Right away, the name of Arnold Schoenberg scares the daylights out of a lot of music lovers. Let me reassure you quickly: Gurrelieder is not atonal and it is not twelve-tonal music. Think "late Wagner, with a slight dash of early modern" and you won't be too far wrong. It's a huge cantata-oratorio which tells a Tristanesque love story. It lasts almost 2 hours, and requires so many instruments that it makes Mahler's famous "Symphony of a Thousand" look restrained! The music makes immense demands on the solo singers, and has some incredibly complex singing for the male chorus in the third part. The full choir is reserved for the 5-minute "sunrise" chorus at the end, as glorious a culmination as you can find anywhere in music.
Many audio recordings are available, almost all of live performances, but this is the first video I've ever encountered -- a 2009 production from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and choruses, conducted by Mariss Jansons. I've known and loved this music ever since I was about 15 or so, through recordings, and attended the only live performance ever given in Toronto (at the Toronto Symphony in -- was it 2004?). This DVD of a live concert trumps them all. Jansons has a very firm grasp of this work's sprawling structure and the tremendous subtleties of the orchestration. All sections seem to proceed at just the right tempo, and the orchestra sounds terrific throughout.
Soloists are the key to a successful Gurrelieder. As King Waldemar, tenor Stig Andersen has by far the toughest assignment of all, and succeeds magnificently, still sounding completely fresh and clear even when he reaches his ninth (!) major solo of the evening. Soprano Deborah Voight as his young lover, Tove, is entirely beautiful and youthful in tone. Mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura completely steals the show as the menacing messenger of death, the Voice of the Wood Dove, at the end of Part One. Her 12-minute song ranges from the lowest depths of the alto voice to a searing high B-flat, every note brilliantly accurate, and the text sung with immaculate diction. Herwig Pecoraro also sings brilliantly and accurately in the scherzando song of Klaus the Fool, his tenor voice a perfect contrast in tone colour from Andersen. Michael Volle is splendid as the bass Peasant, and even more memorable as the Speaker in the penultimate Wild Hunt of the Sun.
The recorded sound throughout is clear, present, very real. This score can easily sound muddy and confused in live performance, but the sound engineers here get a very believable sound picture where every instrument part is clearly audible. The video direction is also wonderful, adding important new dimensions to your understanding and appreciation of the music, and the performance. Watch especially for the rapid-fire moment in Part III where the men's choir quickly jumps up to shout "Holla!" and the camera as quickly flash-cuts from the choir to the percussion section, ratchet madly whirling and iron chains rattling and clanking (no, I'm not joking, there is a part for a set of heavy iron chains in the score!).
If you're not familiar with Gurrelieder, I'd recommend this video in preference to any of the fine audio recordings I've heard. Even if you know this work well, this video is a must-add to any collection.
It comes from BR Klassik, and is currently available. Definitely 5 stars out of 5!
No comments:
Post a Comment