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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018 Orchestral Carter ‘Late Works’ Dialoguesa. Dialogues IIa. Epigramsb. Instancesc. Interventionsd. Soundingsd. Two Controversies and a Conversatione b Isabelle Faust vn bJean-Guihen Queyras vc abde Pierre-Laurent Aimard pf eColin Currie perc ae Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; cd BBC Symphony Orchestra / Oliver Knussen Ondine F ODE1296-2 (75’ • DDD) The late works of Elliott Carter (1908‑2012) are so numerous as to constitute an output on their own. Just where the composer’s ‘late period’ begins is itself a matter of conjecture, yet no one hearing the pieces on this disc is likely to doubt their technical finesse or expressive refinement: qualities that go a long way towards the defining of ‘lateness’ in artistic terms. Not that finesse or refinement equates to lack of ambition – witness the relatively expansive design of Interventions (2007), where piano and orchestra undercut each other in unexpected ways such that the outcome is a free-flowing fantasia as varied in content as it is cumulative in impact. Dialogues (2003) is more evidently a series of deftly interrelated vignettes, piano eliding between various soloists and ensembles with a poise that recalls the character sketches in Carter’s string quartets; a procedure fined-down in the brief though vital ‘introduction and allegro’ of Dialogues II (2010). Soundings (2005) is different again, an ingenious solution to the problem of the pianist also being a conductor; here the soloist’s laconic gestures bookend a central section containing some of the most explosive music from Carter’s last two decades. Nor is humour at a premium. Two Controversies and a Conversation (2011) finds the piano at first mediating between ensemble and percussion, Colin Currie switching deftly between marimba and woodblocks, before a more balanced and equable discourse ensues. Carter’s earliest mentor, Charles Ives, would have been as impressed by this as by the interplay of dynamism and stasis in Instances (2012), whose ending yields an exquisite uneventfulness. Epigrams (2012) consists of 12 refractory miniatures, their salient gestures constantly recurring so that diversity is not at the expense of unity – however hard-won. Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras join purposefully with Pierre-Laurent Aimard for this teasingly gnomic swansong. Aimard’s credentials in Carter were established with a highly impressive account of Night Fantasies (Warner Classics, 9/05) and he tackles this always demanding pianism with alacrity and perception. He brings a more varied timbre to Dialogues than the excellent Nicolas Hodges and enjoys better coordination than the New Music Concerts Ensemble. Daniel Barenboim’s premiere of Dialogues II is audibly a ‘first night’ affair, with that of Instances by the Seattle SO just a little rough-edged. But then, the playing of both BCMG and the BBC SO benefits greatly from the guidance of Oliver Knussen, whose accounts of the Concerto for Orchestra (Virgin/Erato, 7/92) and Symphonia (DG, 1/00) are staples of the Carter discography. Finely recorded, with authoritative notes by John Link, this new disc is sure to occupy no less significant a place. There are unlikely to be any better discs of contemporary music this year. Richard Whitehouse (/17) Dialogues – selected comparisons: Hodges, London Sinfonietta, Knussen (4/06) (BRID) BRIDGE9184 New Music Concerts Ens, Aitkin (2/09) (NAXO) 8 559614 Dialogues II – comparative version: Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin, Mehta (DG) ◊ 073 4990GH Mendelssohn Complete Symphonies Karina Gauvin, Regula Mühlemann sops Daniel Behle ten RIAS Chamber Choir; Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Yannick Nézet-Séguin DG M c 479 7337GH3 (3h 20’ • DDD • T/t) Recorded live at the Philharmonie de Paris, February 2016 Mendelssohn’s five numbered symphonies make a motley collection: a piece of precocious juvenilia, three ‘named’ symphonies, only one of which (the Scottish) the composer deemed worthy of publication, and the Lobgesang, a ‘symphony-cantata’ that found its way into the canon as No 2. Once criticised for being a pale simulacrum of Beethoven’s Ninth, the Lobgesang, like the Reformation, has benefited from a younger generation of conductors set on stripping the music of Victorian complacency and grandiloquence. Andrew Litton (BIS, 9/09) and Thomas Fey (Hänssler, 6/10) did just that. In their new Mendelssohn cycle, recorded at concerts in Paris, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the brilliant Chamber Orchestra of Europe follow suit, marrying sinew, clarity and point of detail and – a hallmark of their performances thoughout these discs – unerring control of tension. With a subtle fluidity of pulse, NézetSéguin minimises the dangers of rhythmic squareness in the first movement. I don’t hear Mendelssohn’s prescribed poco agitato in the Allegretto second movement, though it beguiles with its caressing delicacy. Here and elsewhere the COE woodwind are superlative, individually and in consort. And the Adagio religioso (lovely veiled strings at the opening), shorn of ponderousness, emerges with an essentially Mendelssohnian quality of innocence. Conductor and orchestra show the same vitality and care for instrumental colour and balancing in the choral sections, from the murmuring idyll of ‘Sagt es, die ihr erlöset seid’ to the exultancy of ‘Die Nacht ist vergangen’, euphorically launched by Karina Gauvin. Once over a slightly squally first entry, Gauvin impresses with her full, warm tone and verbal sensitivity, while tenor Daniel Behle matches Litton’s Christoph Prégardien in the anxious questioning of ‘Ist die Nacht bald hin?’ and surpasses him in lyrical allure. My only real caveat is that the impact of the excellent RIAS chorus is rather muted in the resonant acoustic. Like the Lobgesang, the once-derided (including by the composer) Reformation is hard to meld into a satisfying structural entity. Nézet-Séguin, persuasively to my ears, prioritises lyricism and grace, without short-changing the first movement’s con fuoco marking. Here and in the finale his gift for building tension over long spans ensures that the music never merely 32 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018 Click on album covers to buy from gramophone.co.uk
page 33
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018 D G / W O E R D V A N D E R H A N S : P H O T O G R A P H Y Imaginative and fabulously executed – Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s live Mendelssohn symphonies are among the finest available happens. Spurred on by athletically sparring divisi violins, the first movement drives to a fine, searing climax, while the finale darts and leaps jubilantly, with no whiff of pomposity in the marching second theme that irresistibly evokes ‘O my darling Clementine’. Delightful, too, are the airy, chamber-musical textures of the Scherzo and pastoral Trio, and the unsentimental eloquence of the Andante, enhanced by tastefully judged sliding portamentos – another hallmark of these performances – and meticulous observation of Mendelssohn’s detailed dynamic markings. Like Antonello Manacorda in his recent recording (Sony Classical, 6/17), Nézet-Séguin uses the recently published edition of the sympohony by Christopher Hogwood, which, inter alia, restores the woodwind fantasy-cadenza at the start of the finale that Mendelssohn deleted from his autograph. This is one of the most compelling Reformations on disc. The early C minor – here more suave than fiery – and the two favourite named symphonies are almost as good. Brio and Mendelssohnian grace go hand in hand in the outer movements of the Italian, buoyed by an agile, lissom bass line and, where apt, violin-playing of thistledown delicacy. The development’s gradual surge from tense pianissimo lull to the jubilant return of the main theme is one of many moments in these symphonies that proclaims NézetSéguin’s mastery of transition. For my taste the processional second movement, shaped con amore, is too measured for an Andante con moto: Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players (Erato, 11/90) are spot-on here. But for a combination of poise, élan and light, pointed rhythmic articulation (so crucial in Mendelssohn), the final saltarello has rarely been bettered. True to form, Nézet-Séguin emphasises elegiac lyricism in the flexibly paced opening movement of the Scottish (the Allegro’s main theme is hardly un poco agitato), though he gives full value to the contrapuntal tensions of the development, underpinned by exemplary timpani clarity. The superb (unnamed) COE clarinet – a star player in this symphony – launches one of the most ebullient and brilliantly played Scherzos on disc. While the Adagio is rather broader than Mendelssohn’s swift metronome marking, the main theme combines luminous purity with expressive, naturalsounding rubato, while Nézet-Séguin’s perfectly graded crescendos enhance the hieratic starkness of the minor-key episodes. The finale is marvellously atmospheric, from the trenchancy of the opening (mindful of Mendelssohn’s original guerriero marking), through the mysterious sense of distancing in the hushed clarinet-bassoon duo before the coda, to a bounding, exultant peroration. It’s dangerous, of course, to nominate an outright winner, especially given the competition in the Scottish and Italian symphonies. A pity, too, about the slightly fuzzy recording of the chorus in the Lobgesang. But for anyone wanting a complete set of the symphonies in the lean, lithe modern mould – my kind of Mendelssohn – Nézet-Séguin’s imaginative, fabulously executed performances guarantee abiding pleasure. Richard Wigmore (9/17) Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Ensemble Aedes; Les Siècles / François-Xavier Roth Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 5280 (55’ • DDD) Diaghilev’s initial reaction to Daphnis et Chloé, documented in Jean-François Monnard’s excellent booklet-note, was ‘Ravel, it is a masterpiece, but it is not a ballet. It is a painting of a ballet.’ It certainly is a masterpiece and Ravel’s symphonie chorégraphique continues Les Siècles’ period-instrument explorations of the Ballets Russes repertoire following its excellent recordings of the three Stravinsky ballets (Actes Sud, 12/11, 9/14). Recorded in concert from as many as seven different venues – including Paris’s Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle and Snape Maltings – it gramophone.co.uk Click on album covers to buy from GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018 33

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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018

D G

/

W O E R D

V A N D E R

H A N S

:

P H O T O G R A P H Y

Imaginative and fabulously executed – Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s live Mendelssohn symphonies are among the finest available happens. Spurred on by athletically sparring divisi violins, the first movement drives to a fine, searing climax, while the finale darts and leaps jubilantly, with no whiff of pomposity in the marching second theme that irresistibly evokes ‘O my darling Clementine’. Delightful, too, are the airy, chamber-musical textures of the Scherzo and pastoral Trio, and the unsentimental eloquence of the Andante, enhanced by tastefully judged sliding portamentos – another hallmark of these performances – and meticulous observation of Mendelssohn’s detailed dynamic markings. Like Antonello Manacorda in his recent recording (Sony Classical, 6/17), Nézet-Séguin uses the recently published edition of the sympohony by Christopher Hogwood, which, inter alia, restores the woodwind fantasy-cadenza at the start of the finale that Mendelssohn deleted from his autograph. This is one of the most compelling Reformations on disc.

The early C minor – here more suave than fiery – and the two favourite named symphonies are almost as good. Brio and Mendelssohnian grace go hand in hand in the outer movements of the Italian, buoyed by an agile, lissom bass line and, where apt, violin-playing of thistledown delicacy. The development’s gradual surge from tense pianissimo lull to the jubilant return of the main theme is one of many moments in these symphonies that proclaims NézetSéguin’s mastery of transition. For my taste the processional second movement, shaped con amore, is too measured for an Andante con moto: Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players (Erato, 11/90) are spot-on here. But for a combination of poise, élan and light, pointed rhythmic articulation (so crucial in Mendelssohn), the final saltarello has rarely been bettered. True to form, Nézet-Séguin emphasises elegiac lyricism in the flexibly paced opening movement of the Scottish (the Allegro’s main theme is hardly un poco agitato), though he gives full value to the contrapuntal tensions of the development, underpinned by exemplary timpani clarity. The superb (unnamed) COE clarinet – a star player in this symphony – launches one of the most ebullient and brilliantly played Scherzos on disc. While the Adagio is rather broader than Mendelssohn’s swift metronome marking, the main theme combines luminous purity with expressive, naturalsounding rubato, while Nézet-Séguin’s perfectly graded crescendos enhance the hieratic starkness of the minor-key episodes. The finale is marvellously atmospheric, from the trenchancy of the opening (mindful of Mendelssohn’s original guerriero marking), through the mysterious sense of distancing in the hushed clarinet-bassoon duo before the coda, to a bounding, exultant peroration. It’s dangerous, of course, to nominate an outright winner, especially given the competition in the Scottish and Italian symphonies. A pity, too, about the slightly fuzzy recording of the chorus in the Lobgesang. But for anyone wanting a complete set of the symphonies in the lean, lithe modern mould – my kind of Mendelssohn – Nézet-Séguin’s imaginative, fabulously executed performances guarantee abiding pleasure. Richard Wigmore (9/17)

Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Ensemble Aedes; Les Siècles / François-Xavier Roth Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 5280 (55’ • DDD)

Diaghilev’s initial reaction to Daphnis et Chloé, documented in Jean-François

Monnard’s excellent booklet-note, was ‘Ravel, it is a masterpiece, but it is not a ballet. It is a painting of a ballet.’ It certainly is a masterpiece and Ravel’s symphonie chorégraphique continues Les Siècles’ period-instrument explorations of the Ballets Russes repertoire following its excellent recordings of the three Stravinsky ballets (Actes Sud, 12/11, 9/14). Recorded in concert from as many as seven different venues – including Paris’s Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle and Snape Maltings – it gramophone.co.uk

Click on album covers to buy from

GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018 33

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