NEWISH BOSTON SYMPHONY SACDS

posted by James Reel

Here are two reviews I contributed to Fanfare last year of items from a new series of high-resolution recordings from James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

BRAHMS Ein deutsches Requiem * James Levine, cond; Christine Schäffer (sop); Michael Volle (bar); Boston SO; Tanglewood Festival Cho * BSO CLASSICS 0901 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 70:23) Live: 09/26-27/08

With the collapse of the major labels, more and more orchestras are launching their own audio series, on disc and online. So far, they seem to have learned little from the fates of the majors; for the most part, they’re churning out standard repertory conducted by conductors who have recorded the music before, and have little new to say about it. (The Mahler series from Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony has been the major exception to this trend.) Now the Boston Symphony Orchestra has launched its own vanity label, and sure enough, its first two releases are standard fare that the orchestra’s music director, James Levine, has already recorded. Yet in terms of interpretive insight and audio quality, these discs deserve to enter the troubled marketplace with great fanfare.

I review Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé elsewhere in this issue; the subject here is Brahms’s German Requiem, which Levine recorded for RCA with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 1983. In the quarter century between that version and Levine’s new in-concert recording with the BSO, the conductor’s timings have hardly changed. The new version is, overall, a mere 20 seconds shorter, and the greatest difference, such as it is, comes in “Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt,” the penultimate movement, which has now bulked up with all of 28 seconds—not a significant amount over the course of an 11- or 12-minute piece. Yet Levine’s conception of the music has changed greatly over the years; indeed, it has deepened and matured.

As only one example, consider the aforementioned penultimate movement. In the Chicago recording, the beginning is as light and airy as if it had been lifted from one of Brahms’s early orchestral serenades, and the first climax is dominated by the typically bright, prominent Chicago brass section (exacerbated by RCA’s tinny, early-digital sonics). In Boston, the opening passage is more processional and subdued (but not undercharacterized)—more like a Requiem than a serenade—and more ominous in the baritone’s early interactions with the chorus and orchestra. At the first climax, the Boston brass are well blended with the rest of the ensemble.

In other words, Levine has fundamentally rethought his approach to the score; he no longer leads it like a serenade, or as if it were Fauré’s gentle welcome to Paradise, yet he doesn’t impose more drama than Brahms placed in the score, as if it were Verdi or Berlioz (two composers with whom Levine has long experience in the opera house). This is a reading of greater gravity, in which each movement gradually unfolds, revealing more and more layers along the way. This is by no means Wagnerian music, but Levine as an experienced Wagnerian has clearly mastered the art of pacing.

The Tanglewood Festival chorus sings this challenging music beautifully—from memory, as is its usual practice—and the two vocal soloists, Christine Schäffer and Michael Volle, are fully satisfactory, although they can’t beat Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau in the classic Klemperer recording, still on EMI; Fischer-Dieskau, especially, has the finest sense of line and color I’ve ever heard in this music.

The surround recording was produced by Elizabeth Ostrow with the technical services of the staff of sound/mirror, the excellent Boston firm that transformed many of the BSO’s old Living Stereo recordings into SACDs. They’ve done a superb job here, taking advantage of Boston Symphony Hall’s warm acoustics to create a spacious yet well blended soundstage.

So in almost every respect, this new release marks a great advance over Levine’s earlier recording of the Requiem (almost every respect; the Chicago Symphony Chorus was certainly wonderful in the RCA version). It’s also more insightful than the Robert Spano SACD from Telarc. This and the Ravel disc I review many pages hence augur very well indeed for BSO Classics. James Reel

RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé * James Levine, cond; Boston SO; Tanglewood Festival Cho * BSO CLASSICS 0801 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 54:55) Live: 10/05-06/07

James Levine recorded Daphnis with the Vienna Philharmonic for DG in the mid 1980s. I’ve never heard that version; Gramophone liked it, which is not necessarily a good sign (critics there generally favor discretion over passion), but I imagine that Levine’s ear for color and fine technical control coaxed an effective performance from an orchestra not usually associated with Ravel’s idiom. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, of course, made one of the greatest Daphnis recordings half a century ago under Charles Munch (and acceptable ones in the 1970s and ’80s under technicians Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink). Now, with James Levine, the BSO has made yet another of the score’s finest recordings.

People think of Daphnis as a sonic spectacular, but it’s much more than that; just listen to the delicacy Levine and his musicians, including the chorus, bring to the hushed opening pages. Thanks to the performers and the recording team, the overall sound is plush, not overtly analytical, yet all the various instrumental and choral lines are expertly balanced throughout. That said, it’s possible to differentiate one trumpet from its neighbor at the back of the soundstage. Still, the emphasis is on sensuality, even through very precise attacks and ensemble work. The excellent solos are flexible and dreamy, but the pirates’ orgy has tremendous punch and precision, and the final scene is stunning. The concert audience is silent until its outburst at the very end.

As far as I can tell, there are only two complete recordings of Daphnis on SACD: this one, in 5.1 surround, and the mid-50s Munch, in two channels. Both are equally superb performances; Levine’s has the sonic edge. James Reel