Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Images (1912): Gigues [9:25]; Rondes de Printemps [8:17];
Ibéria [22:12]
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
(1894) [12:52]
La Mer (1905) [27:40]
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Leonard Bernstein
rec. live, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, June 1989
4:3, color; PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1; Region: 0; Format: NTSC
UNITEL CLASSICA/C MAJOR (DVD) 701608 [82:46]
In the booklet essay accompanying this issue, Harald Reiter refers to “acclaimed
concerts” in Rome in 1989. There’s no way of knowing, however,
if the present disc is a recording of a single one of these concerts or an
amalgam of more than one. Curiously, video credits roll over the screen at
the end of what one imagines to be the first half of the concert, but otherwise
we have the impression that we are present at a single event. This is a recording,
then, of a concert, quite simply and with no extras. As such, it is a valuable
record of a live performance from Bernstein toward the end of his life.
Two quotations adorn the DVD box, one, from Il Giornale, “Bernstein’s
Debussy is neither ethereal nor gelatinous, but uncommonly vital, caught in
the full light of the midday sun”; the other, from La Stampa,
“An unprecedented triumph”. Certainly the audience reacts enthusiastically
to these performances, and Bernstein himself seems uncommonly satisfied at
the end. His later performances were often characterised by extreme points
of view, in particular in respect of tempi. In the first of Debussy’s
orchestral Images, Gigues, he adds a minute or so to Haitink’s
timing in that conductor’s Philips reading from 1977, but this is mainly
due to the slower passages, in particular the closing pages, highly atmospheric
at a very steady tempo. Scrupulous attention has clearly been paid in rehearsal
to matters of balance, so carefully are the important wind solos given prominence
whilst remaining wholly integrated in the overall sound picture. This is a
performance of one of Debussy’s more inscrutable pieces - in spite of
its being based on The Keel Row - which brings out more than most its
atmospheric, impressionist character. Bernstein chose to follow with the third
piece, and Rondes de printemps, receives a similarly fine and detailed
performance. He then launches the first of the three pieces which make up
Ibéria in characteristic fashion, communicating the dance rhythms
with his whole body rather than just with the stick. Tempi in the two rapid
pieces are again steady, and a comparison with Haitink again - especially
when you listen to Bernstein without looking at the screen - confirms the
view that the Dutch conductor is more successful at making the music dance.
But Haitink’s is a truly exceptional Debussy collection, and a rather
unfair comparison, and given the combined sound and vision of this issue,
no collector will find Bernstein wanting. There are, in any event, some very
fine things in this performance. Orchestral colour is remarkably well controlled,
for example, all the more so given that this is a live performance. Then the
gradual awakening of the town on the morning of Fiesta day - the third movement
of Ibéria - is spectacularly well evoked. Another feature not
to be missed is the solo playing, wind and strings, and in particular some
truly inspired playing from the principal viola in the first movement.
The second half of the concert begins with Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faune. This is an expansive performance by any standards -
including Bernstein’s own, recorded in New York in 1960 - and I don’t
think these performers conjure up the sultry heat or the erotic charge as
well as do the finest performances available. But once again it is the beauty
of the orchestral sound which strikes the viewer: several details usually
hidden are clearly audible, and Bernstein and the orchestra conjure up a dramatically
rich palette of colours. La Mer again features some very slow speeds,
and there are certainly moments when one wishes he would move the music on.
In addition, he is remarkably free with rhythm and pacing in linking passages,
holding back, luxuriously savouring the moment. Were this not a concert performance,
some of these moments might pall on repetition. Nonetheless this is a fine
and convincing performance on its own terms. Bernstein drives the second movement
to a fine climax, as he also does in the final movement which brings the concert
to an end in suitably exciting and crowd-pleasing fashion.
Bernstein was always a very physical conductor, with a tendency toward two-handed,
cutlass-swinging baton work, or, in quieter passages, taking the stick in
his left hand in order to shape the phrases with his right. Another speciality,
frequently encountered, was for both feet to leave the ground. Here, some
sixteen months before his death, his arrival on and departure from the platform
are stately, and he cuts a sadly tired-looking, and paunchy, figure. His stick
technique is impressive, giving a clear yet flexible beat, and further nuances
are communicated by facial expression plus whole-body movements rather than
by the left hand. Indeed, for much of the concert he holds his glasses in
his left hand, and the viewer can spend many a happy minute playing “hunt
the specs” when one realises that once again they have disappeared from
his face. His gestures are far more economic than they once were, and there
is a feeling of thorough preparation about these performances, with little
left to chance or spontaneous inspiration on the night.
The camera work is skilful and unfussy on the whole, allowing one to listen
to the music. But, as at a live concert, the visual element is an important
part of the whole experience. Bernstein is frequently seen in close-up, so
we have a better view than the Roman audience of the perspiration dripping
from his fevered brow, and even, at one point, from his fevered nose. And
as a keen observer of conductors, I could have done with rather less in the
way of close-up filming, as Bernstein, of all conductors, should be seen whole!
The orchestra, let it be said, are a glum lot. Thank goodness their playing
is so communicative, as you’d never guess they were having a good time
to look at them. The camera generally finds the right people at the right
time, and with fine sound this is as satisfying a way to experience this concert
as one could imagine.
William Hedley