Critic’s Notebook: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 4

Also published in Die Presse: Konzerthaus: Chor Hui, Horn Pfui – Sängerische Götterfunken zum Beethoven-Abschluss

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

Choir Yay, Horn Nay – Divine Sparks to End the Beethoven Cycle

A grand – and long! – finale to the Beethoven cycle of Le Concert des Nations under Jordi Savall with Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9.

Historic, indeed, this first historically informed Beethoven cycle on period instruments at the Konzerthaus, which came to its fire-drunken conclusion on Thursday evening with Symphonies No. 8 and 9.

Rough and energetic was the entrance into Op. 93; one could almost glimpse the Flying Dutchman in the first movement, or premonitions of the Ninth. And yet it’s just the – ever-so-sprightly – little Eighth, languishing in its neglected place between the Seventh, “Apotheosis of the Dance”, and the über-Symphony, "The Ninth", that overshadows all.

Beauty of sound and orchestral color were not this ensemble’s priorities, on this occasion. Rather rhythmic urgency and raw energy are its strengths – at least in this Beethoven cycle. That a certain nervous tension creeps in from time to time is understandable.

Accordingly thunderous was the dramatic opening of the Ninth; the second movement hurried along more with speed than tension.

The Concert des Nations' Beethoven Symphony Cycle reviewed: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 1: A Squawking First Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 2: A Tale of two Halfs Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 3: Nearly Ideal Beethoven

Before the third movement, the latecomers – chorus, soloists, piccolo, creaky contrabassoon – entered the stage, and with them the black day of the horn player, whose downward spiral had already begun in the Eighth. A reminder, should one be needed, that even 75 years into the period performance movement, success on that instrument is never guaranteed.

Sensibly, the soloists were positioned at the front of the stage. Full-bodied and dramatic: bass Manuel Walser; the rest – unremarkable, which in the Ninth, especially with the ladies, is usually a good sign. Outshining them all was the chorus.

Just 36 voices, and yet they filled the Grosser Saal with an ease and volume, a physically palpable joy, enthusiasm, and energy that one had been hoping for from the orchestra for eight and a half symphonies. That was the foundation of the audience’s roaring enthusiasm. Ask ChatGPT
Follow @ClassicalCritic

Critic’s Notebook: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 3

Also published in Die Presse: Konzerthaus: Beethoven, fast ideal unter Jordi Savall

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

Near-Ideal Beethoven from Jordi Savall at the Konzerthaus

The third concert in the Beethoven cycle raises questions of venue – and musical standards. Here with Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 & 4.

The historically informed Beethoven cycle at the Konzerthaus entered its third and penultimate round Tuesday evening, June 24th, following two concerts back in February. This time: Symphonies One, Two, and Four. A quick peek into the archive: Apart from the Fourth – played in 2016 by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées under Philippe Herreweghe – it was the first time these symphonies had ever been performed at the Konzerthaus by an original instruments ensemble. Remarkable.

After the last two concerts got off to low-octane starts only to rev up in the second halves, Symphony No. 1 hit the ground running. The first movement purred along with light-footed energy; the third was taken headlong, borderline hectic. The fourth movement begins with one of Beethoven’s most imaginative openings: the music takes five false starts – each getting a bit further, a bit higher – until on the sixth try it finally breaks through and takes off. Plenty of room for interpretive flair. Savall kept things tight in the buildup, then almost came to a hault from which he launched, casually and swiftly.

A common thread through all three symphonies: the timpanist. Snappy, pungent entries that added to the volatility of these performances. Likewise the strings – alert and springy, notes played on the balls of their feet, always driving forward. Intonation and rhythmic steadiness are near-guaranteed with Le Concert des Nations; only in the Fourth Symphony did things briefly go sideways, especially in the second movement – short-lived, but jarring. The cheerful clatter of the woodwind keys probably bothered no one; in the first movement, the insistent rhythmic pounding sounded like Beethoven nailing his manifesto to the gate of Romanticism.

The Concert des Nations' Beethoven Symphony Cycle reviewed: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 1: A Squawking First Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 2: A Tale of two Halfs Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 4: Choir Yay, Horn Nay

Symphony No. 2 – described in Leipzig in 1804, not flatteringly, as “a monster that writhes for a full hour in contortions and lashes about with its tail, for no apparent reason” – didn’t last an hour here, thank goodness, but still felt long. Mostly due to a somewhat sluggish Larghetto. The Allegro, though, skittered along on spidery legs, giving way to a taut, sharply drawn finale that ticked all the boxes. And yet – there was something subtly unsatisfying in the air, inviting investigation.

Why did everything feel so darn tasteful, so bloody correct – and why did the effect still fall short of what one expects from such performances? Why did all that energy poured into the music dissipate so quickly? Was it the relaxed quality – the ease, despite all the engagement – with which the ensemble played? More likely: it was the room. The sheer physical impact of this music doesn’t quite carry across the distance of the Grosser Saal. The dream – as unprofitable as it is unrealistic – would be to hear these very performances in the Mozart Saal. But you can’t have everything. Beethoven’s final symphonies follow this evening.

Follow @ClassicalCritic

Critic’s Notebook: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 2

Also published in Die Presse: Konzerthaus: Jordi Savall mit Dr. Ludwig und Mr. Beethoven

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

A Tale of Two Orchestras

The Strange Case of Dr. Ludwig and Mr. Beethoven at the Konzerthaus. Here with Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7.

Beethoven before and after the interval — seemingly two different orchestras. And yet, in the end, Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations do more to delight with their symphony cycle than they do to disappoint. In the second iteration of the second concert in Jordi Savall’s Beethoven cycle with Le Concert des Nations, it was the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies’ turn. And again: another hard-to-believe first. It was the first time Beethoven’s Seventh had ever been performed at the Konzerthaus on period instruments. The Sixth had made one previous appearance — in that aforementioned concert nearly 30 years ago, where Simon Rattle (!) had als conducted the Eroica with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In many ways, it was déjà vu from the night before: a disappointing first half, a redeeming second.

Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival of the winds — woodwinds and brass alike — were in short supply in the Pastorale, even if the wobblier players managed to hide a little more effectively behind the string foliage. Savall’s fundamentally relaxed approach either suits the Pastoral perfectly — at least in the babbling brook. Or, depending on one’s taste, it misses the mark by failing to provide the very edge that this bucolic-leaning symphony sometimes needs.

The Concert des Nations' Beethoven Symphony Cycle reviewed: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 1: A Squawking First Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 3: Nearly Ideal Beethoven Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 4: Choir Yay, Horn Nay

Yes, the triplets in the first movement were untidy, and the tempo briefly went rogue, but one could have overlooked that charitably. Not the least because the second movement brought hope: delicately shaped notes, like ants scurrying across a picnic blanket. The thunderstorm that followed was more polite heat-lightning than an actual tempest: Even in the front row, no one would have gotten wet — but for the first time that evening, the ensemblework was all together. That, alas, didn’t last. By the fourth movement, it was back to business as usual — meaning back to the sour tuning: as if the winds had been tuned in meantone and the rest of the orchestra in equal temperament.

During intermission, Savall swapped out the horn section and brought in a fresh set of younger players. A bold choice, given the tricky horn parts in the Seventh — but one that paid off. And not just in the horns: everyone seemed a notch better in the second half. Marc Hantaï on flute, the oboes, and yes, the young horn pups (though in their enthusiasm, the second horn briefly outshone the first) all rose to the challenge. The Marcia funebre was deeply moving, not least due to its (presumably unintended) sense of distance. The clarinets suddenly deserved special praise. Presto and Allegro con brio piled on yet more momentum — as if this were an orchestra that simply shouldn’t be allowed to play slowly. Suddenly, there was dynamic range, too. And one was left scratching one's head: why the slow start? Then again, in Spain, things don’t really get going until nine o’clock anyway. In the end all’s well that ends well. Minutes of standing ovations. Apparently, there’s still real thirst for good period performances.
Follow @ClassicalCritic

Critic’s Notebook: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 1

Also published in Die Presse: Jordi Savall und die Tücken des Originalklangs

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

L.v.Beethoven, Symphonies 1-5 J.Savall, Le Concert des Nations Alia Vox SACDs

Squawk, Scratch, and Contrabassoon

Jordi Savall conducts a Beethoven symphony cycle on period instruments at the Konzerthaus. Unbelievably, a first. Here with Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5.

A "Beethoven symphony cycle". Well, that doesn’t exactly send shivers down one’s spine anymore. We’re practically tripping over the things. Every other week, it seems, someone’s cycling through the Nine, left and right of Vienna's Ringstraße and far beyond. And Beethoven on period instruments? That's welcome, sure, but a bit of an old hat by now. Or so you’d think.

And yet, Jordi Savall and his wonderful Le Concert des Nations have just brought a series of four concerts under way, in which they perform all nine symphonies at the Vienna Konzerthaus. This, the first of these, on Friday, the 22nd of February. Naturally all historically informed and played on original instruments. At a press conference prior to the concert, Savall spoke about his Beethoven project, which he’s been pursuing since 2018 and which has yielded some excellent recordings on his Alia Vox label — as if such a thing had never been attempted before.

Cue the instinctive eye-roll... promptly interrupted by a quick dive into the Konzerthaus archives. And lo: Not only has the Konzerthaus never hosted a Beethoven cycle like this, but Friday’s two offerings — the ever-popular Eroica and the Fifth — had essentially not been heard there at all in the HIP-setup. The Fifth: never, unbelievably. The Third: once, nearly 30 years ago, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Simon Rattle [sic!] — long before the knighthood and the Berlin tenure... and kind-of nixing the HIP-credits of the performance.

The Concert des Nations' Beethoven Symphony Cycle reviewed: Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 2: A Tale of two Halfs Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 3: Nearly Ideal Beethoven Jordi Savall’s Beethoven Cycle at the Konzerthaus, Part 4: Choir Yay, Horn Nay

So: high time, and ears wide open, for what Savall & Co. might offer in terms of articulation, tempo, transparency, precision, and color.

What followed in the Eroica was, alas, a bit of a lemon. Yes, the tempos were taut and the opening chords — those twin gateposts of Romanticism — came whipping, right out of the gate. But that’s nothing unusual these days, even from modern orchestras with HIP leanings. And those old instruments? They wasted no time showing their quirks: notes that cracked, slipped, squeaked, and wilted. The overall sound had a tangy roughness, occasionally warm, often clangy — the warmth likely intentional, the rest, not so much.

Savall is not one of those period bandleaders who push for “faster, louder, edgier.” He’s more Brüggen than Norrington, always steering toward a kind of cultivated nobility within historical bounds. But if one claims refinement and elegance as one’s aesthetic, then things have to be — well — clean. And they weren’t. One couldn’t help wondering whether the whole thing might not have worked better in the Mozartsaal — acoustically, at least. (Commercially? Unlikely. The Großer Saal was already bursting at the seams.) In the smaller space, the symphony would have come across as more intimate, yes, but also more immediate, raw, radical — a paradoxical gain in impact through reduction in scale.

As it was, the performance remained colorful, spontaneous even, but ultimately harmless. And yes, playing natural horns is hard. A squeak or two comes with the territory and no one minds. But on good days, even those tricky beasts behave better than this. When the woodwinds play in tune — and they mostly didn’t — their advantages shine through: flutes in particular, characterful and mellow, with a rounded depth that modern counterparts rarely achieve. This is what makes period performance thrilling when it works: like a vintage car rally — infinitely more gripping than the modern F1, even if a wheel occasionally flies off. But this many wheels?

Speaking of which: one poor violinist had to make an unscheduled pit stop in the third movement — snapped a gut string, presumably — and only returned for the Fifth Symphony. And it was not just him, but suddenly, the whole orchestra sounded transformed! Savall kicked off the Fifth with a clarity of intent and momentum that had been entirely absent in the first half. The music surged ahead, energized and driven. A telling moment came in the fourth movement, just before the fanfare: a careful buildup, the tension palpable, and then — a snappy release. And anchoring it all: Katalin Sebella’s gloriously snarling, grittily resonant contrabassoon — and thus: promise.
Follow @ClassicalCritic

Dip Your Ears: No. 278 (Freiburgian Schumann Glory)

Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, Piano Trio No.3 Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Jean Guihen Queyras Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Pablo Heras-Casado (Harmonia Mundi, 2015)

Schumann Glory: Violin Concerto Edition

There are neglected works by great composers, fitfully revived and let go again and rightfully forgotten. Fewer are the works by great composers once ignored and only now rediscovered as masterpieces. Enter Schumann’s Violin Concerto. Clara Schumann, following Joseph Joachim’s advice, suppressed it. Unplayable. Drab. Tiresomely repetitive. Awkward. It’s half a miracle she didn’t burn it. And still performances remain rare. This disc might be the concerto’s best chance to change this! Isabelle Faust’s hushed gentility and her faint, otherworldly touches bring the ears to their knees with the Ghost Variation motif. The following emergence out of this gorgeous, troubled netherworld of Schumann’s mind is all the more invigorating. The Piano Trio is a stupendous bonus; the first in what might be the next touchstone set of three!

(Since then, these artists have completed the trio of concertos coupled with the trio of Piano Trios – and the happy result has been conveniently boxed.) .

Follow @ClassicalCritic

Dip Your Ears: No. 268 (Robert Levin on Mozart's Piano)

W.A.Mozart, Piano Sonatas Robert Levin ECM

The Compleat Mozartean

When historical performance practice performances were just becoming mainstream fare, in the mid- to late 90s, Robert Levin was the first address in most matters fortepiano. Certainly, his cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos (with Gardiner) was clearly the one to have and his Mozart concerto cycle-in-the-making (with Christopher Hogwood) was exciting and promising and sadly aborted as so many projects were, back then. (Incidentally, the Academy of Ancient Music is currently working with Levin on having the cycle completed by the band’s 50th anniversary next season!) Levin was the least professorial among the musicologist-pianists that were hammering away at these early instruments… and his instruments tended to sound better than was the low average back then.

Much has changed since these days, with a new generation of concert pianists who grew up natively on historical instruments and of course with the instruments themselves (think Paul McNulty!), which have improved dramatically in quality and sound. This, alas, is not the path that Robert Levin takes in these 2017/18 recordings of Mozart’s keyboard sonatas. He takes a step further (back?) towards historicism: He plays on Mozart’s own fortepiano, which can be viewed and occasionally heard at the Salzburg Mozart Residence. What he gains in authenticity, he loses, alas, in sound, because it might as well be admitted: The most interesting aspect about that instrument is its late owner.

Nor is Levin the kind of full-throttled pianist that many of his modern HIP competitors (Bezuidenhout, Brautigam et al.) are. Granted, you don’t need virtuosic skills to navigate through the Mozart sonatas to perfectly competent results and Levin is still a nimble, graceful performer at the (then) age of 71. But there’s something of a generous, pliable, amicable playfulness in the finest performances (like Bezuidenhout on historical instruments or William Youn on a modern one, to name only two outstanding recent such cycles) that I find missing here… and something of a sewing-machine element – lissome, granted – that I don’t particularly need. What Levin does give us, in terms of uniqueness, is some extra music. Apart from the standard 18 sonatas and the C minor Fantasy, he also adds three sonata movement fragments that Levin completed masterfully: Charming little bonbons that bring the set’s runtime to about seven hours. Whether those bits, along with ECM’s first-rate presentation and essay (or the lure of hearing this works on Mozart’s own instrument; see also “Koncz/Mozart”), are enough of a USP, well, that’ll be up to the most curious among Mozart listeners.

7/8
References: William Youn (Oehms); Ingrid Haebler (Denon); Mitsuko Uchida (Philips); Ronald Brautigam (BIS); Christian Zacharias (EMI issues, not Warner re-issue); Kristian Bezuidenhout (BIS)

See also the ionarts Mozart Sonata Cycle Survey

Follow @ClassicalCritic

On ClassicsToday: Wonderful Józef Elsner String Quartets

 

String Quartet Discoveries: A Polish Haydn?

Review by: Jens F. Laurson

Artistic Quality: ?

Sound Quality: ?

This disc of the first-ever recordings of the String Quartets Op. 1 Nos.1-3 by Józef Elsner (1769-1854) is not the first disc of Elsner string quartets, but it marks the first time I took note of a name I’ll now never forget. They are such good works, much in the vein of Haydn, that I fell in love right away. But could they really be that good? Perhaps I was getting carried away. Yet on the tenth–or fifteenth–hearing they still hold up. These are varied, mature classical string quartets of the first order, not second tier also-rans... (read the entire review at ClassicsToday)

Dip Your Ears, No. 259 (Böddecker: Bridging the Froberger Gap)

Philipp Friedrich Böddecker, Sacra Partitura Sacred Solo Motets & Sonatas Knut Schoch / I Sonatori (Christopherus)

In 1652, the 45-year old Philipp Friedrich Böddecker became organist and de-fact music director at Stuttgart’s Collegiate Church, a post he would remain at for the next 31 years until his death in 1683. Previously he had held the positions of organist of the Strasbourg Cathedral and music director of the Strasbourg University. That is where he prepared his “Sacra Partitura”, a series of sacred solo motets for high voice and basso continuo, in order to facilitate his move to Stuttgart in general and its court in particular. The former worked out, the latter not, as the 21-year younger Samuel Friedrich Bockshorn (a.k.a. Capricornus) eventually got the job and held onto it until his own death in 1665.

Böddecker’s music itself is austere to our ears today, even if it was considered Italianate and ornate in its time. But that time, of course, was just after the Thirty Years War, when German lands were bled white. That also explains the minimal cast for these works, which was not a musical decision but a practical one: There simply weren’t any more good singers or orchestral musicians at hand, at any given point. To lighten the texture, ensemble-leader and somewhat indistinct tenor Knut Schoch and his 4-piece I Sonatori early-music group have included instrumental works of two Böddecker contemporaries: Four of the 40 keyboard-Variations on the Lord’s Prayer by Johann Ulrich Steigleder and a violin sonata of said Capricornus’. On the other hand, Schoch & Co dropped all those works from the Sacra Partitura that Böddecker had included and adopted (and fully credited!) from his colleagues Gasparo Casati and Monteverdi. It’s not clear why; surely some of those might still have fit into the potential 15 more minutes on this disc.

If you are into a somber, vocal appendage to, say, Frogberger compositions, then Böddecker is a fine option. And while much of this is more early-music specialist than mainstream fare, the bassoon sonata “La Monica” is a real highlight: Böddecker treats his own preferred instrument with great imaginativeness and Ursula Bruckdorfer plays her bass dulcian with panache. For those who keep track of these things: The players use a quarter-comma meantone temperament.

7/8

Follow @ClassicalCritic

Dip Your Ears, No. 219 (Racy Schubert from Dausgaard and Heras-Casado)

Franz Schubert, Symphonies 3 - 5 Swedish Chamber Orchestra Thomas Dausgaard (conductor) BIS SACD Franz Schubert, Symphonies 3, 4 Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor) Harmonia Mundi

Early Schubert symphonies are just a soupçon of tedium away from being boring. Wildness, youthful jubilance, brilliance and a good timpani thwacking are all necessary ingredients and it’s not surprising that (early) Schubert is being well served by early music and chamber ensembles: they are tuned to vitality and happy to go for the jugular. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (with Pablo Heras-Casado, Harmonia Mundi) tackles the Third and Fourth in their typical top-notch style, punching holes in the score, though perhaps even overdoing the drive in the Third: Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Philips) had shown in the 90s that excitement is not necessarily about conducting faster—although they then proceed to be faster and more exciting in the Fourth Symphony. (Frighteningly Brüggen has better sound than the slightly muffled Freiburg recording. Very much unlike Harmonia Mundi!)

Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra has the best sound of the lot and perhaps the most deft hand at these works, too: Wherever slow, he never drags, wherever fast, he never hurries. Punch and zest, yes, but not outright violence. The drum-roll opening of the Fourth shoots out like a salvo of (non-violent) machine gun fire, the darkness of the strings mourns passionately… The Fifth of Schubert, a personal favorite, can be a sunny masterpiece. Günter Wand in his last recording delievered something near genial perfection (NDRSO, RCA), but in his snappier way, Dausgaard rather matches him. That’s reason enough to declare the @SWCOrchestra’s disc one of the finds of the year!

Follow @ClassicalCritic