Orchestral
ORCHESTRAL CHOICE
This one-of-a-kind Fourth is a triumph
Simon Rattle’s direct approach to Bruckner reaps rewards, says Michael Tanner
Bruckner
Symphony No. 4 (1878-81) – plus alternative Allegro moderato (1878); Andante quasi Allegretto (1878); Scherzo (1874, rev 1876); Finale (1881 unabridged)
London Symphony Orchestra/ Simon Rattle
LSO Live LSO 0875 126:37 mins (2 discs)
Bruckner has now become so popular that it is possible for the London Symphony Orchestra to publish two accounts of his Fourth Symphony, which can only be bought as a pair, with the consequent increase in price. I must say straightaway that the first disc’s worth of music contains the finest account of the Fourth Symphony I have ever heard, thanks to the extreme simplicity of the approach. With Bruckner it is tempting, with his endless rallentandos and portentous moving towards even sub-climaxes, to accelerate or slam on the brakes. Rattle has none of that (unusual for him), but presents this symphony in a way that eliminates its dangerpoints. The result is a triumph.
The finest account of the Fourth Symphony I’ve ever heard
And now the rub: everyone knows that Bruckner couldn’t stop tinkering with his works, and with none more than the Fourth. The result is that there are several alternative movements, and parts of movements, with no clear indications of which to play. Rattle grasps the nettle, producing on the first disc a plausible coherent whole – though you won’t find a score to match it – and on disc two an assortment of four movements from different stages of the work’s evolution. So while the second disc is fascinating and played with just as much conviction as the first, it does not provide a musical so much as a musicological experience. None of the movements is without interest, even if there are clear failures of inspiration. So in all, particularly for the first disc, this is an imperative purchase for the Brucknerian.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Beethoven
Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’ National
Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda
NSO NSO 0008 (digital only) 72:51 mins
This is the first instalment of what will eventually be a complete set of Beethoven’s Symphonies; each work is to be presented with a visual counterpart, a likeably colourful abstract artwork by Mo Willems (Artist-in-Residence at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, where the National Symphony Orchestra performs). On this evidence it’s too early to say whether the complete set will be indispensable listening for Beethovenians. Equally, it seems unlikely to disappoint.
While the orchestra’s beautifully rounded collective sound is a world away from today’s period-style hegemony, it has such quality in its own right that nothing sounds anachronistic. And Gianandrea Noseda secures from the players an insistently singing sense of line that has this instrumentally-minded composer sounding like one of his more vocally inspired colleagues (for instance Schubert), while in no way short-changing the music’s rhythmic firepower. Tempos are brisk in a way that on the whole convinces: Noseda’s choice for the ‘Eroica’ Symphony’s Allegro con brio first movement feels satisfyingly right, as does the second movement’s ‘Marcia funebre: Adagio assai’, which comes across as it should – aslow march, not a comatose dirge. Noseda includes all the repeat sections indicated by Beethoven; the first movement of the ‘Eroica’ sounds all the more impressively spacious as a result.
The downside is an occasional reliance on too much surface class. To deliver the First Symphony’s finale with such accuracy at this kind of headlong pace is a genuine feat, but the result sounds slick and self-regarding. Malcolm Hayes
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Beethoven • Cherubini • Méhul
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 4 & 8; Cherubini: Lodoïska Overture; Méhul: Symphony No. 1
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/ Bernhard Forck
Harmonia Mundi HMM902448.49 88:34 mins (2 discs)
The idea behind this programme is to interleave two symphonies by Beethoven with two other works by Paris-based composers, each work widely supposed to have been influenced by him, but in fact was not. Cherubini’s overture to his opera Lodoïska is a quite powerful re-Romantic creation written in 1791 – the year that the young Beethoven settled in Vienna, having not yet found his true creative voice. The finale of Étienne Méhul’s Symphony No. 1 in G minor opens with a phrase seemingly alluding to a similar one in the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth; yet both works were premiered at almost the same time in the composers’ respective cities, so neither can have influenced the other. Méhul’s intermittently attractive symphony in fact sounds like a more prolix response to Haydn’s minor-key manner rather than relating to Beethoven, but there is a genuine turbulence to its opening and closing movements that impresses. All four works are given lithe and energetic accounts, excellently precise even at the generally speedy choice of tempos, and amount to a high-quality shop window for the current state of period-instrument performance. There are moments where an eyebrow can be raised, as in the main theme of the Adagio slow movement of Beethoven’s Fourth: whether or not portamento would have been deployed in the composer’s day, its use here feels contrived. And in an otherwise likeable performance of the Eighth, the first movement is whizzed through in a way that’s close to perfunctory. Malcolm Hayes
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Dvořák
Symphonies Nos 7-9
Los Angeles Philharmonic/ Gustavo Dudamel
DG 486 3413 (digital only) 100:43 mins
Dvořák’s last three symphonies give perhaps the clearest picture of his astonishing range as a composer, from the powerful concentration of the Seventh, through the free-wheeling experiment of the Eighth, embodying exuberant high spirits as well as deep personal pathos, to the ‘New World’ inspired by a host of novel experiences and an astute understanding of his American audiences; a triumph at its premiere and an unchallenged orchestral favourite ever since.
Gustavo Dudamel’s performance of the Seventh’s first movement has marvellous lucidity, and the playing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, excellently recorded, reflects every nuance of the score. The Poco Adagio is on the fast side, but Dudamel makes the most of the opening melody’s unforced simplicity and moulds a superbly convincing climax. Unfortunately, the Scherzo is over insistent rhythmically and the finale seems rushed with little sense of exultation at the end.
The Eighth is more successful projecting clear engagement with the varied moods of the first two movements and a thrilling reading of the finale. Sadly, notwithstanding lovely playing, the third movement lacks charm. The ‘New World’, however, is completely successful with a winningly dynamic first movement, and a reading of the famous Largo which, without any histrionics, speaks compellingly for itself. The Scherzo is both powerful and graceful, and in the finale Dudamel’s occasional stretching of the tempo never subverts its strong sense of narrative: as a whole this is one of the finest performances available. Jan Smaczny
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Mahler
Symphony No. 4
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano); Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Harmonia Mundi HMM 905357 54:05 mins
What is remarkable about hearing Mahler’s most classically-orientated symphony performed on instruments of the period when it was written is that the music’s strongly Expressionist subtext comes across so vividly. Not that François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles are short on melodic warmth where it’s needed, but Roth’s meticulous attention to detail, particularly when it comes to Mahler’s intricate dynamic markings with their sudden crescendos, brings out an element of unease that lies not so far beneath the surface of the apparently simple, and even at times simplistic, writing.
Particularly unsettling is the scherzo-like second movement, with its insistently repeated out-of-tune solo fiddle effect – asort of deconstruction of Western culture, as Roth calls the piece in his booklet interview. All this is put to rest in the symphony’s finale – a child’s view of heavenly delights as described in a poem from the folk collection called Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Sabine Devieilhe doesn’t perhaps quite have that elusive quality of breathless innocence and wonder that Mahler’s setting calls for, but it’s hard to fault her singing. Altogether, this very well recorded disc is fascinating in the way it sheds new light on a familiar masterpiece. Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Steve Reich
Runner; Music for Ensemble and Orchestra
Los Angeles Philharmonic/ Susanna Mälkki
Nonesuch 7559791018 36:39 mins
The fluttering opening to Runner, Steve Reich’s 2016 piece for 19-strong ensemble of winds, percussion, pianos and strings, recalls the first section of 1988’s Different Trains, except that, rather than evocative rumbles and whistles, the music expands into a series of melodic echoes. Flute and violin phrases are layered in a round-like fashion atop a buzzing piano bassline. Separate notes become easier to identify in the subsequent movements as the focus moves from semi-quavers to quavers and crotchets – then following the same path in reverse.
The bell pattern is inspired by Ghanaian music and is frequently explored by Reich, who explains his fascination with the ABCBA structure in his 2022 book Conversations. Conductor Susanna Mälkki adheres to a constant tempo throughout, allowing the changing rhythmic motifs to drive the music.
The similarly propulsive Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018) is a natural partner to Runner – Reich even refers to it as Runner 2 in Conversations – and also follows the ABCBA format, similarly beginning with semi-quavers. The use of double vibraphones and double piano gives the music a distinctive Reichian quality; hearing the cell-division unfold across a broad range of timbres is reminiscent of the sound first heard in Music for 18 Musicians. Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Sibelius
Symphonies Nos 5-7
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Owain Arwel Hughes
Rubicon RCD 1073 83:11 mins
This third and final disc in Owain Arwel Hughes’s survey of all Sibelius’s numbered symphonies with the RPO opens with an impressive account of the Fifth – lacking only perhaps a little in visceral excitement. With his preference for steady tempos, Hughes paces the ongoing structure of the opening movement with a sure grasp, and a fine grading of the speed-up in its second half – even if he never quite reaches the dizzy momentum some versions attain in its final bars. He also finds weight and passion in the middle movement which many conductors tend to treat as a lighter intermezzo, and due majesty in the peroration of the finale. The RPO responds warmly in a St John’s Smith Square recording that nicely balances clarity and resonance.
For some reason – different orchestral seating; different placing of microphones? – the recording of the Sixth sounds more recessed and reverberant, with a fuzzing of detail in more complex textures. But Hughes also plods a bit in the opening movement, almost grinding to a halt in its coda. And, while he understands the strange, transition-like second movement better than many conductors, his accounts of the scherzo and finale are average. Something of the work’s radiant remoteness escapes him. Yet, against expectation, he gets a move-on in the opening pages of the Seventh – only to lapse into a rather humdrum scherzo after the work’s central climax. Again, the recorded sound is different: full, immediate but a bit clotted – though it must be conceded that Sibelius’s dense scoring here poses quite a few balance problems of its own. Bayan Northcott
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Bent Sørensen
Second Symphony; Triple Concerto ‘The Island in the City’ Trio con Brio Copenhagen;
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/ Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Dacapo 8.226086 58:21 mins
Both works on this enticing release close with movements in which lamenting farewell is central. Yet neither are overtly or exclusively sorrowful, each arising from an ever-changing tapestry in which memory is constantly present. It’s a trait characteristic of Bent Sørensen (b1958), acclaimed for his ability to create exciting structures by rendering intangibles beautifully into sound – without compromising their intangibility, and at the same time interweaving echoes of composers past.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Beethoven who most directly haunts Sørensen’s 2018 Grawemeyer Award-winning triple concerto, L’Isola della Città (‘The Island in the City’, 2014-15). Superbly performed by Trio con Brio Copenhagen and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the piece was inspired by Sørensen’s experience of apartness, standing on his balcony above a nocturnal city. Through five, through-composed movements, the solo violin, cello and piano coalesce into a single entity or island, surrounded by an orchestra that’s equally vivid and subject to sudden shifts in mood, texture and colour. A Beethovenian fugue and scherzo bring clarity and disjointed drive respectively, yet the trio’s parting ‘escape’ from the mass is ultimately peaceful.
The farewell of the enigmatically titled Second Symphony (2016- 19) is more poignantly personal: Sørensen’s mother died during its composition and he quotes from his fourth string quartet Schreie und Melancholie and a medieval psalm in its final, fourth movement. Combining stillness, melodic tenderness and bright, flaring passion, the work’s material is generated in the first movement alongside its opening ‘scream’, which echoes suggestively throughout. Steph Power
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Vaughan Williams
Symphonies Nos 6 & 8; England, my England* etc
*Roderick Williams (baritone); BBC Symphony Chorus; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins
Hyperion CDA68396 72:38 mins
Wonderful as it is to hear the Eighth treated with the respect it deserves, the main focus has to be on Symphony No. 6. Even against formidable competition, Martyn Brabbins impresses handsomely. Nothing is forced – the fury and the anguish, the grandeur and the desolation seem almost to speak for themselves. What’s surprising on first hearing is how the Symphony’s epic sweep is balanced with such focused clarity. Details catch the ear that tend to get lost in the general melée, while the rhythmic articulation is sharp and muscular. Of course the superb recording helps, but the microphone can’t bring out things that aren’t already there. It’s all beautifully judged, right through to the near-ideal tempo (not hurried but always mobile) for that ghostly, awestruck finale.
The Eighth is a gentler, more personable affair, but the quality of the invention is high, and again felicities of inner detail stand out without spoiling the lyrical flow. The ingeniously structured first movement makes the greatest effect, but there’s much more than colourful fun and games to the winds-only Scherzo, and the strings’s ‘Cavatina’, and even to the carnivalesque pitched-percussion-heavy ‘Toccata’. The fillers are slight, but England, my England is a reminder that, even when called on to provide a wartime morale booster, Vaughan Williams just didn’t do crude jingoism. It isn’t great music, but it is oddly touching, even if – or, perhaps, because – it’s so very much of its time. Stephen Johnson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Mozart
Grétry 1773
Grétry: Céphale et Procris – suite; Mozart: Symphony No. 25; Thamos, König in Ägypten – suite
Orkester Nord/Martin Wahlberg
Aparté AP293 65:09 mins
Allegro con brio is what Mozart asks for in the first movement of the Symphony, and that’s what you get, with the music speeding off the blocks like Usain Bolt. This has undoubted physical excitement, but detail in the upper strings is untidy and often obscured by the sheer weight and aggression of the brass. Tempo isn’t so much of an issue in the Andante, but the twiddly interventions of the piano are a distraction from the flow of the melody, as they are in the Minuet, where the trio is unnecessarily at half-speed. The finale is also fast, but more disciplined, better balanced and accords with Wåhlberg’s desire to ‘capture the vitality and emotion of this music.’
The dramatic style of playing is more suited to the incidental music to Thamos, and there’s some well-ornamented if sometimes precarious wind playing in the Andante. Coupled with the theatrical flair in the other movements, this shows orchestra and conductor at their best: the sudden surges in horns and timpani, a distraction in the symphony, are apt and thrilling here.
We know that Mozart studied scores by Grétry in Paris, and the same feeling for the stage runs through the suite from Céphale et Procris. The melodic invention may not match Mozart’s, but there’s a variety of character: and the dances have elegance or, in the ‘Danse infernale’, a real sense of malice. Martin Cotton
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
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