This is one of those curious re-packagings that record companies
delight in from time to time. All of the five discs here are
from the excellent Gary Bertini and the Cologne Radio Symphony
Orchestra and have been available previously as single discs.
However, three have also been collected into a set which bears
the SA-CD logo - missing on this set. Indeed the single releases
seem to be SA-CD as well. Capriccio have simply contained the
original discs in a cardboard slip case with no other attempt
at adapting the presentation. There is, however, a considerable
price advantage in buying the five disc set - the usual online
suspects offer the set in the range £13.00-£19.00
whereas the single discs are still at full price and the three
disc set is around £25.00. As I do not have a system set
up for surround or SA-CD listening I can comment only on the
standard stereo format versions in any case.
Gary Bertini was this orchestra’s principal conductor
from 1983 to 1991 and these recordings cover the period 1985
(the Ravel Concerto) to 1994 (The Berlioz Overtures). The covers
are labelled “the Cologne Broadcasts” and seem to
be a mixture of mainly concert and some studio performances.
Clearly the intention is to showcase Bertini’s legacy
in Cologne and as such the performances should be considered
as examples of his Art rather than versions of the music in
question per se. As an interpreter of major standing
Bertini swam into my view with his excellent clear-headed cycle
of the Mahler
Symphonies on EMI with the same orchestra. These remain
in the catalogue as both an excellent (sub £20.00) bargain
and a compelling, idiosyncrasy-free traversal of those works.
Again the Mahler cycle is mainly taken from live performances
and the date range is almost identical: 1984-1991. Collectors
who know and enjoy that set will hear many of the same performing
and interpretative values at work throughout this set. As an
aside - this is also much the same time this orchestra were
recording Barshai’s
lauded Shostakovich cycle (1992-1998). Unfussy and with
a clear control of balance and structure is how I would simply
characterise Bertini’s approach. My one sorrow is the
rather arbitrary selection of repertoire. One assumes that German
Radio must have a very substantial archive of Bertini/Cologne
recordings. That being the case I am sorry they chose not to
showcase a wider range of music rather than three French and
two German discs with a disc each for Debussy and Ravel.
A few final collective observations before moving onto the individual
discs. The radio provenance of the recordings means the discs
are well if not spectacularly engineered. In the main the sound
is appealingly naturally balanced although there is occasional
solo spotlighting. The live performances have very occasional
- but not disruptive - audience noise and regardless of location
there is no applause. Liner-notes are supplied with each disc
in its jewel case in German and English and are perfunctory
to say the least - brief notes regarding the disc’s music
and the same information about the orchestra and conductor each
time.
I will comment on each disc in the order it is presented in
the box. First up is the Berlioz disc. The Symphonie Fantastique
receives a performance that gains in momentum and impact as
it moves on. It is not listed as a live performance but curiously
there are some moments of scrappy ensemble which should have
been rectified if it is not. Sometimes the long central Scène
aux Champs can become rather becalmed but Bertini is especially
good here with the menacing - and revolutionary - timpani writing
foreshadowing the drama to come later in the work. If there
is one composition more than any other for me that benefits
from the application of authentic performance practice and instruments
it is this. For all the energy Bertini gives it the piece has
a veneer of sophistication that reduces the extraordinary leap
forward in orchestral technique it represents. I miss the vulgar
bass trombone and parping bassoons. One aspect that does become
immediately apparent across the set is the consistent ‘personality’
of certain of the orchestra’s players. Here, in this work,
the unusually plangent tone of the principal clarinet is ideal
for the March to the Scaffold or Witch’s Sabbath.
The Cologne brass is excellent throughout if lacking the last
degree of heraldic brazen splendour that the LSO gave Colin
Davis in his famous Berlioz recordings on Philips in the 1960s.
All in all a very good and rather central interpretation. Much
the same could be said of the Overtures - very neatly played
when required but without the last dash of early-Romantic wildness
that marks the music down as exceptional.
The Ravel disc contains two of the highlights of the set and
one disappointment. In the second suite from Daphnis et Chloé
and the Piano Concerto in G major - which features the
set’s biggest name in Martha Argerich - Bertini’s
forensic ear for detail and balance pays substantial dividends.
The ballet suite is excellent with a glorious sunrise and muscular
closing Danse générale. Two things here
for the non-Bertini acolyte to consider though; the recording
is good without being viscerally exciting in the way it can
be and also this is the orchestra-only version. I do miss the
chorus. For the general collector this might well rule out this
version. The entire disc is labelled as containing live performances
albeit from three different years. Argerich gives an energetically
clean account of the concerto which emphasises the neo-classical
elements of the score more than the jazz-inflections that others
find. This cool rather objective approach chimes wholly with
Bertini’s accompaniment and as such makes for a very convincing
interpretation. The Cologne Radio recording gives the soloist
an effective balance with just enough prominence for the piano
writing to register easily but at the same making the interactions
with solo lines within the orchestra coherent and believable.
The relative ‘miss’ on this disc is La Valse
where Bertini’s careful control is just, well too controlled.
I miss the delirium and sensual abandon of the finest performances
- for once Bertini’s approach seems to run contrary to
the essence of the work.
That same emotionally distanced, almost calculating style produces
the performances of the set on the next disc of Debussy. With
powerfully dynamic and compellingly thrustful momentum this
is one of the most exciting and convincingly impressive versions
of La Mer I know. It is subject to some discreet spotlighting
by the engineers but it allows Debussy's endlessly subtle orchestration
to shine. Harps and percussion glint like sunlight on wave crests
quite beautifully. My only minor carp is that Bertini does not
restore the little brass fanfares removed in the published score.
The rest of the disc is made up of predictable companions. An
excellent Nocturnes again benefits from Bertini's refusal
to indulge or linger on detail for detail's sake. Nuages
is the study in greys that it is surely meant to be while Fêtes
builds to a marvellously swaggering climax. The sorrow with
this disc is a disappointingly matter of fact Prélude
à l'après-midi d'un faune. Here the element
of emotional detachment which pays such dividends in the in-human
world of La Mer makes Bertini’s faune a singularly
unsensual creature. Again the performances are all from different
live concerts. Part of the interest in a set such as this is
to find common threads across disparate repertoire and certainly
on the evidence as presented Bertini is not one to indulge himself
in any kind of emotional or musical excess.
The fourth disc was my main reason for requesting the set to
review. Containing as it does two complete song cycles and excerpts
from a third this is very much an appendix to Bertini’s
Mahler cycle. Black marks to Capriccio for supplying no texts
and a rather confusing liner written as though this was the
piano accompaniment version. The two singers are major artists
with bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff singing the two complete
cycles. It is interesting that Quasthoff’s presence encourages
Bertini to a more overtly expressive style. Perhaps the voice
is a fraction forward in the mix masking all of the subtleties
of Mahler’s writing. I did wonder if Quasthoff could have
risked singing with a wider dynamic range. He is excellent at
pointing the text and has a pleasingly robust character which
suits the rustic naïveté of the songs. The dark
timbres of his bass-orientated voice give the songs a power
missing when sung by - literally - higher voices. If I prefer
a man’s voice in the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
I find a woman’s voice singing Kindertotenlieder
to have extra emotional heft - especially when the part is taken
by Christa Ludwig or Janet Baker. That being said Bertini is
excellent at finding a traumatised weight and lumbering despair
that gives the closing In diesem Wetter a quite different
character from Karajan’s version with Ludwig. Both interpretations
succeed but here I find Bertini more emotionally engaging -
with the consolation of the epilogue most movingly achieved.
Håkan Hagegård has a suitably lighter and bluffer
approach which is wholly in tune with the less troubled spirit
of the four Das Knaben Wunderhorn songs. Certainly, if
collectors have found their way to this disc because of enjoyment
taken with Bertini’s Mahler symphony cycle they need not
hesitate since this does provide an excellent and possibly indispensable
addition to that set.
The fifth and final disc contains the one major disappointment
of the box. This is a very routine Also Sprach Zarathustra
which never quite recovers from a murky sunrise with muddied
timpani, less than glorious brass and an organ chord that sideslips
fractionally away from the orchestra’s tuning. According
to the liner this performance is a composite of two different
performances in two different halls three days apart. To be
fair, one is not aware of any acoustic shift but conversely
the inner detail of Strauss’ complex writing eludes the
German Radio engineers. Often the harp is all but absent and
then curiously when the solo violin is joined by their desk
partner, the leader is clearly audible and the second - brief
- solo line completely obscured. Also, the clarinet whose distinctive
tone added much to Berlioz sounds rather coarse here. Indeed,
driven and unsympathetic would be my brief assessment of the
performance. Over the work as a whole matters improve but Bertini
misses the benevolence of sections such as Das Tanzlied
where it is simply forced rather than having any smiling beauty.
There are pleasures to be taken but not a performance to add
to one’s knowledge of the piece or the performer on the
rostrum. The Burleske starts somewhat inauspiciously
too. The very opening timpani solo is unsatisfactorily woolly
and more damagingly the first flourish from pianist Elisabeth
Leonskaja implies a discontent with Bertini’s set tempo
as she pushes ahead of the accompaniment. Fortunately things
settle down very quickly and this proves to be a far more enjoyable
performance than the preceding tone-poem. Burleske has
always felt like a peripheral work in the Strauss canon - which
it probably is - but Leonskaja plays it as though a major Romantic
concertante work. By the end you believe it too - certainly
in her hands it seems significantly more substantial. Perhaps
goaded or persuaded by Leonskaja’s barnstorming approach
Bertini gives a more overtly expressive performance than the
contents of the other discs would suggest was his norm. Indeed,
it is the kind of interpretation that makes one reconsider the
‘worth’ of the work - an impressive end to the set.
So how to assess the box as a whole; well probably something
of a mixed bag if truth be told. For the Debussy and Mahler
I would happily return, for the Ravel they are performances
I enjoyed hearing but possibly not to replace existing library
favourites. The remaining Berlioz and Strauss are perfectly
good without demanding attention except for a less-than-important
Burleske. However, at the very reasonable price point
collectors might well argue that the La Mer and Mahler
cycles merit the cost of the whole set with the other repertoire
“thrown in”. My admiration for Bertini is undimmed
but I do wish the range of repertoire offered had been wider
and more challenging especially since the discs are compilations
of different concerts and they are not exactly over-filled.
Nick Barnard
Masterwork Index: Also
Sprach Zarathustra ~~ La
Mer ~~ Symphonie
Fantastique
see also review of individual disc releases: Berlioz
by Tim
Perry ~~ Debussy by Michael
Greenhalgh
Track Listing and Performance Details
rec. Köln Philharmonie Germany: 30 November 1987 (Prélude
à l'après-midi); 3 September 1988 (Nocturnes and
La Valse); 4 March 1989 (Strauss Burleske); 11 November 1989
(Daphnis); 15-17 June 1992 (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen);
18-21 January 1993 (4 Lieder aus “Des knaben Wunderhorn”);
22-23 January 1993 (Kindertotenlieder) 4-8 May 1993 (Berlioz
Symphonie); 6 November 1993 (La Mer); 24-25 March 1994 (Berlioz
Overtures); Leverkusen Germany:18 November 1988 and Antwerp
Belgium 21 November 1988 (Also Sprach Zarathustra); Gürzenich
Köln Germany: 7 December 1985 (Ravel concerto)
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Martha Argerich (piano - Ravel)