This recording is a by-product of Nott
and the Bamberg Symphony’s project of
presenting concerts of Schubert symphonies
coupled with contemporary orchestral
works in some manner inspired by Schubert.
The Schubert symphonies were issued
separately (Tudor 7141-3 review),
as was a companion disc, "Schubert
Epilog", of works by Berio, Henze,
Reimann, Schwertsik, and Zender (Tudor
7131). I will discuss the present disc
as a stand-alone issue.
The notes claim that,
"originally Widmann wanted the
entire orchestra to intone ‘a sort of
eternal melody’ of great intensity".
Without reference to Schubert Widmann
would "not have risked such radical
singing". What I hear in this work
is not Schubert, but the late romanticism
of Bruckner, Wagner and early Schoenberg.
There is a hunting horn theme that sounds
almost lifted from Siegfried,
and a general yearning expansiveness
of brass and string writing evocative
of Tristan and Isolde. Yet other
aspects, including a sharp glass-edge
sound to the strings, remind one that
Widmann is a grandchild of the Second
Viennese School, particularly of the
Berg camp. If you are a fan of any of
the composers I have used as comparisons,
then you will like this work as much
as I do.
Rihm’s Erscheinung
(appearance or apparition), begins with
single notes or chords sounded in intervening
silence by the piano. A couple of minutes
of this leads into largely monophonic
writing for an ensemble of nine string
players. This thirteen minutes of string
music tells a musical story comparatively
lacking in the feel of "randomness"
compared to Rihm’s other work. We experience
a journey that begins with foreboding,
turns brighter with feelings of curiosity
and discovery, goes through a period
of frenzied energy, concluding with
a sense of arrival. This is the most
accessible of the composer’s works I
have encountered. It would serve as
a great introduction to his idiom, even
if his own over-inflated comments regarding
his intentions ("It is chamber
music — and yet not orchestral music
— and yet not ... Both a swollen chamber
ensemble and a shrunken orchestra")
are best taken lightly.
If one imagines Boulez
with passion and a danceable, early-Stravinskian
sense of rhythm, one gets a sense of
Bruno Mantovani (not to be confused
with the ‘easy listening’ Mantovani)
in Mit Ausdruck (with expression).
It is a work for bass clarinet and orchestra.
The Boulez connection is not coincidental,
as Mantovani studied at IRCAM. What
may be more of a mystery is that he
is very far from having succumbed to
intellectualized abstraction. The sound
of the bass clarinet provides a mellow,
tuneful alternative to the often pungent
and strident tone of its higher-pitched
sibling. Mit Ausdruck might well
be described as a Rite of Spring
in the form of a dialog between the
bass clarinet on the one hand, and the
orchestra and a very active percussion
section on the other. The bass clarinetist,
Alain Billard, is the work’s dedicatee.
It is with Schnebel’s
Schubert-Phantasie that we hear
the first instantly recognizable extract
from Schubert, which is the opening
from the D 894 piano sonata. The work
consists of this theme struggling against
being pulled into a diffuse, often turbulent,
undercurrent of sound. Though there
is an intended logic here, it sounds
to some degree like a compositional
brainstorming session. It is, to my
mind, the least musically coherent of
the works here, and thus least likely
to hold up to repeated listening, even
if it has the most prominent "hook".
Nott, the Bamberg Symphony,
and the soloists perform with commitment
and familiarity. The recording is by
turns analytical and powerful as needed.
Despite the programmatic
theme of "Schubert Dialog",
clear references or evocations of the
Romantic composer are rare in all but
Schnebel’s work. However, the Schubertian
muse seems to have led these thorny
European modernists to be uncharacteristically
communicative and accessible. If you
think you might be interested in exploring
this genre, I would recommend this disc
to your attention.
Brian Burtt
Peter Selwyn (piano) (Rihm) 
