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Presto News - 4th June 2012Bach's St Matthew Passion |
 A ‘ritualization’ of the Matthew Passion? I was intrigued and, yes, a tiny bit sceptical when I heard about this: Peter Sellars recalls on the documentary that when he first broached the question of how to stage the work he was curtly informed that ‘you do it on Good Friday, in a church’, which pretty much summed up my own attitude – until I gave this performance a go. Sellars hasn’t dramatised the work as such, but simply freed it from the static confines of a standard concert-performance by breaking down the barriers between performance and audience. The mostly ‘off-copy’ singers are placed in the auditorium at times, and the double-chorus and -orchestra format is played up so that performers seem to become audience when not actively involved in the music.  Camilla Tilling, Mark Padmore and Emmanuel Pahud If you’re wary of Sellars’s predilection for time-specific updatings and stylised chorus choreography then don’t be put off. The crowd scenes gain terrifying momentum when you see the singers literally spurring one another on, and the sense of collective mourning elsewhere is immensely powerful as the singers move around to comfort one another, with ‘scripted’ gestures kept to a minimum. Rattle uses just four aria soloists rather than the eight usually favoured in period performances and Sellars doesn’t impose specific characters upon them as such, though there’s the implication that the heavily-pregnant soprano Camilla Tilling and the glamorous but dishevelled Magdalena Kozena represent the two Marys. Sellars points out that Kozena recently recorded Carmen with the orchestra, and she brings much of the physicality of that role to bear here. It’s not as incongruous as it sounds: as he suggests, Mary Magdalene’s actions are every bit as subversive as Carmen’s, and as she re-enacts the controversial anointment by massaging the Evangelist’s body during Buss und Reu the chorus’s outraged reaction is given real impetus. It’s also very poignant to see and hear Thomas Quasthoff in the sublime bass arias – this supremely eloquent singer announced his retirement from the concert-platform shortly after this performance and his Mache dich is a fitting coda to an inspirational career. One of his generation’s foremost Evangelists, Mark Padmore here becomes a man re-living and articulating these terrible events for the first time: before he even sings a note, his body-language marks him as a trauma victim on the verge of total emotional breakdown after witnessing torture and execution up close. It’s a visceral, harrowing performance, so much so that I felt almost voyeuristic at times. At one point, a camera close-up reveals that he is actually weeping as he listens to a chorale. At several crucial moments the Evangelist seems to become or represent Jesus: Christian Gerhaher sings the role with his usual understated sincerity from a balcony, the sole figure who never mingles with the others, whilst the Evangelist himself re-enacts the Last Supper, Judas’s kiss and the scourging. The reduced-force Berlin Phil players are – predictably – superb, but so integrated into the whole that the ‘starriness’ of some of the instrumentalists only registers on second viewing. The soprano aria Aus liebe boasts Emmanuel ‘Flute King’ Pahud, Albrecht ‘Magic of the Oboe’ Mayer and star gamba-player Hille Perl in solo roles, but one of the most moving moments for me was a wonderful close-up of a silent Pahud totally immersed in his colleagues’ performance in Part One. The obbligato instrumentalists move to enter into dialogue with their vocal soloist, so that tenor Topi Lehtipuu has the oboist quite literally by his side in his first aria, and violinist Daishin Kashimoto is the focus of Quasthoff’s frustrated rage in Gibt mir meinen Jesu wieder. Incidentally, if you’re on the look-out for some top-notch new Bach devoid of visuals, then I can heartily recommend Philippe Herreweghe’s new B minor Mass on his own label, which has all the clarity and energy we’ve come to expect from this conductor and his Flemish forces, plus some absolutely scintillating brass playing in the Gloria! But if you’re feeling open to something rich and strange, then I urge you to investigate that Berlin DVD.
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 Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244 - DVD VideoMark Padmore (Evangelist), Christian Gerhaher (Jesus), Camilla Tilling (soprano), Magdalena Kozena (mezzo), Topi Lehtipuu (tenor), Thomas Quasthoff (bass), Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Knaben des Staats- und Domchors Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle |
 Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244 - Blu-rayMark Padmore (Evangelist), Christian Gerhaher (Jesus), Camilla Tilling (soprano), Magdalena Kozena (mezzo), Topi Lehtipuu (tenor), Thomas Quasthoff (bass), Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Knaben des Staats- und Domchors Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle |
 Bach, J S: Mass in B minor, BWV232Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe |
Katherine Cooper - katherine@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Watch: A short video trailer
Listen - sound samples available for this itemNew Releases4th June 2012 |
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. |
 1612 - Italian VespersI Fagiolini, Robert HollingworthFollowing their recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts from 1566, which racked up an astounding array of critical and commercial plaudits, Robert Hollingworth leads his maverick ensemble I Fagiolini on a new journey unearthing incredible lost works from the late Renaissance and early Baroque: 1612. The recording recreates a thanksgiving Vesper in commemoration of the famous Venetian naval victory at Lepanto in 1571, celebrated for over 200 years after the event in a new festival – The Feast of the Holy Rosary.
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 A New Venetian Coronation, 1595Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreeshThe Gabrieli Consort and Players return to the programme that put them on the musical map when it was originally recorded and released in 1990: ‘A Venetian Coronation 1595’ is a musical re-creation evoking the grand pageantry of the Coronation Mass for Venetian Doge Marino Grimani. His love of ceremony and state festivals fuelled an extraordinary musical bounty during his reign and formed the background to the musical riches of the period, especially to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli. With cornetts, sackbuts and an all-male consort, Paul McCreesh fully exploits the dazzling polyphony of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli’s music and captivates the audience in a theatrical and ceremonious performance. |
 Vivaldi: New Discoveries IIAnn Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano), Anton Steck (violin) & Alexis Kossenko (flute), Modo Antiquo, Federico Maria SardelliWorld premiere recordings of Vivaldi scores recently discovered in Europe. This is the 45th title in the Vivaldi Edition, 3 years after the first recording dedicated to Vivaldi scores discovered in Europe between 2000 and 2007, now in its 12th year. This second volume features the most recent discoveries in world premiere recordings and will further contribute to complete one of the most fascinating jigsaw puzzles in musical history. |
 Birtwistle: Complete String QuartetsArditti QuartetHarrison Birtwistle is unquestionably one of the most frequently performed British composers on the contemporary scene. Although bowed strings are the raison d’être of this disc, their absence is no less conspicuous in the composer's early and mature works, for he waited until he was nearly 60 before writing for string quartet, strictly speaking, and the works brought together here remain, up to the present day, his only original works written exclusively for strings. |
 Miah Persson sings Songs by Schubert, Sibelius & GriegMiah Persson (soprano) & Roger Vignoles (piano)Famed for her highly intelligent performances and deep engagement with music, Swedish soprano Miah Persson is in great demand throughout the world. She returned to the Wigmore Hall last February with internationally renowned accompanist Roger Vignoles to perform a wonderfully emotive and dramatic programme. Opening with some of the most celebrated Schubert Lieder, Persson revealed a refined interpretation of each song, searching deep within the texts to convey emotions from agony to ecstasy. With great passion, Persson then entered the Scandinavian sound world to complete her programme with Grieg’s stormy Six Songs and a beautiful collection of Sibelius’s most evocative settings. |
 Humperdinck: Hänsel und GretelAlice Coote (Hänsel), Lydia Teuscher (Gretel), Irmgard Vilsmaier (Mother), William Dazeley (Father), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Witch), Tara Erraught (Sandman) & Ida Falk Winland (Dew Fairy), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Robin TicciatiFirst conducted in Weimar in 1893 by Richard Strauss, Hänsel und Gretel had immediate worldwide success, the Hamburg premiere in 1894 conducted by Gustav Mahler. In its first year, over 50 German theatres staged a production and it has been translated into over 20 languages. In the UK it was the first complete opera ever to be broadcast from Covent Garden back in 1923, and was a staple in the opera repertory until the 1950s where it fell into a black hole. Here Hänsel und Gretel remained until Glyndebourne’s new production in 2008. This recording comes from the re-staging in 2010. |
 Kalevi Aho: Chamber WorksOsmo Vänskä (clarinet), Sarah Kwak & Gina DiBello (violins), Thomas Turner (viola), Anthony Ross (cello), Susan Billmeyer (piano) & Veli Kujala & Susanne Kujala (accordions)Renowned for his rich production in the field of orchestral music, Kalevi Aho is also a prolific composer for chamber forces. On this disc, three works spanning two decades have been combined. Opening the disc is the large-scale Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1998. Osmo Vänskä, better known as a conductor, began his career as principal clarinet in the Helsinki Philharmonic and appeared in the premiere performance of the quintet. The Sonata for two accordions was written in 1984 as a Sonata for solo accordion described by the composer as ‘comparable in aspiration with Liszt’s most virtuosic piano works’. It was premièred as late as 2002 by Veli and Susanne Kujala, who also perform it on this recording. The Trio for clarinet, viola and piano was commissioned to be the set chamber music work of the 2006 Tampere Viola Competition.
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 The Aronowitz Ensemble play Dvorak, Mendelssohn & SucklingThe Aronowitz Ensemble: Magnus Johnston & Nadia Wijzenbeek (violin), Lily Francis & Tom Hankey (viola), Guy Johnston & Marie Macleod (cello) & Tom Poster (piano)The Aronowitz Ensemble’s second CD, recorded in the ideal acoustics of the Wigmore Hall, comprises three of our favourite works: Mendelssohn's ebullient second string quintet and Dvorák's incomparably radiant second piano quintet are perfectly complemented by Martin Suckling’s To See the Dark Between, which conjures brilliant, unique colours from our full septet line-up – a combination for which, to the best of our knowledge, no work existed prior to the Aronowitz Ensemble's formation. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Wigmore Hall in 2010, Martin’s work is here given its premiere recording. |
Download - download options available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 2nd June 2012 |
Building a Library - Wolf: Spanisches Liederbuch: selection |
 Recommendation available on CD(including 24 songs from ‘Spanish Songbook’)Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Gerald Moore (piano) |
 Further recommendation on CD(including 10 songs from ‘Spanish Songbook’)Irmgard Seefried (Soprano), Markus Werba (baritone) |
Disc of the Week |
 Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D MinorBerliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle |
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