MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: December 2005
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
My mind is a little
focused on Scarlatti at
the moment, courtesy of Scott Ross’s
complete sonata recordings made twenty
years ago and now re-issued in a splendid
and affordable format, albeit still
on 34 CDs (link 1). Having volunteered
to review this for MusicWeb, I felt
it couldn’t wait the six months I expect
it will take me to listen to it and
therefore this will (as a special exception
to our general approach) be a living
review, updated as we go along. I shall
try to keep listening to and writing
about other things, there is only so
much one can say about Scarlatti sonatas,
marvellous though they are.
Although I am familiar
with Rachmaninov’s major
works, until recently his songs had
almost completely passed me by. Elisabeth
Söderström and Vladimir Ashkenazy
recorded them all between 1974-9 and
I chanced upon their 3CD set (Decca
London 436 920-2) going very cheaply.
I have greatly enjoyed making their
acquaintance. Quite a few of the songs
are familiar from transcriptions and
it was good to hear the original formats.
For example, I had heard the famous
Vocalise in at least three other
versions without hearing the original.
These are wonderful performances and
it is a classic set.
I have also been listening
to Martinů’s
songs (link 2), recently issued on the
Naxos label and well-received by Rob
Barnett. These are beautifully sung
by Olga Černá but I couldn’t help
feeling a little disappointed that many
of them are not as characteristic of
this composer as I had expected.
One Naxos disc I have
heard without even the slightest disappointment
was the first in Robert Craft’s Webern
series. As Bruce Hodges and Colin Clarke
made clear (links 3 and 4), this is
a stunning disc and I hope the rest
of the series won’t be too far behind.
Naxos has also scored a hit with their
recording of Ellen Zwilich’s
music (links 5 & 6). The Violin
Concerto and Rituals for percussion
and orchestra are both products of the
last few years and I enjoyed them equally.
The slow movement of the Violin Concerto
reworks Bach’s famous Chaconne and is
particularly memorable.
Whilst on the subject
of female composers, Peter Jacob’s recordings
of Cécile Chaminade’s
piano music are being reissued at budget
price on Hyperion’s Helios label and
volume 1 was a Recording of the Month
in October (link 7). I have no complaints
about the playing or recording but the
music often seemed pretty inconsequential
to me. More to my taste were the cello
sonata and songs of another, less well
known, French female composer Marie
Jaëll (link 8). Another
disc of virtually forgotten music I
reviewed recently was Kevin Bowyer’s
recording of the organ music of Alkan,
the first of a series (link 9) – powerful
and original stuff superbly played.
Balakirev’s symphonies
are works I had been meaning to hear
for some time and Chandos’s recent re-coupling
of both and other orchestral works seemed
like a good opportunity (see link 10
for review). Splendid sound and the
playing from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
under Vassily Sinaisky almost sounds
authentically Russian.
It was time for a further
visit to MaxOpus Music, the website
which offers downloads or custom-made
CDs of the music of Sir Peter
Maxwell Davies (link 11). My
interest was in the first two Strathclyde
concertos (for oboe and cello respectively)
dating from the 1980s – these are powerful
and substantial works if relatively
conventionally structured. Seven of
this series of ten are now available
(all except Nos 4-6), as are seven of
the eight symphonies and much else besides.
If you are interested in Max’s music
there’s no need to go anywhere else.
I have finally managed
to catch up with the version of Mahler’s
Fifth that Tony Duggan considers the
finest available (link 12). Not long
ago this was a full price disc but the
re-issue on the Brilliant label cost
me a mere £7 for a two-disc set which
also contains the Tenth symphony in
Barshai’s own reconstruction. Safe to
say I was not disappointed with these
renditions of either work. Both are
live recordings with superb playing
and sound. The Tenth was particularly
interesting because of the differences
in orchestration from the usual Cooke
edition. However, it seemed to me that
Barshai’s conducting was also a big
factor giving this version a different
"feel" and it certainly sounds
the most Mahlerian of the versions I
have yet heard. In the finale, Barshai’s
refusal to linger cuts 3-4 minutes off
most other versions and seems totally
justified. Thankfully the applause is
edited out at the end (it remains at
the end of the Fifth). I always think
of Mahler’s Ninth as being his greatest
work until I put the Tenth on and then
my instinct is that, had he finished
it, this would have been even finer.
Having heard him conduct it live about
25 years ago, I won’t be parting with
Simon Rattle’s recordings of this work
but the Barshai version and Joe Wheeler
reconstruction on Naxos are ideal supplements.
Whilst on the subject
of Brilliant Classics I should also
mention their box of Ibert’s chamber
music (Brilliant 6486). Like the Mahler,
this is a 2CD set available very cheaply
and is nicely presented apart from the
wide double jewel case (which should
now be consigned to history). At least
this one arrived intact – the case of
the Mahler looked like it had been hit
by a bus. Ibert’s chamber music spans
the period 1917-1953, is mostly miniature
and is here presented chronologically.
The major works are a string quartet
and trio for violin, cello and harp,
both dating from the early 1940s. Ibert
wrote for all manner of different combinations
of instruments and there are many variations
of mood. Going from the light and airy
Deux Interludes for flute, violin
& harpsichord to the dark and brooding
Etude-Caprice pour un tombeau de
Chopin for solo cello is a bit of
shock but all this music is well worth
getting to know.
Popular wisdom holds
that Shostakovich’s Tenth
Symphony is his greatest but I have
long thought that the Eighth is close
contender. If the prospect of hearing
the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra
under Mark Wigglesworth play the work
doesn’t entice, then prejudices should
be put aside for this is very well-played
and recorded (on the BIS label). Wigglesworth’s
interpretation is not "run-of-the-mill"
either, he chooses slow tempi for all
five movements and maintains tension
and concentration well. I suspect I
was rather more convinced by this reading
than Colin Clarke (see link 13).
I am not sure how many
SACD hybrids I have come across – perhaps
20 or so. These contain standard CD
and SACD in different layers and are
often billed as playable in "all
CD players". Having not previously
encountered any problems, my NAIM CD-5
player seemed to have trouble finding
the CD layer of one of the Tudor Schubert
discs I reviewed recently (link 14 –
disc 7143). When I put the disc in it
appeared to fail to register it at all
(and this was consistent). If I then
pressed play about 4 times it inconsistently
started up and would then play the whole
disc but it would not jump between tracks.
The same disc behaved normally in another
CD player. I decided that the chance
of anyone else having the same problem
with that disc must be very small and
therefore it did not justify a mention
in the review. Nevertheless I do wonder
if others have encountered any similar
problems with SACD hybrids?
Finally, classical
music is certainly alive and well in
Hertfordshire. Last weekend my wife
and I drove a total of 235 miles to
see two world première performances
of symphonies written 100 years apart
by Paul Adrian Rooke and Rutland Boughton.
It proved well worth the effort – see
review on Seen and Heard for details
(link 15).
Patrick C Waller
Links
1. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Scarlatti_sonatas_2564620922.htm
2. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Martinu_songs_8557494.htm
3. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Mar05/webern1.htm
4. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Apr05/Webern_8557530.htm
5. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/zwilich_violin_concerto_8559268.htm
6. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/zwilich_8559268.htm
7.http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Chaminade_CDH55197.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Jaell_Cello_SOCD227.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Alkan_Organ_TOCC0030.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Balakirev_CHAN24129.htm
11. http://music.maxopus.com
12. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/Mahler105Barshai.htm
13. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Shostakovich8_Wigglesworth_BISSACD1483.htm
14. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Schubert_symphonies_Tudor7142_7143.htm
15. http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2005/Jul-Dec05/boughton_rooke2611.htm
