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DVOŘÁK, A.: Symphony No. 9 / Carnival Overture / Scherzo capriccioso / SMETANA: Moldau (E. Kleiber) (1927-1948)
Was für eine turbulente Zeit: Eingezogen zum Kriegsdienst, Gefangenschaft, Heimkehr nach Paris, Beginn der schweren Erkrankung seiner damaligen Frau Claire—die Zeit zwischen 1939 und 1951 war für Olivier Messiaen schlichtweg hart. In dieser Skala entstehen zwei sehr unterschiedliche Werke: 1939 „Le Corps glorieux“ und 1951 die „Messe de la Pentecôte“, eine Pfingstmesse für Orgel solo. Deren fünf Abschnitte tragen sprechende Titel wie: „Die Feuerzunge“, „Gabe der Weisheit“ oder „Wind des Geistes“. Die Dramaturgie ist ausgeklügelt; so steht jeder Satz in unmittelbarem Bezug zu den vorausgehenden und nachfolgenden Abschnitten. Messiaen selbst schreibt: „Die Messe kommentiert verschiedene Aspekte des Geheimnisses von Pfingsten.“ Tom Winpenny hat das Werk an der Orgel des Hildesheimer Doms aufgenommen. © 2020 Paulinus
En la obra para órgano de Messiaen son recurrentes sus dos grandes pasiones: la fe cristiana y la ornitología. Ambas se encuentran en Le corps glorieux, favorita del compositor francés y La Messe de la Pentecôte, las dos obras maestras que se incluyen en este disco.
Junto a la Nativité, Le corps glorieux se alza en el podio de la música organística de Messiaen. El colorista estilo sirve de perfecto vehículo para transmitir toda la emoción contenida en la temática de la resurrección, con una profundidad casi inaudita. Tom Winpenny se encarga de transmitirnos la enorme carga simbólica y expresiva de esta obra fascinante. El sonido muy nítido y analítico, resulta acorde a la propuesta del intérprete. A su favor cabe senalar la claridad expositiva, alcanzada a través de unas velocidades lentas que le permiten recrearse en cada compás. En su contra, el fuerte componente expresivo se ve mermado, y a veces la pasión pasa a un segundo plano. En la Messe de la Pentecôte, Messiaen introduce melodías hindúes junto a cantos de pájaros para producir una música no menos alucinante. Winpenny hace honor de nuevo a la partitura con su extraordinario dominio del instrumento, destacando los aspectos más etéreos de la misma. © 2018 Ritmo
Winpenny presents Volume 3 of what one assumes will eventually be a complete series. These pieces were composed more than a decade apart and represent two different style periods. Le Corps Glorieux (1939) is the Resurrection—almost a sequel to the Christmas themes of La Nativite. For a long period the composer considered it his favorite work, as it represented a summation of his first compositional period. Winpenny gives a stunning account of the wonderful climactic IV, ‘Combat de la Mort et de la Vie’. The Messe de la Pentacote dates from 1950 and is a distillation of the composer’s improvisations in the late 1940s, containing the five sections of the Mass the organist was expected to improvise using the chant themes of the day: Prelude, Offertory, Elevation, Communion, Postlude. The style is more abstract, incorporating birdsong and mathematical procedures, prefiguring the more radical turn his style was to take in the 1950s. Winpenny again gives wonderful performances playing on a marvelous 2014 Siefert organ in Hildesheim Cathedral, perfect for these pieces. © 2017 American Record Guide Read complete review on American Record Guide
One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham. Subsequent principal conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2007 Vladimir Jurowski became the orchestra’s current principal conductor.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since it opened in 1951, becoming resident orchestra in 1992. Each summer it plays for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been resident symphony orchestra for over 50 years. It also performs regularly around the UK and frequently tours abroad.
The orchestra broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and has recorded soundtracks for numerous films including The Lord of the Rings. In summer 2012 the orchestra was chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2005 it began releasing live, studio and archive recordings on its own CD label.
The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1882 and is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading orchestras. In 1887 Hans von Bülow became its chief conductor and in this period musical giants such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss conducted the orchestra. In 1923 Wilhelm Furtwängler became chief conductor and this was the beginning of a legendary partnership that lasted until Furtwängler’s death in 1954. From 1955 until 1989 Herbert von Karajan was the orchestra’s chief conductor making many important recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. The orchestra is a self-governing public foundation.
For more information, please visit www.berliner-philharmoniker.de.
Although Erich Kleiber was born in Vienna, he lived in Prague with his grandfather after the early deaths of his parents, returning to Vienna to continue his musical education. He was a violin student, but his decision to seek a career as a conductor evidently followed the experience of hearing Mahler conduct his Symphony No. 6. Kleiber entered the Prague Conservatory as a composition student in 1908, gaining a prize for a symphonic poem in 1911. While in Prague he attended rehearsals at the German Theatre, and was eventually taken on as the theatre’s chorusmaster, also in 1911. The following year he moved to Darmstadt as third conductor at the court theatre, where he enjoyed the encouragement of Arthur Nikisch. After the end of World War I, in 1919, Kleiber moved to Barmen-Elberfeld (Wuppertal) as first conductor, thereafter rapidly accepting the same post at Düsseldorf in 1921 and at Mannheim in 1922.
Kleiber’s big break came in 1923 when he conducted a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Berlin Staatsoper, with Frida Leider and Friedrich Schorr. The Staatsoper’s intendant, Max von Schillings, had been seeking a replacement for Leo Blech who had recently resigned as chief conductor, but negotiations with Klemperer, Walter and Zemlinsky had all fallen through. The Staatsoper’s orchestra, singers and public responded enthusiastically to Kleiber’s dynamic lead, and three days after his appearance he was offered and accepted the position of chief conductor with the company. He remained in this post until the end of 1934 and was a major figure in an especially rich period of Berlin’s musical life. The German critic Friedrich Herzfeld described him as ‘an absolute ruler’ at the Staatsoper, drawing a comparison between Kleiber and Napoleon because of their ‘similarity in stature and facial profile’ and their ‘unusual energy’. Kleiber himself once referred to the chief conductor of an opera house as having to behave like ‘a lion in his lair’.
A committed advocate of contemporary music, Kleiber conducted influential productions of Janáček’s Jenůfa, Krenek’s Zwingburg (both 1924), Berg’s Wozzeck (world première, 1925), Schreker’s Der singende Teufel (1928) and Milhaud’s Christophe Colomb (1930), as well as less-well-known operas from the past, such as Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot. In addition he conducted concerts and recordings with the Staatsoper’s orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. As his reputation developed he started to conduct internationally, leading the Vienna Philharmonic both in Vienna and on a tour of Germany, appearing for the first time at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1926) and in the USSR (1927), conducting the New York Philharmonic for two series of concerts (1930 and 1931), and enjoying great success in Brussels (1933).
In Berlin, following the death of Max von Schillings, Heinz Tietjen took over as intendant at the Staatsoper. A man who excelled at political manouevring, as well as being an accomplished conductor and producer, he soon aligned himself with the new National Socialist government which gained power in 1933; Kleiber, unwilling to accept the resulting increased political interference with his plans, resigned from his post, after conducting in concert the Suite from Berg’s opera Lulu, which represented cultural anathema to the authorities. His final appearances in Berlin took place during January 1935.
Up until the outbreak of World War II, Kleiber maintained an active career as a guest conductor, appearing in Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Milan, Monte Carlo, Prague and Salzburg. He first conducted in the United Kingdom in 1935, with the London Symphony Orchestra, and led Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden in 1938. In addition from 1937 to 1949 he was in charge of the German repertoire wing at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, eventually settling in Argentina with his family. Kleiber’s biographer, John Russell, has suggested that at the Colón ‘…he came nearest to fulfilling his dreams of a permanent post.’ During World War II and afterwards Kleiber was extremely active throughout Central and South America, conducting in Chile, Cuba (he led the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra from 1943 to 1948), Uruquay and Mexico, as well as Argentina.
After appearing successfully with Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York during the 1945–1946 and 1947–1948 seasons, Kleiber returned to Europe in 1948 for concerts and recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and a month later he appeared also with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1949 (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 ‘Choral’) and at the Vienna State Opera (Der Rosenkavalier) in 1951, the year in which he returned as a guest to his old company, the Berlin Staatsoper, now situated in Communist East Berlin. Although coming under pressure from the West Berlin authorities to relinquish commitments in the Eastern sector, instead Kleiber characteristically dropped those in the West and continued to appear both in East Berlin and with the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras. At the same time he was very active in three other spheres: he conducted opera regularly at Covent Garden between 1950 and 1953, introducing Wozzeck to England in a memorable production (1952), and led a powerful account of Verdi’s I vespri siciliani with the young Maria Callas at the Florence Maggio Musicale in 1951.
While developing close links with the emerging radio symphony orchestras set up in post-war Germany by the occupying powers, notably those in Cologne, Hamburg and Stuttgart, Kleiber also recorded extensively for Decca in Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna. He was offered and initially accepted the post of chief conductor at the Berlin Staatsoper, on condition that the opera house be rebuilt exactly as it had been. However on hearing in March 1955 that the gilded inscription to the Prussian King Frederick had been removed he immediately resigned from this position. Kleiber’s sudden death on 27 January 1956, the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of his beloved Mozart, put an end to a busy forthcoming schedule that included the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s first tour of the USA and further recordings for Decca.
Erich Kleiber’s death at the relatively young age of sixty-five meant that for a while his reputation did not stand as high as that of some of his contemporaries from the inter-war years in Berlin such as Klemperer and Walter, both of whom lived long enough to enter the age of stereophonic recording. However the addition to Kleiber’s already impressive Decca discography of numerous live performances from the South American and post-war chapters of his career has provided a more rounded picture of his great strengths as a conductor, and it is now possible to view him as one of the very greatest conductors of his generation. Using a long baton, he conducted with economical and exact, if broad, gestures. He sought acute precision in performance and rehearsed with great attention to detail, avoiding an overlay of excessive expression, as he saw it, and insisting on exact readings of the score, believing that ‘…there are two enemies to good performance: one is routine and the other is improvisation.’ In place of excessive sentiment he generated a high level of tension, giving all his readings great character. To quote Herzfeld once again, ‘…he avoids the sentimental espressivo and replaces it with high voltage throughout.’
The high points of Kleiber’s commercial discography are his recordings for Decca. To these recordings should be added many of his post-war German radio performances, particularly those with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. An especially significant document, certainly until Kleiber’s complete 1952 Covent Garden performance is published, is his conducting of Three Fragments from Wozzeck, performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1955. All his 1947–1948 concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra have been made generally available; these include characterful readings of music by Borodin, Schubert and Johann Strauss II. Although sonically compromised, recordings of performances from Buenos Aires show Kleiber at full stretch as an operatic conductor and include works by Wagner and Richard Strauss. Last but not least, Kleiber’s extensive pre-war discography should not be overlooked. It includes excellent performances of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’, with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 with the Belgian National Orchestra, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, ‘Prague’, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as numerous shorter works such as the overtures to Johann Strauss II’s two most popular operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron, both with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).
The later 19th century brought an increasing consciousness of national identity to various ethnic groups in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Antonín Dvořák, born in a Bohemian village where his father was an innkeeper and butcher, followed Smetana as the leading exponent of Czech musical nationalism, firmly within the Classical traditions of Central Europe. His early musical training was followed by employment for some years as a viola player, for a time under Smetana, and then, with the positive encouragement of Brahms, by a life primarily devoted to composition. Dvořák won recognition abroad and rather more grudging acceptance in Vienna. Between 1892 and 1895 he spent some time in the United States of America as director of the new National Conservatory, a period that brought compositions which combine American and Bohemian influence. At home again he was much honoured, resisting invitations from Brahms to move to Vienna in favour of a simple life in his own country. He died in 1904, shortly after the first performances of his last opera, Armida.
Orchestral Music
Dvořák wrote nine symphonies, of which the best known must be Symphony No 9, ‘From the New World’, written in 1893 and first performed in New York in the same year. This ‘New World’ Symphony derived some inspiration from a Czech translation of Longfellow’s poem Hiawatha.
Works for solo instrument and orchestra by Dvořák include an important cello concerto, a violin concerto and a slightly less well-known piano concerto. The Romance for solo violin and orchestra and Silent Woods for cello and orchestra make interesting and attractive additions to solo repertoire for both instruments.
Other orchestral works include two sets of Slavonic Dances, arrangements of works originally designed for piano duet, and three Slavonic Rhapsodies. Overtures include My Home, In Nature’s Realm, Othello, Hussite and Carnival. To this one may add the Scherzo capriccioso of 1883, a polonaise written four years before, and the splendid Serenade for Strings of 1875. The Symphonic Variations meet the challenge of an apparently intractable theme and the 10 Legends were orchestrated by the composer from his original piano duet version. Further works include the symphonic poems The Noonday Witch, The Golden Spinning-Wheel and The Wild Dove, works that seem to explore new ground with their narrative content.
Chamber Music
Dvořák left 14 string quartets, of which the best known is the so-called ‘American’ Quartet, No 12 in F major, written in 1893, the year of the ‘New World’ Symphony. The composition of Quartets Nos. 13 and 14, in 1895, seems to have taken place over the same period. From the American period comes the G major Sonatina for violin and piano, its second movement sometimes known as ‘Indian Lament’. Of the four surviving piano trios, the fourth, called Dumky because of its use of a Bohemian national dance form, is the best known, closely rivalled in popularity by the third. Dvořák’s quintets for piano and strings or strings alone offer further pleasure, as well as the String Sextet and the charming Terzetto for two violins and viola.
Piano Music
The best known of all the pieces Dvořák wrote for the piano must be the Humoresquein G flat major, the seventh of a set of eight. Close to this come the two sets of Slavonic Dances for piano duet.
Operas
Dvořák wrote 10 operas, the first in 1870 and the last completed and staged in 1903. Rusalka, first produced in 1900, provides a well-known concert aria, ‘O silver moon’. Other operas have had less currency abroad, although they have some importance in the Czech musical revival. The composer himself set considerable store by his music for the theatre, whether in comic village operas in the manner of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride or in more ambitious works based on Czech legend.
Vocal and Choral Music
Dvořák wrote a number of songs and a popular set of Moravian Duets for soprano and contralto. The most popular of the songs is the fourth of Seven Gypsy Songs, Op 55, ‘Songs my mother taught me’, also familiar from various arrangements.
Some of Dvořák’s choral works were written for the flourishing amateur choral societies of England, in Leeds, Birmingham and London. These include the oratorio St Ludmilla, settings of the Mass and Requiem Mass, and a setting of the Te Deum, which was first performed in New York in 1892. Earlier choral works include a setting of the Stabat Mater and of Psalm CXLIX, each first performed in Prague in 1880 and 1879 respectively.
Smetana holds an important place in the development of musical nationalism in his native Bohemia, where he was born in 1824, the son of a master brewer in the service of Count Waldstein and others. His career was interrupted by a period of self-imposed exile in Sweden after the political disappointments that followed the turmoil of 1848. He was instrumental in the establishment of Czech national opera and a Czech national style, in particular in his symphonic poems. He was deaf in later life but continued to compose, an autobiographical element appearing in his string quartets.
Operas
The best known of Smetana’s operas is The Bartered Bride, the overture of which makes a brilliant opening to any orchestral concert programme. His other operas have enjoyed less international success.
Orchestral Music
The best known of Smetana’s orchestral works is the cycle of symphonic poems Má vlast (‘My Country’). It comprises six movements, of which ‘Vltava’ (‘River Moldau’), which follows the historic course of the river as it flows towards Prague, is the most frequently heard.
Chamber Music
Smetana wrote two string quartets, the first with the title ‘From My Life’. There is a G minor Piano Trio and two short pieces for violin and piano under the title From My Homeland.