Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases
Janáček, ‘Jenůfa’: Eichenholz, Karnéus, Wilson, Spence, Briscein, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Rattle (LSO Live 2 CDs & SACDs) ★★★★★
Sir Simon Rattle has been an advocate of Janáček’s music for more than forty years and following ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ and ‘Katya Kabanova’, this is his latest in a series of the composer’s operas recorded in concert. They were both excellent and this is perhaps the best so far with an outstanding cast bringing to vivid life Janáček’s intense and visceral tale of sexual jealousy, family strife and infanticide. Rattle and the LSO’s mastery of Janáček’s spiky angular music, and it’s ability to flower into moments of intense beauty and hope, are the foundations for a riveting performance. Swedish soprano Agneta Eichenholz, following in the tradition of her countrywoman Elisabeth Söderström, makes Jenůfa’s emotional plight convincing, her singing passionate and sensitive. Janáček’s original title for the opera was ‘Její pastorkyňa’ (‘Her Stepdaughter’) signalling the pivotal role that Kostelnička has in the domestic tragedy as the murderer of Jenůfa’s baby. Katarina Karnéus is the formidable matriarch, her mezzo-soprano the voice of authority, her downfall despairing. Nicky Spence’s lyric tenor is ideal for the romantic but flawed Števa Buryja, the father of Jenůfa’s child, while Czech tenor Aleš Briscein makes Laca Klemeň’s journey from Jenůfa’s abuser– his slashing of her rosy cheeks still shocking – to her contrite lover a convincing emotional arc. The recording captures every strand of Janáček’s score vividly. The CD booklet has a libretto and translation plus a helpful family tree for following the origins of the internecine rivalries.
Rachmaninoff: Sinfonia of London / Wilson (Chandos CD & SACD) ★★★★★
With this disc of Symphony No.1 and the ‘Symphonic Dances’ John Wilson completes his outstanding survey of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies. The performances have been excellent with the necessary inky gloom and the composer’s shimmering romanticism both evident. Wilson’s hand picked all-stars – like Sydney Sax’s legendary National Philharmonic Orchestra of the 1960s – has the cream of London’s players. The sound too, both in standard CD and high definition SACD has been impressive. Chandos’ producer Brian Pidgeon and engineer Ralph Couzens have an acoustic gem in St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn, exploiting its spaciousness combined with an ability to reveal fine instrumental detail. Symphony No.1 is dark and dramatic, the D minor tonality and the Tolstoy superscription in the score, “Vengeance is mine I will repay” immediately apparent. When Rachmaninoff’s signature motto theme, the Dies Irae, makes its appearance it feels like the day of doom is upon us, the brass suitably mordant. The Sinfonia’s string and wind players provide a vivid contrast in the Larghetto and rhythmic drive in the second movement. The ‘Symphonic Dances’, perhaps Rachmaninoff’s orchestral masterpiece, is delightful with a wistful Twilight movement and a ghostly Midnight, a sarabande for dead lovers. While this pairing doesn’t surpass Ashkenazy’s incandescent 1980s Concertgebouw recording, weightier and with the symphony’s Russian heritage more evident, it’s a worthy alternative – and that's high praise indeed.
Bruckner: Hallé Orchestra / Wong (Hallé 2 CDs) ★
When Bruckner died in 1896 he had been composing his Symphony No.9 in D minor for nine years. Or rather he had composed and revised the first three movements by 1894, the version we have become familiar with for more than a century, and spent two years, in poor mental and physical health, avoiding finishing the projected fourth movement. For many of us the symphony is perfect as it stands. Bruckner had completed it but, in awe of precedent and dogma that symphonies ought to have a fourth movement, strove to add to perfection. Little wonder that the effort was doomed. This has not deterred musicologists from attempting to complete Bruckner’s fragmentary score. The latest, Australian John A. Phillips whose doctoral thesis was the foundation for this project, argues that: “Including a reconstruction of Bruckner’s intended Finale does far less injustice to Bruckner’s conception of his Ninth than reducing it to three movements”. I disagree, and his workmanlike but protracted and dull effort shows why. How do the first three movements – the genuine symphony – fare under the Hallé’s chief conductor Kahchun Wong? Not well. Giulini’s epic live recording with the Vienna Philharmonic demonstrates that broad tempi, sustained by conducting experience and a great orchestra, can work perfectly in the opening movement but Wong sounds alternately leaden and febrile, with a clumsy accelerando. The daemonic scherzo, the goblins from Beethoven’s fifth given supercharged power, sounds limp compared with Dohnanyi’s Cleveland recording, despatched in under ten scintillating minutes. The Hallé play well enough but compared with the two rivals I’ve mentioned the whole enterprise sounds mediocre.
Cilea, 'Gloria': Chikviladze, Bartoli, Vassallo, Ventre, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari Chorus and Orchestra, Cilluffo (Naxos CD) ★★★★
This is an operatic rarity that merits a hearing and gets a fine performance from the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari forces under conductor Francesco Cilluffo and an excellent group of soloists. Francesco Cilea composed two operas still in the repertoire, ‘L’Arlesiana’ and the star soprano vehicle ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’, ‘Gloria’, his final work is barely known. It’s a stirring tale of star-crossed lovers set in medieval Sienna – swap the Montagues and Capulets for the real-life Guelphs and Ghibellines and you get the idea. If there are no immediately memorable arias there’s plenty of tuneful and attractive music. Italian soprano Anastasia Bartoli looks stunning in the production photographs and has a warm vibrant tone to match as heroine Gloria and tenor Carlo Ventre is an ardent lover with pinging top notes. There’s a fine supporting cast including sonorous Georgian bass Ramaz Chikviladze as Gloria’s father. Naxos deserve praise in these cost-conscious times for fitting the whole three act 86 minute opera on a single CD. A libretto and translation can be downloaded via the Naxos website.
‘Boult’s Elgar’: Various orchestras / Sir Adrian Boult (Somm Recordings 2 CDs) ★★★★
The set is subtitled ‘The Forgotten Recordings’ which unfortunately sets itself up for joking ripostes – but Boult’s recording of Elgar’s Symphony No.2 should silence the smart alecs. Nigel Simeone’s informative booklet note tells of Boult’s close relationship with Elgar, this work in particular, and its rehabilitation after a dismal 1911 premiere when the composer privately berated the audience as sitting there “like stuffed pigs”. Boult’s score is inscribed “To Adrian Boult, Edward Elgar, 1920”, and has Elgar’s own annotations. Boult conducted the symphony more than 70 times and made five recordings. The one included here is from 1963 with the Scottish National Orchestra on the small independent Edinburgh-based Waverley label. It reached a much wider audience in 1971 when reissued as bargain-priced Classics for Pleasure LP. In the 1950s and ‘60s Boult was not contracted by the major labels and appeared on small independents including Everest, Nixa, Westminster, Lyrita and Vanguard. Lani Spahr’s remastering has freshened up the sound considerably and it’s an invigorating listen, swifter and leaner than his 1976 EMI recording with the London Philharmonic, although the latter’s string tone is considerably richer. In 1963 the Allegro vivace e nobilmente has more drive while the Larghetto never eases back to become a Largo. This is its first appearance on CD and justifies a release. Another Boult speciality ‘Alassio’ is taken from a 1944 BBC broadcast and there is a wide range of songs from the BBC Chorus (1930s to ‘60s). As a bonus we have Boult, not a dazzling raconteur but never dull, in radio interviews.