symphony "From the New World". This disc also has a freshness; it sounds bright and warm and new. Serebrier brings out the Brahmsian weight of this great symphony without missing the occasional touch of Bohemian grace and bucolic charm that's so typical of Dvorak. The fillers, a Slavonic Dance, the Scherzo Capriccioso and the tone poem In Nature's Realm, aren't as weighty, but show off the skills of the orchestra and the light touch of the conductor. This is a welcome addition to what is shaping up as a first-rate series.

Iconic performances of great chamber music

January 19, 2012:

These recordings of the late Dvorak quartets were made in New York by Sony in the early 1970s. Newton Classics has put together another double-disc set of very attractive repertoire, as is their wont, though the price is not as attractive as some double-disc re-issues.

This is amazing music, played as well as you could wish, and it's very well recorded, with warmth and a nice sense of space. It's not perhaps as carefully presented as the music and performances deserve, as another reviewer here has noted. But in this day of such an embarrassment of classical music riches, it's good that Newton is pushing forward these iconic performances of some of the greatest chamber music of the 19th century. And it's nice to hear the Terzetto (a quartet minus the cello). What an odd little piece, but certainly a charmer! It's an illustration of Dvorak's cleverness, and how much he loved and understood the viola.

Vital Smetana and Dvorak

From October 3, 2011:

Newton Classics has been re-releasing some outstanding classic recordings recently; this time last year I was very impressed with their repackaged Decca disc of Spanish music played by Alicia de Larocha Falla: Suites from El Sombrero de tres picos; El amor brujo; Fantasia Baetica; Cuatro piezas espanolas. Here comes another: two discs from Antal Dorati recorded at the Concertgebouw by Decca in 1986.

Smetana's Ma vlast (My country) includes six movements, but most music lovers know only The Moldau, with its famous river theme. That theme was featured in Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life; look for the movie's trailer on YouTube to see how Malick uses The Moldau theme to represent life itself. The movement, and the entire tone poem, is perfectly framed by Dorati, beautifully played by the Dutch musicians, and presented in sparkling, clear, lifelike sound by the Decca engineers. By the way, the version used in Malick's film is by Vaclav Smetacek and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, on Supraphon, which is a classic recording as well, and, of course, completely authentic. But there is no lack of authenticity in this performance as well, as Dorati brings out the best of Bohemian music with a middle-European flavour and world-class musicians. Make sure you take the time to listen to all 80 minutes of Ma vlast; these are castles, woods and fields worth visiting with Smetana as your guide.

The Overture: In Nature's Realm by Antonin Dvorak is another work I recommend highly, especially to those of you who only know his Symphonies (and perhaps only his best-known, From the New World). Dvorak's tone poems contain some of his best music, with lovely and lively themes and rich orchestral colour. Dorati is once again a more than reliable interpreter; his Dvorak is as vital and alive as his Smetana.