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Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, WWV 96 / Weigle, Beyreuth Festival
Opus Arte · May 2018CD$41.99 -
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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde / Nilsson, Sawallisch, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
Orfeo · Jun 2018CD$37.99 -
Wagner: Piano Transcriptions For Four Hands / Tal & Groethuysen Duo
Sony Masterworks · Jul 2007CD$17.99 -
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Respighi: Transcriptions of Bach & Rachmaninoff / Neschling, Liège Royal Philharmonic
BIS · Feb 2021SACD$21.99 -
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![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3043864.jpg?v=1786836317&width=800)
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![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/51YTqU1mXKL.jpg?v=1786836317&width=800)
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![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3043864.jpg?v=1786836317&width=400)
Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual · Nov 2015Blu-Ray$16.99 -
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SaleBach: Orchestral Suites 2 & 3; Chaconne - Transcribed for Organ / Wolfgang Rübsam
Brilliant Classics · Nov 2023CD$13.99$6.99 -
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Braunfels: String Quintet & Sinfonia Concertante / Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
CPO · Sep 2018CD$18.99 -
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Weber: Silvana / Kaune, Krapp, Von Bothmer, Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
CPO · Apr 2015CD$36.99 -
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Clytus Gottwald: Alma & Gustav Mahler Transcriptionen Fur Chor A Cappella
Carus · Jan 2013CD$20.99
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, WWV 96 / Weigle, Beyreuth Festival
Ostensibly Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg tells a humorous tale about artistically inclined craftsmen. Goldsmith Veit Pogner promises his daughter Eva's hand in marriage to the winner of a song contest, to which three men are potentially eligible. But upon closer inspection, what is at first glance a harmless farce in a middle-class setting emerges as a profound social analysis. Wagner uses his protagonists to show how a community deals with tradition and those who break with it and just how much innovation and deviation from the norm it can tolerate - as well as to examine what value society places, and should place, on art.
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde / Nilsson, Sawallisch, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
Nobody mastered and shaped the great roles of high drama in the post-war period as effortlessly as Birgit Nilsson - this is her stupendous breakthrough as Isolde at Bayreuth with the musical colleagues she so highly respected. Birgit Nilsson, the young Swedish singer, had, together with Sigurd Bjorling, been recommended by Leo Blech to Winifred Wagner back in 1948 “because her sons felt eager and obliged to establish a new ensemble,” or so Wolfgang Wagner commented in 1994. Nilsson declined an offer to portray Sieglinde in Die Walkure in Bayreuth in 1951 due to an engagement at Glyndebourne. After much negotiation, she was first engaged at the festival in 1953 when she assumed the soprano part in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was this production from 1958, however, that cemented her place in Bayreuth history. Wolfgang Wagner observed in his memoirs: “The way that Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen, in collaboration with Karl Bohm and Wieland Wagner, became the perfect duo in the title of Tristan… had been part of my design several years previously, and so I was delighted to have conferred the ‘minor orders’ on these two great artists.”
Wagner: Siegfried (London, 1959)
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (Bayreuth, 1958)
George London Sings Offenbach, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Verdi & Wagner
The present album is a re-release of Bavarian broadcast recordings of 1953-56 featuring legendary bass-baritone George London at the height of his career. Upon its initial release, the album received glowing reviews from critics and fans, and this now can be enjoyed by a new generation of listeners. “(The) collection is vintage London all the way“ (American Record Guide) “The extracts from Aida and Die Walküre with Astrid Varnay are electrifying“ (BBC Music Magazine) “This is a worthy representation of a singer whose career was ended too soon.“ (International Record Review)
REVIEWS:
The excerpts on the present disc are uniformly excellent, and the recorded sound is surprisingly good. … London is a sensitive and expressive Dr. Miracle, and with excellent assistance from Teresa Stich-Randall and Maria von Ilosvay. With Russian speaking parentage, London had a special leaning towards Russian operas…
That London was a great Wotan is very obvious, even more so in the concluding farewell, where his sensitiveness and beauty of tone is striking. One rarely hears such legato singing in Wagner.
London sings Prince Igor’s aria with great dignity and feeling but it is the three final items with Varnay that form the high point of this album, in that they contain both the greatest music and the finest partner.
The playing of the BRSO is fine throughout and all three conductors ensure idiomatic execution.
-- MusicWeb International
London’s voice was massive, focused and dark, with an exciting and secure top. In these recordings he never blusters, and he sings with verbal acuity, noble tone and dramatic verve…The remastered sound is excellent.
-- Opera Now
It’s good to see a dedicated London CD appear on Orfeo, which concludes with the closing sections of Die Walküre, where the great American bass-baritone is heard in duet with Varnay under the direction of Varnay’s husband, Hermann Weigert, who is especially sensitive with accompanying lower string lines near the start of Wotan’s Farewell. London’s deep rolling voice…makes a strong impression.
-- Gramophone
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
Respighi: Transcriptions of Bach & Rachmaninoff / Neschling, Liège Royal Philharmonic
The success of Ottorino Respighi’s ‘Roman Trilogy’ brought the composer international fame as an outstanding orchestrator. One side effect of this are the orchestral transcriptions gathered on this album: all made in 1929-30 and commissioned by eminent conductors such as Arturo Toscanini and Serge Koussevitzky for their American orchestras.
Respighi’s wide-ranging musical tastes included an interest in early music which probably contributed to him taking on the task of transcribing organ works by Bach – or creating ‘orchestral interpretations’, as he himself called the results. Among the Bach works are the celebrated Passacaglia in C minor – which Stokowski had orchestrated just a few years earlier – as well as the Prelude and Fugue in D major. Both are given the full treatment by Respighi, with orchestral forces including strings, triple woodwind, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and piano four hands for the Prelude and Fugue. The score for the Passacaglia asks for even greater forces (including an organ); Respighi compared Bach’s original to ‘a cathedral built exclusively of sound’ – a description equally valid for his own arrangement. The Passacaglia was a success for Toscanini in New York, possibly influencing Koussevitsky in Boston to place a commission of his own. For him and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Respighi transcribed five of Rachmaninov’s etudes-Tableaux for solo piano. Although these are programmatic pieces, their subject matter had not been disclosed in the editions for piano, but the Russian composer revealed his inspiration to Respighi in order to help him ‘find the appropriate colors’.
With the present album, l’Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and John Neschling bring us the fifth installment in a series that has been called ‘the finest-ever survey of the composer’s orchestral output undertaken by a single conductor’ (BBC Music Magazine).
REVIEW:
The alliance of John Neschling and BIS’s engineers has displayed Respighi’s genius for orchestration in all their previous albums together. This latest offering is no exception. I listened to the stereo layer of the SACD and was well impressed with the results. The sound has depth, body and presence and the engineers have conveyed an abundance of detail in a pleasingly natural way. The recorded sound shows the fine, alert playing of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royale de Liège to optimum advantage. The booklet essay by Jean-Pascal Vachon is very useful.
If anyone doubts Respighi’s flair and skill as an orchestrator, this SACD should still those doubts. It’s an entertaining disc in the best sense of the word and it’s a worthy addition to John Neschling’s Respighi series.
– MusicWeb International
Richard Wagner: Tannhauser
WAGNER Tannhäuser • Joseph Keilberth, cond; Ramón Vinay ( Tannhäuser ); Gré Brouwenstijn ( Elisabeth ); Herta Wilfert ( Venus ); Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau ( Wolfram von Eschenbach ); Josef Greindl ( Landgraf Hermann ); Volker Horn ( Shepherd ); Josef Traxel ( Walther von der Vogelweide ); Gerhard Stolze ( Heinrich der Schreiber ); Toni Blankenheim ( Biterolf ); Theo Adam ( Reinmar von Zweter ); Bayreuth Festival O & Ch • ANDROMEDA 5162, mono (3 CDs: 183:10) Live: Bayreuth 7/22/1954
I’d really like to know why so many Wagner lovers have a bee in their bonnet over Josef Keilberth. So often in others’ reviews I read that he was routine, dull, unimaginative, etc., etc., yet I’ve always liked his conducting. Even as far back as my earliest years in college, when I was absorbing the Wagner canon from old LP recordings in the library ( Lohengrin with Steber and Windgassen, Fliegende Holländer with Varnay and Uhde, etc.), I always found Keilberth’s conducting well-paced, beautifully phrased and articulated as well as urgent in dramatic scope, and so I find it here. Even as early as the Overture (the Paris version, so it connects to the Venusberg music), Keilberth sounds as if he’s on a mission, and that mission is to make Tannhäuser’s story as thrilling as is humanly possible.
The problem with this release is the sound quality of the orchestra. I don’t know whether this recording stems from an in-house tape or a broadcast, but whichever it is the orchestral sound is harsh. The strings grate, the brasses spit, and the timpani sound like someone hitting a garbage can with mallets. And yet, this is an improvement over the one previous issue I’ve heard on Melodram, which was actually worse than this: The sound was both grating and muddy. At least Andromeda was able to clarify the sound and remove most of the surface noise, and happily the poor sound only affects the loud orchestral passages (like the Overture and the beginning of act II), not the singing. It should be noted that the cover of this release claims all-new 24-bit remastering, although like so many off-brand reissues of classic broadcasts, it has no libretto.
The only somewhat weak link in the cast is Wilfert as Venus. She is just OK. Her voice is not tonally pretty or very expressive except that she yells a good deal, and as I’ve said many times, yelling is not an interpretation. She also has a weak low range, which makes her descents in the scale disappointing. (Yet later on in the scene, the voice becomes less tense and she actually sings the written trills, something many Venuses ignore.) Vinay takes a while to warm up, sounding clumsy in Tannhäuser’s more elegant lines and lacking ease in singing the turns (mordents) in “Dir töne Lob.” Yes, he was an outstanding actor, both visually (which of course we can’t see here) and vocally, and that helps in many scenes of the opera, but I’d have liked a bit more suavity in the opening scene.
Once we leave the Venusberg, however, things brighten up considerably. A quick look at the cast list explains why. We have not only seasoned veterans Greindl and Traxel as Hermann and Walther and the still-young but already-legendary Fischer-Dieskau as Wolfram, but also several singers who would, within a decade, become important artists in their own right, namely Theo Adam, Toni Blankenheim, and Gerhard Stolze. As an extra bonus we get the great Gré Brouwenstijn who, along with Cristina Deutekom, was God’s gift to the soprano world from the Netherlands during the 20th century, as Elisabeth. (I should also mention that boy soprano Horn as the Shepherd is exceptionally good.) In addition, the microphone placement, which makes the orchestra sound so harsh, seems to be perfect for the voices, which all sound right and natural. As the opera progresses, Vinay’s voice brightens and loosens up a little, which is all to the good. (While listening, I kept trying to figure out whose voice he reminded me of; the closest I could come was Bernd Weikl if Weikl sang tenor.)
In act II, the vocal acting reaches new heights. Seldom have I heard Elisabeth sung with such nuance and attention to detail as she is here by Brouwenstijn; listen to the way she paints the words in “Was war es dann,” for instance, and as opposed to Vinay, her vocal elegance in singing the mordents is flawless. Griendl, who could at times sing with a loose vibrato and unfocused tone (as in his studio recordings of Tristan und Isolde and Die Zauberflöte ), is in excellent voice, particularly in the low range, and his singing in “Gar viel und schön ward hier” is both powerful and well-nuanced. I found it ironic that “Blick’ ich umher,” which is supposed to be sung somewhat clumsily by Wolfram (the reason he loses the song contest to Tannhäuser), is so elegantly and beautifully vocalized by Fischer-Dieskau that it almost sounds as if he were giving a Lieder recital. Yet, all in all, the drama builds during this act more suspensefully than I’ve heard it in any other performance of the opera. It’s absolutely hair-raising.
Happily, the Prelude to act III is recorded much better than most of the other orchestral music, possibly because it is mostly played softly. The Pilgrims’ Chorus, taken by Keilberth at a quicker than normal tempo, may sound a tad glib to seasoned Wagnerians yet it still manages to sound fervent, and Brouwenstijn’s ensuing aria (“Allmächt’ge Jungfrau”) is sung with rapturous feeling. Needless to say, “O du mein holder Abendstern” is sung beautifully, but what’s interesting to me about young Fischer-Dieskau is that it was his low range that was better than later on (a situation that made his mid-1970s recording of Die Meistersinger so disappointing). Vinay’s voice, ironically, sounds even deeper than Wolfram’s (later on in his career, he returned to singing baritone and then even sang bass!), but he is locked into the character here, so his “Rome narrative” is movingly and dramatically sung with full attention to words, and his death scene is indescribably moving.
The bottom line, then, is that if you really love Tannhäuser you need to own this performance. Because of the sound quality and lack of a libretto it’s not a first choice—that plum goes to the Dernesch-Kollo-Braun-Solti stereo set on Decca—but all things being equal, the singers are recorded so well that if you simply ignore the harshness of the purely orchestral passages (particularly the loud ones), you’re in for an extraordinary treat. This was a Wieland Wagner production, and somehow or other he and Keilberth got the whole cast to perform at white heat.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3043864.jpg?v=1786836317&width=800)
![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/51YTqU1mXKL.jpg?v=1786836317&width=800)
Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]
It is also available on standard CD.
Taken from two concert performances in January, 2015, this is the first installment of an entire Ring Cycle from the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden to be recorded by Naxos. It makes you hungry for the rest.
The recording is clean and clear, with no artificial anything. Van Zweden’s approach is closest in memory to Herbert von Karajan’s–intimate and chamber-like, a family drama that happens to be played out in magical, mythological terms. Also like Karajan, van Zweden takes his time (at 2 hours and 33 minutes, this is on the longish side) and offers seamless segues between scenes. When a solo instrument is featured in Wagner’s dense orchestration, it is given a spotlight, and beautiful moments are to be bathed in–the motif after the Rainbow Bridge is created and the singing that follows rarely have sounded so tuneful and lovely. The Hong Kong Philharmonic is not Berlin or Vienna or the Met, but it has nothing to fear–the playing throughout is smooth and handsome. The opening Rhine passage is dark but clear, the piling up of the gold in Scene IV is beautifully built, and the opera’s final moments are indeed the grandest, as they should be–one of the few instances when van Zweden pulls out all the stops.
The storytelling is at the fore; impeccable diction is the order of the day. As revolting as Alberich always is, we can actually hear the flirtatious playfulness in the opera’s opening moments until he realizes that he doesn’t have a chance. And from then on, he’s simply vile–Peter Sidhom sings with an audible sneer and a ringing top to the voice that we rarely get in this role. He’s a baritone with remarkable “face”.
The back and forth between the fine, unexaggerated Fricka of Michelle De Young and the remarkable, surprising Wotan of Matthias Goerne is natural and familiar, and Goerne is the surprise of the performance. His experience and expertise as a Lieder singer comes in very handy in this opera: his interacting with Loge and his cajoling of Mime and Alberich all are textually and dynamically right-on. The bottom of the voice sounds remarkably rich, and while the top notes are brighter than we normally hear, he has authority. One wonders, however, about his Walküre Wotan….
David Cangelosi’s slimy Mime is vivid and actually sung–note for note, and Kim Begley’s Loge is performed with wonderful detachment: he knows he’s smarter than anyone else. Deborah Humble’s Erda could have been darker-hued, but her attention to the text turns her scene into the “event” it should be. Anna Samuil’s Freia is much like every other soprano’s who sings the part: good at complaining and being afraid. Kwangchul Youn’s Fasolt is on a grand scale; Stephen Milling’s Fafner not so much. Froh, small part though it is, deserves a better profile than Charles Reid gives it, and the Donner of Oleksandr Pushniak begins his “Heda…” on an unsteady note but recovers quickly. The Rhinemaidens–Eri Nakamura, Aurhelia Varak, and Hermine Haselböck–are a terrific, articulate, tuneful trio...
First choice among Rheingolds is still the Decca, but Testament’s release of a 1955 Bayreuth performance with Hans Hotter is certainly in the running, and as a non-gimmicky performance, may even be better. But this new set gives a wonderful overall view of this opera, and at a remarkable price.
-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com
![Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3043864.jpg?v=1786836317&width=400)
Glenn Gould Edition - Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, Etc
WAGNER (trans. Gould) Siegfried Idyll, (orig.) 1 Siegfried Idyll, (trans.) Die Meistersinger: Act I Prelude. Götterdämmerung: Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey • Glenn Gould (pn, cond); Toronto SO members 1 • SONY 52650 (70:59)
I can think of no worthier nomination to Fanfare’s Classical Hall of Fame than this conductorial debut of the late, exceedingly great Glenn Gould, and also his very last recording. Gould, of course, admitted in the late 1960s to being a closet Wagnerite who often “worshipped at the shrine,” and in 1973 he set down piano transcriptions of three favorite pieces. Meistersinger was a stunner the first time I heard it, and coming off a concert with Jorge Bolet playing the Liszt transcription of Tannhäuser —and he really pounded the thing out—I was left in shocked, disappointed silence after hearing Gould’s shimmering, nuanced, hyper-contrapuntal version of Wagner’s most Baroque work. Since then I have come to admire it to no end, a brilliant conception that brings out things you will not hear in any other recording, orchestral or not. Wagner’s orchestration actually gets in the way of everything there, and Gould admitted that when he prepared to play it, it was a question of “what do I leave out this time,” as there were not enough hands, even his own long fingers, to cover all the parts. “Dawn” is just as persuasive if not as extroverted in its intricacy, and the piano sounds just wonderful.
Siegfried is matched in its slow tempo only by Gould’s orchestra reading. Here he turns this transcription into a marvelous tone poem, drawing each and every strand of meaning out of every bar, always cognizant of the overarching structure and subtle phrasing, both Gould trademarks. You can almost come to accept this piece as meant for the piano, so convincing is his reading. Siegfried for chamber orchestra, in its original guise, is given to us in one of the slowest readings on record (Gould liked to temper the tempo in many works), and one can hear the Toronto players straining to bring every ounce of intensity to Gould’s concentrated leadership. Somehow he makes it work, and as a testimony to his extraordinary talent and career, this beautifully conceived album is mandatory in any collection worthy of the name.
FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter
Chapters - A Double Bass Story / Wagner, Skride
Introducing a revolutionary new CD that challenges the stereotypes and prejudices against the double bass. This tribute album showcases the full potential and versatility of the instrument, featuring compositions by renowned composers such as Myroslav Skoryks, John Rutter, Peteris Vasks, and Sergei Rachmaninov. Experience the warm, soft, and welcoming tone of the double bass as it takes center stage in this diverse collection of music. From the spiritual anthem of Ukraine, Melodie by Myroslav Skoryks, to the familiar choral sounds of John Rutter's The Lord Bless You and Keep You, this album is a love letter to the double bass and an invitation to embrace its songful and tuneful credentials.
Transcriptions for 2 Guitars
Bach: Orchestral Suites 2 & 3; Chaconne - Transcribed for Organ / Wolfgang Rübsam
Over the course of more than half a century, Wolfgang Rübsam has consistently brought new insights to bear on the keyboard music of Bach, firstly in sets of the canonic organ music for Philips, then the same for Naxos. In the last few years, his musicianship and understanding of Bach enriched by those decades of experience, he has turned to the harpsichord/piano repertoire for Brilliant Classics. A series of critically acclaimed albums has shed new light on The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas and Toccatas with Rübsam’s performance of them on a lautenwerk – a ‘lute-harpsichord’ with a distinctive chime and colour which Bach himself would have been familiar with. Rübsam now returns to the organ, with new transcriptions and recordings of two Orchestral Suites and Chaconne from the D minor Partita for solo violin. While the Chaconne has attracted transcribers and arrangers ever since the 19th century, drawn magnetically to its evolving variations on a ground bass which accumulate an emotional power unusual even for Bach, the Orchestral Suites are much less often encountered outside their original garb. Yet we can be sure that Bach himself would have embraced Rübsam’s idea with enthusiasm. The Suites themselves are compilations of dances, probably not all originally designed for their eventual destination as high-class entertainment music for the concert series at Café Zimmermann in Leipzig, and Bach repurposed some of their movements as sinfonias and even choruses for his church cantatas. As in his fairly free transcription of the Chaconne, Rübsam has made full use of the instrument at his disposal, a magnificent Casavant instrument (1998) at the Church of St. Louis, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The booklet includes a full disposition for the organ as well as an essay introducing both the works and Rübsam’s uniquely imaginative approach to them. ‘If the sound of the lute-harpsichord highlights Bach’s debt to French lute music, especially in the First Prelude, the instrument clarifies that homage while Rübsam’s interpretation transcends it.’ (Fanfare, November 2018, The Well-Tempered Clavier, 96750)
Reger: Bach Variations, Op. 81; Traume am Kamin
Liszt: Piano Transcriptions of Schubert & Wagner / Diatkine
Bach: Transcriptions
This fascinating set provides a refreshing window onto a much studied, much idolized, and oft performed master of composition, allowing many of his familiar works to appear in a new light, recognizable and yet transformed. Bach’s music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, its essential spirit survives. Many of the transcriptions included here represent the work of contemporary, world-class performers bringing Bach’s masterpieces into the repertoire of their own instruments or ensembles, thereby giving new timbres to the genius of Bach’s contrapuntal lines. The much-loved Goldberg Variations, for example, are given not one, but two new arrangements, as the interwoven voices for keyboard are divided between the members of a string trio and a recorder quintet. Others are scholarly reconstructions of concertos for what might well have been Bach’s originally intended instruments – versions that were subsequently lost to future generations.
From 1729 Bach directed the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, an association consisting of students and musical citizens, and for his performances with them Bach needed to provide secular works. But his time was largely absorbed with writing sacred music for St Thomas’s Church in his role as Kantor. So Bach devised harpsichord concertos by adapting concertos he had originally written for other instruments. Musicologists believe that the seven works known today as Bach’s concertos for solo harpsichord were initially composed as violin or oboe concertos. A third category included here might be called Bach transcriptions by 20th-century “giants”. The great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt arranged for the harpsichord various major works by Bach – five from solo violin works, three from solo cello suites and two movements from a partita for solo flute and a suite for solo lute respectively. These are classics of the arranger’s art, refined and thoroughly idiomatic.
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Orchestermusik
Braunfels: String Quintet & Sinfonia Concertante / Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
Walter Braunfels studied law and economics at the university of Munich until, after seeing a performance of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, he decided to shift his focus to music. He went on to study with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna before returning to Munich to study composition with Felix Mottl and Ludwig Thuille. His earliest success came with the opera Die Vogel. With the rise of the Nazis to power, however, he was dismissed from his positions and listed as being half-Jewish. Luckily, the war passed peacefully for his family, he returned to the public eye after the war was over. On this release, the Munchner Rundfunkorchester with violinist Henry Raudales, violist Norbert Merkl, and hornists Karl Reitmayer and Marc Ostertag present Braunfel’s String Quintet in F sharp minor in its version for String Orchestra, and his Sinfonia Concertante op. 68 for violin, viola, 2 horns, and string orchestra. These are world premiere recordings.
Weber: Silvana / Kaune, Krapp, Von Bothmer, Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
Wagner: Siegfried / Janowski, Salminen, Urmana, Gould, Elsner
WAGNER Siegfried • Marek Janowski, cond; Stephen Gould (Siegfried); Christian Elsner (Mime); Tomasz Konieczny (Wanderer); Jochen Schmeckenbecher (Alberich); Matti Salminen (Fafner); Violeta Urmana (Brünnhilde); Anna Larsson (Erda); Sophie Klussman (Woodbird); Berlin RSO • PENTATONE 5186408 (3 SACDs: 227:30) Live: Philharmonie, Berlin 3/1/2013
This set has much to recommend it. In many ways, it is by far the finest installment of the PentaTone series so far, including the non-Ring items, and as such increases the impression that Janowski’s is a Ring that evolves and improves as it goes along (Rheingold got a lukewarm reception from me in Fanfare 37:2; Walküre was better: see Fanfare 37:3). The sound quality is superb in this Siegfried throughout. Perhaps this is shown best at the very beginning, where the timpani roll is just there, but audible. If, as it continues, this opening is not quite as evocative as Furtwänger at La Scala (who is more primordial), it remains an impressive achievement. The evil undercurrent of that roll seems to be mirrored by the descending bassoon figure. Janowski keeps it moving, and his orchestra is astonishingly well disciplined; yet there is space for lyricism, too. Janowski’s achievement is to provide a terrific sense of momentum, while never rushing.
The cast is strong, although inevitably one always finds oneself pining for perfection. (From this stance, it is easy to see Richard Caniell’s point over at Immortal Performances with his “Dream Ring.”) Christian Elsner’s Mime is wonderfully angry, not a caricature at all (Peter Bronder’s Mime, in Barenboim’s Ring at the BBC Proms this year, was lighter, and clipped and wheedling in the more traditional way). The Wotan/Wanderer here is Tomasz Konieczny, as it has been in the previous two installments. Here he seems to come into his own, a completely different take to that of Hotter yet still big enough of voice and interpretatively sound. Ironically, perhaps, for Head God, Konieczny’s Wotan is one of the most human interpretations on the market today. A darker sound would also have emphasized the differences between Wanderer and Alberich in the second act.
But it is the titular hero that carries the work. Gould has a wonderfully lusty voice (a shame he sounds a tad rushed, by Janowski, in the Forging Song). His exchanges with Mime throughout are expertly managed, and the extended Wanderer/Siegfried part of the final act is enlivened by Gould’s splendidly healthy voice, even at this stage.
Each act fits neatly onto a single disc (Janowski is generally not one to linger). Act II begins with a perfect sense of darkness and foreboding, and both Alberich (Jochen Schmeckenbecher) and Wotan are in top form, especially perhaps Schmeckenbecher in his invoking of Fafner. The grumpy (and excellent) Fafner on this occasion is the experienced Matti Salminen. For the final act, perhaps the “Heil dir, Sonne” is only well done by Urmana rather than radiantly done, but the fault really lies with Janowski, who after excelling so much in this reading does not quite step up to the final moments. Ecstasy is not quite achieved. The final act suffers from a loss of momentum around half way through, which contributes to this.
Despite this, this remains a valuable, involving and rewarding Siegfried that demands to be heard.
FANFARE: Colin Clarke
Strauss & Mahler: Transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald; Schoenb
Clytus Gottwald: Alma & Gustav Mahler Transcriptionen Fur Chor A Cappella
MAHLER (transcr. Gottwald) Erinnerung. Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen. Um Mitternacht. Die zwei blauen Augen. Urlicht. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Scheiden und Meiden. Es sungen drei Engel. Im Abendrot. A. MAHLER (transcr. Gottwald) Drei frühe Lieder • Marcus Creed, cond; SWR Vocal Ens Stuttgart • CARUS 83.370 (63:41 Text and Translation)
Once upon a time (1960, to be exact), choral conductor Clytus Gottwald created the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, a chamber choir whose specialty was music by that era’s most avant-garde composers . . . Ligeti, Ferneyhough, Penderecki, and so on. This ensemble attracted the attention of Pierre Boulez, and it was Boulez who inspired Gottwald to transcribe Ravel’s song Soupir for the ensemble. The results were so effective that Gottwald continued transcribing other works for his ensemble, including music—some of it not even vocal—by Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma. Those transcriptions have outlasted Schola Cantorum Stuttgart. The ensemble disbanded in 1990, but within the past few years, several of Gottwald’s transcriptions have been recorded by the French ensemble Accentus (for the Naïve label), and English conductor Marcus Creed has taken them up for Carus with one of his ensembles, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart. (It doesn’t hurt that the printing arm of Carus publishes three of these selections.) Almost none of them have been recorded before, the exceptions being Die zwei blauen Augen, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen , and Scheiden und Meiden. Im Abendrot is a transcription of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Accentus has recorded a different transcription, believe it or not, of that same music, prepared by Gérard Pesson. Gottwald’s transcription uses the same Eichendorff text that Strauss used in his Four Last Songs.
This disc reveals the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart to be spiritual descendents of Gottwald’s ensemble. In the 1970s, there was no practical reason why Mahler’s music needed to be treated this way. It is my impression that Gottwald did it because it presented him with an interesting intellectual puzzle, and as a challenge for Schola Cantorum Stuttgart. These “auxiliary” transcriptions (to use Gottwald’s word, from the interview printed in Carus’s booklet) present the music in a striking and different light, and help to make Mahler’s music a little strange again, which is not a bad thing in a world in which we risk being overexposed to Mahler. (Imagine saying that 60 years ago!) These transcriptions are not likely to appear on the next program of your local amateur choir. They are, in fact, intimidatingly complex and difficult. For example, the transcriptions of Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen and Im Abendrot require a 16-part ensemble. Overall, these transcriptions are punishing exercises in breath and pitch control, in the modulation and matching of vocal colors, and in the precise blending of sound. What is needed, really, is a team of vocal gymnasts who can approach the music as if with one mind.
Fortunately, it is unlikely that any performers will stumble blindly into this repertoire, and the recorded performances I’ve heard are uniformly excellent, but not identical. One can hear Gottwald’s Schola Cantorum Stuttgart perform Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen in a giant doorstop of a CD set (no longer in print) from Cadenza/Bayer. Gottwald is significantly faster than Creed, to good effect, and solo voices come out of the texture more prominently than they do for Creed. Gottwald’s ensemble is more closely microphoned, and the effect is almost claustrophobic. Creed’s ensemble, while a bit more impersonal, may come a hair closer to technical perfection. Accentus (directed by Laurence Equilbey) adopts almost exactly the same tempo as Gottwald, but the ensemble’s sound is less warm than either Gottwald’s or Creed’s. Given the song’s text, I find Accentus too edgy, but still mightily impressive.
The only caveat I have about the present disc—also about the other two I’ve mentioned—is that these transcriptions are so intense that emotional and intellectual fatigue is a risk for listeners. Several tracks into Creed’s disc I asked myself, “Why are they singing so loudly?,” but then I realized it wasn’t the volume as much it was the laser-like concentration of the transcriptions and the performances. Beautiful stuff, this, but it is far from relaxing!
FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle
