Forbes Classical CD of the Week: Fr. Antonio Soler, The Morgan Library Sonatas

…¡Esa es la verdad! This time around – the first time, as it turns out – caused the ears’ equivalent of one of those lusty cartoon double-takes, because these only recently discovered sonatas by Soler are of Scarlatti-like invention and entertainment-value…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Ersatz-Scarlatti? Diego Ares Plays Antonio Soler (NOV 23, 2016)

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Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 1)

Fifty-four musicians (minus four stragglers but generously counting the violas), instruments in tow, gather at Vienna’s Schwechat airport. The historic, 300 year old timpani, safely packed in base drum cases, are checked. Counter-intuitively it’s the double basses who have the least to carry: The instruments are provided locally; all they bring are their bows and gut strings with which to string the loaners.

The cellos on their own seats stick their necks out over the headrests; their owners are rumored to insist on them getting a meal and then devour it themselves. Unlike my Twitter feed seems to suggest, instruments are not smashed or denied or scrutinized by the airline, but accommodated – even historic trombones which, frankly, didn’t look like regulation-size carry-on luggage. Perhaps it helps to board in Vienna, where traveling orchestras are just about the norm.

Via Frankfurt, the crew heads to Osaka, where the first concert will take place at Izumi Hall, a shoebox style concert hall with 820 seats loosely modelled after The Musikverein’s “Golden Hall”. The Tyrolian branch of the orchestra causes its usual ruckus of merriment (and if wasn’t them, it’s at least plausible that it was), until asked by the purser to kindly disperse from the kitchen.

Landing in Osaka is like landing in the sea; the Renzo Piano designed Kansai International Airport having been built on an artificial island just off the coast in the Osaka Bay. After a 90 minute bus-ride to the hotel right between Osaka-Jo Hall (Norah Jones performing that night) and the dainty, largely wooden Izumi Hall, it’s hard to believe Osaka’s Itami Airport, the international hub until “Kankū” opened, is still further from the city.
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Osaka castle is right across the (Daini?) Neyagawa River – well, some river, in any case – and towers over its immediate surroundings. It’s an immediate draw and a light drizzle and some 16 hours of transportation behind them can’t keep the musicians from exploring its moats, walls, gardens, and the cherry blossoms which still – just – hang on to gorgeous effect. An afternoon nap and a good Japanese dinner prepare for the next day of rehearsals and the concert in the evening. More pictures below.


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Forbes Classical CD of the Week: Johann Sebastian Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude, Goldberg Variations, La Capricciosa

…Listen to the irresistible low notes rising from Partita 10, the rocking onslaught of Partita 18, or the inclusion of that Bergamasca that Frescobaldi already used, and which is basis for Bach’s Quodlibet, “Kraut und Rüben…” – staggering stuff! I’ve never – pace Ton Koopman – heard it done more attractively. It manages to highlight the genius of Buxtehude and Bach, it delights with the ‘new’ Buxtehude and readies the ears for the familiar Goldbergs…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Super-Added Goldberg Variations (NOV 16, 2016)

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Forbes Classical CD of the Week: Max Bruch, Suite on Russian Folk Melodies, Serenade on Swedish Melodies, Swedish Dances

…The folk dances that Bruch works off become buoyant pieces (only very occasionally a bit heavy-footed in the First Orchestral Suite of Swedish Dances) and throughout Bruch applies a light and dainty touch which – if you have given Bruch’s more grandiose efforts like “Odysseus” a try and reeled – is his saving grace. Not aiming quite so high apparently freed him and the music from overwrought pathos to everyone’s benefit…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Swedish Hobbits Dancing To Bruch (NOV 9, 2016)

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Ionarts-at-Large: Easter Concert at the Klosterneuburg Monastery

The lure that is Andreas Scholl

The imposing, beautiful Klosterneuburg Monastery sits above the Danube and watches over it as it flows around the last vineyard-covered hill to reach Vienna. On Thursday, April 6^th, it hosted the third of a newly inaugurated annual Easter concerts, “Hommage à Antonio Vivaldi No.2; From Ospedale to Concordia”.

A.Vivaldi, Stabat Mater et al, Ensemble 415, Anreas Scholl Chiara Banchini (director), Harmonia Mundi

A.Vivaldi, Gloria (RV588 & 589), Ostro picta, Concerto Italiano, Sara Mingardo Rinaldo Alessandrini (director), naïve

But before any music was to be heard, there came a comically elaborate greeting that included a reading of the who’s-who of who attended that night, neatly categorized by and prefaced with: “from the industrial sector”, “from the realm of politics”, “from the diplomatic core”… Mention was made of whether wife and/or guests were also in attendance, or if they stood in for someone else who couldn’t attend (politicians). Provincial Austria (which absolutely includes neighboring Vienna) demands that each demi-important, self-important figure have his ego stroked. Then again, it’s hard to be too harsh about it, given the cause the concert’s proceeds were for: Namely support for the 25-year old Concordia Social Projects, dedicated to helping disadvantaged i.e. homeless children, and adolescents in Romania. A project with more than a passing parallel to what the Ospedale della Pietà did, where Vivaldi was active for over 30 years. Fortunately at least the elder abbot general knew how to make a wily, sweet and short little speech.

The group to perform these Easter concerts is the Vienna Bach Consort under Rubén Dubrovsky, one of the groups in the possibly budding Old Music / Historical Performance scene of Vienna’s, now that the Concentus Musicus’ strangle hold (an uncharitable but arguably apt description) on that niche is loosened, after Johann Nikolaus Count de la Fontaine und d’Harnoncourt-Unverzagt’s passing. Anyway, it’s that band and the Salzburg Bach Chorus that do the performing and the soloists on this occasion were sopranos Hanna Herfurtner and Joowon Chung and countertenor Andreas Scholl.

The latter was of course the star, the name, the top billed element, the coup, the USP. Last time I heard him was at the Schubertiade in 2013 (“A Silver Voice in a Golden Age of Countertenors”); before that in Salzburg in 2012 (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) and Munich in 2010 (St. John Passion with Ton Koopman). The tenor throughout was more or less “effortful beauty” and “strained high notes” and while he was “once a trailblazer for countertenors, setting new standards for quality and popularity, he’s now—his career far from being over—been passed and surpassed by a new purpose-built crop of countertenors”. We know that now; eventually there won’t be a need to harp on that. Yes, agility and lightness are diminished, but he still has an even, beautiful voice which, even when forced, has a pleasantly plangent, reedy character that now approximates a cor anglais. Rubén Dubrovsky candidly suggested that it was actually inspiring to hear an artist, admittedly not at peak power, willing to expose himself to criticism or comparison, while and because he still and decidedly had musical things to say. Scholl performed the ‘introduzioni’ Filiae Maestae Jerusalem, RV 638 very calmly, with a low energy pulse… but what worked against it was the mono-dramatic nature of the work. The piece, meant to precede a lost Miserere, lent itself, as a seat neighbor poignantly observed (with no ill will to Scholl, certainly), to “Vivaldi-yodeling”. The Stabat Mater was improved, but along these lines—with, dare I say it, overtones of monotony. For a dose of the same, with the fresh Scholl, one need only to turn to the 1995 recording with the Ensemble 415 on Harmonia Mundi which also contains the Filiae mestae Jerusalem, except not tacked to the Stabat Mater.

No matter, because surrounding this slightly anodyne center of the concert were two real gems. First the de-facto overture of the concert, Vivaldi’s Concerto in G minor RV 156. High on elegance, sublime artlessness and taking wing in the generous but never bathtubby acoustic of the beautiful basilica, it found flight and delighted to no end. Even the elaborate, long-lasting tuning session that preceded it had merit: it sounded like an involuntary Arvo Pärt Overture. Finally, the fleet Gloria RV589, preceded by an unnecessary Lauda Jerusalem, picked up where the concerto had left off. The Salzburg Bach Chorus might have been just a little smaller or a little less fast or a little more precise or a little of all of the above to make itself more readily understood in the generous acoustic. But that would be nitpicking. Sopranos Hanna Herfurtner and Joowon Chung were well matched: Neither are particularly light voices, both were just a bit forced, functional and very good; the former with a hard, accurate and bright instrument and prone to push when intending to make an accent; the latter with a softer, sometimes more approximating, beguiling voice. A gorgeous oboe stood out (the same oboe as in a recently reviewed Mozart Concerto K.314 where I likened it to “Pavarotti reincarnated as a juvenile goose”, just not in nearly as gratifying a part this time); Andreas Scholl, too, stood out, but not always for the right reasons. But overall, the Gloria still had that ‘just-right’ feeling, with a reign of sweetness yet without any hint of descending towards treacle or boredom. There’s good reason to suspect—and look forward to—a fourth Easter Concert at the Klosterneuburg Monastery next year.

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Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: St. John Passion from King's College

J.S. Bach , St. John Passion (1724), The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Academy of Ancient Music Soloists Stephen Cleobury (conductor), KGS

Adequacy Amid Excellence

There's some wonderful singing here from James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies and above all Roderick Williams (whom I'd rather have heard in a bigger role i.e. - Jesus - than Bass & Pilate, but who's to complain). The Academy of Ancient Music plays very well, too; not too far in the foreground, but more than professional. There's subtle drama to be found in what they do. But the rest of the ingredients is either pedestrian or simply not good. Sophie Bevan is having a bad day with only some good but too many ungainly moments; Benedict Kearns is a liability (even for a part as small as Peter that's a drag); the Choir of King's College is serviceable here, but nothing more. It's not even the best St. John Passion with trebles involved; that title is easily held by the Thomaner Recording of the St. John Passion with G.C.Biller from Leizpig. The invariable conclusion is that this live take off a humdrum 2016 performance is not a competitive recording of the St. John Passion. Indeed at no point of the recording is it clear why this was released for any other reason than it had been planned and scheduled to be released before the fact and no one dare spoke up.

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Forbes Classical CD of the Week: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli

…I digress, probably inspired by the absurdly foot- and end-noted but wise (and Vatican II-flavored) booklet text by Sistine Chapel Choir director Massimo Palombella (the notes are ⅓ longer than the text), which hints at the different (scholarly and academic) world the Vatican still lives in. I can just see the editor at DG staring at this in wonder when he received the text, until his boss told him or her that it was alright because ‘that’s how they work over there’…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: From The Sistine Chapel, Palestrina Populism (NOV 2, 2016)

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Forbes Classical CD of the Week: Franz Berwald, Édouard Du Puy, Septet, Wind Quartet, Basson Quintet

…The title of the disc, “A Bassoon in Stockholm” refers to the fact that Berwald (1796 – 1868) and Du Puy (1770 – 1822), both, wrote their works for their fellow Royal Orchestra musician, über-bassoonist Frans Preumayr, a sort of Franz Liszt of the bassoon of his time, apparently: A silly title that would have mislead me, had I not heard from a perceptive friend about this disc…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Bassoon Delight From Sweden

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