Phils 7: Mahler, Coolidge, Lehár, Strauss, Jr., Kálmán

Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Georg Solti, Concertgebouw Orchestra; Sylvia Stahlman
Decca
Peter Oundjian, Toronto Symphony; Barbara Hannigan
TSOLive

Solti simply makes you believe this is the way this music goes. Each movement flows seamlessly as he captures everything from childlike to exhilarating moments. And no one (except maybe Bernstein) does a slow movement like Solti—here, the third movement is simply ineffable, as is soprano Stahlman in the finale.

Oundjian is just as magical in the first movement, though, on overall interpretation, Solti edges him out in the other three. What’s remarkable here is (1) the rich, warm, embracing, and superbly balanced engineering, which (2) allows you relish the multiple layers of details that Oundjian draws from (3) the unparalleled playing of the Toronto Symphony—the strings are sumptuous, the woodwinds gorgeous, the brass and percussion ideal, and the ensemble perfect. Here you can physically feel even the smallest details.

WebTips: Don’t confuse Solti’s 1961 Dutch recording with his later digital Chicago Symphony one (or yet others, all on Decca). Websites are not clear (in some instances they’re inaccurate) in stating which orchestra Solti is conducting on which album. The Concertgebouw performance is currently available only as part of a 2-CD set with Solti’s 1970 analogue recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, the first album he ever made with the Chicago Symphony (it’s my favorite No. 5 and far better than his later digital Chicago recording). Go for it—two desert island recordings in one album. The album cover has a picture of a village in the mountains and says, “Decca 2CD, Mahler Symphonies 4 & 5, Sir Georg Solti” and has “Double Decca” printed sideways on the left side.

The Toronto Symphony recording is on the orchestra’s own label and is available only online at www.tso.ca (click on “TSO Live Music Store” on the right side of the screen) for the ridiculous price of $40 if shipped to the US. It’s more reasonably priced at the terrific CD store at the TSO’s Roy Thomson Hall and at stores in Toronto.


Peggy Stuart Coolidge: Blue Planet
Siegfried Landau, Westphalian Symphony, Recklinghausen
Vox 5157 (2CDs)

This is the only recording available of this work and is not one I recommend. The orchestra has very poor intonation, and the interpretation is pedestrian. The original narration of blank verse conveying the philosophy of the World Wildlife Fund is not recorded here (contrary to what some websites say).

WebTips: This performance is on an album entitled “The Incredible Flutist” and is one of several 2-CD albums in Vox’s “American Composers Series.” If you’re interested in Coolidge’s music, it does have the only recordings of four more of her works with the same orchestra.


Lehár: “Vilja Lied” from The Merry Widow
Kate Royal; Edward Gardner, English National Opera Orchestra with chorus
EMI 68192

What a voice Kate Royal has!  Open, sweet, ecstatic, and poised on toe points rather than operatic heels. She tells a story, relishing the words, rather than proclaiming, “I am an opera star who can shatter glass.” And that’s true not only in the “Vilja Lied” but in 12 other rarely heard works by Alwyn, Stravinsky, Walton, Carlisle Floyd, Britten, Barber, André Messager, Bernard Herrmann, and Erich Korngold on this splendid album. They’re all operatic arias, but she makes them sound like storied songs. Edward Gardner is as expressive as she is, and the engineers provide warm, rich, ideal sound on this essentially romantic album about love and passion entitled “Midsummer Night.”


Strauss, Jr.: Emperor Waltz
Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic (1981, digital)
Deutsche Grammophon

When you’re hot, you’re hot! And when Karajan made this recording, he was in peak style. David Hurwitz once wrote, “Dancing is about sex. And the waltz was definitely one of the sexier numbers during the 19th Century. In all of Strauss’ waltzes, the introductions set the mood or poetic context. Once it gets going, you realize that each waltz is actually a set of five or six separate dances, some quicker, some slower, that alternate in a cleverly planned pattern of activity and rest.” And that’s what is captured here like on no other recording—music choreographed for a pair of dancing lovers.

WebTips: Note that this is Karajan’s 1981 digital recording on an album entitled “Kaiser-Walzer, Emperor Waltz.” (The comments above apply equally to the other six waltzes, polkas, and overtures on this marvelous album.) In the upper right hand corner there’s a slanted tab that says “Digital.” A number of copies might still be available on Amazon.com for less than $2. Note: This is not Karajan’s pedestrian 1967 DG analogue recording. Nor is it one of his recordings on the EMI label.
 

Kálmán: “Heia in den Bergen” from The Gypsy Princess
No recommendation.