Classical Music

The sea and Singapore are inextricably bound together - indeed, the first records of a settlement here give it the Javanese name Temasek ('sea town'). Ever since, these islands have provided a base for traders and fishermen, pirates and sailors. With the arrival of the British East India Company in 1819 Singapore quickly developed into one of the most important trading hubs of Asia and, indeed, the world. And although the patterns and methods of world trade and transport have changed, the sea still permeates the daily life of Singaporeans. This also applies to Lan Shui and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, who on this disc perform four works inspired by the sea by composers as varied as Debussy, Glazunov, Frank Bridge and Zhou Long (b. 1953). The latter was the subject of Rhymes, the orchestra's previous and highly praised disc, of which web site Classics Today wrote: 'Zhou's is a personal, distinctive voice; and his beautifully crafted music achieves a remarkable synthesis of Western and Eastern musical traditions with musically rewarding results.' The reviewer at BBC Music Magazine agreed, calling the result 'utterly compulsive' with the addition: 'Here is orchestral playing of the highest calibre.' Zhou Long's The Deep, Deep Sea has as its title a quotation from Tang dynasty poet Li Bai, and was written for flautist Sharon Bezaly who performs it here. If the sea in Zhou Long's piece is an Asian one, Glazunov used a visit to Crimea and the Black Sea for his inspiration, adding a good pinch of Wagnerism to its not very salty water. Debussy and Bridge on the other hand most probably had the same sea in mind when they composed their works: Debussy finished his La Mer while visiting England in 1904, staying in Eastbourne on the south coast, and Frank Bridge (1879-1949) was born and grew up in Brighton, some thirty kilometres further west.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Dance and Brazilian music are often regarded as more or less synonymous, in the same way that the samba to many of us is Brazilian dance! But the many acclaimed recordings by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra of symphonic works, tone poems and operas by Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guarnieri and other Brazilian composers, have demonstrated the variety of their national music, and in the same way this disc brings proof of the rich and many-faceted nature of Brazilian dance. Alongside the ubiquitous samba, the batuques, congadas and mourãos included here give us hints of the fascinating universe of regional and ethnic traditions that make up Brazil. It is a fact that dance music, in all its variety, has played an important part in the development of Brazilian art music: as the search for a national identity intensified, Brazilian composers turned to the popular traditions of the cities and countryside for their material. This process began in earnest around 1890 with Alexandre Levy's Samba and Alberto Nepomuceno's Batuque, early examples of a Brazilian art music which draws heavily on the dance rhythms of popular music. Similar cross-fertilization between genres has become a time-honoured tradition, employed by the composers included in this selection and many others. Notable latter-day examples are Antônio 'Tom' Jobim of bossa nova-fame and his Chegada dos Candangos from 1960 and Edino Krieger's Passacaglia for the New Millennium, first performed in December 1999 by the very team that has recorded it here. Roberto Minczuk has previously led the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in acclaimed performances of Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras on BIS, and here returns with this colourful collection of dances for symphony orchestra.

Classical Music

Following their acclaimed recordings of the works for string trio by Mozart and Beethoven, Trio Zimmermann make a great leap in time. Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Hindemith were both at the avant-garde epicentre of the 1910s and 1920s, but their future paths could hardly have been more different. Whereas Schoenberg would go on to have a decisive influence on twentieth-century modernism with his dodecaphonic music and the Second Viennese School, Paul Hindemith gradually renounced his rebellious early music, eventually becoming something of an anachronistic loner. The relatively early String Trio No. 1 (1924) already betrays the composer's interest in the forms and textures of baroque music. It opens with a flittering Toccata, going on to offer a contrapuntal web in its slow movement and ends with a double fugue. The contrapuntal textures are present also in the Second String Trio, but the neotonal language and general atmosphere point forward to later, large-scale works such as Mathis der Mahler. In 1933, the year Hindemith composed his second trio, the political developments in Germany caused Arnold Schoenberg to leave Europe for the U.S.A. (Hindemith would follow in 1940.) It took him considerable time before he found his feet in this new environment and continuing financial and professional worries probably contributed to a serious heart attack that struck him down in August 1946. The String Trio, Op.45, begun shortly before the heart attack and completed a month after it, is the disturbing expression of this extreme near-death experience. It also presents one of the greatest challenges in the entire string repertoire – in fact Schoenberg considered easing the technical difficulties by expanding the trio into a quintet.

Includes chorale(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki. Soloist: Masaaki Suzuki.

The young period band Höör Barock, based in the south of Sweden, has chosen a colourful programme for its début disc. With recorder virtuoso Dan Laurin at the helm, the twelve musicians steer a course through Telemann’s celebrated Wassermusik (also known as Hamburger Ebb’ und Fluth) with its sea gods and goddesses dancing bourrées and gavottes before a rowdy crowd of seamen closes the suite with an energetic Canarie. The center piece of the programme is Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in F major, the composer’s arrangement of his own Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. Soloist here is Anna Paradiso, who also plays continuo in the other works of the recording. Bach is flanked on either side by two of the Op. 6 concerti grossi by another Baroque heavyweight, Arcangelo Corelli. His Concerto No. 4 and No. 8 – the much-loved Christmas Concerto – appear here in a slightly unusual guise. They are usually performed by strings alone, but inspired by recent research, Dan Laurin and his recorder-playing colleague Emelie Roos here take on the solo parts, and the tutti ensemble is joined by oboes and bassoon – while a baroque harp adds to the angelic atmosphere of the closing Christmas Pastorale of Concerto No. 8. The album closes as it began, with Telemann, whose Concerto in B flat major for winds, strings and basso continuo is a perfect example of the composer’s art, involving playful juggling of different instrumental combinations and musical ideas.

Berit Opheim Versto, folk singer
Gjermund Larsen, fiddle, hardanger fiddle
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir (Det Norske Solistkor)
Grete Pedersen, conductor

More than a century ago, the rhythms and harmonies of Edvard Grieg's music enchanted a whole world. What Grieg himself readily admitted was that these rhythms and harmonies had been absorbed during his journeys along fjords and across mountains, and his encounters with fiddlers and folk singers - such as the dairy-maid Gjendine Slaalien, whose 'bådnlåt' (lullaby) Grieg turned into a piano piece. But although the most famous, Grieg is only one of many Norwegian composers who have found folk music a deep and decisive source of inspiration. Combining traditional folk songs with recent compositions springing from folk music, the Norwegian Soloists' Choir on the present disc makes a compelling case for the powerful hold that this music has over the country's cultural life, in performances that easily makes one understand why! The choir's conductor, Grete Pedersen, has a constant eye open for the immediacy of folk music, but also its melancholy which, as she writes in her own introduction, 'always shines through, whether the tune is a wedding march or a lullaby, and whether it accompanies a religious song or a tale of a maiden abducted by trolls.' The choir's previous recording for BIS was a programme of Grieg's choral works, described as 'a performance of breathtaking beauty' in Le Monde de la Musique, and 'a reference recording, the likes of which one doesn't encounter every day' on website klassik.com. Already on that disc the Norwegian Soloists' Choir explored the music's roots in folk music, and going a step further in this direction, Grete Pedersen has now invited one of Norway's most respected folk singers, Berit Opheim Versto, and the fiddler and composer Gjermund Larsen to join her and the choir on their journey through 'the intricate landscape of folk music'.

Tracks:
1. Gjendines Bådnlåt
2. Jeg lagde mig så sildig
3. Jesus din søte forening å smake
4. Nådigste Jesus / Jesus styr du mine tankar
5. Med Jesus vil eg fara
6. Bruremarsj fra Valsøyfjord
7. Polonese
8. Gropen
9. Solbønn
10. Solistvals
11. Margjit Hjukse, Op.48
12. Allsang

SMETANA Má Vlast • Claus Peter Flor, cond; Malaysian PO • BIS 1805 (SACD: 76: 00)


There is something about Bed?ich Smetana’s Má Vlast that defies interpretation by anyone other than a Czech conductor. You have undoubtedly heard the names: Václav Talich, Karel An?erl, Václav Neumann, and most prominently in this case, Rafael Kubelík. His 1952 mono Mercury Olympian LP recorded with a single Telefunken microphone was an interpretive and sonic landmark, and its sound still holds up well today except for an inevitable lack of stereo spatial information. In fact, over the last 50 years, there has never been a better recorded performance of Má Vlast , even by Kubelik himself in several newer versions on different labels. His hugely anticipated and much-hyped remake with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon) was especially disappointing sonically and interpretively.There have been numerous other significant recordings of Má Vlast , primarily by Czech conductors released by Supraphon, that have had consistently mediocre sound. Má Vlast doesn’t work well with Supraphon’s typical dry and harmonically threadbare sound. It is great to see performances by non-Czech conductors, but recent high-profile releases by Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live SACD) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Vienna Philharmonic (RCA) have good sound but the interpretations are somewhat problematic. With this background, you have to wonder about the competitiveness of Claus Peter Flor conducting the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra has already made some good-sounding and critically acclaimed Bis recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, but it is the stunning SACD of Josef Suk’s “Asrael” Symphony, also conducted by Flor, that made me eager to hear this Má Vlast.


Comparing the timings of Kubelík and Flor is encouraging and instructive. There is only a 20-second difference in a work that is more than 76 minutes long. I can’t imagine a case that better illustrates the uselessness of timings to predict a conductor’s interpretive approach. Flor takes a hard-driving, propusive, dry-eyed, and at least ostensibly fast approach to Má Vlast . He also has no clue about the emotional content of this music that is so striking in interpretations by Kubelík and other Czech conductors. You can usually tell how Má Vlast is going to evolve from the opening of “Vy?ehrad.” Flor’s short, clipped, opening harp phrases and lean orchestral textures emphasize forward motion and play down any sense of grandeur. The end of “?árka” is almost hysterical, and is immediately followed by the initial chords of “From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests,” which hit like a bulldozer. Flor does not shy away from pounding out those repetitive triplets in “Tábor,” and the timpanist is predictably aggressive in “Tábor” and “Blaník.” It is all very exciting where underplaying the bombast would induce boredom, as it does with Harnoncourt. On the other hand, Flor’s central nocturne in “Vltava” is gorgeous and atmospheric, and he also handles the tricky rhythms in the second half of “From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests” better than other virtuosic internationalized interpretors like Davis and Harnoncourt. Flor’s finale comes closest to but does not match Kubelík in cumulative impact as they both broaden their tempo for the final statement of the ubiquitous Hussite hymn and the principal theme.


Kubelík’s (Mercury) remains unchallenged as a performance, but it is a mono recording and the CD will be difficult to find. In modern stereo sound, this recording ranks with the best except in terms of orchestral execution where I prefer Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic is on autopilot in Harnoncourt’s soporific version, but is much better with James Levine (Deutsche Grammophon). For a more modern stereo version by Kubelík, go with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orfeo).


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen

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Claus Peter Flor directs a tremendously exciting performance of Má Vlast, one that compares favorably to any in the catalog. He takes great pains to characterize each piece, and each section, to the fullest extent possible. In The Moldau you won't find a more vivid contrast between the scenes of the hunt, the peasant dance, the nocturne (exquisite soft brass), and the rapids (ferocious!) anywhere. The violent conclusion of Sárka is absolutely thrilling, the opening of From Bohemia's Woods and Fields terrifying. While not entirely disguising the episodic nature of Tábor (probably an impossible task), Flor keeps the last two tone poems moving forward purposefully to the work's heroic closing bars. It's a great interpretation, one that surely deserves to be documented and enjoyed by collectors.

Technically, the playing of the Malaysian Philharmonic is good, but not perfect. The trumpets at the climax of The Moldau don't quite match timbres as they should (a common problem). Toward the end of Tábor, Flor pushes the triple-forte galloping rhythm in the strings so hard that the result sounds more like Mahler's "struck with the bow" effect. The wild string triplets in Blaník are exciting, but not always ideally together, and there is a cymbal crash missing around measure 214. Some of the climaxes also suffer from an over-enthusiastic timpanist, and as a percussionist I don't make that accusation lightly. Still, Flor's own concept is so powerful, and the orchestral response so committed, that this vivid SACD production deserves very serious consideration.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch Maxim Rysanov Maxim Rysanov Plays Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch

The astonishing variety of Bach’s cantatas is brilliantly illustrated by these CDs. Vol. 12 of Masaaki Suzuki’s ongoing cycle features a pair of extended, two-part cantatas: BWV 147, best-known for its lovely chorale (aka ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’), and BWV 21, described by Nicholas Anderson as having ‘a dramatic intensity hardly inferior... to that of the two great Passions’. Both cantatas have their origins in Bach’s Weimar period but are presented here in their later, Leipzig versions.

As is to be expected from Suzuki, the performances are meticulous and sensitive, and he brings out each cantata’s different emotional character with quiet authority. BWV 21 is particularly impressive, his team breathing vivid life into Bach’s portrayal of the Soul’s journey from darkest night to heavenly bliss. In contrast to this spiritual introspection, Philippe Herreweghe’s excellent disc features three cantatas Bach wrote for the annual inauguration of the Leipzig town council. This is public-event music, ablaze with ceremonial splendour: the earliest cantata, 1723’s BWV 119, begins with a French overture and is among the most richly scored of all the cantatas. The other two follow suit, jubilant choruses and brass fanfares proclaiming civic pride, though Bach takes care to balance this pomp with more delicate colours in the arias. Funeral music, yet another facet of the Cantor’s output, is explored on John Eliot Gardiner’s newly reissued 1989 recording. The deft vocal interweavings of the Actus tragicus and the Trauer Ode’s lavish salute to the Electress Christiane are adeptly handled by Gardiner, whose (relatively) small forces give the music a rapt, devotional air. In this company, Stephen Cleobury’s King’s College double seems lacklustre. The programme, which mixes major works with miniatures and extracts, is cluttered, the latter pieces merely distractions. Performances, while good, rarely match the precisely focused, sharply etched flair so evident on the Herreweghe and Suzuki discs. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- BBC Music Magazine

In 2002 we released the first recording of Karl Weigl's (1881-1949) Fifth Symphony, subtitled 'The Apocalyptic' and dedicated it to the memory of Franklin Roosevelt. Completed in the last year of the Second World War, it is a programmatic work describing the world hovering on the brink of total destruction - a very natural way of seeing things for an Austrian refugee of Jewish decent living in the US during that troubled time. But there was more than the destiny of his beloved Vienna that occupied Weigl. He was very much part of an old central-European tradition, the tradition of Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler, which - as he must have realized - was threatened by whatever the outcome of the war. Described by his fellow student Schoenberg as 'one of the best composers of the old school, one of those who continued the glittering Viennese tradition', Weigl in one of the first works written after his flight to the US in 1938, celebrates one aspect of his native city: the waltzes of the Strauss family. In 'Old Vienna' we get a rhapsody of Vienna-style waltzes, executed with the affection - and nostalgia - of someone who had been present at the time. (Weigl was a regular guest at the soirées of Adèle Strauss, widow of Johann Strauss II, in whose home he met his first wife.) Compared to this work and to the Apocalyptic Symphony, the 'Sixth Symphony', composed eight years later and Weigl's last major work, is a piece of absolute music. But here too, in the music itself, is a testament to the tradition that for political and aesthetic reasons had already become a memory in the old world that had fostered it. Neither of the works was performed in the composer's lifetime, and in fact the Symphony had to wait until the present recording. The previous Weigl release on BIS (CD1077) was greeted with a 2003 Cannes Classical Award and great acclaim by reviewers who called Weigl 'a fascinating voice' and 'a major discovery' while naming the performances, by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tomas Sanderling, 'exceptional' and 'committed'. The ones on the present disc - on which conductor Alun Francis also appears - certainly are no less!

Classical Music

Bach Collegium Japan’s stimulating survey of the composer’s sacred cantatas continues with a 13th volume. It contains three works which Bach performed during the Trinity season of his first year at Leipzig (1723), another, BWV 64, which was first heard during the Christmas festival of the same year, and the presumably fragmentary chorus in eight vocal parts with brass, timpani, woodwind and strings, ‘Nun ist das Heil’ (BWV 50). This release is well up to the high standards of past issues. Among the many enjoyable features of the performances are the fresh-sounding upper strands of the 16-voice choir, the sensitive and mainly secure instrumental playing and the excellence of the soloists. Perhaps the choral tenors and basses occasionally lack clarity – I felt this in the darkly coloured opening movement of BWV 25 – but they spring to life both in the mighty torso of the Michaelmas ‘Nun ist das Heil’ and in the splendid double-fugal chorus which provides the focal point of BWV 69a. It is perhaps worth noting that the solo alto line in this volume of the series, at least, is shared between a countertenor (BWV 64) and a female alto. Countertenors, however accomplished, do not always provide convincing results in Bach’s music, and a woman’s voice of a boyish character, such as that heard here, can offer greater expressive satisfaction. Recorded sound is clear and vivid, but the bass aria of BWV 25 is wrongly attributed, both on the box and in the booklet, to a tenor. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine