BaL 11.03.17 - Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

[Nick Armstrong]

I liked the structure of this BAL, working through the various rôles and how they fare in various performances - though some obvious omissions made one wish for 10 extra minutes. Owning the Chailly and Rattle versions, the only one I'm tempted to investigate further is the Levine. Heppner sounded hair-raisingly brilliant - but then the recording sank without trace in the review. (An amazon review suggests further investigation is indeed a good idea: "this stupendous 2001 recording... I would unhesitatingly endorse as the first choice set, even above the Ozawa version. The Munich orchestra sounds like the greatest band in the world and Levine performs miracles with them, drawing out the sound monumentally without ever losing tension: the blazing, climactic last mega-chorus is a lulu. The two main soloists are the finest yet").

Incidentally, Salonen is down to perform the piece next year at the South Bank (https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wh...rrelieder-2018) but given the soloists, I'll not be tempted. I was at his performance in 2009 that was issued on Signum, orchestrally splendiferous but - as the BAL reviewer said - disappointing soloists. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...l-1635510.html

[Bryn]

Watching/listening to the Audi/Alrecht/Vermeiren Blu-ray at the moment and am happyu gto have added it to the Gurrelieder recordings I have available. The narrator is, as the composer preferred, a woman, Sunnyi Melles. It was not only old, analogue recordings which went without mention. This is of a 2016 production and was released this very year, and the 5.1 dts HD Master Audio sound is pretty impressive.