Troy Milleker

Anton Webern: Passacaglia; Symphony; Five Pieces Ulster Orchestra; Takuo Yuasa Naxos 8.554841

The severe economy of Anton Webern’s music is often equated with a bleak, enigmatic listening experience. A new Naxos release of the composer’s collected orchestral works, only fifty-three minutes long, fights that prejudice with an onslaught of symphonic colour.

Glenn Gould once wrote that the music of Webern is not emotional but sensual. The Ulster Orchestra under Takuo Yuasa respects that distinction, never overloading the six works recorded here with relentless "expressionist" horror. In fact, the inventive variety of Webern’s orchestration becomes increasingly apparent as the disc plays out. The most startling shift comes between the disc’s centerpiece, the glowering Six Pieces, Op. 6, and Webern’s Five Pieces, Op. 10, which with its celesta, violins, and flute, sounds almost frivolous in comparison.

Through the movements of Op. 6 Yuasa achieves a dramatic continuity that, at twelve minutes, seems epic. The work coils up to its celebrated funeral march – itself an inexorable build-up of tension from its shuddering tam-tams to the fortissimo climax – before it dissipates. A similar emotional logic shapes the opening Passacaglia, Op. 1, but is strangely lacking in Yuasa’s performance of the two longer late works, Symphony, Op. 21, and Variations, Op. 30.

Overall, however, the dueling concerns of form and emotion are well balanced. Yuasa certainly respects the score, but he demonstrates the power of Webern’s music through sensual means as well. From this foundation he inspires the Ulster musicians to a committed, compelling performance.

Brian McMillan.

Alban Berg: Wozzeck, Opera in Three Acts Op.7 Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera, Stockholm; Leif Segerstam NAXOS 8.660076-77 [2 discs]

Cast:
Carl Johan Falkman: Wozzeck
Katarina Dalayman: Marie
Ulrik Qvale: Captain
Sten Wahlund: Doctor
Lennart Stregard: Drum Major
Klas Hedlund: Andres
Marianne Eklof: Margret

Recorded live at Kungliga Teatern, Stockholm, February 2000

Wozzeck is a cornerstone of the 20th century repertoire, operatic or otherwise. Naxos’ offering of this recent Stockholm production of the work is not only an incredible bargain but also a thoroughly compelling production of this landmark score.

A characteristic aspect of this opera involves Berg’s symbolic use of the half-sung, half-spoken vocal inflection known as "sprechstimme". Baritone Carl Johan Falkman as Wozzeck and soprano Katarina Dalayman as his wife Marie habitually resort to this technique even when it is not expressly called for. While their interpretations may consequently not be as musically accurate or as interpretatively sophisticated as the memorable accounts by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Evelyn Lear in the still available historic first studio recording of this work under conductor Karl Böhm in 1965, theirs is still a viable and perhaps more realistic interpretation of Wozzeck as a dehumanized automaton and Marie as his hapless victim.

Ulrik Qvale’s portrayal of the contemptuous, moralizing Captain is near perfect, while the role of the Doctor is given an appropriately self-absorbed interpretation by Sten Wahlund.

Conductor Leif Segerstam secures a wonderfully transparent and radiant balance of Berg's intricate orchestration, though this feat seems to have been electronically achieved by attenuating the string section of 50 to 60 string players that Berg calls for to sound as if only half that number are present. As this is a live performance there are a few stage noises that intrude from time to time. Though there is no translation of the libretto supplied in the multi-lingual program booklet, detailed synopses are offered to explain each scene’s significance.

Daniel Foley

Lamento Daniel Taylor, Theatre of Early Music ATMA Classique ACD2 2261

This new recording by Canada’s prominent counter-tenor Daniel Taylor and his newly formed ensemble the Theatre of Early Music features many extraordinary sacred arias and instrumental selections by 17th century German composers.

As the title suggests, the greater portion of this disc consists of sad, mournful, dignified music, in fact, almost enough minor key to cause one to lapse into deep depression had not the richly expressive performances provided the antidote. Even the occasional unevenness of tone and tuning does not really give cause for alarm.

In Erbarm dich mein by Heinrich Schütz, Taylor tantalizes with his feathery pure tone, challenging us to focus on the beauty of the music. His remarkable breath control and sensitive phrasing is always evident in Johann Christoph Bach’s gorgeous lamento, Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte.

Among the purely instrumental works, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach’s Sonata Terza is actually a French dance suite. By their authoritative playing, this ensemble could easily convince you that Erlebach was a French composer.

The disc also includes Georg Melchior Hoffman’s charming cantata Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, originally attributed to J. S. Bach, and Buxtehude’s Jubilate Domino, which, in spite of the rhythmic and interpretive liberties taken on this recording, remains one of my favourite pieces in the alto voice repertoire.

All of this is beautifully recorded, packaged, with notes, text and translations, financially supported by the Government of Canada through the Sound Recording Development Program.

Frank T. Nakashima
 

Sacred Spaces / Lieux sacrés Studio de musique anciennne de Montréal, Christopher Jackson CBC Records MVCD 1146

Recorded in the Église Saint-Viateur d’Outremont, Montréal in July 2000, which is not really as spaciously ambient as the basilica of San Marco in Venice, the brilliant CBC technicians captured every subtle detail of this grand choral music by Gabrieli and Monteverdi.

From Gabrieli’s Plaudite omnis terra for 12 voices (in 3 choirs), Exaudi me Domine for 16 voices (in 4 choirs) and In Ecclesiis for 14 voices, to Monteverdi’s Magnificat for 6 voices (from the Vespro della Beate Vergine) and Beatus vir (from the Selve morale e spirituale), the voices of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal bring the musical richness of 17^th century Venice back to life.

The singing of the soloists and chorus (only 18 singers in total!) is magnificent, splendid, grand, bold, and dynamic. The text-guided performance elicits a wonderfully comprehensive phrasing and nuance.

I don’t know how Christopher Jackson managed to assemble all of this talent in one space, but the results are absolutely fantastic. Not only do I heartily recommend this recording, I insist that, if you know what’s good for you, you’d better get out there and find yourself a copy of it as soon as possible!

Frank T. Nakashima
 

Wagner: Scenes from The Ring Royal Opera House Orchestra; Antonio Pappano EMI 72435 57242

Cast:
Placido Domingo: Siegfried
David Cangelosi: Mime
Natalie Dessay: Forest Bird
Violeta Urmana: Brunnhilde

Following Wagner Love Duets from Siegfried and Tristan with Deborah Voigt, this is the second Wagner disc from Domingo with Pappano and the Royal Opera House Orchestra.

Domingo’s recorded Wagner dates back at least 25 years to his Walther von Stolzing for DG’s complete Die Meistersinger conducted by Eugen Jochum. Arguably today’s finest and most reliable tenor, Domingo was 60 years old when he recorded this disc last July. Also a consummate musician, his voice remains secure, clear, and powerful as those of us who heard his Sigmund in the last Ring cycle at the Met will attest.

Chosen are excerpts, vocal and orchestral, from Siegfried and Gotterdammerung. For Siegfried I would have wished for a vital and determined Nothung! Nothung! This would reflect the pent-up energy of the forging scene and the significance of the restored weapon. Also, ‘Siegfried’s’ attempts to emulate the Forest Bird are just too secure and not at all amusing. Except for these two niggardly complaints, Siegfried is rather impressive and satisfying.

I do not know in what order the excerpts were recorded but the Gotterdammerung duets with Brunnhilde are very exciting as are the several orchestral selections: Dawn, Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Funeral Music. Clearly, in this repertoire Domingo is happier bouncing off a colleague than in the solo passages. The sound is thrillingly wide-range and large scale with convincing ‘opera house’ perspectives.

A desirable disc for all those who respond to this repertoire.

Bruce Surtees

Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music Angela Hewitt, piano Hyperion CDA67341/2

In this highly recommended two-CD set of the complete solo piano music of Maurice Ravel, Canadian Angela Hewitt displays the qualities that make her one of the most acclaimed Bach pianists of our day. Her textures are marvelously clear and sparkling, since she eschews lushly pedaled romantic washes of sound. But she nonetheless splendidly captures the evocative, sensuous, nostalgic poetry of these early 20^th century French masterworks, many of which are familiar in Ravel’s later orchestrations.

The most popular work here is probably Pavane pour une infante défunte, which made an unforgettable encore at her recent recital at the Glenn Gould Studio. On this recording Hewitt’s luminous touch and meticulous sense of rhythm again create compelling magic.

The most virtuosic work is undoubtedly Gaspard de la Nuit. Here Hewitt’s imaginative powers of expression are at their strongest. In the thrilling first movement, named after the water sprite Ondine, the melody emerges from different registers of the piano while layers of sound shimmer. There is exceptional beauty in the way she tolls the ominous B-flat octaves throughout the macabre second movement, Le Gibet (The Gallows), evoking what Hewitt, in her perceptive liner notes, calls "the odour of death". In the final movement, Scarbo, she dramatically colours the wickedly difficult figurations to create an enthralling scenario.

There are many fine recordings of these seminal works available, historic and contemporary, but this is a top choice – one I will return to over and over.

Pamela Margles

Srul Irving Glick: Toward the Sun Valerie Sirén; Cecilia Ignatieff Doremi DDR-71136 Srul Irving Glick: Shirei T’Shuva: Songs of Joy and Repentance Cantor Efraim Sapir; Beth Tikvah Choir, Penderecki String Quartet Beth Tikvah Synagogue (Independent, telephone 416-221-3433)

Caruso was an ardent student of Jewish cantorial singing and incorporated what he learned as a pillar of his vocal technique.  The joint careers of Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker on the opera stage and synagogue pulpit are the most eminent instances of a frequently traveled path during the first half of the twentieth century. On the popular side of Jewish music, liturgical themes were lovingly imported and jazzed up by klezmorim.

Torontonian Srul Irving Glick, who died on April 18th, devoted his distinguished career to compositions that drew upon the deep wells of Jewish liturgical and folk music. His father was a cantor and Glick’s musical passions were aroused by the sounds that surrounded him.

Parallel to the cantors of earlier decades, he pursued a dual career.  On the one hand, he worked within core musical institutions like the Royal Conservatory and the CBC, and garnered numerous prizes and honours along the way. On the other, he was the choral director and composer in residence at Toronto’s Beth Tikvah synagogue for three decades. His musical partnership with Cantor Efraim Sapir from 1984 through 2001 made Beth Tikvah a focal point for Jewish liturgical music in North America.

To my ears, Glick’s vocal compositions are the peak experiences of his music. Toward the Sun features three recent song cycles for soprano, piano, violin and cello. The first cycle, We are Children Just the Same, approaches the emotionally overpowering. The lyrics are poems written by teenage inmates of the Terezin concentration camp. Most perished in Auschwitz. The survivors returned to gather hidden manuscripts. Their authors had few illusions as to what awaited them.  These poems are witness to the human thirst for creating art. Glick’s expert, seemingly low-key setting is witness to why synergy between music and words is more powerful than each art form on its own.

If you want to hear why Caruso was so excited by Jewish liturgical music, Shirei T’Shuva is an excellent place to begin. It sums up what Glick and cantor Sapir accomplished together at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. The midnight S’lichot (forgiveness) service is a very important departure point for the Jewish high holidays. The verses are constant but there is substantial latitude in the musical setting. Glick selected and arranged melodies that mix anonymous traditional pieces and others composed by cantors past and present. The arrangement is for solo voice, chorus and string quartet, with Glick conducting.

Phil Ehrensaft
 

WORTH REPEATING
 
 

Brubeck & Desmond 1975: The Duets Dave Brubeck; Paul Desmond Horizon SP703

This album is a total delight. The wonderful introverted, introspective world of Desmond is at its best here. The feeling of ESP between the two musicians is almost too good to be true. In the entire history of the music it is difficult to think of two musicians better suited to each other.

Dave Brubeck’s harmonic sense has always been a trademark and in the intimacy of this musical setting he demonstrates a less percussive approach to the piano than on some other recordings, replacing it with a sensitivity which complements beautifully the meandering lines of the alto sax. Without bass and drums it’s just the two of them plus the vast musical freedom that such a sparse instrumentation brings to creative spirits. Harmonic boundaries almost cease to exist because of the amazing empathy Brubeck and Desmond have with each other. To Quote Paul Desmond: "…an almost eerie feeling of freedom occurred which seldom happens when there are other instruments to be considered."

With Desmond it is always a matter of less being much more. His minimalist approach has been his hallmark and he carries it to a high art form - that and his introverted sense of humour with obscure quotes liberally sprinkled among his wonderful harmonic and melodic variations. These Foolish Things is prime Desmond and worth the price of admission alone.

Throughout the CD these two musicians feed off each other, a line of Desmond's picked up and developed by Brubeck, a harmonic challenge leading Desmond into uncharted waters. At a tad under 40 minutes, it is a little short on playing time by today's standards, but, like I said earlier with regard to the playing - less is more.

Jim Galloway
 

Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata; Boccherini: Cello Sonata No. 6; Sammartini: Cello Sonata in G major Leonard Rose; Leonid Hambro SONY SK 89749

There are lots of performances of the Arpeggione Sonata in the catalogue but this one is special. Leonard Rose played in the N.B.C. Symphony under Toscanini and then moved over to The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. Finally Rose led the cello section in the New York Philharmonic when it was still ‘The Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York’ under Bruno Walter, Artur Rodzinki, and others. He gave up his orchestral post in 1951 to devote himself to a career as a soloist. He taught at Juilliard and later became head of the cello department at Curtis. He is well remembered today for his performances and recordings, including those of The Stern, Rose, Istomin Trio. Some know that he was Yo-Yo Ma’s teacher for half a dozen years.

To quote Mr. Ma: "For me, Mr. Rose sets the standard for integrity in artistry, and he had a gorgeous cello tone – I think if there is an ideal sound for the cello, he had it – a far more beautiful, golden and noble sound than I could ever produce. I know that he was particularly proud of this recording."

I loved the LP of this disc and it is a genuine thrill to own it again. Although it is monaural and is only 59 minutes long, this CD recorded in May 1953 is a bargain.

Bruce Surtees

DISCS OF THE MONTH
 
 

Bruckner: The Complete Symphonies Royal Scottish National Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; Georg Tintner Naxos 8.501101 (11 CDs)

Bruckner’s symphonies have always been a bit of an acquired taste, but in recent years they have been gaining in popularity. Part of this new interest is attributable to the release of all the Bruckner symphonies during the 1990’s by Naxos, under the Austrian expatriate conductor Georg Tintner.

Symphony Nova Scotia enticed the aged maestro into relocating to Halifax in 1987, and it was after his retirement from the orchestra nearly a decade later that Naxos contracted him to record the entire set of Bruckner symphonies.

Your humble writer was in Halifax in that time, and already a Bruckner convert. Tintner flew periodically to Scotland, Ireland or to New Zealand, always returning to Nova Scotia to attend concerts and occasionally conduct an orchestra. I encountered him backstage and at receptions, and always asked him about the ongoing Naxos Bruckner project. His eyes would light up on hearing the question. He seemed to be pleased that anybody in Halifax was showing interest in his task.

My last conversation with Georg Tintner was just one week before he died, in 1999. There was a hint of a smile in his face as he declared the recording project complete to his satisfaction. So it is a special honour to have the Naxos boxed set of the complete cycle of eleven Bruckner Symphonies in front of me.

Three orchestras in three different halls were employed in the project. The orchestral sound in the collection is superb. It is difficult to favour one symphony over another in the matter of recording quality or instrumental tone. In that sense Naxos has achieved a commendable unity throughout. This is in distinct contrast to the uneven situation that was the lot of the Bruckner collector in the past, where one had to be satisfied with some haphazard choices in order to get the complete set. Until receiving this Naxos boxed set I hadn’t experienced the first 3 symphonies, and neither the alternate Adagio to the 3rd nor the 1878 finale to the 4th. These "lost" movements are included in the boxed set.

Tintner’s reading of Bruckner is all you could wish for. He holds his own alongside the Jascha Horenstein and Gunther Wand interpretations in the massive symphonies 8 and 9. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra can proudly allow themselves to be held up to comparison against any of more than a dozen recordings of the 1880 Haas edition of the 4th, popularly named the "Romantic". As a musical experience, you couldn’t ask for better.

The 48-page booklet has annotations written by Georg Tinter, ably edited by his partner Tanya. The conductor’s life-long study of the Bruckner catalogue allows him to give quite a scholarly dissertation of the themes and recapitulations, which is enlightening considering the vast scale of the works. Tintner’s descriptions are at the same time easy to read, and you needn’t feel that you require a music degree to understand what is being said.

Unfortunately the fact of Tintner’s authorship of the notes isn’t acknowledged anywhere in this booklet. The original Naxos individual Bruckner releases had these same notes verbatim, and they were properly accredited there. The other oversight is in a complete lack of photographs within the pages of the booklet; no images of Anton Bruckner, Georg Tintner, nor any of the three orchestras that give us this wonderful sound.

The other aspects of the booklet are commendable: the typeface is legible and not too tiny, and sensibly molded into a two-columns-per-page layout. There is an interesting three-page chronology of Bruckner’s life and associations in the back pages, following the orchestra and conductor biographies.

I heartily recommend this set of CD’s for anyone with an interest in Bruckner’s work. And as usual, Naxos gives us first-rate sound on a budget-priced CD.

John S. Gray

Gurrelieder was the final work Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducted as music director of The Toronto Symphony, his Swan Song. The piece had been scheduled for an earlier season but was unwisely canceled because management believed it was too risky for Toronto audiences. It calls for five soloists, a speaker, three male choirs, a mixed choir, and a greatly augmented orchestra including 10 horns, 8 flutes, 4 Wagner tubas, 6 timpani, and the usual iron chains.

Gurrelieder, the Songs of Gurre, is a Tristanesque drama, a narrative song cycle of massive proportions. It is the ultimate Romantic expression, opulent, entirely tonal and loaded with good tunes.

In Part One, Rattle’s view of the score may have some heads shaking because he seems to be restraining the decibels. In parts Two and Three, as the drama unfolds, the intensity builds, climaxing with Sunrise when all is resolved. Rattle realizes the arch of the work and its poetry, with exquisite gradations of sound from thoughtful pauses that seize the listener, from hushed passages to stunning tuttis.

EMI has conquered the impossible acoustic of the Berlin’s Philharmonie, the orchestra’s home, to produce a stunning recording of enormous depth and power. Not just volume but power that you must hear to believe it. The balances are natural with no spotlighting. I have heard this orchestra many times in concert and fewer than a handful of recordings have come close to their live sound. This is the closest I have heard. Rattle is not simply conducting Gurrelieder, he is giving us the inside story.

Bruce Surtees

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