Beaumont is probably better known as an author
of books on Busoni and Zemlinsky than as a conductor. He has also
provided completions of Busoni's Doktor Faust and Zemlinsky's
Der König Kandaules. His conductorial reputation is
circumscribed by his interests around the Schrecker-Zemlinsky
generation. Thus he is the conductor of various Capriccio Zemlinsky
opera sets. In 2001 he launched an intended Zemlinsky series on
Nimbus. This comprised a single disc with the Symphony in B flat,
the Prelude to Es War Einmal
and the late Sinfonietta. The orchestra was once again the Czech
Philharmonic. That recording was made in the very same Dvořák
Hall as the present Chandos disc. Those sessions were in January
2001. Fifteen months later Beaumont was back in the same hall
to make this recording.
Zemlinsky was strongly associated with the Czech
Phil and conducted them at Vaclav Talich's invitation in Mahler
6 in 1923. He had conducted the Bohemian Phil in Mahler 5 two
years previously. He reciprocated by introducing Berlin audiences
to Janáček's Glagolitic Mass and Lachian
Dances as well as Suk's Asrael and Novak's Serenade.
In 1935-37 Zemlinsky and Talich presented all the Mahler symphonies
and Das Lied with the Czech Phil. There is then an emotional
symmetry in that this great orchestra, found in good form, now
record the music of the composer who once conducted them. And
there is more to come. The notes indicate that there are to be
two more Chandos discs in this series each anchored by one of
Zemlinsky’s symphonic works. I wonder if one of them will use
the Nimbus tapes.
In the case of the Lyrische Symphonie the
most demanding listeners will note some congestion at the climaxes
which Chandos accommodates with easy transparency. Take the sound
of the horns in tr.2 at 4.58 which are clear but recessed and
slightly mistily focussed for Chailly (Decca twofer) yet stand
clear in sharp focus in the Chandos. Although Zemlinsky promoted
the Symphonie as a work ‘after Mahler's Das Lied’
there are few parallels between the two. While the Tagore poems
chart the trajectory of an affair the Bethge translations are
more varied and solitary in subject matter. Marc, for Decca, sounds
beautiful if rather thickly laid on by comparison with Turid Karlsen.
On balance I favour Karlsen who is more shantung silk than theatrical
armour plate. Her less adipose tone is preferred although Marc
makes a most lovely sound; closer to Ferrier than to Davrath or
Teyte.
Zemlinsky delivers a peculiarly cauterised form
of blissful romanticism. His touch, at least at this stage in
his career, is that of a jewelled
pointilliste. Listen to the lizard slide of the violins at 4,.04
in tr. 2. Franz Grundheber has a heroic and harshly ringing voice.
His delivery is gusty and gutsy with sails fully bowed and stretched.
Listen to the glorious way he rolls and relishes the words
O fernstes ende. In the second song Mutter, der junge
Prinz, at 1.50, the violins slide and rise up on the words
von weiten i.e. ‘from afar’ and the song ends in a catterwauling
torture of striving. The solo violin plays an important part throughout;
not quite Sheherazade but certainly a tender commentator.
Du bist die Abendwolke opens in horn-wildness accented
like the brass writing in Suk’s Asrael. The tone of those
Czech horns is so familiar and effective. In Befrei’ mich von
banden the Czech Phil display palpable attack in the strings
[0.45]. In Vollende denn das letzte Lied the orchestra
articulate a raucous roar of pain merged with disillusion. The
final song, Zemlinsky’s Abschied offers a strange comfort
as the lovers part, all passion erased, and replaced with a replete
tiredness. Tagore’s final words have the one-time lover holding
high his lamp to ‘light you on your way’. The piece ends in superbly
captured orchestral textures where the valedictory sighs of the
string section are contrasted with the softly yelped pianissimo
of the muted trumpet.
This disc appears on a momentarily crowded scene.
Ian Lace has very recently reviewed
the versions with Dorothy Dorow and Siegmund Nimsgern (BBCSO/Gabriele
Ferro;Warner Fonit 0927 43405-2, 1978 originally on an Italia
label LP) and Vlatka Orsanic and James Johnson (SWFSO/Michael
Gielen; Arte Nova 74321 27768 2, 1994) and pronounced judgement
in favour of the Gielen. There is also the Chailly Decca double
at midprice. Beaumont's coupling is the incidental music to Cymbeline
recorded complete for the first time. The others either have
no coupling or are very modestly coupled. A very generous Zemlinsky
conspectus is provided by the Chailly/Decca double which has good
notes but no texts (the same goes for Ferro and Gielen). The Chandos
CD is superbly documented with full texts and translations. The
Chandos also has a small edge as the first recording of Beaumont's
own corrected urtext of the score based on his own scholarship
among parts, mss and correction sheets. From that point of view
the other recordings of the Symphonie are not in competition
at all.
The Cymbeline music written during the
years straddling the start of the Great War is all rather attractive
in a clouded indeterminate way. Part of this is presented as a
radio play with actors speaking the lines. Their voices are placed
in velvety proximity to the listener. The style is modest though
not monochrome. There is however none of the high-flown superheated
delivery of the speakers in Fibich’s Hippodamia trilogy
(Supraphon). The moods encompassed include mischief afoot in the
mist, fanfares in the middle distance (tr.13) and the sense of
Odysseyan travails. The flutter-tongued flutes in tr. 13 are very
affecting and highly atmospheric. There are moments too that suggest
that Zemlinsky might have trounced Waxman had he only taken an
interest in Hollywood film. The surging antiphonal trumpetry is
suggestive of Waxman (Prince Valiant in the still unequalled
Gerhardt RCA recording) with pennants blowing and snapping in
wind.
Being a Chandos production the full texts are
there in German with French in the lefthand column and English
the righthand.
Details of Antony Beaumont's planned Chandos
cycle with the Czech Phil can be found at:-
http://www.czechphilharmonic.cz/articles_print.asp?idk=682&ida=273
Rob Barnett
Turid Karlsen (sop)