Of Gods and Demons

Harrison: For Strings

Classical Music

WAGNER Parsifal • Hans Knappertsbusch, cond; Wolfgang Windgassen ( Parsifal ); Martha Mödl ( Kundry ); George London ( Amfortas ); Herman Uhde ( Klingsor ); Ludwig Weber ( Gurnemanz ); Kurt Böhme ( Titurel ); Rita Streich, Erika Zimmermann, Hanna Ludwig, Hertha Töpper, Ruth Siewert ( Flower Maidens ); Karl Terkal, Werner Faulhaber ( Grail Knights ); Bayreuth Festival Ch & O • ANDROMEDA 5161, mono (4 CDs: 262:37) Live: Bayreuth 8/1/1952


Once again we have an historic Bayreuth recording from the early Wieland Wagner era, in this case Parsifal under the baton of its once-high priest Knappertsbusch. Possibly due to the overall quieter music, the harsh orchestral sound quality heard on the 1954 Tannhäuser (see my review below) is absent, and if anything the beautiful Bayreuth “sound” permeates this entire performance. Unlike the Tannhäuser, which had formerly appeared on LPs as far back as 1961 and came out on several CD incarnations, this particular Parsifal has only been available (according to the highly reputable web site Opera Discography) on three previous issues, all CD: Melodram, Archipel, and Cantus Classics.


With all due respect to those who enjoy Knappertsbusch’s early-1960s performances (the commercial recording on Philips or the “pirate” version with Jon Vickers), this one simply has more tension and a greater orchestral “sheen” despite the mono sound. And, for me, this cast is simply outstanding in every way. In addition, because of the better orchestral sound, I prefer it to Kna’s 1951 commercially released Decca-London performance from back in the LP days with almost the same principals (except that Arnold van Mill sang Titurel). The one big question mark I had in mind prior to hearing it was Ludwig Weber, a bass who never quite impressed me as both a great voice and a great singing-actor, yet his Gurnemanz in this performance is absolutely first-rate in every respect. The other role I worried about, not vocally but histrionically, was that of the title character, knowing full well that for all his virtues in virtually the entire Wagner canon otherwise, Wolfgang Windgassen was never noted as the most lively or interesting of vocal or stage actors, but he, too, is better than I expected. I suspect that Knappertsbusch’s superb guidance was the answer. Of course, insofar as this conductor and this opera go, they were a perfect artistic match regardless of era (yes, even the 1962 studio recording is good), but to be honest I find his conducting less mannered here, more direct and just as eloquent.


As for the other principals, they are, to my ears, the best in their roles (though I came to appreciate Parsifal rather late, I’ve indeed become a convert and have caught up by listening to several performances through the decades). Mödl’s value always was as much, if not more, as an actress than purely as a singer, and I have admired her ever since Furtwängler’s RAI Ring came out on Seraphim LPs many moons ago. Of modern Kundrys I especially love Waltraud Meier, and purely from a vocal angle her Kundry is better, but Mödl almost gives you the character in 3D. No passive, subservient Kundry she! Mödl’s Kundry, in fact, almost sounds confrontational in the first act, as if she is tired of being treated as a pariah by Gurnemanz and isn’t going to take it any more, and in the second she is pleading with Parsifal rather than just trying to be seductive. And, of course, Amfortas was one of George London’s great roles, so overall we have about as solid a cast (vocally as well as histrionically) as you could hope for. As much as I admire Hans Hotter as a vocal actor, he was simply past his vocal prime after 1957 or so, therefore as much as I like his acting, his singing in the 1962 recording is no match for Weber’s.


And then there is the Bayreuth “sound.” As much as I can like other performances and recordings of Wagner’s music dramas, by and large I am drawn to those that emanated from the Green Hill because of its unusual two-second “decay,” which always seems to add something to the music. Between that aspect of the recording and the magnificent performances, one may wish for the visual element but it isn’t necessary. Somehow or other, Kna manages to conjure up the visuals in your mind as you listen, and even in ancient mono you seem to get a sense of “space” in the sonics that just doesn’t exist in others’ performances, no matter how good—and I, for one, was really blown away by the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012–13 production of this opera when it was broadcast, especially by Jonas Kaufmann’s stellar interpretation of the title role. That one may yet supplant this in my mind (and collection) if and when it comes out on DVD, but in the meantime I could easily live with this recording to the end of my days.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Every Wagner fanatic knows the famous 1961 Philips label live recording of Der fliegende Holländer with Franz Crass as Holländer. Herewith, Andromeda presents the radio broadcast of the 1961 Bayreuth production which was recorded with the legendary George London, who gave here one of his best interpretations of the Holländer role. This recording shows once again that Mr. London was and remains unsurpassed as the demonic but for forgiveness-begging Holländer. Starring, in addition, Anja Silja, Fritz Uhl and Josef Greindl, this is the First Release in any format of this performance.

Classical Music

The well-known “classical” exception to the canon of ten Wagner works that can be performed on the Green Hill goes back to the master himself: it is of course Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The most famous recording of one of the rare Bayreuth performances of the symphony is of the legendary concert that reopened the Bayreuth Festival after the war, in 1951, with Wilhelm Furtwangler on the rostrum. That recording was released for the first time, officially and uncut, by Orfeo in association with the Bayreuth Festival in 2008 (C754081). In 1954, Furtwangler conducted the Ninth a second time (ORFEO C851121). Much less well-known and issued here for the first time in a live recording is a performance conducted by Karl Böhm in 1963 to mark the 150th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth and the 80th anniversary of his death. Here we witness the emergence of a new musical generation.

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REVIEW:

While a distinct improvement on previous exhumations which have done the rounds, Orfeo's excellent new transfer from a Bavarian Radio source only serves to clarify how much Gundula Janowitz dominated her colleagues on this occasion, though they were all more seasoned Bayreuth performers. A significant release from an historical point of view.

– Gramophone

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REYNOLDS _Symphony [Myths]. 1 Whispers out of Time. 2 _Symphony [Vertigo] 3 • Kotaro Sato, cond; 1 Edwin London, cond; 2 Harvey Sollberger, cond; 3 Tokyo PO; 1 Cleveland CS; 2 La Jolla SO 3 • MODE 183 (73:51)


I recently read Roger Reynolds’s dense but engaging little book, Mind Models , a set of essays from 1972 concerning trends in advanced music. In retrospect, it’s quite impressive how much he got right about what would come to pass under the aesthetic/cultural impact of technology, communications, globalization. Reynolds (b. 1934), while probably most often typed as a modernist composer, composes a sort of music that isn’t written much here anymore. More important, it probably hasn’t ever been written much in America. What I mean by this is that Reynolds’s music is saturated with ideas , but not just ones about musical technique. Instead, it plays with concepts and artifacts from such points of departure as non-Western culture, literature, geography, architecture, science, to name a few. In this omnivorous intellectual curiosity, and his desire to distill these disparate sources into the common field of musical language, he bears more resemblance to European aesthetics than to American. (Not surprisingly, Xenakis was a friend. Reynolds also has a very close connection to Japanese art, traditional and contemporary, and Takemitsu was another close colleague.) The play of symbols , embodied in sonic gestures, is at the core of his work. While rigorously intellectual, his music isn’t particularly academic. Reynolds has always had a foot in experimentalism as much as modernism. To attempt such a synthesis is questing and risk-taking. And at its best the result has real power.


These three orchestral works listed in the headnote date from 1990, 1988, and 1987, respectively. (It’s a sad commentary on our culture that it appears to have taken two decades to get them to a commercial recording.) All three works aspire to a sort of stately grandeur and mystery. Great sweeping gestures occur, which we can’t really anticipate nor explain, yet they are usually satisfying. Movements trail off into silence abruptly. At times the music seems frozen harmonically, yet there may be several layers of detailed and often fast activity occurring simultaneously. Indeed the predominant rhythmic sense here I would call geological , with bands of sonic activity slipping and grating against one another like tectonic plates.


Symphony [Myths] fits the above description well, drawing its inspiration from two pairs of seaside rocks that serve as shrines in Japan and Greece. The music seems appropriately elemental in its sound. Whispers out of Time is for string orchestra (with a concertino quartet), and relates to a John Ashbery poem about a self-portrait by the 16th-century artist Parmigianino, itself a portrayal of the artist in the reflection of a concave mirror (this begins to give a sense of the layers of meaning and reference which inform Reynolds’s work). It’s a dark, mysterious, imagistic work, with the titles of its movements taken from lines in Ashbery’s poem (“Like a wave breaking on a rock” really sounds like such, with successive sound-crashes and resultant spray). It also uses shards of the Beethoven “Les Adieux” Sonata and the Mahler Ninth Symphony, which increase the elegiac quotient and suffuse it with a more tonal veneer.


Only Symphony [Vertigo] doesn’t quite work for me. Its distinctive technique is the use throughout of a prerecorded part made of computer-processed piano sounds, derived from improvisations by Reynolds’s colleague Cecil Lytle. The result is the only work that sounds a little modernist generic, with its mix of electroacoustic and acoustic, its somewhat more strident gestures, and often-discontinuous flow. Some will find this exciting for the use of the technology and the interaction of the different worlds of sounds. I enjoy the composer’s risk-taking here, but the gamble doesn’t quite pay off.


But overall, this is an excellent portrait of a composer of great imaginative, aesthetic ambition. The performances are committed, though at times feel not as fully shaped as one might like, considering the wealth of detail that needs to be balanced to pull off the works’ desired impact. This is not for everyone, but I recommend it as an important, questing voice in the American scene. There is a real mind, heart, and ear at work here. Yes, it’s not easily ingratiating, but who said we should never work for our aesthetic pleasures?


FANFARE: Robert Carl

Classical Music

Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70 (Live)

OPERATIC EXCERPTS & LIEDER

Verdi: Aida

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5 (Recorded 1954)

SCHWARZKOPF: BACH, MAHLER

Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527 (Sung in German) [Recorded 1955

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Best-known for her classic 1955 Top 10 hit "Cry Me A River", Julie London was a fine sultry-voiced jazz and pop singer, who enjoyed her greatest popularity during the "cool" era of the late '50s and early '60s - Billboard magazine named her as the most popular female vocalist of 1955, '56 and '57. Although she sang as a child with her parents' vaudeville act on radio, the first decade of her career from 1945 was as a Hollywood movie actress, becoming a popular pin-up girl of GIs, and appearing with the likes of Gary Cooper. Beginning her recording career in 1955, she scored a hit with her first release for Liberty, "Cry Me A River", and over subsequent years released around twenty singles for the label, as well as having a regular output of concept albums, showcasing her smoky and sensuous vocal style with a mixture of sophisticated pop and mainstream jazz material. This great-value 58-track 2-CD collection comprises her debut recordings on an EP recorded for the Bethlehem label (the tracks were later released as singles by Liberty), and all her A and B sides for Liberty through to 1962, some of which came from her LP releases, plus selected tracks from the seventeen albums she released during those first important years of her recording career. As well as "Cry Me A River", it includes what was one of her best-known recordings, her vocal version of the jazz cha-cha "Desafinado (Slightly Out of Tune)" from 1962. "Cry Me A River" has been revived by many high-profile artists over the years. Julie London is an artist who has not received the accolades she deserved as a sophisticated jazz/pop singer to compare with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Peggy Lee, and this collection will help underline her distinctive talent.

The unforgettable passion and intensity that soprano Leonie Rysanek and baritone George London brought to their most famous pairing in Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander is well-represented here as well on this recording of a 1955 live performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, starring Ms. Rysanek as Tatyana and Mr. London as Onegin. Though already becoming less common at the time, the opera is sung in German translation rather than Russian for the Austrian audience in attendance. This historic recording has been remastered in 24bit/96kHz sound.

International award-winning composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg has composed a dynamic new work that merges music and science. The seven-movement symphony dramatizes past, present and future moon explorations, and highlights discoveries that have been made in our search for other worlds that could possibly sustain life.

Through seven exhilarating movements, concertgoers will experience a stunning space adventure that focuses on the stories of these fascinating moons. But what uniquely defines this symphony is its planetary core message which culminates in the 7th movement, dedicated to Earth-Moon. This final movement offers a discovery of a different kind and provides a unique opportunity to view our planet united and whole, from the surface of the Moon, a breathtaking, life-changing experience referred to as THE OVERVIEW EFFECT. The impact of such a privileged sight has inspired a call to action from Astronauts and as a result  has propelled them to share this profound perspective shift with all of us here on Earth.

Through the persuasive and powerful forces of music, the symphony offers Earthlings a chance to contemplate who and where we are in the universe. In 42 minutes they will be taken on an emotional journey, marveling at the wonders of these moons, the beauty of our planet, and possibly even experience their own perspective shift as crew-mates aboard this spaceship we cruise, Earth. This is the story of THE MOONS SYMPHONY.

Learn more through the project's YouTube channel!

REVIEWS:

Growing up in the Barossa Valley, composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg had a better view of the starry night sky than most. Such a view doubtless inspired this seven-movement choral symphony, a majestic evocation of three moons circling Jupiter, two orbiting Saturn and one from Uranus, as well as our own moon. 

An inquisitive and intrepid explorer, Falkenberg involved astronomers and astronauts in her quest to summon up each moon as vividly and accurately as possible. This research is reflected not only in the music but in the economically expressive sung texts which she also composed.

Out of hundreds of moons, Falkenberg’s choice illustrates enormous diversity: from Jupiter’s volcanic Io to oceanic depths of its sister Europa, then to the vast expanses of Saturn’s Titan, the mighty geysers of tiny Enceladus, the enormous canyons of Uranus’ Miranda and the magnetic force of Jupiter’s Ganymede. Finally, and most importantly, the symphony celebrates earthrise as seen from the surface of the moon, issuing a heartfelt call for all humanity to unite. 

Unabashedly cinematic in style, Falkenberg’s score naturally pays homage Holst’s ground-breaking depiction of the planets, while also echoing film music great John Williams and occasionally Bernard Herrmann. 

Falkenberg’s passionate and creative adaptation of the film music genre is firmly embraced by the committed artistry of the London Symphony under Marin Alsop and the warm cohesion and crystalline diction of the London Voices directed by Ben Parry, who recorded the choral music separately due to COVID restrictions. 

The Moons Symphony offers a precious and timely perspective on our own fragile planet that we would do well to heed.

-- Limelight

FIVE CLASSIC ALBUMS

From Julie London, the smoky-voiced vocalist, a CD containing 24 tracks from her singles that have never appeared on any of her many LPs. One of the most distinctive pop singers of the 1950s, (between 1955 and 1957, Billboard proclaimed London the most popular female vocalist around) Julie London enjoyed a varied career that included releasing thirty-two albums and appearing on television and film. Her hit single of "Cry Me a River" remains the benchmark rendition of this much-covered song. In this tribute to London's varied singing career, Sepia Records presents twenty-four tracks from her single releases from the 1950s and early 1960s, including her earliest known recordings from 1955 - recordings that have almost disappeared between the cracks but show the expressive and technical range of this unique artist.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A BABY TO CRY / OUR FAIR LADY

SPIRIT STRONGER THAN BLOOD