March 2024 Classical Record Reviews

March 2024 Classical Record Reviews

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Manuel De Falla: El retablo de maese Pedro; Harpsichord Concerto
Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Pablo Heras-Casado, cond.; Benjamin Alard, harpsichord
Harmonia Mundi 902653, CD (reviewed as 24/96). 2024. Alexandra Evrard, prod.; Vincent Mons, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

Many music lovers affiliate Stravinsky’s music for Diaghilev’s ballet Pulcinella as a defining composition within the post-WWI neo-classical motion. Few know that Diaghilev initially selected De Falla because the rating’s composer. Diaghilev turned to Stravinsky after the overcommitted Falla was compelled to show down the fee.

While Stravinsky was composing Pulcinella, whose charming themes have been drawn from the music of Pergolesi, Parisoti, and two different 18th century composers, De Falla set to work on his chamber opera El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show). With a libretto drawn straight from Cervantes’s Don Quixote and themes from older music, the full of life opera premiered in 1923, three years after the Pulcinella premiere. It’s a serious discover, carried out fantastically by a fantastic solid: three Spanish singers, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Benjamin Alard on harpsichord.

Pioneering harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, who performed for the chamber opera’s premiere, turned the dedicatee for De Falla’s closing, 13-minute composition. The brief first motion begins hilariously as its incessant mechanistic assault jumps like a jackrabbit on steroids. The second, slower motion mocks formality. Its grand procession lumbers underneath the burden of its pomposity, at one level seemingly bowing its head in embarrassment. All returns to frolic within the mild, Commedia dell’arte–meets–vaudeville closing motion.

In this glorious recording stuffed with verve, mild, humor, and fantastically delineated rhythms, Alard performs one of many few surviving 16′ register Pleyel "Grand Modèle de Concert" harpsichords constructed for Landowska and performed on the concerto’s 1926 premiere. A should hear.—Jason Victor Serinus

Pierre Génisson: Mozart 1791
Pierre Génisson, clarinets; Concerto Köln, Jakob Lehmann, cond.; Karine Deshayes, mezzo-soprano
Warner Classics/Erato 5419773233 (reviewed as 24/96). 2023. Maximilien Ciup, prod./mixing/mastering; Aurélien Marotte (Meudon), eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

So many recordings of Mozart’s music seem yearly that it is onerous to know the place to start out. But the second I heard the luscious mix of Pierre Génisson’s full and warm-sounding interval and trendy clarinets, basset clarinets, and basset horn with Concerto Köln’s interval devices, I used to be hooked on Mozart 1791. Génisson’s sound is so easy, liquid, and ingratiating that it bears comparisons with that of Richard Stoltzmann (whom I heard from row one among Berkeley’s Hertz Hall) and different fabled clarinetists. His respiration and motion are extraordinarily quiet, and the taking part in refined, nuanced, and remarkably freed from edge.

The program is "curious," to say the least. In addition to the famed Clarinet Concerto in A, Ok.622, fantastically performed on basset clarinet in A, Génisson and Concerto Köln be a part of mezzo Karine Deshayes for Sesto’s "Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio" and "Ecco il punto, o Vitellia… Non più di fiori" from La Clemenza di Tito. It can take some time to heat to Deshayes’s idiosyncratic voice, which is neither as luxurious (Horne) nor as emotionally compelling (Baker) as some. But as soon as Deshayes begins to brighten at lightning velocity, she’s in a category all her personal.

Of the vocal choices organized by Bruno Fontaine for clarinet and orchestra, probably the most profitable is "Voi che sapete," the place Génisson melds profitable naivete with fascinating elaborations. The starting of "Come scoglio" flops as a result of a clarinet can by no means categorical Fiodililigi’s rock-solid, emphatic declaration, but it surely compels as soon as the music begins to maneuver. "Soave sia il vento" is gorgeous; the "Lacrimosa" from the Requiem, with Fontaine on organ and Fender Rhodes, is a visit however hardly tear-inducing. A responsible pleasure however one that might prime your playlist.—Jason Victor Serinus

Tellefsen: Piano Concerti 1–2
Kalkbrenner: Grande Marche interrompue par un orage et Suivie d’une Polonaise
Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra/Howard Shelley (piano/conductor)
Hyperion CDA68345 (CD). 2024. Annabel Connellan, prod.; Ben Connellan, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics *****

The First Concerto of Norwegian composer-pianist Thomas Tellefsen (1823–1874) displays intensive coaching with Chopin in its predominantly linear writing and swatches of prolonged, freestanding solo. Often, the orchestra punctuates the beginning of a brand new part; piano then takes over, or it’s going to be a part of the piano on the cadences of a chorale. Otherwise, the aesthetic is a much less concise, much less flashy Mendelssohn. The finale meanders, however I appreciated its sudden temper modifications.

The Second Concerto is extra unstable. The piano enters on an elaborate, cadenza-like outburst. The orchestra supplies taut, compact tuttis and beautiful clarinet solos. The first motion shifts modes ambivalently. The finale, after some orchestral indecision, settles right into a scurrying tarantella—although the changes out and in of the second theme do not feel natural. Shelley’s tone in each concerti is weighted and articulate. He shapes every little thing musically, retaining the chorales easy, vigorously rising to the climaxes.

Kalkbrenner’s title is correct: a Lisztian andante introduction; a miniaturish march handed between piano and orchestra; and a sprightly polonaise that goes on too lengthy. The orchestra covers a wider palette, whereas the solo presents Shelley scope for technical and coloristic selection.

The Nuremberg Symphony performs capably, although the First Concerto wanted extra strings, and the excessive violins will be dry. With the soloist "conducting," a couple of occasions the gamers fell barely behind. I puzzled whether or not they’d have been tighter with a separate conductor. Hyperion’s sonic body, as traditional, is judiciously heat and agreeable.—Stephen Francis Vasta

Mahler: Symphony 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)
Carolyn Sampson, Jacquelyn Wagner (s); Sasha Cooke, Jess Dandy (a); Barry Banks (t); Julian Orlishausen (bar); Christian Immler (bs); Minnesota Chorale, National Lutheran Choir, Minnesota Boychoir, Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs; Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
BIS-2496 (SACD). 2023. Robert Suff, prod.; Thore Brinkmann, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

Vänskä performs Part I of this behemoth with buoyancy. Dotted rhythms are springy, even the brass interjections have a welcome "carry," and tempo changes are even handed. The conductor thus maintains a stable via line, principally with out shedding the sense of event. The solo-dominated passage within the growth stalls—the sonority by no means coheres—and Vänskä sails seamlessly into the "Veni" recap. Conversely, by selecting up barely for the coda, he alerts the house stretch. Here and in Part II, the violin solos are unusually Expressionist and disturbing.

The conductor’s method works even higher in Part II’s small-group "chamber" episodes. It begins in hushed, affected person anticipation—accents without delay cushioned and emphatic. The following, gripping passage turns tender, and the midrange chorales have a hieratic solemnity. The first solo, for baritone, arrives firmly. Subsequent episodes are clearly textured. Light staccatos in Jene Rosen aus den Händen aren’t fairly "festive," however from the ladies’s little fugue to the tip, the buildup is logical.

Sampson’s soprano is luscious; she and Wagner swap off the excessive peaks with alacrity and accuracy. Banks, overparted and strained, settles right into a fantastic "Blicket auf!" Bass is authoritative however stiff. Massed choruses are glorious in any respect dynamics however with a blended hush that does not fairly lower via on their first Part II entry.

The sonics are probably the most pure but; wind soli emerge exactly positioned and with depth. The closing, well-balanced peroration by no means turns into overwhelming. I am unable to think about Vänskä’s restraining it, however neither would the BIS engineers want to make use of a limiter. An odd shortfall on the finish of a fabulous manufacturing.—Stephen Francis Vasta

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March 7, 2024 at 05:00PM