The Classic 100 Opera

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The Classic 100 Opera
“your 100 favourite opera moments as voted by listeners of ABC Classic FM”

 

 

ABC Classics 476 9524

8 CDs TPT: 9:00:00+

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

 

 

Verdi’s Lament of the Hebrew Slaves in their Babylonian exile – which is far and away the best known chorus in the opera set in the time of the Biblical King Nebuchadnezzar – was bound to get a high placing in this collection of Australia’s most loved opera moments. In fact, Va, pensiero is placed second and kept from top spot only by In the Depths of the Temple from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.

The Classic 100 Opera moments as voted for by listeners to ABC Classic FM are contained in eight CDs which run for more than nine hours.

But, just as in ABC Classics’ Top 100 Piano Pieces, there is virtually nothing in the liner notes booklet about voting figures which, I’d imagine, would be of real interest to those who took the trouble to vote for their most loved opera extract.

 

How many listeners voted all up? How many voted for each of the pieces on disc? What were the demographics: did voters in, say, Tasmania indicate a greater interest in Verdi or Puccini than South Australian voters? How many listeners in the Northern Territory cast their votes in favour of Richard Strauss or Rossini? What were the figures for NSW?

John Crawford, program manager of ABC Classic FM, contributes a two-page article on the project which is printed in one of the two liner note booklets. But mystifyingly – and disappointingly – the identical article is also printed in the second of the two liner note booklets.

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Why is this – especially when the space pointlessly taken up by the identical article in booklet No 2 could have been used to infinitely better advantage to throw light on the voting figures? This curious silence regarding the voters is precisely what happened when ABC Classics brought out its Classic 100 Piano Pieces compilation.

Of the 100 excerpts on disc, 57 are Australian recordings, most of them of splendid quality. W.A. musicians are very sparsely drawn on, though; the WASO features in four pieces, soprano Sara Macliver once.

On of the most memorable offerings, in fifth place, is a beautiful account of Dido’s Lament sung by mezzo soprano Fiona Campbell. Interestingly, this is the only piece out of the 100 which was specially commissioned for the set – and what a good idea it was, with Campbell unerringly revealing the poignant interior mood of the recitative and aria. She is accompanied in fine style by the Orchestra of the Antipodes conducted by Antony Walker.

A number of the choices raise intriguing questions. Wotan’s Farewell from Wagner’s The Valkyries – sung as if to the manner born by John Wagner – is placed 40th which means that in the ranking it has evidently greater public appeal than, for instance, Una furtiva lagrima (placed at 56TH), the Bell Song from Lakme (at 71) and the Toreador Song from Bizet’s Carmen which comes in, strangely, as low down the list as 75th, with the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro listed 84th and that most ebullient of arias – Largo al factotutm from Rossini’s Barber of Seville – amazingly low on the list at 90th place. Also bordering on the incredible is the placing of The Birdcatcher’s Aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute near rockbottom in 98th place.

Unsurprisingly, Mozart comes top with 19 excerpts, Puccini at 13, Verdi 10 and Wagner on eight. Bizet gets four places. And Monteverdi, Gluck, Massenet, Godard (he of the exquisite Berceuse de Jocelyn), Lehar, Gershwin (Summertime), Mascagni and Catalani are each represented by one item.

Most of the performances are of stunning quality, with Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ Mozart offerings bound to propel him to the international fame his voice deserves. Barbara Bonney and Susan Graham with Eschenbach conducting the Vienna Philharmonic make magic of The Presentation of the Rose from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. And Dame Joan Hammond’s account of Marietta’s Song from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt is genuinely touching. Jussi Bjorling’s Vesti la giubba from Pagliacci has lost none of its power to move. It’s placed 41st.

The sometimes strikingly unexpected rankings – which see Brunnhilde’s Immolation from Wagner’s Gotterdammerung twenty two places ahead of the Willow Song from Verdi’s Otello – would make the voting figures very interesting. So here’s hoping the powers that be reveal just how Australia voted for its favourite opera excerpts.

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn


Nocturnes (Chopin)

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Roger Woodward (piano)

Celestial Harmonies
TPT: 2:04:12 2-CD

 

  reviewed by Neville Cohn

As a teenager – and much to the annoyance of my parents – I played and endlessly replayed an LP of the complete Nocturnes of Chopin. The soloist was Arthur Rubinstein and the passionately extrovert manner of his interpretations made a huge impression on me. Certainly, those performances of long ago are still as vivid and meaningful for me as they were when I first encountered this keyboard treasure.

These interpretations established for me the standard by which all other performances of the Nocturnes were measured. But the other day, I came across no less lustrous musical gold: Roger Woodward’s account of the complete Nocturnes, a set that includes the two posthumously published Nocturnes – one in C sharp minor, the other in C minor – neither of which formed part of the Rubinstein recordings of the early 1950s to which I have referred here.

Woodward’s offerings are wonderfully considered interpretations. There is nothing remotely glib or cheap about the presentation which comes across with near-faultless taste and refinement of expression. Woodward’s performance has the inestimable advantage of recording engineers who clearly know exactly what they are doing; the end result is magical, piano tone right across the range as true and honest as one could ever hope it to be.

If you value the music of Chopin at the highest level, I urge you to obtain these wonderful recordings. Treasure them; they are a cornucopia of wonders, entirely justifying Rubinstein’s own comment that Woodward was one of the best Chopin interpreters he had ever encountered.

Listen to the first of the set – opus 9 no 1 – glowing toned, unhurried, bordering on the languid, and op 9 no 2, surely the most hackneyed of all the Nocturnes, music routinely massacred by earnest but wooden young piano players at eisteddfodau. Hear it, for once, shorn of honeyed sentimentality. And the third of the set, seldom encountered in live performance is rather too long for its material (in Rubinstein’s famous recording, a hefty segment of it is deleted). In Woodward’s hands, one can savour the ecstatic edge brought to its flying arabesques, its interior mood of turbulence finely revealed but always within the line and contour of Chopin’s idiosyncratic style.

The three nocturnes of opus 15 are given memorable treatment, too: the central section of the Nocturne in F is darkly dramatic, the outer sections essays in tenderness. I specially admired the second of the set – the F sharp minor Nocturne – not least for the refinement that informs the outer sections. And in the third of the set, Woodward captures its elusive essence like a moth in the gentlest of hands.

Other marvels are a profoundly expressive opus 27 no 2 – and the unhurried unfolding of opus 37 no 2 (its thirds are immaculately essayed). And Woodward transforms the great Nocturne in C minor from opus 48, its pizzicato-type bass chords and surging climaxes the stuff of high inspiration.

Highly recommended.

Neville Cohn Copyright 2006

 


Nocturnes (Chopin) Roger Woodward (piano)

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Nocturnes (Chopin)

 

 

Roger Woodward (piano)

Celestial Harmonies
TPT: 2:04:12 2-CD

 reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

As a teenager – and much to the annoyance of my parents – I played and endlessly replayed an LP of the complete Nocturnes of Chopin. The soloist was Arthur Rubinstein and the passionately extrovert manner of his interpretations made a huge impression on me. Certainly, those performances of long ago are still as vivid and meaningful for me as they were when I first encountered this keyboard treasure.
These interpretations established for me the standard by which all other performances of the Nocturnes were measured. But the other day, I came across no less lustrous musical gold: Roger Woodward’s account of the complete Nocturnes, a set that includes the two posthumously published Nocturnes – one in C sharp minor, the other in C minor – neither of which formed part of the Rubinstein recordings of the early 1950s to which I have referred here.
Woodward’s offerings are wonderfully considered interpretations. There is nothing remotely glib or cheap about the presentation which comes across with near-faultless taste and refinement of expression. Woodward’s performance has the inestimable advantage of recording engineers who clearly know exactly what they are doing; the end result is magical, piano tone right across the range as true and honest as one could ever hope it to be.
If you value the music of Chopin at the highest level, I urge you to obtain these wonderful recordings. Treasure them; they are a cornucopia of wonders, entirely justifying Rubinstein’s own comment that Woodward was one of the best Chopin interpreters he had ever encountered.
Listen to the first of the set – opus 9 no 1 – glowing toned, unhurried, bordering on the languid, and op 9 no 2, surely the most hackneyed of all the Nocturnes, music routinely massacred by earnest but wooden young piano players at eisteddfodau. Hear it, for once, shorn of honeyed sentimentality. And the third of the set, seldom encountered in live performance is rather too long for its material (in Rubinstein’s famous recording, a hefty segment of it is deleted). In Woodward’s hands, one can savour the ecstatic edge brought to its flying arabesques, its interior mood of turbulence finely revealed but always within the line and contour of Chopin’s idiosyncratic style.
The three nocturnes of opus 15 are given memorable treatment, too: the central section of the Nocturne in F is darkly dramatic, the outer sections essays in tenderness. I specially admired the second of the set – the F sharp minor Nocturne – not least for the refinement that informs the outer sections. And in the third of the set, Woodward captures its elusive essence like a moth in the gentlest of hands.
Other marvels are a profoundly expressive opus 27 no 2 – and the unhurried unfolding of opus 37 no 2 (its thirds are immaculately essayed). And Woodward transforms the great Nocturne in C minor from opus 48, its pizzicato-type bass chords and surging climaxes the stuff of high inspiration.
Highly recommended.




Neville Cohn Copyright 2006


 


 







 


 


 


 




 



					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				Bist du bei mir – Anna Magdalena Bach’s Book
			

										

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Bist du bei mir – Anna Magdalena Bach’s Book


Jacob Lawrence (boy soprano)

Elizabeth Anderson (harpsichord)


MOVE MCD 3304


reviewed by Neville Cohn


 


 


Innumerable young piano pupils have cut their musical teeth on the easier pieces contained in the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach such as the two ubiquitous Minuets in G, routinely massacred by indifferently taught youngsters blissfully ignorant of the elegance and stateliness that lie at their heart.


It takes a musician of high order, such as Elizabeth Anderson (in superb form) to reveal the magic enshrined in these deceptively easy miniatures and her every contribution provides unalloyed listening delight. Indeed, I’ve returned to this recording on a number of occasions for the pleasure of experiencing Anderson’s artistry.


bist


How gratifyingly she mines each piece for its aesthetic essence. The French Suite in D minor is meticulously detailed as is the Partita No 3 in A minor. I especially admired the Burlesca which unfolds at a good, sturdy pace – and Anderson elsewhere taps into the joyousness that is enshrined in so many of the movements, not least the finely detailed Gigue.


Among the delights of this compilation is Les Bergeries, its phrasing shaped to allow the music to breathe in the most musical way. And that mainstay of eisteddfod competitions – the Solo per il Cembalo (by C.P.E.Bach) is given splendidly emphatic rhythmic underpinning. The little March in E flat is magically buoyant.


There are also a number of tracks devoted to the singing of boy soprano Jacob Lawrence. Although I am sure that great seriousness of purpose was brought to these recordings, some disconcertingly uneven intonation is problematical.


Not the least of the pleasures of this offering is the quality of the liner notes; they make fascinating reading and contribute in a very real way to enhancing listening pleasure.


Neville Cohn Copyright 2006






					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				HARMONIEMUSIK   The Australian Classical Wind Band
			

										

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HARMONIEMUSIK

The Australian Classical Wind Band


Octet in E flat,opus 103 (Beethoven);

Quintet for piano and winds, KV452 (Mozart);

Serenade No 11,KV375 (Mozart)


ABC Classics 476 5256

TPT: 01:10:31


reviewed by Neville Cohn


A generous grant by the University of Western Australia provided the means to purchase a number of fine reproductions of early wind instruments. These have been utilised to praiseworthy effect in a compilation devoted to Harmoniemusik written by Mozart and Beethoven.


Radio and recordings were, of course, unknown in that era when this music was written. And the only way that many music lovers of the time might have heard hits from recently performed new operas (especially if they lived in towns without a resident opera company) was through concerts of opera-extract arrangements.


auswind


As was pointed out at the Perth launch of this CD, these selections played by the local wind band (known in Europe as Harmonie), were the juke boxes of that era; they enjoyed huge popularity playing what were the tops of the pops of the day. In addition to this, there were works purpose-written for Harmonie bands – and two of these are here played by a ensemble of musicians who style themselves The Australian Classical Wind Band.


As was pointed out at the launch of this CD, the instruments that would have been used in Mozart’s or Beethoven’s eras would not have been 200 or 250 years old. They would instead have been crafted in the days in which these composers lived and worked. So there is a strong case for these works to be performed, not on very old instruments of, say, Mozart’s day, but on good quality 20th- and 21st-century reproductions which would give to today’s listeners a far more realistic idea as to how ensembles would have sounded in bygone eras. And that applies to this recording.


At the launch, we were told that recording sessions to place this compilation on disc was not entirely without problems. Some of it was done in the dining room of a convalescent home which had a good acoustic. The recording was made late at night when there was little chance of residents or staff coming into the room which was, we were told, very cold indeed. Heaters were brought in to warm the room but this, too, became problematical as, after a comfortable working temperature was obtained, the heaters were switched off and, as happens with such appliances as they cool and contract, produced – we were told – a range of clicking noises that made recording even more problematical.


But patience had its reward. The end product is altogether appealing, with Beethoven’s Octet in E flat and Mozart’s Quintet for piano and winds, K452 working their customary magic. How strikingly different the works sound compared to performances on modern instruments. Here, playing within the line and contour of their eras, the instruments have an individual and corporate tone very substantially different to that produced by their modern descendants.


The recording is a joy from first note to last, not least for experiencing it much as our ancestors would have heard it.


In passing: I have heard these recordings on a number of ABC Classic FM broadcasts. I hope very much that radio stations abroad will give it the exposure it warrants.


Copyright Neville Cohn 2006