Seiji Ozawa - The Complete Warner Recordings
rec. 1969-1998, various venues, ADD/DDD
WARNER CLASSICS 2564 613951 [25 CDs: c.23:00:00]
This box celebrates with a large tranche of the conducting
heritage of the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa (b. 1935). Warner in this way
mark his eightieth birthday which falls in September 2015. It's all
for the orchestra; extravagant and late-romantic in many cases and with a
generous infusion of twentieth century pieces. There's no Brahms, Beethoven,
Mozart or Haydn and no Bruckner or Mahler.
This is very much less than a review and more of a series of notes and impressions
based on a selective listen. I have random-sampled these discs: no more than
that.
Huge sets or 'editions' have become an increasingly numerous
presence. Retrospectives of this or that conductor or instrumentalist tend
to dominate although there are composer-specific boxes as well. The attraction
is obvious and comes in various aspects: low cost per CD; nostalgia for a
golden or at least silvery age; the potency of these substantial boxes as
presents; the inducement to explore and the opportunity to revive commercially
dormant parts of the archives. The downsides are duplication for many long-time
collectors and often cut-down or nil liner-notes or texts and perhaps the
reduced likelihood of the discs being played if they are housed in a 'massive'
case. In some cases they may not fit conveniently on your shelves.
Warner supply, in English, French and German languages, a scene-setter essay
by Rémy Louis. It's fairly extensive and spreads across four pages.
Louis surveys Ozawa's history and brings us up to date. He reminds
us that following decades of work Ozawa had to reduce his conducting from
2010 after he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. It has been a while
since audiences last saw him in action on the podium.
Many may recall Ozawa with respect and affection as the conductor of an early
(not the earliest) recording of Messiaen's Turangalîla dating
from 1968 (review).
DG deployed him in a Prokofiev symphony cycle (review).
Neither of those are here, being respectively BMG and DG products; do I sense
another box coming from Universal? We have certainly seen that complementary
tendency with Giulini, Karajan and Stokowski.
Looking through the flip-lid cardboard box of this set shows at least one
advantage of the Warner combine and its industry mergers. Getting all these
recordings together in one place from different labels might otherwise have
been a task too far.
With the box opened you are confronted with a sheaf of CDs in card envelopes.
Each envelope reproduces the original Erato and EMI LP front sleeves. You
do not get photo-reduced sleeve-notes. They would in any event have been a
trial to read even with a magnifying glass.
The themes in Ozawa's recorded profile are underlined. Russian music
is one; some probably unfamiliar modern music another. On the Russian front
we have two Firebirds (Paris, 1972 and Boston, 1983) and a Béroff
collection of Stravinsky's music for piano and orchestra. There's
plenty of Tchaikovsky too. Add to this works by Rimsky, Borodin, Prokofiev
and Shostakovich. In the 'modern' category we get pieces by
Takemitsu, Foss, Kim and Starer. French music is addressed with Saint-Saëns
and Bizet, Gagneux and Dutilleux. National themes tend to tie in with Ozawa's
years with various orchestras. At least they do in the case of the Orchestre
National de France.
His tenure with various world-class orchestras shows through: Boston, Chicago,
Paris, Berlin. Guest sessions with the LPO, Japan Phil and Philharmonia also
appear. Other strands include soloists. There are three discs each with Rostropovich
and Perlman. Ozawa had single discs in this series with Mutter, Spivakov,
Masuko Ushioda, Béroff and two with Weissenberg.
Timings, which are perhaps less of an issue in a box of this scale, range
across the LP duration - generally between 45 and 60 minutes, although there
are a couple of discs well below this: the Takemitsu is at 38:28 and the last
one: Dutilleux, 21:48 including a minute of applause. If issued singly, playing
duration would have been an issue with reviewers and purchasers perhaps excepting
outright devotees. A number of companies including Decca-Universal have supplemented
ex-LP playing times by adding recordings to bring CD playing times up above
the 70 minute level; look at the various Mercury Living Presence, Decca Sound
and Phase Four boxes. Not here.
We get a mix of analogue and digital recordings. Thus the ten CDs from the
1970s - with one from 1969 - are all ADD. The remainder are all DDD: 12 from
the 1980s and three from the 1990s with the most recent one (Dutilleux) from
1997.
Nicely insouciant and resonantly recorded, the Polovtsian Dances
and Scheherazade are heard from sessions in the cavernous acoustic
of the Medinah Temple in Chicago. The sound when loud is rather vaguely defined
by comparison with the current best but it is still quite listenable. This
is the earliest recording and is from 1969. The Bartók Concerto for Orchestra,
despite some imaginative touches early on resolves into a scramble at the
end. It's exciting but .... The Janacek Sinfonietta majors
on brilliance and the spectacular. Over to the Orchestre de Paris for a very
romantic and exciting Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto. The sound here is warm
and cosy. That slight claustrophobia clears for the Ravel G major but the
orchestra appears distant. I have been listening recently to the contrastingly
recorded 1958 Michelangeli version of the Ravel from EMI and this has emphasised
the effect. There's a slightly cloudy warmth about the Béroff Stravinsky
disc where more cool and clarity would have yielded dividends.
The Tchaikovsky Fourth from the same orchestra was also done in the Salle
Wagram but now the sound is splendid. The pizzicato third movement
is fairly slow - no Mravinsky gabble here but excitement is at a lower setting
too. This is saved for the outer movements which have a good quotient of crash
and rush. More Tchaikovsky can be found on CD 18; this time with the Berlin
Phil in 1984. Thunder and lightning abound for 1812 and we get some
cavernous bass-defiant cannon shots to loosen the fillings and the cement.
I have heard more apocalyptic accounts of Francesca da Rimini than
this from Ozawa — from Ovchinnikov, Ahronovitch and Mravinsky for a
start — but he saves the passion and the black powder for the final
five minutes. Even so it's loud and effective rather than eruptive
... still less, molten. CD 19 gives us a very good indeed Pathétique
from Boston in 1986.
Also from 1986 the Rostropovich Rococo Variations are notably smooth
and tender. The Dvořák Cello Concerto with Rostropovich is engaging and
the recording achieves a satisfying large concert-hall effect although some
critics do not rate this interpretation. Full of rhythmic grit comes the Prokofiev
Symphony-Concerto although the LSO sound a little undernourished
at full stretch in London's lively Henry Wood Hall. This is a fine
performance and had me making links between this work and the same composer's
Sixth Symphony. Speaking of grit, try Ozawa and Rostropovich in Shostakovich's
Cello Concerto No. 1. Mind you if you like abrasion in this work then go back
to a version that as far as I know has appeared only once on CD. Raw and glaring
though it is, try Mikhail Khomitser with the Moscow RSO and Rozhdestvensky
(RCA Classics Navigator 74321-29254-2, 1995).
CD 24, also a Rostropovich disc takes us to the Triptyque of Renaud
Gagneux (b.1947). This runs to 17:41 and is in three movements. The music
is dramatic, poetic and lucidly orchestrated. After this example I would look
out for more Gagneux. The Shchedrin Sotto Voce concerto is a very
substantial piece running to almost 38 minutes across four movements. This
disc was also issued in 2008 with the Gagneux as part of a Warner box of Rostropovich
recordings (review).
The Shchedrin exists in at least one other recording on Ondine
where the soloist is Marko Ylönen.
There are two complete Firebirds here. The one from Orchestre de
Paris is full of delicious orchestral effects. This is a work that could have
been designed for Ozawa. He is joined by Suvi Raj Grubb at the control table;
he also presided for the Boston Firebird. Even so, in both cases
the effect falls short of the most imaginative Firebird I know in
terms of both interpretation and sound: that by Dorati and the LSO (Mercury)
although Ozawa's two versions sound not quite as steely as the Dorati.
Back to the Salle Wagram for no fewer than two Bizet discs. This venue always
warms the sound-picture a couple of degrees. Ozawa is there with the Orchestre
National de France and he lays into the music with a will. It's not
without charm but this is hard-muscled, fast tempo and big-boned Bizet - Beethovenian
stuff. Patrie sounds like a violent echo of Egmont. Drama
is piled high on drama for the Carmen suites although the Entr'acte
to Act III chills out, even if the pulse is still not slow. That same undertow
of urgency can be felt in the Habañera. I have heard more poetic
readings of L'Arlésienne suites, from Beecham and Frémaux
for a start, but if you like your Bizet big and burly this will please. It
often felt rather heartless. The Saint-Saëns disc (CD20) again takes us to
Salle Wagram though Philippe Lefèbvre is mixed in at the grand organ, Chartres
Cathedral. Here the warmth and the shatteringly colossal feeling of the acoustic
work very well with the symphony. I am not completely won round though and
would still turn to the 1970s Frémaux/CBSO on EMI (review).
The Gershwin disc from 1983 teams Ozawa up with Weissenberg again. This time
they are with the Berlin Phil who lack the last detail in playful jazzy sleaze.
Even so they do a very respectable job across these three works. I notice
that there is no Piano Concerto although we do get the less common Catfish
Row Suite. A nice open sound-picture is achieved with lots of punch.
Unusually Ushioda's Sibelius and Bruch first came out in the UK on
HMV Concert Classics at mid-price. Her Sibelius is pretty gutsy, tending more
towards Oistrakh than Mullova or Chung. The Bruch is nice rather than outstanding.
Ushioda died in Boston aged 71 in 2013. We turn now to a violinist who achieved
greater celebrity. Perlman sweeps us through the surprisingly poetic Slavonic-stormy
pages of the Wieniawski concertos. There are showy moments but Ozawa and his
soloist have us thinking of introspection more often. There's a lovely
recording by Suvi Raj Grubb. Spivakov's Tchaikovsky is exciting and
very cleanly recorded at Abbey Road by John Willan. The filler - Capriccio
Italien - with wide-ranging sound pulls no punches either but you have
to be in the right mood for this piece. Mutter's Lalo was once again
taken down in the Salle Wagram in 1984. As in his Bizet, Ozawa takes a monumental
line. At times there is cloudiness in the sound although Mutter's voice
emerges with fine definition, if not as imperiously as in the image secured
for her by Erato some years later in Washington for the Glazunov/Prokofiev
disc recently reissued by Warner. In Zigeunerweisen the orchestra
miss not a beat in keeping up with the death-defying Mutter express. This
is lovely playing if discreetly recessed.
Perlman and Ozawa turned to the single movement Violin Concerto by Earl Kim
(1920-1998) in 1983 in Boston. This is inventive music yet cataclysmic across
what amounts to a 22-minute essay in angularity and clarity. It would have
been preferable for the work to have been presented with separate tracks for
parts I and II. The Kim is matched, without any obvious attempt at repertoire
sweetening, with the 1981 Violin Concerto by Robert Starer (1924-2001). The
Violin Concerto's middle movement is more moodily lyrical. I recall
commenting on this aspect of Starer's creative impulse in reviewing
his Viola Concerto. He has a gift for succulent tunes. If you move from CD16
to CD23 you find three twentieth-century American pieces for violin and orchestra.
Bernstein's Serenade flies along and is movingly contemplative
in the Pausanius and Agathon movements. What may well have
been the model for the Bernstein work follows in a lushly juicy version: Barber's
Violin Concerto. This disc overall reminded me of the great work Boston did
with Michael Tilson Thomas and Paul Zukofsky in 1970 when they recorded for
DG the William Schuman Violin Concerto and Piston Second Symphony. It's
a shame that they did not do more. It’s glorious. If only they had done
Roy Harris Seventh Symphony but it remains an 'if only'. To
the task in hand: This recording for Perlman has plenty of depth and a most
propulsive and pleasing rasp in the final Presto. Lukas Foss's
poetic and kinetically flickering American Pieces recall Copland's
Tender Land mixed with distant echoes of Satie.
All credit to Ozawa for taking on contemporary repertoire. The Maki Ishii
(1936-2003) piece for gagaku and orchestra tends towards the shrill and cataclysmic
with metallic clashes and grumbling bass activity. It ends with a murmur.
Takemitsu's Cassiopeia for percussion and orchestra is also
inventive and has more of a feeling of connection, moment to moment, rather
than the episodic impulsive stuff secured by Ishii. The spatial effects in
the Takemitsu are striking. All credit to Peter Andry for the recording sessions
in Japan in 1971.
Dutilleux’s The Shadows of Time is on the 22-minute CD25. This
is in five separately tracked sections. It is a potently imaginative work
with references to The Tempest's Ariel and to Anne Frank,
even if the Warner listing does call her 'Anne Franck'. Again
Ozawa is with the Bostonians - an orchestra of which he was Music Director
for 29 seasons.
This is an intriguing set with its metaphorical shelves full of brilliance
and provocation. If we get the occasional misfire along the way then that
is to be expected.
Rob Barnett
Contents List
CD 1
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Scheherazade,
Symphonic suite after "A thousand and One Nights", Op.35
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor (compl. and orch. Rimsky-Korsakov
and Glazunov)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
CD 2
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Concerto for Orchestra
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Dances of Galánta (unreleased on CD except in Japan)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
CD 3
Witold Lutosŀawski (1913-1994)
Concerto for Orchestra
Leoš Janácek (1854-1928)
Sinfonietta
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
CD 4
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto N° 3 in C major, Op.26
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto in G major
Alexis Weissenberg, piano / Orchestre de Paris
CD 5
Unreleased on CD except in Japan
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaïkovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony N° 4 in F minor,
Op. 36
Orchestre de Paris
CD 6
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Capriccio, for piano and orchestra (1929, revised version 1949)
Concerto for piano and wind instruments (1923/4, revised version
1950)
Mouvements, for piano and orchestra
Michel Béroff, piano / Orchestre de Paris
CD 7
Unreleased on CD except in Japan. Issued on EMI LP on Concert Classics
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor,
Op.47
Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Violin Concerto N° 1 in G
minor, Op.26
Masuko Ushioda, violin / Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
CD 8
Unreleased on CD except in Japan
Maki Ishii (1936-2003)
So-Gu II, for Gagaku and orchestra
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
Cassiopeia, for percussion and orchestra
Gagaku Ensemble (1) Stomu Yamashta, percussion (2) / Japan Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 9
Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880)
Violin Concerto N° 1 in F sharp minor, Op.14
Violin Concerto N° 2 in D minor, Op.22
Itzhak Perlman, violin / London Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 10
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
The Firebird, complete
ballet
Orchestre de Paris
CD 11
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
Capriccio italien, Op.45
Vladimir Spivakov, violin / Philharmonia Orchestra
CD 12
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Symphony in C
Patrie, Dramatic Overture Op. 19
Jeux d'enfants, Petite Suite Op. 22
Michel Croquenoy, oboe (Symphony II) / Orchestre National de France
CD 13
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Carmen
Suite N° 1
Suite N° 2
L'Arlésienne
Suite N° 1
Suite N° 2
Orchestre National de France
CD 14
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
The Firebird, complete ballet
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CD 15
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue
Variations on I Got Rhythm
Catfish Row, Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess
Alexis Weissenberg, piano, Karl Leister, clarinet
Berliner Philharmoniker
CD 16
Earl Kim (1920-1998)
Violin Concerto
Robert Starer (1924-2001)
Violin Concerto
Itzhak Perlman, violin
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CD 17
Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Symphonie espagnole, for violin and orchestra, Op.21
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Zigeunerweisen, for violin and orchestra, Op.20
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Orchestre National de France
CD 18
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Ouverture solennelle "1812", Op.49
Marche slave, Op.31
Eugene Onegin, Op.24: Polonaise
Francesca da Rimini, Orchestral Fantasia after Dante
Berliner Philharmoniker
CD 19
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony N° 6 in B minor
Pathétique, Op.74
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CD 20
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Symphony N° 3 in C minor, Op.78*
Phaéton, Symphonic Poem Op.39
Le Rouet d'Omphale, Symphonic Poem Op.31
*Philippe Lefèbvre, grandes orgues de la cathédrale de Chartres
Orchestre National de France
CD 21
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
Cello Concerto in B minor,
Op. 104
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaïkovsky (1840-1893)
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CD 22
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Symphony-Concerto for Cello in E minor, Op.125
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Cello Concerto N° 1 in E flat
major, Op. 107
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello, Hugh Seenan, horn
London Symphony Orchestra
CD 23
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Serenade (After Plato: Symposium), for violin, harp, percussion
and strings
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Violin Concerto, op.14
Lukas Foss (1922-2009)
Three American Pieces for violin and orchestra
Itzhak Perlman, violin
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CD 24
Renaud Gagneux (b.1947)
Triptyque, for cello and orchestra
Rodion Shchedrin (b.1932)
Sotto voce, for cello and orchestra
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello
London Symphony Orchestra
CD 25
Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013)
The Shadows of Time
Children's voices: Joel Esher, Rachel Plotkin, Jordan Swaim
Boston Symphony Orchestra
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