Listen to This (49 page)
Authors: Alex Ross
19. FERVOR
This chapter is an expanded version of a column that appeared in
The New Yorker
on September 25, 2006.
The New Yorker
on September 25, 2006.
303
“She simply stood there”:
Charles Shere, review in the
Oakland Tribune,
April 17, 1972, reprinted by Barbara Stack in
“In Memoriam
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954–2006),” July 11, 2006,
www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/lorrainehuntliebersontribute_7_11_06.php
(accessed Dec. 7, 2009).
“She simply stood there”:
Charles Shere, review in the
Oakland Tribune,
April 17, 1972, reprinted by Barbara Stack in
“In Memoriam
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954–2006),” July 11, 2006,
www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/lorrainehuntliebersontribute_7_11_06.php
(accessed Dec. 7, 2009).
303
“A viola is a middle voice”:
Charles Michener, “The Soul Singer,”
The New Yorker,
Jan. 5, 2004, pp. 42–43.
“A viola is a middle voice”:
Charles Michener, “The Soul Singer,”
The New Yorker,
Jan. 5, 2004, pp. 42–43.
304
“She started singing”:
Ibid., p. 44.
“She started singing”:
Ibid., p. 44.
305
“Time itself stopped”:
Richard Dyer, “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Her Luminous Voice Transported Listener,”
The Boston Globe,
July 5, 2006.
“Time itself stopped”:
Richard Dyer, “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Her Luminous Voice Transported Listener,”
The Boston Globe,
July 5, 2006.
20. BLESSED ARE THE SAD
This chapter incorporates portions of an article that appeared in
The New Republic
on March 23, 1998, under the title “Why Is Light Given?”
The New Republic
on March 23, 1998, under the title “Why Is Light Given?”
307
“Two guys visit Haydn”:
Morton Feldman,
Give My Regards to Eighth Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman,
ed. B. H. Friedman (Exact Change, 2000), p. 166. For the original Haydn story see Richard Will, “When God Met the Sinner and Other Dramatic Confrontations in Eighteenth-Century Instrumental Music,”
Music and Letters
78:2 (May 1997), p. 175.
“Two guys visit Haydn”:
Morton Feldman,
Give My Regards to Eighth Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman,
ed. B. H. Friedman (Exact Change, 2000), p. 166. For the original Haydn story see Richard Will, “When God Met the Sinner and Other Dramatic Confrontations in Eighteenth-Century Instrumental Music,”
Music and Letters
78:2 (May 1997), p. 175.
307
“That first entrance of the trombones”:
Brahms’s letter to Lachner is transcribed in Reinhold Brinkmann, “Die ‘heitre Sinfonie’und der ‘schwer melancholische Mensch’: Johannes Brahms antwortet Vincenz Lachner,”
Archiv für Musikwissercschaft
46:4 (1989), pp. 301-302.
“That first entrance of the trombones”:
Brahms’s letter to Lachner is transcribed in Reinhold Brinkmann, “Die ‘heitre Sinfonie’und der ‘schwer melancholische Mensch’: Johannes Brahms antwortet Vincenz Lachner,”
Archiv für Musikwissercschaft
46:4 (1989), pp. 301-302.
308
“Motets by Joh. Br.
”: Styra Avins, ed.,
Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters,
trans. Avins and Josef Eisinger (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 553.
“Motets by Joh. Br.
”: Styra Avins, ed.,
Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters,
trans. Avins and Josef Eisinger (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 553.
309
“fresh beginning”:
Reinhold Brinkmann,
Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms
(Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 88, 84.
“fresh beginning”:
Reinhold Brinkmann,
Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms
(Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 88, 84.
309
“the first major composer”:
Richard Taruskin,
The Oxford History of Western Music,
vol. 3,
The Nineteenth Century
(Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 683.
“the first major composer”:
Richard Taruskin,
The Oxford History of Western Music,
vol. 3,
The Nineteenth Century
(Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 683.
310
“The opinion held in many quarters”:
Gunther Schuller,
The Compleat Conductor
(Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 279.
“The opinion held in many quarters”:
Gunther Schuller,
The Compleat Conductor
(Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 279.
311
“confused lack of money”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 4.
“confused lack of money”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 4.
311
“It seemed as though”:
Oliver Strunk and Leo Treitler, eds.,
Source Readings in Music History,
rev. ed. (Norton, 1998), pp. 1157-58.
“It seemed as though”:
Oliver Strunk and Leo Treitler, eds.,
Source Readings in Music History,
rev. ed. (Norton, 1998), pp. 1157-58.
312
“At the end, three hands”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 189.
“At the end, three hands”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 189.
313
“exceptions or excesses”:
Ibid., pp. 150–51, 157.
“exceptions or excesses”:
Ibid., pp. 150–51, 157.
313 “The memory of Schumann”: Ibid., p. 449.
313
Joachim once intimated:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 1 (Wiener Verlag), p. 173.
Joachim once intimated:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 1 (Wiener Verlag), p. 173.
313
Jan Swafford
…
explains:
Jan Swafford,
Johannes Brahms: A Biography
(Knopf, 1997), p. 169.
Jan Swafford
…
explains:
Jan Swafford,
Johannes Brahms: A Biography
(Knopf, 1997), p. 169.
314
“I shall never compose”:
Brinkman,
Late Idyll,
p. 138.
“I shall never compose”:
Brinkman,
Late Idyll,
p. 138.
315
“Any ass can hear that”:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 3 (Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1910), p. 109.
“Any ass can hear that”:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 3 (Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1910), p. 109.
315
“veiled symphonies”:
Strunk and Treitler,
Source Readings in Music History,
p. 1157.
“veiled symphonies”:
Strunk and Treitler,
Source Readings in Music History,
p. 1157.
316
“What Brahms was after”:
Schuller,
The Compleat Conductor,
p. 293.
“What Brahms was after”:
Schuller,
The Compleat Conductor,
p. 293.
316
“Our life is no dream”:
Swafford,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 41.
“Our life is no dream”:
Swafford,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 41.
316
“Anti-Semitism is insanity!”:
Margaret Notley
Lateness and Brahms: Music and
Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism
(Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 211. For Little Bighorn, see Swafford,
Brahms,
p. 530.
“Anti-Semitism is insanity!”:
Margaret Notley
Lateness and Brahms: Music and
Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism
(Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 211. For Little Bighorn, see Swafford,
Brahms,
p. 530.
317
“tomorrow in Handel’s Hallelujah wig”:
Robert W. Gutman,
Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music
(Harcourt Brace, 1968), p. 397.
“tomorrow in Handel’s Hallelujah wig”:
Robert W. Gutman,
Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music
(Harcourt Brace, 1968), p. 397.
317
“I give the best and most appropriate thanks”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 479.
“I give the best and most appropriate thanks”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 479.
317
“[Brahms] knew his own worth”:
Ethel Smyth,
Impressions That Remained: Memoirs
(Knopf, 1946), p. 238.
“[Brahms] knew his own worth”:
Ethel Smyth,
Impressions That Remained: Memoirs
(Knopf, 1946), p. 238.
318 “
Art
is
a republic”:
Swafford,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 180.
Art
is
a republic”:
Swafford,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 180.
318
“If you continue on right away
”: Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
pp. 347–48.
“If you continue on right away
”: Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
pp. 347–48.
318
“furrowed, even ravaged”:
Theodor W. Adorno,
Essays on Music,
ed. Richard Leppert, trans. Susan H. Gillespie (University of California Press, 2002), p. 564.
“furrowed, even ravaged”:
Theodor W. Adorno,
Essays on Music,
ed. Richard Leppert, trans. Susan H. Gillespie (University of California Press, 2002), p. 564.
319
Brinkmann devotes:
Brinkmann,
Late Idyll,
pp. 125–44.
Brinkmann devotes:
Brinkmann,
Late Idyll,
pp. 125–44.
319
“Look,
Herr Doktor!”: Ernst Decsey “Stunden mit Mahler,”
Die Musik
10:21 (1910/1911), p. 146.
“Look,
Herr Doktor!”: Ernst Decsey “Stunden mit Mahler,”
Die Musik
10:21 (1910/1911), p. 146.
320
Brahms nods several times:
On Wagner allusions in Brahms, see David Brodbeck, “Brahms, the Third Symphony and the New German School,” in
Brahms and His World,
ed. Walter Frisch (Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 65–80; and Robert Bailey, “Musical Language and Structure in the Third Symphony,” in
Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives,
ed. George S. Bozarth (Clarendon, 1990), pp. 408–409.
Brahms nods several times:
On Wagner allusions in Brahms, see David Brodbeck, “Brahms, the Third Symphony and the New German School,” in
Brahms and His World,
ed. Walter Frisch (Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 65–80; and Robert Bailey, “Musical Language and Structure in the Third Symphony,” in
Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives,
ed. George S. Bozarth (Clarendon, 1990), pp. 408–409.
320
“allowing a soloist to emerge”:
Margaret Notley, “Late-Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music and the Cult of the Classical Adagio,”
19th-Century Music
23:1 (Summer 1999), p. 59.
“allowing a soloist to emerge”:
Margaret Notley, “Late-Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music and the Cult of the Classical Adagio,”
19th-Century Music
23:1 (Summer 1999), p. 59.
321
“unrestricted musical language”:
Arnold Schoenberg,
Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg,
ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black (University of California Press, 1984), p. 441.
“unrestricted musical language”:
Arnold Schoenberg,
Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg,
ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black (University of California Press, 1984), p. 441.
321
“Sing Lullabies of My Sorrow’”:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 4 (Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1914), p. 281. For the matching of words to the melody of Opus 117 No. 1, see p. 279.
“Sing Lullabies of My Sorrow’”:
Max Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms,
vol. 4 (Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1914), p. 281. For the matching of words to the melody of Opus 117 No. 1, see p. 279.
322
as Raymond Knapp notes:
Raymond Knapp, “The Finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony: The Tale of the Subject,”
19th-Century Music
13:1 (Summer 1989), p. 10.
as Raymond Knapp notes:
Raymond Knapp, “The Finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony: The Tale of the Subject,”
19th-Century Music
13:1 (Summer 1989), p. 10.
322 “Es fiel … ihm wie”: Swafford,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 4.
Johannes Brahms,
p. 4.
322
“frozen”:
Walter Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies
(Yale University Press, 2003), p. 125.
“frozen”:
Walter Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies
(Yale University Press, 2003), p. 125.
322
As Notley observes:
Margaret Notley, “Plagal Harmony as Other: Asymmetrical Dualism and Instrumental Music by Brahms,”
The Journal of Musicology
22:1 (Winter 2005), pp. 128–29.
As Notley observes:
Margaret Notley, “Plagal Harmony as Other: Asymmetrical Dualism and Instrumental Music by Brahms,”
The Journal of Musicology
22:1 (Winter 2005), pp. 128–29.
323
modern conductors drag:
On slowing tempos in modern Brahms performance, see Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies,
pp. 163–88; and Walter Frisch, “Whose Brahms Is It Anyway?: Observations on the Recorded Legacy of the B-flat Piano Concerto, Op. 83,” in
Musical Meaning and Human Values,
ed. Keith Chapin and Lawrence Kramer (Fordham University Press, 2009), pp. 102–15.
modern conductors drag:
On slowing tempos in modern Brahms performance, see Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies,
pp. 163–88; and Walter Frisch, “Whose Brahms Is It Anyway?: Observations on the Recorded Legacy of the B-flat Piano Concerto, Op. 83,” in
Musical Meaning and Human Values,
ed. Keith Chapin and Lawrence Kramer (Fordham University Press, 2009), pp. 102–15.
323
“perhaps the most extraordinary”:
Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies,
p. 130.
“perhaps the most extraordinary”:
Frisch,
Brahms: The Four Symphonies,
p. 130.
323
Knapp also argues:
Knapp, “The Finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony” pp. 6–8.
Knapp also argues:
Knapp, “The Finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony” pp. 6–8.
323
“On a single staff”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 515.
“On a single staff”:
Avins,
Johannes Brahms,
p. 515.
324 “I cannot
get away”:
Brinkmann,
Late Idyll,
p. 221. For Mann, see pp. 222–25.
get away”:
Brinkmann,
Late Idyll,
p. 221. For Mann, see pp. 222–25.
These recommendations reflect one listener’s taste; prospective buyers can compare audio samples online before making any purchases. All recordings are available as this book goes to press, although some will inevitably go out of print as record companies reduce their catalogues. Most are also available as MP3 downloads.
LISTEN TO THIS
A secondhand LP of Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven’s
Eroica
Symphony ignited my love of classical music. Although kids today might just as easily fall under the spell of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Steve Reich’s
Music for 18 Musicians,
Beethoven’s indestructible masterwork remains a logical place to start. According to an online discography maintained by Eric Grunin, more than five hundred recordings of the
Eroica
have entered circulation since the invention of the phonograph: they range from the sinewy Arturo Toscanini (a 1939 live version with the NBC Symphony captures the maestro at white heat) to the compellingly neurotic Wilhelm Furtwangler (his grittiest reading comes from December 1944, with the Vienna Philharmonic) to the granitic Otto Klemperer (a 1959 EMI recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra is the most commanding of various efforts). Bernstein’s vigorous
Eroica
with the New York Philharmonic is currently available on a Sony disc that also includes the conductor’s
Eroica
lecture (“There has been a stab of intrusive otherness”). If you’re looking for a complete set of the Beethoven nine, Herbert von Karajan’s 1961–62 survey with the Berliners (DG) is consistently satisfying,
though a little lacking in fire. Osmo Vänskä’s cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra (BIS) is a formidable modern rival.
Eroica
Symphony ignited my love of classical music. Although kids today might just as easily fall under the spell of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Steve Reich’s
Music for 18 Musicians,
Beethoven’s indestructible masterwork remains a logical place to start. According to an online discography maintained by Eric Grunin, more than five hundred recordings of the
Eroica
have entered circulation since the invention of the phonograph: they range from the sinewy Arturo Toscanini (a 1939 live version with the NBC Symphony captures the maestro at white heat) to the compellingly neurotic Wilhelm Furtwangler (his grittiest reading comes from December 1944, with the Vienna Philharmonic) to the granitic Otto Klemperer (a 1959 EMI recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra is the most commanding of various efforts). Bernstein’s vigorous
Eroica
with the New York Philharmonic is currently available on a Sony disc that also includes the conductor’s
Eroica
lecture (“There has been a stab of intrusive otherness”). If you’re looking for a complete set of the Beethoven nine, Herbert von Karajan’s 1961–62 survey with the Berliners (DG) is consistently satisfying,
though a little lacking in fire. Osmo Vänskä’s cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra (BIS) is a formidable modern rival.
CHACONA, LAMENTO, WALKING BLUES
Juan Arañés’s “Un sarao de la chacona, a joyous example of the original chacona dance, springs to life on the collection
Villancicos
y
Danzas Criollas,
with Jordi Savall leading Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Alia Vox). Johannes Ockeghem’s somber
Missa Fors seulement
is resonantly sung by the Schola Discantus on a Lyrichord disc. Savall and company have also produced the most bewitching of all recordings of John Dowland’s
Lachrimae,
although at the moment it is available only as an MP3 download (Alia Vox). Andreas Scholl lends his pure-toned, emotionally charged countertenor to Dowland songs on the albums
A Musicall Banquet
(Decca) and
Crystal Tears
(Harmonia Mundi).
Villancicos
y
Danzas Criollas,
with Jordi Savall leading Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Alia Vox). Johannes Ockeghem’s somber
Missa Fors seulement
is resonantly sung by the Schola Discantus on a Lyrichord disc. Savall and company have also produced the most bewitching of all recordings of John Dowland’s
Lachrimae,
although at the moment it is available only as an MP3 download (Alia Vox). Andreas Scholl lends his pure-toned, emotionally charged countertenor to Dowland songs on the albums
A Musicall Banquet
(Decca) and
Crystal Tears
(Harmonia Mundi).
Various classic arias of lament, including Hecuba’s apocalyptic threnody from Cavalli’s
Didone,
appear on the disc
Lamenti,
with Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert d’Astree and assorted star singers (Virgin Classics). The Concerto Vocale’s recording of Monteverdi’s
Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi
(Harmonia Mundi) has a strikingly sensuous
Lamento della ninfa.
There have been many lovely versions of Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas;
I cherish a 1994 Harmonia Mundi CD with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido and Nicholas McGegan conducting the Philharmonia Baroque. The discography of Bach’s cycle of Sonatas and Partitas, which includes the Ciaccona in D Minor, is intimidatingly large, embracing most of the major violinists of the past hundred years; among latter-day recordings, I’d choose the idiosyncratic, questing Gidon Kremer on ECM. In the awesome realm of Bach’s B-Minor Mass, no conductor has gone deeper than Philippe Herreweghe, the leader of the Collegium Vocale Gent; his second account of the work, for Harmonia Mundi, sets the modern standard.
Didone,
appear on the disc
Lamenti,
with Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert d’Astree and assorted star singers (Virgin Classics). The Concerto Vocale’s recording of Monteverdi’s
Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi
(Harmonia Mundi) has a strikingly sensuous
Lamento della ninfa.
There have been many lovely versions of Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas;
I cherish a 1994 Harmonia Mundi CD with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido and Nicholas McGegan conducting the Philharmonia Baroque. The discography of Bach’s cycle of Sonatas and Partitas, which includes the Ciaccona in D Minor, is intimidatingly large, embracing most of the major violinists of the past hundred years; among latter-day recordings, I’d choose the idiosyncratic, questing Gidon Kremer on ECM. In the awesome realm of Bach’s B-Minor Mass, no conductor has gone deeper than Philippe Herreweghe, the leader of the Collegium Vocale Gent; his second account of the work, for Harmonia Mundi, sets the modern standard.
INFERNAL MACHINES
Exploring the early archives of recording requires a tolerance for hiss, pop, crackle, and other artifacts of premagnetic technology. One obvious starting point is Enrico Caruso, whose golden tenor was first captured in 1902; the Nimbus label provides a robust-sounding Caruso anthology in its Prima
Voce series, although the tenor’s recordings have now entered public domain and have proliferated on the Internet (see
www.archive.org/details/Caruso_partl
or search YouTube). Edward Elgar’s startlingly brash, freewheeling performances of his own works have appeared on various labels; in a volume of EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series, he guides the teenage Yehudi Menuhin through his Violin Concerto. EMI also offers Bruno Walter’s haunting interpretation of the Mahler Ninth Symphony, recorded live with the Vienna Philharmonic on the eve of the Anschluss; the British audio wizard Michael Dutton has released an even better remastering on his Dutton Laboratories label.
Voce series, although the tenor’s recordings have now entered public domain and have proliferated on the Internet (see
www.archive.org/details/Caruso_partl
or search YouTube). Edward Elgar’s startlingly brash, freewheeling performances of his own works have appeared on various labels; in a volume of EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series, he guides the teenage Yehudi Menuhin through his Violin Concerto. EMI also offers Bruno Walter’s haunting interpretation of the Mahler Ninth Symphony, recorded live with the Vienna Philharmonic on the eve of the Anschluss; the British audio wizard Michael Dutton has released an even better remastering on his Dutton Laboratories label.
THE STORM OF STYLE
Mozart playing has changed drastically over the past century: a lush Romantic style has given way to crisper attacks and leaner textures. A paragon of the old school is Carlo Maria Giulini’s towering 1959 recording of
Don Giovanni,
which boasts one of those lustrous casts that the British producer Walter Legge assembled so effortlessly for EMI in the postwar era: Eberhard Wachter as the Don, Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Donna Elvira, Giuseppe Taddei as Leporello, and Gottlob Frick emitting pitch-black sounds as the Commendatore. Yet, as the countertenor-turned-conductor Rene Jacobs has proved in a slew of original-instrument Mozart recordings for Harmonia Mundi, the golden age of the LP has no monopoly on this composer. Jacobs’s
Marriage of Figaro,
with Lorenzo Regazzo as Figaro, Patrizia Ciofi as Susanna, and Simon Keenlyside as the Count, is wonderfully nimble and raucous, as if the story were being told from Figaro’s point of view rather than from the Count’s. Four other Mozart opera favorites: Erich Kleiber’s
Figaro
(Decca), Otto Klemperer’s
The Magic Flute
(EMI), Karl Böhm’s
Cos
fan tutte
(EMI), and Charles Mackerras’s
Idomeneo
(EMI).
Don Giovanni,
which boasts one of those lustrous casts that the British producer Walter Legge assembled so effortlessly for EMI in the postwar era: Eberhard Wachter as the Don, Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Donna Elvira, Giuseppe Taddei as Leporello, and Gottlob Frick emitting pitch-black sounds as the Commendatore. Yet, as the countertenor-turned-conductor Rene Jacobs has proved in a slew of original-instrument Mozart recordings for Harmonia Mundi, the golden age of the LP has no monopoly on this composer. Jacobs’s
Marriage of Figaro,
with Lorenzo Regazzo as Figaro, Patrizia Ciofi as Susanna, and Simon Keenlyside as the Count, is wonderfully nimble and raucous, as if the story were being told from Figaro’s point of view rather than from the Count’s. Four other Mozart opera favorites: Erich Kleiber’s
Figaro
(Decca), Otto Klemperer’s
The Magic Flute
(EMI), Karl Böhm’s
Cos
fan tutte(EMI), and Charles Mackerras’s
Idomeneo
(EMI).
A long procession of major pianists—Walter Gieseking, Rudolf Serkin, Clifford Curzon, Sviatoslav Richter, Alfred Brendel, Alicia de Larrocha, and Mitsuko Uchida, among others—has graced the Mozart piano concertos. No player is more direct, more devoid of artifice, and more warmly human than Richard Goode, who has recorded eight of the major concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Nonesuch). Mackerras’s set of the Symphonies Nos. 38—41 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Linn)
is bracingly clear and brisk. In the chamber music, I recommend as a point of departure a three-CD set of the magnificently varied String Quintets with the Grumiaux Trio and allied players (Philips). Every year brings new recordings of the Requiem, Mozart’s tragically unfinished farewell; the one led by Peter Schreier, which appears both on a single disc and as part of the Philips Mozart edition, achieves rugged authenticity from the start.
is bracingly clear and brisk. In the chamber music, I recommend as a point of departure a three-CD set of the magnificently varied String Quintets with the Grumiaux Trio and allied players (Philips). Every year brings new recordings of the Requiem, Mozart’s tragically unfinished farewell; the one led by Peter Schreier, which appears both on a single disc and as part of the Philips Mozart edition, achieves rugged authenticity from the start.
ORBITING
The brainy blokes of Radiohead have generated eight studio albums to date, with another in the works as of this writing. If you like your rock and roll with clear-cut tunes, you will probably be happiest with the band’s second and third efforts,
The Bends
(1995) and
OK Computer
(1997). If you have an ear for off-kilter harmonies and twitchy electronic textures, you may prefer
Kid A
(2000),
Amnesiac
(2001), and
Hail to the Thief
(2003). Radiohead’s most recent albums, the self-released
In Rainbows
(2007) and
The King of Limbs
(2011), hold melody and texture in even balance; they contain the band’s subtlest, mellowest work. The best of Radiohead’s various EPs and singles is
Airbag/How Am I Driving?
, which has the sinuous instrumental “Meeting in the Aisle” and the postmodern anthem “Palo Alto.”
The Bends
(1995) and
OK Computer
(1997). If you have an ear for off-kilter harmonies and twitchy electronic textures, you may prefer
Kid A
(2000),
Amnesiac
(2001), and
Hail to the Thief
(2003). Radiohead’s most recent albums, the self-released
In Rainbows
(2007) and
The King of Limbs
(2011), hold melody and texture in even balance; they contain the band’s subtlest, mellowest work. The best of Radiohead’s various EPs and singles is
Airbag/How Am I Driving?
, which has the sinuous instrumental “Meeting in the Aisle” and the postmodern anthem “Palo Alto.”
THE ANTI-MAESTRO
The composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has a knack for making necessary recordings. A twentieth-century specialist, he combines a modernist yen for complexity with a Nordic feeling for landscape. One of his first projects with the Los Angeles Philharmonic was to record Witold Lutoslawski’s Third Symphony, which applies an avant-garde vocabulary to a sprawling symphonic structure; that pioneering effort is still available on Sony, paired with Lutosławski’s Fourth. For the same label, Salonen and the L.A. Phil surveyed the film music of Bernard Herrmann, focusing on the famous Alfred Hitchcock scores (
Vertigo, Psycho
). Moving to the DG label, Salonen fashioned one of the tautest modern interpretations of Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring
(with Bartók’s
Miraculous Mandarin
Suite and Mussorgsky’s
Night on Bald Mountain
). He has also produced definitive readings of Magnus Lindberg’s
Kraft,
with the Finnish Radio Symphony (Ondine); John Adams’s
Naïve and Sentimental Music,
with the L.A. Phil (Nonesuch);
and Kaija Saariaho’s opera
L’Amour de loin,
with Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, and forces from the Finnish National Opera (DG DVD). There are four discs of Salonen’s own music, showing a progression from antic avant-gardism to enlightened eclecticism. Begin with the DG collection
Wing on Wing
: the high-tech textures of the title work shimmer like the wings of Disney Hall.
Vertigo, Psycho
). Moving to the DG label, Salonen fashioned one of the tautest modern interpretations of Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring
(with Bartók’s
Miraculous Mandarin
Suite and Mussorgsky’s
Night on Bald Mountain
). He has also produced definitive readings of Magnus Lindberg’s
Kraft,
with the Finnish Radio Symphony (Ondine); John Adams’s
Naïve and Sentimental Music,
with the L.A. Phil (Nonesuch);
and Kaija Saariaho’s opera
L’Amour de loin,
with Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, and forces from the Finnish National Opera (DG DVD). There are four discs of Salonen’s own music, showing a progression from antic avant-gardism to enlightened eclecticism. Begin with the DG collection
Wing on Wing
: the high-tech textures of the title work shimmer like the wings of Disney Hall.
GREAT SOUL
In Schubert, absolute precision of execution matters less than unerring identification with the composer’s mercurial moods. In this respect, older recordings often win out over newer ones, where too often the notes glitter in place but the emotions are held in check. Almost all modern accounts of the String Quintet in C fade next to a 1952 recording from Pablo Casals’s Prades Festival, with Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Paul Tortelier, and Casals himself (Sony). Intonation wobbles, notes are dropped here and there, and someone keeps grunting, but the sustained legato in the slow movement is like light pouring in from another world. For an extraordinary compendium of pre–Second World War Schubert playing, search the Internet for a four-CD set of the chamber music on the now dormant Andante label. Again, the lyrical intensity of the performances, featuring such legendary musicians as Casals, Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, Adolf Busch, Rudolf Serkin, Artur Schnabel, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Fritz Kreisler, makes most modern renditions of this music sound coldly clinical.
Still, many first-rate Schubert discs have emerged from the digital age. Klaus Tennstedt’s 1983 recording of the Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI) has a fine dancing energy, appropriate to Schubert’s brawniest work. Leonard Bernstein’s reading of the Ninth with the New York Philharmonic (Sony) shows a similar vitality, and is paired with a handsomely brooding “Unfinished.” In the song cycle
Winterreise,
the singer must convey existential solitude and more than a trace of madness; to my taste, a high-lying tenor voice communicates that desperation better than a baritone, and so, in place of classic recordings by Hans Hotter and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, I recommend an acutely expressive Decca CD with Peter Schreier and Andras Schiff. Hyperion’s epochal survey of Schubert songs—thirty-seven volumes in all—is neatly distilled on a disc of highlights,
titled “Voyage of Discovery” Pianists on the order of Schnabel, Clifford Curzon, and Sviatoslav Richter have made their mark on Schubert’s august Sonata in B-flat; the young players Paul Lewis and Inon Barnatan (on Harmonia Mundi and Bridge) prove that the poetic sensibility of the prewar era has by no means died away.
Winterreise,
the singer must convey existential solitude and more than a trace of madness; to my taste, a high-lying tenor voice communicates that desperation better than a baritone, and so, in place of classic recordings by Hans Hotter and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, I recommend an acutely expressive Decca CD with Peter Schreier and Andras Schiff. Hyperion’s epochal survey of Schubert songs—thirty-seven volumes in all—is neatly distilled on a disc of highlights,
titled “Voyage of Discovery” Pianists on the order of Schnabel, Clifford Curzon, and Sviatoslav Richter have made their mark on Schubert’s august Sonata in B-flat; the young players Paul Lewis and Inon Barnatan (on Harmonia Mundi and Bridge) prove that the poetic sensibility of the prewar era has by no means died away.
EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES
As with Radiohead, Björk’s records fall roughly into two phases, one tending toward pop and the other toward the electronic and classical avant-garde. Her first mature solo albums,
Debut
(1993) and
Post
(1995), are stocked with manically singable anthems (“Venus as a Boy,” “Isobel,” “Hyper-ballad”).
Homogenic
(1997) inaugurated her “avant” period, which culminated in
Vespertine
(2001) and
Medúlla
(2004).
Vespertine
is the most magically Björkian work of the lot—an organic song cycle comparable to Radiohead’s
Kid
A, from the previous year.
Selmasongs
is a hybrid 2000 album derived from Björk’s semi-symphonic soundtrack to the Lars von Trier film
Dancer in the Dark.
Björk has also sent forth various live records, box sets, and videos; the collection
Family Tree
contains, among other quirky treasures, her Messiaen-infused version of “Cover Me.” Since my profile appeared, in 2004, Björk has released another soundtrack, the densely orchestrated
Drawing Restraint
9 (for a film by Matthew Barney), and another full-length album,
Volta
(“Declare Independence” is a new Björk classic). Her 1996 performance of Schoenberg’s
Pierrot lunaire,
with Kent Nagano conducting, has yet to materialize on recording, although samizdat excerpts have surfaced on the Internet.
Debut
(1993) and
Post
(1995), are stocked with manically singable anthems (“Venus as a Boy,” “Isobel,” “Hyper-ballad”).
Homogenic
(1997) inaugurated her “avant” period, which culminated in
Vespertine
(2001) and
Medúlla
(2004).
Vespertine
is the most magically Björkian work of the lot—an organic song cycle comparable to Radiohead’s
Kid
A, from the previous year.
Selmasongs
is a hybrid 2000 album derived from Björk’s semi-symphonic soundtrack to the Lars von Trier film
Dancer in the Dark.
Björk has also sent forth various live records, box sets, and videos; the collection
Family Tree
contains, among other quirky treasures, her Messiaen-infused version of “Cover Me.” Since my profile appeared, in 2004, Björk has released another soundtrack, the densely orchestrated
Drawing Restraint
9 (for a film by Matthew Barney), and another full-length album,
Volta
(“Declare Independence” is a new Björk classic). Her 1996 performance of Schoenberg’s
Pierrot lunaire,
with Kent Nagano conducting, has yet to materialize on recording, although samizdat excerpts have surfaced on the Internet.
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