The court of the Venetian Doges was of legendary magnificence. Princes who desired some of this splendor for their own courts sent their artists and musicians to study in La Serenissima. And so it was that Heinrich Schütz made his way to the Lagoon City in order to learn his trade under the famous Giovanni Gabrieli.

This new SACD by the Hymnus Choirboys of Stuttgart and Musica Fiata demonstrates how Schütz worked with opulent Italian impressions while serving as court chapel master in Dresden and employs the finest 2+2+2 technique to transport lavish sound and Venetian grandezza straight to you in your living room.

Schütz’s music is in very good hands with the Hymnus Choirboys of Stuttgart and its young soloists. This traditional ensemble led by Rainer Johannes Homburg, a proven expert in early music and historical performance practice, is complemented by Musica Fiata on historical instruments with such “parlando” articulation that the listener may have the impression that he or she understands every word, even in the purely instrumental presentation of the motet “Das ist je gewisslich war.

SCHUMANN Symphonies: No. 1; No. 3 • Christian Zacharias, cond; Lausanne CO • MDG 940 1772-6 (65:34)


When Schumann’s orchestral music is discussed what almost inevitably comes up are his difficulties dealing with orchestration, especially later in his career. In assessing Schumann’s “skills” as an orchestrator, Felix Weingartner was blunt, if not brutal: “…he did not know how to handle the orchestra, either as director or as composer. He worked almost always with the full material but did not take the pains to elaborate the parts according to the character of the separate instruments. With almost childlike stupidity he expected to attain fullness and strength by doubling the instruments. Therefore the instrumentation is heavy and inflexible; the color gray against gray; the most important themes, if played according to his directions, sometimes cannot be heard; and a true forte is almost as impossible as a true piano …Schumann’s symphonies are composed for the pianoforte, and arranged—unhappily not well at that—for the orchestra.”


Schumann ran into difficulty at the very first rehearsal of the First Symphony. The first two measures of the opening fanfare were originally a third lower but Schumann discovered that, since the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performed on “natural” horns and trumpets, the next-to-last pair of notes had to be played by “stopping” the instruments, resulting in a sound that Schumann compared to “a violent cold in the head.” Mendelssohn, who was conducting, suggested moving the passage up a third and Schumann assented. Interestingly, even with valved instruments now in use, most conductors, at least on recordings, stick to Mendelssohn’s solution. Many conductors handle the “thickness” that Weingartner complained of by following his advice and thinning out the orchestration; some, on the other hand, either reorchestrate to bring out important themes or stick to Schumann’s orchestration but make adjustments in the sectional balance.


Conducting the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Christian Zacharias has an ensemble that, with something close to 50 players, is approximately the same size as Mendelssohn’s Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra so no thinning out is probably necessary. Although I wish the horns were a little louder, one hears much interesting detail that is often lost when the symphonies are played by a large orchestra using Schumann’s orchestration (most of the problems emerge in the later symphonies which Schumann composed during and after his bad experience conducting an orchestra in Düsseldorf). Zacharias’s “Spring” Symphony is a relaxed, moderately paced performance. Tempo-wise, it inhabits the middle of the pack and, for my taste, challenges the very best ones, my favorite of which is Peter Maag’s, with the Bern Symphony Orchestra. I wouldn’t have minded a little more playfulness in the finale—he’s pretty straightforward here and in the “Rhenish,” with the most grudging observation of ritardandos and other such tempo adjustments. Both performances abound in snappy rhythms, giving them a kind of buoyant “innocence” that I found quite charming. MDG has provided clear, detailed sound. There are a good many strong performances out there but these two carve out a special niche for themselves. I’ll bet Weingartner would have approved.


FANFARE: James Miller

SCHUMANN Symphonies: No. 2; No. 4 • Christian Zacharias, cond; Lausanne CO • MDG MGD 940 1745-6 (SACD: 64:51)


This is the first time I have ever heard these symphonies played gracefully by a chamber orchestra. What makes them so beautiful is that Christian Zacharias does not employ his orchestra’s limitation of size as an excuse for delivering spiky phrasing and rude noises. (Roger Norrington! Beware of Dog!) What I encounter instead in these performances is the delicacy of Schumann’s piano suites and the fine ear of a pianist who knows this music must dance. In fairness, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra is not that small—perhaps 50-strong here—but usually the temptation would be to overcompensate with smaller-dog tensile energy.


Happily we find instead kinder, gentler versions of big-orchestra Schumann. This approach works best in the inner movements of both symphonies, but also especially well in the danceable opening allegro of the Fourth. Taken a bit faster than usual, the Adagio of the Second Symphony could actually propel a couple gracefully around the room. In the outer movements we get similar tea-dance spirit, but at the slight expense of something larger and more exciting. This is such smooth, euphonious cozy Schumann; it is almost Dvo?ák.


Schumann, of course, was obsessed by the sound of disembodied trumpets during the composition of his Second Symphony. And there is more metaphysical fear and Wagnerian mystery to be captured in its introduction than heard here. Christoph Eschenbach evoked this hauntingly in his Bamberg cycle for Virgin in the early ’90s. And Ernest Ansermet, just up the road in Geneva, didn’t do badly with it, either. Small forces have difficulty with the stasis of mood and mystery. In particular, tremoli with a large complement of strings can evoke the infinite nature of things. But in reduced numbers, they demystify and can pester like flies at a picnic.


So I shall not argue that Zacharias has exhausted the possibilities found in these symphonies, just that the beauty of his approach will surprise you, in delicious but unobtrusive surround sound. If there is perhaps more grit, force, and sheer amorous passion to be found in the Second Symphony, well, Clara Schumann would certainly have thought so. As a small symbol in her diaries reveals, she and Schumann had sex virtually every day for 10 years! I always suspected girls loved Schumann!


FANFARE: Steven Kruger

"Schumann [in the Piano Quintet] knew what he was writing for, and the balance among the strings with the piano is well-nigh perfect. The dark and burnished tone of the Leipzigers is perfectly suited to this piece, and their practiced and well-judged tempos only add to the desirability of this release. I have been recommending the Bernstein/Juilliard as my benchmark, and I suppose that still stands, along with Argerich and the Takács/Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion. This release joins those distinguished efforts.

And the good news continues. MDG advertises this as the first recording of the first two of the string quartets in the original version. Schumann made a lot of changes regarding dynamics, tempo, and even a number of excised passages after the first performances. But as the notes admit, the only authorized versions are the ones that included these changes, the composer again knowing exactly what he wanted when he embarked on the changes, tightening up the work and making it more cohesive. But the Leipzig Quartet decided that it would be worthwhile to record the first thoughts of the composer, and I think the decision is correct, even though hearing them in this form will not change any minds about the commonly accepted text. But what excites me is that I may have just found a modern-day equal to the Juilliard Quartet’s trend-setting version from the 1960s. The Leipzig is expressively superior and technically on par, while MDG’s recording greatly advances the depth and width of the soundstage. Well, let me calm down a moment—the Juilliard still plays the authorized version, and as such remains in top place. But these discs are just too good to pass, as playing like this demands an audience, and a frequently attending one at that. Want List qualifications definitely met."

FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Elegant writing beautifully presented.

Douglas Boyd and his Winterthur forces are proving to be a reliable signing for MDG. This disc follows an excellent recording of the Rheinberger organ concertos. In both cases, we are talking about music that has made very few outings on CD, let alone SACD, so to find them presented at this quality is a treat.

Schubert, according to the liner-note, put great energies into improving his reputation as a composer for the stage, but of the ten stage works he completed, only three were preformed in his lifetime. Rosamunde was one of them, and its poor reception was apparently one of the reasons why later stage projects failed to find a home. Problems with the work's dramaturgy have been blamed for its failure, rather than any inadequacies on the part of the music. And the music is good. It falls somewhere between the Schubert the chamber composer and Schubert the symphonist. There is plenty of drama here, but for the most part it retains the civilised formality of the Classical era. Performing the incidental music – and great as it is, the word 'incidental' is definitively appropriate – poses a few challenges. A choir is required, but they only put in a few appearances, as does the alto soloist. Schubert writes trombone parts, but he only uses them to support the choir. So the whole project is a bit impractical, and while you need a range of talented musicians, none is given the opportunity to really show off those talents.

Fortunately, the Musikkollegium Winterthur musicians have what it takes. There is some elegant woodwind writing, all of which is beautifully presented. And those trombone parts, brief as they are, are played with enviable precision and tonal focus. Douglas Boyd achieves a good balance between the composer's aspirations to drama and his innate sense of musical elegance. There are a number of points where the music builds up to a thematic statement through a swell on an upbeat or a short crescendo, and Boyd is able to create just the right sense of anticipation, and without excessive intervention.

It is probably worth noting that this is very much Schubert on modern instruments. There is nothing wrong with that but it seems to be rapidly becoming the exception rather than the rule. The textures are warmer and more homogeneous than you get from period instruments, but - unlike in the later symphonies for example - there is little in the way of contrapuntal or textural detail to lose in the weave. That also limits the potential benefits of the SACD audio. The audio quality is good, and it brings a sense of warmth and intimacy to the quieter textures, especially the woodwind solos, but there is little in this score to bring out in terms of pertinent incident and colour.

The disc opens with a bonus track of sorts. It turns out that Schubert wrote the Rosamunde music to a tight deadline and did not have a chance to write an overture. Instead, the programme opens with the overture to Die Zauberharfe. The liner-note assures us that the overture is very much in the spirit of the Rosamunde music, and so it is. However, the Rosamunde movements are thematically interconnected - though a theme better known from the quartet of the same name. The overture does not share this link and so stands out from what follows. That's not a big grumble, but it does call the logic of the programming into question. Even with this imported overture, the running time is still under an hour. So why not include a few more overtures and incidental movements too?

-- Gavin Dixon, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

In their lively and robust performance of Schubert's E-flat Piano Trio the Vienna Piano Trio employs a rich, full sonority that belies the presence of "only" three instruments. This impression is aided, I suspect, by the warmly reverberant acoustic captured with remarkable fidelity by MDG's vivid recording. Throughout the performance the players effuse a marked vitality that carries the music along with seeming effortlessness. The first movement and scherzando boast infectious rhythmic energy and joyful spirits, while the lyrical Andante strides along confidently with some beautifully rendered solo passages.


But it's the Finale that takes center stage in this work, even more so in this recording as it includes the original uncut version as a bonus. Schubert made substantial excisions in this movement, shortening its length by more than five minutes. The original version's greatly expanded development features a few more rounds of the "tickling" motif (with its rapid repeated notes) that gains in importance as it now wanders through some fascinating harmonic modulations. It's a challenging bit of business to maintain those repeated notes with evenness and accuracy, and the Vienna players pull it off impressively while making the most of the music's motivic drama.


However, Schubert's shorter finale should not be discounted as it gains in clarity and balance. But such is the quality of Vienna Trio's rendition that you really don't mind hearing it play through this marvelous music twice. Enthusiastically recommended.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

After the great success of the Golem by Eugen d’Albert, the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn under its conductor Stefan Blunier now presents with the opera Irrelohe by Franz Schreker yet another enthralling programme idea and a key work of musical modernity. The orchestra mightily enters the musical fray with six percussionists and lavishes in passion and nonstop dynamic power. MDG’s technicians have produced a fascinating live recording in the challenging acoustic architecture of the Bonn Opera House.

Three hothouse plants bloom lushly in these passionate performances. Mahler?s Piano Quartet was written in 1876, but the 16-year-old was already near the point his discmates would reach two decades later, the late-Romantic apex of turn-of-the-century-Vienna. This is all young men?s music. Zemlinsky and Schoenberg were each 25 when their pieces were written; their works are more polished than Mahler?s, as neither was a tyro composer. Schoenberg had written his D-Minor String Quartet, a variety of lesser chamber pieces and movements, plus a whole raft of Lieder; Zemlinsky?s op. 3 Trio followed two symphonies and a gorgeous opera, Sarema , and is no less than 40th on the chronological list of his works in Antony Beaumont?s biography, Zemlinsky .


Zemlinsky?s Trio was written for clarinet, cello, and piano; it was closely modeled after Brahms?s op. 114 and has been criticized as being a clone thereof. I prefer the clarinet original, especially as heard in an Apollonian performance by Trio Paideia on a gorgeous Tacet recording ( Fanfare 22:6, p. 138). The Vienna Piano Trio (Wolfgang Redik, violin; Matthias Gredler, cello; Stefan Mendl, piano) plays this alternate scoring with Dionysian intensity. One hears a blend of youthful fire?Brahms?s or Zemlinsky?s?with the mature reflection of the master?s late music; this could be the senior Viennese composer passing the torch to his junior. The Paideia makes the work sound both more original and more elegant, but I am bowled over by this Vienna account, too, which soars and roars. The violin version has never been so powerfully served.


These players find a dark, brooding intensity in the opening phrase of Mahler?s student exercise, and they never let up, powering their way through its single movement at a ferocious clip?the timing of 9:16 is far less than any of the 20 recordings cataloged in Peter Fülöp?s 1995 Mahler Discography . The little violin flourish just prior to the coda is pure wild gypsy. The unorthodox interpretation works beautifully; for the first time I feel the early Mahler piece to be music of substance, not merely an interesting historical footnote.


This recording at least nudges my views about Eduard Steuermann?s transcription of Verklärte Nacht for piano trio. In previous performances on and off records, the instrumental combination seemed to blunt the churning emotions which are so central to the work. The Vienna Trio gives another powerful performance, which brings the Steuermann to life, proving it a viable piano trio. Perhaps I am more receptive to a change after hearing those strings-only versions (1899, 1917, and 1943) too often. Verklärte Nach t has always been a surprisingly successful piece of program music?it is easy to visualize the couple walking by the water in the moonlight. That doesn?t come across in the piano trio, even in this performance.


MDG?s recorded sound is intimate, even a bit claustrophobic at the big moments. That suits the music, perhaps even better than would a bright, open sound. The instruments are always well balanced, the piano never overpowering the strings. Fully 15-second pauses between works are much appreciated. The booklet contains intelligent commentary, and Gustav Klimt?s Approaching Storm on the cover could not be more fitting. This fine disc is recommended with much enthusiasm, although?for the reasons discussed above?not as one?s primary versions of the Zemlinsky and Schoenberg.


FANFARE: James H. North

REVIEWS:
International Record Review (3/00, p.80) - "...The Leipzig Quartet handle the work with an obvious awareness of its inherent clarity....The blink-and-you'll-miss-it punctuation which anounces the entrance of [Oelze's] full-throated voice is superb in its...elegeant simplicity..."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.