BaL 31.10.20 - Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen

[makropulos]

Since you are around, do you happen to have a personal favourite among the DVDs currently available, mainly regarding the musical contribution, that is? I would presume the Mackerras. I don't know the Dennis Russell Davies but it appears to have been well received by Amazon customers.

I've got two favourite DVDs. Mackerras/Hytner in Paris is a pretty good performance (though the Orchestra de Paris doesn't always sound as if it's made for playing Janáček), but the neither the sound nor picture quality are particularly impressive. Still, musically it's the one I'd go for. But I'm also very fond of Jurowski at Glyndebourne. I know the production had a mixed reception, but I've always found it very effective. A pretty good cast too, and Jurowski conducts it extremely well. The blu-ray has very good sound and vision. Of the others, Russell Davies et al give the sort of performance that would be very enjoyable on a visit to a theatre (remember those?) but watching it again I thought it slightly less characterful than either Mackerras or Jurowski. I reviewed Ozawa's DVD when it came out and didn't like it any more when I rewatched it a few weeks ago –so that one I'd avoid. For a bit of vintage enjoyment, Neumann and Asmus in b/w and (very) mono sound give a flavour of the Felsenstein production –filmed for German TV (and sung in German) after an immensely long run of performances.

[jayne lee wilson]

Interesting you say that. I was oddly unconvinced by that Sinfonietta, in spite of excellent playing: I missed the kind of grit Ancerl, Kubelik and Mackerras all bring to it. For me, it never quite caught fire. But obviously it's done it for you, so I'll try again.

Years since I heard it, but the original EMI ROH/Rattle had the Taras Bulba with the Philharmonia. I thought this very good at the time, but once I had the Toshiba-EMI remaster it became my top dog, with the c/w Sinfonietta......

You had to take care with your volume setting first time around.......

[mikealdren]

I have the Rattle Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba on LP, years since I've listened to that! I do remember finding it less engaging than the Kubelik which has always been my favourite version of both works despite it's, now, rather dated sound.

[makropulos]

Years since I heard it, but the original EMI ROH/Rattle had the Taras Bulba with the Philharmonia. I thought this very good at the time, but once I had the Toshiba-EMI remaster it became my top dog, with the c/w Sinfonietta......

You had to take care with your volume setting first time around.......

That's very interesting. I've still got the original EMI issue and completely agree (when Chandos reissued Vixen they had to omit Taras B for obvious contractual reasons). I must see if I can get hold of the Japanese coupling of TB and the Sinfonietta, not least because the UK EMI issue was decidedly underwhelming. That certainly wasn't Rattle's fault –several EMI Haitink records from the same period suffered from similar characteristics –a sense that the performance was going on in the room next door, the impact much dimmed as a result. I remember the same being true of some EMI LPs from the late 70s and early 80s, even though the German pressings were nice and quiet.

[Bryn]

I have the Rattle Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba on LP, years since I've listened to that! I do remember finding it less engaging than the Kubelik which has always been my favourite version of both works despite it's, now, rather dated sound.

And lack of viola d'amore in The Queen's Monastery movement of Sinfonietta, which Mackerras restored (though it was not included in the premiere).

[makropulos]

I have the Rattle Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba on LP, years since I've listened to that! I do remember finding it less engaging than the Kubelik which has always been my favourite version of both works despite it's, now, rather dated sound.

I can't make my mind up about a favourite Sinfonietta. Kubelik/DG is certainly one of them, but so are Ančerl/Supraphon and Mackerras/Pye (which sounds amazing for its age in the Testament reissue). But the one I play most often is probably Mackerras/Decca. They're all terrific, and on top of those there's also Mackerras/Supraphon with the Czech Phil which is pretty special too. Looking forward rather than back, I hope Supraphon might record it with Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Phil. Did you see the New Year concert from Prague this year that ended with the Sinfonietta? The extra brass were played by military bandsmen/women (as Janáček intended), and the whole thing was thrilling. It's on YouTube and very well worth watching! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PrfcP_w1vc

[jayne lee wilson]

Absolutely with you on Ančerl (Gold Edition here) and the early Testament Mackerras.

Listening back to that Toshiba Rattle release in the 2nd and 3rd movements of the Sinfonietta, I soon went very quiet....
Stunned once more at the clarity, power and sheer beauty of it all.

This was probably one of the legendary Yoshio Okazaki remasters, though they stopped crediting him latterly. I never found anything out about him, but like many Japanese audiophiles, he must have loved the Kingsway sound (as much as the Wilkinson Sound, though here its Willan/Sheady) and sought to do it full justice here.

With marvellous results. The revelation of the orchestra in its acoustic really does bring back some of that essential rawness, grit and earthiness...

Ah, the discovery of Toshiba-EMI! Those were the days weren't they? Well for the happy few, at least....
You could get them for about £4-6 a disc at one time, from HMV Japan, and customs didn't always jump on them then.... I was goggle-eyed to receive a box of 12 - the delivery, in big silver EMS packages, took about 3 days from Tokyo - Liverpool, without any extra charge....

[makropulos]

This was probably one of the legendary Yoshio Okazaki remasters, though they stopped crediting him latterly. I never found anything out about him, but like many Japanese audiophiles, he must have loved the Kingsway sound (as much as the Wilkinson Sound, though here its Willan/Sheady) and sought to do it full justice here.

With marvellous results. The revelation of the orchestra in tis acoustic really does bring aback some of that essential rawness, grit and earthiness...

Oh yes. I was delighted to find a few months ago the Toshiba EMI Okazaki remaster (on which he is credited) of all Boult's EMI Vaughan Williams Symphonies in a neat box set. In several of them the difference is amazing, but it's done so unobtrusively: it's as though you could always somehow sense that the potential was there but it took a bit of effort (by Okazaki) to find it.

[makropulos]

And lack of viola d'amore in The Queen's Monastery movement of Sinfonietta, which Mackerras restored (though it was not included in the premiere).

Yes, that's one of those ideas that can be made to work on a record but really doesn't in a concert hall. Presumably that's why Janáček told Talich at the rehearsal before the premiere to use orchestral violas. So in that case, it was the composer himself who had second thoughts about his unorthodox scoring (as he later did with the viola d'amore part for the Second Quartet –a pretty dreadful idea in practice, as a couple of recordings demonstrate). As my dear old friend John Tyrrell once put it, Janáček's writing for viola d'amore often had more to do with what the instrument was called rather than the sound it made.

[mikealdren]

We ought to have a thread on remastering. I've just come across an American remastering of two Rabin LPs that is far better than the EMI or Testament equivalents and restores the bloom of the LPs. Not sure if it was taken from LPs or tape but it's remarkable and shows what a bad job some of the major labels do.

[Pulcinella]

Staying off topic (), there's a BBC MM CD of a live 2007 Proms performance of the Sinfonietta by Mackerras with the BBCPO: Volume 17, number 6.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sinfonietta-Glagolitic-Mass-Janacek/dp/5552998189/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=janacek+mackerras+hickox&qid=1604159358&sr=8-1

I imagine that the brass were dispersed high up/all around the RAH.
No doubt someone from the forum was there and can tell us.

[makropulos]

Staying off topic (), there's a BBC MM CD of a live 2007 Proms performance of the Sinfonietta by Mackerras with the BBCPO: Volume 17, number 6.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sinfonietta-Glagolitic-Mass-Janacek/dp/5552998189/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=janacek+mackerras+hickox&qid=1604159358&sr=8-1

I imagine that the brass were dispersed high up/all around the RAH.
No doubt someone from the forum was there and can tell us.

Oh that was simply fabulous :) –riotously exciting, and it actually sounded as if everybody was having a lot of fun.
I wasn't there, but heard it live on the radio. It was the same 'Brass Day' that included a terrific performance of the Schumann Konzerstück for Four Horns (which I think has also appeared on a BBCMM disc).

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, that's one of those ideas that can be made to work on a record but really doesn't in a concert hall. Presumably that's why Janáček told Talich at the rehearsal before the premiere to use orchestral violas. So in that case, it was the composer himself who had second thoughts about his unorthodox scoring (as he later did with the viola d'amore part for the Second Quartet –a pretty dreadful idea in practice, as a couple of recordings demonstrate). As my dear old friend John Tyrrell once put it, Janáček's writing for viola d'amore often had more to do with what the instrument was called rather than the sound it made.

Very apposite and amusing comment! Perhaps Hindemith paid the instrument a better homage in the Kammermusiken No.6 of 1927, almost contemporaneous with the 2nd Janacek Quartet....

[Pulcinella]

Oh that was simply fabulous :) –riotously exciting, and it actually sounded as if everybody was having a lot of fun.
I wasn't there, but heard it live on the radio. It was the same 'Brass Day' that included a terrific performance of the Schumann Konzerstück for Four Horns (which I think has also appeared on a BBCMM disc).

It has:
Volume 18, number 5, c/w Symphony 4 (conducted by Noseda, in Manchester two months previously).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schumann-Symphony-Konzertstuck-Four-Horns/dp/B008PRVSGA/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=schumann+symphony+4+konzertstuck&qid=1604160199&sr=8-5

[makropulos]

And to yank things vaguely back to the topic, I wonder which live performances of Vixen forum members have seen and particularly enjoyed? My own first experience was on a school trip to Düsseldorf when I was 15. I got permission to take myself to the opera while the rest of the group went on a boat trip round the docks at Essen. It was literally the best 30p I've ever spent on a ticket. I came out enchanted –and genuinely changed for the better –by the experience. It was a lovely production, and it was a nice surprise to come home and find a review in The Times a few days later by William Mann, who clearly enjoyed it too (there was even a photo of the gorgeous set). I saw the Jonathan Miller Glyndebourne production on tour in Manchester when I was an undergrad –conducted by the very young Simon Rattle. After that, it was several different incarnations of the Pountney production, which remains something of a miracle, 40 years on. I saw it with Richard Armstrong conducting and was enchanted by it. Mackerras did it for the first time in the theatre with WNO in the mid-80s –during the season when the New Theatre was closed, so it was a trip to Swansea (which has an extremely deep orchestra pit). When the Pountney production came to ENO, I remember a particularly wonderful run of performances in 1990 (I think) with Mackerras conducting and Norman Bailey as a glorious Forester. I was lucky enough to get to three of those performances, and have never forgotten them. Rattle's ROH debut was with their delightful Vixen, and though there were several revivals, my memory is that along with Rattle's first run (excellent), the best was Mackerras in 2010, his last appearance at the ROH a couple of months before he died. Most recently, Pountney's production (again!) at WNO with Tomáš Hanus cast its spell all over again. There have been several others, including a charming one at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (I remember it was Stephen Barlow conducting), but a couple of disappointments along the way too. Still, I consider myself extremely lucky to have seen so many good productions of this opera –and particularly to have 'discovered' it all those years ago completely by chance at Deutsche Oper am Rhein.