Stuttgart Ring

Some long journeys over the holiday period allowed me finally to catch up with the 2002/2003 Ring Cycle from the Staatsoper Stuttgart, released on DVD by EuroArts in 2004.

This was, to put it mildly a controversial production. Each opera had a different cast and different director, with the only continuity being the Staatsorchester Stuttgart under the baton of Lothar Zagrosek. Many have weighed in on the pros and cons of this attempt "to deconstruct the totalizing narrative of the Ring cycle", as one might put it. There is an insightful article by Andrew Moravscik here (originally published in Opera Quarterly in 2010), and a representative holding up of hands in horror here.

For my money the stagings were by and large thought-provoking. The test of a production is whether it reveals aspects of the drama that one hadn't previously seen and each of the four directors managed to pull the veil back on occasion. There was really only one act that was utterly devoid of merit or point - the first act of Peter Konwitschny's Die Götterdämmerung, featuring an utterly preposterous fur-clothed Siegfried gamboling around with a hobby-horse and the expression of a smirking village idiot before putting on Brunnhilde's amply proportioned feminine breastplate. The second and third acts of that same production showed real imagination, however, as did much of the other three productions. Many familar Wagnerian clichés showed up - the Nazi baby ward with a crib for each Valkyrie, the gods as gangsters, the post-industrial landscapes, barbed wire prison camps, and so on. But each production had a distinctive vision and the singers did a good job of framing their parts accordingly.

One of the strengths of the Stuttgart Ring is that it features an unusual amount of acting (as opposed to standing and singing). Memorable scenes include the last part of Brunnhilde and Siegfried's great duet, as they alternately fight over and swirl a sheet on their soon-to-be marriage bed, and the long dialog between Alberich and Hagen which begins with Hagen asleep and Alberich awake and appears to end with the roles reversed (quis custodiet custodies, I suppose). Unfortunately, some scenes are memorable for all the wrong reasons, and I would very much like to be able to forget Wotan besporting himself with what appear to be nude Grecian garden gnomes in the second act of Siegfried.

An obvious problem with having each role sung by different singers in each opera is that comparisons are easily made. The Wotans in Die Walküre and Siegfried (Jan-Hendrik Rootering and Wolfgang Schöne respectively) are completely overshadowed by Wolfgang Probst singing the same role in Das Rheingold, and Luana DeVol steals the show as Brunnhilde in Die Götterdämmerung (with a wonderfully sung and acted immolation scene). The fact of the matter, though, is that the three principal characters are disappointing, with the two exceptions just noted. Neither Jon Frederic West not Albert Bonnema makes much of a mark as Siegfried. West is a shouter, while Bonnema is erratic when he tries to project (if only they could somehow be combined!). The real highlights are in the more secondary roles. Robert Gambill and Angela Denoke are very moving as the Walsung twins in Die Walküre, and Heinz Göhrig (Mime) and Björn Waag (Alberich) sing and act very effectively in Siegfried. 

I have to say that I got much more out of the Stuttgart Ring than I expected. The singing is certainly not up to par overall, but Lothar Zagrosek's conducting is solid and at times inspiring. The conceptual approach is worth engaging with and frequently sheds genuine light on the drama. It's unlikely that I'll want to sit through it in its entirety again, but there are powerful acts that it would good to revisit.

I have more long flights later in the week. This time I think I'll take the 1957 Rudolf Kempe Ring from Covent Garden.     

Best Bruckner recordings - really?

Plenty to chew on in the Gramophone magazine's "guide to the best Bruckner recordings". Furtwangler, Knappersbusch, and Celibidache enthusiasts need not apply! Nor Keilberth or Walter fans. Georg Tintner seems at a quick count to be the most frequently picked conductor. There seems to be a recency effect at work here.

Sanderling's Bruckner 3 from Newcastle (1978)

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 3

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Kurt Sanderling

ICA Classics, ICAC 5005. Live performance from City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, 21 April 1978.

The 3^rd Symphony is perhaps the most flawed and certainly the most revised of Bruckner’s symphonies (there are between 3 and 6 versions, depending on how you count). The original 1873 version, disastrously received at its first performance in 1877, was not published until Nowak’s 1977 edition, which based on Wagner’s fair copy of the score that had been dedicated to him. There has been more of a vogue recently for performing this original version (see, e.g., Norrington’s recording, which I reviewed here), but Kurt Sanderling here follows the majority in performing the 1889 revision, edited by Nowak in 1959.

Robert Simpson is not an enthusiast for the 3^rd Symphony, which he describes in his wonderful book The Essence of Bruckner as “the weakest of Bruckner’s numbered symphonies”. Simpson’s objections are primarily structural, and it is true that performances of the 3^rd typically fail to bring out a compelling architecture. 

It is to Sanderling’s credit, though, that this performance does communicate a musical inner logic. In the first movement Sanderling’s steady tempi are key, as his disinclination to luxuriate in Bruckner’s more bombastic moments. The Adagio has more weight, but remains in balance with the first movement. Sanderling and the BBC  Northern Symphony (soon to be renamed the BBC Philharmonic) bring out the lyrical depths of the movement, with steady tempi once again. The juxtaposition of the Scherzo and the Trio is very effective, and sets things up nicely for the split personality of the finale, with a funereal chorale and a sprightly polka running through it (and combined in the famous “double theme”).

All in all this is a fine performance, which makes a good case for the 1889 revision, despite the by and large justified criticisms of Simpson and others. Sanderling is a fine Brucknerian (see here for a review of his December 1999 Stuttgart 7^th). It is unfortunate that the included 10 minute interview by Piers Burton-Page does not touch upon Bruckner. The exchange is interesting nonetheless. If there is a fault, it is in the rather dry acoustics of the Newcastle City Hall, but the ear should soon adjust. Recommended.

Wand and Tennstedt Bruckner DVDs from ICA

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5

BBC Symphony Orchestra, conduced by Günter Wand

ICA Classics DVD ICAD 5049

Bruckner, Symphony No. 7

Boston Symphony Orchestra, conduced by Klaus Tennstedt

ICA Classics DVD ICAD 5066

ICA Classics is the in-house label of the International Classical Artists artist management agency. It puts out historical recordings in its Legacy series, as well as live recordings of its own artists in its Live series. The Legacy series has four Bruckner DVD recordings – in addition to the two reviewed here, the catalog features Bruckner’s 8^th, played by the Boston Symphony under William Steinberg and the 7^th, played by Charles Munch, also with the Boston Symphony. (Click here for my review of the Steinberg recording.) The Wand 5^th was recorded live at the Proms in September 1990, when Wand was a sprightly 78, while the Tennstedt 7^th was captured in November 1977, relatively early in Tennstedt’s career outside East Germany (he had defected only in 1971).

The Günter Wand DVD has a bonus interview with the conductor – Michael Berkeley is the interviewer (although in 2’54” there is not much time for him to shape the conversation!). Wand says some very insightful things about Bruckner, and it is definitely worth watching the interview before listening to the performance. One thing Wand emphasizes is the importance of steady tempi in Bruckner – as he puts it, “rubato can make the whole edifice collapse”. 

 The 5^th Symphony, Bruckner’s most austere work, is very well suited to Wand’s architectural approach, particularly in the last movement where pride of place is taken by a fugue and then a magnificent double fugue.  Wand delivers a very compelling performance. His conducting is light on gesture and emphasis, but communicates a clear vision of the 5^th symphony’s complex structure. The final coda rightfully brought the house down.

Tennstedt has a very different conducting style to Wand. He is much more prone to rubato and variable tempi. Some passages sound as slow as I can remember hearing them. The comparison between Wand and Tennstedt is very much between Wand’s structural conception and Tennstedt’s emphasis on shaping the individual phrase – wood vs. trees, one might put it, a little unkindly. Of the four movements, the Adagio emerged most clearly in Tennstedt’s hands. The structure was brought out, while there was wonderful attention to sonic detail. The coda was played almost like a piece of chamber music. Overall, however, the performance does not convince.

The sound in the Wand recording is good, while the Tennstedt recording leaves something to be desired (with the strings sounding a little subdued, although the brass emerges clearly). Brucknerians will certainly want to add the Wand to their ever-expanding Wand discography. The Tennstedt is for enthusiasts only, however.

Rattle's Bruckner 9

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 9: Four Movement Version

Simon Rattle

Berlin Philharmonic

EMI 9 5269 2 (CD)

The title of this important release is somewhat is a misnomer, since properly speaking there is no four movement version of the 9^th Symphony composed by Anton Bruckner. There are several editions of the three more or less completed movements (“more or less” because Bruckner never finished revising them), the most recent being the 2000 edition by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs (and used in this recording). There is the “Documentation of the finale fragment”, edited by John A. Philips. The Documentation-Score gives the fragments that remain of the unfinished finale. As played by Nicolaus Harnoncourt in his 2002 workshop performance at the Salzburg Festival (see here for my review), the Documentation-Score yields about 18 minutes of music, with some very significant gaps (including the whole of the coda). Finally, there is a “performing version” with the so-called SPCM completion, reconstructed and, to be frank, in places composed by Nicola Samale, John A. Philips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, and Guiseppe Mazzuca. It is this performing version that is recorded for the first time here by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

 

Rattle is not a prolific recorder of Bruckner symphonies, with extant recordings of the 4^th, 7^th, and 9^th. On the evidence of this recording, though, he has great empathy with Bruckner’s musical language and unique conception of musical architecture. The three movements that Bruckner actually composed in toto are very convincingly played.

The first movement is one of Bruckner’s most complex, and Rattle manages to bring out the multiple themes of the Statement/Exposition with great clarity. (I am convinced by Robert Simpson that the terminology of Statement and Counter-Statetment is much more appropriate than the language of traditional sonata form.) The Counter-Statement displays the right combination of grandeur and momentum, and the whole movement is wonderfully paced.

The Scherzo is a little less successful. Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic project energy and dynamism, but much of the movement lacks the edge required to set up the tensions that the Adagio begins to try to resolve. Things pick up in the final appearance of the Scherzo, however, and the Adagio is well set up.

The Adagio is wonderfully played, from an acoustic point of view. Bruckner created extraordinarily beautiful sounds, and this recording more than does them justice. At the same time, though, there are moments when expressive depth is sacrificed to beauty of sound. The Adagio, and the symphony as a whole, displays some revolutionary and jarring dissonances. Truly great performances, to my mind, are structured in a way that places the dissonances at the center of the symphony’s emotional landscape.

These reservations should not detract from Rattle’s achievement in the first three movements. The performance is very good indeed. But what about the SPCM completion?

Here is an autobiographical report. After listening to the full performance on several occasions, and the completed fourth movement on its own on several more, I found long stretches of music that truly matched the first three movements in depth and originality and showed what Bruckner was planning as a counter-balance to the first movement. There are wonderful themes, adventurous harmonies, and challenging formal developments. I was not convinced by the totality, however. There are significant stretches when the music sounds generically “Brucknerian”, without the compelling sense of inner logic and bold experimentation that characterizes Bruckner’s finest movements – the coda, almost completely composed by the SPCM quartet, is a case in point. The interesting comparison is with the Documentation-Score, as recorded by Harnoncourt. I felt that more is lost by going from the Documentation-Score, incomplete though it is, to the performing version, than is lost by going in the other direction.

To conclude, there are two parts to this CD. The firsy is a very good, but not truly great, performance of the three movements that remain of Bruckner’s 9^th symphony. The second is a reconstruction of the fourth movement. Each is valuable and certainl worth listening to (the first three movements in particular). I remain unconvinced, though, of the wisdom of putting them together as a single performance.

Jaap van Zweden’s Bruckner: The 4th, 7th, and 9th Symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

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Bruckner, Symphony No. 4

Jaap van Zweden

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Exton OVCL–00248 (CD-SACD hybrid)

Bruckner, Symphony No. 7

Jaap van Zweden

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Exton OVCL–00255 (CD-SACD hybrid)

Bruckner, Symphony No. 9

Jaap van Zweden

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Exton OVCL–00276 (CD-SACD hybrid)

After enjoying Jaap van Zweden’s fine performance of Bruckner’s 8^th Symphony with the Dallas Symphony at Myerson Hall earlier this year I was excited to get hold of these Japanese imports from the little known Exton label. All three discs are hybrid CD-SACDs of studio recordings made at Hilversum in the Netherlands and then mixed and mastered in Japan. The Netherlands Radio Symphony, usually overshadowed by its near neighbour the Concertgebouw, reveals itself to be a fine Bruckner orchestra, and the two of the three discs, the 4^th and the 7^th, confirmed my initial impression of van Zweden as a superb Brucknerian. The 9^th is a more workmanlike performance, but with some fine moments.

Van Zweden plays the 1880 version of the 4^th Symphony, which to my mind is completely misrepresented by Bruckner’s own program notes with their references to medieval towns, gates opening, knights on proud horses, and so on. What emerges so nicely from this performance is the sense of mystery that permeates the first two movements. The chamber-music like sections in the first movement are brought out with fine woodwind playing and a very well-judged dialog across the orchestra. The dialog continues in the Adagio, which is played with grace and delicacy, even in the funeral march, which on occasion comes close to breaking into a dance. In the Scherzo mystery is replaced by drive and momentum, with some brief interludes in the Trio. There is no question about the destination – the horn calls at the start of the Finale. The overwhelming impression from the Finale is self-assurance, with the bucolic moments lacking the fragility of their Mahlerian counterparts. All in all, a very satisfying performance.

In the 7^th Symphony, van Zweden succeeds in bringing out the organic unity of the score. For example, the cantabile section at more or less the midpoint of the movement is perfectly paced, leading up to the force of the C minor section. The inner logic of the movement emerges very clearly, and the closing bars of the first movement have a real sense of inevitability about them. The overall architecture is also dominant in the Adagio, although here van Zweden allows a greater degree of dynamic contrast (e.g. in the transition to the second thematic group and then back to the first group – as well as in the reintroduction of the main theme at the start of the great crescendo). The resplendent climax, with full percussion, gives way to a well-paced and clearly articulated coda. The Scherzo seems to lack edge initially, but grows more urgent after the Trio. Conductor and orchestra bring out the structural and thematic complexity of the final movement, in a fine end to another very strong and recommended performance.

The 9^th Symphony, however, was rather less satisfying. I found that the performance of the opening movement failed to bring out its large-scale structure, with the climax in the coda seeming rather disconnected from what has gone before. The Scherzo and Trio are more four-square than demonic, obscuring the symphony’s inner momentum. The Adagio is much more compelling, however, as van Zweden offers a much clearer sense of the different elements of Bruckner’s very complex composition (e.g. the return of the first theme at around 8’40” and the return of the chorale at 17’). Where the first movement seems to meander, here there is much more of a sense of graduate progression, building to the magnificently dissonant climax. The conflict and dissonance dissolve in the coda. But, despite the merits of the Adagio, the performance as a whole fails to convince.

From the point of view of the US purchaser, these are very expensive discs (with the 9^th retailing at $45 on Amazon). I would recommend the 4^th and the 7^th for enthusiasts with fairly deep pockets. All but completists can pass on the 9^th.

Incredible bargain on Janowski Ring cycle

It's hard to argue with a Ring cycle for $31.99!

The Janowski Ring, the first digitally recorded cycle is currently available for well under $2.50 per disc at ArchivMusik (with no program notes or other frills). I don't think that this will be many people's go-to Ring cycle, but it is certainly a rewarding set of performances with some wonderful moments and fine conducting from Marek Janowski. Some reviewers have taken issue with Jeanine Altmeyer's Brunnhilde, and it is true that she lacks the intensity and psychological depth of Martha Mödl or Astrid Varnay. But she certainly sings with passion and is a fine partner to Rene Kollo's Siegfried in their great duets. Theo Adam is a compelling Wotan/Wanderer, but the real highlight for me was the pairing of Siegfried Jerusalem and Jessye Norman as the ill-fated Walsung twins.

Marek Janowski is as underrated in Wagner as he is in Bruckner. But fortunately Pentatone have faith in him and are planning to release concert recordings of all 10 Wagner operas with the Berlin Radio Symphony. Enthusiasts will want to listen to this cycle, now nearly 30 years old, as we wait for his new version of the Ring. The concerts will take place in the coming season. Hopefully they will be released not long afterwards.