平價版古典名盤採購日誌

2009年7月4日星期六

罕見歌劇：Gaspare Spontini《貞潔的修女》 Muti版

La Vestale
Milan La Scala Chorus; Milan La Scala Orchestra/Riccardo Muti

1995年12月英國《留聲機》雜誌樂評：

That this work is the essential link between Gluck and Berlioz, and also pre-echoes late Rossini and Bellini, is even clearer here than on the Kuhn set. Muti, working with stronger forces than were available to Kuhn, emphasizes its centrality in the history of French opera and moulds the music urgently, keeping a sure grasp of the whole while observant of pertinent detail. Well aware that the piece is poised intriguingly, if precariously, between the classical and romantic worlds, he responds accordingly, aided and abetted by the chorus and orchestra of La Scala. He plays the score complete, including the ballets that close Acts 1 and 3. Thus full justice is done, in orchestral terms, to an opera that needs help if it is to work in the opera house, because in it convention rubs shoulders with original inspiration.

Some of the singing is another matter. Muti seems somewhat injudicious at present in his choice of leading ladies for dramatic pieces. After Eaglen's hit-and-miss Norma (EMI, 10/95) he now offers us Huffstodt's somewhat under-characterized Julia. The American soprano certainly feels, and is able to convey, all the vestal virgin's conflicting emotions as she re-encounters her Licinius and her despair as she faces death for her illicit love, but her voice is not altogether pleasing. Its persistent tremor vitiates her good intentions, spoiling her line much of the time, and the tone itself is monotonously one-dimensional so that the many affecting phrases she sings in the last two acts suffer from weak execution. Plowright, though not ideal in the rival set, makes a grander, more positive impression and her French is much better enunciated than that of Huffstodt, who swallows her consonants.

Michaels-Moore (the name is hyphenated, Sony) sings much more articulate French and commands a more satisfying line than his partner. Although it is strange to hear a baritone rather than the usual tenor in the part, Michaels-Moore is quite happy in the tessitura and generally justifies the high opinion in which he is now held. He begins tentatively but builds the character into something vital and positive, his tone always warm and even. Graves is an imperious if not very idiomatic Grande Vestale, Kavrakos an imposing Pontifex if you can take his quick vibrato. Raftery's move from baritone to tenor doesn't seem a happy one on this evidence: his tone as Cinna is gravelly.

For all my reservations, the sum here is greater than the parts simply because Muti imposes a unity of purpose on the whole. He benefits from recording in the opera house, with the extra frisson that brings to all the performances, making this version a more successful offering than the Kuhn set. The recording, well balanced, catches the theatre's atmosphere.

祖賓梅塔也灌錄過莫札特歌劇《費加洛婚禮》？

Florence Maggio Musicale Chorus; Florence Maggio Musicale Orchestra/Zubin Mehta

1994年 6月英國留聲機雜誌（Gramophone）樂評：

Were there not at least half a dozen recommendable CD versions available, not to mention the Sony Classical Abbado LaserDisc account (2/94), this new one might be more than welcome. It is a reasonably enjoyable, middle-of-the-road performance rather in the vein of the Solti, Levine or Davis sets, having a similar sense of the drama's development and a deal of good singing; but nothing is done that gives it a place above, or even alongside the front-runners. Mehta's direction is at its best in the big ensembles: the finale of Act 2 is cogent and vividly dramatic. Elsewhere he seems content to coast through the familiar score, supporting good but not particularly lively playing.

The recording derives from a production given at the Maggio Musicale in Florence two years ago, but because some of the singers had already taken part in other versions, changes in the cast had to be made. Thus Cuberli and Rodgers, Barenboim's Countess and Susanna, have been replaced by Mattila and McLaughlin (who also sings her role for Abbado); Hampson, Levine's Almaviva, is here sung by Gallo, who was Figaro for Abbado! These examples of change and change about only go to demonstrate that the popular operas are today being recorded far too often for their own or any company's good, as any reputable executive will readily admit 'off the record' (forgive the pun!). It results in generalized, 'international' readings with no individual character, the bane of our times.

The strengths in this set lie very decidedly with the men. Pertusi is as excellent a Figaro as any (so he was, apparently, on stage), in the class of Taddei (Giulini) and Salomaa (Oestman), his nutty, characterful bass-baritone and vital diction ideal for the part: he is very much the lynchpin of the performance. The only possible drawback is that he is hard to differentiate in timbre from Gallo as Almaviva. The latter may be slightly better suited to Figaro, but his Count is also a formidable personage, sounding at once in command of his unruly household, yet vulnerable to the machinations of his underlings. He sings his aria with fluent command of voice and phrasing. His and Pertusi's treatment of the text shows the advantage of engaging Italians for Mozart's Da Ponte works. That is also the case with Benelli, an experienced and amusing Basilio, Nosotti's Bartolo and the veteran Tadeo's Antonio, all very amusing.

Not that Marie McLaughlin is anything but idiomatic in singing recitatives. Unfortunately she has become so familiar with the role of Susanna that she now over-inflects every word, underlining the text in an uncomfortably mannered way, and her ''Deh vieni non tardar'' here reveals an acquired habit of sliding uncomfortably in and out of notes. Having just listened to Jurinac as the Countess on the reissued 1956 Philips Figaro (under Bohm), I found Mattila's portrayal wanting in her predecessor's warmth of voice and manner, and her sense of pitch is suspect. Bacelli is a lively enough Cherubino but one with no specific advantage over her many predecessors on disc.

Appoggiaturas are notable for their regrettable absence. The harpsichordist accompanying the recitatives is irritatingly hyperactive and the recording balance is erratic: voices are sometimes forward, at othersiz. the Act 3 finaleistanced. Otherwise the recording is more than adequate, given a rather heavy bass sound. I suppose in an era when we are becoming increasingly used to chamber and/or period-instrument performances (Gardiner's is eagerly awaited), one such as this sounds increasingly anachronistic. So the recommendation remains for more positive interpreters: Oestman, or if you are still allergic to period instruments and a scale appropriate to Mozart's era, try Giulini or, at mid-price, Erich Kleiber; or, at bargain price, Gui. For a version in the Mehta vein with a stronger cast, try Solti.'

Brilliant再版Minkowski2002年DG版幻想交響曲

Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
Herminie-Scene lyrique

Aurelia Legay, soprano
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Members of Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Marc Minkowski, conductor
Live Recording: 12/2002, Paris

licensed from Deutsche Grammophon

Edward Greenfield在2003年10月號英國留聲機雜誌（Gramophone）的評論～

A live Fantastique doesn’t challenge the best, but there is a welcome bonus

Recorded live, this characterful version of the Symphonie fantastique breaks new ground in bringing together the talented performers of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, using modern instruments, and wind-players from Marc Minkowski’s period orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre. Not that I would have noticed; there is no discrepancy between the two groups, and Minkowski, period specialist though he is, takes an unashamedly romantic view of Berlioz, generally preferring spacious speeds, strikingly different from Gardiner or Norrington in their period performances.

Minkowski takes this tendency to its extreme in the slow introduction with its self-conscious pauses. While he sustains his tempi remarkably well, never letting the music sag in the evocative sections of the 20-minute ‘Scène aux champs’, Sir Colin Davis – in all his versions – and Myung Whun Chung in another Paris recording from DG, make the music flow more easily, and just as expressively.

The dynamics of a live occasion have their own part to play, especially in the excitement of the final ‘Witches’ Sabbath’. Some listeners will find themselves jumping up to change volume levels, such is the dynamic range of DG’s all-embracing recording.

My reservations over the symphony disappear with Aurélia Legay’s dramatic reading of Herminie, the rare scène-lyrique. This was the second of Berlioz’s four entries for the Prix de Rome on a text from Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. It makes an apt coupling: Berlioz uses the theme which later became the idée fixe of the symphony at key points in Herminie, including the work’s opening and its gentle close. It says much for both Legay’s warm, focused soprano and for Minkowski’s direction that the ear is drawn to moments which prefigure his supreme achievement, Les troyens.

Brilliant再版Schiff＋Fellner貝多芬大提琴奏鳴曲全集

奧地利大提琴家Heinrich Schiff 與同鄉年輕鋼琴家Till Fellner於1998年11、12月灌錄的貝多芬大提琴奏鳴曲全集，2000年由Philps公司發行時只能說是「驚鴻一瞥」，馬上消失在茫茫片海...

荷蘭Brilliant即將以低價版重新發行。2000年6月英國《留聲機》雜誌曾有「如歌唱般美麗動人」樂評：

Beautifully smooth and cantabile readings with some especially beautiful effects in the more reflective movements, though at times they're just a shade too civilised

The traditional, legendary view of Beethoven presents him as a fiery, temperamental iconoclast, but it's surely a characteristic of great music that it expresses many different aspects of its composer's personality. Schiff and Fellner for the most part give us a suave, civilised impression of Beethoven; not superficial - there are moments of profound contemplation - but with fewer rough edges, fewer uncontrollable flights of passion than we usually hear. Fellner's exceptionally smooth, expressive touch, and Schiff's warm, well-rounded tone make for interpretations of the more cantabile music that are particularly memorable: the opening Allegro of Op 69 doesn't want for energy, but the emphasis is on the beautifully shaped melodic lines. The minor-key transformation of the opening melody in the development section is unusually plangent. In one or two of the quicker movements, though, I felt the playing was just too civilised - the first Allegro of Op 5 No 2 could, with advantage, have had more urgency and intensity (it's a great shame, by the way, that they omit all the long repeats in both Op 5 sonatas). The fugal finale of Op 102 No 2 sounds extraordinarily smooth and poised for such a notoriously knotty piece. That something is lost by such an approach is made clear from a comparison with Maisky and Argerich's high-speed, explosively dynamic performance.

In lively movements such as the finales of the Op 5 sonatas, Schiff sometimes plays the medium-fast detached notes very short and strongly accented, and fast passagework with a rather fierce off-the-string bow-stroke. His desire, I'd guess, is to achieve maximum clarity, but so sensitive to balance is Fellner that (on this very clear recording) the cello has no difficulty being heard and, to my ear, these very unclassical bowings are too intrusive. Fortunately, this happens only infrequently - what remains in the mind most strongly are the beautifully realised introspective moments - the dreamy Andante at the start of Op 102 No 1, in Op 5 No 1 the slow passage in the first movement's cadenza, and the adagio variation of WoO46. Indeed, all three variation sets are very fine - the brilliant piano passages in the two earlier works (WoO45 and Op 66) tossed off with unostentatious virtuosity, the dialogue between the instruments both playful and expressive. The scherzo of Op 69 is outstanding in a different way; the tied notes of the main subject are reiterated gently in the way Beethoven seems to have intended, but which is almost never heard. Misha Donat's excellent booklet-note quotes Czerny's description of the effect, which adds a subtly disturbing atmosphere to the movement.

Along with the mercurial, spontaneous Maisky/Argerich set, I'd recommend Schiff and Fellner for the way they make the music sing.

八卦消息說，Heinrich Schiff曾一度向老前輩Friederich Gulda提出合作邀請，但遭到後者婉拒，理由是其與Pierre Fournier合作版本已經後無來者，『沒有任何人可取代他心目中的Fournier』...

道地巴西味：BIS版魏拉羅伯斯巴哈風巴西組曲全集

約翰奈許靈（John Neschling）指揮巴西聖保羅交響樂團（Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra）為BIS公司灌錄的魏拉羅伯斯（Heitor Villa-Lobos）巴哈風巴西組曲（Bachianas Brasileiras）、合唱作品全集與吉他獨奏曲集，7張CD即將集結成為盒裝版本，7張CD只賣3張價，非常誘惑人的組合。