This DVD is good value
for money – two performances of central
European favourite choral works in good
sound and vision. If you want this repertoire,
I can wholeheartedly recommend this
issue with one or two slight reservations.
Both of these works are favourites with
Seiji Ozawa and throughout both performances
his enjoyment is clearly apparent. He
has recorded the Orff before, with the
same forces (except for the soloists)
for DG and also for RCA with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, so he has a long
experience of this piece.
In the Orff, first
on this disc, we have the Berlin Philharmonic
at the end of Karajan’s reign, before
Claudio Abbado had begun to mould the
orchestra into his own ways. We get
therefore a highly efficient performance
with not too much give and take. In
the fast passages, this makes for an
extremely exciting journey. However
where Orff’s lyricism is apparent the
orchestra does not deliver this as they
would do at the end of the decade. The
Japanese choir copes with the Latin
extremely well, and singing without
scores, they are able to deliver with
tremendous gusto. One vaguely amusing
factor is that there is not one example
of non-black hair anywhere in evidence
unless you include a slight greying
at the temples of one or two of the
gentlemen. There is not a European in
evidence with this chorus.
The three soloists
are first rate, again all singing without
the music, and particular praise must
go to Kathleen Battle, singing beautifully
with her hands, acting like a second
conductor, which is mildly distracting
– somewhere where the CD issue is preferable.
I haven’t heard the CD issue, which
uses different soloists but was recorded
at about the same time, and issued on
Philips. The RCA performance mentioned
at the beginning of this review was
recorded in 1969.
Moving on to the Beethoven
Choral we have a different ensemble,
choir and soloists, the only common
theme being the conductor, Seiji Ozawa.
This is the first surprise, since the
recording is ten years later, and Ozawa
has gone from neatly styled black hair
with a hint of grey, to a shock of unruly
grey thatch. His conducting style has
not changed in the intervening years
and his control of his Far Eastern orchestra
is just as assured as that over his
German colleagues in the previous work.
Each year the Saito
Kinen Orchestra is reformed from the
playing members of a famous summer school.
At the end of the school season they
tour internationally and also lay down
recordings for Philips. Critics have
been somewhat sniffy about these performances
but I have yet to hear a bad one, even
if some works have not been in the absolute
top flight. What you can be assured
of is that the string section is always
highly responsive and extremely sweet
toned; so it is here. In addition, the
other sections, of very high quality,
can be relied upon to be well integrated
with their string colleagues. What is
more, with the emphasis on chamber playing
during the summer school, the players
cultivate the habit of listening to
their colleagues to ensure a well integrated
ensemble.
In this performance
of Beethoven’s Choral, these qualities
are well to the fore, and orchestrally
the release is extremely fine. Chorally,
similar characteristics are evident
with the Tokyo Opera Chorus doing a
splendid job for their conductor, again
scoreless and just as able with the
German as their counterparts in the
Orff were with the Latin.
Where this performance
is let down is with the female soloists,
who both have a hard edge to their singing
which is not down to balance issues
with the recording. I am surprised that
a better group could not have been found
for such a prestigious event.
Notes with this disc
are first class, with full texts in
Latin and English (Orff) and German
and English and notes in English, French
and German. Recommended apart from the
quality of the lady soloists in the
Beethoven.
John Phillips
Anne Schwanewilms (soprano); Barbara Dever
(alto); Paul Groves (tenor); Franz Hawlata (bass)