Gerard Schwarz, New York Chamber Symphony. Master Performers MP 21 03.
By John J. Puccio
Conductor (and trumpeter) Gerard Schwarz (b. 1947) was the longtime Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (1985-2011) as well as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival. He currently serves as the Music Director of the Palm Beach Symphony and the Frost Symphony Orchestra. I mention all this because he apparently kept a stash of his old unreleased recordings that he is just now issuing on the Master Performers label. The disc under consideration is Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, which he recorded with the New York Chamber Symphony over thirty years ago. Needless to say, age makes little difference in the world of classical music, so it may as well have been produced yesterday.
Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote his Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 “The Great” somewhere between 1825 and his death in 1828. The history of this last of Schubert’s numbered symphonies is somewhat peculiar, however, because although the composer dated it 1828, the year of his death, he probably didn’t actually write it in 1828. In fact, it may not have even been his last symphony. The odds are he wrote it earlier than 1828, maybe 1826, which makes little difference since, as with the rest of Schubert’s orchestral music, he never published any of it, anyway. The public didn’t hear the Ninth until 1839, eleven years after the composer died; and when it finally got published in 1849, it was listed as Schubert’s Eighth Symphony. These days, audiences consider it one of the staples of the classical music world, whether they number it No. 7, 8, or 9.
The structure of the symphony is in a conventional four-movement format: I. Andante – Allegro ma non troppo – Più moto; II. Andante con moto; III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace; Trio; and IV. Finale: Allegro vivace. However, its length was quite long by the standards of the time (Robert Schumann called it a “heavenly length”), and early musicians found it difficult to play because of its extended string and woodwind parts. Whatever, listeners have always loved it.
Maestro Schwarz takes a genial, easygoing approach to the symphony while managing to maintain much of it size and grandeur. (He plays it complete, as Schubert intended, with no cuts and all the repeats intact.) Both of my favorite recordings in this work do much the same thing but with some cuts: Otto Klemperer (EMI) deftly holds together the magnitude of the structure while still maintaining an amiable attitude; and Josef Krips (Decca or HDTT) manages to produce a largely cheerful production while also preserving most the music’s expansive scale. Schwarz is a touch more solemn and straightforward than either of these preferred conductors, yet he still gives us a solid, well-considered interpretation.
Under Maestro Schwarz the second-movement Andante seems to go on a tad long, yet it never drags. It just hasn’t as much energy as it might nor sustain as baronial a manner as it could. Still, it follows neatly the elegant tone set by the prior movement, introducing a further note of melancholy into the proceedings. Although Schwarz’s view of the Scherzo is not as joyous as some I have heard, it fits the pattern he established in the first two movements and provides a smooth continuity for the music. When the grand finale enters, Schwarz meets it head-on, producing a movement of vigor and splendor. Although Schwarz’s realization of the symphony does not quite reach the heights of a few other conductors, his recording is thoughtful, sturdy, and steady and cannot be discounted.
Producers Marc Anbort and Joanna Niekrenz and engineer Marc Anbort recorded the symphony at The Manhattan Center, New York in December 1987. The sound has a pleasantly soft, warmly comfortable feeling to it. In fact, the sound is silky smooth, which tends to blur slightly the detail. On the other hand, it makes the sound fairly inoffensive and easy to listen to. Dynamics, too, seem a bit on the constricted side, which is maybe in keeping with the sound’s casual air of effortlessness. Audiophile sound? Not exactly. Pleasing to the ear? Surely.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
By John J. Puccio
Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote his Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 “The Great” somewhere between 1825 and his death in 1828. The history of this last of Schubert’s numbered symphonies is somewhat peculiar, however, because although the composer dated it 1828, the year of his death, he probably didn’t actually write it in 1828. In fact, it may not have even been his last symphony. The odds are he wrote it earlier than 1828, maybe 1826, which makes little difference since, as with the rest of Schubert’s orchestral music, he never published any of it, anyway. The public didn’t hear the Ninth until 1839, eleven years after the composer died; and when it finally got published in 1849, it was listed as Schubert’s Eighth Symphony. These days, audiences consider it one of the staples of the classical music world, whether they number it No. 7, 8, or 9.
The structure of the symphony is in a conventional four-movement format: I. Andante – Allegro ma non troppo – Più moto; II. Andante con moto; III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace; Trio; and IV. Finale: Allegro vivace. However, its length was quite long by the standards of the time (Robert Schumann called it a “heavenly length”), and early musicians found it difficult to play because of its extended string and woodwind parts. Whatever, listeners have always loved it.
Under Maestro Schwarz the second-movement Andante seems to go on a tad long, yet it never drags. It just hasn’t as much energy as it might nor sustain as baronial a manner as it could. Still, it follows neatly the elegant tone set by the prior movement, introducing a further note of melancholy into the proceedings. Although Schwarz’s view of the Scherzo is not as joyous as some I have heard, it fits the pattern he established in the first two movements and provides a smooth continuity for the music. When the grand finale enters, Schwarz meets it head-on, producing a movement of vigor and splendor. Although Schwarz’s realization of the symphony does not quite reach the heights of a few other conductors, his recording is thoughtful, sturdy, and steady and cannot be discounted.
Producers Marc Anbort and Joanna Niekrenz and engineer Marc Anbort recorded the symphony at The Manhattan Center, New York in December 1987. The sound has a pleasantly soft, warmly comfortable feeling to it. In fact, the sound is silky smooth, which tends to blur slightly the detail. On the other hand, it makes the sound fairly inoffensive and easy to listen to. Dynamics, too, seem a bit on the constricted side, which is maybe in keeping with the sound’s casual air of effortlessness. Audiophile sound? Not exactly. Pleasing to the ear? Surely.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
