MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: May 2006
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
Downloading seems about
to have an increased impact on classical
music. Most prominently, Warner Classics
have recently launched their own download
store (link 1) and others seem to be
following suit. I have visited this
site, tempted by the offer of a free
download of some excerpts from Daniel
Barenboim’s complete Bayreuth recording
of Wagner’s Ring
from the early 1990s. By visiting an
exclusive area (link 2) it will still
be possible to do this until 10 May
2006. Four extracts are provided, one
from each opera. These are perhaps the
most obvious "bleeding chunks"
of all – the crossing of the rainbow
bridge, the ride of the Valkyries, Brünnhilde’s
awakening and Siegfried’s funeral march.
This is just over half an hour of music
and it was very easy to download it
and burn a CD, this took me a total
of about 10 minutes. I don’t have these
specific CDs for comparison but, in
general terms, I thought the sound was
near CD quality.
Looking around Warner’s
download site, there seems to be quite
a few things that could be done to make
it more useful. At the moment, there
doesn’t seem to be a way of browsing
the content although searches suggest
that they have already put quite a lot
of material on it. Pricing policies
seem generally reasonable i.e. quite
a bit cheaper than buying the CD and
there is an opportunity to purchase
single tracks very cheaply. It is not
entirely clear to me what one would
normally be getting for the money (I
haven’t parted with any yet!), for example
in terms of documentation. Nor is there
any information about the size of downloads
or how long the process is likely to
take. The files come in Windows Media
Audio format and it is probably essential
to have a broadband connection to use
this facility.
I mention size and
time because the music featured on their
home page at the time of writing is
Barenboim’s complete Ring. It
is possible to download the whole thing,
the individual operas or just parts
of the opera. The cost of the lot is
£26 (the 14 CDs would cost £70 from
elsewhere on Warner’s site). I am guessing,
but at ten minutes per hour of music
it would take about two and half hours
to grab it all (perhaps overnight?).
If you encountered a problem, it would
be possible to re-download at no charge.
I would expect it to be arranged to
neatly fit on CDs but this is not made
clear. I am also not sure whether it
would be possible to edit the material
if there were difficulties in this respect.
Nevertheless, I was slightly tempted
by this offer but, having two CD versions
and no DVDs of the Ring, have decided
to wait for the DVD release of this
cycle to be completed. My overall impression
of downloading at the moment is that
I am more likely to use it for sampling
or filling in gaps rather than as a
future principal source of acquiring
music.
Barenboim got a big
(and deserved) plug recently on BBC
Radio 3 and on Easter Monday, if I can
be excused persevering on this subject,
they played the whole of his recording
of the Ring starting at 0800
hours and finishing at midnight. I might
have been unpopular had I listened to
it all but did catch the whole of Act
III of Götterdämmerung
and found it pretty impressive. Anne
Evans as Brünnhilde was not as
big-voiced as many but was nevertheless
superb and Barenboim urgent, particularly
at the very end. From what I have heard
and read about this cycle, including
the production, it does seem to be one
of the most interesting modern versions.
Finally, in respect
of downloads and Warner Classics, another
type of download is available in the
exclusive area (link 2) i.e. a supplementary
track to the new disc of orchestral
music by Foulds from the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
under Sakari Oramo (2564 62999-2). Their
previous offering of this composer (link
3) was outstanding and a MusicWeb disc
of the year in 2004. My copy of the
disc has just arrived and I hadn’t even
had the chance to play it before I used
it to enable me to download the supplementary
track – an excerpt from his Indian Suite.
This is labelled "III Navali
Ladali" and is a sensuous Hindu
folk song. The download lasts for just
under 3 minutes and I am not sure whether
this is the whole of the third movement
of the suite or whether the complete
suite has yet been recorded. This part
was certainly recorded live (the main
disc less obviously so) and by way of
documentation it is possible to download
a page of handwritten notes by the composer.
There are also files with material relating
to the main works on the CD – the Dynamic
Triptych (a piano concerto in all but
name with Peter Donohoe as soloist)
and Music-Pictures Group 3, notable
for prominent use of microtones. On
first listening, this CD is a very worthy
follow-up and will be a must-purchase
for anyone who enjoyed the Oramo’s first
disc of Foulds. No doubt there will
be a review on MusicWeb soon and if
we are really lucky then more Foulds
including the whole of the Indian Suite
may yet be to come, although I have
a feeling the download might have been
a single movement encore.
My only experience
of live music making this month was
a concert given on April Fool’s day
by the Southampton Concert Orchestra
(SCO), a local amateur group. Such orchestras
often contain many professional musicians
and amateurs of a high standard, and
their concerts are usually excellent.
I am probably a bit biased here because
my wife and son were sitting in the
cello section (the latter for the first
time) but the SCO gave very creditable
performances of some challenging music.
The orchestra has something of a tradition
in Russian music which started under
its previous conductor, Judith Bailey
and persists under the baton of Paul
Ingram. He appears to be something of
a specialist in Shostakovich.
Following a recent performance of the
5th symphony, the 10th
symphony was played in the second half
and was the highlight of the evening.
Generally thought to be the composer’s
greatest work, it is quite a challenge
for any orchestra and Ingram inspired
his players to give their very best
in a coherent and exciting interpretation.
The first half included Borodin’s
In the Steppes of Central Asia
and Ippolitov-Ivanov’s
Caucasian Sketches. If you live
in the south of England, I suggest it
would be worth keeping an eye on the
SCO website (link 4) and coming to one
of their future concerts.
Coming on now to some
CDs, two discs I have reviewed recently
made a big impression, particularly
the symphonies of Claudio Santoro
on BIS (link 5), a recording of the
month. I also enjoyed the two piano
version of Brahms’ 3rd
and 4th symphonies played
by Silke-Thora Matthies and Christian
Köhn on Naxos (link 6). Another
impressive series on the same label
are the quartets commissioned from Peter
Maxwell Davies. The fifth and
sixth in the series were very warmly
reviewed by Colin Clarke (link 7) and
I too found them inspiring works wonderfully
played by the Maggini Quartet.
I have been also listening
to the music of Anton Webern,
in fact all of it since he was hardly
prolific. There seem to be two "complete"
sets of his music available, one takes
three discs (on Sony), the other six
(on DG) and both have Pierre Boulez
in charge of the orchestral music. The
reason for the difference is that about
half his music was unpublished, mostly
the early (and sometimes tonal) stuff.
I went for the DG set (457 637-2), partly
because I wanted to hear early works
like Im Sommerwind (which is
wonderful) and partly because it was
on offer at about half-price. This is
an endlessly fascinating set and it
has been the songs and the chamber music
(for example the Piano Quintet) that
have made the biggest impression on
me.
Knowing and liking
the 2nd symphony (subtitled
Romantic) of Howard Hanson,
I have also been looking out for more
his music. The offer of
his Mercury recordings of the first
three symphonies, piano concerto and
various other works for only £10 seemed
provident and this is another excellent
set (475 686-7). Recorded in the late
1950s and early 1960s, the sound is
very immediate, and there is a bonus
disc of Hanson lecturing on his music
which may appeal to or even amuse some.
Personally I’d rather have had the rest
of the symphonies (there are seven in
total) but I am not sure that he recorded
them all.
There is an anecdote
that Heifetz once said that he played
contemporary music for two reasons –
first to discourage the composer from
writing any more and secondly to remind
himself how much he liked Beethoven.
During the interval of the concert mentioned
above I was chatting to one of the players
– Pat Dingle an ex-clarinet player with
the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra who
took up the viola when he retired (!).
When I told him this anecdote he said
"we used to call it contemptible
music". Now I have gone slightly
off-track here because my purpose was
not to rubbish contemporary music. What
I wanted to say that another way of
reminding yourself how much you like
Beethoven might be to listen to some
music by Ferdinand Ries.
That is intended as a compliment to
a composer who (having been taught by
Beethoven) seems to have more direct
influences of the master in his music
than anyone else. Six months ago I had
not heard a note of his music. The first
thing I did hear was a live performance
of his Op.169 clarinet sonata and this
has now appeared on a splendid disc
which Glyn Pursglove recommended highly
(link 8). The couplings are another
clarinet sonata and the clarinet trio.
Having since positively reviewed a disc
of his string quartets (link 9), and
enjoyed two of his piano concertos (link
10), there is now a disc of his piano
sonatas sitting in my reviewing pile.
No Beethoven lover should ignore Ries’s
music (link 11), and perhaps the concertos
would be the best place to start.
Patrick C Waller
Links
1. http://warner.freshdigital.co.uk
2. http://www.warnerclassics.com/exclusivearea.php
3. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Dec04/Foulds_Mantras.htm
4. http://www.concertorchestra.com/index.htm
5. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/Santoro_biscd1370.htm
6. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/Brahms_4hand_15_8557685.htm
7. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/Maxwell_Davies5&6_8557398.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/Ries_Clarinet_CPO7770362.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Feb06/Ries_Quartets_7770142.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Ries_concertos_8557638.htm
11. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Ries_Wright.htm
