Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Deutsches Radio Symphonie Orchestra Berlin

Deutsches Radio Symphonie Orchestra Berlin

Monday 16th March 2009

Wagner: Prelude to Lohengrin
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (feat. Matthias Goerne, bass-baritone)
Bruckner: Symphony no. 7

Tuesday 17th March 2009

Webern: Passacaglia Op.1
Berg: Violin Concerto (feat. Christian Tetzlaff, violin)
Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 in E-flat op. 55 "Eroica"


The current 2008/2009 has only the Deutsches Radio-Symphonie Orchestra Berlin as the only big orchestra ensemble to visit the DFP hall, a far cry from four visiting ensembles during its opening season (including Philadelphia Orchestra led by Wolfgang Sawallisch and a Sinfonia Versova led by the late Yehudi Menuhin who would pass away few months later after his visit). Looking at the current economic climate, the prospect of not having a single guest ensemble in
the upcoming 2009-2010 season looks grim. While not as significant as London Symphony Orchestra's visit some time back, the Deutsches Radio-Symphonie Orchestra Berlin is still a formidable ensemble, despite the fact it is not as illustrious as their famous counterparts in Germany; Leipzig Gewandhaus, Staatskapelle Dresden and of course, their big brother the Berlin Philharmonic. Some would cynically commented the ensemble is Manchester City to their Philharmonic counterpart's Manchester United but the ensemble has a nonetheless glorious history. It started off as RIAS Berlin ensemble led by no other than the revered Ferenc Fricsay, whose career was cut tragically by cancer. His recordings of Bartok Concertos with Geza Anda, Tchaikovsky 4,5,6 cycle, Beethoven 9th to name a few on Deutsche Gramophon belonged in pantheon of classics. Subsequent directors includes young Lorin Maazel carved his career with this ensemble and so is the pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Ricardo Chailly released some fine recordings including Mahler 1oth and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and Kent Nagano notably recorded Bernstein's Mass which won a Grammy for Best Classical Recording.

The Monday programme began with Wagner's Prelude to Lohengrin, taken at a much swifter speed by maestro Metzmatcher than one is accustomed with this piece, thus producing a more lyrical and flowing mood. The pianissimi, couped with perfect pitching in the violin harmonics, is terrific. Matthias Gorne's rendition of Kindertotenlieder is a little surreal to me, having accustomed to mezzo-soprano/contralto renditions of the work and it felt as if Wagner's Wotan is singing lament of his Valkyries demise. It's a little tongue-in-cheek thing, not to belittle Goerne's singing. I love his singing which is very dignified, sometimes reminding me of the great bass Hans Hotter, accompanied by appropriate body gestures and never sought to force the text
like Fischer-Deskau or exaggerate them like Bryn Terfel. Metzmacher's ensemble gave a fine accompaniment, with this outstanding contribution by the winds. "In diesem Wetter", the last movement started off ferociously by nasty-sounding entry by the celli and chilling opening words muttered by Goerne. While the storm is ferocious, the tempi was a little too fast for the orchestra to halt by the time we arrived at the lullaby. Nevertheless it was a fine Mahler by Matthias Goerne but my only complaint are too much restraint in the orchestra in first four movements.

Perhaps the one nagging complaint that comes to my mind when the DSOB played 1st movement of Bruckner was it sounded like Diet Coke compared with their more illustrious other orchestras in Germany; Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskapelle and BPO. While the lean sound in strings may contribute to their "plasticity" and flexibility in tone colour it was not appropriate for that movement which i fear would disintigrate into a borefest feared by patrons who shudder a trip to Brucknerland. Thank goodness for the weight and volume in the Adagio, a dirge for the passing of Richard Wagner. The "Valhalla" music I call at bar 33 shortly before Moderato theme
is the highlight for me in this particular movement with its otherworldly transition showcased by Wagner tubas, tuba and horn solo. Somehow one of the Wagner tuba came in too loud spoiling this transition. However I love the second subject wonderfully sung by the ensemble, highlighting the lyrical Schubertian qualities aspect that is underrated in Bruckner. Thankfully Metzmacher's pacing prevents the movement from falling into a crawling Celibidache-like dirge which could stretch to half an hour. Terrific and stunning brass playing dominated the last two movements, with the Wagner tubas blazing in all their glory in the last one. This is one performance I would say a "kickass" Bruckner playing, save for a rather anemic first movement.

For the second evening, the Passacaglia of Anton Webern always sounded appopriate for a film-noir soundtrack but otherwise this form of Baroque dance made popular in last movement of Brahms 4th showcases Webern's ingenuity in orchestration which one will recognise in his later miniaturist, pointillistic works. While the ensemble's ebb and flow and contrast between violent episodes and shadowy pianissimi passages were well done, each solo entry could be done more convincingly especially in the latter.

Christian Tetzlaff's Berg would forever be etched in my mind as a devastating account of the most famous 12-tone work in whole entire 2nd Viennese School output. Written in response to Alma Schindler's loss of her daughter Manon to polio, it should be remarked that Alma
already lost a daughter Maria Anna to dipheteria. Gustav Mahler, who fathered Maria Anna was devastated by her demise until his last days. Tetzlaff has an outstanding bow control, perhaps accentuated by his body gestures and his stops were frightening in clarity. Also noted the infamous left-hand pizzicato in the 2nd movement were so effortless as if a third hand is doing the job. Tetzlaff's frightening ferocity in Allegro first half of 2nd movement was white hot, as if Grim Reaper had waltz into the hall and wrestled with the orchestra. My only gripe was the Adagio which started the variations on Bach chorale the ensemble focus became lost until the last few minutes. Tetzlaff then gave an encore of a Bach Partita, comforting the audience from the horrors of the Berg.

Metzmacher and his ensemble performed the Eroica with the latest "trend" of incorporating H.I.P elements including lean textures, flowing tempi, bowings as detached as possible etc but once one hear the work, the grim Kapellmeister renditions of Klemperer becomes almost an anathema to listen to. Metzmacher's approach with tight phrasings, articulation and chamber-music like clarity contributes to youthful vigour of the work. It may seem as tribute "H.I.P" but I think Metzmatcher approach may even be called "Modernist" for this Eroica. The famed Funeral March sounded twice as fast as Klemperer's, but never least convincing and the "race" to the coda of Finale is exhilirating. I thought this to be the most effective Eroica I've heard to date. Many thanks to maestro Metzmacher, Matthias Goerne and Christian Tetzlaff not to mention the wonderful DSOB ensemble for wonderful two nights of pure music-making.

7 Comments:

Blogger Corgan Sow said...

Hi David, thanks for the your insight. Regarding Klemperer's Eroica, his Funeral March is undisputable, but I find the rest of the movements a little difficult to appreciate. I'm not a H.I.P purist either, since I also love non-H.I.P Beethoven eg: Furtwangler. Maybe it would be good for me to explore the mono recording I assume also on EMI perhaps?

8:05 pm  
Blogger Corgan Sow said...

oh btw, it looked like I can't edit the comments since the only option I have is to delete them.

8:05 pm  
Blogger David S said...

Dear blogger:

For posterity's sake, it seems you have the right idea. Go on and delete everything from me or now, and I will quickly re-submit in tighter form what you've seen on your page already.

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to continuing the dialogue with you. Of course, you may delete this post as well.
And if you have a moment to spare, fire me off an email - dhs@airmail.net. Thanks again.

David S

2:27 pm  
Blogger Corgan Sow said...

Since you said it I'm going ahead. Anyway, there's really tons of enlightening stuff in these posts of yours. Thanks for posting.

10:11 pm  
Blogger David S said...

Your review of the Metzmacher concerts I found curious. I did not on the Berg from Berlin online, listening in Houston, hear the ensemble lapse that you claim to have in KL. It was shocking to hear the entire structure of the Berg so very clearly. The very natural simplicity and expressive feeling thereof that can come with only deep familiarity with the piece was just an essential part of the evidence of that. Ingo Metzmacher's disc of Wozzeck from Hamburg leaves much the same impression.

The Webern struck me as a 'road less often taken' with this piece.' Compared with later Webern, it is of course somewhat heavily scored, but Metzmacher chose to approach the piece somewhat as though it was middle period Webern instead. It is refreshing to hear such an approach to Passacaglia, and as free from cliche as was the Berg.
Howvever, taking such an approach to this piece does come with a few risks - but it is also risk-taking that makes music-making exciting, is it not? With the Berg and to better suit the weird acoustics of the Philharmonie, I only felt that Metzmacher could have possibly brought out the violins a bit more at climax of the Adagio half of the second movement - but he is not going to force anything.

As for the Beethoven, I did not find anything nearly strictly HIP about it, as one finds especially with those who apply the tricks of the trade to music and then think they have genuine musical interpretation whether it be of Baroque, classical, or early Romantic music. That is such as one can find under Zinman, Vanska, Paavo Jarvi, Conlon, Zander. etc. - an approximate mimickry of habits without more than token scholarship of any of their own with which to back it up - and probably countless others by now.

When you mention Klemperer so much in the negative, it is apparent to me that you have never checked out
his mono recording of the Eroica symphony, but only the stereo recording. I would hope someone gets the chance to play it for you, without telling you at first who is conducting it. It is clear-eyed, objective, all quite very linear in its approach, while also being fearless in making display of the tough sinews of the piece - with Philharmonia as tight as it can be in ensemble focus and balances. It definitely was a modern Eroica for its time. Hearing it from such a context, still is.

Certainly, neither does Metzmacher have a certain Silesian bent to his hearing of sonorities nor the burning dark color (in Kletzkian terminology) of Philharmonia in their heday in DSO Berlin. Thinking back to what Klemperer's interpretative stance on music from his pre-Philharmonia days, the two are probably quite similar in numerous ways.

Three weeks after Metzmacher's Eroica, I heard a college performance of the piece - by maybe now one of the best conservatory orchestras in the U.S.
The opening of Marcia funebre started off with all the trademark devices of swelling, sound decay - the usual hogwash that can pass so often arbitrarily as good HIP - if good HIP exists - but at the same time I failed to be able to find anywhere near the specific shape of the opening phrase to the march.
With Metzmacher, without ever being portentously slow, I never thought the tempo fast. However, the shaping of the phrasing was as highly specific, and without having had to take a cue from any of the HIP hacks out there, as possible as to how this music should ideally go.

Metzmacher, in his Beethoven, finds and applies a few virtues of the old-world approach to playing Beethoven, without picking up any excesses of going about it that way.

The clarity of the lines through the variations and fugal writing in the last movement was also highly noteworthy in what I heard last October. The ability to make (near) full expressive potential of each new episode through it without excessive framing or enveloping beforehand (and also without HIP detachment) is very refreshing - including for opening and within Andante apotheosis - right before coda to the finale. At the later conservatory performance I heard, we got a somewhat insipid and too episodic dance motif with the woodwind concertato in triplets right before the brass statement under the violins of the Prometheus theme in full relief, followed by a little dragging out, almost back phrasing of the Prometheus theme.

With Metzmacher, we felt, without losing character to anything, a gradual building of the overall line through the lighter scoring therein and sensitive pointing thereof and then a refreshing understatement of the brass on 'Prometheus', but that followed not long after by a highlighting of anguish in the violins on the mediant (G minor), then dominant thereof, followed by graceful descent, diminunedo segue to the final Presto. It all sublimely expressed a heroism of the common man, and in overcoming great adversity, as opposed to that of some raging Teutonic overlord or something comparably portentous to that.

Need for a little more specific shaping of a few things in the first movement was all that kept the Eroica of Metzmacher's I heard just in the company of the very good to excellent - as rare by truly high standards as are those to find nowadays. There have been mightier names and podiums with Eroica I have heard accomplish considerably much less with it than I heard from DSO Berlin last fall - Bernstein, Solti (before his 80's recording), Abbado, Rattle, even unfortunately Sawallisch, Haitink, just to name a few. (Haitink's 1985 Ninth from Amsterdam joins Gielen's as one of my two favorite digital choices for the Ninth).

It sounds as though, as afterthought here, that the Ma Vlast, some elements thereof, was or perhaps could have been your wake-up call as to the merits or demerits of Claus Peter Flor. It only appears to me as though the MPO laid an egg in making Flor their choice of new music director - based on what experience has been had of him elsewhere in Texas - even though the musicians of the HSO, for being even a bit below the level of mediocrity of Flor, are the most richly deserving of such on their podium. I would hope to think more highly of the MPO than what should be expected for the HSO, who tend to chase off anyone on their podium too demanding on them.

Other than being led by Flor, or some mindless HIP 'purist', there is seldom anything boring about a Haydn symphony - never about a good 30 of the most celebrated ones. In fact, in some ways, at times, they can be found to be a little more really difficult to play than a few of the Mahler. For the digital era, my favorite two Eroica's, both published by EMI, are so far the Gielen and Muti, the latter taking very well in Philadelphia after De Sabata's classic 1946 London PO recording - a big favorite of mine. Give Metzmacher one or two more tries (and also a better acoustic than the Philharmonie) and he will clearly belong in their class with the 'Eroica' symphony.

David S

4:18 pm  
Blogger David S said...

Your review of the Metzmacher concerts I found curious. I did not on the Berg (listening in Houston) from Berlin online, hear the ensemble lapse that you claim to have in KL. It was shocking to hear the entire structure of the Berg so very clearly. The very natural simplicity and expressive feeling thereof that can come with only deep familiarity with the piece was just an essential part of the evidence of that. Ingo Metzmacher's disc of Wozzeck from Hamburg leaves much the same impression.

The Webern struck me as a 'road less often taken' with this piece.' Compared with later Webern, it is of course somewhat heavily scored, but Metzmacher chose to approach the piece somewhat as though it was middle period Webern instead. It is refreshing to hear such an approach to Passacaglia, and as free from cliche as was the Berg. Howvever, taking such an approach to this piece does come with a few risks - but it is also risk-taking that makes music-making exciting, is it not? With the Berg and to better suit the weird acoustics of the Philharmonie, I only felt that Metzmacher could have possibly brought out the violins a bit more at climax of the Adagio half of the second movement - but he is not going to force anything.

As for the Beethoven, I did not find anything nearly strictly HIP about it, as one finds especially with those who apply the tricks of the trade to music and then think they have genuine musical interpretation whether it be of Baroque, classical, or early Romantic music. That is such as one can find under Zinman, Vanska, Paavo Jarvi, Conlon, Zander and.probably countless others by now. - an approximate mimickry of habits without more than token scholarship of any of their own with which to back it up.

When you mention Klemperer so much in the negative, it is apparent to me that you have never checked out his mono EMI (GROC) recording of the Eroica symphony, but only the stereo recording. I would hope someone gets the chance to play it for you, without telling you at first who is conducting it. It is clear-eyed, objective, all quite very linear in its approach, while also being fearless in making display of the tough sinews of the piece - with Philharmonia as tight as it can be in ensemble focus and balances. It definitely was a modern Eroica for its time. Hearing it from such a context, it still is.

Certainly, neither does Metzmacher have a certain Silesian bent to his hearing of sonorities nor the burning dark color (in Kletzkian terminology) of Philharmonia in their heyday - in DSO Berlin. Thinking back to what Klemperer's interpretative stance on music from his pre-Philharmonia days, the two are probably quite similar in numerous ways.

Three weeks after Metzmacher's Eroica, I heard a college performance of the piece - by maybe now one of the best conservatory orchestras in the U.S. The opening of Marcia funebre started off with all the trademark devices of swelling, sound decay - the usual hogwash that can pass so often arbitrarily as good HIP - if good HIP exists - but at the same time I failed to be able to find anywhere near the specific shape of the opening phrase to the march. With Metzmacher, without ever being portentously slow, I never thought the tempo fast. However, the shaping of the phrasing was as highly specific, and without having had to take a cue from any of the HIP hacks out there, as possible as to how this music should ideally go.

Metzmacher, in his Beethoven, finds and applies a few virtues of the old-world approach to playing Beethoven, without picking up any excesses of going about it that way.

The clarity of the lines through the variations and fugal writing in the last movement was also highly noteworthy in what I heard last October. The ability to make (near) full expressive potential of each new episode through it without excessive framing or enveloping beforehand (and also without HIP detachment) is very refreshing - including for opening and within Andante apotheosis - right before coda to the finale. At the later conservatory performance I heard, we got a somewhat insipid and too episodic dance motif with the woodwind concertato in triplets right before the brass statement under the violins of the Prometheus theme in full relief, followed by a little dragging out, almost back phrasing of the Prometheus theme.

With Metzmacher, we felt, without losing character to anything, a gradual building of the overall line through the lighter scoring therein and sensitive pointing thereof and then a refreshing understatement of the brass on 'Prometheus', but that followed not long after by a highlighting of anguish in the violins on the mediant (G minor), then dominant thereof, followed by graceful descent, diminuendo segue to the final Presto. It all sublimely expressed more the heroism of the common man, and in overcoming great adversity, as opposed to that of some raging Teutonic overlord or something comparably portentous to that.

Need for a little more specific shaping of a few things in the first movement was all that kept the Eroica of Metzmacher's I heard just in the company of the very good to excellent - as rare by truly high standards as are those to find nowadays. There have been mightier names and podiums with Eroica I have heard accomplish considerably much less with it than I heard from DSO Berlin last fall - Bernstein, Solti (before his 80's recording), Abbado, Rattle, even unfortunately Sawallisch, Haitink, just to name a few. (Haitink's 1985 Ninth from Amsterdam and Gielen's (EMI) are my two favorite digital choices for the Ninth).

It sounds as though, as afterthought here, that the Ma Vlast, some elements thereof, was or perhaps could have been your wake-up call as to the merits or demerits of Claus Peter Flor. It only appears to me as though the MPO laid an egg in making Flor their choice of new music director - based on what experience has been had of him elsewhere in Texas - even though the musicians of the HSO, for being even a bit below the level of mediocrity of Flor, are the most richly deserving of such on their podium. I would hope to think more highly of the MPO than what should be expected for the HSO, who tend to chase off anyone on their podium too demanding on them.

Other than being led by Flor, or some mindless HIP 'purist', there is seldom anything boring about a Haydn symphony - never about a good 30 of the most celebrated ones. In fact, in some ways, they can be found to be a little more really difficult to play than a few of the Mahler. For the digital era, my favorite two Eroica's, both published by EMI, are so far the Gielen and Muti, the latter taking very well in Philadelphia after De Sabata's classic 1946 London PO recording - a big favorite of mine. Give Metzmacher one or two more tries (and also a better acoustic than the Philharmonie) and he will clearly belong in their class with the 'Eroica' symphony.

David S

4:32 pm  
Blogger David S said...

Hi Corgan,

Now kill off all but your first reply to my postings to your blog and the second (4 32 pm) posting just now, and we have it. And without responding, kill off as all the request here to do so (of course, after having taken action - LOL).

Thanks again very much in advance, and then afterwards I'll try hard not to again be such an annoying customer.

David S

4:44 pm  

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