Bruckner Symphonies 6 and 9: Simone Young with the Philharmoniker Hamburg

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 5

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 9

Philharmoniker Hamburg
Simone Young, conductor

Oehms Classics OC 689 (SACD)
Oehms Classics OC 693 (SACD)

Here are the last two recordings in Simone Young’s Bruckner cycle with the Philharmoniker Hamburg.  The signature theme of Young’s cycle is using original versions, rather than Bruckner’s later revisions. She did a fine job showcasing the original version of the Eighth – see here for my review. Since the Fifth and Ninth each really only has a single recognized performing version, there are no polemical battles to fight, and it is not surprising, given Young’s predilection for original versions that she eschews any of the completions of the Ninth. However, the flip side of the coin is that with both of these symphonies Young and the Philharmoniker Hamburg have to tackle a wide range of competitors head on and somehow find a way to stand out in a very crowded field. 

By way of comparison I listened to the Fifth and the Ninth in Stanislaw Skowaczewski’s well-regarded cycle with the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony. This was not a completely arbitrary choice. The Skrowaczewski cycle was reissued this year by Oehms Classics, who also brought us the Young cycle. And, like the Philharmonike Hamburg, the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony is not one of Germany’s most celebrated orchestras, so the comparison is not unfairly loading the bases against Young.

The comparison with Skrowaczewski revealed the principal weakness in these two performances – which is really one of articulation. By “articulation” I mean the ability to bring out the large-scale structure of the individual movements within these two highly complex symphonies. Young’s preference for expansive tempi lets her down, particularly in the opening movement of the Fifth – the Introduction sets things up nicely, but then the pace is too slow to allow the musical narrative to emerge as clearly as it does in Skrowaczewski’s performance, which has a much clearer sense of progression. In the opening movement of the Ninth, Young emphasizes the “flow” of the music, as opposed to bringing out the musical punctuation – again in contrast to Skrowaczewski, who offers a much clearer sense of the steps on a long musical journey.

Young is at her best in those sections where the musical structure is much more clearly imposed by the composer – in, for example, the final section of the opening movement of the Fifth, the fugal passages from the finale of the Fifth, and the two scherzos. But she is less successful when it comes to embedding these sections in a broader context (and, in the case of the two scherzos, in making the contrast with the trios as effective as it can be). She is also more at home in the lyrical passages from the slow movements, where she can coax a rich and satisfying sound from the Hamburg strings.

So, these are definitely not the high points of Young’s cycle. Being able to make a powerful case for lesser known and relatively infrequently recorded original versions doesn’t necessarily carry over to being competitive with versions where we have literally hundreds of recordings to choose from. On the plus side, however, the SACD sound is extremely good and both discs offer a choice between stereo and multichannel audio.  

F. Charles Adler Conducts Bruckner: The SPA and Unicorn Recordings

Mass No. 1 in D minor*
Overture in G minor
Symphony No. 1 in C minor
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Symphony No. 6 in A major
Symphony No. 9 in D minor

Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by F. Charles Adler
(*) Sonja Draksler, alto
(*) Vienna Radio Chorus

Music and Arts CD 1283 (5 discs)

This 5 CD set from Music and Arts is a fascinating historical document – not least because F. Charles Adler was a very interesting figure. Born in London, but a teutophile at heart, Adler studied in Munich and worked with Gustav Mahler on the première of the Eighth Symphony. Director of the Düsseldorf Municipal Opera when the First World War broke out in 1914, he was interned as an enemy alien. After the war he remained in Germany until the rise of Hitler led him to emigrate to the U.S., where he settled near Saratoga Springs and established a music festival. In 1951, with businessman Norman Fox, he founded SPA records, originally devoted primarily to small-scale piano and instrumental works by contemporary composers and subsequently expanded to the orchestral repertoire, including Bruckner. Most of the SPA orchestral recordings were produced in Vienna with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (operating under various pseudonyms after their contract with Philips in 1952). By 1955 SPA was broke and Adler started recording for two other labels, Unicorn and Composers Recordings Incorporated (CRI), before issuing a final recording for SPA – Bruckner’s D minor Mass in 1957, included here. Adler died two years later at the age of 70.

 Most of the recordings collected here by Music and Arts are from the SPA catalogue, although the recording of the First is from an LP issued by Unicorn and the Sixth is from a broadcast on the Austrian radio station ORF. The recordings have been prepared by Aaron Z. Snyder. Snyder worked from the original master tape for the First and from LP-to-digital transfers for the SPA LPs, for which the master tapes have all been lost. The sound quality is good, which will not surprise anyone familiar with Snyder’s work refurbishing historical recordings for Music and Arts (e.g. the set of Furtwängler’s Bruckner live performances which I reviewed here).

Another reason this is a fascinating historical document is the versions that Adler chose to perform. He typically chose the first published editions, even when revised critical editions were available. The First is recorded in the Doblinger edition of the Vienna version; the Third in the Rättig edition of the 1890; the Sixth in the 1899 Doblinger edition; and the Ninth in the 1903 Löwe edition. Most of these editions are treated with disdain nowadays, even with current trends towards eclecticism in performing versions. Although it is 40 years old, many of the judgments in Deryck Cooke’s article ‘The Bruckner Problem Simplified’ are widely held. He describes the editions chosen by Adler as “inauthentic” (the First), “unauthentic” (the Third), “unauthentic” (the Sixth), and “entirely unauthentic” (the Ninth). A quick search in John Berky’s Bruckner discography reveals that the weight of recording history is on Cooke’s side. On the First and Sixth Adler’s recordings stand in almost solitary splendor, edition-wise. He is in better company on the Third (joining Szell, Knappertsbusch, and Schuricht), but his predilection for the Löwe edition of the Ninth is shared only by Knappertsbusch. Still, the fact remains that this is how people performed and listened to Bruckner for a long time and so it is very instructive to have these performances available, particularly coming from the baton of a noted Bruckner pioneer.

Musically there is a lot to appreciate in these performances. The Third is an exciting performance, with a driving first movement and an intense adagio. The finale maintains the momentum of a very dynamic scherzo. It is easy to see why this version was so popular with mid-century conductors. There is some marginal orchestral playing, but the brass section is by and large secure. The First is also at the tempestuous end of the spectrum. Adler is definitely not from the “cathedral of sound” school of Bruckner interpretation! His opening movement is very expressive, using contrasting tempi to good effect, and the finale lives up to its galloping start.   

The Mass in D minor is an interesting piece, composed a couple of years before the First, but definitely looking ahead. The Credo anticipates elements of the mature Bruckner’s outer movements, while the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei foreshadow the later Adagios. The mysterious opening to the Kyrie also looks ahead to some of the familiar later openings. There is some shaky singing initially, but overall the performance strikes a nice balance between the choir, the orchestra, and the soloists (who include a fine bass, no details provided in the booklet, unfortunately).

The broadcast of the Sixth (one of only two recordings ever made of the Doblinger edition) has its moments. Despite some uneven playing, probably speaking to lack of rehearsal time, Adler’s expressive interpretation comes across, particularly in the Adagio. The finale, though, contains some awkward transitions and the final bars of the symphony show that Adler and the Vienna Symphony are not quite capable of pulling it all together in the apotheosis. This is the only performance where the sound becomes murky on occasion, with the wind affected more than the strings or brass.

It is only in the Ninth that the edition interferes with the music – most prominently in the Adagio where Löwe eliminates Bruckner’s climactic dissonance, but also in the scherzo where some sections of pizzicato are reassigned to flute and bassoon and a ghastly drum interpolation is introduced in the first transition to the Trio. Adler does a fine job in the opening movement, which moves majestically at a very broad pace (28’27”, a good six minutes longer than Knappertsbusch’s 1950 recordings), but he does not help matters by exaggerated slowing in the Trio. The third movement is less successful than the first, with the coda taken too quickly to my ear.

This set has been produced with great care at every level. The booklet is very informative about Adler as a person and conductor, and contains interesting commentary on each of the performances, as well as technical notes from Aaron Snyder. The sound is generally very good, particularly given the material with which Snyder had to work. I recommend this set wholeheartedly to any Brucknerian interested in the evolution of Bruckner performance and curious about how Bruckner’s symphonies sounded before the critical editions.  

Opus Arte's Blu-Ray of the 2014 Tannhauser from Bayreuth

Richard Wagner, Tannhauser

Hermann, Langrave of Thuringia, Kwangchul Youn

Tannhauser, Torsten Kerl

Wolfram von Eschenbach, Markus Eiche

Walther von der Vogelweider, Lothar Odinius

Biterolf, Thomas Jesatko

Heinrich der Schreiber, Stefan Heibach

Elisabeth, Camilla Nylund

Venus, Michelle Breedt

A young shepherd, Katja Stuber

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus

Conducted by Axel Kober

Chorus Master, Eberhard Friedrich

Directed by Sebastian Baumgarten

Stage designs by Joep van Leishout

Opus Arte Blu-Ray OA BD7171 D

The Baumgarten/van Lieshout production of Tannhauser opened at Bayreuth in July 2011, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock. The production was not well received – according to Mark Ronan’s review in the Telegraph, the production team received vocal boos with not a single clap of applause. This Blu-Ray was recorded three years later, on 12 August 2014 with Axel Kober at the podium and a substantially different cast (only Camilla Nylund remains of the original principals). Judging by the applause at the end, the Bayreuth audience seems to have mellowed with time. My own sympathies lie somewhere between the hostile 2011 audience and the more generous 2014 audience. 

There are lots of good ideas in this production. Basing the staging on the Dutch performance sculptor Joep van Leishout’s installation ‘Technocrat’ is one of them. I may be an outlier here, but I found the inside of a factory both visually appealing and an interesting metaphor for the world that Tannhauser opposes to the Venusberg – and also for Tannhauser’s own experimentation. The Venusberg itself  is a cylindrical cage that arises out of the bowels of the stage at appropriate moments, bathed in red light. I also liked the way that Venus makes silent appearances outside the Venusberg, both in person (in the Act II contest, for example, where she has a seat in the audience) and metaphorically (in Elizabeth’s bright red dress and her occasional departures from maidenly decorum). There is definitely the making of a good production here.

There are also some truly awful ideas. Having Venus be heavily pregnant is one of them. Her fumbled couplings with Torsten Kerl, who is roly poly at best, looked ridiculous, and a powerful final scene was weakened by the eventual appearance of Venus’s baby. Nor is there any need for slapstick between Tannhauser and a conspicuously inebriated shepherd at the beginning of the Wartberg scene in Act I. In fairness, though, most contemporary Wagner productions have at least one absurdity in them.

The real problem with this production is that there is far too much going on. Van Leishout’s installation has multiple levels. This allows the characters to move around, breaking the visual monotony of some of the set pieces. But why have extras constantly moving around doing mysterious things with machinery? Further distraction comes from the projected son-et-lumière show at the rear of the stage. Not a bad idea, and the images were interesting. But in the context of everything else going on all it did was add to the confusion. Joep van Leishout and Sebastian Baumgarten really need to learn that less is often more. It’s not a coincidence, I think, that the most visually satisfying part of the performance was Act III, where the "busy-ness" levels seemed significantly lower. With less conceptual clutter the dramatic devices came across more effectively – e.g. Wolfram dancing with Venus and the obsessive cleaning of the “cleansed” pilgrims.

The vocal highlights of the performance are Markus Eiche’s Wolfram von Eschenbach and Camilla Nylund’s Elisabeth. Eiche combines delicacy and command. Wolfram comes across as much more complex and less “fussy” than he is often portrayed. Eiche is particularly fine in the opening of Act III. Elizabeth, who is so often portrayed as a rather smug puritan, is also revealed to be a much more multi-dimensional character who Like Tannhauser battles with the temptations of the Venusberg. Michelle Breedt’s Venus sings with verve and passion in the Venusberg, but doesn’t project as well as she might. Kwangchul Youn is a fine Landgrave, although the role does not demand much by way of acting.

The real disappointment was Torsten Kerl’s Tannhauser. As so often the tenor lead is the weak link in the chain. Kerl has certainly got the volume of a heldentenor. This serves him well in his entrance into the Wartburg in Act I, and again in the climactic moments in Act II when he has to project over the choir and full orchestra. But he falls sadly short wherever vocal characterization is called for. There some moments in Act III (particularly recounting his pilgrimage to Rome) when Kerl shows what he might be capable of, but he soon lapses back into belting it out at the top of his voice. His enthusiastic reception by the Bayreuth audience surprised me.

The Bayreuth Festival Orchestra is in fine voice in this performance. Axel Kober (music director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein) made his Bayreuth debut in 2013. He is clearly at home with the score and paces the work extremely well, maintaining dramatic focus through the music even it appears to be total chaos on stage. The partnership between orchestra and choir is excellent, with both outbound and inbound pilgrims’ choruses working extremely effectively – at least from a musical point of view, it being a tribute to Chorus Master Eberhard Freidrich that the choir sings so well even when asked to do rather bizarre things on stage.

The sound quality is very good. I listened in LPCM stereo – a DTS multichannel option is also available. There is fine camera work (including some unusual overhead shots) and the Blu-Ray is well-provided with extras, including biographies of the principals. My only complaint is that Opus Arte (unforgiveably) play the credits over the opening of the overture – this ghastly habit has to stop!  It would be hard to recommend this as a go-to Tannhauser, but the concept of the production is interesting and controversial enough that Wagnerians not able to get to Bayreuth will want to take a look themselves.

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande and the Violin Concerto (Markus Stenz with the Gürzenich orchestra and Kolja Blacher)

Arnold Schoenberg, Pelleas und Melisande Op. 5

Arnold Schoenberg, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 36*

Gürzenich-Orchester, Köln

Markus Stenz, conductor

Kolja Blacher, violin*

Oehms Classics OC 445 (CD)

Until summer 2014 Markus Stenz was musical director of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne (he is now with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra). One of the highlights of his tenure in Cologne was a fine Mahler cycle (see here for my review of the Ninth). This disc (issued, like the Mahler cycle, by Oehms Classics) must have been one of his last projects with the Gürzenich Orchestra.

  

The pairing of Schoenberg’s early Pelleas und Melisande (written in 1902-3) with the much later Violin Concerto (written more than thirty years later in 1934-36) may seem odd. Pelleas is a late-Romantic tone-poem, Wagnerian in its musical idiom and scope – although Schoenberg’s orchestra is large even by Wagner’s standards (with 17 woodwind, 18 brass, and 8 percussion). The Violin Concerto, in contrast, is a 12-note piece. Pelleas is written in D-minor, while the concerto is atonal. A more predictable pairing might be the orchestral version of Verklärte Nacht, written in 1899 and inhabiting a similar, expressionistic musical universe. That is Karajan’s choice in his 1974 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic.

In two of his recordings, though, Pierre Boulez has partnered Pelleas with the Violin Concerto, and there is a logic for the pairing. Among Schoenberg’s later works using the 12-note technique, the Violin Concerto is probably one of the most expressive. There is a definite continuity in expressive idiom between the two pieces, even if the musical languages are very different. And the two works share a similar compositional structure  – both involve highly inventive reworking and developing of short and recognizable thematic motifs, with great contrapuntal sophistication.

As one might expect after a Mahler cycle, Stenz and the Gürzenich sound completely at home in the sprawling single movement Pelleas (a lengthy 38 minutes). They keep the overall structure in view, bringing out the piece’s rich orchestral textures without getting lost in its highways and byways. The Violin Concerto is famously demanding on the soloist. Kolja Blacher rises to the occasion, matching the technical challenges with a sensitive and lyrical touch. The orchestral accompaniment is very fine. With very good sound and informative program notes this disc is highly recommended.

Mahler 5 and the Kindertotenleider – live performances from Tenstedtand the NDR in 1980 (Profil Hänssler)

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5

Gustav Mahler, Kindertotenlieder (*)

(*) Brigitte FassBaender
NDR Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Klaus Tennstedt

Profil Hänssler PH13058 (2 CDs)

Profil Hüanssler have given us a fine live recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 from Klaus Tennstedt and the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR Sinfonieorchester), with a live performance of the Kindertotenlieder sung by Brigitte Fassbaender on a second disc. The performances date from 1980 (May 18 and November 11 respectively), towards the end of Tennstedt’s 2 year stint as principal conductor of the NDR orchestra, shortly before he handed over the reins to Gunter Wänd.

Mahler’s Fifth can present challenges to the unwary. The symphony has a complex tripartite structure with two pairs of outer movements surrounding the Scherzo that is the true heart of the symphony. It has some wonderful opportunities for soloists (particularly for solo horn in the Scherzo), and the well-known Adagio can side-track conductors who slip into playing it as a standalone piece. Although the symphony is more conventional than the Second, Third, and Fourth, it has complex orchestration and internal structure, particularly in the second and final movements.

The very assertive trumpet fanfare that opens the first movement sets the tone for the rest of the performance. Tennstedt and the NDR give a forceful and assured reading. Conductor and orchestra are both clearly at home with Mahler’s musical idiom and, more intangibly, with his musical temperament. In the opening movement the multiple voices come out clearly, with the dominant funeral march adroitly juxtaposed with the two trios. The NDR brass section has a very clear sound. Tennstedt and the NDR live up to the indication for the second movement, which is “moving stormily, with the greatest vehemence”. They tread with assurance and energy through the complex development, bringing out thematic contrasts and juxtapositions. The brass section continues to shine in the Scherzo, which is played as the centerpiece that it is. The Adagio is played with luscious string sound and great emotion, but also maintaining the forceful momentum characteristic of the performance as a whole. In the final Rondo conductor and orchestra display a sure-footed sense of direction through a very complex movement full of allusions  and sudden shifts of mood and tempo. Tennstedt brings the movement and symphony to a decisive close.

All in all the Fifth is a very strong performance. Turning to the second disc, Brigitte Fassbaender was an exceptional singer at the height of her powers in 1980. However, I found the performance of the Kindertotenlieder less compelling. There aren’t any obvious identifiable flaws in singing or playing, but the performance doesn’t quite catch the atmosphere of complete despair in the 5 poems that Mahler selected from the 428 that Rückert wrote in 1833-4 following the death of two of his children from scarlet fever. It is a shame that including the Kindertotenlieder on a separate disc only adds 26 minutes of music but effectively doubles the price. The sound quality on both performances is high, but I think that Profil would have been better advised to issue the performance of the Fifth on its own.  

Nagano on Bruckner 9 at GSOplay.

The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Sweden's national orchestra) has an excellent streaming/VOD site. It's completely free and features a selection of past concerts as well as the opportunity to stream live. It also has some excellent interviews. I particularly enjoyed this one with Kent Nagano, the Principal Guest Conductor for the GSO, talking about Bruckner's 9th Symphony.

http://www.gsoplay.se/sv/video/just-leave-piece-alone-nagano-bruckner-9

Tannhauser Overture: Georg Solti in Rehearsal and Performance

Richard Wagner, Overture to Tannhauser

(Georg Solti in Rehearsal and Performance)

Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Conducted by Georg Solti

Euroarts 2052038 (DVD)

This is the latest DVD in EuroArts series of archive recordings of eminent conductors in rehearsal and performance. Previous issues include Erich Leinsdorf, Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, and Sergiu Celibidache. The Solti recording captured here dates from  a concert in1966 (no further details are available either in the liner notes or on the website), a year after Solti finished his celebrated recording of Das Ring des Nibelungen with the Vienna Philharmonic. The orchestra is the Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, a fine orchestra better known now under its current name of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Compared to other issues in the series the offering here is a little sparse. We are given two rehearsals, totaling just over 40 minutes, and a 17 minute performance. The Karajan DVD, in contrast, offers rehearsals and performances of Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. It runs for 2 hours 20 minutes with over 90 minutes of rehearsal time. An earlier DVD issue (from Arthaus in 2003) also included the Hungarian march from Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust. Still, one advantage of focusing on a relatively short work is that we are able to hear and watch almost every bar being rehearsed.

  
The key word here is ‘rehearsed”, as opposed to ‘played in rehearsal’. Solti lives up to his reputation for perfectionism and attention to detail. He gets to work without much idle chat and works methodically through the piece, frequently stopping to work with individual sections and individual musicians. Solti places enormous emphasis on the musicality of the overture and the quality of the sound (to the point of asking the percussion to stand before their entry). His knowledge of the entire work is very deep and he often explains how he wants a section or instrument to sound with reference to how the thematic material is developed later on in the opera – e.g. to the clarinetist playing the Venus theme.

I was curious to observe the dynamics between conductor and ensemble, given Solti’s well-known and well-documented reputation as a martinet – as the booklet remarks, he was known at the Royal Opera House as Georg the Terrible and the Prussian (ironic really, for a Hungarian Jew who spent the war years in exile in Switzerland). Of course he may have been on his best behavior in front of the TV cameras, but the Solti that emerges here is very respectful of the players and (almost) as free with his praise as his criticism. Instructions are given politely and it is quite plainly just about the music. The impression that I came away with was of rigor not ferocity.

For those of us who rarely if ever see the work that goes into a performance it is salutary to be reminded of the depth of thought and preparation (and also rather humbling, particularly for a reviewer). The actual performance is marvelous and having seen the rehearsal in advance helps the listener pick out subtle details they might otherwise have missed. The audio and video quality are extremely good for the date and the booklet includes a nice biographical sketch. This is well worth a look, for Wagnerians, Solti enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates fine conducting.