Early, Classical and Beyond

Devienne - Six Trios, Op.17
Mathieu Lussier; Pascale Giguère; Benoît Loiselle
ATMA ACD2 2583

Although François Devienne (1759-1803) was quite well known in France in the late 18th century, he has received little attention in recent times. Devienne was a very prominent bassoonist and flutist in the royal court of France prior to the French Revolution. For five years he was a member of Cardinal de Rohan’s household orchestra, a group popular with Queen Marie-Antoinette. During the period of the revolution, bands and orchestras changed names many times and Devienne seems to have spent that time in military bands only to emerge as a professor at what is now the Paris Conservatory.

This series of Six Trios Op.17, for bassoon, violin and cello, has never been recorded before. So we owe a debt of gratitude to Montreal bassoonist and conductor Mathieu Lussier for bringing these delightful works to our attention. At all times Mathieu Lussier’s bassoon playing is flawless. His articulation is crisp, clear and dazzling in the fast passages and his tone is full and rich with a lyrical quality rarely heard on bassoon.

While this CD definitely highlights the bassoon, Pascale Giguère on violin and Benoît Loiselle on cello certainly don’t take a back seat here. There is an almost seamless transition between the performers as each takes centre stage with the melody. It’s a unified ensemble. Throughout, the strings make limited use of vibrato as befits the genre. With eyes closed, one is easily transported back to the household of Cardinal de Rohan or the Queen before the violence of the revolution.

In addition to the six trios, the CD contains transcriptions of three airs from Devienne’s opéra comique Les Visitandines. For these selections, the trio is augmented with a viola in the capable hands of Jean-Louis Blouin. These provide a pleasant contrast, yet remain in the spirit of the musical times when they were written and performed.

As one who has, in the past, struggled with the diabolical fingering system of the bassoon, I have two very mixed reactions. Is the virtuosity displayed by Mathieu Lussier a challenge? Do I get my bassoon out of its case and practice diligently as I once did, or do I advertise a bassoon for sale? In the meantime, I will enjoy this CD of delightful happy music performed by true virtuoso musicians.

Christmas came early for me with the release of so many new Beethoven sonata CDs. Each pianist has done an exemplary job in recording their interpretation of the Beethoven masterpieces and I wish I could write more. All of these releases deserve detailed critiques. Some CDs resonated more with me than others but it is an entirely subjective reaction. All performances were impeccable musically and technically. However, we all respond differently to the individual voices and inflection of each performer’s unique phrasing and tempo. In fact we are listening to each pianist translate Beethoven’s musical speech. Music as a language has been a constant metaphor throughout the centuries before and after Beethoven. Greeks and Romans associated music with spoken rhetoric and musical execution may be compared with the delivery of an orator. By way of the spoken voice or musical gesture, performers hope to capture the hearts and attention of their listeners and arouse or quiet their passions by transporting them to a sublime musical experience. As pianos improved with more rapid decay of sound, quick and efficient damping and variation of timbre from one register to another, Beethoven began writing for the articulate brilliance of a “speaking music.” He also immersed himself in the treatises of authors such as Johan Mattheson and Emanuel Bach, discovered from reading ancient rhetoric by the Greek and Roman writers. Beethoven learned through the classical oratory to describe music as gestural art and cultivate the art of eloquent musical discourse and musical declamation. Here are the pianists who spoke to me in their Beethoven CDs.

Stewart Goodyear: Beethoven – The Complete Piano Sonatas (Marquis MAR 513) I had the pleasure of hearing Stewart Goodyear perform the entire set of Beethoven Sonatas at a marathon in Koerner Hall last June. He is an amazing pianist with formidable technique, stamina and fortitude. His talent is promethean and his playing eloquent and polished throughout the set. Like an orator, Goodyear takes you on a dramatic operatic journey, embracing every nuance and detail. Beethoven had carried the declamatory style into the new century with articulative tools such as legato and slurs crossing bar lines to subsume points of arrival. Beethoven used speech-mimetic effects in his keyboard works in order to approximate speech articulation. According to Czerny, he adopted the methods of singers and recommended putting words to passages or listening to string or wind instruments. Goodyear has given much thought to the form and structure of each sonata. I might quibble here and there about certain tempi or tonal nuance but his level of artistry is truly exceptional. His command of the keyboard and depth of emotion, especially in the last five sonatas is moving and intense. Like a good book, once you start listening it is difficult to stop and that is a remarkable accomplishment for this young artist.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Beethoven – Piano Sonatas Volume 1 (Chandos CHAN 10720) I love these three CDs. They spoke to me on so many levels. The warm, velvety sound Bavouzet achieves suggested an intimate conversation, almost whispered at times. More robust movements were lively but enveloped in honeyed tonal colours. I was mesmerized and hypnotized by the tenderness and sensitivity in his playing. Every phrase, every nuance and ornament was lovingly played. Bavouzet’s shaping of phrases was fluid and his articulation superb. The cantabile lines sang and the quiet, tranquil movements were introspective. The faster, more robust movements had great energy and pulsed with rhythmic inflection. The piano writing in the early sonatas embraced a multitude of textures, borrowing from the symphonic style, string quartet and other chamber music. Bavouzet emphasized this in his playing. In his program notes he is as articulate as in his performance. He asks the question: “Why record more Beethoven?” “And if Beethoven’s music is still alive within us and continues to inspire and inform us about how we relate with the world, is it not absolutely crucial that we should be alert to its enduring vitality and modernity? And why should music lovers be denied the opportunity to associate the new insights of living musicians with this immortal repertoire?” Excellent words and playing. Volume 1 includes sonatas from Opp.2, 7, 10, 13 and 14.

Javier Perianes: Beethoven – Moto perpetuo: Sonatas Opp.26, 31, 54, 90 (Harmonia Mundi HMC 902138) This recording couples four sonatas which end with “moto perpetuo,” a selection that deliberately underlines their similarity but also the diversity of the results Beethoven achieves using the same basic idea. Beethoven explored, like no one else, the possibilities of this compositional concept. The incessant repetition of the moto perpetuo has influenced keyboard composers and performers since before Bach. However, the development of the piano and its quicker action ensured the receptivity of this mode of writing. As to the tempo of these fast movements, Carl Maria von Weber speaks “of human pulse as a model of tempo as informed by an apprehension of periodicity in declamation. The beat, the tempo must not be a controlling tyrant nor a mechanical driving hammer, it should be to a piece of music what the pulse is to the life of man.” There also has to be a contrast in the music of speed. A presto needs tranquil moments to prevent the illusion of excessive speed. Javier Perianes performed the slow tranquil moments with tenderness and warmth. Beautifully shaped phrases were liquid and flowed effortlessly from one to another. I was very impressed with his musicality and the direct way he approached the music. The moto perpetuo movements did not use daredevil tempos but were articulate and exciting. I loved the care with which he pushed and pulled the musical phrases, slow or fast. Nothing was unnatural and accents were not harsh. His tone always retained warmth and was deep with rich colour. Here was another CD I couldn’t stop listening to and I look forward to more Beethoven from this excellent pianist.

Christian Leotta: Beethoven – Piano Sonatas Volume 4 (ATMA ACD2 2489) Chords are in music what words are in language. A harmonic sentence or period consists of several chords that are connected. A succession of many sentences constitutes an entire speech and a composition consists of a succession of many periods. Christian Leotta chooses to speak not only in volumes but in unique ones. His inflections in musical speech might not be to everyone’s taste but his declamatory playing commands that you listen. According to Beethoven’s critical comments on Czerny’s playing, he wanted all the rhythmic accents stressed quite heavily. He did not want flat performances, even if they were eloquent. Christian Leotta obliges us with his personal interpretation of the sonatas. He has a prodigious technique and an innate musicality. I admire his attention to the form and structure of each movement and his exquisite detailing. Volume 4 includes sonatas from Opp.2, 7, 10, 28, 81a and 90 and in it Leotta has presented us with another extremely worthy CD that deserves many hearings.

Luisa Guembes-Buchanan: Beethoven in D (www.beethovenpianoworks.com) I liked the care with which the choices were made for this self-produced CD. The three sonatas presented share the tonality of D (two major and one minor) but are radically different from one another in character. I did enjoy her intense leading of the musical phrase. Her interpretations draw you in. In a few spots she neglected pushing through to the end of the phrase. Some of the accents were too harsh and she needs to vary the tonal quality of the accents. Like in speech it is the inflection that is powerful, not necessarily the shouting. Although some of the playing was rough I did enjoy the energy and the slow movements were played with deep emotion and feeling. I could feel the pain and longing of Beethoven.

Debussy
Angela Hewitt
Hyperion CDA67898

Angela Hewitt first achieved international recognition for her interpretations of the music of Bach – was that really 27 years ago? Since then, the Ottawa-born pianist has proven to the world that her talents are truly eclectic, with a repertoire ranging from Handel to Messiaen. And how appropriate now that we’ve come to the end of 2012 – the 150th anniversary of the birth of Claude Debussy – that she should return once again to France for music by the musicien from Saint-Germaine-en-Laye.

This latest CD on the Hyperion label comprises many of Debussy’s major piano works, including the Suite bergamasque, Children’s Corner, Pour le piano, Masques, L’isle joyeuse and Deux Arabesques. Nevertheless, in recording such well-known repertoire, Hewitt had a tall order to fill. What amateur pianist with some degree of proficiency hasn’t tried his or her hand at least a few of these chestnuts? The challenge was thus a question of breathing new life into these oft-performed pieces. Not surprisingly, she succeeds admirably. Opening with the familiar Children’s Corner suite from 1908, Hewitt brings a particular freshness and vitality to the music, from the tongue-in-cheek Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum to the good-humoured Golliwog’s Cake-walk. Similarly, with the Suite bergamasque, each miniature demonstrates a wonderful sense of tonal colour, particularly in the famous Clair de lune. In contrast is L’isle joyeuse, music of gregarious buoyancy, inspired in part by Watteau’s painting L’embarquement pour Cythère.

My only quibble – and it’s a minor one – are the tempos, at times slightly brisker than we’re accustomed to. Yet this is not always the case. La Plus que lente is all sensuousness, performed with just the right degree of hesitancy and tempo rubato, thus rounding out a fine recording of much-loved repertoire.

Is there too much Mahler being performed these days? The venerable Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink believes so, contending that a “Mahler cult” has created a glut on the market which is distorting orchestral programming in favour of this formerly maligned composer and threatening to marginalize even the mighty Beethoven. There are even those, he claims, who never set foot in a concert hall unless Mahler is programmed. Hopefully, he concludes, Mahler mania will fade away in due time (like the collapse of the Dutch tulip mania of 1637 perchance?). It is a peculiar assertion coming from a man who has recorded the entire cycle of symphonies twice over and continues to churn out new performances with a global selection of orchestras; even so, Mahler himself predicted his symphonies would someday surpass Beethoven’s in popularity. Any conductor or ensemble worth their salt these days feels duty-bound to tackle them, regardless of their capability for or empathy with the complex and demanding works. It helps too that Mahler’s own conducting experience led him to virtually “idiot-proof” his scores with extremely detailed performance instructions throughout, and his obsessive retouching of his instrumentation after every performance has resulted in new editions continuing to appear to this day. Especially in the recent double centenary years this has led to many high-profile integral cycles springing forth bearing a uniform, streamlined quality all too often indistinguishable from each other.

It is therefore refreshing to come across these very interesting and idiosyncratic performances from the Stuttgart Philharmonic, which began appearing without much fanfare once a year on the Dreyer Gaido label soon after the young (born 1971) Gabriel Feltz was appointed director of the Stuttgart ensemble in 2004. Feltz has yet to make his conducting debut on this continent and this orchestra’s recordings have only recently been added to the Naxos catalogue. A remarkable feature of these discs is the conductor’s own insightful program notes, replete with music examples (!) and cogent arguments for Feltz’s interpretations, which often contradict or re-interpret the printed scores. The most daring example is undoubtedly the startling up-tempo interpretation of the rabble-rousing march midway through the first movement of the
Third Symphony (CD 21065), utterly contradicting Mahler’s call for a steady tempo throughout this section. Other examples are less radical yet still telling: the compulsive alternations of nimbleness and near panic of the

Fourth Symphony’s (CD 21072) ostensively charming opening movement; the utter serenity Feltz brings to the famous Adagietto of the Fifth Symphony (CD 21052), so often bathed in an excess of sentimentality; or the positively erotic atmosphere he conjures towards the end of the second “Nachtmusik” of the Seventh Symphony (CD 21041).

I especially enjoyed reading his statistical argument for the placing of the Scherzo as the second movement of the Sixth Symphony (CD 21045), settling once and for all a specious argument that has gone on for decades amongst musicologists. His interpretation of the first movement of the Sixth is notable for its urgently martial clip, offset by a luxuriant pulling back of the tempo for the secondary theme in just the right proportion. Feltz’s solution to the potpourri finale of the Seventh at first seems counterintuitive; he emphasizes the disjointedness of the rondo form rather than smoothing it over, yet it somehow works quite successfully.

Of all these performances perhaps the massive Third Symphony takes pride of place for the excellent unnamed trombone soloist in the first movement, the unmannered gracefulness of the middle movements and the very moving alto solo (Alexandra Petersamer) in the penultimate movement; only the finale seems to fall a bit short in sonic intensity. Perhaps the orchestra was a bit tuckered by this point however; these are all live performances including ofttimes thunderous applause at their conclusions from the otherwise respectfully taciturn audience.

The sound is clear and spacious, with no evident sonic trickery, though I did find the volume needed to be cranked a bit higher than normal to bring the string section into focus. Though there are unquestionably finer isolated performances of these works to be found in the ever-growing Mahler discography, very few contemporary cycles exhibit the integrity of vision Feltz brings to these works. I look forward to enjoying the remaining five symphonies in this cycle in the years to come; there’s never enough Mahler for me!

Rachmaninov - Symphony No.2; Dances from Aleko
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Vasily Petrenko
EMI Classics 9154732

Early in his career Rachmaninov was regarded as a gifted pianist, an occupation that supported the unrecognized composer. By his last decade, living in the United States, he was recognized both as a composer and an extraordinary concert pianist. I was told by a friend who was a member of the New York Philharmonic during the Toscanini era that the maestro asserted that Rachmaninov’s performance in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto in 1933 remained peerless. The Second Symphony was written in during 1906 and 1907, half a dozen years after the now signature Piano Concerto No.2 and is solidly of the romantic era, full of great tunes in the recognizable Russian tradition. Performances were often truncated in order not to burden audiences with a 60-minute symphony. Into the LP era, too, shortened versions were recorded.

 Under an unsympathetic baton, the first movement can seem endless and tiresome, an impression put to rest by some fine recorded performances, none more convincing than this one.

Here Petrenko’s penetration into the score produces a reading of unusual empathy that quickly draws the listener’s attention to the composer’s sensitivity and yearning, tension and release. There is Russian lushness aplenty from musicians who clearly love what they are playing.

The second movement, marked Allegro Molto in the opening, is given a perceptibly broader tempo than is favoured by others but, to my ears, it has panache.

The third movement, Adagio, is quite exquisite as Petrenko preserves the tranquility and nostalgia implicit in the score with wistful memories of the first movement. The triumphant rush of the last movement brings this superb recording to a rousing finale. If you are up for some orchestral thrills and a startlingly real recording with dramatic dynamics and astonishing body from the very quietest passages to ravishing tuttis then this recording is a must, even if it duplicates other performances in your collection.