by John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
20 December 2007
Despite all the gloom and doom that has surrounded the business like a stale cliche, the tide of interesting and important releases continues unabated.
Valiant independent labels continue to plug gaps in the fringe repertory, while new online distribution channels keep popping up, ranging from “production on demand” CDs from ArkivMusic to downloadable MP3 files from the DG Web Shop.
The Cassandras were wrong. Classical recording is alive and well, and it’s a great time to explore the riches out there.
I venture no claim that the 10 CDs and DVDs listed below are the best the classical industry released in 2007. They simply are recordings that have given me particular pleasure throughout the year. I hope you will find them just as rewarding.
1. Shostakovich: “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” Soloists, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Opera Chorus, Mariss Jansons, conductor (Opus Arte, two DVDs)
One of the greatest 20th century operas comes across as a gripping experience in this Amsterdam production from 2006. Orgasm and murder are the twin poles around which Martin Kusej’s stark, contemporary staging revolves. The tragedy of Katerina Ismailova, who murders two men for the sake of passionate love, elicits the very best from a flawless cast headed by Eva-Maria Westbroek as the hapless Katerina and Christopher Ventris as Sergei, her cynical lover. Conductor Mariss Jansons heats the music to a scalding boil, while the video and aural production is a model of how to translate live opera to DVD.
2. Lieberson: “Neruda Songs.” Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano; Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine, conductor (Nonesuch)
Peter Lieberson created a modern classic when he composed this song cycle, a setting of five Pablo Neruda poems, as an extended love letter to his wife, the late, great mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. It is an exquisitely crafted piece, with luminous vocal lines that nestle in the delicate orchestration. The singer recorded the cycle little more than seven months before her death from breast cancer at age 52 in 2006. It is hard to imagine a more affecting performance of a more affecting work.
3. Monteverdi: “Combattimento di Tandredi e Clorinda.” Soloists, Le Concert d’Astree, Emmanuelle Haim, conductor (Virgin Classics)
“The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda” comes from Claudio Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals, wonderful songs about the battlefield known as love. The starry casting of tenor Rolando Villazon as narrator and participant in the dramatic madrigal-play pays exceptional dividends. He is as passionate here as he is in Verdi, while the other singers (soprano Patrizia Ciofi and tenor Topi Lehtipuu) acquit themselves stylishly too, under Emmanuelle Haim’s vigorous baton.
4. Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 88-92. Soloists, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Rattle, conductor (EMI, two CDs)
Simon Rattle leads his splendid Berlin orchestra in five of Haydn’s most brilliantly inventive symphonies, plus the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe and bassoon, recorded live in Berlin earlier this year. These irresistibly lively readings should bring big-band Haydn back into fashion. Don’t miss the fun at the end of Symphony No. 90, where Haydn’s false ending tricks the audience into applauding - twice, because of the sectional repeat. EMI includes both the version of the finale with applause and an alternative version played with no audience present.
5. Silvestrov: Symphony No. 6. Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko, conductor (ECM New Series)
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov writes music that is, to my ears, more substantial than that of most post-Soviet composers. His Sixth Symphony, completed in 2000, sounds like a darker, more dissonant rewrite of his masterful Symphony No. 5. Five connected movements, with a 25-minute slow movement in the middle, the symphony suspends the listener in a sea of swirling sounds and haunted echoes of the past, most of them direct quotes from Mahler. A worthy tribute to a major figure in his 70th birthday year.
6. Sibelius, Lindberg: Violin Concertos. Lisa Batiashvili, violin; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, conductor (Sony Classical)
Chicago Symphony audiences last year were taken aback by the rapt lyricism and gutsy virtuosity young Lisa Batiashvili brought to the Sibelius Violin Concerto. She repeats that triumph here, but the real discovery is its companion piece: a brilliant, busy, eclectic, ravishing violin concerto by a fellow Finn, Magnus Lindberg. This is a major addition to the 21st century fiddle repertory, and this premiere recording shows it off beautifully.
7. Rorem: Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, “After Reading Shakespeare.” Jaime Laredo, violin; Sharon Robinson, cello; IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern, conductor (Naxos)
Rorem: Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto. Simon Mulligan, piano; Wen-Sinn Yang, cello; Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Jose Serebrier, conductor (Naxos)
It has been a good year for the 84-year-old Ned Rorem, who published his ostensibly final diary, “Facing the Night,” and had three concertos released on Naxos’ invaluable American Classics series. The finest of these are the works involving cello. Both the Double Concerto (1998) and the Cello Concerto (2002) are cast in eight short sections. They are so inventively written and brilliantly performed by the present artists that each concerto comes across as a charming book of songs without words.
8. Mahler: Symphony No. 6. Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, conductor (Euroarts, DVD)
Claudio Abbado has previously recorded the Mahler Sixth, with its death-obsessed hammer blows in the finale, in Chicago and Berlin. But those audio-only performances, fine as they are, pale before this live video version, taped in Switzerland in 2006. Abbado always has had a special affinity for Mahler’s most classical symphony. His starry, hand-picked Lucerne orchestra makes the score dance on the brink of the abyss with harrowing intensity.
9. Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3, 12-14, 22-23. Paul Lewis, piano (Harmonia Mundi, three CDs)
Several major pianists, including Andras Schiff and Garrick Ohlsson, are working their way through recorded cycles of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. But the one who commands my attention most consistently is the young British pianist Paul Lewis. A student and protege of Alfred Brendel’s, he has technique to burn and the Beethoven style in his marrow. The third and penultimate volume of his Harmonia Mundi traversal, including magisterial accounts of the “Moonlight” and “Appassionata,” makes me impatient to hear the final discs, due in the spring.
10. Ziporyn: “Frog’s Eye.” Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor (Canteloupe)
When was the last time an album of new music made you smile rather than made you feel pummeled by alien sounds? This one falls in the former category. Evan Ziporyn, the composer and clarinetist of New York’s Bang on the Can Festival, is represented here by four orchestral works combining post-minimalist, post-Impressionist and Asian-Pacific gestures with an ear for glowing instrumental color and pulsing rhythmic vitality. If you don’t know his engaging and accessible music, this CD makes the ideal introduction.
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