EMI is Rattling, a process by which the company encloses a corpus
of his recordings in handy boxes at tempting prices. This one
will appeal. Despite all the carping about his custodianship
of the central Austro-German repertoire I don’t think there
are many complaints about his idiomatic handling of American
music; or if there are they tend to be peripheral and not systemic.
I’ve always found him impressive here.
These are all well known performances so my brief will be to
highlight things I especially liked, liked re-acquainting myself
with, or perhaps found less successful. We’ll take it disc by
disc.
Rattle’s Ellington (and Billy Strayhorn) album takes Luther
Henderson arrangements laced with some outstanding jazz soloists.
Sometimes these arrangements are rather utilitarian – Take
the ‘A’ Train has the soloists topped and tailed by the
CBSO. And then again sometimes they are overblown, as in Sophisticated
Lady. Lena Horne, frail but personable, laid down her contributions
in New York – her You’re the One is touching, still,
for all that. Henderson orchestrated Harlem for Ellington
back in 1950. It’s a work that has always struck me as over-extended.
Still the performance is good within its bounds. Bobby Watson
takes on Johnny Hodges in Isfahan. Gerri Allen shows
her chops in Ad Lib on Nippon – less percussive than
Duke but subtle. It Don’t Mean a Thing (or, as here,
That Doo-wah Thing) is an exercise here in fatuous Cop
show soundtrackery. Regina Carter, strangely weak, appears on
Come Sunday. Henderson infiltrates some Delian harmonies
into the arrangement of Solitude (or Solitude in Transbluecency).
Clark Terry is on hand for some sassy muggles on Things Ain’t
– praise be to Clark.
The disc devoted to John Adams, with whom Rattle was strongly
identified for a while, is a powerfully enticing one, though
not without organisational blemish. Naturally there are the
hot shot favourites - Chairman, Tromba, Short Ride –
but these are balanced by the Harmonielehre in a performance
of revelatory strength. Rattle and the CBSO are especially compelling
in its second movement in which the element of nocturnal darkening
and twisting is brought out with exceptional cogency. The rest
of the disc is a hodge podge. A bit of Ives, the opening five
minutes of Rhapsody in Blue, the Mambo from West
Side Story and some Carter. It’s unsatisfactory and, actually,
just a bit pointless.
As much as Adams, Rattle has managed to get close to the Bernstein
muse. His Wonderful Town performance dominates disc two,
with its all-star cast and the Birmingham Contemporary Music
Group on hand to deliver the goods. Maybe there’s just too much
of a regimented feel to the orchestra’s swing for sheer liberative
pleasure but the overall results are strongly in favour of the
ensemble performance. Kim Criswell is, to use that word again,
sassy (One hundred easy ways to lose a man) and Thomas
Hampson as Baker proves formidably conversant with the modus
operandus. His A quiet girl is warmly and softly done,
with no hint of the histrionically operatic – he has a demotic
honesty in his delivery. Crowd scenes are well judged spatially
– try Act II’s Swing! scene early on. The chorus sings
well into the bargain. And as a curtain closer we have Michael
Collins in Prelude, Fugue and Riffs – not as swing out
sister as Americans do it, but engaging.
Gershwin looms large. Rhapsody in Blue is heard complete
in Peter Donohoe’s performance in the Grofé orchestration. He
plays with drama, not too much metrical freedom but considerable
incision. He follows this with a peppy selection from the Songbook,
brief and pungent. The last, I Got Rhythm, reminds us
of the celebrated film of Gershwin playing it. There’s a fair
amount of excitement in the Concerto in F which Donohoe recorded
four years after the Rhapsody. The bonne bouche of Harvey
and the Wallbangers (from Rattle’s The Jazz Album, as
was the Rhapsody) had a certain amount of cringe quality
back when the record was first released, I seem to remember,
but I do quite like the playing of the London Sinfonietta in
this elemental triptych.
And it’s to Gershwin that the rest of the box is devoted –
three discs of the classic Glyndebourne Porgy and Bess.
The recording was made in Abbey Road and the cast had honed
its performance to a requisitely high standard. There is atmosphere
her a-plenty, a fine approach to and appreciation of the essential
swing in Gershwin’s writing as well as to those moments of opulent
string gloss. The brass section is on the money as well. The
cast meanwhile proves wholly splendid, with White, Haymon and
Blackwell a trio of unimpeachable quality and the run-down of
singers shows that there are no weak chains anywhere, simply
strength in depth – amongst whom it would be invidious to omit
Damon Evans’s Sportin’ Life.
The booklet gives cast lists and essential information – synopses
and a brief essay on Rattle and ‘Americana’. I’d go for this
one – if, that is, you lack Rattle’s Porgy, which takes
up three sevenths of the box.
Jonathan Woolf
Details
CD 1
John ADAMS (b. 1947)
Harmonielehre (1984-85) [40:30]
Nixon in China: The Chairman Dances - Foxtrot for orchestra (1987) [12:47]
Two Fanfares: Tromba lontana [4:07]
Short Ride in a Fast Machine - Fanfare for orchestra [4:24]
Charles IVES (1874-1954)
Decoration Day (1912) (conclusion) [4:20]
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (jazz band version – opening only) [4:40]
Wayne Marshall (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
Elliott CARTER (b.1908)
Three Occasions for Orchestra - A Celebration of some 100 x 150 notes [3:34]
Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918–1990)
West Side Story - Symphonic Dances: Mambo [3:48]
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
CD 2
Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918–1990)
Wonderful Town [66:44]
Prelude, Fugue and Riffs [7:46] *
Kim Criswell, Thomas Hampson, Audra McDonald, Brent Barrett, Rodney Gilfry,
Carl Daymond, Timothy Robsinson, Robert Fardell, Lynton Atkinson, Michael Dore,
Simone Sauphanor, Melanie Marshall, Kimberly Cobb
London Voices/Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Simon Rattle
* Michael Collins (clarinet)/London Sinfonietta/Simon Rattle
CD 3
Duke ELLINGTON (1899-1974)
Take the 'A' Train [9:06]
You're The One [2:56]
Sophisticated Lady [5:12]
Harlem (a tone parallel to Harlem) [14:10]
Isfahan [4:50]
Ad Lib on Nippon [8:50]
That Doo-wah Thing from 'It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing' [9:05]
Something to Live For [4:33]
Come Sunday [5:30]
Solitude in Transblucency [4:38]
Maybe [2:45]
Things ain't what they used to be [7:15]
Lena Horne (vocals), Clark Terry and John Barclay (trumpets), Booby Watson
(alto saxophone), Joshua Redman and Joe Lovano (tenor saxophones), Regina Carter
(violin), Geri Allen (piano), Lewis Nash (drums), Peter Washington and Mark Goodchild
(bass), Peter Walden (cor anglais), Colin Parr (clarinet), Andrew Barnell (bassoon),
Richard Simpson (oboe)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
CD 4
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Porgy and Bess Act 1[57:59]
CD 5
Porgy and Bess Act 2, Scenes 1-3 [72:26]
CD 6
Porgy and Bess Act 2, Scene 4 and Act 3 [59:09]
Willard White, Cynthia Haymon, Harolyn Blackwell, Damon Evans, Bruce
Hubbard, Cynthia Clarey, Marietta Simpson, Gregg Baker, Barrington Coleman, Johnny
Worthy, Curtis Watson, Mervin Wallace, Maureen Brathwaite, Autris Page, Paula
Ingram, William Johnson, Linda Thompson, Colenton Freeman, Camellia Johnson,
Alan Tilvern, Billy J Mitchell, Ted Maynard, Ron Travis, Wayne Marshall
Glyndebourne Chorus/ London Philharmonic Orchestra/Simon Rattle
CD 7
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (original version with jazz band) [16:06]
Peter Donohoe (piano)
London Sinfonietta/Simon Rattle
George Gershwin's Song-Book
Swanee [0:33]
Nobody but you [0:52]
The man I love [1:51]
I'll build a stairway to paradise [0:38]
Do it again [1:36]
Fascinating rhythm [0:46]
Oh, lady, be good! [1:05]
Somebody loves me [0:46]
Sweet and low-down [1:20]
Clap yo' hands [0:34]
Do, do, do [0:45]
My one and only [0:39]
's Wonderful [0:46]
Strike up the band [0:48]
Who cares? [1:28]
That certain feeling [1:06]
Liza (All the clouds'll roll away) [2:27]
I got rhythm [1:06]
Peter Donohoe (piano)
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Piano Concerto in F [31:54]
Peter Donohoe (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
CREAMER/LAYTON
After you've gone [3:22]
KAHN/ERDMAN/MYERS/SCHOEBEL
Nobody's Sweetheart [2:30]
HARRIS/YOUNG
Sweet Sue [4:44]
Harvey and the Wallbangers/London Sinfonietta/Simon Rattle
rec. Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 1993
(Adams); 1995 (Ives, Carter, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue extract
and Bernstein Symphonic Dances)
1999 (Ellington album); No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 1988
(Porgy and Bess); 1990 (Gershwin Songbook) 1998 (Bernstein
Wonderful Town); CTS Studio, Wembley 1986 (Rhapsody in Blue,
complete
version); 1986 and 1987 (Creamer/Layton, Kahn/Erdman and Harris/Young);
1987 (Prelude, Fugue and Riffs); Butterworth Hall, Warwick
Arts Centre, University of Warwick 1990 (Gershwin Concerto
in F)
rec. 1986-1999
