Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic
EMI
Rattle makes this a true impressionistic experience as a music emerges from the ether and moves in a laconic, liquid flow (the same is true for the other works on the album). For once, EMI has come up with excellent sound for the BPO in its problematic Philharmonie hall.
Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 (“Age of Anxiety”)
Jeffrey Kahane, piano; Andrew Litton, Bournemouth Symphony
Virgin Classics
Recorded in 1990, this performance captures why Andrew Litton, then a recent protégé of Mstislav Rostropovich and music director in Bournemouth, had such promise that he was appointed to the Dallas Symphony four years later. This recording ranges from super-sensitive to full-voiced jazzy orchestra; Kahane serves as the perfect foil for Litton, bringing a really classy, sophisticated, ultra-cool touch to those rhythms. Ensemble and flow are superb, as is the rich engineering.
WebTip: This recording has been re-released with its original contents as one CD (easy to find), but amazon.com has it on a 2-CD re-release at about one-fourth the price.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
William Steinberg, Pittsburgh Symphony
EMI
Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic
Deutsche Grammophon
If the RPO remembers the glory days of Zinman and Leinsdorf and Boston Symphony those of Koussevitsky, the Pittsburgh Symphony longs for Steinberg. This recording tells you why: textures, balances, and rhythms are so upbeat and clear, and tempos so perfectly connect from one movement to another that you’d think Steinberg invented the period-instrument movement. Everything fits perfectly, and it’s exciting to boot! The superb 1957 sound is stellar. The interpretation is also traditional.
For an eye-opener, Harnoncourt and Gardiner move aside. Abbado, sick with cancer in 2000, here is driven. This is no “apotheosis of the dance”—it’s a fist to heaven, conquering all by sheer will power. Dreadful sound be damned (sounds like Toscanini only in stereo), from bass to treble every motif sings out, every phrase has impulse; the flow is non-stop, the dialogue is constant, and the energy level that of a marathon. Wait till you hear the finale—I’m sure the players headed straight for the showers at the end. As Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, “Abbado’s probably too pure a spirit to admit that his recent battle with stomach cancer has changed his musicianship, but the Carnegie concerts [which included Beethoven’s 7th] showed a new urgency and simplicity, as if he knows what counts.”
WebTips: The Steinberg is available on two re-releases, one with Hugo Wolf’s Serenade (the only orchestral recording available—it’s absolutely glorious) and Mendelssohn’s “Italian Symphony,” the other with Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto.” The Abbado is currently available only as part of a 5-CD set of all nine Symphonies.
