Although it is a pleasantly impossible task trying to keep up with all the wonderful new classical record releases, recent issues include brilliant performances by contemporary artists and an invaluable reissue of nearly forgotten classics.
The new recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" on the Harmonia Mundi is boldly conceived by conductor Rene Jacobs. Recorded in Cologne, Germany, in April 2003 with an outstanding cast and fine period-instruments chamber orchestra, the performance illuminates Mozart's domestic comedy with keen awareness of the way this drama anticipates the contemporary notion that "the personal is political."
In fact, the political allusions in the play on which the opera was based were a hurdle Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte had to overcome in censorial imperial Vienna. Jacobs highlights their solution: The words were selected carefully, with the musical commentary in the orchestra sounding what could not be said.
Jacobs is a consummate musician, projecting the sweep of the drama with compelling pace, yet flexible in tempo when the drama requires it. And this is a highly characterized performance, with the interaction of the singers thoroughly convincing, from sighs to laughter.
Bass Lorenzo Ragazzo as Figaro and Patrizia Ciofi as his fiancee, Susanna, are presented as well-matched and highly spirited individuals. They work as servants in the household of Count Almaviva, whose attempts to takes his pleasures with Susanna before her marriage are the crux of the drama.
French soprano Veronique Gens is fabulous as the Countess, the neglected wife whose laments are performed with a dynamic view of emotions. Gens vocalizes the changing colors of her sadness during the course of "Porgi amor," and shows in her liveliness with other characters some of what the Count is missing. Baritone Simon Keenlyside brings the requisite force to his character, an aristocratic scoundrel who isn't as smart as he thinks.
For all the wonderful arias and ensembles, much of "Figaro's" action takes place in recitatives, a mixture of speech and songfulness, that have never been more persuasively presented thanks to the brilliant imagination of Nicolau de Figueiredo playing fortepiano. Not only does he maintain the pace of the drama; he fills in his notated part with witty allusions to Mozart's tunes.
All in all, Jacobs' "Figaro" is the most enjoyable recording since the classic version with Erich Kleiber conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, made in 1955. Pittsburgh Opera will stage this masterpiece next month.
Erich Kleiber
While Kleiber's great versions of the operas "Figaro" and "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss have been reissued by Decca records in recent years, the symphonic recordings he made at the end of his life finally have been issued on CD on the label's Original Masters series.
Performances of symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven feature Kleiber's complete mastery that included persuasive phrasing with a wonderful lilt when appropriate, but also strong line for dramatic music. Kleiber's Beethoven Fifth with the Concertgebouw is incredibly exciting and powerful, comparable to the best of Arturo Toscanini, George Szell, Fritz Reiner and Wilhelm Furtwangler -- other outstanding maestri of his own time. Erich Kleiber's son Carlos, who died this summer, left the best modern Beethoven Fifth.
Kleiber's performances are full of special details that make them invaluable. For example, no other conductor I've heard live or on records besides Kleiber has really known what to do with the high violins in the slower part of the Scherzo of Beethoven Seventh with Concertgebouw.
The set also includes performances Kleiber gave with the Cologne Radio Orchestra, including the only persuasive account I've heard of Carl Maria von Weber's First Symphony. The performance of Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9, in C major, features remarkably intelligent and poetic phrasing. Like Kleiber's Beethoven Fifth, his Schubert Ninth is unsurpassable.
Leif Ove Andsnes
Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes sets a new standard in performance of Mozart Piano Concerti on his new EMI recording. Like Jacobs in "Figaro," Andsnes delivers high-profile Mozart -- smart playing with genuine musical imagination that is aggressive as well as sensitive.
Andsnes really digs into his piano, a modern instrument with an appealingly tight bass brought out by the soloist's crisp fingerwork. The period-instruments style of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra that he leads from the keyboard is idiomatically supple and matches the soloist in decisiveness.
Andsnes is a remarkably versatile musician, who also recently has recorded a marvelous disc of Bela Bartok's sonatas for violin and piano with Christian Tetzlaff and a probing interpretation of Franz Schubert's song cycle "Die Wintereisse" with tenor Ian Bostridge.
Although Pittsburgh audiences heard Andsnes performing with Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra two seasons ago, Tetzlaff has yet to appear in Pittsburgh. Another recent recording shows the German violinist's deeply appealing style in the three sonatas by Johannes Brahms on Virgin Classics, in which his partner in insightful music making is pianist Lars Vogt -- who makes his Pittsburgh Symphony debut this weekend. Additional Information:
Details
The albums'The Marriage of Figaro': By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Vocalists; Concerto Koln; Rene Jacobs, conductor. Harmonia Mundi 901818.20 (3 CDs)
Erich Kleiber: Decca recordings 1949-55. Concertgebouw, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Cologne Radio orchestras. Decca 475 6080 (6 CDs)
Mozart: Piano Concerto 9 & 18: Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano and conductor. EMI 57803
Bartok: Violin Sonatas: Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Virgin Classics 45668
Brahms: Violin Sonatas: Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Lars Vogt, piano. EMI 57525
