Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD and DVD releases
Mendelssohn ‘Elijah’: Soloists, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (LSO Live 2 CDs and SACDs) ★★★★★
Mendelssohn’s oratorio was commissioned for Birmingham and was premiered in 1846 at the Town Hall conducted by the composer. It was a resounding success and cemented his position as Queen Victoria’s favourite composer whom she considered to be, “the greatest musical genius since Mozart”. The coupling of Mendelssohn’s music with Victorian values, and the increasing secularization of modern Britain, means the biblical work has been kept alive largely by amateur choirs and players. This exciting new recording, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, shows what our concert halls have been missing. Forget the Victorian world of aspidistras and antimacassars – this superbly sung live recording blazes with passion, bringing the characters alive with operatic fervour. The Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is a mighty presence as the prophet Elijah. When he sings of God, ‘Is not his word like fire?’ the listener is convinced and his resignation “It is enough, O Lord now take away my life’ is projected with great nobility. He has a formidable opponent in Dame Sarah Connolly’s Queen Jezebel. The South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soars sublimely as an Angel and The Widow while tenor Allan Clayton gives fine support as Obadiah and Ahab. The LSO Chorus, under chorus director Mariana Rosas, are vital to the set’s success from their opening appeal ‘Help Lord!’ to the closing ‘Lord, our creator’. Pappano chooses swift flowing tempi – fitting for a work of religious passion – so it lasts just under two hours making Hickox (Chandos) Frühbeck de Burgos (EMI) and Shaw (Telarc) sound sluggish.
Verdi ‘Aida’: Soloists. Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus / Pappano (Opus Arte DVD widescreen Stereo and DTS Master Audio 5.1) ★★★
In the early 1990s I saw an international touring performance of ‘Aida’ at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. Mounted like a Cecil B. DeMille Hollywood biblical epic with a huge cast of extras as dancing girls, slaves and soldiers all in lavish and garish costumes, plumes and feathers. It was spectacular – and spectacularly boring. Robert Carsen’s 2022 Covent Garden production opts for 20th century grit with Egypt as a military dictatorship. Grey and combat camouflage predominate. Carsen reminds us that the opera’s most important action is intimate – two doomed lovers separated by a political divide, a jealous rival, the pull of family loyalty between daughter and father. The colour comes from Verdi’s rich score with Sir Antonio Pappano drawing some gorgeous playing from the orchestra. The singing is more mixed. Russian soprano Elena Stikhina (Aida) is passionate but delicate and wrung by her divided loyalties while tenor Francesco Meli’s Radames is a charisma-free zone. Polish mezzo-soprano Agnieszka Rehlis steals the show, totally believable as Amneris. Ludovic Tézier (Amonasro) and Solomon Howard (Ramfis) offer strong support. ‘Aida’ depends on the chemistry, and lung power, of its central couple and for that, crucially, one needs to look elsewhere.
‘Love Songs by Schumann and Brahms’: Damrau, Kaufmann, Deutsch (C Major DVD widescreen Stereo and DTS Master Audio 5.0) ★★★
In 2002 opera stars Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, accompanied by pianist Helmet Deutsch, who also devised the programme, took their lieder recital on a tour of Europe. It was a gold-plated sell out everywhere despite the occasional setback like Kaufmann’s hacking cough which marred the London performance at the Barbican. This DVD was filmed at the Great Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein and finds both soprano and tenor in fine voice. The blurb promises, “soul-stirring solos and mesmerizing duets in a journey through a kaleidoscope of emotions, from reverie and yearning to the bliss of fulfilment, tempered by moments of heartache, resignation, and sacrifice, charming and moving.” There are around forty songs, several performed out of context or sequence with subtlety sacrificed for vocal impact – Damrau in full diva mode – and little bits of staged business in an attempt to enhance the songs’ appeal. Both of these singers would have much to offer in a different setting but this showbiz recital is one for fans only.
Simon ‘Four Symphonic Works’: National Symphony Orchestra / Noseda (NSO The Kennedy Centre CD & SACD) ★★★
The first thing one notices about this disc of African-American composer Carlos Simon’s work is its presentation – a CD-sized hardback book on glossy paper with interviews, photographs, essays on the works and full texts where required. Very classy. So is the playing of the NSO under their music director Gianandrea Noseda and the sound quality of the live recordings – in both CD and SACD – courtesy of Soundmirror. What of the music? Simon (born 1986) is the son of a gospel preacher and his music is saturated with its passionate, often improvisational style. Its influence, plus soul music and torch-song ballads, is evident in ‘Songs of Separation’ with no-holds-barred delivery from mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. Gospel proselytising is there in Simon’s energetic Concerto for Orchestra entitled ‘Wake Up!’. Duke Ellington’s blend of jazz and classical styles, as in his ‘Black, Brown and Beige’, is the prototype for ‘Tales: a Folklore Symphony’ and ‘The Block’ a musical portrait of Harlem. I think the Duke did it better but Simon’s music, if derivative, is enjoyable with Noseda and the NSO as excellent advocates.
Holst 150: Soloists, various orchestras and conductors (Somm Recordings 2 CDs) ★★
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth and this set, as in Somm’s other from-the-vaults collections, gathers together performances taken from live radio broadcasts. The exceptions are ‘4 Songs H.132 for soprano & violin’ and ‘The Evening-Watch H.159 for mixed chorus’ which were pre-recorded at Cheltenham Town Hall and broadcast on the Third Programme in 1965. For the vast majority of music lovers Holst is a “one-hit-wonder” – 86 recordings of ‘The Planets. Here’s No.87 with Sir Adrian Boult, the work’s greatest advocate, in a 1946 broadcast with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The quick opening of ‘Mars’ suggests a refreshingly different approach from Boult’s best-selling ‘60s and ‘70s recordings but Warner Classics’ ‘Complete Conductor’ box set has a 1945 studio recording produced by Walter Legge which is faster, more idiomatically played (Boult’s BBC orchestra) and with much greater sound quality. ‘Savitri’, conducted by Mackerras with Peter Pears at Aldeburgh in 1956, is interesting but Arda Mandikian is no match for Janet Baker (for Imogen Holst). ‘The Perfect Fool’ ballet suite is a wonderfully exciting and colourful piece but needs spectacular sound – as in Hickox’s Chandos recording – which the 1945 boxy NBC recording under Sargent can’t supply. A set for Holst hyper-enthusiasts only.