REGER (arr.
Kolisch) Violin Concerto
Elena Denisova
(vn); Gustav Mahler Ensemble; Alexei
Kornienko, cond
OEHMS 1862 (47:00)
Buy from:
New classical music releases reviewed in detail by Gavin Dixon
Saturday, 28 January 2017
Reger Violin Concerto Elena Denisova
Buy from:
“Reduced” versions of Reger’s Violin Concerto are
becoming increasingly popular on disc, both in the chamber orchestration by
Adolf Busch and, as here, the even smaller ensemble version by Rudolf Kolisch.
The implicit slight against Reger’s own orchestration seems unfair—his use of
orchestra isn’t the most imaginative aspect of his art, but it’s more than serviceable,
and both of his concertos (this and the Piano Concerto) play out on a grand
symphonic scale that only a full orchestra can convey.
The Kolisch version was intended for Schoenberg’s
Society for Private Musical Performances (the two men were brothers-in-law),
although the society had disbanded by the time it was complete, and the first
performance took place in Vienna in 1922—this from the excellent liner notes to
the present release, by Dr. Jürgen Schaarwächter. They also tell us that Reger
was the most performed composer at the society’s concerts, a startling
revelation, given his more recent obscurity, and the difficulty we have today in
acknowledging his place in the history of Modernism. The manuscript of the
Kolisch arrangement was lost after the first performance, and only came to
light in 1986, among the violinist’s papers, by then at the Houghton Library of
Harvard University.
In common with other SPMP arrangements, this one fills
out the missing mid-range textures with piano and harmonium (the other ensemble
instruments are flute, clarinet, horn, string trio, and double bass). Listening
to other SPMP arrangements, those by Schoenberg himself and by Erwin Stein, one
of the goals appears to have been to hide the keyboard instruments, so they
offer support but only as a background presence. Kolisch is less subtle, and
the piano in particular is often dominant in the textures here, especially so
in the present recording, emphasizing the chamber dimensions. But the playing
of the ensemble is excellent, particularly from the wind soloists: the horn
becomes particularly prominent in Kolisch’s arrangement, and the round but
emphatic tone of the player here is ideal.
That roundness of tone may be aided by the recorded
sound, although the engineers (from ORF, who made the recording) have misjudged
the resonance. Microphones seem to be placed well back in a very warm acoustic
(the Nuer Saal des Kärnter Landeskonservatoriums, Austria, where the recording
was made in 2003). This may be intended to compensate for the small ensemble,
to give a sense of orchestral scale, but the result is a wash of sound, with much
ensemble detail lost.
Even the soloist, Elena Denisova, sounds distant,
although, fortunately, she has a sufficiently focused and muscular tone to
maintain the necessary presence. Her sound is warm, and her phrasing generous,
and my only complaint is a slight lack of security in some of the more tortuous
passagework—all the notes are there, but the evenness of tone production
sometimes suffers.
This recording follows another of the Kolisch
transcription, from Winfried Rademacher and the Linos Ensemble (Capriccio
5137). Aside from the drier acoustic, the biggest difference is the running
time, with the Rademacher at least 10 minutes longer. That difference may be
due to the fact that Denisova engages the services of a conductor, Alexei
Kornienko, who sculpts and propels the phrases convincingly, while the
conductorless Linos Ensemble has a tendency to wallow and meander.
Both are good performances though, and, as the rendition
of the solo part should be the guiding concern, there is little to separate them.
That said, chamber arrangements of Reger’s orchestral works remain curiosity
items at best, especially as the original version of the Violin Concerto is
also well represented on disc, with Ulf Wallin (CPO 777736) and Tanja
Becker-Bender (Hyperion 67892) current favorites for the top spot.
This review appears in Fanfare magazine issue 40:5.
Saturday, 21 January 2017
Schnittke Musica Nostalgica Leonard Elschenbroich
SCHNITTKE Cello Sonata No. 11. Suite in the Old Style1.
Madrigal in Memoriam Oleg Kagan. Musica Nostalgica1.
ELSCHENBROICH Shards of Alfred Schnittke1
Leonard Elschenbroich (vc); 1Petr Limonov (pn)
ONYX 410 (60:00)
Buy from:
Is Schnittke’s music really nostalgic? I ask because Leonard Elschenbroich has entitled his new CD Musica Nostalgica, and the idea permeates his every interpretation. Admittedly, the title comes from one of Schnittke’s own works, which is included, but in general, the composer’s attitude to the past seems more complex than simply a lost Utopia. Elschenbroich explains in his liner note that the Russian equivalent, nostalghia, “is a feeling more painful, more severe, regarded with respectful fear.” That translates, in these readings, as a deep expressive intensity, which works well for all the chosen works. Some interpretive decisions are open to question, but the coherence and commitment that characterizes Elschenbroich’s Schnittke are not, and the results are stimulating and emotionally engaging throughout.
The First Cello Sonata begins with a simple,
unaccompanied monologue for the cello, which Elschenbroich delivers in a
whispered, straight tone—a beautifully eerie effect. He treats the movement as
a single dramatic arc, gradually increasing the intensity, although glossing
over some of the moments of repose in the process. The same is true of the moto
perpetuo second movement. Again, Elschenbroich begins at a whisper, and the
sudden left-hand interjections from pianist Petr Limonov are spectacularly powerful.
Both cello and piano are well recorded, with the bass of both instruments
particularly intense, giving a real sense of presence to these dramatic
moments. But, again, the contrasts towards the end of the second movement are
downplayed to emphasize the gradually building intensity: It’s a legitimate approach,
but not the last word. Speaking of last words, the obbligato figure at the top
of the piano at the end of the third movement is played with a wistful rubato
that completely changes the effect—that feeling of nostalgia creeping in again.
Suite in the Old
Style is
presented in nostalgic terms too. This is Schnittke at his most Neoclassical,
but Elschenbroich and Limonov take a more Romantic than Classical approach. The
first movement Pastorale is marked Moderato,
but is here presented at a very stately pace, with much expressive rubato. So
too the “Pantomime” finale, again at a slower pace than the Andantino marking suggests. But it is
not all sentimental indulgence, and the one discord in the work, a
double-stopped semitone clash held for nine bars, is presented with real menace.
The Madrigal in
Memoriam Oleg Kagan is a rarity on disc, at least in the cello version (it
was originally for violin, naturally), making Elschenbroich’s reading all the
more valuable. This is another heart-on-sleeve account, and one that makes no
concessions in terms of drama and intensity for the music’s apparent lack of
substance—just two pages of unaccompanied cello music, none particularly virtuosic.
But, as in the sonata, Elschenbroich makes a real statement out of every note,
fully exploiting the wide-ranging dynamic markings for his expressive ends. It’s
the highlight of the disc.
Musica Nostalgica may seem like overkill, given that it is derived
directly from the Minuet movement of Suite
in the Old Style, heard just a few minutes earlier. But Schnittke takes the
music in a different direction, adding queasy glissandos to the cello part and
making the previously unambiguous major tonality a little more complex.
The program ends with Elschenbroich’s own Shards of Alfred Schnittke, a pastiche
of several of the works already heard. We hear the Neoclassicism of Suite in the Old Style, the moto
perpetuo of the sonata’s second movement, and the high piano obbligato of the
third, all mixed together into the kind of the nebulously structured homage that
Schnittke himself often wrote on the music of earlier composers. But, again,
there is more nostalgia here than Schnittke would have brought to such a
project, at least in Elschenbroich and Limonov’s wistful, emotive reading.
An impressive album, then of Schnittke’s cello works.
With the exceptions of Madrigal
(currently only available on one other recording, from Torleif
Thedéen on BIS) and Elschenbroich’s own piece, all are well represented
on disc. But these are distinctive readings, deeply expressive and with often
surprising dramatic impact. That impact is also aided by the audio quality, which
is excellent throughout. There are enough cello works by Schnittke to fill
another disc, so a second visit by Elschenbroich to this composer’s work would
be welcome indeed.
This review appears in Fanfare magazine issue 40:4.
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Reger String Chamber Music
REGER Sonatas for Unaccompanied Violin, op. 42/1 and 2, op. 91/2 and 6. 3 Duos, op. 131b. Piano Trio,
op. 2. 3 Suites for Solo Viola, op.
131d. Aria, op. 103a/3. Caprice
& Kleine Romanze op. 79e. Albumblatt in EI, WoO II/13. Caprice
in A, WoO II/10. Wiegenlied, op. 79d/1. Wenn
die Linde blüht, op. 76/4.Mariä Wiegenlied, op. 76/52.
KLENGEL Kleine
Suite for 3 cellos. Scherzo for cello and piano in d, Op. 6.
Hymnus
for 12 Cellos, op. 57
Erich Höbarth, Catherine Meyerscough, Sara
Glombitza, Hannah Burchardt, Daniel Tauber, Jueyoung Yang, Jae Jun Park,
Tatjana Masurenko (vn); Friedemann Hecker, Neasa Ní Bhriain, Ronen Shifron
(va); Peter Bruns, Martina Biondi, Carmen Dreßler, Timothy Hopkins, Jungin Huh,
Moritz Klauk, Elisabeth Kogan, Angèle Legasa, Lukas Plag, Nerea Sorozábal,
Friedrich Thiele, Fermín Villanueva, Margarethe Vogler, Dana de Vries (vc); Alexander
Schmalcz, Annegret Bruns, Ayako Tanaka, Mizuki Waki (pn)
Querstand1617 (3 CDs: 200:37)
Querstand is a Leipzig-based label, so it is little
surprise that they have put out a Max Reger release for the centenary of his
death in 2016, given the extensive performances and commemorative events that city
organized to for its one-time celebrity resident. This collection is entitled String Chamber Music, and boxes together
three previous, but recent, releases, Works
for Violin, Works for Viola, and Works
for Cello.
The project came about as a result of a focus on Reger
at Leipzig’s Mendelssohn Hochschule, where 25 string students were given the
opportunity to study the composer’s music with the violinist Erich Höbarth,
violist Tatjana Masurenko, and cellist Peter Bruns. This culminated in a series
of recording sessions in the Hochschule’s Grosser Saal in November and December
2015, hence the huge number of contributing artists to these three discs.
Given that background, the most surprising aspect of
this release is its consistency, in both audio quality and the standard and
style of the performances. Unaccompanied works make up the bulk of the violin
and viola discs, the opp. 42 and 91 Sonatas and the op. 131d Suites respectively,
and none of the student performers are found wanting for the high degree of
exposure. Technically, there are a few, very minor issues with consistency of
articulation and security of pitch, but nothing to challenge the utterly
professional standard throughout. Even picking out the teachers from the
students is a tricky task. And perhaps it is the influence of these teachers
that lends the recordings such consistency. The style of performance on the
violin and viola discs is disciplined, with few Romantic indulgences of
articulation and rubato. The cello performances are a little broader, slower
and more flexible, but not to a fault.
That said, the sheer discipline of these performances
is what prevents them from competing with the very best. Most of this music is
now well represented on disc, with numerous performers demonstrating how
individuality can be projected, even through the strictest of Reger’s
neo-Baroque textures: I’m thinking of Ulf Wallin in the solo violin music,
Tabea Zimmermann in the viola works, and Alban Gerhardt with the cello music. Obviously,
it is a tough call to expect conservatory students to compete with their like,
but the overall impression here is that individuality has been constrained for
the sake of consistency. If so, it has succeeded, but at what cost?
Otherwise, my major objection is the brazen randomness
of the programming. The op. 131d Viola Suites is the only such collection of
works presented here in its entirety. The other two collections jump around Reger’s
prolific output, making orientation very difficult. The viola disc opens with
the op. 2 Piano Trio, hardly a “work for viola” and also, as juvenilia, a poor
substitute for the far more distinctive and accomplished op. 102 Piano Trio.
Also, as a sampler of Reger’s chamber music, the focus on unaccompanied works
places too much emphasis on his neo-Baroque style, and we hear very little his
high Romantic music, which makes up more of his chamber music and which is,
again, more distinctive. The cello disc is the exception here, offering an
accomplished rendition of the op. 116 Cello Sonata from Peter and Annegret
Bruns, the highlight of this collection.
That sonata was dedicated to the cellist Julius
Klengel, another name closely associated with Leipzig, so the cellists have
taken the opportunity to include two of his own works (not that Reger’s own
cello catalog is remotely exhausted). Klengel’s style is mainstream, post-Brahms
Romanticism, and the three works, a Suite for three cellos, a scherzo for cello
and piano, and Hymnus for 12 cellos,
are proficient and elegant. The harmonic style may not actually be as
conservative or as relentlessly consonant as it sounds here, but that is what
comes of being programmed with Reger.
This is a collection of satisfying recordings by
excellent young musicians, but the bizarre programming makes it difficult to
identify an audience. It’s not comprehensive enough for collectors, nor
representative enough for those wishing to sample Reger’s chamber music. The
discs are available separately, so Works
for Cello gets a nod, for the excellent op. 116 Cello Sonata and for the
Klengel rarities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
