Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases
Mahler Symphonies 1-9: Czech Philharmonic / Bychkov (Pentatone 11 CDs) ★★★★★
No single survey of Mahler's symphonies, the most disparate musically diverse traversal by any of the great composers, can be the last word on their interpretation and performance. Seasoned collectors will all have favourite individual performances that offer something special, uniquely capturing the essence of a particular work, one that becomes a benchmark in judging others. My own, for example, is Leonard Bernstein's second recording of No.6, with the Vienna Philharmonic, released in 1989 the year before the conductor's death, in which every abyss of despair and cry of anger is palpable. Yet there is something very satisfying in a complete set of Mahler symphonies played by the same orchestra under the same conductor and making the long musical journey with them from the burgeoning wonder and joy of nature in No.1 to the resignation and acceptance of mortality in No.9's great final Adagio. Such a set needs fine playing, a perceptive and sensitive conductor to cope with Mahler's myriad and rapidly changing moods, audio engineering able to capture the huge dynamic range of the works and also teamwork, players and conductor committed to a singular vision. This set has all that. It's the culmination of work that began in 2018 when Semyon Bychkov became Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic beginning his tenure with a performance of Symphony No.2 'Resurrection'. The 2023 recording here is a splendid one with Christiane Karg (soprano) and Elisabeth Kulman (alto) impassioned soloists with the Prague Philharmonic Choir impressive in the quietest passages, articulation always crisp, with the sound expanding impressively for the jubilant heaven-ascending climax. The sound quality is aided by the excellent acoustics of the orchestra's home the Rudolfinum concert hall, and it highlights on the set's main attractions - the quality of the orchestra's wind players. Bohemia was always known for the quality of its wind players, think of Mozart's and Dvorak's delight in them, and they are a joy to hear. Praise also for the technical team who mastered the recording on a single (86:52) disc a feat they repeated for Symphony No 6 (85.56), No. 7 (78.39) and No.9 (86.57), so no more distracting disc-swapping required, although oddly the same was not done for No.8. Consistency is a quality of this set if you enjoy Bychkov's approach to one, primarily lyrical and with no exaggeration or tempo extremes (as in later Bernstein) and then all nine will bring you pleasure. The wind section's qualities make Symphonies 1-4 particularly enjoyable, the rustling, twittering sounds of nature vividly rendered. Not every target is hit. No.1's famous musical collision between the mock funeral march and tipsy klezmer band sounds a little under-characterized when listening to Bernstein's Concertgebouw recording and Solti's 1960s LSO version. Competition? Three of the best complete sets by Haitink (Concertgebouw), Tennstedt (LPO) and Boulez (Cleveland and Vienna) have been deleted. Of those that remain Rattle suffers from an underpowered No.6 (with movements in the wrong order) and a limp No.3 while Gergiev (LSO) is brutal, crude and claustrophobically recorded. Bernstein's New York set has many merits (a great No.4) but he never recorded a studio No.8 (the live version is patchy). Anyone who wants an impressively recorded, well conducted and played set emphasizing beauty, rather than existential exploration, needs look no further than this handsomely boxed one.
Bartok: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Gimeno (TSO CD) ★★★
Two of Bartok's finest works get strong and colourful performances under the orchestra's Music Director Gustavo Gimeno. He rightly opts for the complete score of 'The Miraculous Mandarin', rather than the more frequently performed suite, for only this captures the full mystery, mayhem and downright weirdness of Bartok's once-scandalous ballet. The action includes prostitution, extortion, murder and a supernatural Mandarin who will not die until his sexual desire is fulfilled. Bartok's music is as sinister and grotesque as the action demands, opening with scurrying strings, shrieking winds and rasping brass. The Toronto players' articulation is clear and sharp but Gimeno underplays the drama - it all sounds a little too civilized. The final wordless chorus from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is accurate but not sinister enough. This is music that should raise goosebumps and neck hairs in the listener. Listen to Bartok disciple Antal Dorati's recordings, the digital Decca with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or, even better, the phenomenally incisive Mercury Living Presence analogue with the LSO to hear how disturbing and eerie this music should sound. Gimeno fares better with the 'Concerto for Orchestra' but the Toronto players, especially the wind, can't match the finest recordings, Dorati and Boulez, but the brass section's raspberry in the Intermezzo was enjoyable. The disc has a bonus of a short ecological tone poem 'the sediments' by digital technology composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel, which is pleasanter and less forbidding than that description suggests.
No single survey of Mahler's symphonies, the most disparate musically diverse traversal by any of the great composers, can be the last word on their interpretation and performance. Seasoned collectors will all have favourite individual performances that offer something special, uniquely capturing the essence of a particular work, one that becomes a benchmark in judging others. My own, for example, is Leonard Bernstein's second recording of No.6, with the Vienna Philharmonic, released in 1989 the year before the conductor's death, in which every abyss of despair and cry of anger is palpable. Yet there is something very satisfying in a complete set of Mahler symphonies played by the same orchestra under the same conductor and making the long musical journey with them from the burgeoning wonder and joy of nature in No.1 to the resignation and acceptance of mortality in No.9's great final Adagio. Such a set needs fine playing, a perceptive and sensitive conductor to cope with Mahler's myriad and rapidly changing moods, audio engineering able to capture the huge dynamic range of the works and also teamwork, players and conductor committed to a singular vision. This set has all that. It's the culmination of work that began in 2018 when Semyon Bychkov became Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic beginning his tenure with a performance of Symphony No.2 'Resurrection'. The 2023 recording here is a splendid one with Christiane Karg (soprano) and Elisabeth Kulman (alto) impassioned soloists with the Prague Philharmonic Choir impressive in the quietest passages, articulation always crisp, with the sound expanding impressively for the jubilant heaven-ascending climax. The sound quality is aided by the excellent acoustics of the orchestra's home the Rudolfinum concert hall, and it highlights on the set's main attractions - the quality of the orchestra's wind players. Bohemia was always known for the quality of its wind players, think of Mozart's and Dvorak's delight in them, and they are a joy to hear. Praise also for the technical team who mastered the recording on a single (86:52) disc a feat they repeated for Symphony No 6 (85.56), No. 7 (78.39) and No.9 (86.57), so no more distracting disc-swapping required, although oddly the same was not done for No.8. Consistency is a quality of this set if you enjoy Bychkov's approach to one, primarily lyrical and with no exaggeration or tempo extremes (as in later Bernstein) and then all nine will bring you pleasure. The wind section's qualities make Symphonies 1-4 particularly enjoyable, the rustling, twittering sounds of nature vividly rendered. Not every target is hit. No.1's famous musical collision between the mock funeral march and tipsy klezmer band sounds a little under-characterized when listening to Bernstein's Concertgebouw recording and Solti's 1960s LSO version. Competition? Three of the best complete sets by Haitink (Concertgebouw), Tennstedt (LPO) and Boulez (Cleveland and Vienna) have been deleted. Of those that remain Rattle suffers from an underpowered No.6 (with movements in the wrong order) and a limp No.3 while Gergiev (LSO) is brutal, crude and claustrophobically recorded. Bernstein's New York set has many merits (a great No.4) but he never recorded a studio No.8 (the live version is patchy). Anyone who wants an impressively recorded, well conducted and played set emphasizing beauty, rather than existential exploration, needs look no further than this handsomely boxed one.
Bartok: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Gimeno (TSO CD) ★★★
Two of Bartok's finest works get strong and colourful performances under the orchestra's Music Director Gustavo Gimeno. He rightly opts for the complete score of 'The Miraculous Mandarin', rather than the more frequently performed suite, for only this captures the full mystery, mayhem and downright weirdness of Bartok's once-scandalous ballet. The action includes prostitution, extortion, murder and a supernatural Mandarin who will not die until his sexual desire is fulfilled. Bartok's music is as sinister and grotesque as the action demands, opening with scurrying strings, shrieking winds and rasping brass. The Toronto players' articulation is clear and sharp but Gimeno underplays the drama - it all sounds a little too civilized. The final wordless chorus from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is accurate but not sinister enough. This is music that should raise goosebumps and neck hairs in the listener. Listen to Bartok disciple Antal Dorati's recordings, the digital Decca with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or, even better, the phenomenally incisive Mercury Living Presence analogue with the LSO to hear how disturbing and eerie this music should sound. Gimeno fares better with the 'Concerto for Orchestra' but the Toronto players, especially the wind, can't match the finest recordings, Dorati and Boulez, but the brass section's raspberry in the Intermezzo was enjoyable. The disc has a bonus of a short ecological tone poem 'the sediments' by digital technology composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel, which is pleasanter and less forbidding than that description suggests.
Donizetti Songs Volume 7: Rosa Feola & Carlo Rizzi (Opera Rara CD) ★★★★★
If any classical music award in recent years has been justly deserved it must surely be that for Opera Rara's outstanding series of recordings of Donizetti's songs which has now reached its seventh, and penultimate, volume. In February Opera Rara won the Oper! Awards 'The Best Complete Edition' prize at the ceremony in Germany. The conductor Carlo Rizzi, who has been the main piano partner for the series, said, "This Donizetti Song Project has truly been one of the most rewarding projects I have ever been part of." At last month's International Classical Music Awards Volumes 5 and 6 were named winners of the Vocal Category. Volume 7 therefore has a lot to live up to: fear not, it does. The choice of songs has again been curated by the label's Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker who spent two years tracing Donizetti’s complete output of nearly 200 solo songs. The 25 songs here, in a generous programme lasting 86 minutes, date from the 1820s during Donizetti's time in Paris. Rosa Feola's light, flexible lyric soprano is a perfect fit for the songs: top notes are hit cleanly without a sense of strain, vocal decorations are discreet and apt, the fioritura twinkles enticingly and she varies the florid ornamentation of 'Del Giordano in sulle sponde' so that they never become tiresome. In Song 22 'Io son farfalla e volo' Feola pulls off a stunning double: she is the title character "Io son farfalla e volo" (I am a butterfly and I fly) and, in the second half, the lovelorn poet for whom the butterfly is the symbol of his lost love. Rizzi is no mere accompanist, when Donizetti included surprising modulations and sleight-of-hand tricks Rizzi ensures we never miss them, as in Donizetti's spicy harmonies for the exotic 'La zingara Fra l’erbe cosparse' with Feola as the gypsy palm-reader who laments 'Oh! if only he could read my heart in his hand!' Volume 7 is as handsomely presented as always in this series, with full texts and translations, extensive background notes and illustrations.
'A Moment in Time': Christian Blackshaw (Pentatone CD) ★★
The British pianist Christian Blackshaw's album of Schubert's 4 Impromptus D.899 and the composer's final piano sonata in B flat D.960 is one that will divide opinion. His approach is delicate, sensitive and, at times even reticent. This is certainly the case in his performance of the sonata which in an interview in 2023 he admits that for twenty years he did not play it in public, feeling it be "sacred". A pianist is wise to approach this monumental work with due respect but Blackshaw seems so much in awe that it inhibits the work's drama and dynamism. This reverential attitude and perhaps age, Blackshaw is now 77-years-old, means that tempos are slow bordering on sluggish. Unlike Brendel, for example, he rightly takes the repeats in the opening movement of D.960 and adheres to the "Molto moderato" direction, so that his 22.25 is not that much slower than Steven Kovacevich (20.07) but there is a world of difference in their dynamics and the way Kovacevich highlight's Schubert's surprising and disconcerting harmonic changes which Blackshaw smoothes out. He prefers celestial calm to emotional storms. That diminution of contrast is evident at the start of Impromptu No.1 in C minor where Schubert, as played Brendel and Perahia, startles listeners with the loud opening chords and surprises them with succeeding very hushed ones, but there's not the same impact from Blackshaw. The disc is well recorded but that only highlights what many will find to be the shortcomings of Blackshaw's interpretations.
'Rise Heart' Vaughan Williams: Roderick Williams, William Vann, Sacconi Quartet (Albion Records) ★★★★
The great British baritone Roderick Willams singing Vaughan Williams is surely a match made in heaven, a judgement confirmed by this disc. The programme opens with 'Five Mystical Songs' performed here in by solo voice accompanied by piano, string quartet and double bass, one of the many arrangements sanctioned by the composer, rather than the more familiar orchestra-plus-chorus version. I find this all the better for it allows us to focus on Williams' voice, the clarity of diction and his ability to find nuances and subtle touches throughout. In 'Love Bade Me Welcome', for example, he makes the narrator's change from initial reticence 'yet my soul drew back' to his acceptance of Love's invitation to dine, 'So I did sit and eat', a miniature spiritual journey. The support from pianist William Vann, the Sacconi Quartet and bassist Levi Andreassen, is excellent, with warmth and clarity provided by the acoustic of St. George’s Church London. Williams and Vann perform two settings of Christina Rosetti poems 'When I am Dead, My Dearest' and 'Dreamland', usually sung by a female singer, capturing the Pre-Raphaelite romanticism without becoming twee. Williams is a skilled arranger and occasional composer and in his own arrangement of 'Eight Folk Songs', with Vann and the Sacconi Quartet he Williams strikes a satisfying balance between musical sophistication - folks singers didn't have strings quartets at their disposal - and the songs' innate simplicity. The disc is completed by a setting of 'Willow Wood' by Christina's brother the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Texts are included in the booklet of this highly recommended disc.
If any classical music award in recent years has been justly deserved it must surely be that for Opera Rara's outstanding series of recordings of Donizetti's songs which has now reached its seventh, and penultimate, volume. In February Opera Rara won the Oper! Awards 'The Best Complete Edition' prize at the ceremony in Germany. The conductor Carlo Rizzi, who has been the main piano partner for the series, said, "This Donizetti Song Project has truly been one of the most rewarding projects I have ever been part of." At last month's International Classical Music Awards Volumes 5 and 6 were named winners of the Vocal Category. Volume 7 therefore has a lot to live up to: fear not, it does. The choice of songs has again been curated by the label's Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker who spent two years tracing Donizetti’s complete output of nearly 200 solo songs. The 25 songs here, in a generous programme lasting 86 minutes, date from the 1820s during Donizetti's time in Paris. Rosa Feola's light, flexible lyric soprano is a perfect fit for the songs: top notes are hit cleanly without a sense of strain, vocal decorations are discreet and apt, the fioritura twinkles enticingly and she varies the florid ornamentation of 'Del Giordano in sulle sponde' so that they never become tiresome. In Song 22 'Io son farfalla e volo' Feola pulls off a stunning double: she is the title character "Io son farfalla e volo" (I am a butterfly and I fly) and, in the second half, the lovelorn poet for whom the butterfly is the symbol of his lost love. Rizzi is no mere accompanist, when Donizetti included surprising modulations and sleight-of-hand tricks Rizzi ensures we never miss them, as in Donizetti's spicy harmonies for the exotic 'La zingara Fra l’erbe cosparse' with Feola as the gypsy palm-reader who laments 'Oh! if only he could read my heart in his hand!' Volume 7 is as handsomely presented as always in this series, with full texts and translations, extensive background notes and illustrations.
'A Moment in Time': Christian Blackshaw (Pentatone CD) ★★
The British pianist Christian Blackshaw's album of Schubert's 4 Impromptus D.899 and the composer's final piano sonata in B flat D.960 is one that will divide opinion. His approach is delicate, sensitive and, at times even reticent. This is certainly the case in his performance of the sonata which in an interview in 2023 he admits that for twenty years he did not play it in public, feeling it be "sacred". A pianist is wise to approach this monumental work with due respect but Blackshaw seems so much in awe that it inhibits the work's drama and dynamism. This reverential attitude and perhaps age, Blackshaw is now 77-years-old, means that tempos are slow bordering on sluggish. Unlike Brendel, for example, he rightly takes the repeats in the opening movement of D.960 and adheres to the "Molto moderato" direction, so that his 22.25 is not that much slower than Steven Kovacevich (20.07) but there is a world of difference in their dynamics and the way Kovacevich highlight's Schubert's surprising and disconcerting harmonic changes which Blackshaw smoothes out. He prefers celestial calm to emotional storms. That diminution of contrast is evident at the start of Impromptu No.1 in C minor where Schubert, as played Brendel and Perahia, startles listeners with the loud opening chords and surprises them with succeeding very hushed ones, but there's not the same impact from Blackshaw. The disc is well recorded but that only highlights what many will find to be the shortcomings of Blackshaw's interpretations.
'Rise Heart' Vaughan Williams: Roderick Williams, William Vann, Sacconi Quartet (Albion Records) ★★★★
The great British baritone Roderick Willams singing Vaughan Williams is surely a match made in heaven, a judgement confirmed by this disc. The programme opens with 'Five Mystical Songs' performed here in by solo voice accompanied by piano, string quartet and double bass, one of the many arrangements sanctioned by the composer, rather than the more familiar orchestra-plus-chorus version. I find this all the better for it allows us to focus on Williams' voice, the clarity of diction and his ability to find nuances and subtle touches throughout. In 'Love Bade Me Welcome', for example, he makes the narrator's change from initial reticence 'yet my soul drew back' to his acceptance of Love's invitation to dine, 'So I did sit and eat', a miniature spiritual journey. The support from pianist William Vann, the Sacconi Quartet and bassist Levi Andreassen, is excellent, with warmth and clarity provided by the acoustic of St. George’s Church London. Williams and Vann perform two settings of Christina Rosetti poems 'When I am Dead, My Dearest' and 'Dreamland', usually sung by a female singer, capturing the Pre-Raphaelite romanticism without becoming twee. Williams is a skilled arranger and occasional composer and in his own arrangement of 'Eight Folk Songs', with Vann and the Sacconi Quartet he Williams strikes a satisfying balance between musical sophistication - folks singers didn't have strings quartets at their disposal - and the songs' innate simplicity. The disc is completed by a setting of 'Willow Wood' by Christina's brother the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Texts are included in the booklet of this highly recommended disc.