Mstation mmmm Classical

Monterverdi, Orfeo

Monteverdi, Orfeo
Concerto Italiano
Naive

The two discs for this also come with a nice thick booklet with lots of nice illustrations as well as a very interesting essay on the history of opera and its early styles as well as Monteverdi's place in it - which was a follow on of the Florentine absorbtion in an imagined sort of Greek classicism. Imagined, because no-one knew just what ancient Greek music sounded like (no bouzouki jokes please). The sorts of things that exercised their brains was the relationship of voice to music and the styles of both. The purists imagined a rather simple but powerful style.

The style of Orfeo is Monteverdi's inspired take on all this which wouldn't have been altogether loved by the purists but was, nevertheless, powerful and reasonably simple harmonically.

This particular release is notable for the considerable brio that sometimes enters the performance. Quite often this sort of thing is performed in a very mannerly way, which is actually quite suitable and pleasant. I wouldn't like to say which way was "right" but both are valid and both (as lomg as "mannerly" doesn't mean "plodding") are very nice to listen to. The recording quality on this one is excellent as well. (Baron K)

Beethoven and Brahms

Brahms had a great deal of trouble in getting out of Beethoven's long shadow, in the sense of having his own voice. His friend Robert Schumann had been urging him to compose his first symphony but Brahms was unsure at first of producing something strong enough, and good enough, to stand on its own ... without unfavourable, or even favourable comparisons with the grumpy old master. He had, it is said, a few false starts that ended up being parts of other works.

Out on a Pentatone Super Audio CD (which plays fine in an ordinary player), and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by German, Marek Janowski, is modern evidence that he succeeded in his aims, and now the lush and sweeping romanticism of his works stands quite on its own.

In the same breath I should also mention a box set of Beethoven Symphonies - 'The Complete Symphonies' with the New York Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter. This is a digitally remastered version, all 6hrs 51 of it, and is out on United Archives at quite aa reasonable price.

(Baron K)

Handel Arias

I haven't had a listen to good old Mr. Handel for a little while so, with the usual disclaimer that I find collections a bit obnoxious, I looked forward to listening to DG's Archiv Produktion release of Magdalena Kozena's Handel Arias with the Venice Baroque Orchestra.

The first point was that I hadn't heard or heard of the Venice Orchestra before. People will tell you that Venice is just as beautiful and mysterious as everyone else says but that decent music, in a church or elsewhere, was very hard to come by. By the sound of this disc I'd say there was at least a little - if they're ever at home. I've planned for some years to be decadent in a pallazo by a canal so perhaps I'll make an extra effort to go now even if I've missed the best of the decadence by two hundred years or so.

The mezzo, Magdalena Kozena, is worth a listen as well - just as well - I suppose there are people who buy vocal music for the backing, but I've never heard of anyone doing this. Anyway, her style is not quite as delicate as I prefer but she does have power, clarity, and versatility and she handles Handel (sorry, couldn't resist) with aplomb and believability. It is possible, though, that I'm being unfair, or at the least, leaping to conclusions about the qualities of her voice. Have you ever taken a violin or voice CD out and about to audition speaker/amplifier combinations? That experience can be truly eye-popping - the amount of difference, particularly in the highs and high-mids is huge even between items of similar price. I listened to this CD on decent but unspectacular headphones.

A little later, after listening to the Kozena CD, and completely by accident, I happened to hear the German tenor, Johann Kaufmann singing some Romantic songs while accompanied by a pianist. It was a smallish room and there was no amplification and so the purity of the sound was unsullied. This is the way to go of course, the real thing. But it's not always handy or possible to fit a tenor or a mezzo in the back of your car along with the necessary instrumentation. (Baron K)

Boxed Baroque

I hope you had a pleasant Christmas and that 2008 treats you well. I usually spend Christmas in rural France and this year was no exception, as you might have gathered from my last column. Alas, France is going the Roundhead way - no more liesurely cigar with coffee after dinner in a restaurant or cafe, and more pertinently for this column, the non-drinking, non-smoking jogger, Sarkozy (a business Roundhead's wet dream if ever there was), is seen as a great threat by the many musical organisations that receive government help. I'm familiar with the arguement that if culture can't live commercially, it should be left to die and as you might guess, I take a loftier view and disagree. For one thing, mass "culture" is so gut-cringingly awful, and so bought-and-paid-for that there has to be some escape. I'm sure that support of these people lowers the national mental health bill.

Of course these things usually don't die completely. There are many performance societies in places like the USA where they play to friends and family and have a very nice time doing so. Look up your local ones (the web is the best place to look and church noticeboards can be helpful too) and see what's going on why not?

All of this is by way of introduction to a 20 CD boxset I just found. It's from Warners and is dedicated to French baroque - tous les genres! - as they exclaim: opera, divertisments, sacred, grand motet, ballet, and more! The players are star-studded and the composers are who you'd expect plus some names not many would recognise. The set is called 200 ans de Musique a Versailles - 200 years of music at Versailles. (Baron K)

Almost Christmas

As I write the Christmas lights are about to come on in places where there is still a little good taste about such things. It is, if not exactly exciting, at least a pleasure to look forward to - a little treat in the early gloom of winter. Soon too, the hours of daylight will start to lengthen again and we will be cruising towards the seasonal delights of spring and summer.

For many years, I have spent Christmas in France and they do a few things differently there. They have Christmas dinner on the evening of the 24th and open their presents late that same night. Christmas day is very quiet and on Boxing Day they are back to work. Christmas cards are not so frequently sent and are fairly kitsch when they do. The shops selling CD's also don't have collections of Carols at all that I've seen. It's not too strange: these things were the inventions or updatings of the English mercantile bourgeoisie and could be expected to be rejected out of hand.

Two box sets have caught my eye however. The first is called Joyaux Baroques (presumably Joyous Barocque in Anglophone countries... or something similar if I've mispelled the "b" word). It's from Marc Minkowski and the Musiciens du Louvre and so you know it is going to be something nice before opening it. There are four CD's with selections from Charpentier, Lully, Rameau and another beginning with "M". ahem. All of this comes from Erato.

The other is Musique Sacree (Sacred Music, as you guessed) and features Mr. Haydn, and is presented by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus musicus Wien. This comes on four CD's as well and is out on Teldec. Both of these labels are Warners by the way.

If you are living in a politically correct country where your own culture is being denied so that it doesn' offend newcomers, you might like to play this second selection loudly so that you can explain to doorknockers what that aspect of Christmas is about. My experience is that newcomers are interested rather than offended.

I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that you find a civilised country in which to smoke your cigars.

Callas

The obvious thing to talk about this month would be releases of various Pavaroti doings but it all seems a little distasteful as there's nothing new or even an excuse of something so it's a weeny bit tasteless.

We will do a little more diva though. Last month I mentioned the live-fast-die-young Spanish woman but to put a full stop behind it we need to mention Maria Callas. This month, for some reason, there are a few releases to do with her.

Callas was certainly a larger than life diva who nevertheless managed a reasonable life span. She captivated audiences and inspired a famous rivalry between the Greeks, Niarchos and Onassis. Onassis later moved on to Jackie Kennedy (what was she thinking?!).

There are a few books about her if you want to follow up on the personal side of things. I've picked her out however because EMI's 8 disc set Maria Callas: 8 Grand Operas, is quite a meaty collection rather than just being the usual scattered arias. There are roughly one hour (1 CD) selections from Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Puccini, and Verdi.

And now I see what the deal is - the 30th anniversary of her death. (Baron K)

Luci, Bartoli, and a dead diva

R.I.P. Luciano. Though they rarely seem to, it would be fitting if people who have given so much pleasure to so many, would live to ancient ages while conferring the occasional gracious wave on us from beyond their careers and perhaps the occasional bon mot. Luciano Pavarotti might have displeased some, from time to time, at a technical level, but his humanness and his presence did nothing but good for his genre of music.

Speaking of those that are gone, Decca has a nice limited edition out of Maria Cecilia Bartoli doing a tribute to the nineteenth century Spanish diva, Maria Malabran. MM's adventures, both sexually and otherwise, were legion. She was born in 1808 and died in 1836.. at the tender age of just 28.

She is being billed now as the world's first female superstar and in her short time she did manage to get to most of the world's cultural capitals - and scandalising many along the way - most particularly the uptight bourgeois of Paris.

As you can imagine, Bartoli does her usual wonderful job on works by Bellini, Hummel, Mendelssohn, Garcia, and Malabran herself. One CD and a thick little booklet which is part of the CD package, make up the nice offering.

It was interesting, a couple of years ago, to see the Bartoli disc of the time being the number one selling CD in France. You don't often get a chance to compare apples and oranges in this way because in most places the pop charts are seperate. If you listened to the pop people you would be given to believe that the classical market was very small fry. Perhaps it normally is. I don't know and I'm only marginally interested so I shan't follow up, but if I trip over more information I will let you know. I could be wrong but I don't think this Bartoli disc will reach those heights. This is because of the theme rather than the performance. It's fun, but a little contrived. (Baron K)

Fux

No, no, I'm not being rude while having an attack of SMS spelling. Johann Joseph Fux lived between 1660 and 1741 and you can get a recording from Carus by the Freiburger Barockorchester and entitled La Grandezza della Musica Imperiale - Composizioni per orchestra.

What's it like? Well, funny how often national charicatures are upheld by real world observation - no surprise really, that's how they became known in the first place. People who believe generalistion is impossible are, of course, simpleminded. Also simpleminded are those who can't see beyond generalisation, but never mind that. So, what should we expect given the foregoing? A certain stodginess? A certain kind of woodenness? How about a healthy regime stripped of bad-for-you additives such as decadent frivolity? These are, after all, the people who brought you the protestant religion.

That's all going a bit far but if we take a little overland trip to see what Lully was doing in France some of it is inescapably true. There is less grace and frivolity here. This doesn't make it bad: It is in fact quite pleasant to listen to and collectors of the baroque should at least give it a listen. (Baron K)

Elgar

Sir Edward Elgar, for those who don't know of him, is that quite rare thing, a really well known English composer. He was also a person who rose from humble beginnings in Victorian England and was thus put forward as an example of all that was good in the society of the time. This background has certainly helped in failling to raise class hackle led revisionism - of which there has been much, and which usually seeks to trivialise anything that was particularly good at the time. But that, as they say, is another story.

This year is the 150th birthday for the English composer Edward Elgar and Elgar fans have been anxiously clack, clacking through stores' CD racks to see what has been unearthed from the archives by labels trying to capitalise on the event.

Current opinion is that the London Philharmic Orchestra's LPO label might have done the trick with a 5 CD box set with a variety of tracks of interest including some quite ancient ones, as far as recording history goes. The catalogue number is LPO 00160020.

These tracks include Elgar's first and last appearances with the LPO, both from 1933 - Froissart and the Elegy and Serenade for Strings. Elgar died a year later in 1934. There's Sir Landon Ronald with the Coronation March from a 1935 performance, Sir Adrian Boult conducted two tracks. There's a Tortellier version of the Cello Concerto (preferred by some to Du Pre's, which can be considered to be somewhat overdone), more Boult, and some Solti. And then there's the Dame Janet Baker version of Sea Pictures recorded at Festival Hall on the the 50th anniversary of Elgar's death which is very nice indeed and has never been released before.

So actually, beyond being a bit good, this set might be a bit of a treasure and a fitting excuse to add another box set to the collection. (Baron K)

Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma: Farewell Isabella and Chinese things

Excuse me if I ramble a little. Those of you familiar with the fashion world will know that Isabella Blow passed away in mid May. The circumstances need not concern us here: they were sad just as the fact of her going is sad. She wasn't a friend of mine. I had spoken to her a couple of times and had generally admired the fact that she existed.

To the tabloid mind, which trivialises anything greater than itself (which is everything!) she would be the woman in the funny hats - a fashion world add-on. And where style is seen not as art statement or expression, or even a vital element (or especially not even) of being (you have a style, whether you like the fact or not, and whether it has any quality or not), but as a sort of desert plain of nothingness. She was the antithesis of all this, and ironically in the circumstances, a celebration of life and of the qualities that make it rich and good. One small anecdote illustrates: She was not very good with money and was quite broke from time to time and so, as a future survival wheeze she opened accounts at London's Fortnum and Mason for food and Berry Bros (a couple of streets away) for wine. At least, when broke and for a month or two, she would be able to eat and drink properly! Amen.

And yes, this does connect with the subject of classical music - Bachs' cantatas or Mozart's requiem are not just notes on a page that can be produced by a machine. For a start, the notation was frequently incomplete, and required knowledge to interpret it. Another aspect was that early composers were quite often not control freaks. Parts could be added which were within the general idiom of the thing. In other words, style and quality are and were vital elements of any interpretation.

This leads me nicely into two CD's that are around at the moment - one by a Chinese pianist called Lang Lang (Dragon Songs, Deutsche Grammophon which has sadly been part of Universal for some time) and the other by that very well known Chinese-American, Yo Yo Ma (Appassionato, Sony Classical).

Lang Lang comes from the red Chinese tradition. His inspiration on this disc is the peasant song tradition of the past and his playing has all that pomp of the people thing that used to colourise Soviet music so well ... or ill. It is not my thing at all but it is interesting nevertheless, and Lang Lang has a mixture of delicacy and power that will attract a lot of people.

Yo Yo Ma, is a different kettle of fish. Dismissed by many as a Big Music showman, he is nevertheless an excellent cello player, and as the cello is possibly my favourite instrument I am inclined towards charity. This disc is a wide-ranging collection that includes the likes of Williams, Gershin, Vivaldi, and Morricone. Leaving aside the idea that collections or samplers are a bit odious, we do have a nice demonstration of the range of this instrument and the skill of this player. Quite good for the car stereo I think.

Monsieur le redacteur didn't pull his punches last month. The big labels, in fact globalised big biz generally, needs to take a good long look at itself. What do we do? The first thing is that we can support our local orchestras more - recorded music has always been a very poor substitute for the real thing. We have added reason to support them directly these days.

And possibly a last word on the Hyperion thing - during and after the recent court case which cost them a bomb, a lot of artists were saying that a loss for them was just desserts for their general meanness and their odious habit of crying poor all the time. The fact that this label survived the case suggests there was rather more money around than generally thought - which makes them more odious. I suggest that, in future, they actually pay for mastering engineers. While the music on their recordings is frequently very nice, the CD's themselves are frequently not - a fact we were willing to overlook earlier, it must be said, when we looked on this company with different eyes (and where we had, to put it plainly, been bs'ed).

Lastly, we are on the lookout for small classical labels. Send me an email if you are one. (kadoshnikov *at* mstation*org)

View from a dark tunnel

Some years back the tour manager for Tori Amos wore a t-shirt with the inscription "I'd like to see your point of view but I can't get my head far enough up my ass". heh heh, ggl

And here at Mstation we feel like wearing exactly that t-shirt when confronted with classical music label people. Our recent move across two countries has completely confounded them. It would seem straightforward enough - contact the appropriate people in the country we're now in and all would be roses. And you would expect that the people we have been dealing with would arrange this. In fact the different countries are different medieval style fiefdoms and as our international website is not even in their language, you can imagine the result.

And then there's the case of Hyperion who turned out to be a thoroughly nasty lot without a shred of loyalty and not much in the way of business sense. It took a new PR person for us to discover all this. Nice work! We felt so strongly about this company that we were going to delete all their reviews but felt in the end that the efforts of the reviewers and the musicians themselves should remain.

Truth to tell, we had been thinking about the classical review situation just as we rethought the pop side of things some months back and the classical situation is much more of a problem in that there is a finite repertoire which keeps getting reissued under one excuse or another. In the past we have tried to skip by this by mostly concentrating on things the average listener might not have been exposed to. We have done this quite successfully I think and have been especially helped by extraordinarily learned people such as Peter Wells.

Other aspects that have disquieted us have included the practice of some symphony orchestras of hiring in temps to do recording work and then issuing the result under their name -- orchestra outsourcing! It's dishonest, plain and simple. And don't get us started on cut-price labels that record in countries you haven't heard of and where the profits stay well and truly at home.

So, making virtue of necessity (we don't have "staff" to deal with this sort of corporate bullshit) what we will do in the future is to have some reviews and some commentary as and when we see fit. While the business might not be beautiful, a lot of the music certainly is. (the editor)

Age of the Diva

Various, Renee Fleming
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Valery Gergiev
LP, Decca

For me, the standout diva disc of recent times was Cecilia Bartoli's Christmas 2005 offering. This was the top-selling CD in France at the time and might have been elsewhere as well. Just as an aside, how can a country with general good taste have such dire television? Perhaps they just admit it's for the bottom 2% and ignore it.

Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Korngold, Verdi, and Janacek make up some of the composers on this disc. Fleming has a very nice voice as well. It is rather smooth and velvety and generally nice on the senses. This is not true of everyone in the current crop and I have to say that a real Bel Canto belter sets my teeth on edge but this is exactly what some people like best. Which prompts me to wonder, as a sort of extreme extension - what would Janis Joplin, controlled as she was in the end by the worst elements of big label greed, have made of this sort of repertoire? heh heh. (Baron K)

Montiverdi Vespers

Montiverdi Vespers - Vespro Della Berta Vergine

Gabrielli Consort and Players



Paul McCreesh

2 CD, Archiv Produktion

Written in 1610 as part of the publication "Missa...ac Vespere" it was dedicated to Pope Paul V and the grandeur would suggest Montiverdi's wish to break away from the constraints of court chamber master. Vespers is the evening service of Office, and was performed with large ensembles in the case of a celebration/festival during the 17th Century.

The Gabrielli Consort and Players provide an excellent performance of this work, with the firm guide of Paul McCreesh; 25 years experienced in this work. In conversation with Tim Carter, Paul describes how his fascination with the work comes from its mystery and ambiguity. The music "forces both performers and listeners to challenge preconceptions" implying that it has more to offer each time it is performed.

As a performance, the music has clarity, and a non-intrusive ambience. Work has obviously been done to fit in with the acoustic of Tonbridge Chapel, each voicing clearly represented by both soloist and choir. The ensemble do not overcrowd the singers, nor the organ, rather, they all work together to lift the music with a gentle persuasion.

The earlier suggestion that Montiverdi was looking to improve his position in the musical world is almost surely confirmed by his move in 1613 to the position of maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. Mark, Venice.

Take time to listen through this music, it doesn't need to be heard all at once. ( E Walton)

Nikolay Roslavets

Chamber Symphony and In the hours of the New Moon

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra


Ilan Volkov

CD, Hyperion

This music is some of the most fascinating I have heard in a long time. I had not come across Roslavets before now. His compositional technique is highly advanced for his time, and unique; a great thing during this time of great change in both music and the world itself.

We open with Roslavets Chamber Symphony (1934/5). Interestingly it has a sister composition entitled the 'Roslavets Symphony', completed and orchestrated by Raskatov. It is the larger of the two works, completed in Moscow, but never performed. His contemporary, Myaskovsky is said to have been impressed by the work, but the recent criticism of Shostakovich seemingly restricted the enthusiasm to perform such Modernist/Impressionistic works. His orchestration is highly successful, creating a well-balanced sound (the performance skills of the BBC Scottish aside). His use of piano, to my ears, helps the precision of the articulation and textures. A very sharp/icy sound in the upper strings blends beautifully with the lush, lower strings. The harmonic structure is heavily chromatic, but hints at traditional tonality (particularly at the conclusion).

An excellent work! I encourage you to listen again and again to try to understand what Roslavets is describing to us. No records of his thoughts appear to exist for this work so it is up to each one of us.

In the hours of the New Moon (c.1910) is in contrast, very secretive. From the outset the music is written in such a way that it entices to listen harder, drawing us in towards

This is an excellent recording of music from a composer much suppressed by his country particularly after his death (1944) as recently as the 1980s; it is very well worth listening to and researching all you can about Nikolay Roslavets. ( E Walton)

Romantic Cello Concertos

Schumann, Volkmann, Gernsheim, Dietrich
cello concertos
Alban Gerhardt
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster
Berlin
Hannu Lintu
CD, Hyperion

It is a bit of a coincidence that I'm listening to this on a wintry Sunday in Berlin itself where this CD was recorded. The city has a very rich classical music life with no fewer than three opera companies and a host of orchestral venues. The concerts are very frequently sold out as well so it's not just organisational wallpaper.

This is quite a nice and varied selection of cello music as well. People putting together these things sometimes get slightly carried away with the doleful and lugubrious which can be rather depressing - there is a certain school that actually holds that the cello is right in its element with that sort of thing. We know better of course. The cello is a wonderful instrument with a great range at its disposal. Using it merely as a faux bass is a crime.

Here we have a pleasantly varied selection that, being Romantic, does have its moments of loud pomp and crescendos that can have you rushing for the volume knob. It is all rather good though. (Baron K)