Key comparisons
Kubelik/BRSO DG 477 583-8 GOM 8 [part of a 8 CD box set]
Rattle/BPO EMI 7243 5 57303 2 9
Sinopoli/SD Teldec 4509-98424-2
Pity the doomed lovers! King Waldemar has an extra-marital
fling with the beautiful young Tove. In her final song Tove sings ecstatically
of "dying in a rapturous kiss", whilst soaring to a breathtaking
high B. This is German Romanticism so no prizes for guessing what happens
next. Tove is murdered by jealous Queen Hedwig, her demise recalled
by a wood-dove. Waldemar curses God’s perceived injustice so his spirit,
together with ghostly vassals, is damned to ride across the night skies
in a desperate wild hunt.
Gurrelieder is fairly conductor-proof with many styles
throwing light on Schoenberg’s monumental canvass. Only Robert Craft
(Naxos) seriously disappoints (but see reviews):
I could not get through his leisurely Part I and Craft’s choral sunrise
is distinctly underpowered. Sinopoli (Teldec) is also slow in Part I
but this controversial conductor has a sense of the fantastic, throwing
light on Schoenberg’s rich orchestral colours. Sinopoli also moulds
rich Romantic phrases so his Part I sinks into a world of night and
dreams before arising to more conventional tempi by the orchestral interlude
and it’s crashing crescendo. Kubelik (DG) is also alive to Gurrelieder’s
Romanticism but his structure is far clearer than Sinopoli.
Much of the success of this Gurrelieder, re-released
from Denon CDs, is due to Inbal’s superb conducting. Inbal’s achievement
is to marry Romanticism, structural grip and transparency of colour
through conducting which is naturally poetic. The ravishing string
crescendo at the close of Tove’s final song, sample
the march in the wood-dove’s final verse sample
, the propulsive opening to the Speaker’s music slowly opening toward
the Romantic choral outpouring are all here. I was amazed how much more
orchestral detail comes alive under Inbal than Rattle, despite the latter’s
recognition that "Gurrelieder is in fact the world’s largest string
quartet".
Paul Fey is an effective Waldemar, blessedly steady
with an attractive hint of huskiness, sample
if lacking Thomas Moser’s warmth and response to text. Part I are
songs of love after all and Moser injects more gentleness into his voice
when required. Elizabeth Connell has Tove’s combination of Isolde-like
youth and Wagnerian heft. sample How
disappointing then that Connell’s final climatic B sounds narrow, even
squeezed out, hardly hit forte. And Connells’ tone is not always easy
on the ear. She is too hard, lacking the richness of Karita Mattila
or even Deborah Voigt’s shining steel. Kubelik’s Inge Bork has an astonishing
mezzo-ish chest voice and her intensity of expression and acting from
the text are special. The great US soprano Christine Brewer sang Tove
in a 2002 Prom concert with ideal burnished metallic tone, resonance
and lyric attention to text. Brewer’s final line seared into the evening
sky on golden wings and it is imperative her Tove is recorded one day.
Franzen’s Speaker sample
is preferable to Thomas Quasthoff’s (Rattle) wide-eyed approach (compare
"Ach, war das licht und hell!"). I can imagine Franzen as
Schoenberg’s thoughtful biologist, although he does not match Hans Hotter’s
gathering wonderment in the final lines. Jard van Nes begins as a lighter
forest bird, sample reminding me
of Rattle’s von Otter, but deepens impressively in tragedy. sample
I enjoy Jennifer Larmore (Sinopoli) for her dark colours and searing
attack in her final lines. Volker Vogel’s beautifully sung Klaus cannot
match Philip Langridge in bringing the jester to life.
What really distinguishes Inbal’s Gurrelieder is the
daring Denon engineering. I half-dread broadcasts and recordings of
this great work as engineers faced with the gigantic orchestra and multiple
choirs tend to manipulate the sound, hedging crescendi and throwing
undue light on Schoenberg’s often delicate instrumental lines. I’m guessing
here that comparatively few microphones were used: the basic orchestral
soundscape is comparatively natural so that the shimmering evocation
of a summer evening (glorious flutes and trumpet!) in the opening Prelude
sample are in proper relation to the
galloping timps in the third song. You may need to crank up the volume
to get the full impact, but that’s OK.
The Berlin Philharmonic sound backward as recorded
by EMI, collaborating in Rattle’s carpet-of-sound approach. Sinopoli’s
engineering on Teldec is fuller and he has the transparent glories of
the Staatskapelle Dresden. However neither matches Denon’s achievement
here. Try an A/B comparison with Rattle of the crescendo ending the
wood-dove’s song. Inbal’s brass and timps thunder a towering wave behind
van Nes. Rattle’s von Otter is miked much too forward so the terrifying
impact is lost, although the tonal refinement of the BPO brass is preferable.
Rattle Inbal
Multi-miking horrors in other Gurrelieder recordings
become particularly serious once the Speaker appears. EMI bought Quasthoff
so far forward he sounds like he could single-handedly take on the resulting
sunrise, ruining Schoenberg’s theme of individual human concerns being
subsumed within the overwhelming force of nature. Chailly’s recording
on Decca suffers similarly. Franzen is also forward but better placed
in relation to Schoenberg’s radiant finale, which opens thrillingly
with all the sheer amplitude from brass, choirs and rolling timps one
really wants on CD. At last! sample
Kubelik and Sinopoli remain my favourites, but for
engineering and conducting Inbal’s Gurrelieder is an important supplement.
David Harbin
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Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt/Eliahu Inbal 