Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases
Strauss, ‘Salome’: Byström, Dalayman, Reuter, Siegel, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Gardner (Naxos 2CDs & SACDs) ★★★★
The raison d'etre of Strauss’s once scandalous opera is Salome’s dance of the seven veils. The first question about any opera production is will or won’t the soprano take off her clothes? This 2022 Edinburgh International Festival production was a concert performance and the only naked thing in Salome’s dance was the stage. The music had to do all the work and this performance under Edward Gardner, with the Bergen orchestra at the top of their game, reveals how exciting, disturbing and revealing just the notes can be. Gardner also has a fine cast at his disposal with Malin Byström, world’s reigning Salome, in mesmerising form, salacious, seductive and deadly with a convincingly young-sounding voice. There’s a noble Jochanaan from Johan Reuter and the malicious parents, Herodias (Katarina Dalayman) and Herod (Gerhard Siegel) are finely observed and incisively sung. The live Usher Hall recording, produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs, is excellent without the extraneous noise and clatter of a staged production.
Beethoven & Lentz: Steinbacher, Luxembourg Philharmonic / Gustavo Gimeno (Pentatone CD) ★★
Here’s an odd pair of bedfellows. Beethoven’s violin concerto, a staple of the repertoire and concert favourite, with a 2023 concerto by Luxembourg composer Georges Lentz. Such a pairing looks like a trade off or compromise: Arabella Steinbacher, who commissioned and premiered Lentz’s piece, gets it recorded with Beethoven added as a commercial incentive. It doesn’t make for a satisfying disc. Lentz, a “sound artist” as well as composer, has been based in Australia since 1990 and his music is inspired by the night sky in the Australian outback, the concerto – subtitled “to beam in distant heavens” – has a climate change subtext. Very worthy, but the music, passages of serene, slowly shifting minimalism interspersed with fierce orchestral eruptions, might have worked in a one-off concert but not for repeated listening. The Beethoven is decent but slightly dull with dozens of more attractive competitors.
Appl, ‘For Dieter’: Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu (Alpha CD) ★★★
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012) bestrode the world of lieder like a colossus – his recordings of Schubert, Schumann, Wolf and many others are library first choices. His influence, whether positive or negative, on the younger generation of baritones was immense. The British-based German baritone Benjamin Appl attended a masterclass given by Fischer-Dieskau in 2009 and became his final pupil working with him up to his death three years later. This handsome centenary tribute – the CD housed in a hardback book packed with photographs and cuttings from Fischer-Dieskau's career – is a heartfelt tribute. Appl, accompanied by pianist James Baillieu, sings 32 songs from every stage of his mentor’s life. Schubert and Schumann of course but also rarities Eisler and Bruno Walter, and by Fischer-Dieskau’s father Albert and brother Klaus. Like Fischer-Dieskau, Appl can sometimes sacrifice sheer beauty of tone to textual clarity but there’s plenty to enjoy and engage the emotions here.
Purcell, ‘The Complete Suites’: Sandrin (Somm Recordings CC)★★★
A marmite recording – appetising or not – like all those when music composed for the harpsichord is re-imagined for the modern pianoforte. In his booklet notes the Romanian pianist Christian Sandrin acknowledges the “anachronism” of the project while defending it as an opportunity, “to review the culture and mores of a bygone era within a more familiar language, one we can relate to more readily”. It’s an argument I find unconvincing: surely a listener gains more from making an effort to understand and appreciate the music in its original context? Let’s look at the disc on its chosen ground. Sandrin plays the eight suites which were published posthumously in 1696, each consisting of a Prelude and short dance movements. Sandrin also interleaves them with snippets from from the second part of Purcell’s ‘Musick’s Hand-Maid’ and his semi-opera ‘The Indian Queen’ which is perfectly acceptable – Handel, for example, was always generous with extemporizing self-quotations in his keyboard playing. Sandrin takes no liberties with tempi, all are judicious and consistent. Anyone wanting to explore Purcell’s keyboard works, but allergic to historical instruments, will find much to enjoy here – harpsichord enthusiasts will stick with Richard Egarr or Sophie Yates’ discs.
Marsalis, ‘Blues Symphony’: Detroit Symphony Orchestra / Bignamini (Pentatone CD) ★★★
Fans of Duke Ellington’s music, this reviewer included, are ambivalent about his experiments in large-scale musical works like ‘Black, Beige and Brown’ and his several Suites. Their construction can sound too loose, a series of separate pieces played consecutively, or the “serious” framework inhibiting the spontaneity of jazz’s essential nature. The same thought occurs when listening to Wynton Marsalis’ 2009 ‘Blues Symphony’ which, perhaps needless to say, isn’t a symphony at all but seven short colourful tone poems: I: Born in Hope; II: Swimming in Sorrow; III: Reconstruction Rag; IV: Southwestern Shakedown; V: Big City Breaks; VI: Danzón y Mambo, Choro y Samba; VII: Dialog in Democracy. Marsalis is a jazz polymath, a terrific trumpet player – adept at Haydn and Hummel concertos – composer, arranger and nine-times Grammy winner. He says that the symphony’s unity is, “the form and feeling of the blues. It utilizes regional and stylistic particulars...to convey the basic point of view of the blues as music. ‘Life hands you hard times.’” All seven pieces are enjoyable, Marsalis has the knack of composing a melodic hook and arranging it effectively. The DSO under Jader Bignamini play their socks off and really swing aided by a fulsome Pentatone recording. My ambivalence about the form remains though.
Greene,‘Jephtha’: Early Opera Company / Christian Curnyn (Chandos 2CDs & SACDs) ★★★
A useful rule of thumb in classical music is that there are no neglected masterpieces. Like all such rules there are exceptions but Maurice Greene’s oratorio ‘Jephtha’ of 1737 isn’t one of them. This is the work’s first recording and only its second performance since the premiere, it being eclipsed by Handel’s version, his final oratorio, of 1751. Greene held university and cathedral posts and never worked in the theatre so this modest version, two acts and four characters, has none of Handel’s dramatic flair. It’s hampered by a pedestrian text and Jephtha’s daughter dies, so there is no uplifting and redemptive ending as in Handel’s version. Paradoxically that provides Greene with his finest moment with the dignified chorus of mourning movingly delivered by the Early Opera Company’s chorus under director Christian Curnyn. Andrew Staples’ lyric tenor makes him sound more of a subaltern than the fearsome battle-hardened general Jephtha. Mary Bevan sounds too mature for the unnamed daughter but sings well. Michael Mofidian’s powerful bass, as the First Elder, is impressive. Chandos deserves praise for letting us hear this neglected work and, if one’s expectations are not too high, it's an interesting listen.