Mary Dunleavy, soprano; Elizabeth Bishop, mezzo-soprano; Stephen Gould,
tenor; Alastair Miles, bass. Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus. Telarc CD-80603.
Despite using the
new Urtext Edition edited by Jonathan Del Mar and published by Barenreiter,
this 2003 recording of the Ninth Symphony
from conductor Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus steers a
pretty safe, conservative course through the interpretive mainstream. The new
edition corrects hundreds of errors perpetuated over the years, but you’d
hardly notice it under Runnicles’ baton. The coupling of moderate tempos and
reserved sonics produces a fairly straightforward account of Beethoven’s
climatic work.
Although both
Runnicles and David Zinman on his Arte Nova recording use the same text, don’t
expect anything like the same results. Zinman employs a slightly reduced
orchestral force, adopts much faster speeds (approaching period-instruments
practice), and his engineers give it a lighter, brighter audio environment to
generate a much more electrifying result. Runnicles, on the other hand, is
consistently slower than Zinman, favoring long, flowing lines (although not
nearly so slow as many older conductors), and he effects a more-tempered
performance than some conductors have. Runnicles should appeal to those
listeners seeking a modern digital recording of a big orchestra playing a
fairly traditional Ninth in a newly
revised edition.
I had my doubts
about Runnicles in the beginning, though. The opening of the first movement
seemed positively glacial, and when the orchestral sound comes to the fore, it
appears to be more a matter of the engineer’s hand than the conductor’s. But
once he gets started, Runnicles moves the Allegro
along splendidly. He also takes Beethoven’s second-movement Scherzo at a sprightly pace, though
nothing like Zinman’s or Norrington’s. It’s in the slow movement, the Adagio, that Runnicles is especially
careful. He avoids extremes at all costs, coming in at a discreet fifteen
minutes. Compare that to Zinman at about eleven minutes and to Solti at almost
twenty minutes, and you see what I mean. Then we have the big finale, which
caps the festivities in an appropriately grand manner, all cylinders firing,
every voice celebrating the joyous conclusion. Perhaps Runnicles’s reading
lacks the ultimate distinction of individualism, but if you go for big,
conventional interpretations of the Ninth,
there’s something here to like.
Telarc’s audio may
be another matter. Played softly it doesn’t sound so good. It seems more than a
bit muffled and distant and, in the end, quite unremarkable. Turned up a notch
or two, however, it comes more to life. Of course, you have to get used to its
being softer and fuller than competing recordings, which may be unfair. I
compared it to six other discs of the Ninth
I had on hand, and all of the others were better defined and more revealing. In
fact, returning to the Telarc appeared as though someone had placed a woolen
blanket over the speakers. But comparisons can be deceiving because listening
to other recordings after the Telarc made some of them sound a bit too
high-pitched and brittle. The closest I came to matching the Telarc sound was
with an old Philips recording of Jochum and the Concertgebouw, and even that
had a more-elevated top end. While it’s possible the new Telarc is simply
better balanced than the others, there’s no doubt the more brilliant audio
qualities of most rival discs bring out greater definition in voices,
particularly.
No, this
Runnicles/Telarc recording would not be my own first choice for interpretation
or sound. That honor would still go to the likes of Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
(HDTT), Eugen Jochum (both EMI and Philips), Georg Solti (Decca), Karl Boehm
(DG), David Zinman (Arte Nova), Herbert von Karajan (DG), Otto Klemperer (EMI),
Leonard Bernstein (DG), Sir Charles Mackerras (EMI), Roger Norrington (EMI), John Eliot Gardiner, and the like. They’re tough acts to follow, actually, and the final choice may
be a matter not only of one’s own musical taste but one’s own sound system. If
your system leans toward brightness, the new Runnicles account might, at least
sonically, fit right in with it.
JJP
To listen to a few brief excerpts from this album, click
here:
Have you had the chance to hear Mackerras's 2006 Hyperion Beethoven symphony cycle, notably his 9th with the Philharmonia? I don't disparage his Liverpudlian cycle. It was good but the Hyperion version is even better. There is more focus, vividness and electricity in the music making this time round.
ReplyDeleteCan I also know if you could include Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Beethoven 9th in your last paragraph? This probably demands the most robust touch from conductor and orchestra, not to mention singers. In face I would rate JEG's Beethoven as more robust than Norrington or Hogwood and the other historically sensitive versions that had been released up to that point. The punches are still strong as ever. It helps that they were late to the party and released their cycle late in the learning curve of historically sensitive Beethoven.
Thank you for the heads up. No I have not heard Makerras's Hyperion recording of the Ninth nor John Eliot Gardiner's. But certainly I will take your word for their worth.
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