I don’t know what Simone Young was thinking when she put together
the programme for this CD: in attempting to construct a creative
programme, she ended up making something bizarre. It makes sense
to couple the Wesendock Lieder with the Tristan prelude,
but why no Liebestod when you have Lisa Gasteen on the
disc anyway? The Strauss songs seem a random choice, and if one
is looking at the passions of Strauss then surely there
are far more appropriate works than Metamorphosen to include.
The notes grant us no clues as to these choices. As such this
programme seems muddled and confused and we’re forced to consider
the works as separate essays rather than as part of a coherent
whole.
Things don’t begin well, I’m afraid. The
WASO provide a good accompaniment to the Wesendock Lieder, though
the “throb” in Träume is too pronounced for my taste.
The solo violin version of this song is interesting and provides
a neat contrast to the way the same material was used in Tristan.
I cannot warm to Lisa Gasteen’s singing, however. With typical
hype she is often referred to as a “superstar” and as one of
the greatest dramatic sopranos at work today. Having experienced
her Brünnhilde on stage, however, I was left with the sinking
feeling that if she is the greatest Wagner soprano of our time
then we are in a bad way indeed. All the virtues and problems
of her stage interpretations are mirrored on this disc. She
sounds comfortable, if a bit nasal, in her middle register,
but there is an unpleasant edge to her voice which permeates
every aspect of her singing. These are magnified at the top
of her range when an unpleasant “beat” develops above the stave
and the shrill steeliness is uncomfortable to listen to for
long. Furthermore, and this is a basic error, there are simply
too many flat notes, and often these are easy ones too, as in
Die Engel. Her voice is certainly big, but this also
makes it thick and obtrusive: the faster, lighter passages of
Stehe Still elude her. It’s not even as if this is difficult
Wagner singing! If the Strauss numbers are a little better then
I was left with the uncomfortable suspicion that it is because
they are shorter.
Young must take her share of the blame,
however. The Tristan prelude unfolds very slowly,
not a crime in itself, but her outworking of the themes is stodgy
and inconsistent. There are times when her keeping of time is
so rigid that one can sense exactly where the bar lines are,
and others where the note values are distended and wilful. Her
sense of pacing, so important in this of all works, is almost
non-existent. Worse still, she simply loses control at the climax
and she seems to have no awareness of the great arc of this
work.
Things improve, however, with Metamorphosen.
There is more purpose and pace to this great outpouring and
she sets opens with a warm legato, almost as if she if trying
to out-Karajan Karajan! She succeeds in highlighting the work’s
lyricism, however, and she is helped by extraordinarily powerful
playing from the orchestra, by turns intimate and searing. There
is excellent recorded sound too, and the solo strings give us
a warm bloom that Gasteen robs us of. The final bars bring an
increasing sense of decay and the works conclusion sinks into
profound sadness.
In spite of this, however, there is too
much on this disc to disappoint and not enough to recommend. Sorry,
ABC, but you’ll find these works done better elsewhere, particularly
at this price.
Simon Thompson
