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CLASSICAL Record Reviews

ihe voiccs como through. and a complcie libretto is included.

Choregos, a Greek evangelistlike figurę who represents Punch\s olher self. guides us through the parallel slories of Punch’s series of vicious murders and his quest for Pretty Polly. From brutality and imminent death. Punch emerges vic-torious to claim hcr. The gallows be-comes a maypole. and we are left to cele-brate the couple’s happiness in words that suggest a reference to that amoral operatie pair Nero and Poppea.

The single act contains four “mclo-dramas.” diversified with instrumental toccatas and sinfonias and marked out with three “Passion choralcs”; the text of one of these illustrates the dense trickery of Pruslin’s verse: “Two limes too lost four her sake/Tolem stool for hear.se ache/Tempesi quicksilver/Tempts evil hearts/1 ambour vile/Tumbril/Tomb.” Within the melodramas. each group of words is stylized. A typical sequence of versc-forms ends ihe first melodrama: Travel Musie l/Weather Report 1/ Prayer 1/Punch’s Serenade I/Pretty Polly¹* Rhapsody 1/Morał I.

The concept of ritual. especially in the form of verse and refrain. was impor-tant in Birtwistle’* musie throughout much of the 1960s. Punch is part of a series. begun in 1965 by Tragoedia (quóted in the opera), that perhaps finds its climax in the superb Yerses for En-sembles of 1969 (also recorded by the London Sinfonietta, on [Headline] HEAD 7).

Birtwistle. ii is worth recalling. was a close assoeiate of Peter Maxwell Davies as a student in Manchester, and together. in 1967. they formed the Pier-rot Players. But Birtwistle was never as interested in performance or in the com-position of smali, occasional pieces for the group as was Davies; in 1970 they went separate ways. the Pierrot Players becoming Davies' own Fires of London, and their compositional paths divcrged considerably. Birtwistle now appears the morę fastidious composer. while Davies has found far wider famę and continues to be impressively prolific. Birtwistle is now involved again with drama, as musie director of the National Theater. but hisoutput is smali and hisclimactic work of the I970s. the opera Orpheus. remains unperformed and perhaps unready for performance.

The musical preoccupations of Punch are explored with frightening in-tensity. The score derives much of its color from vicious. hard-hitting textures that fealure clashing strings and clarincts in their high register. An onstage band with a noisy. rasping trumpet figures prominently. (One direction reads. “/"/f screaming!”) The score develops a shape or timbre over a short period, and then, in sudden contrast. the next ritual verse-form takes ovcr. The wriling may be strenuous or lyrical. but ii is the chill-ing strength of the music*s wildest mo-ments that stays in the memory: the war ery as Punch stabs Judy. with an upward clarinet whirl followed by biling staccato chords; the parallel staccatissimo chords as Punch disposes of the Lawyer and Doctor, which fade “like a eloekwork toy running down” into a cheery rhyming verse for Punch. The only composer whose methods are recalled by both the process and the harmonie language is Stravinsky. but to point out the resem-blance does scant justice to the individ-uality of Birtwistle’* sound world. To some. as in 1968. these outbursts in the score may seem mere noise; yet as the

A Ido Ceccato eonducts unusual Glazunov.

younger Fnglish composer 01iver Knus-sen pul it in a recent review^r. they use “precisely the right pitches in the right registers for the textural needs of the moment."

Birtwistle's decision to cast both Punch and Choregos as baritones (though high and Iow in rangę) and the Doctor as a basso profondo presents a major problem of balance. audibility. and contrast. This recording casts the roles very wcll, with David Wilson-John-son a fuli. strong Choregos (who navi-gates the treacherous vocal lines with greal assurance) and Stephen Roberts a lighter. morę mellifluous Punch (an eerie. smiling characterization). John Tomlinson’s Doctor is astonishingly pre-cise Iow in the Staff. Indeed. all three work wonders with Birtwistle’s angular but always pointful lines. The relief of-fered by Phyllis Bryn-Julson as Polly and Jan DeGaetani as Judy is welcome. Judy. one of Punch’s first victims. returns as a Fortune Teller in a pungent episode, and Polly then becomes a Witch. Judy. having meanwhile regained her identity. joins the Witch. Punch. and Choregos in an expressive. almost Mozartean quartet that is a highlight of the third melodrama. Polly, too. returns, and Bryn-Julson renders her lyrical “Apotheosis” be-fore the finał duet exquisitely. From a vocal score. I would not like to judge the precision of the orchestral playing, but ii seems committed and strongly molded, and Atherton drives the whole opera with utter conviction.

“A tragical comedy or a comical tragedy.” the work is labeled; the ques-tions posed by its ambivalences. by its mixlure of distanced ritual and frightening immediacy. resonate as long as Birlwistle's chilling. impressive musie. A disturbingand important achievement.

N.K.

GLAZUNOV: Stenka Razin, Op. 13; The Kremlin, Op. 30; In Memory

of Gogol, Op. 87.

Bambcrg Symphony Orchestra. Aldo Ceccato, cond. (Wolf Erich son. prod.J Ara-bf.souf. 8091. S6.98. Tape: 9091. $7.98 (cas-sette).

Talk about unusual repertory! When did you last hear any of these pieces? Alex-ander Glazunov has suffered the same fate as France’s Vincent d’Indy, almost lotal neglect. and for much the same rea-son. lack of a strong musical personality. Still, he was a consummate craftsman and orchestrator. a worthy composer, who wrote some very enjoyable musie; enterprising conductors could do worse than investigate some of his eight sym-phonies. Shostakovich. in his memoirs, speaks affectionately and at great length of his former teacher.

The Kremlin. a “symphonic tableau” completed in 1890. pays homage to Mussorgsky but does so morę in the manner of Glinka and Borodin. Mussorgsky is present to a degree in the somber second section, “The Cloister.” the chantlike opening of which also re-calls the Tchaikovsky of 1812. The color-ful finał “Reception and Farewell of the Princes” employs additional brass players separated from the orchestra, an ef-fect only approximated here.

Least unfamiliar of these works is Stenka Razin, which has been recorded by Ernest Ansermet (London Treasury STS 15240). It depicts the exploits of a Russian folk hero who devastated and pillaged the countryside along the Volga in 1670-71. He is also the subject of Shostakovich's canta ta The Execution of Stepan Razin. Glazunov’s symphonic poem is dedicated to Borodin; indeed the lattefs Second Symphony is never far away, and the princess’ theme could easily belong to Prince Igor.

The most striking work is In Memory of Gogol. A “symphonic pro-logue” written in tribute to the Ukrai-nian author. it is by tums dramatic. lyrical. agitated. and ultimately celebra-

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