Orchestral
CD and Other Review

Review: Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works (WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/Holliger)

Editor’s Choice, Orchestral – July 2016 Back in 2013 oboist-composer-conductor Heinz Holliger, in partnership with the excellent WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and featuring an august cast of instrumental soloists – violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianist Dénes Várjon included – initiated a project to record Robert Schumann’s complete orchestral music. The sixth and final volume contrasts Schumann’s first tentative stab at a symphony – the two-movement torso Zwickauer Symphony – with tautly conceived late-period overtures from the ever popular Manfred to the rarer Julius Caesar and Bride of Messina. No man or woman alive knows more about the inner-workings of Schumann’s music than Holliger, but his cycle hasn’t always been consistent in the listening. It was Holliger’s bad luck that his first three volumes were released just as Simon Rattle, Robin Ticciati and Yannick Nézet-Séguin released their own symphony cycles and DG sneaked out Abbado’s second. Compared to the lavishly nuanced detail of Rattle and Ticciati’s poetic intensity, Holliger generates a plainer surface – the Second Symphony’s Scherzo lacks Rattle’s skittish momentum and his reading of the Rhenish is no match for Ticciati’s unhinged volatility. But the weight of Holliger’s scholarly learning can’t be dismissed. Holliger thinks that one key towards informed…

July 29, 2016
Orchestral
CD and Other Review

Review: O’Brien: Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 (Liepāja Symphony/Paul Mann)

Charles O’Brien was a Scottish composer, who doesn’t have much new to say outside (or inside) the British orchestral oeuvre of the early 20th century. However, his music is forthright and attractive, occasionally with a decided Celtic lilt. Hamish MacCunn was his composition teacher, and The Land of the Mountain and the Flood was clearly an influence. The 45-minute Symphony in F Minor begins soberly before entering into some robust 19th-century symphonic rhetoric, punctuated by Teutonic tuttis. There’s barely a hint of the Highlands; its feet are planted firmly in 19th-century Vienna. The slow movement is thoughtful, without any particularly interesting ideas, the second a graceful Menuetto. The last movement is a vigorous tribute to German Romanticism. Again, well scored, but lacking true inspiration. The music of the Ellangowan Concert Overture is instantly recognisable as Celtic; the only missing instrument is a bagpipe. It’s an enjoyable Scottish romp with a gentle conclusion. The overture is more successful than the symphony. It knows where it lives. The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Paul Mann, who directs the music with understanding. Competent but undistinguished playing, likewise the recording.

July 29, 2016
Orchestral
CD and Other Review

Review: Ginastera: Orchestral Works 1(BBC Philharmonic/Mena)

I’ve always regarded Ginastera as a sort of Aaron Copland of the Pampas, with a dash of Villa-Lobos thrown in. This CD contains two ballet suites, from Ollantay and Pampeana No 3, and the complete Estancia (Cattle Ranch). Ollantay and Pampeana No 3 are both based on blood-thirsty pre-Colombian themes with descriptions of anacondas slithering through primeval slime and rather beautiful evocations of dawn and night. Ginastera certainly knew how to orchestrate. Most people who buy this release will want it for the rarely heard complete Estancia, rather than the frequently heard Malambo, guaranteed to bring any audience to its feet. This is worth hearing in full, but half the work consists of Malambo-like movements, which anticipate the finale so heavily that Ginastera virtually steals his own thunder. The work’s subject is a city slicker’s attempt to prove himself in a world dominated by machismo-flaunting gauchos (cowboys). Juanjo Mena and the BBC Phil play well but there’s not enough testosterone. The dances sound like a clique of haughty Argentinian polo players who’ve eloped with English heiresses. What’s really bizarre is the narration and songs interpolated into the score, cheesily crooned by Lucas Somoza Osterc. It’s as if Leonard Bernstein recited…

July 29, 2016
Orchestral
CD and Other Review

Review: Elgar & Vaughan Williams (Pinchas Zukerman)

Paired here with Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and his Tallis Fantasia are several big Elgars: the Introduction and Allegro and Serenade for Strings. A few of Elgar’s ‘pocket tunes’, Salut d’amour, Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit make a welcome appearance. Plus, a novelty! The world premiere recording of Julian Milon’s arrangement of Elgar’s In Moonlight for solo viola (played by Zukerman), strings and harp. Along with Zukerman the Soloist we get Zukerman the Conductor. These days he is equally at home on the podium – in this case the one in front of the orchestra of which he is Principal Guest Conductor: the Royal Philharmonic. Zukerman first recorded the Lark with the English Chamber Orchestra 40 years ago – not the chart-topper then that it is now. He did it as a favour to Barenboim in 1973 at short notice. A casual comparison of durations indicates a more leisurely approach today than on the 1973 ECO recording. The phrasing is uncluttered and fluid.  The overwhelming gift of this disk (and especially this work) is Zukerman’s warmth of tone and organic pacing. He brings the intellect of a conductor to these familiar works – so often heard drenched in…

July 29, 2016