Time to doff my crime hat and don my classical one, for Classical CD Choice (Mankell to Mahler?):
Classical CD Choice
PROKOFIEV: SYMPHONY NO. 6; LIEUTENANT KIJÉ; THE LOVE OF THREE ORANGES; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton/BIS 1994 SACD Here’s a question: why haven’t the symphonies of Prokofiev, so crammed full of colour and inventive orchestration, tempted those companies specialising in super audio CDs? This glorious music, which exploits the full dynamic range of the modern symphony orchestra, is an absolute natural for the medium, and its relatively sparse representation has been a cause for regret. But that regret is firmly over, if this first edition in a new cycle is a harbinger of the offerings to come. This immensely persuasive performance of the sinewy 6th Symphony matches impeccable musical values to sound quality of the most dramatic impact; what’s more two of the composer’s most popular orchestral suites, Lieutenant Kijé and The Love of Three Oranges, complement the symphony, making a most generous program. If there is a caveat – and there is one — it is that the alternative version of Lieutenant Kijé has been used, with vocal passages instead of the familiar (and far more seductive) orchestral sections, but this is a small blot on a truly recommendable issue — and one that whets the appetite for further issues in the series by Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
WAGNER: THE RING; Soloists, Bayreuther Festspiele, Daniel Barenboim/Teldec 2564656333 Blu-ray It’s here at last in a format that does it justice: Daniel Barenboim’s much-acclaimed version of Wagner’s great operatic masterpiece. The Barenboim Ring has long been regarded as the definitive modern version on DVD, crying out for the extra finessing that the Blu-ray medium would offer – which is precisely what it receives here. Some elements of the staging are (of course) controversial, but few would argue that the conductor and his solid cast of singers finds the essence of this most challenging of operas, and it is finally available in a version that does full justice to both musical and dramatic qualities. What is particularly piquant here is the fact that the clarity of sound and image on offer here was always inherent in the material – it simply needed the Blu-ray wash-and-rinse to make these qualities shine.
ATTERBERG: SYMPHONY NO. 6, ‘DOLLAR SYMPHONY’; SYMPHONY NO. 4 ‘SINFONIA PICCOLO; EN VÄRMLANDSRAPSODI SUITE NO. 3; Sara Trobäck Hesselink (violin), Per Högberg (viola), Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi/CHANDOS CHSA 5116 SACD Neeme Järvi further channels his Scandinavian commitment with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra into something cherishable with these polished and idiosyncratic performances of orchestral pieces by one of Sweden’s most unusual composers. The self-taught Atterberg forged a compositional ethos that took Brahmsian motifs and pointed them in new and unorthodox directions. The Symphony No. 4 (1918) was composed in tandem with a piece by with a Swedish colleague, Natanael Berg; both men decided that a bass tuba should be utilised in their pieces. Atterberg’s Sixth Symphony (which in 1928 received a prize from the Columbia Gramophone Company for a piece ‘in the spirit of Schubert,’), is quintessential fare from the composer, and is immensely winning.
BEETHOVEN: STRING QUARTETS OP. 18/3, 18/5 & 135; Hagen Quartett/Myrios MYR009 SACD Recordings of the Beethoven quartets are legion (with even the SACD medium catching up – see elsewhere in this column), and new entries have to offer something special in order to be competitive in this overcrowded field. If the Hagen Quartet maximise intellectual concentration rather than the gemütlich qualities customarily found in the earlier quartets here, this is a cogent approach that pays dividends and offers a striking new insight into music that will now at times seem strangely unfamiliar to the listener, however well they know the pieces. The recording is splendidly incisive, particularly in the later Opus 135.
