Ersteinspielungen bergen stets einen eigentümlichen Reiz, besonders wenn es...

Audite is in the process of assembling a complete Mahler cycle with Kubelík and the Bavarian RSO from radio relays. So far the recordings date across a period of 15 years‚ with this Das Lied von der Erde‚ broadcast in February 1970‚ among the earliest. Kubelík’s Mahler is heard here at its most typical‚ so much at ease with the sound­world and tempo of the music that other conductors can seem heavy­ handed by comparison. It is at the other extreme from the explosive collision of emotions that makes Bernstein’s recordings so intense and choppy: Kubelík is natural‚ easy­going‚ fresh in his delight at the score’s exquisite detail. Although the poems of Das Lied refer to several seasons‚ this performance surely belongs to the spring‚ when ‘the dear earth everywhere blooms… and grows green again’. Waldemar Kmentt is strong and sure in the tenor songs but rather pedestrian. There is not much sense of wide­eyed wonder at the arrival of spring or uninhibited hedonism as the wine is being poured. Dame Janet Baker already features on several other recordings‚ including a live broadcast on BBC Legends‚ but no two of her performances of this work were the same. Here‚ in 1970‚ she sings with much pure‚ vocal beauty and a desire for intimacy that is remarkable in a large concert­hall. In the second song the close to each rising phrase is beautifully handled. The fourth song is graceful‚ though less sensuous than on her Philips recording under Haitink. In the final ‘Abschied’ the voice truly sails ‘wie eine Silberbarke’ on hushed legato lines shimmering with intensity.

Some may prefer to stick with studio recordings of Das Lied‚ where the orchestra has had the luxury of extra takes to polish every detail‚ but there are no complaints about the Bavarian orchestra here. There are also a few studio recordings (Karajan and the Solti among them) that perform technical somersaults to end up with a recorded balance less satisfying than here.

Das 20. Jahrhundert brachte eine Menge an Literatur für Orgel und Trompete, zwei musikalisch wirklich komplementäre Instrumente. Diese CD, die nur dem Namen nach und wegen Petr Ebens farbiger Komposition ’Okna (Fenster)’ an die von Pizzicatos Mutterhaus ’Artevents’ produzierte CD mit Philippe Schartz erinnert, bietet ein sehr anspruchsvolles Programm.
Bernhard Kratzer, Solotrompeter der Stuttgarter Oper, und der Organist Martin Sander beginnen das Programm mit Henri Tomasis ’Semaine Sainte à Cuzco’. Es folgen die stilistisch vielfältigen sieben Kirchenchoräle von Jean Langlais und die ’Canzona’ von Hans Ludwig Schilling über ’Christ ist erstanden’.
Sigfrid Karg-Elerts opulente Erste sinfonische Kanzone op. 85 Nr. 1 leitet den zweiten, profanen Teil der CD ein. Danach hören wir Introduktion und Allegro von Gerhard Deutschmann, mit einem melodiösen ersten und einem sehr rhythmischen zweiten Teil schon fast etwas wie ein Konzert für Trompete und Orgel.
Petr Ebens Zyklus ’Okna’ über vier Glasmosaikfenster des französischen Künstlers Marc Chagall beendet die CD, deren hohe musikalische Qualität vollends überzeugt. Bernhard Kratzer spielt mit lupenreiner Intonation, vital und klangschön, und Martin Sander bietet ein überaus reiches und transparentes Orgelspiel an. Die Tonaufnahme nutzt die Weiträumigkeit des Kirchenraumes des Münsters von Villingen optimal aus. Dabei wirkt der Ton stets schlank und natürlich, in der Relation zwischen Orgel und Trompete ist er geradezu ideal.

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Here is a provocatively attractive and varied collection that should appeal to saxophone buffs as well as enthusiasts of these composers and this style-genre. With the exception of the Debussy these are all uncommon works and will attract interest ... and more.

The Tomasi shows Tassot as a soloist able to coax honey and amber from the sax. The legato phrasing is notable slightly coloured with a jazzy voice. The music has the motion of sea-wrack and deep green tones. The second episode is more animated with a ‘Bolero’ stomp. The brass can be scaldingly Baxian and the boiling climaxes at 7.01 and 11.15 are redolent of La Valse (again a Ravel cross-reference). Soon we return to the warbling and rough-rolling brass - a little like Messiaen meets Bax. There are only two movements the second of which starts with a sinister Baxian chase. This is extremely effective music also reminding me of the music of Louis Aubert (the superb Tombeau de Chateaubriand - hear it on Marco Polo) and the melodramatic Bernard Herrmann. Tomasi is well worth dedicated exploration and persistence as the Lyrinx CD (LYR 227) also reviewed here further bears out. I have been working on a review of his gorgeous opera Don Juan for several months now.

I was much looking forward to the Caplet having heard his scorchingly imaginative and tragic Epiphanie for cello and orchestra last year. This Légende dates from much earlier in the composer's short life at a time when the saxophone enjoyed its first solo celebrity. It is a rhapsodically extended piece with a pleasing serenading character but without the scorch and acid of Epiphanie. The work was uncovered as recently as 1988 by Londeix. This is the first recording of its version with orchestra. The version for saxophone and alto saxophone, string quintet, oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1903) was recorded by Arno Bornkamp (saxophone) on Brilliant 6476. It has the liquidly mellifluous yearn and yield of the Glazunov concerto crossed with the idyllic Delius. The Absil is the most recent piece here, light on the palate but a little dry.

Marius Constant had a French father and a Rumanian mother. He studied in Paris with Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen. He also studied with Jean Fournet (whose outstanding Debussy on Supraphon Archive, I have just reviewed) and Arthur Honegger. While we Brits brag about BBC Radio 3 and its illustrious predecessor, The Third Programme, France had ‘France Musique’, a station which grew under Constant’s direction. The Musique de Concert is for sax plus three each woodwind and brass plus strings, piano and percussion. The whole thing is done in just over ten minutes across five varied and jewelled movements in which the musical influences are compendious from Swingle-style Bach, to jazz, to avant-garde alienation, to rhythmic and dissonant ‘pepper’. Finally comes the Debussy. This is all plush and dripping honey, gurgling dances and warm dawns. The orchestra score a wondrous warmth at 2.19.

That’s four of the five pieces appearing here in world premiere recordings. The Debussy provides the ‘sheet anchor’ of comparative familiarity.

I really liked this collection. It is well played in every department. The selection reflects an audacity and valour rare in today’s industry.