Andrew Quint
Having completed their superlative traversal of the Mahler symphonies for SFS Media, the question was: What would Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony do next? The answer was Beethoven (Symphony No. 5 and the Fourth Piano Concerto) and Ives. And not just any Ives, but Henry Brant’s inspired orchestral adaptation of the Piano Sonata No. 2, a project that consumed Brant for 35 years. Brant, while acknowledging that he couldn’t possibly claim to know what Ives’s intentions would have been in terms of orchestration, nonetheless produced a symphonic work that evokes the kaleidoscopic colors of a piece like the “Holidays” Symphony while clarifying the dense textures of the keyboard work. Tilson Thomas and the San Franciscans dig in with gusto and are captured in transparent, impactful sound on this hybrid multichannel SACD.
Claudio Abbado’s progressing Mahler series with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra represents the pinnacle of what’s possible right now with an at-home concert experience. After releasing Symphonies 1–7 on Euroarts, on both standard DVD and Blu-ray, the Ninth is offered by the Accentus label and the results, musically and technically, are every bit as spectacular as the earlier discs. Abbado’s identification with what is arguably Mahler’s most profound purely orchestral utterance is complete, the sound is superb, and the video editing is informed by a sophisticated comprehension of the music. Beyond that, the deep bond of artistic understanding that Abbado has established with the Lucerne players comes through your speakers and television monitor in a way that transports one to the Swiss venue in August of 2010. The audience sat in stunned silence for nearly two minutes after the final notes died away. You will, too.
“Symphonic syntheses” of the sort that Leopold Stokowski crafted so successfully are a hit-or-miss undertaking and the Wagner arrangements by Henk de Vlieger, principal percussionist of the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, are definite hits. With the three disc-long treatments of material from the
Ring, Tristan,
and
Parsifal,
de Vlieger doesn’t take all that many liberties, only occasionally adding instrumental coverage of vocal parts when the musical thread would be lost without them. Many Wagnerians will get real satisfaction from these transcriptions that do succeed in communicating the essence of the very different sound worlds of the three works. Edo de Waart is a capable Wagner conductor and the NRPO—standard brass section for the
Ring
excerpts, by the way—is thoroughly up to the task.
On a superb-sounding SACD, Audite gives us Janáček’s string quartets performed by the Mandelring Quartet, whose Shostakovich cycle was so rewarding. The wrinkle here is that “Intimate Letters” (Quartet No. 2) is heard both in the familiar version and with viola d’amore substituting for viola. Janáček, infatuated with Kamila Stosslová, originally planned to employ this “instrument of love,” and its presence subtly modifies the effect of the piece.
Lastly, I’ll urge all opera lovers to acquire the Zurich Opera’s two-act version of
Lulu
led by Franz Welser-Möst on Arthaus Music. Thanks to the imaginative theatrical conception of stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and, especially, an intensely sensual performance of Laura Aiken in the title role, this “difficult” work never seemed more musically cogent and dramatically potent, revealing itself to all but the least adventuresome listeners to be among the greatest creations for the musical stage we have ever seen, or are likely to see.
IVES-BRANT
A Concord Symphony.
COPLAND
Organ Symphony
•
Jacobs / Tilson Thomas / San Francisco SO
•
SFS MEDIA 21936-0038-2 (SACD)
MAHLER
Symphony No. 9
•
Abbado / Lucerne Fest O
•
ACCENTUS ACC10214 (Blu-ray)
WAGNER-De Vlieger
Der Ring. Tristan und Isolde. Parsifal: Orchestral Adventures
•
De Waart / Netherlands RPO
•
CHALLENGE CC72338 (3 CDs)
JANÁČEK
String Quartets
•
Mandelring Str Qrt
•
AUDITE 92545 (SACD)
BERG
Lulu
•
Welser-Möst / Aiken / Zurich Op O
•
ARTHAUS 101565 (Blu-ray)
