One Movement Symphonies
Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)
First Symphony (In One Movement), Op. 9 (1936) [20:58]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1923-1924) [22:38]
Alexander SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
Symphony No. 4 - ‘Le Poème de l’extase’, Op. 54 (1905-1908) [18:52]
Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern
rec. 2016, Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas
City, Missouri, USA
Reviewed as a 24/176.4 download
Pdf booklet included
REFERENCE RECORDINGS RR-149
[62:28]
Michael Stern and his Kansas City orchestra have garnered some pretty good
press on these pages, most recently for their SACD of Jonathan Leshnoff’s
Symphony No. 3 and Piano Concerto (review). In fact, that release was a Recording of the Month in March 2021. I
suspect it will feature in our end-of-year awards, too. As with others in
the FRESH (FR) series, that album – and the extraordinary Pavel Chesnokov
Teach Me Thy Statutes
– were recorded by Soundmirror and then released under the label’s
imprimatur. As good as those FR recordings are, I generally prefer the
original RR ones, recorded by Keith O. Johnson and his team. If I had to
choose just one of the latter, it would have to be Jan Kraybill’s
Organ Polychrome,
played on the Kauffman Center’s magnificent Casavant. That, too, was a
MusicWeb award winner.
Since 2005, when Stern was appointed lead conductor and music
director of the KCS, he and the orchestra have built up an interesting and
eclectic discography. Now we have this intriguing programme, which brings
together three one-movement symphonies, all composed in the last century.
And while these are comparatively short works, they aren’t trifles, the
vast, voluptuous Scriabin piece particularly difficult to bring off. My
comparative versions of the Barber are: Neeme Järvi and the Detroit
Symphony, recorded in 1996 (Chandos); and Marin Alsop’s performance with the
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, set down four years later (Naxos). As for
the remaining works, I’ve selected what I feel are benchmark recordings of
both. First up is the Okko Kamu/Lahti SO Sibelius 7, part of a complete set
released to coincide with the composer’s 150th birthday (BIS). Next, we have Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra’s Le Poème de l’extase,
a musical and sonic spectacular that will be hard to equal, let alone
surpass (Pentatone). Not surprisingly, those two releases were among my Recordings of the
Year in 2015.
Barber’s First Symphony, modelled on Sibelius’s Seventh, packs four
traditional movements into a single, seamless span. And while it may be an
early opus, you would hardly know it, such is the extent of its craft and
character. Alsop and Järvi don’t always convey that, which leaves me with a
nagging sense of almost-but-not-quite. From the outset, it’s clear Stern
has the measure of the piece, its dramatic arch cannily constructed, its
final destination never in doubt. As for the KCS, they respond with real
warmth and commitment, their playing as poised and polished as anything you
might hear in Boston, Chicago, or even Detroit. Predictably, the recording
is first rate, the soundstage broad and deep, every last detail and splash
of colour superbly rendered. (The sympathetic and airy acoustic of the
Helzberg Hall has a role to play as well, the symphony’s softest and
loudest moments handled with aplomb.) Ultimately, though, it’s the
conductor who deserves the highest praise, not least for the coherence and
conviction he brings to this underrated work. In those respects, and in
many others, Stern simply outclasses Alsop and Järvi. Indeed, those highly
regarded performances now seem woefully incomplete.
With Sibelius’s Op. 105, we move from the work of a man at the start of his
composing career to that of one nearing the end of his. The illustrious
Finn’s final symphony is an interior, austerely beautiful piece that’s very
different from the imposing, often granitic soundscapes of its
predecessors. Instead, the music has a chamber-like transparency that
Johnson’s ‘hear-through’ recording captures so well. As for that initial
yearning line, at once lyrical and deeply felt, it’s superbly sustained,
Stern and his band alive to the symphony’s ear-catching dialogues and dry,
skittish wit. The KCS strings warrant a special mention here, especially
for their spun-silk playing in quiet passages. Indeed, Stern coaxes his
players to give of their best, and that shines through in every bar. (His
unassuming and seemingly effortless approach to this great score is much to
be admired.) However, Kamu and his Lahti forces have this music in their
veins, and that shows, too. So, while Stern’s Sibelius 7 doesn’t supplant
Kamu’s – or, for that matter, Osmo Vänskä’s with the same orchestra – it’s
still worth hearing.
And now for the pièce de resistance, Scriabin’s Le Poème de l’extase, which I got to know via Riccardo Muti’s
classic Philadelphia set, recorded between 1985 and 1990 (Warner,
Brilliant Classics). These magnificent Missourians certainly get off to an auspicious start,
their performance subtly scented and laced with the kind of detail other
versions tend to miss. Stern, resolute but never dull, makes all the right
calls here, his implacable pace adding greatly to the sense of approaching
climax. Not only that, his unhurried approach allows one to luxuriate in
every aspect of this sinuous, sense-sating score. And while Kraybill and
the Kauffman Casavant only have a walk-on part near the end, they steal the
show. Indeed, when it arrives, the moment of release, so meticulously
prepared for, is simply stupendous. Make no mistake, this is a splendid
reading, but the sheer abandon of Pletnev’s performance puts it in
another league entirely. (I’d say that goes for the engineering as well.)
Even so, I’m pleased to have both in my collection.
Stern and the KCS at their very best; top-drawer sound, too.
Dan Morgan
