Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases
Ondřej Kukal & Jiří Teml: Jan Fišer (violin), Czech Philharmonic / Jakob Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil (Animal Music CD) ★★★★★
Here's a fascinating find: two contemporary orchestral works, challenging, interesting, having direct emotional appeal and by composers who are, at least in Britain, virtually unknown. Kulak's Symphony No. 1 “With Glockenspiel”(Op. 15) (1999) has a tremendous opening full of foreboding and menace which reminded me of Nielsen at his most pugnacious. There are some amazingly deep, cavernous subterranean sounds as if Moby Dick were on the prowl in a murky ocean, accompanied by blisteringly fast timpani. Is this Captain Ahab and his ship in pursuit of the great white whale? I offer this description just to give you an idea of how dramatic, and potentially cinematic, the opening Andante Spiritoso movement is. The tinkling glockenspiel makes a consolatory, calm-after-the-storm entrance right at the end. The Allegro Energico follows a similar pattern with biting rhythms and repeated chords beaten out before the glockenspiel, the voice of conciliation and emotional turmoil recollected in tranquility, enters again. The final 'Epilog' is a slow march, very Mahlerian, in the spirit of that composer's ninth symphony. Kukal packs an enormous amount into 27 minutes, again bringing to mind Nielsen in his way of gaining maximum impact and depth with minimal posturing. The Czech Philharmonic under Jakob Hrůša gave a powerhouse performance capture in vivid live sound at the orchestra's home in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague. Tomáš Netopil took the barton for Jiří Teml's work 'Labyrinth of Memory' (2018) which, as the title indicates, is a Proustian plunge into the times past of the composer's life, with violinist Jan Fišer as a sort of musical guide, pointing us at the change of pace and direction. It's a meditative fey piece that takes several hearings to let it seep into one's mind, but it's worth the effort and the two works make for a stimulating at-home concert.
Mozart, 'The Four Horn Concertos': Martin Owen, Manchester Camerata / Takács-Nagy (Chandos CD) ★★★★
Mozart was the composer renowned above all others for his sense of humour; his letters are rife with jokes, both bawdy and slapstick. This relationship of ribald banter was continued in his friendship with Joseph Leutgeb who combined the unlikely dual careers as cheese merchant and virtuoso horn player. Despite the leg pulls Mozart recognized brilliant playing when he heard it and his dedication on the score of his Concerto No 2, K417 reads: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart took pity on Leutgeb, donkey, ox and simpleton, in Vienna 27 May 1783", was made in genuine affection and Leutgeb relished the joke. Martin Owen has all the assets to make this an outstanding disc having honed his skills as principal horn at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, and Haffner Wind Ensemble. In the booklet notes Owen writes: "In this recording, we have attempted to portray a more youthful vigour in the earlier works (indeed, of Joseph Leutgeb himself, for whom they were written) compared to the Concerto in D, in many ways a swan song for both soloist and composer, in which I hope our performance shows more depth of tone and a higher level of maturity." He does just that, showing imagination in his phrasing and elegance of tone and has excellent support from the chamber-sized Manchester Camerata under Gábor Takács-Nagy who had performed together in concert before this recording was made. If you want a beefier sound and more extrovert playing then the 1971 recording by Alan Civil, with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner is the one to go for, but Owen's interpretations offer great pleasure too.
Dvořák 'Slavonic Dances': Czech Philharmonic / Rattle (Pentatone CD) ★★★
Just over twenty years ago I purchased, with great anticipation, a CD set of Dvořák's wonderful, and still cruelly under-valued, last orchestral masterpieces, the four tone poems, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. They were a huge disappointment: where was the terror in 'The Noonday Witch', the shimmering romanticism of 'The Golden Spinning Wheel' or the shocking brutality of 'The Water Goblin'? The Berliners sounded unidiomatic, more Brahmsian than Bohemian, and Rattle was clearly not a natural Dvorak conductor. Anyone listening to recordings by Istvan Kertesz Rafael Kubelik could hear what was missing immediately. This disc of the two sets of the composer's 'Slavonic Dances' Op. 46 & Op.72, eight in each, is much better. Firstly the Czech orchestra have these dances in their regular repertoire and don't need to have the difference between a Sousedská and Skočná explained to them, and Rattle comes with an extra two decades of conducting experience. Newcomers to the music will find much to enjoy here but those who have heard the vintage sets of Kubelik and Szell, fiery, zestful and far more imaginative than Rattle, won't be swayed. Recording quality, slightly muffled despite being recorded in studio conditions, is no match Dohnanyi's Cleveland disc (Decca) or Pletnev's crystal clear Russian National Orchestra recording (DG). Listen to the latter's sizzling G minor furiant which makes Rattle's sound quite pedestrian.
Cimarosa, 'L'Italiana in Londra': Angela Vallone, Bianca Tognocchi, Theo Lebow, Frankfurter Opern-und Museumsorchester/ Hussain (Naxos 2CDs) ★★★★
In pop music terms Domenico Cimarosa was a one-hit wonder. He composed more than eighty operas but only one is regularly performed, his comic masterpiece 'Il matrimonio segreto' (The Secret Marriage) premiered in Vienna in 1793 in the presence of Emperor Leopold II. Naxos has an enterprising approach to operatic rarities, recording them live and releasing them on both DVD and compact disc, giving us a chance to explore and discover if the worthy has been abandoned along with the worthless. Here we have the twelfth of his many operas and his first big success on its premiere in Rome in 1778, with productions then staged throughout Europe - this set captures its first modern production in Frankfurt in 2021. Was it worth the wait? Well it's not Mozart (obviously) but it's a fun romp, with some good laughs, well structured ensembles aided by some fine singing and zippy accompaniment from the orchestra under Leo Hussain, who directs from the fortepiano. Cimarosa set his opera buffa in a London hotel and our plucky soprano heroine Livia - Angela Vallone in fine voice - is in disguise as a maid while seeking the English Lord (warm-toned baritone Lurii Samoilov) who was exiled to Jamaica (don't ask!). There's plenty of comic confusion and revelations along the way with telling character contributions from Livia's employer Madama Brillante (Bianca Tognocchi) and a comedy star turn from Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner as Don Polidoro. An enjoyable musical excursion and well worth exploring.
'London circa 1760', JC Bach, CF Abel & Friends: La Rêveuse / Florence Bolton, Benjamin Perrot (Harmonia Mundi CD) ★★★★
Here's an enjoyable snapshot of musical life in mid-18th century London which saw the rise of public subscription concerts making music available to a wider audience and no longer the sole prerogative of the aristocracy. The leading series featured Johann Christian Bach - dubbed "English Bach" for his long association with the city - and Carl Friedrich Abel, organized at first by actress and entrepreneur Teresa Cornelys, another sign of the changing times. The two composers took over the organization after three years, the concerts finally settling at Hanover Square Rooms in 1775. The composers were good friends, and had been colleagues employed by Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Cöthen. This is the third disc by French band La Rêveuse taking a synoptic view of London's musical life and again there's plenty of variety in their choice of works. Abel was best known as viola da gamba virtuoso and his Concerto a Viola da Gamba Concertata in G Major (Arr. Thomas Fritzsch and Günter von Zadow after the Violoncello Concerto in B Flat-Major, WKO 52 and the Flute Concerto in C Major, WKO 51) is performed by soloist Florence Bolton, with Benjamin Perrot on archlute, the melancholy Adagio central movement is a particularly touching. There are two quartets, for flute, violin, viola and bass, one by Bach in D major and one by Abel in G major, which both have two lively movements, Bach's concluding Rondo drives forward vigorously at an Allegro assai tempo. The period was one of rapid change for instruments including the development of the larger English guitar, illustrated with Geminiani's two movement work in D minor. There are also works by Erskine, Straube and a novelty for musical glasses by Ann Ford. Playing and recording quality is first rate.
Sir Michael Tippett: 'A Child of Our Time': Nadine Benjamin (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Kenneth Tarver (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), London Adventist Chorale, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir / Edward Gardner (LPO CD) ★★★★★
Tippett began this powerful work on September 3 1939, the day Great Britain declared war on Germany. That was the fuse that lit the musical powder keg that Tippett had been harbouring since reading about the Nazis' murderous onslaughts launched against the Jewish communities in Austria and Germany which became known as ‘Kristallnacht’. Tippett called 'A Child of Our Time' an oratorio, but it's a secular one and Tippett uses the Nazi atrocity not as the focus of the work but an instance of our perennial inhumanity to our fellow human beings: an archetype in the Jungian psychoanalysis Tippett had just finished a course in. Tippett wrote his own libretto but it is mercifully simpler, plainer and more concise than his tortuous opera libretti can sometimes be. He adds to the universality of his theme by using five African-American Spirituals interspersed throughout. The work has been fortunate on disc, there isn't one recording that's without merit and there are many very fine ones of which this live recording at Royal Festival Hall in 2022 is one. Edward Gardner knows Tippett's music well, he recorded an outstanding concert recording with the LPO of Tippett's opera 'The Midsummer Marriage', and he is an assured hand for the ebb and flow of Tippett's music aided by top-notch choral work and an impressive quartet of soloists. The baritone not only sings, as Roderick Williams does in the spiritual ‘Go down, Moses’, but also narrates and the listener always feels secure in his authoritative presence. I was very taken with Brixton-born soprano Nadine Benjamin in the spiritual ‘Steal away’ she is nigh-on perfect.