SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: RESPIGHI CONCERTO GREGORIANO on MARCO POLO RECORDS

 

RESPIGHI Concerto Gregoriano

Poema Autunnale

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Takako Nishizaki (Violin)

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Marco Polo 8.220152

Following the successful collaboration between the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by music director Choo Hoey and Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki in the Hung Hu Violin Concerto album, this was a logical follow-up. The Hong Kong-based Marco Polo label was mining little-recorded repertoire to fill gaping lacunae in the catalogue and Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, underrepresented on disc other than his Roman Trilogy, was a good choice.

Respighi’s Concerto Gregoriano (1921-22) is a sumptuously scored violin concerto in three movements based on Gregorian chant themes. The modal character of its melodies places it in the stylistic territory of concertante works like Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending (premiered 1921) and the much later Butterfly Lovers Concerto (1959) by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. In fact, all three works make a splendid programme for a dreamily rhapsodic album. 

The solo part is virtuosic which Nishizaki masters with aplomb, and SSO is a sympathetic partner which has substantial orchestral chunks of its own to chew on. The 31-minute concerto has a shorter companion in Respighi’s Poema Autunnale (Autumn Poem, 1925), a 14-minute long work with very similar inspirations, making it a virtual twin of The Lark Ascending.

The young Choo Hoey, looking stylish

Recorded in May 1983, both performances have since been eclipsed by Lydia Mordkovitch / Edward Downes on Chandos (1993) and Vadim Brodsky / Francesco la Vecchia on Brilliant Classics (2009-10). This received a dismissive review on Gramophone but garnered 4 of 5 stars on Classic CD. Go figure. Nonetheless, this is an interesting look at how the young SSO accompanied its soloists, usually a prelude to recording more repertoire on its own.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2016)

RACHMANINOV Variations

DANIIL TRIFONOV, Piano

The Philadelphia Orchestra 

Yannick Nezet-Seguin

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4970 / *****

This 80-minute-long album brings together the three great sets of variations for piano by Russian composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). The most popular is his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini ,one of his last works, based on Paganini's Caprice No.24 for unaccompanied violin, with a prominent role offered by the medieval chant Dies Irae. Its first ever recording was made in 1934 by Rachmaninov himself, partnered by The Philadelphia Orchestra, the same orchestra on this recording.

Young prize-winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov proves himself to be the composer's equal on the technical front, but goes one further with the Chopin Variations (1904) and Corelli Variations (1931) for solo piano, which Rachmaninov never recorded. The former, based on Chopin's Prélude in C minor (Op.28 No.20), is longer and more discursive, and Trifonov closes with a restatement of the original piece. In the latter, he adds his own individual touches by highlighting secondary voices.

His personal contribution is the 4-movement suite Rachmaniana, a tribute to Rachmaninov's skill in writing miniatures, crafted in the stylistic manner of the master himself. An impressive show of pianism all round.  

RESPIGHI Complete Orchestral Works

Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma 

Francesco la Vecchia

Brilliant Classics 94900 (8CDs) / **** 

Despite its title, this slim-line budget box set does not contain the complete orchestral output of Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). For example, it does not include the ballet music of La Boutique Fantasque or Belkis, Queen Of Sheba, both excellent examples of his orchestration skills, nor his orchestrations of Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux. 

His most important works are here. The Roman Trilogy – Festivals, Fountains and Pines – is a good place to start for the taste of his sumptuous and opulently canvases. The early hour-long Sinfonia Drammatica in three movements is overblown with Wagnerian gestures, but is made up by its mastery of form.

Respighi's forté was dressing up old music and antique forms in Romantic shades and colours, such as the three suites of Ancient Airs And Dances, The Birds (based on baroque keyboard pieces), Botticelli Triptych and Church Windows, which include elaborations on medieval chants. These are skilfully crafted as are the concertos built upon ancient modes. 

The best of these is the Concerto Gregoriano for violin (with excellent soloist Vadim Brodsky) and the Concerto In Mixolydian Mode for piano which in parts sounds like Rachmaninov and even Gershwin. There may be better performances on record of the Roman Trilogy but the Roman forces here score on authenticity. With excellent programme notes, here is a handy start to exploring this fascinating composer.  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2013)

MISSION

CECILIA BARTOLI

I Barocchisti / Diego Fasolis

Decca 478 4732 / *****

This new release confirms Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli’s legacy as one of opera’s greatest voices and minds. The intelligence and adventurousness of her concept albums now takes her to the operas of little-known Baroque composer, Roman Catholic bishop and polymath Agostino Steffani (1654-1728), who for many years served as a diplomat in the royal courts of Germany. The copiously illustrated accompanying book has Bartoli costumed as a priest and stereotypical movie spy, the shadowy envoys get into, including attempting to reconvert the Protestant Germans back to Catholicism.

What about the music? Bartoli sings 24 arias and duets (with countertenor Philippe Jarrousky) from twelve operas, selected for their virtuosity, variety and dynamic range. Just savour the vertiginous runs and gravity-defying feats from Tassilone, Il Trionfo del Fato, La Superbia d’Alessandro and La Liberta Contenta, to hear how he might have influenced Handel’s own operas. On a more subtle note, there is great beauty in Amami, e Vederei (Love Me, and You Will See), accompanied by just a lute, and the duet Serena, O Mio bel sole (Tamper, My Beautiful Sun), both from Niobe. Was Steffani the greatest Italian composer between Monteverdi and Vivaldi? With Bartoli’s amazingly vivid and irrepressible proselytising, he might very well have been.

RESPIGHI Violin Sonatas

TANJA BECKER-BENDER, Violin

PETER NAGY, Piano

Hyperion 67930 / ****1/2

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) is justly celebrated for his Roman Trilogy and sumptuously orchestrated works. In his less exposed chamber music, he sounds like a totally different creator. In this collection of violin and piano works, only the Violin Sonata in B minor of 1917 bears some familiarity, having been recorded by Jascha Heifetz and Kyung-Wha Chung. A dark, smoky aroma and Straussian opulence lend the music much beauty and poignancy. The nocturne-like slow movement radiates much warmth as it works to a climactic high, while the finale is a well-written passacaglia, a contemporary tribute to the Baroque form and finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.

Rather more influenced by Brahms is the early Violin Sonata in D minor (1897), an attractive student piece of late Romanticism that is not particularly distinctive. More memorable are the Five Pieces (1906), which are well characterised and include a Romance, Berceuse and Humoresque. Almost out of character are the salon charms of Valse Caressante and Serenata, which are totally disarming. The German violinist Tanja Becker-Bender and Hungarian pianist Peter Nagy are most sympathetic advocates, lavishing the music with much needed colour and vitality. Recommended listening. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2010)

CHOPIN 21 Nocturnes

YUNDI, Piano

EMI Classics 6083912 (2CDs)

****

The Nocturnes of Frederic Chopin represent the French-Polish pianist-composer at his most personal and expressive. Taking the simple genre of a “night piece” created by the Irishman John Field, he transformed these into exquisite miniature tone poems. Most of these open in tranquillity but some take on darker and more turbulent overtones. Arguably the greatest of these is the tragic C minor Nocturne (Op.48 No.1) with its rapturous chords and tumultuous octave passages. Others revel in Chopin’s love for bel canto singing, none better realised in the seamless D flat major Nocturne (Op.27 No.2). Despite his recent onstage travails, Chinese pianist Yundi (who has now dropped his surname Li) is still quintessentially a Chopinist at heart. He finds beauty in these pages and his fingers do not fail him. The two discs are priced as one.

RESPIGHI Church Windows

Brazilian Impressions

Buffalo Philharmonic / JOANN FALLETTA

Naxos 8.557711

****1/2

The Italian Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) is best known for his sumptuous orchestral canvases, typified by his Roman Trilogy. Vetrate Di Chiesa (Church Windows) of 1925 follows in this grandiose tradition, an orchestration of his Three Preludes On Gregorian Melodies (originally for piano solo). The second movement St Michael The Archangel explosively depicts the shock and awe of an almighty celestial battle between good and evil. Brazilian Impressions evocatively paint scenes of a tropical rainforest, venomous snakes at the Butatan institute (the ominous Die Irae is quoted) and a Copland-esque Song And Dance. Alongside these exotic musical picture postcards, Rossiniana – a suite of Rossini’s dances - sounds staid by comparison. Lady conductor JoAnn Falletta, who conducted the Singapore premiere of Church Windows, directs these less familiar scores as if they were great classics.