In the Overture and Incidental Music to William Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Felix Mendelssohn brings the illustrious company of elves, lovers’ passions and the solitude of the forest or a moonlit night to musical life. It became a model for other literary reflections in music like Peter Tchaikovsky’s ‘Manfred Symphony.’ It’s four movements- or “images,” as the composer himself named them- capture the world-weariness of George Byron’s ‘Manfred: A Dramatic Poem’ in music. Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra awaken the musical imagery of both works in a colorful, fresh, and enchanting performance. This release was recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzem, Lucerne Festival in August of 2017.

Also available on Blu-ray

MEMORIAL CONCERT FOR CLAUDIO ABBADO

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica”: II. Marcia funebre*

Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759, “Unfinished”: I. Allegro moderato

Friedrich Hölderlin: Brod und Wein

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor: VI. Adagio

Isabelle Faust, violin
Bruno Ganz, narrator

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
*Claudio Abbado, conductor
Andris Nelsons, conductor

Recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern, August 2013
(Beethoven) and 6 April 2014 (all except Beethoven)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 98 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

TENNSTEDT CONDUCTS MAHLER AND MOZART

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, “Haffner”

Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt, conductor

Recorded at Symphony Hall, Boston, 15 January 1977

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Enhanced Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Running time: 77 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:



MAHLER Symphony No. 4. MOZART Symphony No. 35, “Haffner” • Klaus Tennstedt, cond; Boston SO; Phyllis Bryn-Julson (sop) • ICA 5072 (DVD: 77:56) Live: Boston 1/15/1977


I wonder how many readers recall Klaus Tennstedt’s early years in the U.S. … how exciting they were, how he upset the balance of acknowledged great conductors, the brilliance of his interpretations, his wonderful imagination in phrasing and accents. He was like no one else then performing; even a critic with as narrow tastes as B. H. Haggin came under his spell. A group of well-off concertgoers banded together, called themselves “The Klausketeers,” and followed him around the country, going to his performances in Boston, New York, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.


This DVD returns us to those wonderful days of yesteryear. The Lone Tennstedt rides again!


All kidding aside, it’s so wonderful to see Tennstedt on the podium again. His expressive and somewhat strange movements, often likened to a marionette on acid, were natural extensions of his personality. As with Carlos Kleiber, there was no artifice, no pretense, no “look at me I’m wonderful” in Tennstedt’s makeup. He was so much what Toscanini would have called “an honest musician.” I was privileged to meet and interview him in the early 1980s, and was so much in awe of him that I almost choked up asking him questions. But he was gracious, and warm, and talked less about himself than about his recent discovery that the final dynamic mark on the last note of Schubert’s great C-Major symphony was really a diminuendo and not a con forza . He was that true rarity, a modest genius, and in the end the pressures of international fame were not for him. He began to measure his present performances against his great successes of the past, and eventually this form of competing with himself, in addition to his battle with cancer, ate him up from the inside out.


Tennstedt’s Mahler Fourth is completely typical of his style: Incorporating a great many contrasts, not only of dynamics but also of phrasing, he begins the symphony with a languorous tempo and a rallentando in the upward portamento string passage, then suddenly increases the tempo when the clarinets enter. The rest of the movement is played in much the same unexpected way, with that wonderful undercurrent of intensity that only Tennstedt could bring to bear on Mahler in his time (and which only Francis Xavier Roth brings to it nowadays).


Oddly, the visual quality of this release seems a little out of focus, or at least in soft focus. The sound quality is also unexpectedly roomy, or boomy, compared to the BSO telecasts with Munch and Steinberg, and in this symphony director David Atwood apparently wanted to show off his multiple camera angles. Every time the sleigh bells are heard, one sees the percussionist—who looks like a CPA on loan from H & R Block—prosaically tapping them. There are other split-screen effects showing the violins in the lower left quadrant, the clarinets in the upper right, another with the strings on the left and a solo horn on the right. Sometimes it works; other times (as in repeated shots of the same boring percussionist) it seems perfunctory.


But there is nothing perfunctory about this performance. Like so many Tennstedt concerts of this period it takes wing and flies—levitates at times—and there was no one who could touch him when he was “on,” not in Mahler, not in Beethoven, not even in Mozart. After his Saturday afternoon radio broadcast of Fidelio from the Metropolitan Opera in 1980, I spoke to two of the cast members whose general impression was one of immense respect and awe. “He really knows his stuff,” one of the principal basses told me. For all his self-effacing modesty, Tennstedt in rehearsal could be quite as demanding as Rodzinski or Toscanini—when he desperately wanted a certain effect, he was not above yelling at the players until he got it—but it was always to serve the music, never to serve Klaus Tennstedt.


The soprano soloist here, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, comes out on stage just before the third movement. I’ve seen it done like that before, but it breaks up the mood a bit. Luckily, Tennstedt in those years could pick up his mood from where he left off, so that the long third movement (which he takes more than 20 minutes to play) is simply heavenly in its lyric expressiveness. It’s disconcerting to see the musicians playing as if they were bored while the listening experience reveals so much feeling, nuance, and detail. Only a few of the musicians, usually those in the back rows, appear to be wrapped up in the performance, but the proof is in the playing, and there’s nothing prosaic about it. (In this movement, director Atwood really outdoes himself in silliness, giving us a split-screen image of Tennstedt from two different angles, front-and-center on the left, on an angle facing the orchestra on the right. We also get the winds playing “around” the solo horn, who is filmed separately and set off by a diamond-shaped inset. Give me a break!)


At the conclusion of the third movement, the earlier arrival of the soprano becomes clear, since the fourth movement begins without pause. Bryn-Julson was a favorite singer in Boston in those years; she had a good voice, if not a particularly distinctive one; she doesn’t sound as young or light-voiced as the music demands, but within her limitations she sings it very well with a finer legato than Judith Blegen (on the classic James Levine recording). Tennstedt has the right measure of the music: light and airy in the lyric sections, almost frantic in the wind outbursts. Strangely, the applause is not terribly enthusiastic. Perhaps this particular audience didn’t “get” Mahler, or was disappointed for some strange reason.


As mentioned in the liner notes, Tennstedt’s Mozart is “slightly old-school but never heavy.” Listeners must perhaps be reminded that the innovations of Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, and Jaap ter Linden were all far in the future; even Nikolaus Harnoncourt was conducting Mozart, into the early 1980s, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and with much slower tempos than Tennstedt takes here. This was the vanguard of Mozart performances in his time. Tennstedt eschews the more pronounced rubato that Toscanini used in the first movement during the 1930s; in fact, this performance has some of the same drive and forward momentum as Toscanini’s NBC Symphony performance, only with much finer sound. Here we also have a different TV director, Russ Fortier (why would the BSO use two different directors for the same concert?). Some of the same split-screen effects are used, but not as overdone as in the Mahler. As I rather suspected, the applause for the Mozart is far more enthusiastic than for the Mahler, almost deafening in fact.


If you are a fan of Tennstedt, you cannot be without this DVD. If you want to see and hear what was so wonderful about Tennstedt, this is also the place to start. This man, like a handful of conductors before him, was one in a thousand. We shall not see his like again.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have already acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed his monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare. About the final movement the composer said: “The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.” The painting "Morgenrot" was chosen by internationally acclaimed artist Neo Rauch to feature on the cover of this release on DVD and Blu-ray.
Recorded live at Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 17 and 18 May 2011.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French
Running time: 95 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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Having reviewed a slew of Twos on CD over the past few months I decided I had to make room for this much-lauded Blu-ray from Leipzig. Recorded as part of the 2011 International Mahler Festival it’s one of two video recordings from that event – the other is Chailly’s Mahler Eight – available on both DVD and Blu-ray. Up until now EuroArts has had something of a monopoly on this repertoire, having given us most of the Abbado cycle from Lucerne and the Boulez Mahler 2 from Berlin. Despite some technical issues with the Abbado Blu-rays, it’s a fine collection and a worthy companion to Leonard Bernstein’s quirky set of DVDs from Universal.

As far as the Resurrection itself is concerned, I’ve always felt it one of Abbado’s weaker efforts, on both CD and video, and I have some misgivings about the Boulez DVD as well. The Bernstein – recorded in Ely Cathedral in 1972 – is vintage Lenny, but the dizzying camerawork is a major distraction. Some viewers may also object to his jittery podium presence, but for sheer exaltation Bernstein is in a class of his own. Interpretatively, the video outshines his later, audio-only remake for DG, by which time creeping self-indulgence overwhelms all insight. By contrast, Riccardo Chailly’s Decca CD set is much more sensible which, for me at least, all too often means dull. Will this live performance from Leipzig be any different, I wonder?

First impressions are very favourable; from the conductor’s slashing downbeat to the final, dying note of the first movement one is cosseted by playing – and sonics – of rare elegance and beauty. Chailly adopts sensible speeds and tempo relationships are nicely judged; the almost holographic sound – in stereo at least – really brings out the sting of cymbals and bray of brass. As for the woodwinds, they’re immaculate, timps crisp and powerful, the harps finely etched. And all the while there’s a pleasing sense of progress, the music artfully shaped without seeming self-consciously so. The camerawork is discreet and intuitive, visuals the epitome of clarity and naturalness.

A cracking start, then, and the most sense-sating Mahler video I’ve yet encountered. Textures are rendered with great subtlety, and despite the relative intimacy of the angular auditorium there’s plenty of room for the music to grow and blossom, everything from ppp to sfz easily accommodated. And listen out for those dark, barely audible tam-tam strokes, just some of the many ear-caressing moments that permeate this performance. True, there’s no risk-taking here, but there are no mannered, self-regarding gestures either. Chailly is admirably ‘straight’, old fashioned even, and yet his reading is full of unexpected charm and character.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the beautifully calibrated Andante; dance rhythms are deftly done, Mahler’s gentle pizzicati miracles of finesse and feeling. This really is a most distinguished orchestra, the chromium-plated delivery of the Lucerners – impressive as it is – no match for the rich, woody patina that comes with age and tradition. And lest one think this band is too cultured for its own good the Scherzo is full of animation and, in a moment of pure theatre, that final beat of the gong is allowed to resonate for what seems like ages.

Mezzo Sarah Connolly’s ‘Urlicht’, infinitely varied, is an absolute joy, the warmth and ease of her singing a perfect fit in this most cultured company. As for Chailly, his restraint is most welcome here, every last nuance and change of metre well caught; as a result of this reticence, the orchestral detonations of the last half-hour or so are all the more seismic. At times it seems as if the music is coming from the very bowels of the earth – apt, given the impending arrival of the Last Trump and the pit-like design of the auditorium – the soft-grained chorus rising above the tumult.

Chailly may not have the galvanising energy of his rivals at this point, but his broad, unhurried pace engenders a thrill of its own. Soprano Christiane Oelze’s steely, but steady, tones are a decent foil to Connolly’s more rounded ones, and I’ve rarely heard the choirs’ ‘Bereite dich’ delivered with such hope and trepidation. Once or twice, the playing is a tad untidy, but that’s forgivable under the circumstances. Chailly’s habit of holding back really pays dividends in the closing pages where, as Donne would have it, the all-embracing sound seems to emanate from the ‘round earth’s imagin’d corners’. The brass scythes through the mix – as it should do – and the organ adds plenty of heft; as for the bells and tam-tams, they’re just sensational, every strand of the score delivered with clarity and punch.

Dull this ‘Resurrection’ most certainly isn’t, and I came away from it with renewed admiration for maestro Chailly. There’s so much to cherish in this performance, from the burnished playing and deeply felt singing to the fine picture and unrivalled sound. Indeed, if I were awarding stars for sonics this would easily be a five out of five; it’s every bit as immersive as the Decca Blu-ray of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which I reviewed last year. Purely as a performance – and I’m thinking of recent CDs as well – Chailly’s is a thoroughly satisfying alternative to those visceral, more urgent accounts from Jonathan Nott, James Levine and Simone Young; but if we’re talking DVD or Blu-ray, this newcomer sweeps the board.

-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

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Recorded live at Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 17 and 18 May 2011.

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French
Running time: 95 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

Also available on Blu-ray

Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra
Soloists: Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher

Gustav Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Twelve Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"

“Boulez’s Mahler has surely gained a degree of intensity over the years. Rather than sacrificing his legendary intellectual rigor, he has wedded it to a profound visceral understanding of this music.” -- WCLV classical FM

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages.

Bonus:
- Interview with Pierre Boulez

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 88 mins

Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO first performed in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts. The TROCKS, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker, and combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice, established the Company as an artistic and popular success. By mid 1975, the TROCKS' inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach, and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, was being noted beyond New York. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the Company nationally and internationally known. The original concept of LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO has not changed. It is a Company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts--heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst-ridden Victorian ladies--enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audiences. For the future, there are plans for new works in the repertoire: new cities, states and countries to perform in; and for the continuation of the TROCKS' original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience. They will, as they have done for thirty four years, 'Keep on Trockin'.' Bonus: « behind the scene » Format: 16/9 Sound: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.0 DTS 5.0

The Last Night of the Proms is one of the most famous musical events in the world,watched and listened to by millions. It celebrates British tradition and encapsulates the unique spirit of the BBC Proms, by featuring leading international artists in an all-embracing musical programme that introduces new works alongside much-loved classics. In 2000 Sir Andrew Davis made his final appearance at the helm of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was joined on stage by the outstanding young American violinist Hilary Hahn, and the internationally renowned British soprano Jane Eaglen. A world premiere was also given of a recently discovered piece of Shostakovich to make this finale of the BBC Proms 2000 a memorable celebration of the world's greatest classical music festival.

‘A fulsome farewell to Andrew Davis’s 11-year tenure as the Proms conductor par excellence.’ -- Gramophone

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Handel’s oratorio Saul is taken from the First Book of Samuel, and focuses on the first king of Israel’s relationship with David, his eventual successor, which eventually leads to his demise. The three act work with libretto by Charles Jennens premiered in January 1739, and was an immediate success. This production directed by Barrie Kosky was recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Lewes, October 2015. It was ranked by The Independent amongst five top opera and classical performances of 2015. “Musically this evening is well-nigh flawless.” (The Independent) “A theatrical and musical feast of energetic choruses, surreal choreography and gorgeous singing.” (The Guardian)

Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean
Sound Formats: 2.0 LPCM, 5.1 (5.0) DTS
Running Time 185 mins
Region Code: 0 (All)

SIR NEVILLE MARRINER and ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS

George Friedrich Handel:
Solomon, HWV 67: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Concerto Grosso in A major, Op. 6, No. 11, HWV 329

Ludwig van Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 133 (arr. N. Marriner)

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, “Italian”

Benjamin Britten: Les illuminations, Op. 18*

*Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, tenor
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Neville Marriner, conductor

Recorded from St John’s, Smith Square, London, 23–24 May 1974 (Handel), Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC Proms Concerts), 25 August 1975 (Beethoven), and 12 August 1983 (Mendelssohn, Britten)

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Enhanced Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 86 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

SIR NEVILLE MARRINER, ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS • Neville Marriner, cond; Acad of St. Martin in the Fields • ICA ICAD 5064 (DVD: 86:00) Live: London 1974, 1975, 1983

HANDEL Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. Concerto Grosso in A, op. 6/11. BEETHOVEN Grosse Fuge. MENDELSSOHN Symphony 4, “Italian.” BRITTEN Les Illuminations

I suppose most of us have by now become inured to the idea that “chamber” means one-to-a-part, especially in Baroque music, but even the music of later periods has been on a diet in recent years. It’s certainly cheaper that way, regardless of the accuracy of the assumption that this is somehow more “authenticke” than a more generous approach. Neville Marriner never felt it necessary to get on that bandwagon, even as he absorbed some of its performance discoveries, such as crisp articulation and fleeter speeds. This DVD, covering a decade of the ASMF’s 50-year career, shows how it was done.

Through its first dozen or so years, Marriner led from the first violinist’s chair, and we can see what happens in the two Handel pieces from 1974. The intensity of the concentration of all the players and the simple, even discreet, nods from Marriner that set them going are a lesson not in control but in collective expression. Handel’s Sheba was a favorite of Thomas Beecham, albeit heavily tarted up in full orchestral array. Marriner and the Academy take it as it is, and use their modern instruments with an awareness of what Handel might have heard without imaging that they are reproducing it. The queen’s arrival is joyful rather than stately. This is also true of the concerto grosso. The string playing is lean, but not timid. These two pieces were recorded by the BBC in the then-recently renovated St. John’s, Smith Square, and the space and the music are well captured. The passing autos and the evident passing time of day lend a quotidian flavor to the enterprise.

For some reason, Marriner thought it a good idea to realize Beethoven’s quartet movement, the Grosse Fuge , as a piece for small string orchestra. This performance, from a BBC Proms concert in 1975, does not make a strong case either for the band or the arrangement. It is, frankly, leaden and a bit sour.

This disappointment is wonderfully redeemed, however, in the following performance of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, in a Proms recording from 1983. Here, the lightness of touch we could hear 10 years earlier in the Handel comes alive again in Mendelssohn’s most buoyant music. This is, simply, a fine, well-balanced, even elegant, performance and is a pleasure to hear.

The same concert presented Britten’s orchestral song cycle Les Illuminations , sung by a clarion Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Singer, conductor, and orchestra are at one here in this gripping exploration of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetic world. But for one small niggle, this would go to the top of my list of performances of this piece, Britten and Pears notwithstanding. The niggle is the BBC’s sound, which favors the singer and puts the orchestra into a slightly hollow and opaque background. Why the group did not go into a studio the next day to record it properly is a mystery, but I am glad to have this version. As far as I can tell, this is the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson’s only recording of this piece, alas. Apart from the Beethoven, then, this all makes a fine program.

FANFARE: Alan Swanson

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

George Frideric Handel
ACIS AND GALATEA
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Galatea – Danielle de Niese (soprano) / Lauren Cuthbertson (dancer)
Acis – Charles Workman (tenor) / Edward Watson (dancer)
Damon – Paul Agnew (tenor) / Steven McRae (dancer)
Polyphemus – Matthew Rose (bass) / Eric Underwood (dancer)
Coridon – Ji-Min Park (soprano) / Paul Kay (dancer)

Royal Opera House Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Christopher Hogwood, conductor

Wayne McGregor, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 8 April, 2009.

Bonus:
- Illustrated synopsis
- Cast gallery
- Documentary – Staging Acis and Galatea

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English (bonus features only) / French, German, Spanish
Running time: 110 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

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HANDEL Acis and Galatea • Christopher Hogwood, cond; Danielle de Niese/Lauren Cuthbertson ( Galatea ); Charles Workman/Edward Watson ( Acis ); Paul Agnew/Steven McRae/Mellissa Hamilton ( Damon ); Ji-Min Park/Paul Kay ( Coridon ); Matthew Rose/Eric Underwood ( Polyphemus ); Royal Op Extra Cho & Ballet; O of the Age of Enlightenment (period instruments) • OPUSARTE BD7056 D (Blu-ray: 110:00) Live: Covent Garden 4/8/2009


As you can tell from the headnote, this production is double-cast (in one case, triple-cast), but not in the usual way; the first name listed for each character is that of the singer, and after that comes the name of the dancer(s) assigned to shadow or echo the actions and emotions of the character. It may sound contrived, but this actually is a marvelous way to amplify the text, and frankly to relieve the score of its sometimes static nature. Handel wrote Acis and Galatea as a masque, which for practical purposes today means a secular cantata stringing together da capo arias and a few choruses, and so he had no reason to fill in several important gaps in the action that would help explain character motivation or simply specify between numbers how we got from there to here. Acis doesn’t quite work as an opera, but this version directed and choreographed by Wayne McGregor makes the best case for its stageworthiness without resorting to musical interpolations.


Not much happens in the pastoral prologue, in which the river nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis make goo-goo eyes at each other, to the occasinal commentary of onlookers. Things go bad in the second half, where the jeaolous and volcanic Polyphemus eventually kills Acis; in best Ovidian fashion, the young man’s gushing blood is transformed into a river.


McGregor’s choreography fuses elements of ballet with hep Audrey Hepburn-style 1950s modern dance; the dancers, all of them excellent, do not so much act out what the singers are going on about as echo their emotions, although a few gestures do sometimes conform to specific words in the text. The cast is headed by Danielle de Niese, a fine Handel singer who also happens to look the part of a delectable nymph. In the role of Acis, however, Charles Workman’s singing is little better than, well, workmanlike—competent, but little more. Bass Matthew Rose is a rich-voiced Polyphemus, whose only fault is that he tends to miss the humor in his music (perhaps director McGregor wanted him to seem more threatening, which he certainly does). In their smaller roles, Paul Agnew and Ji-Min Park are very good, and it’s too bad Handel doesn’t give us a chance to hear more of them.


Hildegard Bechtler’s set starts off in traditional pastoral mode, but through the course of the performance gradually decays into dark abstraction as the lovers’ lives fall apart; her costumes for the singers are drawn more or less from the mid 20th-century English countryside, while the dancers wear slightly gussied-up bodysuits.


Christopher Hogwood leads typically crisp playing by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, although there’s more emotional nuance to be found in the audio-only performances under King (Hyperion), Gardiner (Archiv), and Christie (Erato, if you can find it). This version may not displace your CD favorite, but as an audio-visual presentation it’s perfectly good, and often better than that (especially when de Niese has the stage). There’s nothing out-of-the-ordinary to report about the high-definition video and audio quality; the total time in the headnote includes a bit more than 10 minutes of special features—a little documentary and the usual illustrated synopsis.


FANFARE: James Reel

Also available on Blu-ray

Rebellious servants, capricious lovers, cross-dressing farce, and a happy ending: the fast-paced action of this comic Baroque opera had all the ingredients to please the self-confessed "low-brow taste" of an Austro-German prince, who commissioned Giuseppe Scarlatti for a piece to celebrate his son’s wedding. This is the opera’s first revival in modern times, and it takes place in the very same Baroque theatre, impeccably restored to its original glory, which hosted the first performance. With a cast of young singers drawn from Prague’s National Theatre and a stylish period-instrument ensemble, this vivid reconstruction will delight audiences as much today as it did the aristocratic guests at Ceský Krumlov in 1768.

SCARLATTI, G.: Dove e amore e gelosia (National Theatre Prague, 2011)

Giuseppe Scarlatti
DOVE È AMORE È GELOSIA

Marquise Clarice – Lenka Máciková
Count Orazio – Aleš Briscein
Vespetta – Katerina Knežíková
Patrizio – Jaroslav Brezina
Servant – Bohumil Klepl
Marquise – Tat'ána Kupcová
Schwarzenberg Court Orchestra
Vojtech Spurný, conductor

Ondrej Havelka, stage director

Recorded live at The National Theatre, Prague, Summer 2011

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 138 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

G. SCARLATTI Dove è amore è gelosia & • Vojtech Spurný, cond; Lenka Máciková ( Marquise Clarice ); Ales Briscein ( Count Orazio ); Katerina Knežíková ( Vespetta ); Jaroslav Brezina ( Patrizio ); Schwarzenberg Court O • OPUS ARTE 1104 (DVD: 88:00 + 55:00) Live: Ceský Krunlov Baroque Theater, Czech Republic 2011


& Documentary


Although he’s credited as being the nephew of the far better known Domenico, it’s possible Giuseppe Scarlatti was his cousin instead. (The Scarlattis, like the Bachs, Couperins, Rameaus, and Hotteterres, were an extensive musical clan spanning several generations.) Regardless, he was a successful and well-considered operatic composer in the mid-18th century, best known for a host of opere serie setting texts by Metastasio. Here we’re given a two-act opera buffa that was originally commissioned for performance by Prince Joseph Adam zu Schwarzenberg, at his castle’s private theater in what is now Ceský Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Better still: it’s performed for us at the same castle theater, fully restored since 1989.


The title tells all. The work is about love and jealousy, constituted on two entirely separate social plains of nobility and servants. The book is nothing to write home about, but its situations are amusing, and its characters relatively consistent in behavior. The music is another matter. There’s no reference made anywhere in this package to the opera’s edition; and that raises a couple of flags, because it appears that Dove è amore has been heavily edited. For one thing, it almost entirely lacks recitative and is without spoken passages. Second, several of the arias and scenes display a musical complexity and fluidity of structure that would have been astonishing at its 1768 debut. I don’t object to the form this opera has been given, since it was clearly edited not out of wanton disregard for historical practices, but the desire to secure modern performance. I would just like to know who did it, how they proceeded, and what was left out or changed.


The performances themselves are an almost unalloyed pleasure. Both Lenka Máciková and Katerína Knežíková are gifted actresses, and each is a fine lyric soprano. (Interestingly, they’ve also both made a considerable impression as Zerlina in Don Giovanni .) Scarlatti utilizes two tenors, rather than a tenor and bass. Jaroslav Brezina’s face lacks sufficient mobility to make the most of his sly-but-stupid servant, but he acts with great energy and self-control. He possesses as well a refined vocal technique that is hardly tested in this role. Ales Briscein is slightly overparted, however. At least on the two nights used to record this, he displays a tendency to short phrase endings at times with his otherwise attractive voice, sings without much variety, and acts well but without the specificity of the others. Vojtech Spurný leads a sprightly, disciplined performance. His orchestra displays enough technique and silky phrasing to make it clear they don’t just hang around Schwarzenberg when the opera’s not in season.


Ondrej Havelka does an excellent job of blocking his actors, both in the opera, and in its modern Prolog that features the cast supposedly getting ready to perform. We also get in the latter an actor performing the mute role of stage director. As he makes certain that the extensive, many-tiered scenery and set changes are accomplished on time throughout the performance, we get a chance to witness behind-the-scenes the elaborate wooden apparatus created in the original theater to quickly achieve these results: very cleverly done.


There’s also a documentary about the castle theater included with the opera. It’s sumptuously photographed and insightful in its further display of the architecture and stage machinery. But apart from its visuals of the theater, the information provided is at times problematic. We are told the 18th-century castle theater with its stage mechanisms is the only one left standing of its kind, yet publicity information on the city’s own website indicates it’s one of several. We are informed that the castle’s castellan has hired a bee farm to make candles according to a very old recipe that meant they wouldn’t flicker and could last three to four hours for performances, but the website states that simulated candlelight is used.


We’re also informed that 18th-century movement and acting were studied for this production, while we’re shown images from a page from a book of unknown provenance on hand gestures, written in Latin. Yet the acting we see in this production is strictly 20th-century fourth-wall-removed (and the makeup style is modern, too), unlike that utilized in Lully’s Cadmus et Hermione (Alpha 701) and his Le bourgeois gentlhomme (Alpha 700). And again, there’s a brief downward-moving musical motto that forms the basis of one of Patrizio’s arias, and turns up as well in a very different fashion as part of the main theme to Cherubino’s “Non so più cosa son” in Le nozze di Figaro . We’re told Mozart copied it from Scarlatti 18 years later, yet the motto itself is a galant commonplace that turns up in the work of many composers in the latter half of the 18th century. It was simply Mozart alone who made something truly distinctive of it. There’s much more that’s said or implied which is equally questionable.


Documentary aside, the production itself shines. It’s solidly performed and directed in a way that emphasizes the behind-the-scenes mechanical contrivances of its risen-from-its-ashes 18th-century theater. This is an excellent halfway house to period productions, and just plain fun.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Garrick Ohlsson won the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition just four years prior the solo recital performances of Chopin and Liszt featured on this DVD. Ohlsson recorded the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under James Loughran at Royal Albert Hall in 1978. Since these youthful concerts Garrick Ohlsson has also recorded the complete works of Chopin to global acclaim and is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of Chopin.

Sound format: LCPM mono
Picture format: 4:3
Running time: 78’
Subtitles: n/a
Menu languages: English
Booklet languages: E/F/G
Region code: All Regions - 0

When I last saw Garrick Ohlsson live in concert in 2007, I was mightily impressed by the delicacy and contrast the ursine pianist brought to his performance of Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto. This DVD unearths performances given by a much younger Ohlsson some thirty years earlier, when he was less a bear and more a lion of the keyboard, complete with 1970s mane.

The main feature on this DVD is a BBC Proms performance of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto under the baton of that great Scottish Brahmsian, James Loughran, whose famous Halle recordings of the symphonies, last seen on Classics for Pleasure, have sadly been deleted from the catalogue.

Ohlsson, wearing a white coat like the leader of the orchestra and no one else on stage, strides out with Loughran to warm Proms applause. We are quickly underway. The first movement is nicely paced, flowing and big. Indeed “big” is the right word for this performance. Loughran knows what he is doing with this music. He draws a well blended, robust sound from the orchestra, right from the opening horn call. Ohlsson shares his dramatic conception of the concerto, moving from gentle rhapsodic playing to roaring climaxes with the ebb and flow of the musical narrative. The uncredited principal cellist brings grace and charm to the andante, which Ohlsson matches and exceeds, and the finale is smile-coaxingly playful, but never lightweight. The highlight of this performance is the second movement. Ohlsson is at his rhapsodic best here. There are occasional wrong notes and horn wobbles, but they matter little when the performance is as exciting as this one.

The 1974 recital is fabulously 70s, from the font that flashes onto the screen to announce the recital in time to the opening chords of the Scherzo to the wavy beige studio backdrop. Ohlsson’s Chopin is superb. The Scherzo sparks with nervous energy and, under Ohlsson’s fingers, rings more with tragedy than mere melancholy. The Polonaise that follows is big and appealingly playful, like Hans Sachs merrily mending shoes with a large hammer. Funérailles is dark and menacing, seemingly powered by Ohlsson’s relentless left hand. The size of Ohlsson’s mitts is astonishing. If ever hands were built for the piano, his were.

The booklet note by Jeremy Siepmann lionises Ohlsson and says little of the music or the circumstances of its performance.

The mono sound, clear but constricted, prevents a general recommendation when so much of Ohlsson’s fine playing is available on disc in stereo. However Ohlsson’s fans and those who would see the young lion in his pomp need not hesitate.

-- Tim Perry, MusicWeb International

THIS IS A STANDARD DVD WITH AUDIO ONLY (NO VISUALS). IT IS NOT A DVD-AUDIO AND WILL PLAY ON ALL DVD PLAYERS.

String Quartet No. 2 (1983)
FLUX Quartet
Tom Chiu, violin
Cornelius Duffalo, violin
Kenji Bunch, viola
Darrett Adkins, cello

Feldman's monumental String Quartet No.2 is in one unbroken movement. The FLUX Quartet performance is complete, lasting a total of 6 hours 7 minutes and 7 seconds. Available in 2 Editions: a 5-CD set OR complete and uninterrupted on 1-DVD!

In the 1970s Feldman took up the study and collecting of antique Turkish rugs, a highly evolved and exquisite folk art. The rugs are intricately patterned, symmetrical in basic design but with constant variation and displacement in the detailed execution of that design; strikingly and subtly colored, including fine variegations of principal colors resulting from the dyeing process. Analogies are clear to Feldman's music as it takes up large-scale patterning, partly working with his familiar subtle gradations of rhythm and instrumental color and ostinati, loops or extended repetitions of a sounds, partly - and especially in this second string quartet - continually finding new and surprising qualities of color. There are a number of sounds in this piece unlike anything one has heard from a string quartet.

Lasting more than six continuous hours, it is "a disorienting, transfixing experience that repeatedly approached and touched the sublime." - Alex Ross, in his review of the FLUX Quartet's New York City performance in The New Yorker.

String Quartet 2's score is 124 pages, at one tempo marking of 63-66 beats per minute - as such, a slow tempo. Feldman idiosyncratically sets the bars, so one page may last as little as about half a minute or as much as nearly seven minutes.

"A very exciting quartet composed of four young men...who have lots of ideas and clearly enjoy making music together," - Anthony Tommasini, NY Times, the FLUX Quartet has performed to rave reviews at many music centers around the world. FLUX have performed Quartet 2 in concert numerous times and know the score intimately. The FLUX Quartet's repertoire consists of notable pioneers as well as visionaries of tomorrow - from "classics" by Nancarrow, Ligeti, and Cage, to works by John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Oliver Lake, and tenor balloonist Judy Dunaway.

This deluxe set features liner notes by Feldman's colleague Christian Wolff, mixing personal experiences and recollections with analysis; and by FLUX founder Tom Chiu who writes of the "experience" of performing such a large-scale work.

One can experience the work uninterrupted - complete, with no need to change discs - on the DVD Edition; along with the thrilling realism of uncompressed 24-bit PCM sound. This audio-only DVD can be played on any DVD player (note: there are no visuals).

For ease of navigation, both the DVD and CD versions have many track points (approximately every 5-6 pages of the score) which allow you to navigate through the disc(s) and the piece. The tracks are identical for both the DVD and CD.

Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life’s work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.

Enclosure 7, the culminating DVD of this multimedia series, is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.

The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director’s original cut along with his commentary. If you’ve never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.

Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument-invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.

The CBS LPs of this work came with a Bonus Album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this DVD features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.

Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry’s fusion of current pop idolatry with parallel (only a little more sinister) scenes of Ancient Greece. Now you can see excerpts of the original 1960 Illinois production, replete with gymnasts, fireworks, and transvestites.

And finally, if you ever wondered how a simple recipe for rose petal jam could turn into a hobo dance and a diatribe about music critics, you are in for a treat.

In short, with the reprinting of Blackburn’s award-winning bio-scrapbook, Enclosure 3, this series “is about as close to one man’s life as we are ever likely to get.”

R E V I E W S

"Anyone who believed, as many did, that Harry Partch’s hypnotic but daffy music would fade from the scene after his death in 1974, and after the weird but fragile instruments he had fashioned for realizing his stratospheric creative visions had gone under lock and key, had reckoned without the innate magic of his work, and the zeal of his believers... The best of Partch lies in its power to evoke visual counterparts, and a DVD just out on Innova includes the dance-drama Delusion of the Fury, as staged at UCLA in 1969, which really does match sight to sound." -- Alan Rich, LA Weekly