5196105976

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Reco Reviews

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Re\iewed by:

John Canarina Scott Can treli Kenneth Cooper R. D. Paneli Kenneth Furie Harris Coldsmith Pavid Hamilton Dale S. Harris R. Derrick Henry Nicholas Ken von .-Ulan Koiinn Paul Henry l.ang lrving l.owens Karen Monson James R. Oestreich Conrad /.. Oshorne Andrew Porter Patrick J. Smith Paul .4. Snook Susan T. Sommer

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Polish conductor Marek Janowski leads a new generałion of Wagnerian singers in Rheingold. to launch Eurodisc s complele digital Ring cycle—See page 86.

BEETHOVEN: Missa solemnis, Op. 123.

Sylvia Geszty. soprano: Doris SofleJ. alto; David Rendall. lenor; Kurt Widmcr. bass; South German Madrigal Choir. Collegium Aureum. Wolfgang Gbnnenwein. cond. (Thomas Gallia and Paul Der)'. prod.J Pro Artf 2PAI. 2005. $19.96 (two discs. manuał sequence). Tape: 2PAC 2005. $19.96 (two cas-settes).

Anna Tomova-Sintov. soprano: An-nelies Burmeister. alto: Peter Schreier. tenor: Hermann Christian Polster. bass; Leipzig Radio Chorus. l.eipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Kurt Masur. cond. Eurodisc 85 760. SI9.96 (two discs. manuał sequence) (distributed by Tioch Produclions. Inc.. 65 W. 55th Sl.. Suitę 9E. New York. N.Y. 10019).

Beethoven’s sublime Missa solemnis can withstand. and even profit from. many interpretive approaches. On records we have had the fervent. almost operalic treatments of Toscanini and Bernstein, a morę soberly granitic but equally strong Klemperer, a scrupulous albeit detached Jochum. and a gemialich Giulini.

Both of these editions are variations on the theme previously offered by such contenders as GUnther Wand (Nonesuch HB 73002) and the late Karl Bóhm (DG 2707 080). Sharp contrasts are avoided; slow' tempos flow along and fast ones are generally held back. A similar moder-ation eon ta i ns the dynamie rangę: the ehoral shout of “El resurrexitwhich has bone-chilling impaet in the 1953 Toscanini RCA edition, sounds low-keyed indeed in these performances.

But there are important and reveal-ing diflerences between the approaches of Pro Arte*s Wolfgang Gónnenwein and Eurodise’s Kurt Masur. Most ob-vious. Masur uses a large-sealed modern orchestra. Gonnenwein smaller forces and “odginał" instruments. I much pre-

fer the claritv and detail of the Colle-

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gium Aureum to the somewhat remote, generalized drabness of the Leipzig Gewandhaus as distantly miked by East Germany’s competent but overly con-servative VEB Deutsche Schallplatten. Even morę to the point. however. is the contrast between the conductors: Gón-nenwein. for all his low-pressured Outlook. gives a certain poignant intimacy to the writing, while Masur. whose work has impressed me elsewhere, seems overly detached (and in the opening. rapidly paced Kyrie. even perfunctory). I had hoped to be able to revise my earlier opinion of the Eurodisc set (see my re-view of the Bbhm version. November 1975). all the better to welcome Euro-disc’s entrv inlo the American market, but that pleasantry will have to await a morę auspicious release. Both pressings are fine.    h.g.

BIRTWISTLE: Punch and Judy.

cast:

Pretty Polly/Witch    Phyllis Bryn-Julson (s)

Judy/FortuneTeller    Jan DeGaelani (ms)

Lawyer    Philip Langridge(t)

Punch    Stephen Roberłs(b)

Choregos/Jack Ketch

David Wilson-Johnson (b) Doctor    John Tomlinson (bs)

London Sinfonietta. David Atherton. cond. (James Mallinson and Andrew Cornall. prod.] Decca Hf.adline HEAD 24/5. S23.96 (two discs. manuał sequence) (distributed by London Records).

The fate of Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch

and Judy is instructive. The w'ork was

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premiered at the 1968 Aldeburgh Festi-val by the English Opera Group, which had commissioned it. and was then played in Edinburgh and London. Greeted with a mixture of incomprehen-sion. anger. and disdain. it was not heard again in England for ten years. though it was staged here. in Minneapolis. Then the London Sinfonietta revived the piece in a brilliant 1979 London concert. which received positive reviews; Decca recorded it with the same performers. and that two-disc set has now received the International Record Critics' Koussevitzky Award. The recording is a stunning. powerful account of an evidently coherent and deeply felt score. It is disconcerting that, but for the imagi-nation and enterprise of the London Sinfonietta. the work might still be on the shelf, dismissed as a failure; that should prompl some thoughts about our post-premiere treatment of new' works.

Much of the annoyance at the time of Punch'% first performance centered on the libretto, written by the Brooklyn-born pianist and Steuermann pupil. Stephen Pruslin. Even a morę recent study of Birtwistle*s musie (by Meirion Bowen) calls the libretto “obtuse. over-w-ntien.** Difficult indeed. it weaves vir-tuosic displays of subtle w^rordplay and parody into an intricate. strictly pat-terned ritual framework. It needs to be read as well as heard: at the premiere it was apparently inaudible. but good mi-crophone amplification for the singers changed that in the revival. Here. too.

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HIGH FIDELITY