Oscar
2015-04-01 01:09:16 UTC
One of the more 'entertaining' features of Classics Today since the relaunch a few years ago is the relabeling of some formerly low-rated discs with 'CD From Hell' titling. This also applies to some new releases as well. Because Chailly's Brahms Symphonies set received much analysis and debate herein in 2011 (not to mention the benchmark Freire Brahms Concertos), and since the Brahms Serenades review is behind the pay wall, I thought I'd post David Hurwitz's full review here for all to see. Has anyone heard this disc?
<< CD From Hell: Chailly's Faceless Brahms Serenades
Review by: David Hurwitz
Artistic quality 5
Sound quality 9
Chailly has gone "authentic." First he made a magnificent recording of the two Brahms piano concerto with Nelson Freire, then he decided to rethink-and I used the term advisedly-his approach to the composer, and out came the dullest recording of the symphonies in years. The new Chailly is old news: a quasi-period performance vision that allies quick tempos, imposed with metronomic rigidity, with light textures and rhythms. We've been there and heard that. Still, you would think that this approach would work well in the Serenades, which are light(er) music after all, but such is not the case. Given the Leipzig orchestra's sovereign command of the notes, the result is perfect, but it's the perfection of a featureless sphere. You could die of boredom.
Consider the First Serenade. The opening looks to be excitingly swift, but the tame trumpets, smooth strings, and general lack of accent neuter the music. Compare this to a truly authentic version: André Vandernoot with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra from 1956, and Chailly's deficiencies are obvious. I chose this comparison not just because Vandernoot was a fine conductor with a funny last name (his fans are called "Vandernuts"), but to give a sense of how far away we truly are from the living tradition of playing Brahms in a manner than he might perhaps have recognized. Chailly's approach makes a particular scramble out of the second scherzo and, especially, the finale, and it only really works in the Adagio, which benefits from a certain lightness and flow. Otherwise, the performance merely skates along the surface of the music.
The same observations hold true for the Second Serenade. This was the piece in which Brahms learned how to write for the woodwind section, but whenever the dynamics are soft one gets the impression that the players are muttering the music rather than playing it with the necessary character. It has no shape. Make no mistake this is certainly intentional. It takes real work to make an orchestra of this calibre sound so sterile. You'd just have to be out of your mind to want to hear it. The outer movements of the piece, in particular, practically die of daintiness.
I applaud Chailly's willingness to revisit his interpretive ideas. After all, his first Brahms cycle (with the Concertgebouw Orchestra) also was dull, if traditionally so, but this is certainly no improvement.
Recording Details:
Reference Recording: Belohlávek (Supraphon); Boult (EMI)
BRAHMS, JOHANNES:
Serenades Nos. 1 and 2
Chailly, Riccardo (conductor)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Decca - 478 6775 CD >>
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-chaillys-faceless-brahms-serenades/
<< CD From Hell: Chailly's Faceless Brahms Serenades
Review by: David Hurwitz
Artistic quality 5
Sound quality 9
Chailly has gone "authentic." First he made a magnificent recording of the two Brahms piano concerto with Nelson Freire, then he decided to rethink-and I used the term advisedly-his approach to the composer, and out came the dullest recording of the symphonies in years. The new Chailly is old news: a quasi-period performance vision that allies quick tempos, imposed with metronomic rigidity, with light textures and rhythms. We've been there and heard that. Still, you would think that this approach would work well in the Serenades, which are light(er) music after all, but such is not the case. Given the Leipzig orchestra's sovereign command of the notes, the result is perfect, but it's the perfection of a featureless sphere. You could die of boredom.
Consider the First Serenade. The opening looks to be excitingly swift, but the tame trumpets, smooth strings, and general lack of accent neuter the music. Compare this to a truly authentic version: André Vandernoot with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra from 1956, and Chailly's deficiencies are obvious. I chose this comparison not just because Vandernoot was a fine conductor with a funny last name (his fans are called "Vandernuts"), but to give a sense of how far away we truly are from the living tradition of playing Brahms in a manner than he might perhaps have recognized. Chailly's approach makes a particular scramble out of the second scherzo and, especially, the finale, and it only really works in the Adagio, which benefits from a certain lightness and flow. Otherwise, the performance merely skates along the surface of the music.
The same observations hold true for the Second Serenade. This was the piece in which Brahms learned how to write for the woodwind section, but whenever the dynamics are soft one gets the impression that the players are muttering the music rather than playing it with the necessary character. It has no shape. Make no mistake this is certainly intentional. It takes real work to make an orchestra of this calibre sound so sterile. You'd just have to be out of your mind to want to hear it. The outer movements of the piece, in particular, practically die of daintiness.
I applaud Chailly's willingness to revisit his interpretive ideas. After all, his first Brahms cycle (with the Concertgebouw Orchestra) also was dull, if traditionally so, but this is certainly no improvement.
Recording Details:
Reference Recording: Belohlávek (Supraphon); Boult (EMI)
BRAHMS, JOHANNES:
Serenades Nos. 1 and 2
Chailly, Riccardo (conductor)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Decca - 478 6775 CD >>
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-chaillys-faceless-brahms-serenades/