MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: January
2005
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
There could be no better
place to start than the New Year’s Day
concert from Vienna. Sensitive to the
recent Asian earthquake, the occasion
was not as festive as usual. The Radetzky
March, a traditional final encore, was
omitted and the players of the Vienna
Philharmonic generally looked more serious
than is usual (except when singing la-la-la
in the Peasant’s Polka).
Conductor Lorin Maazel took up his violin
for the Pizzicato Polka and to
play a solo (normally for the zither)
in Tales from Vienna Woods. As
far as I can recall, he is the only
conductor of recent times to do this
and, approaching his 75th
birthday, he can still play a bit! If
you missed this concert then the CD
and DVD are either already available
or will be soon. I have yet to buy a
recording of the event - for me these
are occasions of the moment and not
to be relived. Every year I spend the
first morning thinking that sometime
I ought to at least try to go to Vienna,
even though TV provides a passable experience.
There is just one problem – co-ordination
of the pictures and sound. The best
picture I can get (digital BBC2) is
probably about one second delayed from
the best sound (analogue Radio 3). Even
taking picture and sound from the same
digital cable box gives imperfect co-ordination.
Talking of "delay",
the New Year’s Day concert seems to
be a big exception when it comes to
issuing records. Whilst it is clearly
possible to do so within a couple of
weeks, many hang around for several
years waiting to be issued. I suppose
there may be a variety of reasons for
this but when it turns out to be something
special, this seems a pity. I have just
bought Konstantin Scherbakov’s disc
of Scarlatti sonatas for
Naxos (8.554842) which is volume 7 in
their projected complete series (there
will doubtless be at least 30 discs
before it is complete). This was recorded
in January 2000 and seems to have waited
5 years to hit the shelves. Perhaps
in this case it was justifiable since
I enjoyed Benjamin Frith’s volume 5
(see links 1
& 2)
much more than Scherbakov. This series
is frustrating in that it has so far
ignored the clear pairings of sonatas
that Kirkpatrick identified. For example,
Scherbakov gives us Kk238 in F Minor
(in an excessively slow reading – this
is supposed to be Andante) but where
is Kk239 to follow? I admire Scherbakov
a great deal (see links 3
& 4
for reviews of his disc of Liszt’s
transcription of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony)
but, on this evidence, Scarlatti may
not be his forte. I shall be interested
to read reviews from MusicWeb colleagues
in due course.
Collecting Scarlatti
sonatas (there are 546 of them for solo
keyboard) is a daunting but rewarding
task. There are a few ongoing complete
projects and Scott Ross recorded them
all for Erato on the harpsichord (of
which I have a wonderful 3 disc anthology).
Also on the harpsichord, I was pleased
to acquire Ralph Kirkpatrick’s recordings
from the sixties and seventies when
they recently reappeared on Archiv (00289
477 5003) – he is, of course, the man
who prepared the definitive catalogue
of the works. Naxos’s project is so
far entirely on the piano (and presumably
will remain so) and is shared between
artists (one per disc to date). If,
like me, you have developed the [Domenico]
Scarlatti bug and are gradually building
up a collection, there are several other
factors to consider. One is that, with
so many works, avoidance of too much
duplication is necessary but quite difficult.
The main reason I bought Scherbakov’s
disc was that I didn’t have a recording
of most of the 16 that he offers. After
acquiring a few Scarlatti discs, merely
finding out which sonatas you have can
be a challenge and any serious collector
of classical music needs to have a database
catalogue of their recordings. In this
respect I can wholeheartedly recommend
Classic Collector (see link
5) which I have used for several
years. This has a report function which
enables one to, for example, list out
all Scarlatti sonatas in Kk order.
A final word on Scarlatti
– if you want to hear any one of his
546 sonatas on the computer it is easy
to do so by visiting link
6 and downloading free MIDI files
created by John Sankey (who describes
himself as "Harpsichordist to the
internet"). There are no repeats
or frills but this was obviously a labour
of love.
A piece that I often
play around Christmas time (probably
quite illogically) is Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis. Some months ago
I noticed the MusicWeb reviews of Kenneth
Schermerhorn’s recording for Naxos (see
links 7
& 8)
but it took me a while to get around
to hearing the disc. Gwyn Parry-Jones
and Michael Cookson were both generally
positive about this disc, the latter
more so. They disagreed about the balance
between orchestra and voices but for
me this was fine. I thought the recording
excellent and more refined than on Jeffrey
Tate’s 1989 reading for EMI which I
used for comparison (a worthwhile version
perhaps due for bargain reissue?). The
voice of soprano Lori Phillips is an
acquired taste (and undoubtedly not
to be preferred to Carol Vaness for
Tate) but overall, for me, this is a
splendid rendition and a most desirable
disc. Michael Cookson’s point about
not being too parochial about who is
performing what seems very apposite
– Beethoven from Nashville – if it is
as good as this then why not ?
There continue to some
great bargains around in record shops
at the moment – no need to worry about
"January" sales any more.
I was hunting for last minute presents
on Christmas Eve and picked up a few
things that went down well. In doing
so I came across the perfect present
to myself, a slimline 4CD box called
20th Century Classics I on
the splendid Warner Apex label (0927
49420-2). Inter alia, this contains
the Violin Concertos by Berg,
Hartmann and Janáček
(a reconstruction), Choral Music by
Dallapiccola, Elliott
Carter’s Oboe Concerto and Berio’s
Sinfonia. These discs are available
separately each costing about £5 in
the UK and the box normally retails
for £15. Many thanks to HMV for letting
me have all this for £5! Equally
remarkable was the relative lack of
duplication involved (only the Berg
and Janáček do I already have recordings
of) and the fact that there was also
a 20th Century Classics
II in similar vein, almost everything
of which in it I already own a recording
(life isn’t usually like that!). I doubt
that it will still be possible pick
this up for £5 but it is still a considerable
bargain at £15. In particular, Dallapiccola’s
choral music is a revelation.
One of the few downsides
in having a fairly large collection
of recorded music is that people don’t
tend to buy you records as presents
– they haven’t any idea what you might
want and are worried you will already
have the disc. There is one enlightened
person I know who keeps buying me DVDs
at Christmas (of which I have only about
10) and they are also very good at choosing
some gems. This year came Tchaikovskys’s
Eugene Onegin in a film version
by Petr Weigl based on Solti’s Covent
Garden recording (Decca 071 124-9) and
a compilation of Schwarzkopf, Seefried
and Fischer-Dieskau singing Richard
Strauss, Mahler
and Schubert (EMI
Classic Archive DVB 4904419). The Tchaikovsky
is superb musically, well acted and
beautifully shot but doesn’t quite hang
together because it is continually obvious
that the singing is mimed. No such worries
with the other DVD which includes Schwarzkopf
in the last of part of Act I of Der
Rosenkavalier. Irmgard Seefried
is impressive in live renditions of
songs by Strauss and Mahler (particularly
notable is her Ich bin der Welt abhanden
gekommen – perhaps my favourite
song of all) and Fischer-Dieskau sings
the Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen
for all they are worth in a 1960 performance
under Paul Kletzki. In what is described
as a bonus, Fischer-Dieskau is joined
by Gerald Moore for four Schubert lieder
including a rather restrained Erlkönig.
Following this they shake hands and
say good night.
I did get one other
"musical" Christmas present
– Stephen Fry’s Incomplete and Utter
History of Classical Music (as told
to Tim Lihoreau). Sporting a "post-it"
note from J. S. Bach on the back cover
– "Pick up wig from cleaners… write
Mass (possibly B minor)…" this
is a humorous chronological take on
classical music which for the most part
seems to be factually accurate. Endearingly,
incorrect statements made for humorous
purposes are accompanied by smilies.
The biggest surprise was that the authors
(who seem to be admirers of Wagner)
are pretty confused about the order
in which the music of Ring cycle was
composed (Die Walküre is
initially stated to be fourth and then
third but was, of course, second). The
musical events of history are interestingly
related to other happenings, particularly
in the world of art and literature.
After a while Fry’s fixation on Elgar’s
moustache becomes a bit wearing but
most of the jokes are funny. Recommended
to anyone interested in classical music
whose sense of humour is at least as
warped as mine J
purchase
(50% off).
A disc that caught
my ear recently was the final instalment
of Marin Alsop’s recordings of Barber’s
orchestral music for Naxos – an impressive
series (see links 9
& 10).
A particular delight is the Canzonetta
for oboe and strings, part of an unfinished
concerto which was completed after Barber’s
death by Charles Turner. The disc also
includes a complete opera lasting 9
minutes and 44 seconds – A Hand of
Bridge. This is entertaining stuff
although I am not sure whether the contract
of 5 Hearts was made or how this work
could be sensibly programmed in the
opera house (as an encore??).
Talking of Marin Alsop,
I heard her on the radio before Christmas
talking about the inspiration she received
from Leonard Bernstein. She related
a story of him standing before the New
York Philharmonic and saying something
the effect that "I have looked
at this again and last time we did this
piece (Tchaikovsky 5) it was all wrong"
– and how she was thereby encouraged
to keep rethinking her interpretations.
Suitably impressed, I went back to a
system I was developing at work and
redesigned it (hopefully for the better!).
Finally in relation to Marin Alsop,
my New Year resolution is to go and
see her conduct the Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra. Assuming I manage to keep
it, I’ll report back on that in a future
log.
At this time of year,
many people are thinking of forthcoming
holidays but I am still a bit fixated
on last year’s once in a lifetime trip
to Australia. Shortly after coming back
I received a disc of Australian music
to review called Red Earth and
was most impressed (Jonathan Woolf seemed
to like it too – see links 11
and 12).
At the time I was conscious of my almost
complete lack of experience of music
from "down under". There has
been recent good news on this front
with the release of a Naxos disc of
music by Peter Sculthorpe
(see Rob Barnett’s review at link
13). This is most notable for the
didgeridoo in Earth Cry but there
is also a splendid Piano Concerto and
the whole disc is well worth hearing.
In my last log, I wrote
about Alfvén’s
symphonies, bemoaning the pace at which
Naxos’s series was progressing. Inevitably,
I suppose, within about 2 hours of completing
that Rob Barnett was sending me an e-mail
saying that their version of the Fourth
Symphony was coming out this month.
It can be argued that this is his finest
work, so watch out for the disc and
for reviews on MusicWeb.
Finally, Marc Bridle’s
editorial entitled "On the Humanity
of Music and Musicians: the new unacknowledged
legislators" (link
14) is suitably thought-provoking
stuff for the new year. It brought me
back to earth after Stephen Fry.
Patrick C Waller
Links
1. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Apr03/Scarlatti5.htm
2. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Domenico_SCARLATTIv5.htm
3. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Oct04/Liszt_Beethoven9.htm
4. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Dec04/Liszt_Beethoven9.htm
5. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lion_elk/
6. http://www.midiworld.com/scarlatti.htm
7. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Feb04/Beethoven_Missa%20_solemnis.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/BeethovenMS.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Nov04/Barber_capricorn_concerto.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Dec04/Barber_capricorn_Alsop.htm
11. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Aug04/Red_Earth.htm
12. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Sept04/red%20earth.htm
13. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Nov04/Sculthorpe_Earth_Cry.htm
14. http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2005/Jan-Jun05/janed.htm
see
also Weblog for December
