The Boston Symphony
Orchestra created this disc to celebrate
the 10th anniversary (1994-2004) of
the opening of Seiji Ozawa Hall at their
summer quarters in Tanglewood, Massachusetts.
It is a souvenir collection of great
live performances with no other unifying
theme beyond the location of the recordings.
Ozawa Hall is a wonderful
place to attend concerts. The setting
is pastoral, the hall attractive in
a modern-barn-like vernacular, the seating
is practically opulent, the site lines
are wonderful, and the sound is enchanting.
The stage can fit a small orchestra,
but the venue is used mostly for chamber
concerts and recitals, and it has an
intimate feeling that benefits such
programs. So let’s celebrate, but first
a caveat.
It would be easy to
criticize the selections on this CD,
but that’s not really to the point.
In choosing fifteen relatively short
performances, they’re sure to find something
to offend everyone; why did they leave
out such and such a composer or artist?
Given the compromises necessary in making
such a compilation, I accept the choices
as they are. They are certainly admirably
diverse, and in this they are a reflection
of the diversity of the programming
at Tanglewood as presented by some of
the best-known summer regulars.
The first half of the
CD, eight tracks worth, presents chamber
works in alphabetical order by composer,
from Beethoven to Augusta Read Thomas.
Actually, the intent seems to have been
a division into three chamber works,
three solo piano pieces, and three nearly
contemporary works, with the last of
the one and the first of the other overlapping.
The first movement
of Opus 127, the 12th of Beethoven’s
sixteen string quartets performed by
the Juilliard String Quartet is lyrical,
passionate, and everything one would
expect from such an august group. Yo-Yo
Ma playing the second movement, Adagio,
arranged for cello of Brahms Violin
Sonata in d-minor with Emanuel Ax at
the piano, is similarly lovely.
Next up, the Emerson
Quartet, and you can feel them sitting
on the edge of their chairs as they
dig into the second movement of Bartók’s
String Quartet No. 2, Allegro molto
capriccioso. They are, in fact, capricious
in a devilishly compelling way that
is a hallmark for them. Then it’s back
to more romantic fare with Dubravka
Tomsic, the Slovenian pianist, playing
Chopin’s Berceuse. She’s a bit of a
dark horse in this hit parade, but a
favorite of the Boston Symphony, and
her Berceuse shows a deftly romantic-without-being-fussy
touch. It is as relaxed as the Emerson’s
are taut.
Another softly rocking
piano piece, but playfully so, Debussy’s
La Danse de Puck from Préludes,
Book 1, and Richard Goode plays with
an expressive freedom that keeps the
mood light, but also with a distinct
edge of Shakespearean menace. Puck is
not all fun and games, he just appears
to be. From expressive to the metronome-like
Étude, Book II, No. 8, titled
Fém, of the Hungarian-born composer,
György Ligeti. The French pianist,
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, is as precise
as the piece’s polyrythms and clusters
are, perhaps, intentionally misleading.
It is the listener who is on the edge
of his seat through this one.
Next, the unexpected,
at least if you were expecting strictly
"classical" fare. Toru Takemitsu,
the prolific Japanese composer, was
obsessive in his pursuits, especially
in his love of movies and feeling for
nature. Takemitsu wrote nearly one hundred
film scores, and while Shuteiga ("In
and Autumn Garden") is not one
of them, it has the feel of program
music: Japanese flutes are bird-like,
the oddly nasal shawms (a double-reed
instrument) are more insect-like. The
narrative is punctuated by drum beats
and sticks. It’s an acquired taste,
but one can imagine that in the setting
of Ozawa Hall, the effect could be quite
stirring.
The most recently composed
piece on the CD, Spirit Musings for
violin and chamber orchestra, and the
only one by an American, Augusta Read
Thomas, is unfortunately also the least
successful. The performance by the Tanglewood
Music Center Fellows is intense, but
it is ultimately sound and fury signifying
nothing.
The rest of the CD
is vocal music followed by an encore.
Three "art songs," by Brahms,
Schubert, and Wolf, are well-known works.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson with Peter Serkin,
Matthias Goerne with Eric Schneider,
and Mitsuko Shirai with her husband,
Hartmut Holl, all give performances
that are beautiful, intelligent, and
that feel just right for the works presented.
Leporello’s Catalogue Aria ("Madamina")
from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, K.527, receives
a similarly spot-on performance from
Thomas Quasthoff and the Freiburg Baroque
Orchestra. These singing performances
are all flawless, but the combination
of tracks lacks any kind compelling
flow.
Perhaps the performances
that work best on this CD are the final
three "light" works. They
do a better job of standing on their
own. Bryn Terfel sings a traditional
Welsh song, "Shepherd of Aberdovey,"
with a combination of heart-tugging
lyricism, tragic sadness, and native
pride. The American all-male chorus,
Chanticleer, performs an arrangement
of "Shenandoah" with similar
feeling, but also with remarkable variety.
Starting with Gregorian chant, it moves
into close harmony, a remarkably pure-sounding
male soprano solo, soprano with echoes,
and ending with a Gregorian note leading
back to close harmony.
For the encore, Gidon
Kremer’s orchestra of young and talented
string players, KREMERata BALTICA, performs
an arrangement of an Astor Piazzolla
tango, Escualo, that is easily the most
virtuosic and most immediately satisfying
of all the tracks on the CD. It makes
one want to go out and buy their complete
CD of Piazzolla arrangements.
Which brings us to
the ultimate problem with collections
such as this one. The whole is no greater
than the sum of its parts, and the parts
are too diverse to present any kind
of coherent picture. So we have a sampler
of curiosities. As such, the familiar
Beethoven quartet, however magnificently
performed, is just another performance.
And the same can be said for most of
the works recorded here. One would like
to be able to say that there is a spontaneous
quality to these live performances that
is missing from most of today’s faultless
recordings, but there’s too much jumping
around to get a sense of this.
On the other hand,
taken as a portfolio of works presented,
it’s evident that Tanglewood in general,
and Ozawa Hall in particular, are very
much alive with music. The performers,
the repertoire, the explorations are
diverse in a way that remains exciting,
even for an institution as august as
Tanglewood. The real intention of this
CD is to encourage us to visit, which,
in the end, is the more satisfying experience.
Clay Andres
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - NO
NUMBER [75:57] 