Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

as to the placement
of the orchestra
in relation to the
stage. He was also
the first one who
thought of turning
off the lights in
the auditorium
during performance.
Naturally the orchestra became an integral
part of his music dramas and much of his
orchestral music can be independently played
at concerts.
The Ring has ample scope for this, collected
now on a single CD by Naxos with the Buffalo
Philharmonic and their current music
director, JoAnn Falletta. It’s primary purpose
most likely is to show off the virtuosity of this
fine ensemble and its conductor and perhaps
give an introduction to the uninitiated at a
low price. The excerpts evoke some of the
great scenes, like the Entry of the Gods into
Valhalla over a rainbow bridge or the Ride of
the Valkyries where you can hear the shrieks
of laughter of the warrior maidens and the
neighing of the horses, or the wondrous
Magic Fire Music with its shimmering curtain
of sound. We can even hear the waves of
the mighty Rhine carrying Siegfried to his
eventual doom.
Given the enormous popularity of the Ring
today and dozens of new video versions,
this modest CD is a good reminder of
the timeless musical beauties that might
escape the hurried wayfarers of our digital,
plug-in world.
Janos Gardonyi
Mahler – Symphony No.1
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker; Ádám Fischer
Avi-Music 8553390 (avi-music.de)
!!
It started innocently
enough.
Our stalwart editor
kindly brought
me this Mahler
disc conducted by
a fellow named
Fischer. I presumed
his first name was
Iván, well known
for the excellence of his Mahler recordings
with his Budapest Festival Orchestra;
but what was he doing in Düsseldorf? Well,
I was (not so) sadly mistaken; Iván has
an elder brother, named Ádám, who has
been the music director of the venerable
Düsseldorf orchestra since 2015. And what
of the Düsseldorf ensemble? Established 200
years ago, it was led in its early days by the
likes of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Though
their symphonic profile is unfortunately
overshadowed these days by their onerous
commitments to the local opera house, they
are an aristocratic ensemble of outstanding
sensitivity that deserves a far greater international
reputation.
In fact, I was so impressed by the excellence
of this recording of Mahler’s fledgling
symphony I eagerly sought out and strongly
recommend their earlier volumes of this
ongoing cycle as well, which Fischer boldly
launched in 2015 with the most under-appreciated
of Mahler’s symphonies, the sphinxlike
Seventh. I was floored by that 2015
performance, which is amongst the finest I
have ever heard. From start to finish Fischer
never loses sight of the connecting threads of
this highly sectional work, expertly driving it
to a triumphal conclusion. I was reminded of
an incident in 1976 when I was astonished to
witness a high school band sauntering down
Bloor Street during the annual Christmas
parade, blasting away the principal theme
of the finale of this work. Mahler himself
would have been delighted to have witnessed
that event; his time had indeed come! That’s
exactly how joyously the conclusion of this
work reaches its spirited apotheosis.
The subsequent volume featuring the
Fourth Symphony is equally fine, a beautifully
sculpted sonic landscape imbued with
the effervescent spirit of Haydn, over which
passing clouds of mock menace occasionally
appear. No detail is overlooked and
the performance is full of personality with
a chamber-music-like delicacy. It rivals
my sentimental favourite performance by
George Szell.
The recordings in this ongoing cycle are
edits of live performances captured by
German Radio. The sound is excellent and
the audience is undetectable, though at times
the lower frequencies seem slightly indistinct
(notably in the First Symphony), likely
due to the unusual spherical design of the
Düsseldorf Tonhalle, a repurposed, massive
planetarium constructed in 1926. Fischer
himself contributes his own provocative
thoughts in the program notes.
A fourth volume devoted to the Fifth
Symphony was released in March. Digital
downloads are available at avi-music.de.
This series promises to rank among the
most compelling of Mahler cycles in a very
crowded field.
Daniel Foley
Prokofiev – Symphony No.7; Orchestral
works
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Marin
Alsop
Naxos 8.573620 (naxos.com)
!!
Sergei Prokofiev
made a disastrous
decision in 1936 to
return to his homeland,
the Soviet
Union. Already a
much celebrated
composer and
pianist in the West,
he was hoping the Stalinist repression and
terror wouldn’t apply to him like it did to
Shostakovich, who kept a packed suitcase by
his bedside to be ready when the KGB showed
up. It didn’t, but Prokofiev’s creative genius
was much curtailed and, plagued with ill
health, financial and marriage problems, he
was driven to an early death in 1953 (a day I
remember), a few hours before Stalin died.
The Seventh Symphony that stems from
this period shows no sign of the lessening of
his talents, although it was aimed at pleasing
the regime. What makes it so beautiful is
his melodic gifts par excellence combined
with tremendous skill in counterpoint, with
countermelodies going in the opposite direction
in the lower registers against the main
subjects in the upper strings. The effect is
remarkably original, and made transparent
here by Marin Alsop. She recorded the entire
set of Prokofiev’s symphonies with the Sao
Paulo Symphony Orchestra, with which
she seems to have special affinity. Alsop
takes a relaxed approach, somewhat slower
than expected, revelling in the lyricism and
beauties of the score, but gathers momentum
in the last movement with an inimitable,
energetic yet graceful style that I had the
good fortune to witness when I last saw her
with the TSO.
In addition, there are two excerpts from
the opera Love for Three Oranges, with the
Scherzo delightfully driven in good humour
and devil-may-care abandon, and the
Lieutenant Kije Suite, where Alsop conjures
up a monumental brass fanfare from pianississimo
in steady crescendo to a formidable
fortississimo, a remarkable feat by the Sao
Paulo brass and Naxos engineers.
Janos Gardonyi
Sweet Dream
Jean-Louis Beaumadier
Skarbo DSK4165 (piccolo-beaumadier.com)
! ! How much
repertoire is out
there for the piccolo
player? Through
extensive discoveries,
adaptations
and commissioning,
Jean-
Louis Beaumadier
continues to amaze
us with the breadth of musical possibilities
that his oft-maligned little flute possesses.
Sweet Dream, the most recent addition to his
fine collection of nearly 20 recordings devoted
entirely to the piccolo, offers fresh new
works rendered with the captivating artistry
we have come to expect from this musician
whom Jean-Pierre Rampal once dubbed “the
Paganini of the Piccolo.”
In Guarnieri’s Estudo, Guiot’s Sweet
Project, and Damase’s For Piccolo,
Beaumadier’s continuing partnership
with pianist Jordi Torrent is the source of
outstanding rhythmic precision, impeccable
intonation and synchronicity of nuance. In
particular, the jazzy, technical wizardry of
Mike Mower’s Sonata is executed with effortlessly
cool nonchalance. Carla Rees with her
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