A Really Spectacular Recital!

你好 From Spain with a Chinese Accent – or is it the other way around? Whatever...in any case we were knocked off our chair when we first heard “40 Degrees North”, a new guitar recital disk from Xuefei Yang. She’s the first guitar graduate from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and if this recording is any indication of her talent, Yang is one of the most thrilling guitarists in the world today.

Her Albeniz and Granados, both transcribed by Yang, are performed with exceptional nuance and poetry unmatched by anybody since Parkening or Julian Bream. Even the super-schmaltzy Butterfly Lovers is tamed and distilled into pure poetry.

This evidentally isn’t Yang first recording, but it’s the first we’ve heard of her. It’s flawlessly played, and extremely well thought out – mixing and contrasting its echoes of East and West in just the right amounts In fact the 40 degrees north title refers to the fact that Madrid is on the same latitude as Beijing, Yang’s home. For sheer musical intelligence as well as evocative, jaw-dropping guitar playing, this can’t be beat.

What’s on our player now: “40 Degrees North”: Albeniz, Granados, S. Goss, Huang Zi, Tarrega, Wang Huiran, Wang Luobin etc., Xuefei Yang, guitar; EMI 206322-2

你好 There can be little doubt about it, Bizet’s opera Carmen, the world’s most popular opera ever written was a total fluke. The strange thing is that evidentally when it came to musical talents , Bizet seemed to have everything. Sight-reading, singing, getting to the point, Bizet was extraordinarily gifted. He was encouraged by both of his parents from early on, and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of nine. As a teen he won prizes for piano and organ performance and at the age of nineteen he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, the French musical establishment’s seal of approval.

But his output was mostly mediocre, his music was second rate. Bizet just couldn’t get interested in the kind of music the French establishment of his time wanted: masses, cantatas and grand symphonic works. Even his best works, his young Symphony, even parts of another of his operas, Les Pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) , are attractive but definitely in the late 19th century French salon traditions of Bizet’s time. His reputation as one of the France’s greatest 19th century composer rests entirely on Carmen.

The idea for the opera seems to have occurred to the composer in 1873. His librettists Meilhac and Halevy based their work on a dark novella by French writer Prosper Merimee; a psychotic solider, Don Jose, remembers his obsession with a wild, irresistible creature named Carmen, an obsession that ends with his killing her.

The opera turned out to be not a much prettier story, in spire of the lusty gypsy women with big earrings, and roses tucked behind their ears. Carmen, the title character is irresistible to men, with a kind of wild dignity all her own. She lives under no law – she does what she places until she makes the fatal mistake of ruining the life of the very disturbed Don Jose. She lives in a world outside the law, a liberated, non-judgemental world that tolerates deception, thievery and cruelty, where violence is the counterpart of beauty.

Carmen may be his only masterpiece, but it got a cool reception in 1875 Paris when it was first produced. Opening night reviews complained about a “’lack of color’ in his score….the music lacks novelty and distinction” Worst of all critics heard something that reminded them of Richard Wagner. In the wake of the Franco-Prussian war, any suggestion of German-ness, or Richard Wagner’s musical influence was considered to be an insult, an insult to the honor of France. (The so-called musician of the future, Wagner, absolutely detested the opera. Critics – go figure.)
In any case, Bizet was terribly disappointed. To make matters worse, he got seriously ill shortly after the premiere and died exactly three months later, after the thirty-third performance of the opera. He was just thirty-six years old. He never got a chance to taste his world-wide fame.

What’s on our player now: “Carmen”: Victoria de los Angeles (Carmen) Nicolai Gedda (Don Jose), French Radio Choir, French Radio National Orchestra/ Sir Thomas Beecham, EMI CDS7 49240-2

A true classic, partly because of de los Angeles’ authentic singing of the title role and Beecham’s flawless conducting, but it’s got some important rivals including Marilyn Horne under Bernstein (DG) and Callas under Pretre (EMI) (she never performed the role on stage, only in this studio version), and a very dynamic account with Rise Stevens under Fritz Reiner (RCA)

你好We’ve been wondering lately, what makes a recording legendary ? Take a spellbinding conductor at his most intense, one of the world great orchestras, a perfectly honed collection of 70 or 80 virtuosos, all playing their instruments phenomenally well, and a musical vehicle loaded to the brim with raw passion. And of course, great sound. What do you get? A benchmark, a revolutionary performance that turns classical music on its head.

There aren’t many recordings that reach these heights, but among them has to be Fritz Reiner’s 1954 recording of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra which has never gone out of the catalog. I’d originally heard it on a friend’s brand new stereo set and it quickly became the cornerstone of my early vinyl collection of precious 15 records. It’s amazing to think this stereo recording was made over 50 years ago and still sounds spectacular.

Although Reiner rerecorded these pieces in 1962 , the earlier recording has intensity and thrust raised to the next power. 1954 was only the conductor’s second year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and yet already he was getting a gleaming sheen from the strings, and sheer brilliance from the legendary Chicago brass and woodwind sections.

These were the first stereo sessions to be arranged by the RCA engineers in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and they were made using the simplest microphone techniques. But then or now, even with recordings that have taken advantage of digital sound, few can outclass with this warm, glorious Chicago Symphony Orchestra CD. And if you have the right equipment, the new SACD digital remastering is even more thrilling.

What’s in our player now: R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Ein Heldenleben, Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Fritz Reiner, conductor - RCA 82876-61389-2

There are lots of performances that have all the ingredients of a legendary recording but never make it. It’s not for want of ambition or vision. Take Barbra Steisand, possibly the greatest singer-actress to come along since Maria Callas took the world by storm, give her some of the greatest arias and art songs ever written, and back her up with a good pick-up orchestra. Sounds like a fool-proof recipe for greatness, doesn’t it?

There are a million “what ifs” in music. What if Schubert had lived long enough to go back and finish writing his “Unifnished” symphony? What if Mozart had recovered enough to finish and possibly rewrite part of his Requiem? What if Beethoven had lived long enough to write a 10^th symphony? Long story short: some biggie at Columbia Records thought, what if we convinced a great voice like Streisand to sing classical music, we could sit back and count the cash.

The great Leonard Bernstein was supportive: “Barbra Streisand’s natural ability to make music takes her over to the classical field with extraordinary ease. It’s clear that she loves these songs. In her sensitive, straight-forward and enormously appealing performance, she has given us a very special musical experience.”

The problem is Streisand doesn’t love these songs. She doesn’t know these songs; if anytinng she’s intimidated by them. And even if she weren’t, her habit of bending notes and extending syllables, doesn’t make sense in the Debussy, or the Faure, where whatever note-bending is already there.

Streisand plods through one art-song after another, simply setting aside her unique powers of characterization, keeping no secrets and wearing no veils. She sings these arias like they are lounge songs, but unlike Renee Fleming (in her Haunted Heart Haunted Heart) album, she gives no thought to the appropriateness of the style. Her harsh, heavy sound destroys the easy melodic line. And did I mention, French, German, Italian, every song sounds the same?

Oy, what a shame. What could have been…..

What’s on our player now: Classical Barbra. Barbra Streisand, vocalist; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Claus Ogerman, piano, arr., and cond. COLUMBIA M 33452

你好I don’t know of a single musical work that has provoked musicians and encouraged speculation quite the way Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet has. To start with even Franck’s wife, Felicite damned it, (‘…that Quintet, ugh.”). Saint-Saens, to whom it was dedicated and the first performer of the piano part, walked off the stage in disgust after the first performance.

Even Franz Liszt, the great Wagner supporter and someone who usually championed new and untried music, pulled back. I’m not sure exactly why. With all the mistresses who traveled around when he performed, taste and discretion were not high on Liszt’s hierarchy of musical or personal virtues. Could he have felt threatened by the passion in Franck’s quintet’s opening movement?

So what was the source of a work that was so completely hated, and like nothing else Franck had written? The answer: Augusta Holmes, an 18-year old Irish student of Franck’s. Even Saint-Saens, a repressed homosexual, said about Augusta, “We were all in love with her.” The woman was hot. And Oh, did I mention that Franck was 57 at the time?

You might think that Franck’s friends and musical buddies were just playing the virtue card and lining up behind Felicite, the abused wife, which would explain why the piece was only performed rarely back then Today everybody knows about middle-aged crises and takes them in stride; the passion of a lovesick middle aged married man is no longer a shocker. But performances of the Franck have continued to be few and far between.

Liszt’s objections about Franck’s oversized emotions and the difficult piano writing have been echoed over by others since 1880. More than one pianist has confessed that after an overheated performance of the Franck, he could have used a stiff drink between movements just to cool down.

What’s in our player now: Franck: Piano Quintet: Borodin Quartet (Richter, piano) - Philips 432-142-2PH

In Richter’s hands this late 19th century erotic masterpiece is as mystical as it is passionate. Richter’s entry is almost otherworldly. While Franck’s mood swings back and forth; Richter lets a thousand flowers bloom and yet manages to bring out the depths. The supreme seriousness of his approach, and his refusal to go for the superficial effects is very impressive. Here is rock solid commitment and seriousness here as only Richter could do it – every singe note counts. It’s almost as though Beethoven or maybe Brahms had written the piece. Transcendent.

We’ve got the Grand Tour to thank for some of the nineteenth century’s greatest music, including Mendelsson’s. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was customary for wealthy and upper middle class people to “round out” their education, formal and otherwise, to go on a long trip to sample life and cultures of other European countries. Traveling wasn’t as quick, safe and easy then, and mass tourism only became possible in the mid 19^th century, so these trips were major undertakings; travelers moved leisurely, often staying in their destination countries for months or even longer. Mendelssohn, already famous as child prodigy, left his prosperous German banking family and started on his tour in 1829 at the age of 20, only returning to his Berlin home four years later. The Italian wing of his tour began in Venice, and then he travelled to Rome and Naples. And it is this we have to thank for one of the sunniest pieces in all classical music.

He appears to have written most of the “Italian” symphony while in Rome during the spring of 1830, in his rooms not far from the famous Spanish Steps, allowing his ideas for the symphony to develop. While there he had made the acquaintance of a painter named Horace Vernet. He took a stroll with Vernet to his lodgings in January 1831. They heard musical sounds and discovered an impromptu vocal concert taking place.

Mendelssohn wrote his parents back in Berlin, “ I helped them as best I could and we had a very good time. Afterwards we danced and I wish you could have seen Louise Vernet, (the painter’s daughter) dancing the Saltarello with her father! When at length she was forced to stop for a few moments, se snatched up a tambourine, playing with spirit and relieving us, who could hardly move our hands any longer. …”

In mid February Mendelssohn wrote to his parents that he was making rapid progress in his Italian symphony, “…it will be the most amusing piece I have yet composed, especially the last movement, I have not yet decided on the Adagio ( he dropped this idea for the second movement shortly afterwards and termed it Andante con moto) but I think I shall reserve it for Naples.”

The symphony was premiered in London in 1833 and was a huge success. In spite of the wonderful, sunny spontaneous feel of the music, Mendelssohn was dissatisfied with it and reworked and revised it a number of times before submitting it to his publishers. . Which explains why although the Italian is actually his second symphony, it is listed as his fourth. Whatever, it has remained one of his most popular.

What’s in our player now: Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 “Italian”: L. Bernstein, cond. New York Philharmonic - Sony SMK 47582

For a record critic or a writer on music the hardest thing is to find the right words to express the experience that music provides. Add to this difficulty the fact that, thanks to the ongoing music festival that is Chicago, last night we heard this symphony performed by the Grant Park Orchestra conducted by Pinchas Zuckerman, a close personal friend of Bernstein (and a protégé of the fore mentioned Isaac Stern)

Mendelssohn himself was fond of saying that music is a language too deep for words, but this symphony has everything; delicate impressionism, and all the drive and drama you could want. You can take it to the limit. Which is exactly what Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic do, responding with spot-on- attack and knife-edge accuracy to Mendelssohn’s demands. Of the hundreds of recordings Bernstein made during his tenure in the late 50’s to mid 60’s, this ranks with the his best. Bubbling vintage champagne.

你好 Back in the day, before CDs became a threatened species, due to moves, or new purchases and the resulting space considerations, I was forced to cull my music collection. It didn’t seem like such a big deal: there were plenty of record/cd stores around. In the event I discovered that I’d made a mistake and/or found I missed something I’d sold or given away, I could always pick another one up. I know I can order something from Amazon or Arkive online, but there was something so attractive about an instantly filling a musical ache, with the added bonus of going through the racks and uncovering yet another treasure.

A couple of weeks ago, my ears still ringing after a stirring performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in the open air at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, I was so knocked out, I was barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Somehow I found myself at a Borders nearby, going through their limited classical music selection, with what the Germans call an ear worm. There was a sound in my head that I wanted to match.

No it wasn’t more choral music, not another Missa, not even Beethoven. As I went through the thinned-out rack of classical music, I was frustrated: I didn’t know what I wanted, but I sure knew what I didn’t want. It seemed almost certain that I wouldn’t find anything, when like a good old friend you haven’t seen in years and years, I spotted the Bach Violin Concertos. I’d owned them once. Why in the world had I ever given them away? Was it a poor performance, or one of those early metallic sounding CD transfers?

This is a Bach to revel in. Like the incredible Brandenburg concertos, these concertos were composed in Bach’s middle period, when he was court organist and orchestral director in Cothen. Luckily for us, Bach was more or less forced to concentrate on orchestral music. Not only was Bach an organist of repute, he also played the violin. He had learned the art of playing and writing from Vivaldi. Cothen’s Prince Leopold, Bach’s employer, it turns out, had a very rare and expensive set of Vivaldi’s scores in his library and Bach had patiently transcribed them for himself.

Because of this, it is believed that Bach composed a great many works for the violin, but only three works specifically written for the violin have been found – at least so far. On the basis of their phrasing and God knows what else, experts have concluded that many of Bach’s concertos for harpsichord are actually arrangements of his violin concertos. In any case, all we have are two concertos: the A-minor and E major for Violin and Orchestra and the masterful Double violin concerto.

Look, it could be worse. We could have the equivalent of Vivaldi’s zillion concertos, and then finding gems of this quality would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Whatever, I’m glad we have these, Vivaldi-like in form (three movements: fast-slow-fast), but not like the Italian in temperament. Bach uses the beautiful slow middle movements to emotionally anchor the pieces.

Bach didn’t want his soloist to stand rigidly apart from the orchestra. His solo writing aims for a richer, more resonant effect, which he gets by having the solo violin share musical themes with them. Reminiscent of Bach’s earlier choral music perhaps? Whatever, these are sumptuous pieces.


What’s in our player now: J.S. Bach: “Double” Concerto, Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman, Sony Classical Legacy-SK 92732

There are lots of superb violinists around right now. With high-octane people the likes of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Vengerov, Leila Josefowitcz , James Ehnes, Julia Fischer, and Sony’s King of The Crossovers, Josh Bell, not to mention Itzhak Perlman himself, all living, breathing, and performing stunningly, what can Isaac Stern have to offer?

I seriously doubt whether the world has ever had as many wonderful violinists living at one time; so what can Stern's appeal be? There is an effortless, warm golden Stern sound that sings and can lay down a melodic line like no one else I’ve ever heard. Musicians reading this may smile (indulgently, we hope) , but it was more than the violin Stern played; it was the man’s heart, the man’s intelligence coming through.

There are some extraordinary musicians out there, but to these ears, only Perlman, whom Stern discovered and brought to the US, can come close to his humanity and satisfying musicianship. Stern doesn't have to strain and shout, he just is. Or rather was.
But listen and see what you think.

We’re B-a-a-a-ck In Business….Almost

We’ve been listening, we’ve been reading, we've been thinking and we’ve got stuff to tell you.

But first if you care about classical music or about China or both, there’s something you absolutely must read. "Symphony of Millions Taking stock of the Chinese music boom" by Alex Ross.

“After a recent visit to Beijing, I had some doubts about China’s putative lock on the musical future. Concert halls may be full and conservatories mobbed, but classical music is hobbled by commercial and political pressures. The creative climate, with its system of punishments and rewards, still resembles that of the late-period Soviet Union, which heavily influenced the development of China’s musical institutions. At the same time, the wider soundscape of Beijing is as chaotically rich as that of any Western city: nights of experimental music, indie-rock shows soaked in hipster attitude, pop idols cavorting on HD monitors in malls, retirees singing Peking opera in parks. In the “Li Chi,” or “Book of Rites,” it is written, “The music of a well-ruled state is peaceful and joyous . . . that of a country in confusion is full of resentment . . . and that of a dying country is mournful and pensive.” All three kinds of music, together with others that might well have confounded Confucian scholars, intersect in the People’s Republic….”

It’s a very long piece, but Ross is one excellent critic, the best ear and eye in the business say some. Whether you agree or disagree, his words to be not to be taken lightly.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/07/07/080707crat_atlarge_ross