Classical Editor: Rob Barnett
 

Music Webmaster
Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com



MOZART:

Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K.525 (1)
Serenade in D, K.320 - "Posthorn" (2)
Serenade in D, K.239 - "Serenata Notturna" (2)
Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult (1)
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra/Victor Desarzens (2)
MCA MCD 80105 [73:41]

The chief interest here is the Boult Nachtmusik, but first a word about the rest.

Desarzens formed the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in 1940. This ensemble has made some distinguished recordings more recently so one is naturally curious to hear it under its founder-conductor, in an undated but good stereo recording. The Posthorn gets off to a mushy start but elsewhere there is considerable vitality, with clean passage-work from the upper strings (the cellos and basses sometimes drag behind) and some excellent soloists. The flutes are so sweet as to suggest wooden instruments and the oboe is a distinct improvement on the paint-stripper of Ansermet's contemporaneous Suisse Romande. However, Desarzens lacks real authority; solo sections drift into tempi of their own and dance movements sag. It is decent enough but there is no phrase, let alone whole movement, which invites one to return.

Boult was not especially noted for his Mozart though late in life he replied to his many fans in a letter to "Gramophone" that "yes, of course I should like to record the last six Mozart symphonies but the recording companies do not seem to think I am that kind of person". After this EMI relented and he recorded nos.35 and 41. Back in 1959 there had been a no.40, coupled with the present Nachtmusik, originally on Westminster, and a few years ago Intaglio gave brief, unofficial life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra concert of 1966 in which he conducted nos. 34 and 39. There were notable concerto collaborations over the years including the Schnabels, Aubrey Brain, Annie Fischer and André Previn, so we can gain at least some idea of how he saw this composer.

Bernard Shore, in his famous book The Orchestra Speaks, stated that Boult "represents Idealism", and he approaches the score as if unaware of how it is "usually done". Thus the Romanze goes two-in-a-bar not the usual four, and at first seems unlovingly swift. Yet its harmonic processes are so subtly explored as to uncover a wealth of uneasy feeling (the rustling C minor section is almost Sibelian). The finale, on the other hand, unfolds at an unhurried four-in-a-bar, but with such poise that it never seems heavy.

It would surprise Shore that at this point in time Boult's structural concerns seem wholly romantic in the sense that they impose an extra-musical programme on the music. With a prelude-like first movement, a troubled Romanze, a protesting Minuet which finds serenity in its Trio and leads to a carefree finale, there seems to be a hidden agenda. And if this sounds un-Mozartian, it has to be added that the performance, while strongly phrased, lacks that kind of nervous analysis of the single thematic cells with which conductors specialised in Mozart generally imbue the music. Perhaps Boult really was "not that kind of person" but he tells us things about the music we never knew, and effortlessly obtains from the Vienna players a very un-Viennese performance of "their" music. Hear how every harmonic shift in the brief development section of the first movement speaks, while under Desarzens such things merely slip by. This is real conducting. Unfortunately, with nearly forty minutes of Desarzens, the lesson works out rather expensive. The Serenata Notturna would have been enough, and would have left space for a transfer of Boult's 40th.

Reviewer

Christopher Howell

(Boult)

(Desarzens).


Reviewer

Christopher Howell

(Boult)

(Desarzens).


Reviews from previous months


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