I only knew Sylvain Cambreling's conducting from his musical if sometimes
pokey EMI account of
Les Contes d'Hoffmann, so I was pleased
by this opportunity to hear more of his work -- even if these concert
recordings cover rather an odd cross-section of repertoire!
Still, it's good to see two full discs devoted to Classical symphonies
- perhaps big orchestras are beginning to reclaim this repertoire
from the "period-practice" fraternity - especially since the performances
are the best in the set. Cambreling's way with Haydn reminded me of
Bernstein's in the opening movements' balance between rhythmic weight
and lyric grace, the stately demeanour and melodic flow of the inner
movements, and the sheer exuberance of the finales. One might have
liked greater contrast between
forte and
piano in the
opening movement of
La Chasse, and a less burly sonority throughout;
still, these are winning, personable accounts.
The Mozart performances are nearly as good, with mobile tempi producing
a lilting effect in the slow movements. If there's a cavil, it's that
the woodwinds have less opportunity to register as a purely coloristic
element against the full-sized string section than in chamber-scaled
accounts - although that didn't bother me in the Haydn. Still, the
elegantly shaped account of KV 319 is fetching, and the
Haffner
begins with splendid grandeur. In the
Menuetto of the latter,
convention dictates that the last two bass notes are played the first
time around, but not on the repeat; here, they're not played either
time - an odd choice, or a bad edit? The
Prague returns to
the exuberant manner of the Haydn; the
Finale threatens to
run away, but Cambreling keeps it under control - barely.
Similar tempo control issues crop up intermittently throughout the
Bruckner: even in the final peroration, the brasses' triplets clearly
come unstuck from the upper strings' eighth-notes. Cambreling's approach
is linear and melody-based, yet spacious, with a gratifying weight
to the harmonies; and his handling of detail is often distinctive.
In the first movement, the
grazioso treatment - both graceful
and gracious - of the second subject suggests that the piece might
be Bruckner's "Pastoral", rather than his
Romantic! The
Andante
quasi allegretto achieves an almost sensuous beauty: limpid woodwinds
and vibrant, burnished cellos and horns sing their lines fervently,
and register warmly against the often spare textures. Only the famous
hunting-horn
Scherzo, where, for no clear reason, the brasses
keep banging out the last two notes of the theme rather unmusically,
disappoints.
Like the Bruckner, the Berlioz
Requiem - on compatible SACDs
rather than standard discs - comes off best in lighter-textured passages.
The opening
Requiem et Kyrie is splendid, with solo instruments,
including the impressive trombone, ringing out solidly and clearly,
and choral singing in which the parts are blended, yet clearly defined;
had the whole performance been on this level, it'd be the "basic library"
choice. The women's "
Salva me" near the end of the
Rex tremendae
has rarely sounded so imploring. The start of the
Lacrimosa
is a noisy but not monolithic texture yet is crisp and incisive. The
big moments are fine, but unexceptional - perhaps they're more impressive
in Super Audio - and tempo insecurities creep in. In the
Tuba mirum,
the resplendent brasses miss the same dovetail twice, at 0:48 and
3:57. It’s an understandable lapse, given the spread-out brass
positioning, but the same one twice? The "
Mors stupebit" at
2:08 -
after the first wall of sound - actually makes more
of a musical impression. Choral coordination, too, is blunted, with
the tenors retreating to a blanched, "French" timbre that, oddly,
sticks out precisely because of its
lack of color. Paul Groves
sounds a bit nervous the first time around the
Sanctus solo,
but settles into a rather nice float for the repeat.
Despite the assortment of venues and the hazards posed by concert
recording, the engineers have achieved remarkably beautiful and consistent
results, with clear imaging and plenty of depth. Even the Berlioz,
with its massed forces, mostly strikes a good balance between clarity
and room-filling ambience.
Each disc or album with its own booklet in a shrinkwrapped "digipak,"
the whole within a shrink-wrapped cardboard slipcase. The packaging
suggests possible separate issue, in which case I'd go for the Haydn,
and perhaps the Mozart. The slipcase identifies this as a 4-CD set,
but it definitely includes five discs, with the Berlioz spilling onto
a second - which perhaps had not been the original plan! Surprisingly,
the booklet for the Berlioz doesn't include the text.
Stephen Francis Vasta
Stephen Francis Vasta is a New York-based conductor, coach, and journalist.
Masterwork Index
Bruckner symphony
4 ~~ Haydn symphonies
~~ Mozart symphonies
33 & 35 ~~ Symphony
38
Recording details
Berlioz: Konzerthaus Freiburg, March 2004; Alte Oper, Frankfurt, April
2004
Bruckner: Konzerthaus, Dortmund, September 2003
Haydn
26: Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden, January 2005
73: Konzerthaus, Freiburg, February 2001
82: Kultur- und Kongresszentrum, Luzern, September 2001
Mozart
33: Kurtheater, Bad Ems, June 2006
35: Konzerthaus Freiburg, June 2002
38: Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden, November 2005
