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The Best of 1999/Classical
Friday, December 31, 1999 By Robert Croan, Post-Gazette Music Critic
This was the year that Mariss Jansons, who took over the helm of the Pittsburgh Symphony in September 1997, made it clear that he is the dominant force in the city's musical life. Not only in the actual subscription performances he conducted in Heinz Hall -- although these were inevitably excellent -- but in his influence on repertory (reviving Bach's "B Minor Mass" with another conductor and introducing a "dangerous" work, Schoenberg's "Gurrelieder," because he believed in it). The Pittsburgh Opera, the Y series and the Chamber Music Society all played it safe and suffered for it to some extent -- notwithstanding some admirable performances along the way.
Had I not been personally involved in a peripheral way, I would surely have included in my list the local premiere and third production ever of Michael Daugherty's pop opera, "Jackie O" -- valiantly presented by the Duquesne University Opera Workshop conducted by David Stock and supervised by the composer himself. And had the production been just a bit more slick and stylish, I would have added Opera Theater of Pittsburgh's revival of Bernstein's "Candide" -- a 20th-century music theater masterpiece that was worth seeing even under less than optimum circumstances. Meanwhile, there was still much to enjoy in the months preceding my retirement as P-G music critic, and I have left room for my successor, Andrew Druckenbrod, to fill out the list with the highlights of his first two months on the job.
(Heinz Hall, Sept. 17): Music director Jansons accomplished a virtual miracle by performing a Schoenberg masterpiece so superbly that conservative Pittsburgh Symphony audiences flocked to both performances and put their prejudices aside. The line-up of vocal soloists -- including tenors Ben Heppner, Anthony Dean Griffey and Ernst Haefliger, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, and more -- was something any opera company might well envy.
(Carnegie Music Hall, March 28): This very likable singer who resides in Pittsburgh specifically in order to be close to her voice teacher, Claudia Pinza, gave a unique recital for the benefit of EPCASO, Pinza's summer training program in Oderzo, Italy. The program showed how varied this composer's music was -- "The Barber of Seville" didn't even enter into it -- and how Genaux has joined the ranks of today's important Rossini mezzos, who include Jennifer Larmore, Cecilia Bartoli and, of course, the legendary Marilyn Horne.
(Heinz Hall, Feb. 5): Mutter's magnificent rendition of an old chestnut gave support to those of us who consider her the prime violinist of her generation, while Jansons filled out the evening with his typically colorful renditions of Strauss ("Till Eulenspiegel") and Shostakovich (Symphony No. 6).
(Synod Hall, Oct. 30): This concert of carnival songs of Renaissance Florence stands as a model for how to animate early music without compromising it artistically. The troupe of singers and period instrumentalists from France put on a show that amounted to an early-music version of a Broadway revue. Energetic, expertly performed pieces flowed out of each other and kept interest high. (Druckenbrod)
(Byham Theater, Jan. 24): In an age when the majority of classical music performers opt for a safe generic approach, this rugged individualist does it his own way and makes the audience prick up its ears (and eyes) when he's on stage. His finger-busting program -- Bach fugues to Mussorgsky "Pictures" -- was quirky but memorable in a way precious few local recitals have managed to match.
(Heinz Hall, April 30): The venerable Polish composer was an excellent proponent of his own work, collaborating beautifully with virtuoso soloist Chantal Juillet, and compensating for a post-intermission rendition of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony that turned out to be surprisingly drab.
(St. Paul Cathedral, April 17): A 75-minute stretch of 15th-century choral music centered on Ockeghem's Mass "Mi-Mi" may be an acquired taste, but when this superstar female quartet teamed up with the six male voices known as Lionheart, the results were engrossing in their specialized way and intellectually challenging to say the least.
(Heinz Hall, Nov. 26): Mariss Jansons' commitment to this light but not slight program took the concert to great heights. Sure, pieces like Dvorak's "Scherzo capriccioso" and Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," don't top the list of serious works, but that doesn't mean they can't be played at a high level. From his vivacious conducting, it was clear Jansons isn't the type to dial in a performance of the crowd-pleasing variety. He respected the music and the PSO responded, pouring out gorgeous color and verve. (Druckenbrod)
(Heinz Hall, June 24): I'll admit I went kicking and screaming to hear this Belgian heartthrob who is really an over-hyped pop singer known for his hot-selling records on the other side of the Atlantic and a curious PBS special here. His unpretentious love for singing, however, combined with a great stage persona, excellent diction and a command of several languages, won me over and I found myself enjoying every minute of it.
Pittsburgh Opera (Benedum Center, Nov. 13): This production of Verdi's warhorse opera had much to offer -- an ominous set of daunting stone walls, a sensitive conductor and a precise orchestra. Oh, and some singing! Mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti and tenor Dario Volonte stood out with pliant and passionate singing, but soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and bass Rosendo Flores were right with them. (Druckenbrod)
At a time when many record companies are shying away from complete opera recordings in favor of recital discs that exploit the popularity of individual star singers, it's nice to have three integral recordings of repertory on and off the beaten track. Weill's "Threepenny Opera" is hardly a rarity, but a brand new recording presents Mack the Knife and friends in an altogether new and refreshing light. Other efforts span the historic Gluck, in a performance that speaks well to our time, to a thin verismo potboiler made compelling by a great diva in her maturity.
Piano music, often elusive in terms of recorded sound, does very well this year, with buyers given a choice among Richard Goode's pearly Mozart, Emanuel Ax's grandiose Brahms, and a variety of newer works rendered by veteran Misha Dichter and several upcoming virtuosi.
"The Threepenny Opera," HK Gruber, Ensemble Modern (BMG Classics): Germany's prime new music ensemble has provided one of the liveliest, most theatrically viable and also musically accurate and complete recordings in the history of Kurt Weill's 1928 theatrical masterpiece. This version is based on the new Weill edition -- in German -- with spoken dialogue replaced by narrative summaries drawn from a never-realized concert version devised by librettist Berthold Brecht in the late '40s. The entire production has the presence of a live performance taking place in front of our very eyes.
Piano Concertos No. 23 (K. 488) and No. 24 (K. 491), Richard Goode, with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Nonesuch): This is elegant and expressive Mozart playing from pianist Goode and the conductorless orchestra alike. The participants exhibit a oneness of spirit and precision of ensemble that brings out the joy and pathos of each movement. Ingratiating new details emerge with each successive listening. Indeed, it's hard to take this disc off the machine.
"Armide," Mark Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre (Archiv): Although Gluck considered "Armide" the best of his works, it has survived less well than his "Orpheus and Euridice" or "Alceste." It is actually livelier, less classically static than those earlier operas, and filled with gorgeous music, which Minkowski and his top-notch cast infuse with vitality and understanding of 18th-century style. Mirelle Delunsch brings a creamy soprano and superb French diction to the title role, while everyone concerned seems just right, from the opening triumph of this seductive sorceress over the Christian crusaders to her final vengeful flight in a flying chariot while demons destroy her evil palace.
"Madame Sans Gene," Mirella Freni, with Stefano Ranzani, Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia Romagna (Dynamic): Recorded earlier this year, when Mirella Freni was just a few weeks short of her 64th birthday, this live performance finds the beloved diva in unbelievably good voice, and ready to chew the scenery in this verismo thriller. Much in the mold of Giordano's earlier "Andrea Chenier" and "Fedora," the present work centers on a laundress who becomes a duchess, and includes as a major figure in the plot, no one less than Napoleon himself (baritone Mauro Buda here). Tenor Giorgio Merighi incarnates her true love with beautiful, youthful sounds. It's a wild romp and a pleasant change from the tried and true.
By Britten (Op. 13) and Shostakovich (Op. 35), Leif Ove Andsnes, with Paavo Jarvi, City of Birmingham Symphony (EMI Classics): Two particularly appealing keyboard concertos from the second quarter of the century just ending are re-created here with fleet fingers and interpretive imagination by this very talented Danish pianist, who could be a candidate for superstardom in the decades to come, if he fulfills the promise of his youthful successes.
Complete Songs No. 33 (Hyperion): This latest installment of the Hyperion Schubert edition, which (with four more discs to come) will soon comprise the entire output of Schubert's songs, is an unusual miscellany, performed here by a variety of some of today's best British singers -- Marie McLaughlin, Ann Murray, Philip Langridge among them. The guiding spirit of this project is pianist-scholar Graham Johnson, who provides invaluable notes on each song along with his superb accompaniments.
Piano Concerto No. 2, Emanuel Ax, with Bernard Haitink, Boston Symphony (Sony Classical): This warm, cleanly molded reading of one of the most popular (and difficult) staples of the repertory could become a classic and model for future generations, just as an LP by Svyatoslav Richter (with Erich Leinsdorf and the Chicago Symphony) stood as a touchstone in an earlier era. The present effort has a bonus of cellist Yo-Yo Ma joining Ax for a strange transcription of a Brahms violin sonata -- musically superfluous, perhaps, but a unique collaboration of two of today's classical superstars.
Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, Boris Berman (Naxos): These seminal works, composed between 1946 and 1948, explored new possibilities in the use the traditional piano, thereby discovering a new sound world that still strikes us as innovative and has affected every serious composer in the half century that followed. The Russian-born pianist Berman treats these character-ful pieces simply as beautiful music, not as a freakish aberration of history that Cage's "preparations" (screws, nuts and bolts placed within the strings) would at first perhaps suggest to the uninitiated.
"Pulcinella"; Music for Clarinet; Piano Concerto; "Danses concertantes," Robert Craft conductor (Koch International Classics): Craft, who has made his career as a self-appointed intermediary between Stravinsky and his public, offers new interpretations of some of the most appealing works from the composer's neo-classical period. "Pulcinella" is rendered crisply, in its complete theatrical version. The Piano Concerto gets a spectacular reading from soloist Misha Dichter, who has the fleet fingers along with the musicality to carry it off.
70th Birthday Album, Thomas Conklin, Warsaw Philharmonic and Choir (Bridge): Crumb is an American genius whose works deserve wider disbursement than they have garnered over the years. "Star Child" is a large work for soprano and four separate ensembles. "Mundus Canis" is the opposite: five light pieces for solo guitar, which lovingly portray in sound the composer's own dogs. Guitarist David Starobin steals the show, but soprano Ann Crumb (the composer's daughter) makes a good showing on her own in Three Early Songs with her father at the piano.
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1. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons conducting Schoenberg's "Gurrelieder"