{"id":1755,"date":"2019-11-14T12:57:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T12:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2019-11-14T12:57:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T12:57:43","slug":"1755","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1755","title":{"rendered":"New Chandos & Pentatone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Graham Williams Writes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

KORNGOLD: SYMPHONY IN F SHARP, ETC., Sinfonia of London John Wilson\/Chandos SACD<\/strong>\u00a0 John Wilson follows up his superb survey of Aaron Copland\u2019s symphonic works for Chandos with this new recording of three of Eric Korngold\u2019s late works that were destined for the concert hall. These have to a large extent been overshadowed by the success of the composer\u2019s many Hollywood film scores written for the Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 40s. Wilson\u2019s enthusiasm for the composer has already been exemplified by the inclusion of many Korngold film scores in his concerts at the BBC Proms and elsewhere. The orchestra here is the Sinfonia of London a body comprising some of the finest players from London\u2019s orchestras. The Sinfonia was originally created in 1955 and re-formed in 2018 by John Wilson as a session orchestra for large scale recording projects. In that respect it evokes memories of a similar band \u2013 The National Philharmonic Orchestra \u2013 that with Charles Gerhardt also made many memorable recordings of film scores, including those of Korngold, in the 1970s. The liner notes indicate that further discs will follow over the coming months from these artists and it is to be hoped that more of Korngold\u2019s orchestral music will be amongst them. The main work on this SACD is the Symphony in F sharp Op 40, written very much as a labour of love between 1947 and 1952 and intended to herald the composers post-war return to the concert hall. Sadly the musical world had moved on and a tonal, large-scale late Romantic Symphony in the mould of Mahler did not find favour with the critics or audiences of the time. The work received a badly performed premier in October 1954 as part of a radio concert given in Vienna and conducted by Harold Byrns. It was subsequently neglected until championed by Rudolf Kempe who recorded it with the Munich Philharmonic nearly half a century ago. Though there have been a number of fine recordings of the symphony on CD over the years, this is only the second to be available in hi-res sound. The first was from Marc Albrecht and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg that appeared nine years ago on the Pentatone label. I enthused over this in my review and have not altered my opinion of its many virtues, but now also find John Wilson\u2019s radically different interpretation to be equally compelling. Wilson\u2019s performance is characterised by swift, forward moving tempi in all four movements of the work that eschews any trace of a stodginess or glutinous sentimentality. The result is a much tougher and sinewy account of the score than is to be found in rival versions; one that moves the style of the symphony closer to the era in which it was composed rather than an example of fin de si\u00e8cle romanticism. The playing of the orchestra is clean, lean and superbly disciplined throughout. The scherzo, for example, is played with breathtaking precision and confidence \u2013 a whirlwind tour de force. The third movement (Adagio, Lento – Con tristezza) flows convincingly even at a tempo seemingly in conflict with the markings given above, but thanks to the eloquent string playing, both the gravity and ardour inherent in the music is never short changed.<\/p>\n

Timings for both recordings epitomize the differing approaches of the two maestros.<\/p>\n

Albrecht I 14.59 II 10.04 III 15.27 IV 10.30<\/p>\n

Wilson I 12.33 II 8.21 III 13.40 IV 9.44<\/p>\n

Korngold aficionados will be delighted with either or both of these recordings. Having completed in 1952 both the Symphony and the work by which Korngold is best known today \u2013 his ravishing and much recorded Violin Concerto \u2013 Korngold received two commissions from the American School Orchestra Association that resulted in the two delightful works that complete this programme and illustrate the composer\u2019s orchestral mastery to the full. The \u2018Theme and Variations Op 42\u2019 making its debut on SACD uses a simple theme marked \u2018to be played like an Irish folk tune\u2019. This is then subjected to seven contrasting variations that demonstrate Korngold\u2019s remarkable inventiveness and melodic fluency. It proved to be Korngold\u2019s final composition. \u2018Straussiana\u2019, like the Theme and Variations was completed in 1953 but was assigned no opus number. It comprises a polka, a mazurka and a waltz enrobed in glittering re-orchestrations of music from three of the least known stage works of Johann Strauss II. Both brief works receive affectionate and crisply played accounts that leave one wanting more (especially as the total playing time of the disc is a mere 59.17!). The venue for these recordings was the Church of S. Augustine, Kilburn, London (14-16 January 2019) and the experienced Chandos team of Ralph Couzens (sound engineer) and Brian Pidgeon (producer) have achieved a sound that balances clarity with warmth most effectively. Informative and authoritative notes by Brendan G. Carroll complete a most stimulating release.<\/p>\n

SOIR\u00c9E: MAGDALENA KO\u017dEN\u00c1 & FRIENDS, Magdalena Ko\u017een\u00e1, Simon Rattle et al\/Pentatone<\/strong>\u00a0 This is the second release on the Pentatone label from celebrated Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko\u017een\u00e1. The first entitled \u2018Il giardino dei sospiri\u2019 featured her in some of the Baroque repertoire that launched her career in the 1990s and quickly elevated her to star status. Since then she has widened her musical horizons and now has a repertoire that encompasses the music of five centuries. All the works on this imaginatively planned and beautifully recorded SACD, entitled \u2018Soir\u00e9e\u2019, were composed in the 19th and 20th centuries, some of them fairly unfamiliar or rarely performed. The composers represented are Chausson, Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Brahms, Stravinsky, Ravel, Jan\u00e1\u010dek and Richard Strauss. The accompaniments are provided not only by Ko\u017een\u00e1\u2019s husband Sir Simon Rattle, here making his debut, on disc, as a pianist, but also from six \u2018friends\u2019 \u2013 four string players drawn from Berlin\u2019s finest orchestras plus flautist Kaspar Zehnder and Andrew Marriner, the recently retired Principal Clarinet of the LSO. With such a distinguished \u2018supporting cast\u2019 of musicians hopes run high for a most stimulating recital and this is exactly what it proves to be. The stylistic variety of the music demands a considerable degree of vocal flexibility and Magdalena Ko\u017een\u00e1 is never wanting in that aspect of these performances. In Chausson\u2019s lovely m\u00e9lodie \u2018Chanson perp\u00e9tuelle\u2019, that opens the programme, The singer\u2019s rich yet silvery mezzo floats entrancingly with a firmly drawn line above the soft cushion of the piano and string quartet. Her empathy with French song is further manifested by her persuasive account of Ravel\u2019s three \u2018Chansons mad\u00e9casses\u2019. The cool elegance of her phrasing in the two erotically charged outer songs \u2018Nahandove\u2019 and \u2018Il est doux\u2019 contrasts strikingly with the frightening intensity with which she delivers the anti-colonial sentiments of the central song \u2018Aoua\u2019. Not surprisingly it is in the music of her Czech homeland that Ko\u017een\u00e1 is especially engaging. She brings an idiomatic warmth to a selection of seven Dvo\u0159\u00e1k songs, brilliantly arranged by Duncan Ward for the whole instrumental ensemble. In the selection of eight songs from Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s epigrammatic and earthy \u0158\u00edkadla (Nursery Rhymes) Rattle\u2019s crisp piano playing and Marriner\u2019s agile clarinet strike sparks off each other to entertaining effect while there are even occasional lusty vocal interjections from the other members of the instrumental group. Brahms is represented first by his marvellous\u2019 Two Songs\u2019 op.91 for alto, viola and piano. Here Ko\u017een\u00e1 is partnered by Rattle and the viola player Yulia Deyneka in the composer\u2019s settings of R\u00fcckert’s evocative eventide poem \u2018Gestillte Sehnsucht\u2019 and the sublime \u2018Geistliches Wiegenlied\u2019. Both songs are most sensitively delivered, though for this listener Ko\u017een\u00e1\u2019s performances come nowhere near matching the range of expression and tonal beauty heard on the recording by the incomparable Janet Baker. Brahms is featured again with his \u2018Five Ophelia Songs\u2019 given in an effective arrangement by the composer Aribert Reimann for mezzo-soprano and string quartet. Each of these songs, that in total last just over five minutes, is sung with unaffected simplicity and vocal purity. In complete contrast with the rich sonorities of the Brahms, the astringency of Stravinsky\u2019s \u2018Three Songs from William Shakespeare\u2019 (1953) hits one like a sudden icy shower. These settings of a sonnet and verses from \u2018The Tempest\u2019 and \u2018Love’s Labour’s Lost\u2019 were written in the period in which the composer was dabbling with serialism. Undaunted by their challenges, and aided by the impressive combination of her vocal agility and perfect intonation, Ko\u017een\u00e1 negotiates these tricky songs with ease. This is especially true of the third song (\u2018When Dasies pied\u2019) where she gracefully darts about the quirky ornithological accompaniment of flute, clarinet and viola. \u2018Soir\u00e9e\u2019 is nicely rounded off in tranquil fashion with a performance of \u2018Morgen\u2019, probably the best known of Strauss\u2019s extensive lieder output. One might have expected that Rattle would have been the sole accompanist for his wife, but here he is joined by violinist Wolfram Brandl whose ethereal violin obbligato arguably makes the most lasting impression. The album was recorded in Berlin\u2019s historic Meistersaal (July 2017) by Lukas Kowalski (Emil Berliner Studios) and the Polyhymnia team (Erdo Groot and Jean-Marie Geijsen). T he 5.0 multi-channel DSD recording has captured all the nuances of the performances in a warm yet intimate acoustic. The forty page booklet accompanying the disc includes full texts and translations of all the songs and erudite notes on the music from James Parsons. Magdelena Ko\u017een\u00e1\u2019s. distinctive vocal timbre and fine musicianship could hardly be better showcased than on this disc. There can be little doubt that her many admirers will be delighted with the performances on this bold and wide-ranging song collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graham Williams Writes: KORNGOLD: SYMPHONY IN F SHARP, ETC., Sinfonia of London John Wilson\/Chandos SACD\u00a0 John Wilson follows up his superb survey of Aaron Copland\u2019s symphonic works for Chandos with this new recording of three of Eric Korngold\u2019s late works … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}