Early, Classical and Beyond

Beyond the River God
Assi Karttunen
Divine Art dds 25120
(divineartrecords.com)

This intriguing program of music for solo harpsichord makes unexpected but successful partners of Baroque France’s great François Couperin, who died in 1733, and the gifted English composer Graham Lynch, who is still very much alive. Couperin’s music here, a prélude from his L’Art de toucher le claveçin and four other pieces from various of his Ordres, makes up just over one-third of the substantial track list, and Finnish harpsichordist Assi Karttunen’s supple interpretation of L’Exquise from Ordre XXVII is particularly beautiful.

That said, where Karttunen really shines is in Lynch’s music for her instrument, which reflects both a panoply of stylistic influences and a well-nuanced understanding of how to compose for the harpsichord. Karttunen’s playing is deftly mercurial in the second Rondeau of the five-movement Beyond the River God, and she’s introspective yet always welcoming in the many meditative movements of this and other works. A particular small delight is the short, stand-alone Ay!, which to me sounds a little like what Edgar Allen Poe might have improvised over a French ground bass. The four movements of Lynch’s Petenera make perhaps the best connection in spirit to the unmeasured préludes of Couperin’s time; you can almost see Couperin listening curiously from the doorframe. The recorded sound is beautiful, and Karttunen’s notes offer much food for thought. The combining of old and new music can be tricky alchemy, but this experiment is a happy success.

Beethoven Explored – The Chamber Eroica
Aaron Short; Peter Sheppard Skǽrved; Dov Scheindlin; Neil Heyde
Metier msvcd 2008
(divineartrecords.com)

It may come as a surprise to those of us accustomed to hearing a symphony performed by a full orchestra that during the early 19th century, an adaptation for a much smaller ensemble would have been a perfectly acceptable means of presenting large-scale works, particularly in domestic settings. Indeed, there was an enormous demand for arrangements during the days before recorded music, and this is the idea behind The Chamber Eroica. It’s the sixth in a series titled Beethoven Explored on the British label Metier, and features pianist Aaron Shorr, violinist Peter Sheppard Skǽrved, violist Dov Scheindlin and cellist Neil Heyde in a piano quartet version of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3.

The groundbreaking third symphony was completed in 1804, while this anonymous arrangement – requested by Beethoven himself – was published just three years later. Hence, this recording (the first ever) provides the modern-day listener with a keen insight as to what the composer had in mind with respect to chamber arrangements of his orchestral works. And without the use of period instruments, the four performers admirably evoke a rightful sense of grandeur in this majestic symphony. The opening movement, marked Allegro Moderato, contains a wonderful sense of momentum with the central theme continually being passed among the piano and the strings. The second movement is suitably sombre and mysterious and the third movement scherzo, all lightness and grace. While it would be challenging to duplicate the grandeur of the finale with a four-piece ensemble, the players ably capture its optimistic buoyancy.

In all fairness, there are instances when the arrangement seems not as performer-friendly as it might be. At times, the violist’s range seems uncomfortably high and the strings are sometimes required to perform melodic lines ordinarily given to the woodwinds. But the group remains undaunted and produces a most satisfying sound very much in keeping with the robust spirit of the original work.

The disc is to be commended on two levels: exemplary performances by the four musicians; and for providing the present-day listener with a glimpse into a particular facet of music-making during the early 19th century. Highly recommended.

Liszt – Piano Sonata; Dante Sonata; Petrarch Sonnets
Angela Hewitt
Hyperion CDA68067

The name Franz Liszt conjures up pianistic showmanship of devilishly difficult bravura pieces that have enthralled audiences for nearly 200 years. Many pianists fall easily under this spell, but Angela Hewitt is certainly not one of them. Her new recording and her first brave foray into Liszt territory is the most unforgiving, immensely difficult B Minor Sonata, 30 minutes long in one single movement that can easily lapse into aimless banging on the piano, sound and fury signifying nothing from a lesser hand. Technical brilliance almost taken for granted, her approach is essentially analytical, fully understanding the structure, the relationships of parts to the whole, the thematic, harmonic and rhythmical subtleties, avoiding excesses so the work feels an integral whole and shines in all its majesty.

The essence of Liszt in Hewitt’s words, “Nobility of spirit and depth of expression,” is also manifest in the second major item here, written during his Années de pèlerinage in Italy, the Dante Sonata, its program much inspired by the Inferno, giving ample room for the pianist’s unbridled imagination in depicting the horrors of hell and the exquisite tenderness of “Nessun maggior dolore/Che ricordarsi nel tempo felice” (Dante’s Inferno), of recalling past happiness in time of pain. The wonderful tremolo at the high end of the keyboard representing unattainable Paradiso is especially poignant and moving.

In between these two mountain peaks there is a valley of heavenly peace, the three Sonetti del Petrarca , whose love poems Liszt set into music for his beloved Countess Marie, played with languid gentleness and throbs of passion. All this adds up to another triumph in Ottawa-born Hewitt’s extraordinary career.

Brahms – Serenades
Leipzig Gewandhausorchester;
Riccardo Chailly
Decca 4786775

Following Chailly’s sensational performances of the Brahms Symphonies and the usual orchestral works that earned universal rave reviews (Decca 4785344, 3 CDs) we have all waited with great expectations to hear his Serenades.

It is an absolute joy to have these rather brisk, smiling performances of the two neglected early orchestral gems that Brahms wrote on the way to the symphonies. The 25-year-old composer already had an uncanny sense of what he wanted to do with an orchestra; as clearly present are what would become his characteristic orchestral colour and deployment of instruments. The first Serenade was composed in 1857-58, some three years after the first piano concerto of 1854. That concerto was first conceived as a symphony but Brahms re-thought it as a concerto. Similarly, these lyrical Serenades are Brahms’ second and third symphonic ventures wherein he stepped back a little to produce two youthful and breezy works for reduced orchestra. Reduced size does not however mean reduced invention; merely a less ponderous symphonic argument. The First Symphony was conceived during this time and had a gestation period of 20 years until 1875 when “Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony” was delivered.

Compared to other recorded versions, the breezy youthfulness of the present performances has a charming alfresco quality with vivacious tempi that neither undersell nor oversell the orchestral weight. Chailly and his vibrant orchestra, particularly the winds and horns, are flawlessly attuned to these scores, making this recording the very best version to own.

Gounod – Symphonies 1-3
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Oleg Caetani
CPO 777 863-2

Glancing at the title there are a number of personal discoveries here, including Gounod as a symphonist, the orchestra and the conductor and even the recording company. An interesting fellow, that Gounod… He sprang into world fame in one fell swoop with one opera, Faust, so successful that it has held the stage for the past 150-odd years and made him very rich, but he never could write another comparable opera ever again. However, as a young man and prior to his fame, he did dabble in orchestral composition with two symphonies plus an incomplete third, the latter newly discovered in a historic first performance here. Needless to say all were duly forgotten and completely overshadowed by Faust.

Fine works these are indeed in the hands of the extremely capable Italian conductor and Karajan Competition-winner Oleg Caetani who studied under the legendary Franco Ferrara (much admired in my teenage years when I saw him and he pretty well made me discover Schubert!). Much like the First of Beethoven, also inspired by Haydn, Gounod’s Symphony in D Major is a real charmer with finely sprung rhythms, unmistakeably French in character and conducted with a light spirit making the music sing and dance joyfully with the trumpets ringing out triumphantly at the end.

The more ambitious and mature Second Symphony in E-Flat Major already foreshadows the wonderful garden love scene in Faust. It is so lovingly performed with shimmering colours that it alone would make this disc worthwhile.