Schumann: Complete Symphonic
Works, Volume II—Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3. WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln conducted by Heinz Holliger.
Audite. $18.99.
Clementi: Symphonies, Op. 18,
Nos. 1 and 2; Piano Concerto; Minuetto pastorale. Bruno Canino, piano;
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma conducted by Francesco La Vecchia. Naxos. $9.99.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Oundjian. Chandos. $14.99 (SACD).
Barbara Harbach: Orchestral Music
II—Night Soundings; Gateway Festival Symphony; A State Divided—A Missouri
Symphony; Jubilee Symphony. London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
David Angus. MSR Classics. $12.95.
The second volume in
Audite’s series of Schumann’s complete symphonic works continues in the vein of
the first, but with more-familiar music. The first volume contained Symphony
No. 1; Overture, Scherzo and Finale;
and the very rarely heard original 1841 version of what would later be known as
Symphony No. 4. This time, the adept Heinz Holliger leads Symphonies Nos. 2 and
3 in rousing performances that break no new ground but that are sensitive and
well-balanced, showing that Schumann’s instrumentation was not lacking (as it
has often been accused of being) but simply reflected the forces available to
him when he wrote these works. The music comes across quite well as played by
the smooth, well-balanced WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. Holliger paces the first movement of Symphony No. 2
particularly well, giving the problematic main theme enough forward impetus and
rhythmic bite so that it follows the very fine introduction without becoming a
letdown. He carefully explores the unifying features of this symphony, too. In
Symphony No. 3, Holliger paces the first and fifth movements carefully to parallel
and reflect each other, giving them the effect of bookends. Between them nestle
three contrasting movements that build in seriousness to the climax of the
fourth – after which the finale offers a burst of enthusiastic release and
relief. These are highly attractive readings in a series that holds
considerable promise and is well on the way to fulfilling it.
Muzio Clementi’s Op. 18
symphonies speak of a much earlier era: they were written while Mozart and
Haydn were still alive, in 1787. They are particularly Haydnesque, as were many
minor and not-so-minor symphonies of the time, and nicely constructed and
balanced without ever approaching the quality and poise of their models. At a
time when Haydn and Mozart were expanding the symphonic canvas harmonically and
lengthening their works significantly, Clementi produced two works in the
17-minute range with straightforward orchestration and well-made but
undistinguished themes. Yet these early Clementi symphonies contain some
surprises in modulations and dynamics, and it is these that make them
particularly interesting to hear. Clementi was not a distinguished composer,
but he did have some intriguing ideas, even though he never broke through to
full originality in these early works. Clementi was better known in his own
time as a piano manufacturer (a few of his instruments have survived) and a
performer, so his sole surviving Piano Concerto would seem to be of particular
interest. But it is curiously pallid, even when as well performed as it is by Bruno
Canino on this Naxos CD. The orchestration has some particularly well-wrought
elements, which are very well handled by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma under
Francesco La Vecchia. Yet this concerto, which dates to about 1796, seems more
a throwback to earlier Mozart than a work in the vein of early Beethoven, whose
first piano concerto (published as No. 2) appeared in 1795 (and in fact was
largely composed in the previous decade). It is of course unfair to compare
Clementi, a workmanlike composer, with the geniuses of his time, and this work,
heard to the extent possible without thinking of other composers’ concertos, is
certainly nicely made and suitably (but not overly) virtuosic. It does not have
much staying power, but gives a fair idea of the level at which Clementi
himself must have performed. Unfortunately, in the absence of other surviving Clementi
piano concertos, it provides something less than a complete picture. Yet it is
worth noting that Clementi often has some surprises in store for listeners –
in, for example, the brief Minuetto
pastorale, whose nickname barely fits it at all. Clementi here starts in pastoral vein but does not continue in it, introducing
significantly darker elements as the piece progresses and producing a very
dramatic Trio that hints strongly at his ability to tone-paint when he wanted
to. A problem with Clementi’s music is that much of it has not survived, so it
is very difficult to get an overview of him as a composer. This CD contains
tantalizing hints about his strengths, even though the works as a whole tend
toward the mundane.
There is nothing mundane in
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade, a
symphony in all but name that consists of a series of four interlinked tone
poems whose superb orchestration shows the composer at his finest. The work’s
longstanding and wholly justified popularity does set the bar high for new
performances, and on that basis, the new recording featuring the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Oundjian gets a (+++) rating. Nothing is
out of place here – Jonathan Crow’s solo violin is especially strong – but
nothing really catches fire, either. There is grandeur to Sheherazade, but here things are on the matter-of-fact side, nicely
played but never truly compelling. The initial threatening sounds representing
the sultan are not particularly menacing, and the climactic last-movement
shipwreck is considerably less than cataclysmic. The middle movements flow
nicely and pleasantly, but without a strong sense of characterization of the
figures limned by the composer – the music is all there, but its storytelling
elements are compromised. It is also rather odd in this day and age to have a
release that contains only this
symphonic suite – a 45-minute disc of a well-known repertoire work really
shortchanges listeners, although this is admittedly a lower-than-usual price
for a Chandos SACD. On balance, this is a fine, even admirable handling of Sheherazade, but there is nothing outstanding
about it, nothing to make listeners sit up and take notice to the extent of
finding this recording a must-have.
Nor is the second MSR
Classics release of Barbara Harbach’s orchestral music a must-have – but here
the reasons do not lie in the performances, which are first-rate throughout.
This is actually the ninth disc in an ongoing series devoted to Harbach’s
music, a major commitment for any contemporary composer; and certainly the
skill with which Harbach handles the large-scale works here is attractive in
many ways. The works themselves, though, are on the pale side. Night Soundings, a three-movement
orchestral suite, offers three nocturnal-sounding movements – that is to say,
the title neatly encapsulates what the music offers, but there is nothing
especially distinguished in the way Harbach interprets darkness (although the
final Midnight Tango has some engaging
moments). Two Missouri-focused works, Gateway
Festival Symphony and A State
Divided—A Missouri Symphony, are deliberate exercises in regionalism, but
unlike some others (such as Ives’ Three
Places in New England), Harbach’s pieces seem straitlaced and too
deliberately intended for a narrow audience that has strong familiarity with
the subject matter (sunset in St. Louis, the Missouri Compromise, the Battle of
Westport, etc.). Jubilee Symphony is
also a locally oriented work, written for the 50th anniversary of
the University of Missouri at St. Louis and culminating with a musical paean to
the Greek god Triton, the university’s mascot. Very well focused on its subject
matter and certainly targeted with care at the university that commissioned it,
the work, when heard simply as music and without regard to the occasion of its
creation, does not contain very much that is unusual or compelling. Harbach, a
fine organist as well as a composer, certainly uses an orchestra with skill and
creates more-accessible pieces than many contemporary composers produce. The
ones here are, however, somewhat surface-level works for anyone beyond those
whose imagination and interest they are intended to capture: they neither reach
out to listeners in general nor appear intended to do so.
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