CD REVIEWS: BEETHOVEN, SHOSTAKOVICH, HAYDN

posted by James Reel

Apropos of nothing, here are some items I found on my computer just now, reviews I wrote about a year ago for Fanfare.

BEETHOVEN String Quartets: No. 8; No. 9, “Razumovsky” • Qrt Italiano • PENTATONE 5186 176 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 70:27)

PentaTone has a history of cherry-picking items from old quad Philips cycles without reissuing every recording in the original series (possibly, in some cases, because the whole series was not recorded quadraphonically). So it’s heartening to see that the label has at least brought out the Italiano Quartet’s full traversal of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” quartets. An earlier disc, which I reviewed in Fanfare 32:5, coupled Op. 59 No. 1 with the last of Beethoven’s Op. 18 works. What I wrote about that release holds true for this one: “The readings are poised and flowing, sensitive to a variety of articulation, attacks, and details of dynamics, but not as hyperdramatic as many more recent efforts. Without underplaying the scores, Quartetto Italiano provides interpretations that should be very appealing to listeners who find even the finest contemporary efforts (Emerson, Prazák) to be excessively intense and nervous.” With flexible phrasing, lucid voicings (listen to the clarity of the lines in the finale of Op. 59 No. 2), and unfailing warmth (hear the full tone and weight of that quartet’s Allegretto, offset by crisp attacks), these polished, incisive performances remain attractive more than 35 years after they were recorded. This four-channel reissue presents the musicians on a wide stage from close perspective. Dare we hope that PentaTone will at least complete the Italiano’s Middle Quartet series, even if not committing to the entire cycle? James Reel

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphonies: No. 1; No. 15 • Valery Gergiev, cond; Mariinsky O • MARIINSKY 0502 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 75:52)

Valery Gergiev’s Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Orchestra is the latest major ensemble to venture into the marketplace with its own label. As the World War II gas-rationing billboards asked, is this trip really necessary? Yes, there is a need for this disc’s companion release, Shostakovich’s opera The Nose, but the item at hand suggests that we’re also in for yet another half-hearted Shostakovich symphony cycle.

Gergiev and this orchestra recorded Shostakovich’s middle symphonies for Philips, mostly in SACD, not many years ago, so perhaps that’s why they’re working on this home-grown series from the outside in. Here, the Mariinsky sounds like a very good but overworked or underrehearsed orchestra, with the performances coming across best in the passages that demand little more than Gergiev’s ruthless efficiency. Yevgeney Mravinsky, a conductor whom Gergiev sometimes calls to mind, could also be ruthlessly efficient, but Mravinsky’s performances had an intense focus—and, usually, sufficient elasticity—that made them captivating rather than merely overwhelming. Here, the loud stuff and the fast stuff have undeniable impact, but much else about these scores remains unsaid.

Through the course of these two symphonies, Gergiev shows absolutely no sense of humor, which makes for dreary Shostakovich. In the first symphony’s first movement, the little waltz subject has no real character, certainly no lilt. The Allegro is too fast to be either funny or mordant. The slow movement has insufficient tension. The first movement of the 15th falls flat; the allusions to William Tell lack the requisite nose-thumbing. That symphony’s later, more serious passages are merely delivered, not experienced.

The surround recording is derived partly from concert performances, so the audio engineering is fairly close to evade audience noise, and probably doesn’t provide a full sonic picture of the orchestra’s new hall. Even so, the treatment of the orchestra is flattering and realistic.

Interpretively, none of the available SACD recordings of these symphonies are ideal. Good Mahler conductors are often good Shostakovich conductors, too; interestingly, Gergiev has proven to be uneven in both. If Michael Tilson Thomas or Benjamin Zander or David Zinman were to launch a Shostakovich cycle, that would be something to get excited about. Gergiev’s cycle, judging from this first release, is not. James Reel

HAYDN Die Schöpfung • Colin Davis, cond; Sally Matthews (Gabriel, Eve); Ian Bostridge (Uriel); Dietrich Henschel (Raphael, Adam); London SO and Cho • LSO LIVE 0628 (2 hybrid multichannel SACDs: 102:49) Live: London, 10/6-7, 2007

Colin Davis’s natural flair for Haydn is well known from his classic Philips account of the “London” Symphonies on Philips, and now he applies it to one of Haydn’s two great late oratorios, the German version of The Creation. If you know Davis’s symphony recordings, you won’t be surprised by the great character of the orchestral playing here, and not just in the fanciful, imitative “animal music” of Part 2, where you’ll find such delightful details as a prominent, flowing bass line in the whale aria. Davis remains conscious that this is a Classical work requiring some poise, not a Baroque extravaganza, so his reading is not given to extremes, but it possesses an unfailing vivacity. Just listen to the splendid burst of primeval light at the end of the first chorus, following a suspenseful delivery of the “Representation of Chaos.” The London Symphony Orchestra is working with slightly reduced forces, about 60 players on modern instruments, which seems about right, for Haydn had a big band at his disposal by the standards of his time. The chorus seems just a bit too large, in that some of its text gets swallowed, but overall the singing is as lithe and rhythmically precise as necessary. Among the soloists, soprano Sally Matthews indulges in more fluttery vibrato in her bird aria than is really necessary, but she does handle her coloratura material with aplomb. Tenor Ian Bostridge is self-recommending; as always, he delivers real insights into his text with ravishing sound—he never has to choose between interpretation and beauty of tone. Baritone Dietrich Henschel is a far more restrained interpreter, but he gets the job done, and with a more appealing sound than he musters for William Christie’s recording on Virgin. Unusually for an LSO recording from the Barbican, this one has a bit more elbow room than usual. The sonics are bright and clear and close but not spotlit, and not as desiccated as most recordings from this source, and they allow the performers to work within a very wide dynamic range.

The SACD competition at this writing consists of Ivor Bolton on Oehms Classics, which I have not heard, and a good period-instrument version on Naxos under Andreas Spering, who is more given to extremes and less comfortable with subtle nuance than Davis. I would not hesitate to recommend this LSO Live production to anyone looking for a modern-instrument performance of Die Schöpfung in either multichannel or conventional stereo sound. James Reel