Volume 23 Issue 2 - October 2017

! Deutsche Grammophon are milking their
exclusive partnership with Nézet-Séguin.
They have a winner with this smart and
attractive recording.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe was
founded in 1981 by young graduates of
the European Union Youth Orchestra.
This recording was a result of a week of
concerts under Nézet-Séguin’s baton, in the
Philharmonie in Paris in February 2016. It has
the vitality of a live performance, with fine
playing from all the sections.
The numbering of Mendelssohn’s
symphonies does not reflect their chronology.
Their true order is 1-5-4-2-3. This
doesn’t matter, though, as there is a stylistic
homogeneity that runs through all five. Clear
counterpoint, rugged drama hearkening back
to Haydn’s Sturm und Drang (most notably
in the last movement of the Fourth), nostalgic
beauty and yes, those attractive melodies.
The collaboration between Nézet-Séguin
and the COE shines in each of these works.
The pacing and tempi illuminate the structure
and breadth of Mendelssohn’s expression.
There are highlights in all five symphonies:
the great journeys of the First and Third, the
exuberance of the Fourth, Baroque religiosity
of the Fifth.
For me, the greatest achievement of
this disc is the superb performance of the
Second Symphony or Hymn of Praise
(Lobgesang). On the surface, it’s a strange
work: symphony? Cantata? Oratorio? There
are obvious comparisons to be made with
Beethoven’s Ninth (which don’t favour
Mendelssohn), but – taken on its own and
knowing that it was written as an occasional
work to celebrate the 400th anniversary
of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing
press – the piece is an irrepressible celebration
of life and intelligence. Nézet-Séguin,
the RIAS Kammerchor and three fabulous
soloists (including Canada’s Ruby Awardwinning
luminous diva, Karina Gauvin) raise
the roof in a sincere and joyful rendering of a
unique score.
Larry Beckwith
Bruckner – Symphony No.3; Wagner –
Tannhäuser Overture
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig; Andris
Nelsons
Deutsche Grammophon 479 7208
! Anton Bruckner
moved to Linz in
1856 to take up
the position of
organist at the
Old Cathedral,
Ignatiuskirche,
rapidly establishing
himself as
one of Europe’s greatest exponents of the
instrument. Bruckner also took to studying
theory and composition under Simon
Sechter and later with Otto Kitzler. When the
latter conducted a performance of Richard
Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Linz, Bruckner fell
under Wagner’s spell, melding the composer’s
passion for poetry and drama with the
unbounded exaltation of his (Bruckner’s)
spirituality to deliver so much in the way of
harmonic ingenuity, melodic sweep and sheer
orchestral magnificence in his music.
Andris Nelsons delivers all of this grandeur
in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 in D Minor
(WAB 103), paired with Wagner’s Tannhäuser
Overture. This live recording made with the
legendary Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
is the first in a proposed cycle of Bruckner
symphonies. No.3 was unfinished when
Bruckner took it to Wagner, who, in 1873,
selected it as a dedication to him by Bruckner.
Under Nelsons’ baton Bruckner’s spiritualism
and Wagnerian grandeur soar in music
redolent of melodic and harmonic touches.
It is a visceral and dynamic performance.
Nelsons shows that he has developed a perfect
bond between the orchestra’s instrumentalists,
enabling them to dig deep and bring to
No.3 and the Tannhäuser Overture a sublime
melodic beauty – conducting the structurally
complex music with outstanding naturalness,
a special charisma and dignity in a way that
only a great Bruckner conductor can.
Raul da Gama
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY
Chamber Music (Re)Discoveries
Suzanne Snizek; Benjamin Butterfield;
Keith Hamm; Joanna Hood; Yoomi Kim;
Alexandria Le; Aaron Schwebel
University of Victoria
(finearts.uvic.ca/music/flute)
! Imagine picking
up a CD of music
by three unknown
composers named
Bartók, Copland
and Shostakovich,
listening and
wondering how
you could not have
heard of them. Listening to Suzanne Snizek’s
new CD was a bit like this for me except the
names of most of the composers really were
unknown: Jan van Gilse, Petr Eben, Leo Smit,
Mieczysław Weinberg, Boris Blacher. Their
music, highly individual and accomplished,
has languished forgotten for three generations,
because they lived (and three died) in
the cataclysms of Nazism and Stalinism.
The music on this CD, as Snizek points out
in the notes, does not reveal the tragic and
traumatic circumstances of the composers’
lives. The transcendent lyricism of the
opening soliloquies of van Gilse’s Trio and
Eben’s second Lied, played so simply and
movingly by Snizek, speak of another reality,
as do the exuberant abandon of the third
movement of the van Gilse Sonata, the first
and last movements of the Smit Sonata and
the third movement of the Blacher.
Snizek’s artistry both as a soloist and as
a collaborator is evident throughout, but
nowhere more so than in her “dialogues”
with tenor Benjamin Butterfield in Eben’s
Drei Stille Lieder. She has spent a decade
researching this lost, forgotten and neglected
generation of composers. Her research,
coupled with the artistry of all the performers
on this CD, makes it an important addition to
our knowledge and the repertoire of the mid-
20th century.
Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Snizek
is now professor of flute and music history
at the University of Victoria. Proceeds from
CD sales, available through their website, will
go to support the University of Victoria
flute studio.
Allan Pulker
Editor’s note: Regular DISCoveries readers
will know that Mieczysław Weinberg’s music
has enjoyed mounting interest in recent
years; 15 CDs that include his music have
been reviewed in these pages, beginning in
December 2006 with the ARC Ensemble’s
RCA release On the Threshold of Hope.
The ARC Ensemble’s exploration of “lost
composers” is ongoing, as can be seen in the
following review.
Chamber Works by Szymon Laks
ARC Ensemble
Chandos CHAN 10983
! In 1942, Polish-
Jewish composer
Szymon Laks
was deported to
Auschwitz. Few
prisoners survived
that place. But,
remarkably, the
Nazis’ demands for
Laks’ skills as a violinist, copyist, arranger
and conductor kept him alive, as he explains
in his harrowing, brilliant memoir.
This collection of his music is the third in
the ARC (Artists of The Royal Conservatory)
Ensemble’s Music in Exile series recovering
lost works by composers suppressed by
Hitler’s regime. Laks suffered dreadfully
during the war, yet his continued neglect
afterwards is certainly undeserved. His
music may not be groundbreaking, but it is
inventive, with alluring melodies, exciting
rhythmic sequences, shifting moods and
luminous harmonies.
The String Quartet No.4 deserves a place
in every quartet’s repertoire. In fact, all six
of the works on this disc merit frequent
performances and recordings, including
the lively, angular Divertimento, the rhapsodic
Sonatina (one of the few works by Laks
to survive from before the war) the tender
Concertino, the poignant Passacaille and the
Piano Quintet on Popular Polish Themes,
brimming with vivid character.
These are all premiere recordings, though
some works were previously recorded in
different versions, and the Quartet No.4
66 | October 2017 thewholenote.com