Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases
Weill, 'The Seven Deadly Sins': Soloists, London Symphony Orchestra / Rattle (LSO Live CD & SACD) ★★★★
Sir Simon Rattle chose Weill’s work, an acerbic Berlin pastiche of the Hollywood musical, as one of his first recordings with the CBSO in 1982. The lead role of Anna was taken by his first wife American soprano Elise Ross. Forty years on and his new recording stars his third wife, the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. This 1933 collaboration with Bertolt Brecht was styled a ballet chanté (sung ballet) with dual personality Anna played by a singer and a dancer. No dancing for Kožená but she took both roles – singing one and speaking the other – and is very effective. Her portrayal of Lust is psychologically and vocally acute. Rattle has assembled an excellent male quartet of singers to portray Anna’s exploitative family: Andrew Staples (tenor), Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone) and Florian Boesch (bass-baritone) who has great fun in the travesty role of Mother. Their blackly comic ‘Gluttony’ is a highlight. They also perform songs from Weill as a considerable bonus on the disc: ‘Vom Tod im Wald’ (‘Death in the Forest’); ‘Lonely House’ from the musical ‘Street Scene’ and ‘Beat! Beat! Drums!’ and ‘Dirge for Two Veterans’ from 'Four Walt Whitman Songs'. There’s also a brilliantly executed musical suite from Weill’s ‘Kleine Dreigroschenmusik’ (‘Little Threepenny Music’). Sharp and characterful playing from the LSO, an atmospheric live recording and exemplary texts and notes make for an entertaining listen.
Schmidt, Complete Symphonies: Malmö Symphony Orchestra / Sinaisky (Naxos 4 CDs) ★★★★
The Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Schmidt began musical life as a cellist in the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, often under Mahler, and took counterpoint lessons from Bruckner. Recognition as a composer was slow coming but grew with each of his four symphonies, composed in 1899, 1913, 1928 and 1933. His fourth is a masterpiece and deserves wider recognition and concert performances. It was composed as a Requiem for his daughter and is an emotionally harrowing and noble work, the influence of Bruckner evident. Vassily Sinaisky conducts a trenchant performance, finely played by his Swedish orchestra. Bruckner also inspired the more cerebral No.2 requiring massive forces, with a complex and ingenious set of variations at its heart. This box set also includes the ‘Introduction, Intermezzo and Carnival Music’ from Schmidt’s opera ‘Notre Dame’, the ‘Fuga Solemnis’, ‘Chaconne in D Minor’ and – a good place to start for newcomers – the lively ‘Variations on a Hussar's Song’. With fine playing and recording quality at a bargain price this set is the ideal introduction to Schmidt’s work.
Haydn, ‘Late Symphonies Volume 4’: Danish Chamber Orchestra / Fischer (Naxos CD) ★★★
In music magazine polls of the “Twenty Greatest Symphonies” type, Haydn never merits an entry. If instead they had a “Twenty Greatest Symphonists” poll Haydn would be riding high, not just for his fecundity but because of his consistency and variety. His symphonies have high jinks, nod-and-wink humour, serenity and immense passion – listen to those early Sturm-und-Drang works. This release brings together three of the ‘London’ symphonies, Nos. 102, 103 ‘Drumroll’ and 104 ‘London’. These recordings, using modern instruments and pitch but with what the blurb calls “best technical performance practice”, i.e. fast speeds, limited vibrato and not too much “interpretation”. Roger Norrington’s 1990s Haydn series with the London Classical Players was similar but more imaginative – a really rousing drum roll from the timpanist. Fischer and his Danish band are reliable but his earlier Nimbus cycle has far more characterful playing.
‘The Young Schumann’: Charles Owen (Avie CD) ★★★
This disc from British pianist Charles Owen is a bright and breezy traversal of the ardent young composer’s work in the 1830s when Schumann was in his twenties. This is the Schumann who is the embodiment of the Romantic temperament – shades of E.T.A Hoffmann – delighting in the weird, wonderful and off-kilter. The Op.9 ‘Carnaval’ abounds with Schumann’s love of these qualities and Owen gives us a finely-etched ‘Valse Noble’ and a tender ‘Pantalon et Colombine’. His Op.1 ‘ Abegg Variations’, Op.2 ‘Papillons’, and energetic Op.4 ‘Intermezzi’ are cut from the same sort of cloth. Owen is always tasteful, his playing crisp and lithe and the sound stage is realistic, capturing the piano sound well from treble to bass. Owen’s lack of idiosyncrasy and tempo extremes would make this a good introduction to Schumann. Those virtues also means that the listeners will seldom jump in surprise, gasp at the player’s daring or be dazzled. Listen to Marc-Andre Hamelin or Angela Hewitt (both on Hyperion) who, in their different ways, reveal facets of these fascinating works that Owen does not.
Elgar, ‘There Is Sweet Music: Part-Songs’: Proteus Ensemble / Stephen Shellard (Avie CD) ★★★★
“What exactly is a Part-Song?” I asked myself when approaching this recording. In the 1900 edition of Grove’s ‘Dictionary of Music and Musicians’, Henry Frederick Frost wrote that it’s “a composition for at least three voices in harmony, and without accompaniment,” with an emphasis on “tunefulness” and absolutely no “elaborate” harmonic devices which makes it “distinctly inferior to either the madrigal or the glee.” I found that, without knowing it, I'd sung one at school, Morley’s ‘Now Is the Month of Maying’. Elgar operates within these strictures and shows what variety, range of vocal colour and subject matter a major composer can achieve while doing so. The poems he sets include ones by Byron, Shelley and Tennyson; ‘Deep in my soul’, ‘O wild West Wind!’ and ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ from whence comes the album’s title. And, on a less exalted level, the final item ‘O Happy Eyes’ by Elgar’s wife Caroline Alice. The singing by the eight-strong Proteus Ensemble, under their founder Stephen Shellard, is expressive and versatile – the “protean” appellation thoroughly deserved – and captured in the warm acoustic of Pershore Abbey.
Grace Williams. Orchestra Music: BBC (Resonus Classics CD) ★★★★
In recent years we have seen increasing representation on disc and in the concert hall of music by British women composers. Not just living composers but women whose work in an earlier era was undervalued or neglected. The Welsh composer Grace Williams (1906-1977) studied with Vaughan Williams and in Vienna with modernist Egon Wellesz. In 1949 she became the first British woman to score a feature film, the Welsh coal-mining drama ‘Blue Scar’. The influence of RVW can be heard in the pleasant five ‘Sea Sketches’ for strings but the disc’s highlight is the ‘Four Illustrations for the Legend of Rhiannon’ (1939) where Williams was obviously inspired by Welsh the mythological epic ‘Mabinogion’ to produce a brilliant and passionate suite. The ‘Ballads’ (1968) also has that same mythic power, like a Welsh Arnold Bax. Also included is a noble ‘Castell Caernarfon’ composed for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under John Andrews gives Williams’ music the performance it deserves, precise yet passionate, rhythmically strong – Rhiannon’s music really dances – and ardent.