MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: January 2006
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
I seem to have been
inundated with discs from Naxos recently.
Pride of place goes to the complete
set of Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas
Brasileiras from Tennessee (link
1) which is now much the best way of
acquiring all nine of these attractive
and varied works. I also reviewed a
worthwhile disc of symphonies for wind
orchestra by Hovhaness
(link 2). Kevin Sutton and Gwyn Parry-Jones
were enthusiastic about the second instalment
of Marin Alsop’s Brahms
symphony cycle (links 3 and 4) and I
would endorse their views. This is on
a par with her excellent reading of
the First Symphony and hopefully 2006
will bring us the rest of the cycle.
Also from Naxos comes an unrecorded
cantata by Vaughan Williams
called Willow Wood beautifully
sung by Roderick Williams and with various
attractive couplings. No doubt it will
be reviewed on MusicWeb soon – meanwhile
John France has written about the launch
(link 5). Michael Tippett’s
first three piano sonatas (there are
four in all) played by Peter Donohoe
impressed Dominy Clements (link 6) and
also sounded too good to miss. Finally,
to date, my collection has been lacking
anything by Vincent d’Indy
but the Amici Ensemble’s disc of his
Clarinet Trio has put that right. The
eight pieces by Bruch
for the same instrumentation (clarinet,
cello and piano) is an attractive coupling.
Christopher Fifield and Jonathan Woolf
both enjoyed this disc (links 7 and
8).
At the premiere of
Rutland Boughton’s First
Symphony in November (link 9) I picked
up a copy of the recently released disc
of his songs. There is much fine singing
from mezzo-soprano Louise Mott and they
make for interesting listening. Rob
Barnett and Em Marshall have written
detailed and enthusiastic reviews (links
10 and 11).
The first weekend in
December my wife and I were off to a
reception for the newly-formed Friends
of the English Music Festival (link
12) held at Hampton Court Palace. Never
mind the maze outside, it was a tricky
proposition finding the right room within
the palace. When we did, the door was
opened by pianist David Owen Norris
who later gave an entertaining speech.
It was also most interesting to meet
Gramophone reviewer Nalen Anthoni.
One Friday evening
before Christmas we went to recital
in St. Peter’s Church, Portsmouth given
by Robert Blanken (clarinet) and Karen
Kingsley (piano) – together they are
known as the Monington Duo. The cold
prevailing conditions were not easy
for them but they had put together an
interesting programme and performed
it admirably, sadly in front of a small
audience. This was very fine duo playing
and turned out to be a most worthwhile
evening. The major works were sonatas
by Saint-Saëns (a
glorious work from late in his career),
Ferdinand Ries and Alice
Mary Smith. To finish, they
played Johann Kalliwoda’s
Morceau de Salon Op.229 – a phenomenal
showpiece if ever there was one. The
music of all the last three composers
mentioned seems to be largely unknown
– searching the web I could only find
a single disc of the music of Alice
Mary Smith (1839-1884) – on the Chandos
label (CHAN10283). This contains two
symphonies and an Andante for Clarinet
which I suspect may be an orchestrated
version of the slow movement of the
sonata we heard. Her music was influenced
by Mendelssohn but, on the evidence
of her clarinet sonata, is occasionally
more daring and it does not seem to
deserve almost total neglect. Ries was
a pupil of Beethoven and rather more
of his music has been recorded, including
a couple of Piano Concertos recently
issued on Naxos (8.557638) which I shall
be looking out for. Kalliwoda’s neglect
is rather more understandable but, in
the context we heard it, this was a
good piece to round off the evening.
This kind of event shows that you don’t
need famous performers to hear enjoyable
live music – the Monington Duo are local
professional musicians and, if you live
in the South of England, it would be
worth keeping an eye open for their
future recitals.
Also just before Christmas,
it was impossible to miss the continuous
Bach programming on Radio
3 during which they played all his surviving
works in a ten day period (link 13).
I rarely consult schedules and it was
rather good to turn on the radio sometimes
and know what is coming – i.e. Bach.
I did get a shock once when turning
on in the middle of a Stokowski transcription.
For just a moment I thought I must be
tuned to the wrong channel. I have also
been listening to the first volume of
John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach cantata pilgrimage
(SDG101). This derives from an amazing
undertaking to perform all the cantatas
at the correct point in the church calendar
during the year 2000 in various locations.
Apparently DG were going to record it
but pulled the plug at the last moment
causing Gardiner to create his own label
for the purpose. There is special aura
about these discs which is apparent
from the moment you put one of them
on.
My review of Scarlatti’s
complete sonatas performed by Scott
Ross (link 14) has now progressed to
about a third of the way through the
34 discs. I am still being amazed by
the variety of Scarlatti’s invention
and much enjoying Ross’s consistent
interpretive approach.
The mammoth Scarlatti
set now has serious competition for
my attention from Hyperion’s complete
Schubert song edition,
surely the best Christmas stocking filler
ever (see link 15 – then go to "October
2005 releases"). This runs to a
grand total of 40 discs and occupies
considerably more space than the Scarlatti
because there are individual jewel cases,
albeit of the slimline variety often
used for DVDs. The need to provide texts
probably underlies the reason for this
– these are collected within a medium-size
paperback book which is housed within
the set. There are two important differences
between the buying the complete set
and collecting based on the individual
discs – (1) the set is presented chronologically
rather than based on themes and artists
(2) detailed notes by Graham Johnson
(the accompanist and artistic driving
force behind the project) are not included
in the complete set. Regarding the first
difference, it is probably a case of
"swings and roundabouts".
It is a bit unusual to have a different
artist for virtually every song (there
were about 60 singers in total) as you
progress along but I do not see this
as a major problem. Whilst there is
inevitably some potential for chronological
debate, the ordering policy is so strict
that the two parts of Winterreise
are on separate discs (nowadays it is
easy to forget that it was written in
two parts). In respect of the second
difference, this is a major loss although
plans are afoot to collect the notes
into a two-volume book. In practice,
these notes were so extensive that often
the booklet didn’t fit into the case
and was easily damaged in the process.
Not surprisingly, the complete set is
much cheaper (about £150 versus £500
for the individual discs), not only
reflecting bulk buying but this omission.
Overall, I feel positive about the presentation
and the book is enhanced by a Schubert
calendar devised by Johnson which is
used to place the songs in the context
of Schubert’s life. The texts are in
German and an English translation by
Richard Wigmore and the print is about
the normal size for a CD booklet (i.e.
smallish but tolerable). There are good
indexes which is important if you want
to locate a particular song or artist.
How do you listen to
a set like this which contains 850 individual
items? Doubtless there are many ways
to do so but starting at disc one and
doing so systematically in the first
instance seems the obvious one to me.
I don’t expect to reach the end before
the summer and I haven’t yet decided
what to do about discs 38-40. This set
is so complete it even contains three
discs of songs by various contemporaries
of Schubert. At the moment these three
discs are not otherwise available but
a release is planned in 2006. I doubt
I shall resist the temptation to dip
into them before too long!
Hyperion’s Schubert
song set came about as a result of a
conversation over dinner between Graham
Johnson and the late Ted Perry, founder
of the label. Asked what he most wanted
to record, Johnson immediately said
"all Schubert’s songs" and
Perry immediately agreed. That was in
1985; recording started in 1987 and
the 18 years which have since elapsed
is exactly the time it took Schubert
to write them. Over the years I have
borrowed quite a few from a library
but I only ever owned one – Bostridge
singing the Die Schöne Mullerin
cycle. From what I have heard and read
about the project there seems little
doubt that it is artistically of the
highest excellence. Janet Baker recorded
the first disc towards the end of her
career and just listening to the first
couple of discs, I have already come
across her splendid Der Jüngling
am Bache, as well as splendid contributions
from Sir Thomas Allen, Ann Murray and
Philip Langridge. There is no doubt
that the singing cast is stellar indeed.
One name is missing – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
– although not completely since he reads
unset text from Die Schöne Müllerin.
This project was too late for him but
his recordings of about 450 Schubert
songs suitable for his voice have recently
been re-released and enthusiastically
reviewed by Anne Ozorio (link 16). I
have known this for a long time from
its previous incarnation and completely
agree with her views. But in such a
large project there are surely gains
from involving different artists and
Hyperion’s set is virtually without
parallel in recording so many different
singers. The consistent factor was Johnson’s
accompaniment and the merits of this
are apparent from the beginning of disc
one. The recorded sound may well have
some variations across the set but initial
impressions are favourable – mellow
and not at all "in your face".
The final word (for the moment – doubtless
I shall say more about it in future
logs) should go to Schubert. Disc one
contains D1a written at the age of 13
and several composition exercises. On
paper, I was a bit worried that I might
get bored with youthful Schubert and
give up before I got to the great stuff.
All such doubts were repelled early
on the first disc – Schubert’s talent
was already obvious. If you love Schubert’s
songs and were not as lucky as me with
your Christmas stocking, the options
are the usual ones – beg, borrow or
steal this set, and soon!
The beginning of the
year is a time to reflect on the last
one. I think 2005 was a good one for
classical music recording. Browsing
MusicWeb’s Records of the Year (link
17) might convince you and I certainly
found it quite difficult to make a final
choice of just five discs. Both the
Scarlatti and Schubert sets would surely
be among the records of the year if
they hadn’t arrived too late. But it
is not all blue skies and sunshine –
Hyperion’s court case, Chandos’s downsizing
and, just recently, Codaex going into
receivership all illustrate the commercial
difficulties involved in recording classical
music. Let’s hope for a good year in
2006.
Patrick C Waller
Links:
1. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/VillaLobos_BachianasBrasileiras_855746062.htm
2. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Hovhaness_Symphonies_8559207.htm
3. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Brahms2_Alsop_8557429.htm
4. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Brahms_symphony2_8557429.htm
5. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/willow.htm
6. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Tippett_piano_sonatas_8557611.htm
7. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/bruch_dindy_8557347.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Bruch_D%27Indy_8557347.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2005/Jul-Dec05/boughton_rooke2611.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Boughton_songs_BMS431cd.htm
11. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Boughton_songs_BMS431CD.htm
12. http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk
13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/bach
14. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Scarlatti_sonatas_2564620922.htm
15. http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk
16. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Schubert_DFD_4775765.htm
17. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/splash2.htm
