Roman Epics

I've been a little defensive about having so many recordings by Herbert von Karajan in my collection ( because of the critical hammering that Karajan habitually gets these days as both a musician and as a man) explained by the record club special offers in the early days of my classical collecting. I still find most of them to be acceptable recordings of core repertoire and a few to be outstanding because of the sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker. This is in fact the final such offering to come off the shelf, a disk mainly of music by Respighi featuring the Fountains of Rome, the Pines of Rome and Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute ( which are orchestrated lest there be any confusion ). Both the Fountains and the Pines are programmatic works with strong narratives behind each section and they are showpiece tone poems. Respighi doesn't have any overtly Italianate style, being in a more general European tradition, but he was a master orchestrator. Karajan was no early music authentic instrument practitioner, so the anachronistic orchestrations of the lute pieces are to his taste. The disk is filled out by Boccherini's Procession of the Military Night Watch in Madrid, a quintettino that follows logically from the Respighi lute arrangements, and by what to me is a largely redundant plod through of Giazotto's take on the "Albinoni Adagio" with an organ part taken by Wolfgang Meyer.

Works That Need No Defending

I have a few issues with Sir Roger Norrington as a conductor. His evangelical and fundamentalist approach to banning vibrato ( I've always been a creature of compromise and moderation ) and some of his more ingratiating behaviour on the podium. But I am prepared to forget about all that for the wonderful introduction he writes in the booklet notes to this cd in which he pays tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams. The entire piece would bear repeating but a couple of snippets; following an anecdote about the eighty year old VW kissing all the female members of the cast of Sir John In Love prior to going home on the underground, Norrington writes that "these were important clues to the composer as well as to the man who was passionate and idealistic, a natural socialist and man of the people; a marvellously individual composer who just happened to be English but chose his tonalities as freely as Debussy and Ravel and his rhythms as deftly as Stravinsky and Bartok; he may have worn tweed and liked cream buns but his soul was ablaze with glory, pity and anger; he was the greatest man I am ever likely to meet." I quote these remarks at length here since the disk in question is of Symphony No 5 and Symphony No 3 ( Pastoral ) performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Norrington and the two symphonies most likely to be pilloried with the ill considered "cow looking over a gate" criticism. The packaging can't resist a cover photograph of rolling English countryside but to any careful listener it is clear that the symphonies concern much more than a nostalgic depiction of a fading era. And anyway, what's wrong with a little beautiful and evocative orchestral scoring ? Happily, I think a stage has been reached when it is no longer necessary to defend aspects of VW's output from these criticisms.

It's Almost That Time Of Year

I've posted about quite a lot of Stravinsky's music on this blog but finally it's time for the most famous. But because The Rite Of Spring is such a famous piece with such a familiar tale about the premiere, it does make it hard to think of what's worth saying about it here. Well, I can start by saying that it is given a very fine performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati in good modern sound with plenty of the drive and passion that the piece needs and to my mind perfectly judged tempos, another crucial aspect. Of course it was originally composed as ballet music, it was given controversial choreography by Nijinsky, there was a riot ( of sorts ) at the premiere, it concerns ancient pagan fertility rites announcing the ending of winter and the beginning of spring through a young virgin dancing herself to a sacrificial death. So much so familiar but I think it remains a unique piece, the culmination of Stravinsky's three great youthful ballet scores and although steeped in a feeling of Russia it remains outside the tradition. As opposed to the other work on the disk, Firebird, which is the first of the three great ballet scores, is a very fine work but retains noticeable links with the school of Rimsky-Korsakov etc. It surprises me when people talk about what can be done to introduce a younger generation to classical music ( a generation so used to pounding rhythms ) that the obvious visceral attractions of the Rite aren't more widely suggested.

A Journey To the Darkest Realms

A work of central core repertoire that has taken a while to have its' turn off the shelf. Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6, Pathetique, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The Pathetique is another of those works that has much myth making surrounding it, partially because of the nature of the music but mainly because of the circumstances of the proximity of the premiere to the composer's death under possibly dubious circumstances. There is no denying the utter bleakness of the closing movement which seems to signify nothing other than total disillusionment, despair and defeat. Other of his works including earlier symphonies had fate motifs associated with them but the sixth uses fate more subtly as a means of painting a wholly pessimistic view of life. The finale is all the more surprising coming as it does after movements that contain much typical Tchaikovskian melody and elegance. Much has been made of whether or not Tchaikovsky's death was a kind of semi suicide but it is interesting to ponder how he might have followed on from the sixth symphony if he had been granted an extended creative life. The lush sound of Karajan's Berlin Phil works well for me in this work, Karajan does bleakness pretty well, in Metamorphosen for instance. The work also raises questions about listening to such naked pain portrayed in music for purposes of relaxation and entertainment. But music can convey so many moods and experiences and this is but one of them.

The Suitabilty Of Voices

And more repertoire duplication on this BBC Music mag cover disk which features two settings of the Stabat Mater, the one by Pergolesi of which I have a magnificent recording and one by Domenico Scarlatti that I don't otherwise have. The pergolesi is performed here by The Choristers of New College Oxford and the Academy of Ancient Music ( leader Pauline Nobes ) directed by Edward Higginbottom. I have to admit that I find the boys voices totally unsuitable in this work, they lack the life experience for the subject matter musical tradition for the Baroque settings. The Scarlatti version is performed by the BBC Singers directed by Harry Christophers with solo contributions from soprano Elizabeth Poole and tenor Neil NacKenzie. The instrumental backing is provided by small forces; David Miller ( theorbo ), Frances Kelly ( baroque harp ) and Gary Cooper ( organ continuo ). Not as melodically memorable as the Pergolesi, it is nevertheless the more satisfactory in this instance because of the maturity of the singers.

From Romantic To Ironic

With the passage of time, it becomes inevitable that the monthly BBC Music mag cover disks will produce more duplications in repertoire in my collection and that is the case here with this offering from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. The centre piece of the disk is Brahms Symphony No 1 and a good solid performance it is too. There are two brief makeweights on the disk of music that I do not otherwise have. It begins with Schumann's Faust Overture to his oratorio like work scenes From Goethe's Faust, which concentrated on the final part of Faust's redemption. The overture was in fact written after the main work and often forms a short concert piece with its' depiction of intense inner struggle. The final work on the disk is Kleine Sinfonie by Hanns Eisler. Eisler was a lifelong Marxist and being born Jewish at the turn of the 20th century in Leipzig, those factors condemned him to a wandering life lived variously in the USSR and the USA. He was a one time pupil of Schoenberg and also involved with Brecht and wrote works ranging from strict 12-note method compositions to film scores. Expelled from the USA by McCarthyism, he settled in East Germany where he became an important figure in musical life in that neglected era. The Kleine Sinfonie is short but embraces 12 note methodology in a parodic style with Shostakovichian irony and cartoonish elements.

Not Damned By Faint Praise

It sounds like damning with faint praise to describe this as a very pleasant record but there is a place in life for small pleasures and beautiful sounds that can be appreciated without too much stenuous thought. The disk in question is a budget release titled Five Italian Oboe Concertos and these are played by the Peterborough String Orchestra under the direction of the oboe soloist Nicholas Daniel. The Peterborough ensemble may not be among the world's most stellar groups but they are representative of the sterling work done by many provincial outfits around the world, not only in England. The playing here is fine and provides good accompaniment to Daniel, a former BBC Young Musician of the year winner. Daniel plays a modern oboe in these performances but writes about how his playing has been informed by period instrument practitioners. The composers whose concertos are featured here mainly straddle the 17th and 18th centuries ( Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello and Cimarosa ) with only Bellini straying into the early part of the 19th. I am very fond of the sound of the oboe in any repertoire but especially in the baroque. Maybe a full disk is a little too much of a confection but the sunshine sound goes down well for stress free afternoon listening.