Think of German pianist, guitarist, conductor, critic, and
composer Baron Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (1786-1826) as one of the
early pioneers of the Romantic movement in classical music. Anyone with a name
that long deserves a reputation for something. His operas Euryanthe, Oberon, and Der Freischütz were especially
influential in establishing the use of the leitmotif (a short, constantly
recurring musical phrase); Berlioz, Wagner, and others would soon follow suit
in their music. Anyway, on this Chandos album with the BBC Philharmonic and
their Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena we get one of Weber’s most-famous works, the Invitation to the Dance, along with his
two Symphonies and the Bassoon Concerto. It’s a fair lot.
Mena begins with the Invitation
to the Dance, perhaps to remind listeners of just where in the history of
music Weber belongs. It is something folks would be most sure to recognize, as
opposed to the other works on the disc. Weber originally composed the Invitation to the Dance for solo piano
in 1819, and here we find it in the form we know it by most familiarly today,
the orchestration Hector Berlioz made of it 1841 for ballet purposes. Mena
begins the piece at a sweet, leisurely pace and then moves briskly into the
main theme. The whole affair under Mena assumes a light, pleasant mood,
punctuated by intervals of appropriate commotion. Weber composed the waltz for
his wife, so you would expect an affectionate performance, which is what Mena
gives us, along with a dance-like ballet feeling, which it later became.
Weber wrote his two symphonies when he was only twenty
years old, publishing them shortly after Beethoven premiered his Eroica Symphony. Needless to say,
Weber’s early work paled by comparison and sort of faded into obscurity. Still,
the two pieces have a few interesting features, and Mena infuses the episodic
score with a Rossini-like flair. Both symphonies are quite dramatic and betray
a youthful desire to cover all things at once. So expect a lot of impetuous
zeal in the music, which, again, Mena is happy to exploit. Like his First Symphony, Weber’s Second contains a little of everything;
look for elements of opera, symphony, and ballet in here. It’s sort of fun,
actually, if notably forgettable.
Unlike the two symphonies that flank it on both sides of
the program, the Concerto for Bassoon and
Orchestra involves some serious atmosphere, color, and flavor. Mena takes a
no-nonsense approach to it, and it comes off as a mellow yet fairly cheerful
work. Soloist Karen Geoghegan’s playing is lyrical, melancholy, dynamic,
exhilarating, and playful as the opportunities arise. The Concerto is a highlight of the album.
Chandos made this 24-bit/96 kHz recording in 2012 at
MediaCity UK, Salford, England. The sound is just transparent enough to provide
some excellent detailing, even if it doesn’t quite reach audiophile standards
because it’s a tad lean and forward. The sound always remains well spread out
between the two front speakers, with a precise placement of instruments that
doesn’t appear too compartmentalized. Ralph Couzens produced the disc, and he’s
always pretty particular about making good, natural-sounding recordings. There
is also a pleasing sense of air and space around the instruments, a mild
concert-hall resonance, and a modest degree of depth involved.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
