Philadelphia Orchestra Fills Its Dance Card

The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to Washington for its thirty-eighth appearance hosted by Washington Performing Arts Society. This concert, on Wednesday night at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, turned out to be one of the highlights of the organization's season, not least because of a pleasing program focused on the early twentieth century. During the controversial tenure of its last permanent music director, Christoph Eschenbach, this highly esteemed orchestra saw its national status decline, sliding off the unofficial list of the American Big Five in the minds of many critics. Under Charles Dutoit, recently appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser while the orchestra searches for a new music director, the Philadelphians sounded like they have regained their footing. Perhaps the state of morale among the musicians, who apparently relate more comfortably to Dutoit and who have been assured of a fair and equal say in the appointment of the next music director, has improved and allowed the players to relax and focus their energies (even after agreeing to a major pay cut). Whatever the reason, they sound good.

The first half of the concert was the Jean-Yves Thibaudet show, who gave his always stylish (wardrobe) and technically assured, if slightly frenetic sort of performance. First, it was Ravel's concerto for the left hand, which proved a vehicle for the orchestra to display a broad range of colors and textures, from the murky, rumbling opening in low strings, with the ominous moaning of the contrabassoon, to the amassing of vast sweeping panoramas of sound. Thibaudet played suavely, with a smoky tone in a duet with English horn and especially in the gossamer accompanying figures of the closing cadenza. Unfortunately, he tended to rush quite a bit, including ending in advance of the orchestra on the work's final flourish, but Dutoit and the orchestra were able to accommodate these fluctuations for the most part. Thibaudet returned with both hands, and possibly a couple extra fingers, for Liszt's empty-headed but barnstorming Totentanz, S. 126, a set of variations on the melody of the Dies Irae sequence. This sort of work -- excessive glissandi, faux-serious Bach-like counterpoint, ferocious double octaves -- can only work with the most theatrical sort of player, and Thibaudet fit the bill.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, The Philadelphia Orchestra: No Void, at Least, in Vitality (Washington Post, June 5) Philip Kennicott, Philadelphia Dazzles (Philip Kennicott, June 4) Previous Reviews: December 2004 | November 2005 June 2007 | December 2007

My well-known and often-disputed aversion to Rachmaninov does not at all apply to his magnificent last work, Symphonic Dances, op. 45. Written for Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, it is a work of masterful orchestration and form, with only one slightly over-saccharine passage (in the third movement). Dutoit, with the same clarity of gesture and thought shown in his NSO appearance earlier this year, etched the opening of the first movement with crispness, leading to a showcase of the orchestra's excellent woodwind soloists. The only exception to this impeccable level of performance (other than one noisy dropped percussion mallet) was the bluesy alto saxophone, often woefully out of tune, revealed when the piano and strings came back in, showing how much the other winds had adjusted. The ingenuity of the program created connections to the other works, in Rachmaninov's quotation of the Dies Irae (more subtle than Liszt's) and waltz second movement (more sultry and morose than Ravel's).

The closing work, Ravel's La Valse, was a tour de force of virtuosity and ensemble cohesion, hewing so closely to every one of Dutoit's slight adjustments of tempo, dynamic, and attack. The exaggeration of glissandi and dynamic swells in the score created a boozy, tippling effect, making the work sound something like the soundtrack behind the sinking Titanic, as tuxedo-clad waiters continue to whisk trays of whiskey into luxurious suites. Sadly, the audience's response to this magnificent playing was to rush out the door into the rainy evening, preventing the possibility of an encore.

The Philadelphia Orchestra will be back in Washington around this time next year (May 26, 2010, at Strathmore). Other visiting orchestras on the upcoming WPAS season include the New York Philharmonic (November 21, 2009), the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (November 22, 2009), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (February 15, 2010), the San Francisco Symphony (March 24, 2010), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (May 17, 2010). Pianists not to miss on the schedule are Murray Perahia (October 17, 2009), Leif Ove Andsnes (November 20, 2009), Angela Hewitt (December 3, 2009), Radu Lupu (January 27, 2010), Rafal Blechacz (February 27, 2010), Maurizio Pollini (April 15, 2010), Mitsuko Uchida (April 21, 2010), and Yuja Wang (May 22, 2010). Also of greatest interest are concerts by the Ebène Quartet (February 23, 2010), Julia Fischer playing Bach (April 3, 2010), and the Takács String Quartet (April 16, 2010).

New Bach Recordings: Goldberg Redux

Bach, Goldberg Variations, J. Crow, D. McNabney, M. Haimovitz (released on September 16, 2008) Oxingale OX2014 Online scores: BWV 988

The Goldberg Variations are something of an obsession here at Ionarts, and we have liked hearing it in countless versions, played on the harpsichord and piano, as well as all kinds of transcriptions. One of the best transcriptions -- both maddeningly anachronistic and vastly seductive -- is the one for chamber orchestra by Dmitry Sitkovetsky, adapted and enlarged from his earlier arrangement for string trio. This new recording of Sitkovetsky's string trio transcription is only the latest of several options, and although earnest, this disc from cellist Matt Haimovitz and friends, on Haimovitz's label (Oxingale), does not really compete. Jens has already called it correctly by singling out Sitkovetsky’s own 1995 recording with Gérard Caussé and Mischa Maisky (Orfeo) as the best one to buy (but pricey), followed by the more recent and less expensive disc from Julian Rachlin, Nobuko Imai, and Mischa Maisky (DG).

The Haimovitz recording came out only a year after the Maisky one, in conjunction with the trio's performances of the work on its touring schedule. Even without the unfortunate coincidence with the Maisky disc, it would be hard to recommend this CD, on account of too many tracks marred by sloppy attacks, tuning issues, and ill-coordinated ensemble. That being said, I admire what Matt Haimovitz does, bringing classical music to unexpected venues and thus to audiences much harder to reach. Many people have probably purchased this CD after hearing one of Haimovitz's concerts, and that is a good thing. In the context of a bar or cafe, these deficiencies would probably stick out less to the ear, but for close listening the bar is set much higher.

73'26"

Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: Karajan in Salzburg, 1957

Bruckner (Sy.8), Mozart (Sys.35, 41, PC.21), Brahms (German Requiem), T.Berger (Sinfonia parabolica), Von Einem (PC.1), Honegger (Sy.3), Orchestral Concerts from the 1957 Salzburg Festival, H.v.Karajan / BPh, WPh ORFEO 773084, mono (4 CDs: 298:21) Available on Amazon.com Available on Amazon.co.uk Available on Amazon.de Available on Amazon.fr

On paper, the item that stands out in Orfeo’s box of the 1957 Salzburg Festival concerts under Herbert von Karajan would be Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic, the accumulation of a spring and summer Karajan spent with this symphony. He had played this work (with which he had already inaugurated his post-deNazification return to the concert platform in 1949) with the VPO in concerts at the Musikverein in April (available on Andante 4996); he recorded it with the BPO for EMI a few weeks later. On July 28, he played it—as always (?) in the Haas edition—at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg with the VPO again. The press was writing hymns at the time, but half a century later it’s difficult to hear through the dated sounds what was so special about the VPO’s playing—especially its otherwise soft-hued brass—which isn’t anywhere near modern-day demands of perfectionism. The interpretation is straightforward, swift, and completely different from the Berlin studio recording of a few weeks before. The timings—81 minutes in Salzburg (conveniently fitting on one CD) and 87 minutes in Berlin—are telling. Even among Karajan recordings of this Symphony, this has a tough stand. I find the EMI recording far more compelling, and Karajan’s last VPO recording (DG) better still.

The next disc comes from the following day, when Karajan switched orchestras and played an all-Mozart program with the Berlin Philharmonic. A repeat-free, 17-minute long, rumbling “Haffner” Symphony is over before it starts; Géza Anda plays through the C-Major Concerto, K 467, in his nimble, no nonsense way, but with a startlingly wrong note in a chord toward the end of the Allegro vivace assai. Nothing that can’t be better had elsewhere, even with the same performers (Karajan with Lipatti, Anda with the Camerata Salzburg).

The same might be said for the Brahms Requiem that was caught on tape at the Felsenreitschule on the 22nd of August. There are, after all, many great recordings available. Three with Berlin and with Vienna each from Karajan alone. Fischer-Dieskau, who is Karajan’s baritone in Salzburg, can be had on the famous Klemperer recording or with Kempe from 1955, one of my favorites. But the marvelous Lisa Della Casa can only be had in this performance. Something special happens here; this performance has a distinct atmosphere. Hushed choral passages melt into the orchestral sound and elaborate long lines make the Requiem less episodic than how it can often come across. The acoustic and sound quality, too, is much better than on the other three discs.

With the BPO, Karajan also led the first of two concerts of contemporary music of the festival (Mitropoulos conducted the VPO in the other), and that concert from August 14 at the Mozarteum is probably the most interesting of the lot. The Sinfonia parabolica by Franz Schmidt- and Korngold-pupil Theodor Berger (1905–1992) was given its world premiere that night; the third work of Berger’s that Karajan premiered. It’s work that defies categorization. There is little of Schmidt, and nothing of Korngold or his friend Joseph Marx in this work. Nor has his music any hint of modernism à la Darmstadt. Three movements (“Gliding,” “Hovering,” “Rotating”) offer different angles on rather rough-hewn musical material that gets a slightly repetitive work-over. Music I would enjoy hearing in the concert hall, but not something I’d seek out for repeat listening.

I find Gottfried von Einem’s First Piano Concerto, op. 20 (banned by the Nazis), a good deal more attractive. This seems to be the only recording on CD, as DG didn’t reissue Fricsay’s 1961 recording even in the “Fricsay—Life in Music” box. Gerty Herzog, also Fricsay’s pianist, is the performer in this spunky late-Romantic concerto that tinkles through three movements not unlike Ravel’s, except less lyrically. Honegger’s Third Symphony is the only work that went on to have a career, and Karajan recorded it again 12 years later. No need to seek this out if you already have the better sounding DG recording, but the intensity he brought to that work is already evident here, and in spades.

For devoted collectors of Karajan’s work or those interested in the Salzburg Festival, this is obviously attractive, but even the best ingredients—Brahms, von Einem—may not merit purchase for the general collector.

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete CyclesPart 4, 1990 - 1996

Incl: C.Arrau II • A.R.El Bacha • R.Benz • M.Bilson & Co • A.Brendel III • R.Goode • I.Hobson • M.Levinas • J.O'Conor • A.Perl

	Claudio Arrau II 1984* - 1990 - Philips France (Arrau Heritage Edition) Arrau, who started to record a cycle for Walter Legge with Columbia between 1947 and 1960 (only 11 sonatas were recorded), went on to produce one of the most cherished cycles for Philips in the 60s. Twenty years later, near the summit (if not technical peak) of his career, he recorded them again, this time in digital sound. Notably good digital sound, it should be pointed out. Broad interpretations meet with unforgiving clarity and regal rigor. Arrau died before he could re-record opp.27/2 and 106 which are taken from the earlier cycle. A 1952 Deutsche Grammophon Diabelli Variation recording is added as a bonus. Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Philips Yes Yes Yes Yes
	Michaël Lévinas 1984 - 1991 - Adès Most of this cycle was recorded between 1988 and 1991, played on a Steinway. Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Ades Used Used Used Used Adès 2014 (Import) Yes Yes Yes
	Abdel Rahman El Bacha I 1984 - 1993 - Forlane Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Forlane No Yes Yes Yes
	John O'Conor 1986 - 1994 - Telarc Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Telarc Yes Yes Yes Yes
	“St. Petersburg Collective” 1992 - 1993 - Bomba Piter / Audiophile Classics This cycle was put together shortly after the demise of the Soviet Union, bringing together some of St. Petersburg's finest pianists (as per the label's description of this project). The participating pianists are: Dmitri Efimov, Pavel Egorov, Igor Lebedev, Roman Lebedev, Galina Sandovskaya, Vladimir Shakin, Sergey Uryvaev, Igor Urjash, Valery Vishnevsky, Tatyana Zagorovskaya, and Leonid Zaychik. The cycle has been re-released on Audiophile Classics. On either label, it's only available on individual volumes: 10 for Bomba Piter, ditto for Audiophile Classics, but on the latter label you can also get Igor Lebedev's Diabelli Variations on an eleventh disc. For lack of a name and single pianist to pin this cycle to, I'll call it the "St. Petersburg Collective" cycle. Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Bomba Piter Individ. Yes Yes Yes Audiophile Individ. Mebbe Yes Yes
	Robert Benz 1988 - 1995 - Thorofon Available only in individual volumes, and those spottily only. Country / Label USA UK France Germany Thorofon No (Yes) (No) Yes
	Richard Goode 1989 - 1993 - Nonesuch Considered by many not just the great 'native' American sonata cycle, but one of the very best modern cycles anywhere. Understated and cool. I've heard some of this that has had the greatest of promise, and I remember being turned off by the late sonatas... but I can no longer recall whether that was justified. If I were to get another LvB Sonata Cycle, this one is atop the list of those that intrigue me. Edit 10/2017: Happily it's been re-released in a space and money-saving wallet-style box by Warner. Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Nonesuch 1995 Yes Yes Yes Yes Warner 2017 Yes Yes Yes Yes
	Ian Hobson 1992 - 1996 - Zephyr Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Zephyr Yes (Yes) (Yes) Yes
	Alfredo Perl 1992- 1996 - Arte Nova / Oehms Arte Nova & Oehms were ownership-intertwined at one point, which explains the occasional overlap in their issues. (I.e. also Stanisław Skrowaczewski's exemplary Bruckner Cycle.) The recordings are identical; the Oehms re-issues tend to be packaged considerably nicer. Availability: Country / Label USA UK France Germany Arte Nova Used Used Used Used Oehms Yes Yes Yes Yes
	Alfred Brendel III 1992 - 1996 - Philips (digital) This cycle dominated the digital age and contributed in good part to Brendel being the face of Beethoven for so many listeners. Availability: Reissued on Decca Country / Label USA UK France Germany Philips (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) Decca Yes Yes Yes Yes
	Malcolm Bilson & Students 199? - 1996 - Claves Played by Bilson and six students of his, on nine different fortepianos from around the time of the composition dates of the respective sonatas. Availability (other than directly from Claves): Country / Label USA UK France Germany Claves Yes (Yes) Yes (Yes)

This listing of all Beethoven Sonata Cycles will continue as more sets reach completion or as I find more information about sets already completed.* There are certainly plenty sets under way that should or may reach completion soon: Among them Angela Hewitt (Hyperion), Igor Tchetuev (Caro Mitis), Jonathan Biss (Onyx), Akihiro Sakiya (DPIC Entertainment), Martin Roscoe (Deux-Elles), James Brawn (MSR), Paavali Jumppanen (Ondine) [Completed & Added], Yusuke Kikuchi (Triton) [Completed & Added] et al. I will also add a selection of historically important attempted cycles that were never finished but include >20 >9 sonatas. That would add Rudolf Serkin (CBS, 10 sonatas missing), Bruce Hungerford (Vanguard / Piano Classics, also 10 sonatas missing), Emil Gilels (DG, opp.2/1, 14/1, 54, 78, 111), and Glenn Gould (CBS/Sony, opp.7, 22, 49, 53, 79, 81a, 90 missing, op.106 separate, opp.7 [partly], 49/1, 101 available on CBC recordings). There are seemingly abandoned cycles that will not be included, such as those of  Giovanni Belluci,  Bruno Leonardo Gelber,  Yoshihiro Kondo, or  Per Tengstrand. There are cycles that are unworthy of discussion or outright fraudulent, i.e. not actual piano playing and/or of excrutiating quality and/or cobbled together from other performances. Most famously Joyce Hatto, but apparently also Vladimir Morrone, Giancarlo Andretti, Alicja Kot, and Claudio Colombo.**

* If you count, as I did, Backhaus II and Arrau II as complete, despite one and two (respectively) missing sonatas. I do not count Walter Gieseking (tapes of 4, 5, 7, 20, 22 for a radio cycle are lost, a studio cycle for EMI was missing seven sonatas when he died), Wilhelm Kempff "0" (Polydor, opp.2/3, 22, 27/1, 28, 31/2, 101 missing).

** Invaluable research on this end done by Todd, resident Beethoven-Sonata expert (and addict) at the Good Music Guide Forum.


The (Great) Incomplete Cycles
Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989

Part 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 6: 2000 - 2005
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Ronald Brautigam Special
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
Part 9: 2014 - 2016
Part 10: 2017 - ____

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

An Index of ionarts Discographies

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Second Cast of WNO 'Turandot'

Sylvie Valayre (Turandot) and Franco Farina (Calaf) in Turandot, directed by Andrei Şerban, Washington National Opera, 2009 (photo by Karin Cooper)

Ticket sales have been reportedly quite healthy for the final production of Washington National Opera's season, Puccini's last (and best) opera, Turandot. For anyone concerned about the health of the company in precarious economic times, that is heartening news, and as assessed in my review of opening night, it is a worthy production that glories in the spectacular possibilities of this opera. A few details struck my eye the third time around, like the contorted red dragon on the side of the executioner's whetstone wagon in Act I and the details of the carved screens in the set echoed in the glowing lines of the stage floor. The Ping-Pang-Pong trio is jesterish in way that goes far over the top, even sitting down at the back of the stage at one point in the "see no evil, hear no evil" pose.

The casting may not have been spectacular exactly, a situation that found itself oddly reversed in the second cast, heard on Monday night at the penultimate performance. The weak link in the first cast was the Calaf of tenor Darío Volonté, in no way an adequate vocal consort for the photon torpedo of Maria Guleghina's Turandot. It would have been much better to have the second-cast tenor, Franco Farina, across from Guleghina -- they happened to overlap in only one performance, on May 27. While Farina may not be a great tenore di forza, he has almost always proven a consistently good one -- as in his last appearance in Washington, in I Vespri Siciliani. At the very least, here was a voice with heroic resonance that never flagged throughout this demanding score and had well-supported and soaring high notes, if occasionally strained to the point of bending out of tune. He also had definite ideas about phrasing, decisively idiosyncratic, as he led conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson by the nose through Nessun dorma in Act III, leading to more than a few awkward clashes with the orchestra.

Other Reviews: Ronni J. Reich, "Turandot's" Second Cast: Power and its Outages (Washington Post, June 1)

Sylvie Valayre's Turandot, by contrast, was a disappointment after Guleghina, which is not altogether unexpected, after Valayre's last roles with the company, replacing Mirella Freni in the ill-conceived Trilogy mish-mash in 2005 and a second-cast Tosca in 2004. Either illness or having sung too may Abigailles left her voice rough, underpowered, and patchy on Monday night. Worse, she was not nearly as gripping a presence on the stage as Guleghina, who for all of her mannerisms has mastered the art of the icy glare and the contemptuous gesture. Valayre's Turandot seemed, at worst, just a little capricious. The Liù of Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska, the winner of the 2006 Operalia competition making her WNO debut in this role, did not have the same glowing tone of Sabina Cvilak in the first cast and some of the exposed high notes sagged flat. It was a generally good sound emanating from a well-acted performance, but there will hopefully be some improvement before she takes on this role at the Met next season (scheduled for January 2010). The voice is a plausible fit for Micaëla or Euridice, both of which she has sung at the Met to some acclaim, but based on one hearing, Liù may be a step too far.

The final performance of Turandot, already sold out, will be performed tomorrow night (June 4, 7:30 pm), with this cast and Plácido Domingo conducting.

Viktoria Mullova's Bach

J.S.Bach, Sonatas & Partitas, Viktoria Mullova Onyx 4040 (130:22)

Of Bach’s Cello Suites, there has been such a plethora of recent recordings lately that greatness (Queyras) and extroverted excellence (Lipkind) relegated the merely superb (Klinger ) and the very good (Gastinel) (nevermind the dishwater variety—Isserlis) to shadowy spots they didn’t necessarily reserve and wouldn’t have received had the timing been better. Timing is excellent, however, for Viktoria Mullova’s Sonatas & Partitas because there hasn’t been an important recording issued since Julia Fischer’s (Pentatone) and Gidon Kremer’s on ECM in 2005, and Christian Tetzlaff’s on Hänssler in 2007.

Her recording is big news, then, and better yet: it’s good news. In brief and thoughtful liner notes that peel right through to the essence of why she added hers to the long list of violinists’ names on the Sonata & Partita roll call, she outlines her musical transformation as it relates to Bach. She has come from a decidedly old-school approach (she describes it as a sort of Russian robotic approach with continuous vibrato, sans liberties, and little articulation) to what is for all theoretical purposes a Historically Informed Performance account. She even plays with gut strings and a baroque bow, one or the other or both of which she has been doing for years in all repertoire where appropriate. (Her recordings of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn Concertos are on gut string and she uses the baroque setup for her recent Bach and Vivaldi recordings.) As with her latest Bach release and the Vivaldi concertos on Archiv, she is playing a 1750 Guadagnini (and a Walter Barbiero baroque bow) tuned to A=415, not her 1723 "Julius Falk" Stradivari.

Bach, S&P, BWV 1001-1006 et al., N.Milstein - DG Bach, S&P, BWV 1001-1006 et al., R.Podger - Channel Classics Bach, S&P, BWV 1001-1006 et al., C.Tetzlaff - Hänssler Bach, S&P, BWV 1001-1006 et al., J.Fischer - Pentatone

Listening to it at first, my first response to it was rather cool. Her playing is not always beautiful. Short bow strokes in the D minor Sarabande certainly don’t aim for prettiness. The sound is close, but with lots of room around her, direct but spacious, allowing the sound to bloom, and hiding nothing—for better and worse. I found it occasionally too close, leaving me with the feeling of standing a little too close to a painting that I admire. Her former rigor in Bach—perhaps even stiffness—is gone, although that approach I actually find myself appreciating.

It wasn’t until direct comparison that the scales fell off my ears, revealing not only relative excellence but greatness. If upon the first few listens she didn’t seem to be delivering something truly out of the ordinary, now she shines. I matched her against Tetzlaff’s new recording and—difference of pitch apart—the dissimilarities are vast and instructive. The relative lack of ambience gives a yet more immediate, more contained impression of Tetzlaff’s instrument (presumably his modern Guarneri del Gesu copy by Peter Greiner). When listened to on its own, Tetzlaff’s Hänssler recording is striking to a degree, but the allure is lost: the violin sound comes across as squeaky, the playing constrained and lacking spontaneity.

Mullova works hard to get momentum by way of her rather aggressive rhythmic dotting and double stopping, enjoying the hard edges that Bach offers. Although it doesn’t quite sound like it, it feels more like Nathan Milstein than anyone else. The touches of gentleness amid that overt vigor betray the amount of thought put into making the recording, making Tetzlaff’s approach seem rather academic and deliberate (check the Siciliana) in comparison. Mullova really does play with guts—not just gut strings—which gives the Sonatas & Partitas a feel of being lived rather than just read. When Mullova is faster (throughout most of the First Sonata) she strikes as more pointed and lively. When she is slower (most extreme—4:04 to 2:21—in the first Double), less trying to master a technical challenge than communicating the spirit of the music. In the second Double, taken fast by both but faster still by Tetzlaff, the latter comes perilously close to sounding like a sewing machine.

With first impressions manifesting themselves as hardened opinions, the differences between her and Tetzlaff, which I originally thought would be small despite Mullova’s quasi-HIP approach, became ever more obvious. Painfully so, after a while. After a while, the audio quality of the Hänssler recording gives you the impression of being thrown back 25 years. And the interpretation becomes more and more uninteresting. Not skipping ahead whenever it was Tetzlaff‘s turn grew ever more difficult. When Mullova came back on (say, with the A minor Fuga after Tetzlaff’s Grave), it felt like relief.

That the differences are—or become—so striking, is all the more surprising since I cherish Tetzlaff in general and cherished his Bach in particular. This drop in appreciation (despite some terrific instances on his part—the A minor Allegro, D minor Giga, and his Ciaconna among them) isn’t just a matter of appreciating a particular interpretive style, either. Spot-light comparisons with other favorite recordings (Milstein on DG, my eternal touchstone; Podger, my HIP-standard bearer; Fischer, my favorite among modern, honeyed versions) did not yield the same discrepancies despite being very different from Mullova. Especially Julia Fischer offers drastic contrast (only Shlomo Mintz’ mellifluous account might be further from Mullova than Fischer) and yet she delights equally.

Mullova, for all her HIP-training and gear, will not replace Rachel Podger as the favorite of that particular approach: there is modern spirit to it all that makes it stand too tall and too proud as to be a vehicle for the authenticists’ ideology. Nor will she end all arguments on style with this HIP-means/modern spirit approach.

That’s incidentally not what a recording is intended or supposed to do. What Mullova will achieve, however, is as much a splash in the world of Sonata & Partita connoisseurs as Fischer created, and that by wonderfully different means. The time it took to get to appreciate, like, and finally love this recording was well invested.

Fifty Years after 'Les 400 Coups'

François Truffaut screened his new film Les 400 Coups at the Cannes Film Festival fifty years ago, on May 4, 1959. It was a triumph, the coronation of the Nouvelle Vague, a phrase coined by Françoise Giroud in L'Express only two years earlier, to describe the new wave of young directors then reinvigorating French cinema. As Jean-Luc Douin describes it in an article (Une famille aux quatre cents coups, June 3) for Le Monde, the film's success was a source of some personal embarrassment and emotional pain for Truffaut (my translation):

On June 3, when the film (winner of the Cannes directing prize) came out in theaters, François Truffaut published a surprising article in Arts, in which he denied that the movie was autobiographical: "I did not write my biography in Les 400 Coups." Why this denial, when he had not hidden his mining of his childhood memories, running away, his detention in the Youth Observation Center in Villejuif, as well as of that of his friend from that time, Robert Lachenay? Because the young director was harassed by his family, depicted in a rather negative way, who were dumbfounded to find themselves poorly treated in the press, who spoke of a child who was "unloved," "left to his own devices," called the father "a rather cowardly chump," and the mother as "flighty" and a "wicked little whore."

The press quotations oversimplify the way the child's life is depicted in the film, because there is love from his family as well as neglect. Still, it caused a major rupture, especially with Truffaut's adoptive father. The director was largely unrepentant, even quoted as saying, after the death of his mentor André Bazin, "I have no more parents."

New Bach Recordings: David Fray's Concertos

Bach, Keyboard Concertos (BWV 1052, 1055, 1056, 1058), D. Fray (piano), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (released on January 13, 2009) Virgin Classics 50999 213 064 2 6 Online scores: BWV 1052 | BWV 1055 BWV 1056 | BWV 1058

David Fray impressed me in his last concert appearance in Washington, with Kurt Masur and the Orchestre National de France, as mildly eccentric, slouching in a chair and humming along to his own technically polished, pearly-toned reading of Beethoven's second piano concerto. Jens had appreciative remarks for Fray, too, in a rare performance of a Nino Rota piano concerto two years ago. The French pianist's recent recording of four of the Bach harpsichord concertos, with piano and the strings of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in reduced numbers (7-5-4-3-2), has much to recommend it, although it does not really stand out from the (considerable) competition. Fray's gentle, flat-fingered touch is at its best in the slow movement of the F minor concerto, BWV 1056, played with a wholly unmannered simplicity. The tempi are generally steady, which creates a lot of motoric interest because of Fray's sparkling technique, with the 32nd notes in the third movement of BWV 1052, for example, like bubbly flourishes.

As usual, if one could have only one recording of these works, for me it would be one with harpsichord and historical instruments, probably Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert, which remains extremely pleasing (now at a rock-bottom price in a 3-CD set with the equally good concertos for two or more harpsichords). More recently, the ever-reliable Richard Egarr has done well with the Academy of Ancient Music, but the performances by Café Zimmermann with Céline Frisch (not all recorded yet), are the most intriguing, made with a chamber-size ensemble rather than a small orchestra. On piano with forces like the Fray recording, pride of place would still go to Angela Hewitt (with Australian Chamber Orchestra) or, more likely, Murray Perahia (with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields), with possible detours to András Schiff and even the eccentric Glenn Gould, who may leave you puzzled but rarely bored.

The drawbacks of Fray's version include some overly heavy use of the sustaining pedal, making passages like the sixteenth notes alternated between the hands not as dry as they should be. He also does nothing with the few cadenza moments, as at the end of BWV 1052's third movement -- Pinnock at least adds a little scalar flourish before the cadence that Bach notated (it is worth noting that Pinnock's recording, on the harpsichord, is even a hair faster than Fray's on 1052/3, while Gould is a lot slower). The group takes a few liberties, too, as in BWV 1056/3 where the strings play the echoed 8th notes as pizzicato (they are marked only as piano in the score). The ensemble seems artificially unbalanced, with the piano almost always in the foreground, even when the strings have the more interesting melodic material, as in parts of the first movement of BWV 1052.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Fray also served as "conductor" in these performances and, to continue the self-regarding character of the performance, Bruno Monsaingeon made a film about Fray's work on this recording (his score preparation at home, the rehearsal and recording sessions), of which an excerpt is embedded below. While Fray's humming and bee-bopping antics are on display in the rehearsals on the DVD, they are mostly inaudible on the CD. Whatever you may think of Fray's look (whose floppy hair, shirt open at the chest, and sulking frown are vintage 1980s Jon Bon Jovi), we remind you that it worked well enough for Fray, who married Riccardo Muti's daughter Chiara last summer.

62'17"


Excerpts from Swing, Sing and Think: David Fray Records
J. S. Bach, dir. Bruno Monsaingeon