BaL 13.07.19 - Strauss: Four Last Songs

[Petrushka]

There is, or was, a second Janowitz recording, live from 1968 with Haitink and the Concertgebouw. It's slightly faster than her famous DG recording with Karajan from five years later, and Haitink keeps the textures a little clearer - no harm in that; but she is in truly glorious voice. She is every bit as moving as she is for Karajan, helped, no doubt, by the more favourable orchestral balance that Haitink allows her. It was available a while ago from Philips in their Dutch Masters series. If you can find it, grab it..

My copy of the Janowitz/Haitink arrived yesterday and I played it this evening. It's every bit as good as you say but the date given on the CD for this performance (july 2 1968) doesn't exist in the RCO concert archive. However, a Holland Festival performance was given on June 27 1968 and I would assume that this is the performance on the CD.

[LeMartinPecheur]

It wasn't me who said I was glad it was dismissed. I think it was DracoM. I was merely stating my general dislike of Schwarzkopf, as a performer/artist.

Sorry! Will correct earlier post.

[visualnickmos]

Sorry! Will correct earlier post.

That's OK. It's not important... really. But thank you all the same.

[gurnemanz]

Schwarzkopf with Szell was the second recording of Vier letzte Lieder (after Lisa Della Casa) which I acquired while studying German at university about 50 years. I liked it then and still do and found the "glad it was dismissed" comment slightly jarring. I certainly don't appreciate everything she does. Over the years I have gone off her Knaben Wunderhorn but there are other things I do like. I played her "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" from the Klemperer Brahms Req on the day my mother died. I like her Wolf songs with Gerald Moore, also Mozart Lieder with Walter Gieseking from 1955.

[Sir Velo]

Apart from the new format, interruptions to the flow (always really annoying!) and what I now consider to be the usual Radio 3 approach of sounding like a certain other 'classical music station', a reasonable BaL. One of my own favs, not even mentioned - Barbara Hendricks, a sad omission.

I can't stand Schwarzkopf in anything, and in these - well, less said the better. At the risk of being tried for heresy, I have never warmed to Janowitz and Karajan, although it was my first ever hearing and purchase of the songs on record/CD. To my ears, it sounds too forceful, even hard-edged.

Likewise, sad not to hear Studer/Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden. Studer's voice at its absolute loveliest, in its vernal freshness soaring like a lark; the readings totally unmannered in a spacious acoustic. Ah well, it will continue to live on my hifi.

[LMcD]

I haven't counted the number of recordings listed in #1, but Iain Burnside (or somebody) must have been pretty ruthless when producing any 'short list', especially in the light of postings mentioning regrettable omissions.

[Nick Armstrong]

For those with Qobuz (is it really just Jayne and me?)

No, me too

the Janowitz with Haitink is available on a large box set called 'Gundula Janowitz - The Golden Years', CD5.

Actually it’s The Golden Voice, Goon... But many thanks for the reference, probably wouldn’t have found it otherwise

.

[Master Jacques]

I haven't counted the number of recordings listed in #1, but Iain Burnside (or somebody) must have been pretty ruthless when producing any 'short list', especially in the light of postings mentioning regrettable omissions.

I thought Mr Burnside sounded distinctly depressed by having had to do so, and (for him) decidedly running on one cylinder. BaL is - quantifiably - not the programme it was.

[Nick Armstrong]

Elisabeth Meyer-Topsøe is quite special -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000025ZCE

IIRC, that was Caliban's chosen tipple for this work, too?

Indeed, one of them. Along with FLott who ‘won’ a domestic BaL years back when a mate and I pooled our CDs of the pieces and compared about 15 or so. Janowitz, Della Casa and Norman came close but were let down by oddities e.g. recorded balance or orchestral playing, compared with the exemplary Chandos release.

So I rather sniffily let my heart sink when I saw 4LS come up for this BaL.... and stupidly, because this was one of the best I can remember (plus it was interesting to read above that it’s the thick end of 20 years since these songs had been covered - and that FLott ‘won’ the official one as well as our private one).

Iain Burnside transcended the chat format, I thought, and the survey actually made me laugh and cry (in a good way!). The first Janowitz / Karajan extract brought tears to my eyes, such stunning playing and singing! (In contrast to IB and AMcG who amazingly opined that it left them cold ).

And I laughed out loud when IS described Jessye taking us into “a Mahlerian coma” I don’t mind a Mahlerian coma from time to time, and I think IB thinks the same.

I heard a few versions I’d never heard before, the two that attracted me most turning up in IS’s final three: the Mattila/Abbado, and the ‘other’ Karajan one with Tomowa-Sintow.

I always used to avoid the latter, at the time (1980s) she always seemed like one of those all-purpose divas who was systematically chosen for Karajan’s plush late recordings, and who stepped in to replace headline acts (I think I saw her in the revival at Covent Garden of Ariadne, not equalling Jessye who’d blown my mind in the original run)

But I really liked what I heard of the recording of these songs, the pulsing opening to Im Abendrot echoing (as IS perceptively pointed out) the Alpine Symphony, and AT-S sounding in great voice.

And I can’t believe I’d never heard the Mattila / Abbado before. Definitely going to explore that further, too. And the Janowitz/Haitink (thanks for the references above, especially to its availability on Qobuz).

[Stanfordian]

Likewise, sad not to hear Studer/Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden. Studer's voice at its absolute loveliest, in its vernal freshness soaring like a lark; the readings totally unmannered in a spacious acoustic. Ah well, it will continue to live on my hifi.

I'd totally forgotten about Studer/Sinopoli. So thanks for reminding me. It's a very fine performance, so I've made a point of revisiting it soon.

[Nick Armstrong]

Having listened to my Janowitz/Karajan CD on audiophile headphones I agree with comments like "sound quality could be better". In sampling a few I found myself enjoying the last BAL winner the most, Lott/Jarvi... wonderful sound from Chandos.

Yes, that’s exactly the reaction during our domestic BaL referred to at the start of my previous post.

[Mal]

... documentary with the first ten minutes directly relevant to this thread...
http://editorium.co.uk/imagine/

Just a caveat that the rest is, mostly, not worth watching. It caters too much to the popular taste of the average fourteen year old, a typical BBC fault. The first documentary was much better, mainly because it centred on Sacks rather than some pop stars. I'm surprised at Yentob going down this path of mediocrity. In his first video he demonstrated his brain lighting up like a fireworks display to 4LS, but only a little activity to a couple of pop songs. And then in the second documentary he focuses on pop songs? Why didn't he devote the whole programme to 4LS? Even worse, the pop songs were stuffy, maybe the producer's idea of "deep". At least it generated a scathing review from Graeme Thomson with some great one liners:

https://theartsdesk.com/tv/imagine-how-music-makes-us-feel-bbc-one

"An abundance of talking heads provide precious little insight into how music works its magic."

'One man’s “Beim Schlafengehen" ... is another man’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.'

'One of the key failures of this Imagine was its reluctance to interact with the sometimes unpalatable vagaries of public taste.'

'the programme was partly predicated on a series of slightly stuffy and convenient assumptions, such as that Emile Sande singing “Abide With Me” at the Olympic Opening ceremony is indisputably more moving than, say, “Wombling Merry Christmas”. Not for me it isn’t' :)

[Cockney Sparrow]

These can be found on the Naxos Music Library (I presume more research would turn up others too -
Studer - Dresden - Sinopoli, Janowitz, Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan and Tomowa-Sintow, Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan can all be found on the Naxos Music Library (under D_ Gram_ label, initial "S" page (IIRC) 26 .
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-library/page2

[gurnemanz]

I have got around to listening to Mattila/Abbado via Spotify and really enjoyed the singing and would not argue with it as a BaL choice. I still prefer others (eg Isokoski which I listened to straight afterwards) - the posts on here confirm how personal and individual the reaction especially to this music can be. I was curious to consult my go-to Lied guru, Alan Blyth, on the Mattila. Here's a bit of his Gramophone review of the original issue:

She has the tonal refulgence, the control over line and tone and the identification with the valedictory texts that they require. Given the Berlin Philharmonic’s luxurious support, this is a version to set beside that of Janowitz with the same orchestra in terms of sheer beauty. But there is more to these songs than that. This time my comparisons were also with those of three sopranos (all on EMI, incidentally), who delve deeper than Mattila into the text’s meaning: Popp’s overwhelmingly sensitive reading, Jurinac’s translucent tone and meaningful diction, Schwarzkopf’s refined identification with music and words. Then the last two – Busch, in particular, a masterly conductor of the score – with markedly faster tempos, avoid the occasional sense of self-indulgence in the new version, unhelped by a soft-focus recording that places the orchestra too far back in the sound picture and muddies instrumental detail, a mistake avoided on the Janowitz/DG disc. None the less, Mattila admirers, among whom I count myself, should hear her beautiful singing.

[Bryn]

Just a caveat that the rest is, mostly, not worth watching. It caters too much to the popular taste of the average fourteen year old, a typical BBC fault. The first documentary was much better, mainly because it centred on Sacks rather than some pop stars. I'm surprised at Yentob going down this path of mediocrity. In his first video he demonstrated his brain lighting up like a fireworks display to 4LS, but only a little activity to a couple of pop songs. And then in the second documentary he focuses on pop songs? Why didn't he devote the whole programme to 4LS? Even worse, the pop songs were stuffy, maybe the producer's idea of "deep". At least it generated a scathing review from Graeme Thomson with some great one liners:

https://theartsdesk.com/tv/imagine-how-music-makes-us-feel-bbc-one

"An abundance of talking heads provide precious little insight into how music works its magic."

'One man’s “Beim Schlafengehen" ... is another man’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.'

'One of the key failures of this Imagine was its reluctance to interact with the sometimes unpalatable vagaries of public taste.'

'the programme was partly predicated on a series of slightly stuffy and convenient assumptions, such as that Emile Sande singing “Abide With Me” at the Olympic Opening ceremony is indisputably more moving than, say, “Wombling Merry Christmas”. Not for me it isn’t' :)

Hmm. I woukd recommend ignoring the jaded views of Graeme Thomson and continuing to watch/listen beyong Mal's 10 minutes. Yes, it is aimed at a wider audience, but there is much worthy of consideration in there.