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Site review by Castor May 23, 2006
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
The programme on this SACD begins with the nine-movement suite that Strauss assembled from the incidental music he wrote for Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. It is intimately connected with the first version of his opera Ariadne auf Naxos and is one of the most deliciously witty and delightfully scored pieces that he ever wrote. Each of the movements offer opportunities for individual members of the orchestra to shine and thus it requires a performance by an orchestra and conductor that can bring out these qualities as well as a recording which does justice to the clarity of the scoring.
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is such a group and their playing throughout is very stylish indeed. The conductor Paavo Järvi, however, takes a rather serious view of the piece and while tempi for the most part are well chosen, the lightness of touch shown by Kempe and the Dresden Staatskapelle on EMI and even more by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on DGG (both RBCD only) is at times missing.
The Fencing Master and the Entrance and Dance of the Tailors are nimble, but ultimately lack the necessary spring and whimsy. On the other hand Lully’s minuet, Courante and Entrance of Cleonte are crisply played in an almost ‘period’ style with wonderfully clear percussion in the latter movement.
The autumnal Duett-Concertino written in the last few years of Strauss’s life is given a ravishing performance with outstanding playing from Nicole Kern and Higinio Arrué. Both soloists are beautifully integrated with the harp and strings and Jarvi’s accompaniment is admirable: unobtrusive and avoiding any tendency towards excessive lingering.
The Prelude to Capriccio that completes the disc is played not as a sextet but in a fuller string version (the 20 players are listed in the booklet). The playing is suitably rich and glowing while Pentatone’s excellent recording allows each of the string lines to be heard with perfect clarity.
The acoustic of the Grosser Sendesaal of Radio Bremen seems a little chilly and slightly too reverberant for perfect clarity in the tuttis, but the recording is certainly vivid, well balanced and up to PentaTone’s usual high standard with the surround channels offering their usual increase in sonic tangibility.
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Copyright © 2006 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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