32 years earlier, Celibidache’s "La
Mer" was only slightly more expansive
than the breezy
Munch or the restless
Markevich:
La Mer |
I
|
II
|
III
|
tt
|
Munch (Boston) |
08:37 |
06:18 |
07:59 |
22:54 |
Markevich (Lamoureux 1959) |
09:13 |
06:48 |
08:31 |
24:32 |
Celibidache (Milan RAI 29.1.1960) |
09:57 |
06:57 |
08:40 |
25:36 |
Celibidache (Munich 1992) |
13:10 |
08:43 |
11:18 |
33:11 |
The Milan performance
is a wonderful combination of poetry,
élan, voluptuousness and sheer
elemental fire. To have achieved such
a play of timbre and balance from a
basically third rate ensemble is quite
miraculous. The only thing you could
say against it is that it is not intrinsically
dissimilar from the other best performances
one has heard. Whatever one’s reactions,
the 1992 performance is something else
again.
It is also a demonstration
of the misleading nature of timings.
In all truth, it doesn’t feel so very
much slower. The perspectives are longer,
the horizons more distant, the waves
roll with an Atlantic swell rather than
the sharp breakers of La Manche.
But once one has adjusted, the waves
play, the winds blow, the storms rage
no less than before.
It is a supreme demonstration
of how time and tempo in music are only
relative terms. The time is the space
which contains the nuance and expression,
while the tempo is the rate of progress
from one musical beat to the next which
allows this nuance and expression to
emerge. In other words, the greater
the nuance and expression, the slower
the tempo is likely to be, the greater
the time slot needed to accommodate
it. What is created is a sort of time-stretching,
since the actual music we hear has the
same number of bars and beats whatever
the tempo.
All this is only applicable
to musical artists who are also creators.
Most performers are interpretative artists
– even very good ones – and they need
to play by the rules. To hear "La
Mer" stretched in this way by a
conductor who did not arrive at these
results by a visionary recreation of
the nuances and expression in the score
would be unthinkable. I would suggest,
too, that Celibidache did not purposely
arrive at slower tempi than those of
other conductors. He just went on exploring
timbres and nuances and this was the
result.
But even Celibidache
could overdo it. In the context of a
complete performance of "Images"
in Turin in 1969 his "Ibéria"
was already somewhat more expansive
than the unbuttoned but atmospheric
Munch or even the fairly
plain-speaking Monteux – not the
most magical of that conductor’s recordings.
Earlier the same year he had been slightly
more ruminative still in a performance
of just "Ibéria" in
Milan.
Ibéria |
I |
II |
III |
tt |
Munch (Boston) |
06:69 |
07:59 |
04:30 |
19:28 |
Monteux (LSO) |
07:14 |
08:05 |
04:55 |
20:14 |
Celibidache (Milan 24.4.1969)* |
|
|
|
23:34 |
Celibidache (Turin 17.10.1969)* |
|
|
|
22:50 |
Celibidache (Munich 1992) |
09:07 |
13:27 |
05:12 |
27:46 |
* Unfortunately my home-made CDRs do
not have separate tracks for the three
movements
The outer movements
still have plenty of swagger in 1992.
Obviously the issue is the central movement.
The "Perfumes of the night"
waft in and out with considerable atmosphere
and for most of the distance a gentle
lilt is maintained. But time, like elastic,
will only stretch so far without breaking
and there are times when the music is
dangerously close to immobility. Maybe
if you were actually there among the
audience it was different. Here we return
again to Celibidache’s own conviction
that his performances were not suitable
for gramophone reproduction.
So in this case the
earlier performances seem preferable,
at least on disc. And even "La
Mer", compelling and fascinating
as it is, can perhaps be fully appreciated
only against the backdrop of a knowledge
of how Celibidache conducted this music
in earlier years. So once again I find
myself calling for a reissue, properly
mastered from the original tapes, of
the best of Celibidache’s RAI material.
The Milan "La Mer" and Turin
"Images" would make a fine
pairing. It is a sobering thought that
such a disc, despite the inclusion of
the other "Images" – "Gigues"
and "Rondes de Printemps"
– would be slightly shorter (64:19)
than the present one.
Christopher Howell
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra/Sergiu Celibidache
