JS Bach: Cantatas BWV 106, 118b, 198 - Monteverdi Choir ,Gardiner

Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantatas BWV 106, 118b, 198
Argenta, Chance, Johnson, Varcoe, The Monteverdi Choir,
The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Archiv 429 782-2

Twenty years intervened between the composition of these deeply affecting funeral cantatas. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit dates from 1707 when Bach was, for a short while, organist of the Blasiuskirche at Malhausen; Lass, Farstin, lass noch einen Strahl, on the other hand, is a Leipzig work which he wrote and performed in 1727 at the memorial service for Christiane Eberhardine, Queen of Poland, Electoral Princess of Saxony and the wife of Augustus the Strong. Additionally, John Eliot Gardiner includes the little funeral motet 0 Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht in its later version (c.1740) with two "litui" - Gardiner interprets these as trumpets rather than horns - oboes, bassoon and strings.

Any fears that the elegiac spirit might, in this instance be too well sustained, can be dispelled by the immense variety present in the music - variety in form, colour and theological outlook. The central theme of Cantata No. 106, the "Actus tragicus" as it is designated in Penzel's copy, is that of death according to the Old Testament Covenant contrasted with death according to the New Testament Gospels. Cantata No. 198, on the other hand, is of a different character altogether. The author was Gottsched who was soon to become a leading figure in the German Enlightenment; his text evokes a mood somewhat similar to the Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard by his English contemporary, Thomas Gray.

These performances are technically refined and affectionately realized. Anthony Rolfe Johnson is affectingly plaintive in the "Actus tragicus", though not without a hint of vocal strain in the upper reaches of his tessitura, and Stephen Varcoe well-focused, with just the right degree of assertiveness in his aria "Bestelle dein Haus". He and Michael Chance respond tenderly to those sections of the text directly connected with the Crucifixion, while Nancy Argenta makes a brief but lyrical contribution to the whole.

My sensibilities were more readily beguiled by Gardiner's performance of the "Actus tragicus" and of the Motet than by the Funeral Ode for Queen Christiane Eberhardine. My chief reservation concerns the three choruses, which to my ears fail to realize fully the pathos of Bach's music. They provide a powerful B minor framework while at the same time providing a lively contrast with more lightly textured recitatives and arias. I find Gardiner's tempos a shade too fast and the approach in general a little bland. Jfirgen Jfirgens, more successfully than any other perhaps, captured the gracefulness and poignancy of these movements in his Telefunken recording of the work ( [1/67 - nla). Much else here, though, is first-rate and the disc, as a whole, can be confidently recommended.

N.A., Gramophone Magazine 1991

Js Bach: Cantatas BWV 36, 61, 62 - The Monteverdi Choir, Gardiner

Johann Sebatian Bach
Cantatas BWV 36, 61 & 62
Argenta, Lang, Johnson, Bär, The Monteverdi Choir,
The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Archiv 437 327-2

Alas, by the time this piece appears the Advent season of the church year will be over; yet, of course, these three cantatas, like each and every one of the remainder are, in musical terms "per ogni tempo" as Bach himself might have put it. John Eliot Gardiner continues his series for Archiv with works which Bach performed on the First Sunday in Advent - two of them linked, to a greater or lesser extent, to Luther's great hymn Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, itself a metrical version of the fourth-century Veni redemptor gentium, the third a parody by and large of birthday music which Bach performed several times during the mid to late 1720s.

I confess I was not enthusiastic about the previous issue in Gardiner's cantata series (6/92). Too many images and musical gestures seemed understated with emphasis on ornament rather than effect and drama. Gardiner has shown us on many other occasions that he can respond passionately to the music and in this new release he seems to have allowed himself a greater degree of expressive freedom than in the previous two issues. The result is not only a more colourful and relaxed performance but also a more satisfying one. The earliest work here, No. 61, is a masterpiece of Bach's Weimar years, dramatically conceived - the opening number is the first of several in which the composer set the chorus within the framework of a French overture - and containing in its bass arioso one of the great moments of declamatory writing outside the Passions. None of the drama is lost on Gardiner who performs the work lovingly and with an affectingly restrained exuberance.

Were it not for the masterly nature of No. 61, its namesake of ten years later (Leipzig, 1724) would undoubtedly enjoy a higher profile. As it is the piece is too often underrated, suffering from inappropriate comparison with the other. Inappropriate because, apart from name and seasonal dedication, the structural basis of the two are different, the latter adhering more strictly to Luther's hymn. Gardiner gives a fervent and vivacious performance of the symmetrically constructed opening chorus where the hymn melody is sustained by the sopranos. The reverse side of the expressive coin, so to speak, is represented by an accompanied recitative of affecting tenderness for soprano and alto where text and music give us a foretaste of the great Christmas music that was to follow ten years later.

The remaining piece, No. 36, is both the latest and the most extended of the three cantatas. It is also, perhaps, the least even in performance. The strongest features here are the solos since the choir does not always sound completely convincing in the opening chorus with its leaping intervals illustrative of the text, nor the tenors in the later chorale "Der du bist dem Vater gleich". Outstanding among them is the lyrical 12/8 soprano aria with violin obbligato, "Auch mit gedampften, schwachen Stimmen" ("Even with hushed, weak voices God's majesty is revered"). Here the ravishing partnership of Nancy Argenta and the leader of the band, Alison Bury, is all that one could wish for. Gardiner sets what at first struck me as a dangerously slow tempo for this do capo number but it comes over convincingly. The robust bass aria, "Willkommen, werter Schatz!" ("Welcome precious treasure") sung by Olaf B5r, comes off well too, as does much else here.

In spite of small criticisms, then, this is a captivating disc with an outstandingly successful performance of No. 61 and with individual contributions in the remaining cantatas which I shall not want to be without. Full texts are provided, as usual and recorded sound is pleasingly spacious. Strongly recommended.

N.A., Gramophone Magazine 1993

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 - Barshai, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Rudolf Barshai
Brilliant Classics 94040

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Mahler's Fifth Symphony dramatises in music the whole concept of change and contrast in sympathy with his development as composer and man at that point in his life. It is also a supreme test for conductor and orchestra simply because it challenges them to explore extremes of expression whilst maintaining a unity of purpose that ultimately leads to satisfaction. Do anything else and it doesn't cohere since it travels the greatest emotional distance of all his works. This is Mahler's "Eroica", his "A Winter's Tale", or as Von Karajan once observed: "When you get to the end you find you have forgotten what age you were when you started." So it's a tall order to cover all bases and some conductors don't even come close. Most are good at the dramatic/tragic/dark end of the work but fewer appreciate the need to bring out the fantastic/joyful/light end that balances the piece across the whole range - even less can balance the two perfectly. But Rudolf Barshai does and it is that which makes this recording so special.

This is not a studio production put together from many takes. But neither is it one of those concert hall recordings that claims to be "live" but which is the product of two or more public performances assembled into one. This is a one-off performance where what the audience heard is what we hear. This may go some way towards making it the exceptional recording it is because the challenges of "live" performance often bring a sense of drama that no studio production can match, even though the price might sometimes be lapses in playing. However, I cannot hear any part of this performance where the playing is never less than inspired. All in all a remarkable feat when you remember this is an orchestra of students. Has the clean slate of inexperience been put to best use by a first class orchestral trainer making his mark? They do play as though their lives depended on giving Barshai every drop of attention and skill and the results are stunning. This would be considered great playing from one of the world's top professional orchestras. The recorded sound is big and bold also, with plenty of air around the instruments and a good generalised picture. Once or twice you feel the engineers have had to compromise dynamic levels, but this is a small quibble and should not bother you very much.

The opening funeral march is deceptive. There are recordings that launch us into an even blacker tragedy than this but it soon becomes clear that Barshai has a bigger agenda. By holding back just a little on tragic weight he seems to be more aware than most that this movement is part of two greater wholes: as first movement in both the two-movement Part I and in the five-movement symphony. It was only after repeated listening that this aspect became clear to me, but it soon came to assume greater relevance. Indeed it provided the key to what makes this performance tick. I think it vindicates an approach to the first movement that may well not knock you out on first hearing like some recordings do. Ones that, in the end, do not do the whole work as much justice as this. Having noted all of that, there is still no feeling of being unmoved by the first movement's implications under Barshai. It's just that he integrates the emotional foundations Mahler is laying into the work's nervous system far better. He is not the kind of conductor who wears his heart on his sleeve, and Mahler is not the kind of composer who ultimately benefits from that approach. The greatest Mahler conductors listen first to what Mahler is saying and then help the rest of us to hear it. The lesser talents listen to what Mahler is saying and join in. Barshai is clearly of the former category along with Jascha Horenstein whose spirit seems to be evoked here. So, like Horenstein, Barshai takes the longer view. The opening trumpet fanfare is challenging and the funeral march tough and dignified. Then, at the point in the movement marked "Suddenly faster. Passionate. Wild", there is release and power but no pointless hysteria. In fact Barshai just projects the music forward with great thrust and leaves it to make its own effect. We are then dragged back to reality by an especially rebarbative return of the trumpet fanfare only to be then ushered into the long winding down to the end in an unbroken strand. At the point just before the end where a kind of black hole opens up and swallows us, marked by Mahler "Lamenting", Barshai doesn't deliver this in quite the usual way. Most times the moment is rendered suddenly, like a great door slamming in our faces. Here it arrives like a bow wave seeming, like so much else in this performance, to come from within the cortex of the music.

I have known recordings where too dramatic a delivery of the first movement can then deaden the effect of the opening of the second. Barshai's view of the first movement and the way he gets his young players to unleash the second means this is certainly not the case here. Once again there is the feeling of integration between the two movements of Part I. The way the young German string players explode in the opening of the second movement also truly gives us Mahler's marking "Turbulently rough. With the greatest vehemence" marking. They are assisted by magnificent unanimity in the brass and by the woodwinds chattering malevolently when the storm dies down to bring in the reprise of the funeral march from the first movement. Here Barshai relates this reference back to the remarkable degree that is becoming so much a feature of this recording. So too is his feeling for the special colour of this movement as it progresses. This is especially evident in the build-up to the climax that is also superbly paced and full of great playing, especially at the climax itself where strings and brass are pitted thrillingly against each other. The coda then really snatches apparent hard-won triumph away. This passage is terrifying with brass as black as doom and crowned by a massive smash from the tam-tam that sends the movement to hell like a great mad animal felled by a juggernaut that in the closing pages lies twitching and wounded on the floor.

The third movement (Part II of the Symphony) is the point at which you know if the conductor has succeeded in catching the protean nature of the work by switching the mood to reflect the breadth of Mahler's conception. Mahler himself always feared conductors would take the third movement too fast but Barshai doesn't fall into that trap. At over eighteen minutes this is one of the longest versions you will hear and yet it doesn't seem like it. He also shows awareness of various rhythmic snaps that seem to invest every bar, especially the dance-like sections. As well as this he can pare the music down for the intimate sections - notice the lovely cello phrasing - then switch to the landscape-storming passages with the skill of a conjurer. Here the solo horn is especially fine and the spacious recording balance gives the impression of distance. We are a million miles from the trials of the first two movements and that is all a conductor needs to convey. But it needs intimate knowledge and a rare confidence that Barshai seems to possess in spades.

The last two movements together make up Part III, reflecting and balancing the structural imperative of the first two movements that make Part I. Since Barshai seemed very aware of that it's no surprise he is aware of it here also. However, the degree to which he is aware of it is still surprising and goes a long way to distinguishing this performance further. The first movement's Part III counterpart, the famous Adagietto for strings and harp, receives a unique performance. The vexed question is always the speed at which this is played. Even leaving aside the evidence of contemporaries whose notes confirm a more animated interpretation from Mahler the conductor than we are now used to, there's the firm belief this movement is a "song without words" to be played in line with what the human voice could cope with. Performances whose length in minutes is measured in double figures fall outside that. I would also add that in the last movement Mahler recalls the Adagietto in the way he also does themes from the first movement in the second. I believe the recapitulation of the Adagietto material in the fifth movement works best the closer it sounds to the way we heard it first. Since the reprise of the material in the last movement is, by nature of the movement it's contained in, somewhat quicker then an Adagietto nearer in tempo to it reinforces the point Mahler is trying to make that these two movements are indeed intimately connected. Barshai takes just over eight minutes for the Adagietto and that seems just right for investing it with the right amount of charged nostalgia and giving that crucial binding effect with the last movement. The string playing is also exceptional with matchless phrasing from all the desks. Further than that I can only add that this is the first time I have really been made to think of this wonderful movement as one among five rather than as a piece all to itself. I mentioned feeling the same way with his first movement so this is another example of Barshai's remarkable identification of the deep structures in this work.

Taken together as Part III the final two movements are different again from the third movement, but the structural integrity that is again stressed helps bind the elements together. The last movement itself is spaciously drawn and Barshai pulls off the trick of not letting the tension dip as Barbirolli does in his EMI recording. By also paying attention to the rhythmic gait, as well as to the Adagietto reprises, he conveys an honest, earthy humour that is ripe and exuberant but never forced. Another example of giving Mahler the last word. The end of the work in this recording is winning and enhancing and with the feeling that a vast journey has been completed, but one when you can remember every detail. That, in the last analysis, is the clincher for this recording as the best this work has received.

If you buy only one new Mahler recording this year make sure it's this one. Versions of Mahler symphonies of this calibre arrive very seldom. It is the finest recording of the Fifth Symphony currently available.

Tony Duggan

JS Bach: Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069 - TEC, Trevor Pinnock

Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069
The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Archiv 439 780-2

Lovers of the earlier recordings of the four orchestral suites (the Ouvertüren) by Trevor Pinnock and his English Concert will be in for treat with this new recording. The playing is even better than the earlier recordings and the understanding and interpretation of the music based on many years of experience. I bought this around the same time as Philip Pickett's small scale recordings of these works. I have returned to Pinnock often, but Pickett much less so.

The recording also features some other colourful orchestral works from the cantatas of Bach. These are all played with great style and no small amount of grandeur.

If you can get this recording, then I am sure you will be very happy with it.

Amazon Customer Review

Brahms: Symphony No.4, Schoenberg: Variations Op.31 - Nagano

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Arnold Schoenberg: Variations Op. 31
Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano
Harmonia Mundi HMC901884

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Hurwitz gave this recording a 10/10, but this shouldn't deter you from buying it, let alone test-listening it. It didn't deter me at least!
A brief explanation of why I loathe Hurwitz: Nagano deosn't seem a canditate to the glue factory according to the Hurwitz-pensiero. Thielemann (whose Schumann is absolutely wonderful) is. Fortunately for Thielemann figures such as Barenboim, Sawallisch and Grimaud don't read Hurwitz, if they were ready (back in 2004) to sign a petition aimed avoiding Thielemann getting fired from the position he occupied at the Munich Philharmonic. Or maybe they just thought the Munich Philharmonic is a glue factory.

Classics Today Rating: 10/10

Try as I might to be objective and let musical values speak for themselves, I confess that I came to this recording in a cynical frame of mind. After all, who needs another Brahms Fourth? And the Schoenberg coupling seems like such an unoriginal gambit at this late stage. You know: Beauty and the Beast, the obligatory obeisance to a historically "important" modern work, but one that is vile in all other respects. We know that Schoenberg admired Brahms as a forerunner of the notion of "developing variation", but does anyone who wants the Brahms also want the Schoenberg Variations? Besides, it's been done before, at least conceptually. There was Dohnányi's Decca Mozart symphony set, coupled with Webern. Then Inbal did the Schumann Symphonies on Denon with all kinds of Second Viennese stuff attached. It's a tired concept.

Then I listened to the performances. They are fabulous. From the first note of the Brahms, with its rich-toned strings and real sense of impending tragedy, Kent Nagano turns in a reading that ranks with the best. It's impossible to list all of the wonderful moments: the first movement's powerful development section; the magical approach to the recapitulation; the lacerating coda; the Andante's gorgeous lyricism; the whiplash rhythms and uninhibited brilliance of the scherzo; and the perfect balance Nagano finds in the finale between active rage and impassive grandeur.

One example gives an excellent sense of this performance. In the passacaglia (a bit before and after the one-minute mark) Nagano takes special care to bring out the syncopated accompaniment in the horns, and then makes sure that the similar rhythm remains clear when strings have it in the next variation, all the while keeping the bass line audibly present. Finely considered detail placed in the service of the music's long-range continuity - in Brahms that's a sure recipe for success.

Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra may not win over many converts to the cause, but you won't hear a more beautiful performance anywhere. The orchestra plays with such confidence and with such an acute sense of balance and texture that the music loses much of its forbidding exterior and sounds almost approachable. All of which goes to show that it really ought to be approachable when it's played properly. The exceptionally warm and clear recorded sound is a major contributing factor to the success of these interpretations, particularly in the Variations, which never turn strident or screechy. In the end, though, Nagano and the orchestra can't be praised highly enough for making such a tough program--an overplayed warhorse paired with a piece practically no one loves - so compelling. Will anyone actually buy it? Who knows, but it's a major achievement nonetheless.

David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Albinoni: 12 Concertos Op.10 - Toso, Carmignola, ISV, Scimone

Tomaso Albinoni
12 Concertos Op.10
Toso, Carmignola, I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone
Erato 0630-11222-2

Unfortunately there is no review available for this specific release of Albinoni's Op.10. I can warmly recommend it though.

Mahler: Symphony No.2 - Saito Kinen Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
Sony 89374

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Classics Today Rating: 10/10

Seiji Ozawa's credentials as a Mahlerian have not received the recognition that they deserve (the same holds true of his Bruckner). His complete symphony cycle recorded in Boston includes two excellent versions of the First Symphony (the one for Deutsche Grammophon slightly better than the later one for Philips), equally superb performances of the Third, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies, and fine efforts in Nos. 2, 5, 7, and 8. The Sixth would have been very good also had it not been compromised by wretchedly dull recorded sound. Given the fact that Ozawa's Philips recordings with the Saito Kinen Orchestra have been generally excellent, we might reasonably expect something special from this live Mahler 2, and that's exactly what we get. This is a stunning performance, magnificently recorded.

Ozawa's first go at this symphony suffered from, if anything, an excess of polish. It was beautifully played but so smooth as to appear emotionally cool just when the climaxes ought to expand and hit you squarely in the solar plexus. Well, if you have any solar plexus left after this performance, then you're made of tough stuff indeed. Superb string playing marks vitually all of the Saito Kinen orchestra's recordings, and this one is no exception. Just listen to the cellos and basses grind away at their angry recitatives throughout the first movement, or the supple, sexy violins at the opening of the second. The similar excellence of the winds and brass comes as a very pleasant surprise. The horns play with noble, ringing tone (in the finale especially), while the trombones have the bite to make something truly menacing out of the great explosion just before the same movement's "last trump" episode. There are too many fine things to list them all, but suffice it to say that two moments that seemed somewhat inhibited in Ozawa's last go - the great percussion crescendo in the finale, and the music immediately following the concluding chorus - now have the grandeur and amplitude that the music demands.

Natalie Stutzmann's "earth mother" vocal timbre suits the "Urlicht" fourth movement perfectly, and the choral forces acquit themselves admirably, singing clearly and with great power where called for. A little more organ at the very end might have given even more weight to Mahler's cosmic panorama, but it's still more than we usually get, and the superbly balanced live recording puts nothing between you and the players. A great performance of this symphony must convey a sense of occasion, of importance. It should be an event. This evidently was, and thanks to Sony's foresight in capturing it live, it always will be.

David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com