Also, Symphonic
Dances. Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic. Warner Classics 50999 9 84519 2 0.
The first and presumably main attraction here is Russian
composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninov’s (1873-1943) The Bells, a choral symphony the composer wrote in 1913, inspired
by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name. In Poe’s poem the poet was
experimenting with sound, using onomatopoeia, the imitation of sounds of real
life through the sounds of words. Thus, if you read an onomatopoetic poem like
“The Bells” aloud, you would be able to hear the sounds of various bells:
sleigh bells, wedding bells, alarm bells, and mournful death knells.
Accordingly, that’s the way Rachmaninov set up his symphony--in four movements,
with a choir to sing the words along with the orchestra. It became one of the
composer’s favorite pieces. To me, however, it seems rather to defeat Poe’s
purpose to do the work orchestrally; I mean, you can have real bells with an
orchestra. But I suppose that’s beside the point. It’s fascinating music, and
Sir Simon Rattle has a delightful time with it.
Rattle also has the advantage over most other conductors
of this work in that he has the magnificent Berlin Philharmonic at his
disposal. The ensemble sounds gorgeous, as always, leaving no doubt in a
listener’s mind that it’s one of the world’s great orchestras.
Anyway, like Poe's poem, the music of Rachmaninov’s The Bells starts out lightly and
cheerfully with the sleigh bells ("The Silver Sleigh Bells") of youth
and works its way through life gradually to the dark, forbidding, yet
ultimately comforting bells of death ("The Mournful Iron Bells").
Rattle handles each segment of what Poe called "tintinnabulation"
gracefully, tunefully, and colorfully. This is one of Rachmaninov's most
expressive pieces of the music, perhaps why he liked it so much himself, and
Rattle's way with it is playful when necessary, gentle, exciting, and then
menacing, sorrowful, and peacefully uplifting at the end. Rattle never goes out
his way to emphasize the Dies irae
(“Day of Wrath” or Judgment Day) motif that so often insinuates itself into
Rachmaninov's music, nor does he disguise it. With Rattle it simply exists as
an integral part of the music. Overall, this is one of the best performances of
The Bells I've heard, one of the most
thoughtful and subtle, with no undue sensationalizing.
Insofar as concerns the coupling, it’s Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, which the composer
wrote late in life (premiering the music in 1941, just a year or two before his
death). Initially, he intended the Dances
as a part of a ballet project that fell through. The three dances in the suite
have been in the repertoire ever since, and the public probably knows them as
well as they know anything the composer wrote.
Among previously available recordings, I’ve always liked
Andre Previn’s account with the London Symphony on EMI, which has long stood
the test of time; Eiji Oue’s rendering with the Minnesota Orchestra on
Reference Recordings, which is without a doubt the best recorded version you’ll
find; and Vasily Petrenko’s more-recent realization with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic for its sheer energy. While it probably isn’t the best idea to
compare different interpretations to one another because each one will have its
fair share of valid interpretive points, I can’t help enjoying some recordings
more than others. In this case, I can’t say I liked Rattle’s version better
than my previous favorites. Let me explain.
With Rattle and the Symphonic
Dances we have a different story from The
Bells. Rattle is one of the most civilized conductors in all of music, and
he seems to be getting more understated as he gets older. I'm one of those guys
who actually liked Rattle's work more with the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra back in the Eighties and Nineties than with the Berlin Philharmonic,
despite the Berliners being the richer, more-opulent ensemble. Rattle seemed to
me more spontaneous back then, more youthfully energetic and exuberant. Which
is what I sense lacking in these Symphonic
Dances. They sound too civilized.
Rattle's approach to the Dances seems too cultured, too refined to me. There is neither the
imagination Previn injected into them nor the sheer adrenaline rush Petrenko
provided. What's more, Warner Classics didn't provide them the kind of all-out
sonic splendor that we hear from Reference Recordings. So what we have from
Rattle is an elegant set of Symphonic
Dances that doesn't quite get the blood to pounding the way other
conductors have done. Still, it's a finely polished performance and one that
may well appeal to listeners seeking such an interpretation. Certainly, Rattle
makes the most of the sinuously lyrical second movement, has a pleasingly
relaxed manner with the alto solo and waltz tunes, and again never flaunts the Dies irae ostentatiously in the final
dance.
There is no one and only "right" way to deal
with any score, after all, and Rattle's graceful, intellectual rendition of the
Symphonic Dances makes a welcome
addition to the catalogue, whether I happen to love it or not.
As is their usual practice with most Simon Rattle Berlin
recordings, Warner Classics (formerly EMI) made it during live concerts, these
from 2010 and 2012. While the sound of these live affairs is never bad, it
can’t quite match in naturalness what the engineers can do without an audience.
The producer in this case was Christoph Franke and the engineer Rene Moeller,
and they do their best with an audience present, and the sound they obtain
doesn't appear as close as it sometimes can be in such affairs. There's a wide
stereo spread, although orchestral depth suffers a tad, and vocals can be
bright, sometimes piercing, especially in massed voices. Lows appear reasonably
well extended, particularly in bass drum and organ passages; the midrange is a
little too warm and soft for my taste; but treble notes glisten believably.
Oddly, too, there were times when I thought the engineers might have
intentionally clamped down on the dynamics too much, restricting the range a
bit more than absolutely necessary. Or so it sounded to me.
Most important to the sonics, there is little or no sense
of the audience's presence in the recording, which I count as a good thing.
There is no obvious breathing or coughing, shuffling of feet, or handling of
programs from the audience. And even better, there is no burst of applause at
the end of each number to distract one from the listening experience. I attend
live symphonic concerts two or three times a month and enjoy them immensely,
but when I'm home I recognize it's a different occasion; I want the sound to
emulate that of a real concert hall all right, yet without the intrusive noises
of people around me. While this latest recording from Simon Rattle does not
match the best audio reproduction I've heard from the Berlin Philharmonic, for
a live recording it sounds OK.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
