Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu PETER LIEBERSON Songs of Love and Sorrow - The Six Realms

SONGS OF LOVE AND SORROW - THE SIX REALMS

 

London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle JANÁČEK The Cunning Little Vixen - Sinfonietta

THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN - SINFONIETTA

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu KAIJA SAARIAHO True Fire - Trans - Ciel d'hiver

TRUE FIRE - TRANS - CIEL D'HIVER

Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Bernard Haitink BEETHOVEN Symphonie Nr. 9

A recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ninth” is always a great event, especially because the symphony’s final chorus, Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, is understood around the world as a plea for peace and international understanding. It was no coincidence that the catchy melody to the text “Joy, beautiful spark of divinity” was chosen as the Hymn of the European Union. This recording of Beethoven’s great choral symphony under the direction of Bernard Haitink and with excellent instrumental and vocal soloists is not only an outstanding interpretation of the work but also very much an event in itself – because these recordings document Haitink’s last ever concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Only a few months after his two Munich concerts on February 21 and 22, 2019, the great Dutch conductor – who celebrated his 90^th birthday on March 4 – announced the end of his career.

The two Munich concert events at the beginning of the year featured the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus, two ensembles with whom Bernard Haitink has been closely associated for many decades now, and they were joined by the excellent soloists Sally Matthews, Gerhild Romberger, Mark Padmore and Gerald Finley.

In an interview with the Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant” on June 12 this year, Bernard Haitink announced his imminent departure from the conductor’s podium. On June 15, he conducted for the last time at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and his very last concert of all took place in Lucerne on September 6. “I’m ninety years old,” explained the maestro, “and it’s a fact that I’m not going to conduct any longer. And once I’ve stopped, I don’t think I’ll be able to conduct again.” Haitink’s decision marks the end of a conducting career spanning 65 years. He has been a regular and highly welcome guest of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and numerous CDs on the BR-KLASSIK label document the exceptional quality of this creative collaboration.

Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Elizabeth Kenny / Steven Devine HENRY PURCELL Dido & Aeneas

Here is England’s first great opera presented with a truly cohesive sense of theatrical purpose, one which unusually allows the drama to unfold in a close identification with each of the cameo characters… we have a supremely wide-ranging, tragic and experienced queen from the start, inhabiting the shadows of ‘Ah! Belinda’ with early signs of deplorable fate, which are accentuated by an extended symphony luxuriating poignantly on this resonating conceit… Lucy Crow’s Belinda is a splendid foil for Connolly’s self-absorption, with her astute and increasingly desperate buoying up.

(Gramophone Editor’s Choice)

There are many recordings of Dido and Aeneas, and I am convinced that this one must rank among the finest. Sarah Connolly assembled the cast and played a major part in the artistic decisions, including the insertion of pieces of additional music. She brings to the role of Dido a regal gravity that is indispensable for a convincing portrayal… The success or failure of a performance of Dido can depend on the celebrated lament. Here Sarah Connolly takes a very slow tempo, but the dramatic tension and musical direction are never in jeopardy. It is an exquisitely eloquent reading. (American Record Guide) 

From the outset, Connolly exudes imposing presence, pathos and unassailable dignity; her Act III Lament consummates a deeply-felt empathy with the role… Purcell year will doubtless bring a crop of highly cherishable performances; Connolly’s Dido already sets the bar decidedly high. (BBC Music Magazine 'Choice')

Gerald Finley / Thomas Sanderling SHOSTAKOVICH Six Romances on Verses by English Poets - Scottish Ballade - Suite on Poems by Michelangelo

Shostakovich’s songs continue to lag behind the rest of his output in terms of their representation on recordings and in concert, and the language barrier is clearly a prime reason. Getting over that barrier is fraught with complications, however, starting with the fact that Shostakovich himself was always more interested in the ethical content of his texts than in their poetic quality. No linguist or literary scholar himself, he was also far from a purist when it came to performances in non-Russian-speaking countries.

So there is much to be said for Gerald Finley’s reinstating of the original English-language texts of Six Romances on verses by Raleigh, Burns and Shakespeare, and his going back to the original Italian for the Michelangelo sonnets. That entails a few – though remarkably few – necessary adjustments to the composer’s rhythms. For the Suite the idea is not new. Fischer-Dieskau recorded the sonnets that way in 1987 (in the piano version with Aribert Reimann); hence Ondine’s description, ‘world premiere recording of the Italian version’, is not strictly speaking accurate. I’m not sure anyone can claim precedence for the Op 62 cycle but here again Ondine’s claim to world premiere status for the ‘orchestral version’ is shaky, given that Safiulin and Rozhdestvensky were there in 1986 (the two-CD reissue has admittedly eluded my searches but a reliable owner-friend has confirmed that it contains the Op 62a full orchestral version rather than the more commonly heard rescoring for chamber orchestra, Op 140).

With the performances themselves, things are much more straightforward. Finley and Sanderling are compelling advocates, and their subtlety makes for a refreshing change from the more stentorian delivery of certain old Soviet counterparts. For the Russian texts and vocal timbres, Sulejmanov on Capriccio and Leiferkus on DG are reliable back-ups. But this new disc has to be applauded for its initiative, as also for its top-notch sound quality; and given that the Safiulin and Fischer-Dieskau alternatives are practically unobtainable, anyone interested in acquiring it should not hesitate.(Gramophone)

Gerald Finley / Julius Drake SCHUBERT Winterreise

'A Winterreise of vision and searching intensity … Finley’s rich and beautifully modulated baritone voice is also one that nurtures words and can encapsulate the musical images with which Schubert clothes them … for instance in his veiled, hushed and then anguished interpretation of 'Auf dem Flusse’, again with Drake establishing an undercurrent of desolation. Finley can exercise his lyrical powers in such songs as ‘Der Lindenbaum’, ‘Die Krähe’, ‘Letzte Hoffnung’ or ‘Täuschung’ but it is not a lyrical talent alone: more to the point, it is the spectrum of tonal colouring, inflection and instinctive phrasing which lend this performance of Winterreise such an absorbing sense of inner communion with the soul. Nothing is exaggerated; but on an intimate scale Finley and Drake find the nub of the dramatic psychological substance of these songs' (Gramophone) 

The affecting, chilling bleakness of ‘Gute Nacht’ immediately suggests that this is going to be a Winterreise of vision and searching intensity. And so it proves, with the journey described in dark, dramatic terms, which at the same time subtly point up the shifting emotional aspects of the songs. Finley’s rich and beautifully modulated baritone voice is also one that nurtures words and can encapsulate the musical images with which Schubert clothes them, no more so than in the icy despair of 'Gefror’ne Tränen’ (enhanced by Julius Drake’s stark accompaniment) and in his veiled, hushed and then anguished interpretation of 'Auf dem Flusse’, again with Drake establishing an undercurrent of desolation.

Finley can exercise his lyrical powers in such songs as ‘Der Lindenbaum’, ‘Die Krähe’, ‘Letzte Hoffnung’ or ‘Täuschung’ but it is not a lyrical talent alone: more to the point, it is the spectrum of tonal colouring, inflection and instinctive phrasing which lend this performance of Winterreise such an absorbing sense of inner communion with the soul. Nothing is exaggerated; but on an intimate scale Finley and Drake find the nub of the dramatic psychological substance of these songs. As the cycle progresses, the sense of disillusion and aching despondency becomes all the more unsettling, Finley and Drake finding a still hopelessness in ‘Das Wirtshaus’, the traveller ‘weary to the point of collapse’. With each song shrewdly characterised, this is also a Winterreise in which the long-term narrative is eloquently, poignantly sustained. (Geoffrey Norris / Gramophone)