So we come to the sixth
and final volume in Naxos’s outstanding
complete orchestral works series. No
other company has ever attempted such
a project. From conception to fulfilment
this has been expertly done. Everything
reflects great credit on Naxos and Alsop
and this last volume has intrinsic rewards
and the satisfactions. It is not a case
of barrel scrapings.
And what are those
rewards and satisfaction? For a start
this version has to be the most humane
and yieldingly emotional Capricorn
I have ever heard ... and this from
a work that usually remains obdurately
dry. The lyrical facets seem linked
here with the ecstatic style of Tippett’s
Concerto for Double String Orchestra.
There are some lovely moments and they
include the waking nocturnal musings
of the Allegro con brio. Strongly
recommended.
From a work that never
quite took root with me to another I
have loved since I first heard the classic
(until now only). A Hand of Bridge
is to a libretto by Barber’s
partner Menotti. It is a chamber opera
- short (less than ten minutes - about
the length of an operatic overture)
and economically scored for chamber
orchestra. There are only four singers
not that Naxos name them anywhere except
on their website.
The plot takes its
tension from the stultifying routine
of a nightly game of bridge and the
counterpoint of the vocalised inner
thoughts of the four players. The wordplay
and musical setting is irresistible,
the words are as clever as Sondheim
- well almost and in fact Sondheim could
plausibly have been the author. The
psychological counterpoint of thoughts
sung and the pedestrian words of the
card-game is extremely engaging.
Catchy phrases and
lyrical cells include: ‘I want to buy
that hat of peacock feathers!’ and the
deliciously insouciant ‘Cymbeline, Cymbeline,
where are you tonight?’. When the downtrodden
of the two men dreams of power and riches
he sings with wistful lasciviousness
of his fantasy of ‘every day another
version of every known perversion.’
Shallowness, hatred, passion and yearning
wrapped up in acid-clever lyrics; all
these are the order of the day.
There is another recording
of this chamber opera. It has been around
for four decades on the Vanguard label.
It uses voices that are more Broadway
than Opera. It has to be said that while
the Naxos roll-call is of singers is
very fine the music-theatre style is
better suited to this intimate little
work. The Vanguard CD (if you can track
one down) is SVC 123 49.55; an anthology
also offering Essay No. 2, Music
for a Scene from Shelley, A Stopwatch
and an Ordnance Map, Serenade
for Strings and the famous Adagio.
The performers are the Symphony of the
Air conducted by Vladimir Golschmann
This is the first time
I have heard the Bach Mutations.
It has a sombre Purcellian majesty
with moments that can be likened to
the ceremonial Finzi. The scoring is
for a large and brass ensemble. It was
written during Barber’s very last years
when he preferred to write for his own
satisfaction. Fashion and culture had
seemingly turned forever against him.
He lived to see the first signs that
the tide was turning in his favour.
The Vanessa Intermezzo
is given a chamber balance with
the harp, oboe and flute seeming to
carol very close to the listener. This
is magical writing and playing touchingly
balanced between a faintly limned melancholy
and fulfilled love. The mood is elusive
but is superbly defined by Marin Alsop
and the orchestra. Vanessa is
now clambering back to prominence among
the record-buying public. Not so very
long ago there was a complete Vanessa
from Naxos and very recently we
have had Leonard Slatkin’s BBC recording
with Chandos.
The liner notes are
by Daniel Felsenfeld. These are excellent
but not perfect; the author of the tale
on which Vanessa is founded is
Isak Dinesen (the pen-name of the author
of ‘Out of Africa’) not Isak Dennisen.
The Canzonetta
a succulent piece. The tone
of soloist Stéphane Rancourt
reminds me of Goossens. The music is
Debussian at one moment and like Finzi
the next. This masterly performance
radiates a certain breathless Bergian
passion as well as a calmly drowsy Hollywood
glow.
The work Harold Gomberg
had commissioned from the ageing and
disillusioned composer was a multi-movement
Oboe Concerto but he had to settle for
this single movement piece. It was completed
by Charles Turner - Barber’s only student.
It would go rather well with Gerald
Finzi’s oboe and strings Interlude
as arranged by Howard Ferguson.
Gomberg gave the world
premiere of the Canzonetta in
1978 with the orchestra of which he
was the oboe Principal, the NYPO conducted
by Zubin Mehta. This is not the first
recording. There is a good alternative
version on ASV CD DCA 737. Julia Girdwood
is the oboist and the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra is directed by Jose Serebrier.
However this version goes straight to
the top of the recommendation lists.
Absolutely superb!
The title of Fadograph
of a Yestern Scene is from James
Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. It was commissioned
by Alcoa for the Pittsburgh Orchestra
who premiered it on 11 September 1971
under the baton of William Steinberg.
It was taken up by only a few American
orchestras (including the Clevelanders
conducted by Louis Lane) and is as great
a rarity as the Mutations. It
was Barber’s last substantial orchestral
work; unrepentantly intense and romantic
and written against the torrent of the
times. Think of it as virtually another
Essay (to add to the three so-named)
and a companion to the much earlier
Scene from Shelley.
If I had to go looking
for something to gripe about it would
be the ungenerous playing time and the
failure to identify the singers but
frankly it is not something you are
still thinking about by the time you
get to the end of this excellent disc.
The RSNO strings positively
glow in this extremely welcome and romantically
rewarding anthology.
Rob Barnett
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Marin Alsop
