MUSSORGSKY: Night on Bald Mountain (original version); BARTOK: The Miraculous Mandarin (concert version); STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring (1947 version) – Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen – DGG Multichannel SACD 00289 477 6198, 64:11 *****:

This new release observes a number of firsts: It is the only SACD Universal has issued in a very long time, aside from the last series of Mercury Living Presence three-channel issues. So perhaps SACD hasn’t been completely abandoned by them. It is the first live recording issued which was made in architect Frank Gehry’s exciting and highly-praised new Disney Hall in Los Angeles, home of the LA Philharmonic. It is Salonen’s rethinking of the touchstone of 20th century concert music, The Rite of Spring.  Lastly, it will be the first hearing for most listeners of the original all-Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain, rather than the greatly-doctored arrangement by Rimsky-Korsakov with which we are all familiar.

The Halloweeny doings on Bald (or Bear) Mountain are quite different in Mussorgsky’s original score heard here. It sounds in much of it a completely different piece of music. Rimsky-Korsakoff not only gussied up the orchestration of the piece but dropped in music from other Mussorgsky pieces and added effects such as the cock crowing at the end. While the original lacks the slam-bang conclusion of the Rimsky-Korsakoff treatment, it can stand on its own as an atmospheric depiction of witchy activities on the mountain.

Salonen’s Rite doesn’t run much different in length from other performances, but distinguishes itself from other interpretations of the popular primitive ballet music. The brass section is not as biting-sounding as in some versions, but Salonen maintains a forward impetus thruout instead of emphasizing the vertical structures.  Everything seems to be rushing forward with breathtaking inevitability, toward the sacrifice at the end. The clarity of the hi-res surround reproduction brings out fine details in the scoring which may have been missed before. The point is made that every bit of Stravinsky’s score is here, unlike the Readers Digest version of The Rite which Disney himself used on the multichannel soundtrack of his epic classical music feature Fantasia in 1939. The Bartok ballet music shares with the Rite a feeling of violence and strong dissonances.  Both works also prompted their share of public outcry and shock at the subject matter. 

Some halls which have acoustic problems still can produce excellent  recordings (for example, San Francisco’s Davies Hall), but the general feedback on Disney Hall has been good. The SACD surround option projects a wide soundstage with excellent clarity and a feeling of the ambiance of the space. I would highly recommend this disc, and perhaps widespread purchase of it – even you don’t yet have SACD capability – could convince Universal to return to issuing more SACDs again.

 – John Sunier

The first thing to be noticed about this superb violin-piano recital disc is the very modernist art which adorns the alternative jewel-box package.  It is by artist George Condo and was inspired by the performances on the SACD. Frankly, I don’t see any connection between the music and the art, but never mind that.  This is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable recorded violin-piano recitals I have ever heard.

The Franck and Debussy make a perfect pair, and the performing pair of Schwarzberg and Argerich demonstrate astonishing facility with the music. Of course Argerich is one of the finest pianists living today, and is known for her expertise in the chamber music area as well as handling solo stints. Russian violinist Schwarzberg was new to me; she is a professor at the Vienna Academy of Music and has trained many top violinists as well as performing in concert halls thruout the world.  Both performers excel in super-legato phrasing that just seems to flow inevitably.  All the the entrances and releases show silky perfection and gorgeous tone – ably abetted by Avanti’s hi-res sonics.  In the Franck Schwarzberg gloriously brings out the familiar theme in the fourth movement.  She produces a wide selection of different timbres appropriate to different sections of the music. It’s almost like going from one section of the orchestra to another. The closing Schumann work – though not impressionistic I was struck by how well it fits into the program – glows with liquid phrasing and a feeling of flow. Glorious music in glorious performances, preserved in glorious immersing sound.

 – John Sunier

Anna Moffo was never to sound as radiant as she does here. Well, her Stokowski recording of the Rachmaninoff Vocalise certainly rates up there, but for an extended exposure to some devilishly tricky singing (Violetta is onstage almost constantly in this opera) one cannot but stand in awe of her achievement. Lyric, spinto, coloratura, it is all called for in this role, perhaps the toughest Verdi ever gave to a soprano. Its failure at the premiere is well known—modern costumes, an overly large soprano dying of consumption (a tough sell), and  a close up of very personal dramatic events based on a real life story (Alexander Dumas—the son’s–Lady of the Camillias) were a bit much for the prudish 1852 audience. By the next year all was rectified, and La Traviata became what is now: the composer’s most performed work, and an Everest that any aspiring soprano has to conquer.

In 1960, that soprano was Anna Moffo, and she turned in perhaps the most beautiful recording ever. No one really comes close to the smooth-as-butter, remarkably facile singing that was to be the hallmark of her far-too-short career. Not until Kathleen Battle emerged years later were we to hear such silken singing, and even then not with half the artistry that Moffo brought to her craft.

RCA was wanting to create definitive opera recordings in those days—hence the excitement over the current SACD releases of which this is a part—and felt that authenticity was best reached by going to the source. So we have the Rome Opera Orchestra with the practically unknown Fernando Previtali. It was a stroke of genius to do this, as the conductor is as idiomatically attuned to this work as any on record. Bringing in house favorites Richard Tucker (Alfredo) and Robert Merrill (Giorgio) only added to the attractiveness of the production, as neither has essentially been bettered.

This is the most lyrical Traviata you are going to find, and the criticisms of it lacking in dramatic power are really unsubstantiated. Only when you turn to recordings like the highly evocative Muti on Sony (with an exceptional dramatic portrayal by Tiziana Fabbracini, with a rather crusty voice, but now a cult favorite) or the 1955 EMI Callas with Giulini, do you begin to understand what might be missing. This does not short Moffo, but only brings to light the possibilities of drama inherent in the role, unfortunately realized only by those whose beauty of singing is far below the level of our soprano.

So this could easily be an only Traviata, though those who love it will not stop here, but will want to explore the many facets of this fascinating character and the many vocal interpretations that she inspires. But you won’t find one–even a modern one–that sounds better than this. The libretto is only available online, a practice I deplore, but is still better than nothing. [With all this series, there is no signal on the surround channels, so don’t think your equipment is on the fritz…Ed.]

— Steven Ritter
 

Ahoy, mates! “Shall we fight, or shall we fly?…for to fight is but to die!” At least these are sentiments that I was feeling after first hearing this remarkable disc by Hickox and company, as I was reaching for my Horatio Hornblower novels. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, a Victorian to the hilt, was a great lover of epic ballads and tales that elevated the sometimes common-place actions of battles and exploits to the realm of the heroic and sublime. Almost any of the poems of Tennyson (one of his favorites) will demonstrate this sort of noble exaltation – a judgment that history sometimes favors, and sometimes doesn’t. In our jaded age, such things are frowned upon, especially when hearing of glory in battle and charging into certain death, hopelessly outnumbered by a swinish enemy (mostly Spanish, in this case).

But perhaps we miss something today that Stanford was picking up on, the idea of nobility in thought and action, regardless of circumstances. Certainly this is the effect of his oratorio The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet. Taken from Tennyson’s Ballads and Other Poems, it is the story of the hopelessly lost ship Revenge (1591) that ventures in the conflict with a fierceness that has the enemy in awe, only to be turned over to the Spanish at the end, with Sir Richard Grenville, cousin of Raleigh, fatally falling to the floor of the deck at the conclusion. This piece is almost operatic in structure, complete with stormy sound effects and a modest leitmotif system that is quite effective. The piece was considerably popular in its time, and I know of only one other recording: on Decca with Roger Norrington.

Despite the enthusiastic nuances of the tales of the Revenge, it is the other two works on this disc that I find more attractive. Songs of the Sea and Songs of the Fleet were intended as companions, and they are both much later works. Both use poems of Sir Henry John Newbolt, and are deliciously scored with affecting attention to text-setting, something not always successful in these larger scale works. These songs serve as a prequel to the Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony in form, effect, and expertise, and even though the latter is dealing with a more advanced harmonic language than Stanford ever considered (few Victorians would ever desire to “shock” anyone), one cannot sell short his accomplishment in lifting our spirits with superb melody and an unrestrained emotionalism, devoid of any overwrought British-isms.

Gerald Finley sings as well here as I have every heard him, and Richard Hickox has the BBC Orchestra of Wales playing like champs. For those put off by the typical Chandos “distant” sound, I can report that their excellent 5.1 SACD makes all of the difference in the world, adding a dimension that fills in the sound stage with just the right amount of ambient sound from the rear speakers. This is a fine concept disc with some terrific music.

— Steven Ritter