December 13, 2012
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Review: This England
This England: Works by
Britten, Elgar & Vaughan Williams
Oregon Symphony/Carlos Kalmar
Pentatone Records 5186 471
Total Time: 77:29
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****Currently in Minnesota, both major symphony orchestras are on strike. The potential loss and ramifications of this are falling mostly on deaf ears as two of the country’s finest ensembles may soon drop from the ranks. Meanwhile, in Oregon, the state symphony orchestra is undergoing an amazing revival not seen since James DePriest’s years with the orchestra. The oldest symphony West of of the Mississippi, the Oregon players took Carnegie Hall by storm last year at the Spring Music Festival. The resulting album, Music for a Time of War, was easily one of the best releases of 2011. This England may be the same for 2012. The program is an interesting survey of English music through the work of three of its most well-known composers: Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Britten. The CD release is even programmed a bit like an actual symphony program. The first two works are apparently taken from live performances in February, the Britten from May concerts. Whether Kalmar is intending to create a recorded legacy surveying the Vaughan Williams symphonies is yet to be seen. His performance of the fourth was simply stunning.
The album opens with a fabulous performance of Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture, Op. 40 finished in 1901. The 15-minute work is an orchestral showpiece, especially under Kalmar’s direction here, and eschews some of the Victorian stuffiness sometimes attributed to the composer. Here is a work of excitement and bustle that moves through a number of moods with brilliant orchestration that showcases winds and brass throughout. This is a piece that can sometimes end up ponderous and overblown, but here one gets a real sense of energy and shape to this music whose beautiful lyrical theme is made all the more poignant because of the tempi taken in the faster sections. Kalmar still maintains a fine “British” feel that makes this performance all the more interesting and a good alternative to Andrew Davis’ Teldec recordings now some 20 years old! The crisp recording also allows for details to be heard in the orchestra often missing in British performances where the over-ambient hall can lead to languishing tempos. Not so here as it is only when the bass drum comes in where one gets a sense of the warmness of the hall.
The Fifth Symphony (premiered in 1943) ofVaughan Williams is quite different from the fourth and sixth. Whereas the Third Symphony tends to explore the evocation of nature, the fifth tends to be a bit more personal and spiritual. It is Vaughan Williams at his more lyrical and evocative best. The music floats along as if in an impressionistic dream of longing and beauty. The work is connected to an unfinished opera on Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress that was eventually abandoned. Perhaps in the midst of the Second World War, the need for a deeper, musically spiritual catharsis was needed and the opening movement of the symphony certainly achieves this. Though, harmonically, the music seems rather uncertain about where it should really go. While things feel “normal” there is certainly something else moving through the music at a deeper level that must certainly have resonated with those hearing it in 1943. The second movement scherzo recalls some of the dance-like folk music the composer was fond of writing but even here the energy is interrupted by bursts of energy that seem to move against the flow. Ideas seem to bump about as well as the movement moves along creating a nervousness that contrasts well with the opening movement. The third movement, “Romanza,” is along the lines of the Tallis Fantasy with its slow, lulling movement and more modal harmonic writing. The performance here hits each swell with such power that it really manages to maintain one’s attention as the work continues to wind down with a gorgeous solo violin and plagal cadences suggesting a heavenly arrival of some kind. The finale is an interesting passacaglia that gets under the fabric of the music such that you may not realize that this form is being used. It moves through its formal patterns with a variety of moods until we reach a semi-religious reaching out in one of the more fascinating conclusions. The performance here hits each swell with such power that it really manages to maintain one’s attention as the work continues to wind down with a gorgeous solo violin and plagal cadences suggesting a heavenly arrival of some kind.
Kalmar’s performance is equally evocative and the orchestra responds with perfect attention to detail. The brass accents in the scherzo are really well-done. The individual solo work throughout the piece proves to be a great showcase for the fine players of the orchestra while full string work in the third movement demonstrates the depth of the ensemble as well. Modern listeners may find the Fifth Symphony a bit too laid back at times. It seems like it is missing something, though one might find it to be almost film-like in its warmth and dramatic flow. There are two other performances worth comparing this performance too. The first of these is a reading by Yehudi Menuhin (Virgin Records, 1988) the other by Leonard Slatkin (RCA, 1991) both with British orchestras.
Here is the breakdown of timings between these earlier recordings and Kalmar’s.
Conductor
- I. Preludio
- II. Scherzo
III. Romanza
IV. Passacaglia
Kalmar
11:57
5:12
10:56
10:15
Menuhin
12:05
4:54
10:56
10:46
Slatkin
10:44
4:21
13:00
9:14
Most fascinating is how close he is to Menuhin’s performance. The shaping Kalmar gives this music though makes the performance work quite well. It is helped perhaps most by a slightly drier acoustic and more attention to recorded detail. No doubt recording the music live also lends it an edge that can be absent from a studio recording.
One might say we move from pseudo-religious mysticism to the more sublime and metaphysical with the final selection on the disc, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Peter Grimes. The piece, premiering just two years later in 1945, is in a long line of musical nautical works from the island nation. Here the orchestra gets a chance to explore denser harmonies and demonstrate its ability to create powerful musical drama. All of it captured in amazing sound. The crashing waves of “Dawn” with its bluesy, and often very high violin passages, is fascinating to hear in contrast to the darker brass sections. Listen to the contrast within the horn dissonances and wind colors that opens “Sunday Morning”. The clarity of detail in the latter is contrasted by the deliciously close harmonies of the horns. The movement is a great showcase again for the soloists of the orchestra and for its component sections. When the bells come in, the texture is never overwhelmed as each section of the orchestra can still be discerned.
There are plenty of great recordings of this work but having another great one here is just icing on the cake. Uniquely though, this recording places the passacaglia (Op. 33b) right before the fourth interlude, “Storm.” Kalmar takes a bit more time in the opening two interludes but the rest of his tempi match fairly well with other favorite performances of these pieces. The new release will not quite replace a favorite Teldec release with Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony, but it certainly is a performance worth returning too over time. It is almost like hearing a five-movement symphony. At any rate, one gets the chance to hear in close proximity to great composers explore the passacaglia in quite different musical language. “Moonlight” is truly amazing with the beautiful romantic harmonic ideas captured here with great emotional intensity. The “Passacaglia” is more cerebral moment that provides for perhaps too much of a pause between the sereneness of the third interlude and the energy of the final “Storm.” Taken on its own, though, it still works quite well. The reaction may simply be due to familiarity with the four interludes on their own and the other piece as its own movement. But the performances work quite well all the same.
The audience is non-obtrusive in these recordings, some quite rustling can be heard in the Vaughan Williams’ slow movement, but it is not distracting. With programmatic titles for their releases, the Oregon Symphony has discovered a great way to create interesting releases that introduce lesser-known repertoire to whole new audiences. The people of Portland have a real treasure here which hopefully will find continued support and result in more recordings to document this great orchestra. Pentatone’s release is demonstration class and worth giving your speakers a chance to enjoy the workout.
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