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Presto News - 5th September 2011Gergiev and the LSO conclude their Mahler cycle |
 Knowing my love of all things Mahlerian, Chris has allowed me to take a break from my usual duties managing the sheet music side of things in order to tell you about the stunning new recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony from LSO Live, conducted by Valery Gergiev. One of the highlights of Gergiev’s first full season as the LSO’s principal conductor in 2007/2008 was a complete cycle of Mahler’s symphonies. Having attended the concerts, I was delighted when I heard the news that they were to be released on disc. This newest release completes the series, although (for reasons that I shall speculate on later) this recording comes not from that initial cycle, but from later concerts in March of this year.  Valery Gergiev One of the things that always impresses me most about Gergiev is his painstaking attention to tiny issues of orchestral balance, and this is very much in evidence here, particularly in the first movement, with the opening fragmentary gestures from cellos, horn and harp giving way to the achingly beautiful violin melody, wonderfully balanced with the horn’s espressivo counterpoint. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more touching rendition of the moment, about a third of the way into the movement, where antiphonal violins gently pass fragments of the opening material back and forth between them. The close of the movement, with its chamber music-like writing for just a few instruments, reminded me of Boulez’s Chicago recording in terms of the clarity of texture achieved, with masterful solos from the orchestra’s principal flute and horn (Gareth Davies and David Pyatt, respectively). The second movement, a succession of Ländlers (a popular Austrian folk dance which crops up in several of Mahler’s symphonies), features delightfully witty contributions from bassoons and clarinets, with suitably rustic playing from the second violins (Mahler marks their galumphing melody to be played “like fiddles”). One of the tricky things about this movement is successfully judging the transitions between the three different tempos, and in my view Gergiev gets this just right. Moving on to the third movement, although not quite the fastest Rondo-Burleske on record, this comes pretty close, and the savage, brutal brass in the movement’s faster sections are contrasted with the most astonishingly tender and sweet-toned trumpet solos from Philip Cobb. The conclusion is impressive, with immaculate passagework from the strings and woodwinds, and some very fine glockenspiel playing! And so to the finale, very often the movement on which performances of this symphony falter. Perhaps the most sublime of all Mahler’s slow movements, the opening, hymn-like melody is marked molto adagio (very slow), and requires great intensity and beauty of string sound. If I sometimes have a criticism of Gergiev’s performances in general, it is that, while never less than thrilling and full of energy, he occasionally doesn’t give the music quite enough space to breathe in some of the more reflective moments. At the 2008 performance, I felt this to be especially true in this movement. Although the string chorale itself was still and measured, the subsequent bassoon motif felt rushed, and didn’t quite have the expansiveness required. Happily, Gergiev seems to have rethought his tempos since then, and I suspect that this may be one of the reasons why it was decided not to release that earlier performance on disc. The opening adagio is very slow indeed, and yet the depth and bloom of string tone is such that it never feels saggy or plodding. While still not lingering over the bassoon motif (especially when restated by the contrabassoon a few moments later), Gergiev allows time for the music to unfold, and doesn’t drive through the phrases as I felt he did in the earlier performance. The very end of the symphony, as it dies away to nothing, is deeply affecting, with the LSO strings excelling themselves in the hushed tones they bring to the final pages. So, as you may have noticed from my somewhat effusive tone, I was truly impressed by this performance. Even if you already have several recordings of the symphony, I thoroughly recommend this one, and I hope that it moves you as much as it moved me!
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 Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D majorLondon Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev |
James Longstaffe - james@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Listen - sound samples available for this itemNew Releases5th September 2011 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Schubert: SchwanengesangMark Padmore (tenor) & Paul Lewis (piano)Tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Paul Lewis conclude their acclaimed Schubert triptych with this revelatory account of Schwanengesang, the third and last of the great Schubert cycles, collected and published after the composer’s death. Auf dem Strom for tenor, horn & piano, and the gently hopeful song Die Sterne complete the programme. |
 Campra: Le Carnaval de VeniseLe Concert Spirituel, Hervé NiquetWhilst the court of the ageing Louis XIV was endeavouring to conserve the spirit of the Grand Siècle at Versailles, Paris was already humming with the new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. With its prologue and three festive acts, its exotic dances and its virtuoso arias in Italian, Le Carnaval de Venise was one of the most original experiences to be had in musical drama at the time, one which was to earn Campra the reputation as the new maestro of French opera, as well as of being the musical eulogist for the Regency. |
 Down by the Salley GardensBejun Mehta (countertenor) & Julius Drake (piano)This programme offers a vivid and varied cross-section of English song, ranging from the Edwardian aesthetic of Quilter and early Vaughan Williams to the intensely expressive style of Howells and Finzi. The Purcell realisations by Britten and Tippett, meanwhile, are products of two great 20th-century composers engaging with their musical heritage. In all these different styles, Bejun Mehta shows the same verbal and vocal mastery that won such acclaim for his debut Handel recital on harmonia mundi. |
 Montéclair: Cantates à voix seuleEmma Kirkby (soprano), London BaroqueEmma Kirkby and London Baroque here return to BIS with a disc of music from the French composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. An almost exact contemporary of François Couperin and only some 15 years older than Rameau, Montéclair was also a composer working in all the genres current at the time, including that of the chamber cantata for one or two voices and strings, dealing mainly with subjects from classical history or mythology. |
 Hispania & JapanHespèrion XXI & La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi SavallIn 2006, Road to the Orient (AVSA9856) was released by Alia Vox. This double album was a musical portrait of Francisco Javier and of his trip from Spain to Japan. On that occasion, Jordi Savall met Japanese musicians who soon became his friends and with whom he performed in many concerts around the world. Consequently, following the catastrophes in Japan, Jordi Savall decided to release this special tribute album in which the most significant pieces of the dialogue between Spain and Japan are gathered.
All profits will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross. |
 J S Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988 (arranged for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky)Leopold String Trio: Isabelle van Keulen (violin), Lawrence Power (viola) & Kate Gould (cello)The Goldberg Variations stands as one of the greatest keyboard works ever written. Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s arrangement was made in 1985 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bach’s birth, and it is dedicated to the memory of Glenn Gould, whose celebrated 1955 Columbia recording of the Goldberg Variations became an instant best-seller and introduced a whole generation to this extraordinary music. Sitkovetsky’s arrangement produces fascinating and delightful results, especially in this vigorous and sensitive performance from the Leopold String Trio. |
 Lutosławski: Vocal WorksLucy Crowe (soprano), Christopher Purves (baritone), Toby Spence (tenor), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward GardnerThe BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, music director of English National Opera and an exclusive Chandos artist, presents Volume 2 of their Polish Music series; a disc dedicated to vocal works by Witold Lutosławski. They are joined by the soloists Lucy Crowe, Toby Spence, and Christopher Purves in looking at some of the composer’s earlier works for voice and orchestra as well as three major works written after 1960: Paroles tissées, Les Espaces du sommeil and Chantefleurs et Chantefables. |
 6 new CDs and 8 new DVDsThe latest batch of releases from ICA classics includes CDs of Richter, Gilels, Tennstedt (with the LPO conducting Mahler 3), and Furtwängler (Beethoven 9 from the Musikverein in 1953), Rozhdestvensky and Svetlanov and a number of fascinating DVDs including Boult conducting Vaughan Williams, Sanderling and Tennstedt conducting Mahler, and Munch conducting Mendelssohn.
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