For those with short
attention spans, your composer is here.
Indeed, the longest uninterrupted track
on this recording is the first movement
of the Symphony, at a
monumental seven minutes and thirty-one
seconds. Years ago I had the pleasure
of hearing every scrap of Webern’s work
in a single week, during the Focus!
Festival at the Juilliard School
in New York, and Webern is one of the
few composers with the kind of concentrated
output that would make such a survey
even possible. I am happy to report
that this excellent recording contains
an extremely generous program (almost
80 minutes) of some of Webern’s most
inspired output, in outstanding performances.
I just heard the short
Symphony a few weeks ago
with James Levine and the Met Orchestra,
and this one is presented faster, more
flowing – probably more to most listeners’
taste – and the Twentieth Century Classics
Ensemble dispatches it with lustrous
assurance. With quiet relentlessness,
Robert Craft makes the first movement
glisten, with notes dropping like pebbles
into a pond. The second movement’s "Variations"
are short – eight of them in under three
minutes – and since Craft takes great
pains to be faithful to Webern’s tempi
markings, he writes that "…this
may be the first to realize the music
as it was intended to be heard."
Jennifer Welch-Babidge
is perfectly suited to the Five
Canons, and very well recorded.
The last "Crucem tuam adoramus"
("We worship Thy Cross") is
one of the shortest tracks on the CD,
and offers 29 seconds of sheer delight,
ending with "Venit gaudium in universo
mundo" ("Joy has come to the
whole world") – joy indeed, in
a performance as luminous as this one.
Charles Neidich and Michael Lowenstern
are the agile clarinetists who complete
the picture. The Three Traditional
Rhymes are also charming, with
some stratospheric leaps, albeit delicate
ones, and the Three Songs
that follow only add to Welch-Babidge’s
expert singing with some beautiful work
by Mr. Neidich on piccolo clarinet and
Scott Kuney on guitar.
The Trio
is done with romantic sweetness,
and the Academy of Arts and Letters
acoustic adds clarity and warmth to
what could seem chilly in other hands.
Notable is the second movement ("Sehr
getragen und ausdrucksvoll") whose
restless tide is particularly well-realized
by the players Ani Kavafian on violin,
Richard O’Neill on viola and cellist
Fred Sherry. Unusual forces define the
Quartet, scored for violin,
clarinet, piano and tenor saxophone,
with Daniel Goble offering expert work
on the latter. I especially liked the
work in the second movement – witty,
jazzy, with the four players almost
squawking at each other. The three Variations
for piano total just six minutes,
and show the impressive Christopher
Oldfather at his pointillistic best.
And the brief Four Pieces for
Violin and Piano and Three
Pieces for Cello and Piano offer
(to quote from Mr. Craft’s notes) "…conciseness
and concentration of expression [that]
are unprecedented." Jesse Mills
(violin) and Mr. Sherry respectively,
each accompanied by Mr. Oldfather, make
the best possible case for these miniatures.
With the famous Six
Pieces for Large Orchestra,
one immediately senses the change in
venue to the massive Watford space,
site of many superb recordings including
this one. The Philharmonia are in fine
form, and allow me to praise them for
their playing in the second movement
right off the bat. Attention is always
focused on the dramatic fourth-movement
funeral march, but Craft makes the others
equally compelling. That march opens
with one of the most chilling percussion
sequences ever conceived, with the rest
of the ensemble seemingly struggling
to make their voices heard, until at
about the three-minute mark, the snare
drum begins its fateful tread to the
movement’s shockingly abrupt conclusion.
This is an amazing reading, a cauldron
of pent-up, overflowing grief. Again,
I’m most familiar with Levine’s work
in these pieces, as well as the ultra-refined
version from Herbert von Karajan years
ago, but Craft encourages greater urgency,
an approach that might be likelier to
persuade those disinclined toward the
composer.
In the same vein, the
classic Concerto is nicely
done, with a spunky first movement,
a lazily flowing second, and precise
playing in the insistent march of the
last. The German Dances
will probably come as a mild shock,
following the rest of the program. Schubert
composed them in 1824, but the manuscript
was not rediscovered until 1930, when
Webern was inspired to arrange it for
chamber orchestra. The result is six
lovely works that never betray their
early nineteenth-century origin, but
sparkle anew, as if glimpsed through
some high-definition lens by Webern’s
expert polishing.
Bruce Hodges
see also review
by Colin Clarke
Jennifer Welch-Babidge (soprano), Twentieth
Century Classics Ensemble (Op. 21), Philharmonia
Orchestra (Op. 6 and German Dances), Robert
Craft (conductor). 
