Page 69 - BBC Music (January 2020)

Orchestral Reviews

Beethoven
Symphonies Nos 5 & 6
WDR Symphony Orchestra/
Marek Janowski
Pentatone PTC 5186 809 73:04 mins
In music of this
time-honoured
humanity and
greatness, there
are bound to
be aspects
that almost any given line-up
of performers will respond to.
Here we have a German radio
orchestra which, while not in
the absolute top-flight Berlin or
Viennese league, is (merely!) very
fine in every department – plus Fierce energy:
Ensemble Resonanz
a long-experienced conductor
resonate with Dessner
whose liking for brisk-ish pace and
unexaggerated delivery means, at
the very least, that he won’t get in
the music’s way. (Janowski also, Masaaki Suzuki Bryce Dessner of flight and passage’ in honour
excellently, includes all the repeat and Bach of the composer’s grandmother,
sections indicated in the scores.) Collegium are Tenebre*; Aheym; Skrik Trio; a Jewish immigrant, and bristles
This collective approach works best known Lachrimae with restless energy. Lachrimae
well in large stretches of the Fifth for their epic *Moses Sumney (vocals); (2012) offers a wonderfully warped
Symphony – as in the second recorded survey Ensemble Resonanz reimagining of Dowland’s work
movement, whose Andante con moto of JS Bach’s complete sacred Resonanz Raum Records RRR 002 of the same name, and includes
pace is beautifully judged, catching cantatas. In recent years, though, 58:03 mins some particularly imaginative and
the music’s quizzical streak while they’ve branched out further afield Bryce Dessner arresting uses of harmonics across
also allowing warm lyrical contrast, into the choral repertoire, not only has won critical the string ensemble. The recording
in a way that really does have you with Mozart’s Requiem, but also acclaim in both throughout has a closeness and
listening to the interplay between a version of Beethoven’s Missa the worlds of crispness which well matches both
the two as if for the first time. The solemnis released a couple of years contemporary Dessner’s tightly-wrought works
finale blazes along impressively, ago. Now we have Suzuki and his and popular and Ensemble Resonanz’s taut
without needless turbo-charging. forces tackling Beethoven’s Choral music. Long established as the performances. Kate Wakeling
But a similar approach doesn’t Symphony – and making a fine guitarist and songwriter of the PERFORMANCE HHHH
work so well in the Pastoral showing of it. American rock band The National, RECORDING HHHH
Symphony, where Janowski’s What’s particularly impressive is Dessner has recently returned to
trademark restraint seems to hold the high standard of the orchestral the realm of classical music (he Finger
back too much of the music’s sense playing, and not least the virtuosity is a classically-trained guitarist), Music for European Courts and
of wonderment. In the ‘Scene by of the horns and the spot-on winning recognition with his Concerts: The Mourning Bride –
the Brook’ – whose indication accuracy of the string intonation. vigorous and exciting post- Incidental Music; Fantasia etc
Andante molto mosso is admittedly Suzuki may not quite plumb all the minimalism works for both screen The Harmonious Society of Tickle-
a conundrum – the pace feels too depths of the slow movement, but and concert hall. Fiddle Gentlemen/Robert Rawson
hurried for the mood of underlying his is a highly intelligent reading Dessner’s muscular works are well Ramée RAM 1802 66:47 mins
rapture to come across as it wants to, and one that seldom fails to convey paired with Germany’s Ensemble The itinerant
and the same is true of Janowski’s the music’s atmosphere. Resonanz who play with a fierce career of Gottfried
view of the finale’s Allegretto Beethoven wasn’t altogether but precise energy. Highlights Finger (c1660-
tempo marking. Nothing offends; clear about the question of repeats include the title work, Tenebre 1730) took him
then again, you aren’t left with the in the scherzo second movement, (2011), originally composed for the from his native
required feeling that this is one of but it’s generally thought he meant Kronos Quartet but heard here Moravia to
the greatest musical masterworks the da capo to be done without in an arrangement for full string Austria, England, Germany and
ever written down. Malcolm Hayes any repeats. Suzuki does include orchestra. The work reverses the Italy. The miscellany of works on
PERFORMANCE HHH a repeat of the first half here; and structure of the Tenebre Holy Week this disc, then, offers a musical
RECORDING HHHH since his tempo for the movement as Mass, travelling not from light to travelogue, from the colourful
a whole is on the fast side, the repeat dark but from gloom to radiance: instrumental traditions of central
Beethoven works well enough. hesitant shivers of sound gradually Europe, to virtuosic Italian music
Symphony No. 9 (Choral) He fields a fine team of soloists, grow in force and complexity, before (which Finger regarded ‘the best
Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), though the baritone Neal Davies the work softens in its final section, in the world’), balletic French and
Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo- could have been more au fait introducing some glorious vocals popular English and Scottish styles.
soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), Neal with the conventions of recitative from Moses Sumney. We hear hypnotic Chaconnes
Davies (bass); Bach Collegium Japan/ notation. Misha Donat Also premiered by the Kronos redolent of Lully and Purcell, a
Masaaki Suzuki PERFORMANCE HHHH Quartet, Aheym (2009) was written brilliant and quirky Fantasia,
BIS BIS-2451 66:28 mins RECORDING HHHHH as a ‘musical evocation of the idea incidental music – by turns airy and

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 71