Classic Americana

Albany (American Archives Series) TROY 256 (1997)

(Columbia mono recordings from 1953-1955)

Piston: Symphony #4

Harris: Symphony #7

W. Schuman: Symphony #6

Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra

Recorded in 1953 and 1954 respectively, the Schuman and Piston symphonies first appeared on Columbia ML 4992 (1955). The superb—definitive!—reading of Roy Harris’ Symphony #7 from 1955 was recorded that year, and issued on Columbia ML 5095 (1956), coupled with Serge Koussevitzky’s equally moving rendition of Harris’ Symphony ‘1933’ with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. These recordings were available on LP well into the 1970s on the Columbia Special Products label, retaining the same catalog numbers with the exception of the CSP AML prefix.

One suspects that only so much could be done with the original masters. Columbia’s 50s-era recorded sound was often rather compressed and ‘boxy’, though with a sufficient hint of resonance to convey seriousness and weight. Albany’s 1996 re-masterings open up the aural spectrum somewhat, and offer what comes as close to a natural sound as possible.

Nonetheless, it’s great to have Ormandy’s magnificent reading of the Harris Seventh on CD. This is one of the composer’s finest, and most perplexingly neglected major works. Conceptually organic, reminiscent structurally of the Third, though perhaps, in its totality, a more serious statement, the Seventh is certainly more concentrated and consistent in mood and atmosphere--qualities that Ormandy no doubt discerned, and endeavored to convey in his performance. 

Ormandy was one of Harris’ most enthusiastic champions, recording the Third several times both for CBS and RCA. The conductor would go on to lead the world-premiere of Piston's Seventh Symphony in 1960. 

"Home Team" Sibelius

Ondine ODE 852-2 (1996)
Sibelius: 4 Lemminkänen Legends Op. 22;
Tapiola (Symphonic Poem for Orchestra) Op. 112
Leif Segerstam/Helsinki Philharmonic Orchetra


Wow! Listening to  Segerstam's vivid, highly animated performances is like hearing this music for the very first time--an experience akin to one of those magical moments of youthful discovery, all too rare in later years. I've been collecting the music of Sibelius on LP and CD for over four decades now, and these may well be some of the most singularly exciting, passionately committed performances I've ever heard.

This disc brings together early and late compositions of Jean Sibelius (1965-1957), the youthful Four Legends (of Lemminkäinen) from the 'Kalevala', Op. 22, written between 1893 and 1895 when the composer was 30, and the tone poem Tapiola, Op. 112 from 1926 when he was 61, the composer's last orchestral work before his long, three-decade silence.

Casual listeners will probably be familiar with the beautiful third movement of Op. 22, the haunting Swan of Tuonela with its darkly lyrical English Horn solo accompanied by eerily shimmering strings. There are dozens of stand-alone performances of this iconic movement, but it is always enlightening to hear it in the context of the whole. Many conductors have done the suite justice, from Okko Kamu's magnificent 1976 reading for DG to Neeme Jarvi's dynamically compelling 1984 performance with the Gothenburg Symphony for BIS. Yet, great as they are, these outings seem positively pedestrian compared to Segerstam, who takes the music at what many long-time listeners may regard as an unusually fast tempo--only to heighten its drama and linear coherence. The four movements are treated as a unified whole--and a good case could be made that this work is, in fact, a symphony in the truest traditional sense. From the lush horn chords that seem to hang forebodingly on the air in the opening bars of Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari to the frenetic rush of the strings in the closing moments of Lemminkäinen's Homeward Journey, this is a truly unforgettable performance.

Likewise, Segerstam's Tapiola is a stunning epiphany! Sibelius' ingeniously mature music has often been weighed down by a kind of grim grandiosity, a glacial inertia that renders it nebulous at best, or, at worst, nearly inscrutable. Yet, while one is certainly aware of the scale and sweep of the music here, Segerstam imbues his reading with an electrifying sense of drive along with a luminous, seraphic self-possession. I've never heard a performance of this work that seemed so aggressively visceral, dynamic, driven, hair-raisingly theatrical, and downright exciting. Nor does Segerstam shrink from the innate eroticism of the score. After the inexorable, relentless build-up of tension, the deliberately-effected crescendo of the slow long line, the wild, orgasmic howls of the brass near the end almost knocked me out of my chair!

Not only is the Finnish "home team" Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra gorgeously recorded here by Ondine, capturing every detail and subtle nuance of the scores, but there is a passionate energy in the playing--a deep love--that shines through at every turn.

Enthusiastically recommended.

Happy 150th! Ole Schmidt's Nielsen

LP series: 
Unicorn KPM 7001 (1974) (Symphony #1)
Unicorn KPM 7002 (1974) (Symphony #2)
Unicorn KPM 7003 (1974) (Symphony #3)
Unicorn KPM 7004 (1974) (Symphony #4)
Unicorn KPM 7005 (1974) (Symphony #5)
Unicorn KPM 7006 (1974) (Symphony #6)
CD re-issues: 
Regis RRC 3002 (3-disc set) (2008)
Alto (Musical Concepts) ALC 2505 (3-disc set) (2013)
Carl Nielsen: Complete Symphonies 1-6
Ole Schmidt/London Symphony Orchestra


The great Danish composer Carl Nielsen was born 150 years ago this week, on 8 June, 1865, and I would certainly be remiss to ignore the occasion. You can read some of my broader thoughts about this fascinating musical figure in my recent review of Decca's 2014 Collector's Edition box set here.

Ole Schmidt's marvelous 1973 traversal of the symphonies with the LSO was released as a series of separate LPs on the Unicorn label the following year. Schmidt's was the first complete cycle to be recorded entirely in stereo, and, in many ways, encouraged major labels to take a closer look at --and a bolder chance on-- this music, thus laying the groundwork for many great records of the future. The sound is inviting, sumptuous, and vivid with a deep, resonant ambiance. The orchestral playing is impeccable. Schmidt's interpretations are, for the most part, profoundly compelling, making a near-airtight case for these ingenious, quirky, electrifying compositions. This cycle remains the benchmark for this repertory, in spite of many fine subsequent efforts (Chung, Blomstedt etc.). The last three symphonies, especially,  are Promethean in their luminous passion and implacable drive. My only complaint is with the Sinfonia Espansiva, where Schmidt inexplicably drops the ball--not to mention the taut thread of the long line-- in the finale. This is doubly disappointing given the compelling magnificence of all the rest.

The 3-disc Alto re-issue from 2013 would be a bargain at many times its modest budget price. The re-masterings (one assumes they are the same ones as on the earlier Regis set) are excellent, akin to an expert art-restorer's clean-up of a beloved Rembrandt or Titian, and the transfers are first rate.

Hearing these wonderful performances again reminded me of how I fell in love with this music--but more importantly, of why.

Enthusiastically recommended!

Shostakovich Cantatas

Erato 0825646166664 (2015)
Shostakovich Cantatas
The Execution of Stepan Razin Op. 119
The Song of the Forests Op. 81
The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland Op. 90
Alexi Tanovitski (bass), Konstantin Andreyev (tenor)
Estonian National Concert Choir
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Jarvi


If you get this gloriously-recorded disc for no other reason, get it for the revelatory, ineluctably electrifying performance of Shostakovich's 1964 setting of Yevgeniy Yevtushenko's The Execution of Stepan Razin, the composer's opus 119. Cut from the same sardonic, darkly brilliant cloth as the 13th Symphony from two years earlier, also to texts of Yevtushenko (sometimes referred to as "The Soviet Bob Dylan"), this dramatically compelling cantata--still too little known in the West--recounts the gory details of the famous Cossack rebel's 1671 execution in Moscow, with probing--and occasionally disturbing-- emphasis on the reaction of the witnessing masses. The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir under Estonian-American conductor Paavo Jarvi offer a stunningly visceral performance, capturing the score in all its lurid ferocity and gut-wrenching dynamism. The recorded sound is magnificent, aptly resonant and unapologetically full-blown.

The two earlier cantatas, well-performed and presented here in their best possible light, rate as glittering curiosities, though--make no mistake--this is impeccably crafted music with occasional flashes of anachronistic brilliance. It's just not "great" music, and certainly not great Shostakovich. Mawkishly grandiose, bombastic, saccharine paeans to Stalin and the vaunted glories of Stalinism, The Song of the Forests Op. 81 from 1949, and The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland Op. 90 from 1952 are settings of nationalist doggerel by the Soviet poet Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky, later revised to reflect the new political reality following Khrushchev's 1957 denunciation of his predecessor. (The original versions of the texts are presented on this recording.)  The music is relentlessly consonant, and stylistically reactionary; in fact, so utterly un-Shostakovich-like that, if asked to listen to these pieces unaware of their composer, many listeners could be forgiven for an honest mistake in naming Glazunov, Rachmaninoff, or even Glinka. The Song of the Forests does have its moments; the spritely Glinka-esque second movement, and the sprawling, grandiloquent fugal finale with its interesting orchestral touches make for entertaining listening. In the end, though, it's all rather empty, as if someone served up an ornate dish of cotton candy and called it a gourmet dessert. Shostakovich's youthful forays into socialist realism--the 2nd and 3rd symphonies from the 1920s  or even the tunefully populist 12th from 1960--are modernist masterpieces by comparison. Unredeemed even by the composer's signature tongue-in-cheek banality, the cantatas contain no hidden anti-communist messages, no sly inside jokes, or furtive, court-jester-ish nose-thumbing. The composer  reportedly retreated to his Leningrad hotel room following the November 1949 premiere of Song of the Forests, buried his head under a pillow, and wept before drowning his apparent embarrassment in a vodka bottle. While it's doubtful these recordings will elicit a similar response from listeners (and, in any case, I strongly suspect that this anecdote is apocryphal), this often forced, artificially "pretty" music wears thin fairly fast.

Erato, unfortunately, does not include original texts or translations in the booklet accompanying the disc. The essay by Andrew Huth overplays the now more-or-less discredited ideas of Simon Volkov, portraying the composer in starkly black-and-white terms as an artistic martyr, suffering relentlessly under the philistine constraints of the Soviet system. Certainly true to some degree, but persuasive arguments can be made, in light of correspondence made available to scholars since 1991, that the man who aggressively curried Stalin's favor, lobbying for every benefit available to elites within the Soviet regime, going so far as to join the Communist Party as late as 1960 (when it was no longer necessary for survival or professional advancement), and further refusing to stand in solidarity with bona fide dissidents who were supposedly his friends--Rostrapovich, Vishnevskaya etc.-- was, in all likelihood, a perfectly normal artistic pragmatist living in times that allowed very little space for compromise one way or the other.

Wholeheartedly recommended for the world-class performance and superb recording of Op. 119. Shostakovich complete-ists will want it for the earlier cantatas as well.

Shostakovich and Petrenko

Naxos 8.50111 (11-disc set) (2015)

Shostakovich: Complete Symphonies
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic


As August 9th, 2015 will mark the fortieth anniversary of Shostakovich's death, and 2016 the 110th anniversary of the composer's birth, it's more than likely that the recording industry will be getting into the lucrative spirit of commemoration with all sorts of retrospective box sets and special re-issues-- there's just something about that "0" or "5" at the end of a year that no marketing executive has ever been able to resist. Not that this is altogether a bad thing; I tend to collect Shostakovich records with a kind of manic, knee-jerk euphoria, and never miss the chance to hear the latest interpretation of the 14th Symphony (invariably measuring it against the classic 1973 Rostrapovich reading) or once again take a chance on a new ensemble's traversal of the quartet cycle (I still like the Fitzwilliam Quartet's L'Oiseau-Lyre recordings from the mid-70s best of all).

So--as if I needed an excuse!-- it seems appropriate to take a look at the recently-completed symphonic cycle by the exciting young Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko with his Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, recorded for Naxos between 2009 and 2014.

It is exciting to hear a complete cycle with a single orchestra led by the same conductor and recorded over a relatively brief period of time. Even Haitink's benchmark 1977-1984 traversal for Decca, consistently fine as it is, features two different ensembles, and the recordings bridge the late-analog and early-digital eras. Marus Jansons' well-regarded 2006 centennial box set for EMI (Warner 0946 3 65300 2) features recordings made between 1988 and 2005 with no fewer than eight orchestras, while the mostly-marvelous Rostrapovich box set from the same label (Warner 2564 64177-2 (2007)) is a veritable patchwork quilt of recordings from at least three orchestras and as many labels made over the course of a quarter century (1973-1997). 

Happily, Naxos' recorded sound is consistently excellent throughout all eleven discs in the series, limpid, highly detailed, well-balanced, and natural, albeit at times a bit on the dry side. The "Babi Yar" symphony (#13) was particularly impressive in the way the large male chorus and orchestra were placed to optimal advantage, each displaying maximum potency without overwhelming one another, though the bass soloist seems a little too close to the mic at times.

Petrenko's interpretations aren't quite as consistently fine as the recording quality, ranging as they do from the near-ingenious to the mildly disappointing. The lugubrious pacing in the opening movement of the 6th with its towering, simple, sturdy themes, might possibly be justified by the highlighting of greater interior detail, but playing it as a virtual dirge seems mildly perverse at best, not only hobbling the music's dramatic momentum, but sapping it of grandeur and purpose. (To me this movement has always suggested a grave optimism, and a stalwart determination to keep moving forward even in the face of one's darkest fears. My benchmark for the work still remains Bernard Haitink's  performance with the Concertgebouw for Decca.) Add to this, Naxos' decision to couple the 6th with the thematically-impoverished, decidedly sub-par 12th and at least one disc in the series is a wash. (Admittedly, Petrenko does his best to make a silk purse out of an embarrassingly threadbare sow's ear.)

On the other end of the spectrum, Petrenko's reading of the "Leningrad" (#7) is among the most brilliantly cogent, well-paced, and downright musically engaging on record. For once the conductor gives this music the real dignity that is its due, as opposed to so many who, taking the obvious route, have tended to magnify the melodramatic and bathetic aspects of the score. Petrenko convinces us that the 7th truly is one of the great symphonies of the 20th century. Likewise, his 8th and 10th are absolutely superb; his 4th a stunning revelation of fire and passion; the programatic 11th (the first release in the series) engagingly paced and satisfyingly musical; the 9th aptly athletic, joyously fleet-footed, rollicking and ebullient.

The two early forays into "socialist realism" with chorus (#2 "To October" and #3 "First of May") are quite listenable, especially as Petrenko does not treat the music either as bijou pastiche or cartoonish caricature. (These two symphonies have always been something of a guilty pleasure of mine, appealing to my abiding interest in Soviet history.)  Coupled with a very fine reading of the inscrutably wonderful 15th, Petrenko's 1st could do with a bit more humor and buoyancy, but is quite serviceable, especially with so many competing versions to consider. (I like Eugene Ormandy's delectable 1960 reading with the Philadelphia Orchestra for CBS (LP: MS 6124) (CD: Sony Originals 88697858322 (2011 re-issue))

Last to be released, the two penultimate works in the cycle are masterpieces of the highest order, and Petrenko brings his best self to their interpretation, making these recordings some of the finest in the Shostakovich discography to date. (I still give the laurel to Haitink and Ormandy.) Petrenko deftly captures the dark sweep and sardonic ebullience of the 13th, its quasi-schizophrenic contrasts and mood swings brought to glorious, terrifying, unforgettable life.  This recording of "Babi Yar" also happens to feature some of the best choral diction I've ever heard in a large-scale work.

The brooding, death-haunted 14th with its stripped-down chamber-like ensemble and solo singers front and center, gets one of the best interpretations since Rostrapovich, bringing all the passion and madness of the score to brilliant, hair-raising life. Bass Alexander Vinogradov, carries all the dark weight the score requires, while soprano Gal James, while not quite up to Galina Vishnevskaya's frighteningly inimitable standards, nonetheless brings a probingly dramatic and emotionally complex lyricism to her part. (Haitink's reading is superb, but his opting to have the texts sung in their original languages instead of Russian, is an irritating flaw, and I have always felt that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's voice was too lightweight an instrument for this work.)

This, finally, leaves the 5th. 

The interpretive traditions which have grown up around this symphony like a petrified forest of the imagination, find far too many conductors treating the work as glorified circus music, half-heartedly recycled Mahler, or the ironic soundtrack to some old Soviet newsreel. Because the work is at once easily accessible and wildly popular, certain commentators have regarded it as the perfect whetstone on which to grind their conspicuously dull ideological axes. (Solomon Volkov tried to portray the composer as a psychologically-battered victim of the Stalinist system, and a closeted anti-communist crusader, a view which fit in well with the political tenor of the times. More recently, correspondence has come to light which paints a decidedly less black-and-white portrait of a patriotic Soviet citizen who actively curried the dictator's favor, and sought out every available benefit afforded to the elites of the communist state. I highly recommend Michael O'Donnell's excellent 2011 article in The Nation.)  By welcome contrast, Petrenko eschews the bombast, effectively jettisoning much of the extra-musical programatic baggage that has so long weighed down the work. Was Shostakovich's heart really in this composition? Was it little more than an exercise in submission and obedience? In approaching the score as absolute music (as he also does with the 7th and 11th) Petrenko reveals a serious, tautly-conceived composition that stands well on its own, without need of gratuitous histrionics. To some, this approach may seem to lack fire; but listeners who want grandiosity or bombast can always avail themselves of the old Leonard Bernstein interpretation with the New York Philharmonic on CBS. I find Petrenko's 5th, like so many of the other recordings in this series, refreshingly thoughtful, and above all, upliftingly musical.

On balance, I can enthusiastically recommend this marvelous Shostakovich cycle.

DISCOGRAPHY

Naxos 8.572396 (2011)
Shostakovich: Symphony #1 in f minor Op. 10 (1925)
Symphony #3 in E-flat Major "First of May" Op. 20 (1928)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.572708 (2012)
Shostakovich: Symphony #2 in B Major "To October" Op. 14 (1927)
Symphony #15 in A Major Op. 141 (1972)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.573188 (2013)
Shostakovich: Symphony #4 in c minor Op. 43 (1935-36)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8. 572167 (2009)
Shostakovich: Symphony #5 in d minor Op. 47 (1937)
Symphony #9 in E-flat Major Op. 70 (1945)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.572658 (2011)
Shostakovich: Symphony #6 in b minor Op. 54 (1939)
Symphony #12 in d minor "The Year 1917" Op. 112 (1961)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.573057 (2013)
Shostakovich: Symphony #7 "Leningrad" Op. 60 (1941)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.572392 (2010) 
Shostakovich: Symphony #8 in c minor Op. 65 (1943)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.572461 (2010)
Shostakovich: Symphony #10 in e minor Op. 93 (1953)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.572082 (2009)
Shostakovich: Symphony #11 in g minor "The Year 1911" Op. 103 (1957)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.573218 (2014)
Shostakovich: Symphony #13 in b-flat minor "Babi Yar" Op. 113 (1962)
Alexander Vinogradov (bass)
Men's Voices of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir 
Huddleston Choral Society
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Naxos 8.573132 (2014)
Shostakovich: Symphony #14 Op. 135 (1969)
Gal James (soprano)
Alexander Vinogradov (bass)
Vasily Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

IN ORDER OF RELEASE:

Naxos 8.572082 (2009): Symphony #11
Naxos 8.572167 (2009): Symphonies #s 5 and 9
Naxos 8.572392 (2010): Symphony #8
Naxos 8.572461 (2010): Symphony #10
Naxos 8.572396 (2011): Symphonies #s 1 and 3
Naxos 8.572658 (2011): Symphonies #s 6 and 12
Naxos 8.572708 (2012): Symphonies #s 2 and 15
Naxos 8.573057 (2013): Symphony #7
Naxos 8.573188 (2013): Symphony #4
Naxos 8.573132 (2014): Symphony #14
Naxos 8.573218 (2014): Symphony #13

Salamone Rossi: A Basic Discography

Salamone Rossi (c. 1670-c. 1630) remains a figure of fascination from that tumultuous transitional period between the late Renaissance and early Baroque. In service at the court of the Gonzaga family in Mantua for roughly forty years, Rossi worked alongside some of the best-known composers of the day, including Gastoldi, Viadana, and Monteverdi, and was not found wanting in comparison. (Listeners in search of broader historical context and connection may note that Rossi was a close contemporary of Dowland, Wilbye, and many of the finest English madrigalists of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, with some evidence suggesting that their music may well have been known to him.) The composer is still best-known for his Hashirim Asher Lishlomo (The Songs of Solomon) (Venice, 1623), a glorious collection of settings of traditional Hebrew texts for worship in the synagogue. But there is a good deal more to the legacy of Il Mantovano Hebreo ("the Jew of Mantua"), including some of the very first works for vocal ensemble with horizontally-conceived, hierarchical voice-leadings (that is, bass-anchored harmony with a continuo), ultimately leaving five published books of madrigals, some of the earliest examples of the trio sonata, and, in all, over 150 secular compositions.

Rossi's work has been spottily available on record since the 1960s. Lukas Foss' novel, Respighi-esque set of orchestral arrangements, Salamone Rossi Suite (1974) was issued on the New World label in 1992 and brought some curious attention to the original compositions. Joel Cohen with his Boston Camerata was a particularly enthusiastic champion from the mid-1970s onwards, including instrumental and sacred works on several of his albums for the Harmonia Mundi and Erato labels. There was something of a minor explosion of interest in The Songs of Solomon during the mid-1990s. resulting in a number of fine records. (I would personally recommend Zoltan Kalmanovits' single-disc sampling of The Songs of Solomon with the Corvina Consort, (Hungaroton HCD 32350 (2006)), as, to my ears, it strikes an optimal balance of fine singing and committed interpretation with pleasing recorded sound.)

More recently, a trio of superb albums released in the last half-dozen years offers a broad, vibrant portrait of Rossi, both as prolific, often highly innovative court composer, and unique master of choral liturgical music. Possibly the best single-disc introduction to this oeuvre, Pan Classics PC 10214 (2009) presents effervescent, varicolored readings of instrumental pieces alongside marvelously engaging performances of choral works for court and synagogue by the Ensemble Musicadin and Profeti della Quinta, all in sumptuous, scintillating digital sound. Linn Records CKD 429 (2013), again from Profeti della Quinta under Elam Rotem, takes a similar "grab-bag" approach to repertory, with a pleasing mix of the sacred and secular, captured in Linn's characteristically breathtaking super-audio sonics. An equally fine program from Roberto Festa and the Daedalus Ensemble on  Glossa GCD C80006 (2013) helps listeners place Rossi in a more focused historical context, as the disc also includes works by several of his contemporaries from the Gonzaga Court.

Based on my own collection, the following discography includes what I consider to be some of the best recordings of Rossi's music from the past several decades. With one or two exceptions, I've tried to focus on records dedicated exclusively to this composer. Thus, the list mostly eschews broad-ranging choral anthologies with only one or two pieces from The Songs of Solomon--not that there aren't some good performances to be found here and there; those discs may well find their way onto a later list.  In several instances (7, 13-16), I've included programs, which, in including works by other composers of the broader period, help put Rossi's work into a sharper historical focus.

SALAMONE ROSSI: A BASIC DISCOGRAPHY

1.
PCM 108 (1996)
Dorian/Sono Luminus 93210 (2000 re-issue)
Salamone Rossi: The Songs of Solomon
Volume I: Music for the Sabbath
Eric Milnes/New York Baroque

2.
PCM 113 (1997)
Dorian/Sono-Luminus 93220 (2001 re-issue)
Salamone Rossi: The Songs of Solomon
Volume II: Holiday and Festival Music
Eric Milnes/New York Baroque

3.
Carlton Classics 30366 00452 (1997)
Rossi: Hashirim Asher Lishlomo (The Songs of Solomon)
Musical Concepts MC 117 (2012 re-issue)
Songs of Solomon: 17th Century Polyphonic Settings by Salamone de' Rossi
Sydney Fixman/Pro Cantione Antiqua

4.
Hungaroton HCD 32350 (2006)
Salamone Rossi: The Songs of Solomon
Zoltan Kalmanovits/Corvina Consort

5.
Pan Classics PC 10214 (2009)
Salamone Rossi: The Songs of Solomon
(also includes instrumental works)
Ensemble Muscadin/Profeti della Quinta

6.
Linn Records CKD 429 (2013)
Salamone Rossi: Il Montovano Hebreo
Italian Madrigals, Hebrew Prayers and Instrumental Music
Elam Rotem/Profeti Della Quinta

7.
Glossa GCD C80006 (2013)
Salamone Rossi: Jewish Polyphony at the Ganzaga Court
(also includes works of Maurizzio Cazatti and John Wilbye)
Roberto Festa/Daedalus Ensemble

8.
Zamir HZ 910 (1996)
Salamone Rossi Hebreo: Baroque Music for the Synagogue and the Royal Court
The Zamir Chorale of Boston
Members of the Early Music Ensemble of Boston
Collegium de Rossi
Joshua Jacobson

9.
Tactus TC 571801 (2006 re-issue from 1994)
Salamone Rossi: Il Terzo Libro de varie sonate, sinfonie, gagliarde, brandi, e corrente (1613-1623)
(The Third Book of divers Sonatas, Sinfonias, Galliards, Branles, and Courantes)
Emmanuel Marcante/Il Ruggiero (ensemble)

10.
Tactus TC 571802 (2000)
Salamone Rossi: Madrigaletti Op. XIII:
Sei madrigali a voce sola e tiorba (Six Madrigals for Solo Voice and Therobo)
Diego Cantalupi/L'Aura Soave

11.
Tactus TC 571803 (2001)
Salamone Rossi: Primo Libro di Madrigali a 4 Voci
(First Book of Madrigals for 4 voices)
Arie a voce sola dal I Libro dei Madrigali a 5 Voci
(Arias from The First Book of Madrigals for 5 Voices)
Stefano Bozolo/Ut Musica Poesis (ensemble)

12.
Brilliant Classics 93359 (3-disc set) (2008)
(re-issued from Tactus TC 571802-571804)
Rossi: Vocal Works, Madrigals and Canti di Salomone
Ut Musica Poesis
L'Aura Soave
Ensemble Hypothesis
Stefano Bozolo/Diego Cantalupi

13.
Harmonia Mundi HMA 1951021 (2011 re-issue from 1979)
Jewish Baroque
Rossi: The Songs of Solomon (excerpts)
Saladin: Canticum Hebraicum
Grossi: Cantata ebraica
Joel Cohen/Boston Camerata

14.
Dorian/Sono Luminus DSL 90913 (2009)
Passion and Lament
Rossi: settings from Hashirim Asher Lishlomo (6)
Biber: Stabat Mater
Carissimi: Historia di Jepthe
Daniel Abraham/Bach Sinfonia/Sinfonia Voci

15.
World Village 468052 (2005)
Sacred Bridges
(Psalm settings by Salamone Rossi, Ali Ufki/Claude Gudimel, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck)
The King's Singers/Saraband

16.
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907478 (2008)
Birds on Fire: Jewish Music for Viols
(Jewish Musicians at the Tudor Court)
(Music by Rossi, Lupo, Bassano, Anonymous)
Jeremy Avis (vocal soloist)
Fretworks

Off the well-beaten Via Dolorosa: Thirteen great records for Holy Week

[Full disclosure: I approach and appreciate sacred music as a knowledgeable ex-believer and composer, an enthusiastic student of music history with a deep interest in context and connection, as well as a passionate lifelong discophile.]

The Music of Passiontide

Where narrative works for the Christmas season often tend towards lambent tableaux or the evocation of simple childlike sentiment, compositions for Passiontide can be much more emotionally complex, essentially mature, innately dramatic, and often expressly designed to call forth a wrenching visceral response. Where Christmas music touches a listener's heart, music for Holy Week often very intentionally punches audiences in the collective gut. There is a rich repertory for this season, centering on a handful of traditional texts; the passion and crucifixion narratives from the four Gospels including the so-called "seven words from the cross", various sections from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the ancient Latin hymn Stabat Mater, which traditionally accompanies recitation of the Stations of the Cross during Lent and Holy Week. [Note: music related to the liturgy of Holy Thursday is outside the scope of this article.]

While many listeners will certainly be familiar with the Bach passions or Handel's Messiah, the Haydn Seven Words, Stainer's The Crucifiction, or even some of the Bruckner motets, there is a wide and wondrous realm of mostly unexplored repertory that ought to be better know. Thus, I offer the following discography for consideration.

13 Great Records for Holy Week

1.
Naxos 8.557149 (2003)
Penderecki St. Luke Passion
Antoni Witt/Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra

Penderecki's 1966 avant-garde masterpiece receives a reverent performance that never lacks for dramatic impact or emotional profundity. Witt's supercharged reading with the top-flight Warsaw Philharmonic forces is nigh-on to definitive, and the recorded sound is stunning.  Not to be missed!

2.
Cedile CDR 90000 051 (2000)
Frank Ferko: Stabat Mater
Anne Heider/Nancy Gustafson (soprano)/His Majestie's Clerkes

Though less-well-known than near-contemporaries Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, the American composer Frank Ferko (born 1950) is among the most gifted and consistently inspired choral stylists of our time, and this extraordinarily beautiful, lyrically introspective, sometimes overwhelming work is very probably his masterpiece. Employing verses from the traditional Latin hymn as a basic framework, Ferko sets a number of loosely related English texts to flesh out the broad, overarching structure of the work, poems relating to the joy and anguish of motherhood. In what must surely be a "dream" performance captured in impeccable sound, Anne Heider and Her Majestie's Clerkes bring this stunning a cappella work to full, resonant, glorious life.  Unhesitatingly recommended!

3.
Carus 83.262 (2-disc set, Hybrid Super-Audio) (2007)
Gottfried August Homilius: Passion Cantata
Fritz Näf/Basler Madrigalisten/Düsseldorfer Hofmusik

Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) was a gifted pupil of J.S. Bach, and long-time kappelmeister at the Kreuz- and Frauen- kirches in Dresden. As with so many of his contemporaries, including several of Bach's own sons, Homilius has fallen through the stylistic cracks of  history; born a bit too early to be considered a full-blown Classicist, nor a textbook example of the Gallant, yet too late to be comfortably included in the waning Baroque school either. Thus, his music is often eclectic, reflecting many sometimes-conflicting influences, from Bach and Handel to Haydn and the early Mannheim school. Nonetheless, the music is always accessibly melodious, graceful and charming (if occasionally approaching quaintness). In the last few years, the German Carus label has released an impressive series of recordings, making the best possible case for this unjustly neglected master. In addition to the marvelous St. Mark Passion (Carus 83.260 (2013)) and a very fine setting of the St. John Passion (Carus 83.261 (2007)) (both enthusiastically recommended) Homilius' lyrical and poignant Passion Cantata gets a first-rate performance captured in glorious SACD sound.

4.
Telarc CD 80362 (1994)
Szymonowski: Stabat Mater Op. 53
Poulenc: Stabat Mater
Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

An inspired pairing of two utterly different, yet equally impressive settings of the Stabat Mater. Shaw's interpretation of Szymonowski's 1926 masterpiece is aptly dramatic, incisive, and memorable in impact, with Telarc's wide-open sound capturing the performance in all its fearsome poignancy, ineluctable raw emotion, and anguished glory. The urbane, buoyantly eclectic Poulenc setting from 1950 with its seemingly-insouciant dance rhythms hard by its searing choral pathos gets an appropriately reverent reading, never straying into the hazard of sardonic artifice or bijou sentimentality, traps into which a lesser interpreter might easily fall. This is  a treasurable disc.

5.
CPO 999-560-2 (2-disc set) (1998)
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel: Brockes Passion
Ludger Rémy/Michaelstein Chamber Choir & Telemann Orchestra

Barthold Heinrich Brockes' 1712 devotional "re-imagining" of the passion story was set by many composers including Handel, Telemann, Keiser, Mattheson, and Fasch. Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's marvelously subtle 1725 setting is an intimately scaled masterpiece, one of those unjustly hidden gems, too-long overdue for recognition. Ludger Rémy's immediately-lovable reading is convincing in every way; gorgeously sung and played, impeccably paced, bewitchingly lyrical, and unfailingly expressive. The CPO label (which did as much for Stölzel in the closing years of the 20th Century as Carus has for Homilius since the beginning of the new Millennium) here offers its typically first-rate recorded sound. Highly recommended!

6.
DaCapo 8.204035 (4-disc box set) (2011)
Heinrich Schütz: The Complete Narrative Works
Auferstehungshistorie (The Resurrection Story) SWV 450
The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross  SWV 478
St. Matthew Passion SWV 479
St. Luke Passion SWV 480
St. John Passion SWV 481
(also includes Wienachtshistorie (The Christmas Story) SWV 435)
Paul Hillier/Ars Nova Copenhagen

This fabulous set is an overflowing cup of miraculous music and glorious music-making. From the breathtakingly affecting lyricism of the choruses with their ingeniously expressive polyphonic scene-painting, to the direct dramatic power and heartbreaking beauty of the brief arioso sections, Schütz' narrative works for Passiontide are essential pillars of the repertory, worthy to stand alongside the greatest works of the Renaissance and Baroque. Particularly fine, here, are the sublime St. John Passion  SWV 481, and the more-often-heard but no-less stunning Seven Words of Christ on the Cross  SWV 478, both works of the composer's old age, both marvels of  melodic inventiveness and structural economy. Admittedly the extended narrative solo sections in the St. Luke and St. Matthew settings may at times approach the ponderous with the choruses and ariosi at once providing a certain relief as well as a tautening of needful dramatic tension. Though no less serious in intent, the Auferstehungshistorie (The Resurrection Story) SWV 450 makes an interesting contrast to the more somber passion narratives, with the evangelist finally given some substantial melodic material to work with. Hillier's interpretations are consistently magnificent, as one might well expect, the Ars Nova Copenhagen ensemble enthusiastically responsive to his masterly direction, unerringly fine, fully committed and invariably convincing. The recorded sound from Germany's always-interesting DaCapo is first-rate.

7.
Hänssler Profil PH04027 (3-disc set) (2005)
Frank Martin: Golgotha (1945-48) 
Pilate (1964)
(also includes In Terra Pax (1944) conducted by Marcello Viotti)
Ulf Schirmer/Choir of the Bavarian Radio SO/Munich Radio SO

From a series of live performances recorded by Bavarian Radio in 2000 and 2002, this album includes three extraordinary works by the still too-little-known Swiss composer, Frank Martin (1890-1974). Golgotha will undoubtedly be the most familiar of the three, a large-scale work firmly in the tradition of the great passion oratorios, incarnated with the colorful dramatic idioms and rich harmonic language of the 20th Century. The music spans an enormous emotional gamut, from profound personal introspection to the raw anger of a mob. Pilate from 1964 is a rarely-heard gem, offering an intriguing alternate perspective on the familiar Good Friday narrative. Alas, Hänssler provides only a slim booklet with scanty notes in German, no libretti, and no translations. Aural perspective in these good-but-not-great concert recordings can be inconsistent, with the chorus generally too far to the back of the cavernous hall, and the soloists too far forward--or sometimes vice-versa!  There are certainly better recordings of Golgotha to be found, but collectors in search of Pilate have no practical alternative. (The performance of In Terra Pax is superb.)

8.
Alto (Musical Concepts) ALC 1142 (2013 re-issue)
Palestrina: Lamentations of Jeremiah Book IV
Bruno Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua

Stunning performances of one of Palestrina's ever-adept, affectingly lucid Lamentations settings--this the last of four. The Pro Cantione Antiqua made some its finest recordings under Bruno Turner in the early 1980s, and these Palestrina readings have been re-issued a number of times since, most recently on the UK budget label Regis (1038 (2013)) as well as part of a four-disc box set from 2011 (Brilliant Classics 94266). The Alto/Musical Concepts re-issue sounds better than ever, although quality control on the pressing itself is abysmal, with LP-like clicks, pops, and surface distortion which can impede proper playback. Seek out an earlier iteration of this album if possible, but seek it out nonetheless.

9.
Globe GLO 5175 (1998)
Hugo Distler: Choral Passion Op. 7:
Totentanz (Dance of Death)
Uwe Gronostay/Netherlands Chamber Choir

One could hardly wish for a finer recording of Distler's glorious a cappella masterwork. Written when Distler was only 24, the Opus 7 Choral Passion from 1932 has the spare gravitas and ingenious structural economy of Schütz coupled with the elegant harmonic grammar and direct expressive potency of Hindemith. Uwe Gronostay and the world-class Netherlands Chamber Choir offer a thoroughly engaging performance. Not to be missed!

10.
Hyperion CDA66321 (1981)
Hyperion CDD22012 (2-disc set) (1997 re-issue)
Alto (Musical Concepts) ALC 1123 (2011 re-issue)
Lassus: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Bruno Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua

Lassus' gorgeous setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah is a pinnacle of the late-Renaissance polyphonic repertory. It receives an appropriately moving interpretation from Bruno Turner in his heyday with the Pro Cantione Antiqua on this 1981 outing from Hyperion, featuring the great label's stunning, limpid digital sound. Serious collectors may be somewhat wary of this 2011 re-issue from Alto/Musical Concepts, given the super-budget label's quality-control issues. As with Turner's Palestrina recordings (#8 above) the best advice is to seek out a good used copy of the original Hyperion CD.

11.
Alto (Musical Concepts) ALC 1269 (re-issue from Conifer (1990))
Victoria: Easter Week: Lamentations & Tenebrae Responses
Richard Marlow/Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge

Along with Palestrina and Lassus, Tomas Luis de Victoria was one of the greatest polyphonists of the latter 16th Century. The Spanish composer's haunting liturgical settings for Passiontide are an indispensable staple of the sacred choral repertory, and these performances, featuring a fine mixed ensemble do them memorable justice. Originally released on the British Conifer label in 1990, this lovely record gets a second life at a budget price on Alto. Recommended.

12.
MSR Classics MS 1251 (2008)
Ginestera: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Kent Tritle/The Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola

"Mainstream" commercial releases of Ginestera's glorious Lamentations have been few to none over the decades. The Dale Warland Singers recorded it on an early digital LP, never subsequently re-issued (A Choral Mosaic (Augsburg 231454 (1980)), and there have been one or two performances from collegiate ensembles including a lackluster reading by the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel Choir under Randi von Ellefson (Arsis CD 139 (2002)). Yet, this superlative live reading from the small MSR label begs the question, why isn't this truly great work better known? The setting of the Vulgate Latin text  is a product of Ginestera's early Argentine nationalist period, redolent of gaucho culture, the wide-open pampas, and galloping machismo. (To be perfectly blunt, the piece requires a level of testosterone and interpretive courage not readily available in the average university chorus.) Tritle's searing, hard-driving, full-blown, sharply articulated interpretation admirably captures the shattering spirit of the music; the semi-professional adult choral ensemble is first-rate, aptly passionate and gutsy, while the well-balanced recorded sound is pleasingly warm and natural with the chorus miced at just the right distance. Highly recommended.

13.
Chandos CHAN 0775 (2010)
Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75
The Purcell Quartet/Emma Kirkby/Michael Chance et al.

Exquisite singing and playing, impeccably executed, iridescent, ravishingly expressive, and deeply moving, this is a near-perfect record. Kirkby, Chance, and the Purcell Quartet bring a lyric ecstasy to Buxtehude's 1680 group of intimate passion cantatas, a series of devotional reflectionsin Latin on the various parts of the crucified body of Jesus. Buxtehude's sunny melodic outlook often  tends to belie the somewhat gory essence of the texts. Unhesitatingly recommended!