Music to Hear! Great Compositions Inspired by the Bard

Sonnet VIII

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly,

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy;

Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly

Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? 

If the true concord of well-tuned sounds

By Unions married do offend thine ear,

They do but sweetly chide thee who confounds

In singleness the part that thou should'st bear.

Mark how one string, sweet husband to another

Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,

Resembling sire and child and happy mother,

Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:

Whose speechless song being many seeming one,

Sings this to thee: thou single wilt prove none.

As the world marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on 23 April, 1616, I thought it apropos to highlight a few interesting musical works inspired by the Bard. Of course, Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet  will be on everyone's list--and there are dozens of fine recordings of each from Sir Thomas Beecham and Andre Previn to Claudio Abbado and Charles Dutoit--but I've opted for a few slightly-more off-the-beaten-track choices, especially things I think more adventuresome listeners might enjoy discovering.


1.
Gustav Holst: At the Boar's Head  Op. 42 (chamber opera)

With a libretto by the composer based on scenes from  Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2,  Holst's charming, if somewhat uneven, 1925 chamber opera is a delightful rarity that ought to be better known.

Warner Classics 50999 9 68929 2 (2009)

2.
Gerald Finzi: Love's Labours Lost (incidental music)

As to be expected, Finzi's incidental score for Love's Labours Lost is hauntingly beautiful, lyrical, melancholy, and memorable.

Nimbus NI 5665 (2001)

3.
Igor Stravinsky: Three Songs from William Shakespeare (1953)
for mezzo soprano, flute, clarinet, and viola

These marvelous, minimalist 'anti-settings' from the composer's early foray into serialism, continue to fascinate. The colorfully complex interplay of the vocal soloist and the accompanying trio is an understated wonder to hear.

Deutsche Gramophone 1660 502 (2012)

4.
Benjamin Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Britten's treatment of A Midsummer Night's Dream may be more about atmosphere than story, but saying so in no way denigrates its manifold beauties. This gossamer, light-spangled score is as delicate as a fairy's wing, but the music also captures Shakespeare's wondrous sense of lyric levity and bathos.

Virgin (Erato) 50999 6406212 (2010 re-issue)

5.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music and Shakespeare Songs for Chorus

Vaughan Williams returned to Shakespeare for inspiration throughout his life, from the enigmatic, ghostly  finale of the Sixth Symphony--obliquely referencing Prospero's "we are such stuff as dreams are made of" from The Tempest-- to his setting of the same words in the Three Shakespeare Songs for Chorus from 1951, to the lithe and languorous strains of the Serenade to Music, based on one of the most famous passages from The Merchant of Venice.

Telarc 80676 (2007)

6.
Verdi: Falstaff

Verdi's final operatic statement--and his only comic opera-- brilliantly captures the ebullient, colorful--and occasionally off-color--spirit of its title character.

Deutsche Gramophone 875 202 (2007 re-issue)

7.
Sibelius: The Tempest (incidental music)

One of Sibelius' last great works, the two suites derived from his incidental music for a 1926 Danish production of The Tempest are, in many ways, like nothing else he ever composed. Highly imaginative, colorful, and engaging, this music invokes the elements as deftly as Prospero wielding his own weird and terrifying enchantments.

Hänssler Classics CD 98 353 (2000)

8.
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict

Another work of old age, Berlioz' magnificent opera based on Much Ado About Nothing, though certainly less-well-known than his Romeo et Juliet, is, nonetheless, an uncharacteristically sunny masterpiece, and a sheer delight from beginning to end.

Philips (Duo) 475 221 (2003)

9.
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (ballet)

Prokofiev's 1935 ballet score ingeniously conveys the tragedy and tenderness, poignancy and drama of this immortal tale of star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet is rightfully considered an essential part of the standard repertory today.

RCA (Red Seal) 59424 (2004)

10.
Alfred Reed: Othello

This symphonic poem for band is highly effective in its dramatic impact. Well worth a listen, along with Reed's other Shakespeare-inspired compositions.

Klavier Records 11151 (2005)

11.
Purcell: The Tempest

Lovely music with a goodly dose of Restoration-era silliness, taking its share of liberties with Shakespeare's original, yet endearing in its own right all the same.

Erato 2292 45555-2 (1992)

12.
Walton: Richard III (film score)

Of all Walton's wonderful scores composed for Laurence Olivier's Shakesperare films, Richard III from 1953 has always struck me as the most singularly effective, from the opening fanfare of the overture to the marvelously broad march theme, and soaring neo-romantic melodies, every note conveys purpose and power, even--and especially--when heard 'out of context' beyond the film. While I dearly love Walton's scores for Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948), Richard III is the one that I would probably take with me to that proverbial desert isle.

Chandos CHAN 10435 (2007)

13.
Patrick Doyle: Henry V (film score)

Patrick Doyle's score for Kenneth Banagh's glorious 1988 film production of Henry V is a masterpiece of small gestures and soaring melodies. Doyle's ecstatic setting of the Non Nobis Domine, heard following the climactic battle of Agincourt, elucidates and deepens one of the most moving and poignant moments in all cinema. Unforgettable!

EMI CDC 7 49919 2 (1989)

14.
Shostakovich: Hamlet (film score)

Grigori Kosintzev's 1964 Russian-language production of Hamlet (in a translation by Boris Pasternak) was highly influential far beyond the realm of Soviet cinema, inspiring the likes of John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh. Shostakovich's dark, brooding, creepy score is certainly an element of the film's success.

Naxos 8.557446 (2004)

Kenneth Leighton: A Basic Discography

The British composer Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) is probably best known for his youthful setting of Lully Lulla Thou Little Tiny Child from Opus 25, a perennial choral favorite around Christmas. But, so far from being the proverbial one-hit wonder, Leighton was, in truth, one of the finest composers of his generation--worthy to be considered alongside his older, more famous contemporaries, Britten and Tippett. Possessed of a fecund and far-ranging musical imagination, Leighton, like few others, was consistently able to strike that rare balance between seriousness and accessibility. His tonal language can be eclectic--ranging from the lushly colorful (as in his Symphony #3 Op. 90) to the searingly acerbic (Concerto for Organ, Strings Orchestra and Timpani Op. 58), to a warmly personal, uniquely accessible brand of serialism (Symphony #1 Op. 42)-- but always at the service of an essentially lyric sensibility, profound mysticism, the youthful wonder of discovery, and existential awe. Individual pieces by Leighton can be found on numerous anthologies and collections, but the following discography focuses mostly on albums dedicated solely to this composer and his extraordinary music.

KENNETH LEIGHTON: A BASIC DISCOGRAPHY

Linn Records CKD 329 (SACD) (2010)
Leighton: Earth Sweet Earth (song cycle) Op. 94
Britten: Winter Words Op. 52
James Gilchrist (tenor)
Anna Tilbrook (piano)

Hyperion CDA68039 (2015)
Leighton: Crucifixus pro nobis Op. 38
Magnificat and Nunc dimitis 'Collegium Magdalenae'
Missa Brevis Op. 50; The Second Service Op. 62
God's Grandeur; Give Me the Wings of Faith; 
What Love is This of Thine?; Ite missa est (organ solo)
Stephen Layton/The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge

Naxos 8.555795 (2004)
Leighton: Sacred Choral Music
An Easter Sequence;
Crucifixus pro nobis Op. 38
Magnificat and Nunc dimitis 'Collegium Magdalenae'
The Second Service Op. 62;
Give Me the Wings of Faith; What Love is This of Thine?
Christopher Robinson/Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge

Resonus RES10178 (3-CD set) (2017)
Leighton: Complete Organ Works
Stephen Farr. Nicky Spence

Naxos 8.572601 (2011)
Leighton: Music for Organ
Missa da gloria
Et Resurrexit
Hymn Fantasies
Greg Morris (organ)

Chandos CHAN 9132 (1993)
Leighton: Fantasy on an American Hymn Tune Op. 70
Alleluia Pascha Nostrum Op. 85
Variations for Piano Op. 30
Sonata for Piano Op. 64
Janet Hilton (clarinet (Op. 70))
Raphael Wallfisch (cello (Op. 85))
Peter Wallfisch (piano)

Naxos 8.571358 (2015)
Leighton: Chamber Works for Cello
Elegy Op. 5;
Partita Op. 35;
Sonata for cello and piano Op. 52;
Alleluia pascha nostrum for cello and piano Op. 85
Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
Raphael Terroni (piano)

Delphian 34301 (3-disc set) (2006)
Leighton: Complete Solo Piano Works
Angela Brownridge

Meridian  Records 84460 (2002)
Leighton: String Quartet #1 Op. 32
String Quartet #2 Op. 33
Seven Variations for String Quartet Op. 43
Edinburgh String Quartet

Chandos CHAN 10461 (2008)
Leighton: Orchestral Works Vol. 1
Symphony for Strings Op. 3
Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani Op. 58
Concerto for String Orchestra Op. 39
John Scott (organ)
Richard Hickox/BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Chandos CHAN 10495 (2008)
Leighton: Orchestral Works Vol. 2
Symphony #2 'Sinfonia Mistica' Op. 69
Te Deum Laudamus
Sarah Fox (soprano, Te Deum)
Richard Hickox/BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales

Chandos CHAN 10608 (2010)
Leighton: Orchestral Works Vol. 3
Symphony #1 Op. 42
Concerto #3 'Concerto estivo'  (for piano and orchestra) Op. 57
Howard Shelly (piano)
Martyn Brabbins/BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Chandos CHAN 10307X (2005 re-issue from 1989)
Leighton: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Op. 31
Symphony #3 'Laudes musicae' Op. 90
Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
Neil Mackie (tenor, Symphony #3)
Bryden Thomson/Scottish National Orchestra

J.S. Bach's St. John Passion: A new interpretation from René Jacobs

Harmonia-Mundi HMC 802236.37 (2-CD box set plus DVD) (2016)
J.S. Bach: St. John Passion BWV 245
Werner Güra (tenor (evangelist))
Sunhae Im (soprano)
Benno Schauchtner (alto)
Sebastian Kohlhepp (tenor)
Johannes Weisser (bass (Jesus))
RIAS Chamber Choir
Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin
René Jacobs


Gorgeously sung and played, recorded in stunning, naturalistic Super-Audio sound, René Jacobs' 2016 reading of Bach's St. John Passion captures the poignancy and pathos, drama and profound introspection of one of the composer's most personal and moving works. What makes this set not merely desirable, but indispensable is the inclusion of an appendix comprising highlights from the original 1725 version of the score--a fascinating glimpse into Bach's creative process--the final version we know today was only completed shortly before the composer's death in 1750. The later, more familiar version, strikes one as much more austere and inward looking yet also more emotionally direct, where the original is positively extrovert by comparison, more conventionally dramatic, and brimming with lyric opulence.

Jacobs' closest competition here is, no doubt, John Eliot Gardiner's 1986 reading with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists for DG Archive (most recently available in a 22-disc box set: Bach Sacred Masterpieces (477 8735 (2010)). Both versions feature excellent soloists and wonderful singing, but I would have to give the laurel to Jacobs due in no small part to the stunning sound of the RIAS Chamber Choir. Simply glorious! (Also from 2010, a 10-disc box set from Sony features Helmuth Rillings' 1984 Hänssler Classics recording of the St. John Passion, but I came away deeply disappointed and even somewhat disillusioned by a performance that seems ponderous and heavy-handed, notwithstanding the presence of such notable soloists as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schrier, Arlene Auger and Julia Hamari (Sony (Masters Series) 88697687172 (2010)). After hearing the Jacobs version, I will probably never listen to the Rilling again.

Harmonia-Mundi's elegant packaging is, in itself, a delight to the senses. The substantial box includes a documentary DVD in addition to a glossy 107-page booklet. The booklet is nested atop a sort of 'trap door' under which the two SACDs are housed in discretely 'built-in' media trays. It's a clever and very elegant solution to a problem that has too often vexed manufacturers and collectors over the decades.

René Jacobs' new interpretation of the St. John Passion is recommended without reservation.

Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective

Nonesuch 7559-79497-4 (7-disc box set) (2016)
Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective
Lerchenmusik: Recitatives and Ariosos Op. 53
Symphony #3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' Op. 36
Symphony #4 'Tansman Episodes' Op. 85
Kleines Requiem für eine Polka Op. 66
Harpsichord Concerto Op. 40
Goodnight Op. 63
Already It Is Dusk (String Quartet #1) Op. 62
Quasi una fantasia (String Quartet #2) Op. 64
Songs are Sung (String Quartet #3) Op. 67
Euentes ebant et flebant Op. 32
Amen Op. 35
Broad Waters Op. 39
Miserere Op. 44
My Vistula, Grey Vistula Op. 46
Dawn Upshaw (soprano)
Elzbieta Chojnacka (harpsichord)
Michael Collins (clarinet)
Christopher van Kampen (cello)
John Constable (piano)
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Lira Chamber Chorus
Kronos Quartet
London Sinfonietta/London Sinfonietta Soloists
London Philharmonic Orchestra
David Zinman (conductor)
Aubrey Boreyeko (conductor)


This will be self-recommending to Górecki fans. The sturdy box contains seven discs, each in its own discrete cardboard sleeve featuring a reproduction of original album-cover art. The music, which first appeared on Nonesuch between 1991 and 2016, is here arranged exactly as in the original issues, with no additional filler material--meaning that some of these discs time out at less than forty minutes. The quality of the recorded sound is excellent throughout. (I can find no reference to re-mastering in the documentation.) The accompanying booklet includes original liner notes along with information about the performances and production personnel. Taken altogether, this is an extremely attractive presentation, lending an apt sense of occasion and gravitas, and should make a welcome addition to any library of late-20th century classics alongside other Nonesuch retrospective sets for, among others, Eliot Carter, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

This being said, I have never been especially enthusiastic about Górecki's oeuvre--what a friend of mine once not-half-jokingly referred to as 'the musical equivalent of white noise.' Most of what has been recorded in the last few decades--including everything included in this set--dates from his late, so-called 'holy minimalist' period, which, to my ears, often seems overly spare, acerbic, static, and rather bland. I characterize much of this music as 'the apotheosis of inertia,' for there is very little forward momentum as one would expect from a traditional, linearly-conceived composition, yet neither are there more than a few brief moments of genuinely interesting thematic engagement as in a purely episodic conception. The music seems to stand still, going nowhere, making the same, bombastically un-modulated statement again and again. I don't find this profound or mystical, daring, revolutionary, ingenious, or even particularly original, The best I can say for much of this music is that I don't hate it quite as vehemently as I once did.

This does not mean that a curious listener cannot find interest or pleasure in the music. Górecki is simply one of those composers who require a bit more dedication--and certainly more concentration--on the listener's part. If I dislike something, my inclination is to understand why I dislike it, and, I have to admit that I was able to make something akin to a peace with much of this music after three or four additional listening sessions.

Thus, highlights for me include the choral works on disc 4, which, bleak as they often can be, nonetheless offer listeners something approaching a kind of stark beauty. The Kleines Requiem für eine Polka Op. 66 and the Harpsichord Concerto Op. 40 (both on Disc 5) reveal the occasional flash of humor, and the slow, dark, brooding  Already It Is Dusk (String Quartet #1) Op. 62 surely invites repeated listenings. There is atmosphere to be sure, as in the Szymonowski-esque second movement of the wildly-popular Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) which made the composer the darling of the New Age movement in the 1990s, a work, not surprisingly, unique within the composer's oeuvre, a-typically linear, lyrical, consonant, and traditionally accessible--though one wonders how many of those starry-eyed New Agers actually bought the original CD for anything other than 'soothing background music' or a sheep-like need to fit in with the latest popular trend.

Heinrich Schütz' 'Weinachtshistorie' (The Christmas Story)

The first recording of the Wienachtshistorie (REB Editions 3 (1950))
conducted by musicologist (and editor of the 1949 G. Schirmer edition)
Arthur Mendel

First performed at the court of Dresden as part of the Vespers service on Christmas Day in 1660 when the composer was 75, the Weinachtshistorie (SWV 435) remains one of Schütz' best-known, best-loved, and most-often recorded works. Drawing on the most vibrant and innovative contemporary Italian models (the narrative oratorios and cantatas of Carissimi; the antiphonal works of Venetian composers including Schütz' teacher, Gabrielli, most evident in the angel's chorus) this wholly delightful little musical pageant is nonetheless unmistakably German--and Reformationist-- in spirit, a seemingly effortless synthesis of refined cosmopolitan musical sensibility and style and populist religiosity; the conception of a mature master-craftsman, fully confident in his individual art. A sensitive performance evokes a kind of lambent chiaroscuro tableaux-vivant with its rich, warmly colorful, highly expressive arias and marvelously dynamic choral sections.

A partial version of the score was first published in 1664 by Sebastian Knüpfer of Dresden. Three different, incomplete manuscripts remained extant. The first modern edition was prepared by the German musicologist Philipp Spitta in 1885. Arnold Sherring's version for Breitkopf und Härtel dates from 1909. Arthur Mendel's edition was published by G. Schirmer in 1949, a year before the first recording appeared under Mendel's direction (REB Editions 3 (1950)). Bärenreiter Verlag published Friederich Schoeneich's edition in 1955 and this is still probably the most familiar and widely performed version. As early-music scholarship advanced in the latter years of the twentieth century, more evidence-based ideas about the score and its performance were put forward in newer editions; Fritz Stein for Shott in 1985, Neil Jenkins' critical edition for Novello from 2004, and the 2014 edition from Carus Verlag (see #14 below).

There are subtle differences in all of these editions, particularly in regard to details in the opening choral section, which did not survive except in the part for instrumental bass with an indication of where the four-part chorus should make its entry. Thus, comparative listeners will note broad differences in the instrumental introduction and choral parts from one recording to another, though the bass-line and harmonic progressions remain the same. Creative re-voicings and some liberty with 

regard to precise details of orchestration of the five-part accompaniment are not 'wrong' from an authentically textual point of view, particularly as the composer himself left a bewildering puzzle for

future musicologists to solve.

Only the evangelist's part and the texts of the eight intermedia were published in 1664. In order to perform the work in its entirety, interested parties had to seek the composer's written consent before they could rent the complete score from the publisher. Further, the afterword to the 1664 edition states:

The fact that the Author has allowed the same to be printed has therefore contributed to the consideration, since he notes that apart from royal well-established ensembles, elsewhere his inventions would be difficult to achieve in a fitting manner . . .

The writer of the afterword (in all likelihood not the composer himself) goes on to suggest that potential performers either use pre-existing material for the intermedia, or hire out a composer of their own to set those parts of the text. The publisher went so far as to advise potential performers to re-write the recitative sections should it happen to suit their needs and musical capabilities. After its 1660 premiere, duly noted in a court diary, the work's performance history was largely shrouded in mystery, and still today, much to the chagrin of musicological professionals, questions surrounding the work and its authentic execution defy easy, definitive answers. Yet adventurous listeners are all the richer for this uncertainty, and creative performers will no doubt continue to delve the beauty and magic of this music for ages to come.

[NOTE: For parts of this article, I consulted and broadly paraphrased essays by Derek McCulloch (liner notes from Argo ZRG 671 (1971) (#2 below)) and Oliver Geisler (from Carus 83.257 (2014) (#14))]

a 70s-era LP re-issue of the 1959 stereo recording by Wilhelm Ehmann on the Cantate label

(see #1 below).

The following list is based on my personal collection. It is as comprehensive as I could make it at the time of compilation (December, 2015), though it is by no means exhaustive, nor is it meant as a definitive once-for-all statement on the discography. Intrepid collectors are encouraged to go beyond this list and seek out other versions, especially those on vinyl. In any case, I have endeavored to leave a brief comment with each listing. 

DISCOGRAPHY

1.
Cantate C 57614 (1995 re-issue)
Hans Joachim Rotzsch (tenor) (evangelist)
Herte Flebbe (soprano) (angel)
Hans-Olaf Hudemann (bass) (Harod)
Wilhelm Ehmann/Westphalian Kantorei

The first stereo recording of the Weinachtshistorie was made in 1959 employing the 1955 Schoeneich/Bärenreiter edition of the score, and while the sonics on this most recent re-issue definitely betray the record's age, Wilhelm Ehmann's groundbreaking, influential and very-tasteful 'modern instruments' interpretation still holds up quite nicely today. This recording was available for a time on a Musical Heritage Society LP, issued in 1971.

2.
London (Jubilee) 430-632-2 (1991 re-issue)
Decca (Double Decca) 289-452-188-2 (1996 re-issue)
Ian Partridge (tenor) (evangelist)
Felicity Palmer (soprano) (angel)
Eric Stannard (bass) (Herod)
Heinrich Schütz Choir
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Roger Norrington/Symphoniae Sacrae Chamber Ensemble

Recorded for Argo in 1971 (LP: ZRG 671), this endearing--and enduring-- performance emphasizes the lyrical charm and reverent grandeur of Schütz' best-known work. Reading from the 1955 Schoeneich/Bärenreiter edition, Norrington conducts a 'hybrid' ensemble of period and modern instruments, doubling and reinforcing some of the parts with a modern brass choir to achieve a kind of Gabrielli-esque effect, which works marvelously well overall. Tempi in the choral sections and various interludes are virtually identical to Wilhelm Ehmann's 1959 reading for Cantate, and are considerably more deliberate than in many more-recent period-instruments performances, while the recitatives are more briskly paced. Nonetheless, Ian Partidge's evangelist is songful and soulful as few others, with lovely, aptly expressive phrasing; Simon Preston's subtle, inventively improvised organ accompaniments add greatly to the interest of  these passages. The roster of first-rate soloists and players is a veritable who's-who of the best British early music specialists of the time, and the musicianship is impeccable throughout--not a single detail seems to have been overlooked. Both the 1991 London Jubilee and 1996 Double Decca re-issues are long out of circulation and not always easy to find nowadays.

3.
Carus 83.131 (1993 re-issue)
Adalbert Kraus (evangelist)
Ursula Bukel (angel)
Hartmut Hein (Herod)
Ulsamer Collegium
Günter Graulich/Collegium Musicum Rara, Stuttgart

This version was recorded in 1973 and has been re-issued a number of times, as recently as 2004. Graulich employs an edition prepared by Klaus Hoffman for this first 'original instruments' recording of the Weinachtshistorie. In retrospect, almost everything that was wrong with the nascent period-practice movement of the day is on full display here, from ragged ensemble playing and feeble half-starved string sonorities to vexed intonation issues. Ursula Bukel is melodramatically overbearing as the angel, while Adalbert Kraus is a somewhat ponderous evangelist. Hartmut Hein's rather bland Herod lacks sufficient regal presence and dark menace. The wise men's intermedium Wo ist der neugeborne König? is oddly accompanied by sour-sounding natural horns with the organ on 8- and 16-foot Krumhorn stops, which, in its weird little way, is jarringly effective. Nor was it probably the wisest creative choice to fill out the disc with a rather heavy-handed reading of Schütz' Musikalische Exequiem (funeral music). 

4.
Orfeo C 002 811 (1984)
Heiner Hopfner (tenor)
Rachel Yakar (soprano)
Harold Stamm (bass)
Munich Motet Choir
Hans Rudolf Zöbeley/Munich Residence Orchestra

This charming, relatively late 'modern instruments' reading of the Schoeneich edition is still well-worth seeking out. The singing is consistently excellent, and the unusual interpretive choice to double the strings with pipe organ lends the piece a warmly festive glow. The Wienachtshistorie is coupled with an energetically affecting, albeit rather old-fashioned sounding performance of the familiar Latin Magnificat SWV 468. 

5.
Erato ECD-88155 (1986)
Kurt Widmer (baritone) (evangelist)
Bernadette Degelin (soprano) (angel)
Dirk Van Croonenborgh (bass) (Herod)
Schola Cantorum Bruxelliensis
Louis Devos/Musica Polyphonica

The singing and playing are fine--but this performance is so poorly paced as to sap it of almost all excitement. The evangelist's recitatives seem interminable, and, other than in the relatively spritely choruses, the reading is characterized by a kind of weary inertia. By contrast, the motets that fill out the program are full of an infectious musical energy and verve--quite enjoyable, indeed.

6.
EMI 7 47633 2 (1987)
Nigel Rogers (tenor) (evangelist)
Emma Kirkby (soprano) (angel)
David Thomas (bass) (Herod)
Taverner Choir
Andrew Parrott/Taverner Consort and Players

An all-star cast of early-music specialists bring the Weinachtshistorie to vibrantly intimate life in this version prepared by Andrew Parrott "in conjunction" with Hugh Keyte. Nigel Rogers lends a consistently mellifluous sensitivity and quietly expressive dignity to the evangelist's part, while David Thomas is a dramatically powerful--and aptly sinister-- Herod. Emma Kirkby's angel is simply angelic! The seasonal motets by Michael Praetorius that fill out the program are given exciting, joyful brassy, full-throatedly marvelous readings.

7.
Hyperion CDA66368 (1990)
Helios CDH55310 (2007 re-issue)
John Mark Ainsley (tenor) (evangelist)
Ruth Holton (soprano) (angel)
Michael George (bass) (Herod)
Robert King/King's Consort

In spite of its oddly attenuated instrumental sound, this gorgeously sung rendition from 1990 remains one of the most satisfying performances in the catalog. John Mark Ainsley is simply sublime as the evangelist, lending beauty to every phrase. Ruth Holton may be a bit reedy and breathless as the angel, her voice at times possessing the color and depth of a boy soprano, but it seems to work quite well in context. Michael George brings just the right amount of dark dramatic weight to his Herod. Well worth seeking out.

8.
DG Archiv 289-463-046-2 (1999 re-issue)
Charles Daniels (tenor) (evangelist)
Susan Hemmington Jones (soprano) (angel)
Neal Davies (bass) (Herod)
Boy's Choir and Congregational Choir of Roskilde Cathedral
Paul McCreesh/Gabrielli Consort and Players

Employing a 'reconstruction' by Timothy Roberts, this rather dull, often-ham-fisted rendition disappoints as often as it pleases. The Wienachtshistorie is here incorporated into a liturgical re-enactment of a Christmas Vespers service at the Dresden court circa 1664. Though Charles Daniels acquits himself quite serviceably as the evangelist, the recorded sound is cavernous and distant, choral parts are sometimes lost altogether, and, by turns somber, detached, and overbearing, the music ultimately loses its sense of glowing intimacy and lyric charm. The singers practically bark out the final chorus. A rare disappointment from the usually very-reliable McCreesh. 

9.
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901310 (1992)
Harmonia-Mundi (Gold Series) HMX 2921310 (2011 re-issue)
Harmonia-Mundi HMA 1951310 (2014 re-issue)
Martin Hummel (tenor) (evangelist)
Sussane Ryden (angel)
Ulrich Messthaler (Herod) 
René Jacobs/Concerto Vocale

Beautifully sung and played with superb sound. Unfortunately, many of Jacobs' interpretive choices border on the bizarre, particularly some of the manic tempi in the various intermedia and the final chorus, which come dangerously close to flippant, cartoonish parody. That final chorus is stripped of all dignity, emotion, and meaning in its mad dash towards the finish line. Alas, what could well have been among the greatest versions on record, ultimately goes down as one of the biggest disappointments of the past seven decades. The filler material is no better.

10.
Naxos 8.553514 (1996)
Paul Agnew (tenor) (evangelist)
Anna Crooke (soprano) (angel)
Michael McCarthy (bass) (Herod)
Jeremey Summerly/Oxford Camerata

A pleasingly serviceable performance with fine singing and playing. This reading (again employing the ubiquitous Schoenich edition) harks back to Norrington's classic Argo reading from 1971, with very-similar tempi and overall interpretive approach in the choruses and intermedia. One might ask for a more consistent approach to the instrumental underscoring of the evangelist's part--the 'continuo' drops out for long stretches, leaving the tenor completely unaccomapnied; several chords are plunked down at the beginning of each phrase, and occasionally in conjunction with stresses in the text, but otherwise, the practice does not seem to follow a logical pattern, and the overall effect is at once confusing and rather dull. This notwithstanding, Summerly's is not a 'bad' version by any stretch of the imagination--especially considering Naxos' very attractive price.

11.
Deutsche Harmonia-Mundi 88697575832 (2009 re-issue)
Stephan Genz (baritone) (evangelist)
Elisabeth Scholl (soprano) (angel)
Harry Van der Kamp (bass) (Herod)
Sigiswald Kuijken/La Petite Bande vocal and instrumental ensemble

From 1999, this beautiful recording is a treasure--begging the question why Kuijken and his marvelous players never explored the works of Schütz and his contemporaries in greater depth.* The singing is gorgeous, the narrative unfailingly lyrical, clear and cogent, the tempi nigh-on to perfect, and the whole seems to take on a wondrously seraphic aura in memory. The filler material--all Christmas-related works by Schütz including truly-excellent readings of both the Latin and German Magnificats (SWV 468 and 494 respectively)-- is consistently first-rate.

(*) Kuijken and La Petite Bande recently recorded the Musikalische Exequiem SWV 279-281 (Accent ACC 24299 (2015))

12.
Hänssler Profil PH06028 (2009)
Bernhard Hirtreiter (tenor) (evangelist)
Mona Spägele (soprano) (angel)
Michael Schopper (bass) (Herod)
Munich Heinrich Schütz Ensemble
Wolfgang Kelber/Munich Monteverdi Orchestra

Another excellent reading, beautifully sung and warmly recorded. The choral sections are particularly fine. The generous filler material is quite wonderful, too, showcasing the superb Munich Heinrich Schütz Ensemble.

13
DaCappo 8.226058 (2009)
(also: DaCappo 8.204035 (4-disc set) (2011))
Adam Riis (tenor) (evangelist)
Else Torp (soprano) (angel)
Jakob Bloch Jespersen (bass) (Herod)
Paul Hillier/Ars Nova Copenhagen

A very serviceable--not great-- reading This performance lies somewhere in the interpretive middle halfway between Louis Devos' pedestrian 1986 reading for Erato (#5), and Rene Jacobs' caricatureish-ly frenetic performance for Harmonia Mundi (#9). While there's nothing technically 'wrong' with Hillier's take on the work, the performance seems a bit bland to my ears, especially where pacing and characterization are concerned; this in spite of some undeniably beautiful singing and more than adequate instrumental work. I note, especially, the accompaniment of the recitative passages, in which the ensemble seems to launch each phrase with a short chordal burst, only to leave the evangelist hanging in interminable stretches of naked a cappella space. It gets old--and rather boring-- quite quickly. 

14.
Carus 83.257 (2014)
Georg Poplutz (tenor)
Gerlinde Sämann (soprano)
Felix Schwandtke (bass)
Dresden Chamber Choir
Hans-Christophe Rademann/Dresden Baroque Orchestra

Gorgeously recorded, this intimately scintillating rendition of the 2014 Carus Verlag edition is the finest performance since Sigiswald Kuijken's marvelous 1999 reading for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (#11). The disc is filled out with additional seasonal material, all impeccably sung and played. 

Sibelius at 150 (Part 4): Delving the Fourth

In his obituary for Sibelius, published in the December 1957 issue of The Gramophone, Harold Rutland wrote: "The Fourth Symphony, enigmatic though it may be at first hearing, probably contains the quintessence of the composer's genius."  With this I would wholeheartedly agree. The Fourth, in my estimation, is Sibelius' greatest and most inspired symphonic conception, albeit less-readily accessible to the average listener than many of his other more widely-celebrated works, sometimes bewildering and often difficult to comprehend. It is also the composer's most singularly personal statement on an orchestral scale.

Written between the spring of 1910 and February of 1911 following a prolonged period of stress about his health (a cancerous tumor of the throat for which Sibelius underwent a pair of risky operations), the Fourth is the composer's walk through the shadow of the valley of death. The music seems to rise up like Dante's path out of the Inferno through Purgatory, a dreary landscape of foreboding ice and glacier, oppressive lowering mists and impassable canyon walls. Yet, ultimately, taken as a whole, the Fourth suggests a journey from the gloom of existential despair towards something akin to hope.

This is not to say that the work requires a programatic interpretation to be approached or understood.
For all its outward austerity, the Fourth is actually quite straightforward in terms of structure and thematic organization. The motivic germ of the symphony--the idea from which all else grows and flows-- is the tri-tone interval, the so-called "diminished fifth." (A famous and familiar example of this interval is heard in the first two notes of Maria from Bernstein's West Side Story; the melodic leap from 'Ma' to 'ri' clearly spells out the tri-tone.) In Sibelius' Fourth, it is this interval, incorporated into a craggy four-note melodic figure (c, d, f-sharp, e) that we first hear, rising up from the deeps of divided double basses, celli, and bassoons. Once a listener gets this tangy tetrachord into her head, she will begin to notice it everywhere throughout the piece. The entire symphony is built on these first four notes, which, although constantly varied, rearranged, and disguised, form a principle of contunuity--a single, long, unbroken line-- that ties the whole work together.

Thus, structure proceeds from theme, which, in itself, puts this symphony outside the realm of the conventional. The problem for any would-be interpreter is how to reveal the development of this highly dissonant thematic material in a way that is also lyrical and musically satisfying. As such, it may be instructive to compare recordings by several great 20th century conductors who revisited the work several times over the course of their careers; Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, and Sir Colin Davis.

[EMI 7243 5 57754 0  5 (2004 re-issue)]

Herbert von Karajan

Karajan's classic mono recording for EMI dates from 1954, and was highly praised by the composer himself. The reading is darkly atmospheric, weighty, and dramatically paced, yet the conductor also emphasized the essential lyricism of the score. This counter-intuitive 'coving off' of the sharper edges without sacrificing transparent structural integrity or introspective depth may well be what Sibelius so admired in Karajan's performance.

The interpretive history of almost any 'new music' that survives long enough to become part of the standard repertory may be characterized by a growing sense of understanding, familiarity, and comfort on the part of performers and audiences alike. Premiere performances can often seem rough and unmusical, while subsequent exectuion becomes more refined, often to a point where the piece loses its original power to shock or surprise altogether. In 1954, the Fourth was little more than forty years old, and had a history of decidedly mixed critical response, yet Karajan revealed this symphony to be not only a great work, but a beautiful one.

[DG (Originals) 457-748-2 (n.d)]

Karajan returned to the score in 1968, recording the Fourth with the Berlin Philharmonic for Deutsche Gramophone. This later interpretation seems overly-prettified, emphasizing surface-deep beauties at the expense of structural lucidity. This is more of an impressionistic approach to the music, and though the performance has a certain dark allure, the all-important long-line is lost in the indulgence of the moment.

[Decca (London) 430 778-2 (1991 compilation)]

Lorin Maazel

Maazel's marvelous 1968 reading of the Fourth with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca is one of the finest ever committed to disc, almost perfectly balancing structural clarity with lyric accessibility, and sheer visceral power. Few conductors have ever conveyed the opening movement's mood of disquiet and looming existential terror so effectively. Under Maazel's direction the score is realized both as a masterpiece of compositional architecture and a perpetually-intriguing post-romantic soundscape. (I have not heard Maazel's recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony for Sony.)

[Philips (LP) 9500 143 (1977)]

Sir Colin Davis  

Seldom has there been a more lucid, purposeful performance than Davis' 1977 reading with the Boston Symphony for Philips. Demonstrating an all-too-rare understanding of the spatial aspects of the score, the conductor emphasizes lyricism without sacrificing structural clarity. Though it may lack the sheer dramatic impact of Maazel's performance, the long-line is here illuminated, not merely within each individual movement, but throughout the score as a whole. This approach pays dividends, especially in the slow third movement, which few interpreters have ever rendered with such engaging cogency.

[RCA (Red Seal) 09026-68183-2 (1996)] 

By contrast, Davis 1996 reading with the London Symphony for RCA is bewildering to say the least. More adventuresome but, to my ears, far-less musical than the 1977 Philips recording, Davis seems obsessed with spatial gimmickry and non-essential details of orchestration, such as the placement of the muted distantamento brass choir, or the use of chimes, glockenspiel, or both in the finale. This later reading strikes me as either the work of a genius or a mad man, and I have yet to decide which.