Vocal and Choral

Mahler - Orchesterlieder
Christian Gerhaher; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Kent Nagano
Analekta AN 2 9849

Kent Nagano’s initial collaboration with the splendid German baritone Christian Gerhaher and the OSM in a Sony recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde drew qualified admiration from me in 2009. This new recording of Mahler’s vocal works on the Analekta label is a patchwork from two January evenings during the inaugural season of the OSM’s new concert hall in 2012. As before, the main attraction is Gerhaher’s exceptional voice and sensitive interpretation of the three major song cycles: the youthful Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the ruminative Kindertotenlieder, and the variegated settings of the Rückert Lieder. (Gerhaher also released a sensational Deutsche Grammophon recording of Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra in 2010.)

Nagano is an attentive collaborator and handles tempo fluctuations adroitly, though the dynamic contrasts and drama of the music are decidedly underplayed. The recorded sound has considerable presence which is both a blessing and a curse as this is one of the noisier live performance pick-ups I’ve heard. Beyond the usual muffled coughs from the audience, odd thumps and strange mutterings occasionally infest the stage as well. (This is the downside of making recordings on the cheap without the contribution of an engaged producer in proper studio conditions.) Gerhaher’s finely modulated voice and excellent diction set a new standard for future interpreters of Mahler lieder. Thankfully this time (unlike the OSM Das Lied release) full French and English translations of the German texts are provided. 

Kaija Saariaho - La Passion de Simone
Dawn Upshaw; Finnish RSO; Tapiola Chamber Choir; Esa-Pekka Salonen
Ondine ODE 1217-5

There is no easy way to explain the mystery that was Simone Weil. A trained philosopher before women were seen as capable of comprehending philosophy, a secularized Jew who converted to Catholicism, a pacifist who sought combat in the Spanish Civil War, a left-wing thinker who put her ideas to the test by joining a factory assembly line… Add to it a martyr in her death (or was she anorexic?), an altruist living an ascetic life and a major irritant to those who believe that upholding convention is the only way to maintain social order. It is a small wonder that the composer who embarked on writing an oratorio based on the life of this incredible woman is a rebel herself – Kaija Saariaho, known to Toronto audiences through her remarkable opera Love from Afar.

This oratorio, a small and reflective work, uses the martyr scenario of Stations of the Cross to depict Weil’s life. The music is not grand by any measure, as the life depicted was contemplative and largely introverted. This is served well by the voice of Dawn Upshaw, who sounds here as Weil might have – suffering and tired. Esa-Pekka Salonen skilfully coaxes the delicate harmonies out of the tightly wound melodies, bringing his understanding of nuance to the task. Weil herself said it best: “Two powers hold sway over the universe: light and gravity.” There is an abundance of both of them here.

In the 19th century when no TV, radio or celebrity-driven pop music existed, musical theatre was the chief entertainment for the newly formed middle classes and its creators became the celebrities. The greatest of these emerged simultaneously: Verdi and Wagner, both born in the same year, 1813. Verdi continued the tradition of writing operas as musical entertainment, albeit raised to a level of perfection. But Wagner took it as his purpose in life to revolutionize the genre by the infusion of his own ideas, ambitions, problems — all that occupied his thoughts — and turning the music and drama, with a new emphasis on the orchestra, into one coherent unit. The end result was a distillation of his thought processes set to music that became a new entity, with words no longer depending on someone else but written by himself. So each of the works became autobiographical in a sense and dealt with universal issues giving them a timeless quality. There are dozens of fine recordings for every one of these operas, but in the following paragraphs I have selected just one CD set for each. Most of these are my favourites or, if more recent, are considered the best by renowned authorities.

Psalms and Motets for Reflection
Choir of St. John’s Elora; Michael Bloss; Noel Edison
Naxos 8.572540

Canadian church choirs usually consist of amateur singers. If a church can afford it, it will try to get four professional section leaders. The Choir of St John’s, Elora, however, is a fully professional 22-voice choir. The disc under review is its fifth CD.

This new CD contains eight settings of psalms and ten items that are described, somewhat loosely, as motets. Some of the psalms I would describe as serviceable but a few are rather more than that and I was especially taken with Thomas Handforth’s setting of Psalm 145 (I will magnify thee, O God my King). Only one of the motets is something of a chestnut: God so loved the World by John Stainer. I have sung that a number of times and I would be content to live without it.

The oldest work on the disc is a fine Renaissance motet in the Lutheran tradition (When to the Temple Mary went), sung here to a 19th-century English text. Otherwise the most interesting motets are the modern and contemporary works: those by Poulenc, Tavener, Paulus, MacMillan, Harvey and Halley. The last-named is of special interest as it was commissioned by the Choir of St John’s. Its melodic source is a 16th-century Lutheran hymn by Johann Walter.

This is clearly a very fine choir. I have not yet heard it live, but the choir performs every week as part of the 11am Sunday service. Elora is easy to get to from Toronto and I hope to make the trip soon.

Rihm, Wolfgang – Oedipus
Schmidt; Pell; Dooley; Carlson; Murray; Golden; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Christoff Prick
ArtHaus Musik 101 667

Oedipus Rex, the tragedy by Sophocles, seems a perfect subject for an opera: prophecy, patricide, incest, suicide, self-blinding – it is all here. This well-known story receives a special treatment from the composer and librettist, Wolfgang Rihm. He was fascinated by post-structuralism and Derrida, so simply following the Greek play would not do. Additional texts came from the interpretation of the Oedipal myth by Nietzsche and Heiner Müller. The resulting “musical theatre” (Rihm initially refused the "opera" label) was created in collaboration with Götz Friedrich, who was the been the artistic director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1981 to 2000. Aside from deconstructionism, Rihm favoured incorporating the classical humanities, a trait he shared with Friedrich. It is more of a meditation on the human condition and human frailty represented in the Oedipal urges in all of us, as interpreted by Freud, than a straight retelling of the myth. To add to the originality of the work, it is scored for the most part exclusively for wind instruments, with two violins making a guest appearance when Oedipus gouges his eyes out. Rihm, who is as innovative as he is prolific, shows the influence of both Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom he studied in the 1970s. Deserving of special mention is Andreas Schmidt (himself a student of Fischer-Dieskau and Schwartzkopf) and the offstage Greek chorus of 16 individual singers from the Deutsche Oper ensemble (rather than chorus members). 

It is hard to believe that this DVD is a recording of an event that took place 26 years ago. The music sounds fresh and contemporary, and the staging is sumptuous and reminiscent (or prescient) of Robert Lepage's recent work. Some of the principals, like Andreas Schmidt (Oedipus), have advanced their careers to become regulars at, among others, the Bayreuth Festival. Others have passed away (the elegant baritone-turned-tenor, William Pell [Kreon]), or continued in relative obscurity, despite an extensive performance schedule (Emily Golden [Jokasta]).

Wagner - Die Walküre  
Anja Kampe; Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape; Nina Stemme; Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky MAR0527

This year marks Wagner’s 200th birthday and the festivities and celebrations are well under way. During the last decade with many opera houses generating innovative new concepts for Der Ring des Nibelungen the cycle has come to new life and become justly or unjustly Wagner’s most popular work. With a wealth of video releases available today, it is refreshing to concentrate on what’s most important, the music performed by a great conductor trying his hands on it for the first time.

Although I presume Gergiev has performed the entire cycle in St. Petersburg, I am only aware of this CD set of Die Walküre, the second drama or the First Day of the Ring, as having been recorded. No matter, because it is the most engaging, most immediately appealing, most melodic and heartbreaking drama of the four. Act I is almost a complete opera in itself. Starting with a raging storm and emerging from utter darkness, the very depth of human misery with desperate cries for help, it turns very gradually into faint glimmerings of hope, then a ray of light followed by the burst into spring, and by this time Gergiev whips his orchestra into waves and waves of such ecstasy that one is reminded of the miracles Furtwängler used to produce. Act II is the turning point of the Ring saga. Although it is very long and could get tedious with its lengthy dialogues and monologues Gergiev never lets the tension sag. The ominous, frightening minutes prior to the crucial fight is so ridden with anxiety that an electric charge can be felt in the air. What follows in Act III is a rousing Ride of the Walkyries in sonic splendour and a most heartrending Wotan’s Farewell sung by probably today’s greatest, most intelligent and powerful Wotan, René Pape.

Further glories of this set are Swedish soprano, Nina Stemme’s wonderful Brunnhilde, Jonas Kaufmann’s strong yet vulnerable and tender Siegmund and his sister/bride Sieglinde, beautifully portrayed and sung by the accomplished Wagnerian soprano Anja Kampe. The superlative cast includes the awesome basso profundo, Mikhail Petrenko, who creates vociferous terror as Hunding.

Schubert – Erlkönig
Matthias Goerne; Andreas Haefliger
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902141

Six hundred and thirty-four is the total number of solo lieder written by Franz Schubert, and Matthias Goerne has the ambition to record them all! This is the seventh disc in the series (each with a different piano accompanist) and Goerne is into some wonderful territory. Erlkönig is of course the setting of a poem by Goethe and Schubert’s first song masterpiece. The composer himself designated it as his Opus No.1. What remains a mystery is the studious indifference that Goethe seems to have shown to this brilliant song. When initially sent the setting by one of the young Schubert’s patrons, he returned it some months later — without a word of a comment. Later on, Schubert himself sent to the author beautifully bound scores for this and other Goethe poems, but never received a reply. Finally, after Schubert’s death, Erlkönig was performed for Goethe publically — and the only comment from the venerated poet was: “It reminds me of something I have heard before.”

No matter what Goethe thought, the song is a masterpiece — on this recording accompanied by other works, such as Die Forelle and Im Abendrot. Goerne has a beautiful baritone, perfectly suited to the lieder repertoire and of course a perfect command of the language. Many international singers, despite language coaching, get tripped up by the dense texture of Schubert’s settings. The thoughtful interpretation, combined with some truly inspired accompaniment, in this instance by Andreas Haefliger, make this Schubert edition an exciting endeavour. At least this reviewer will be looking up volumes one through six in record stores.