Fanfare Reviews
from July/August 2000

Reviews: Berlioz - Sousa - Stravinsky

BERLIOZ Symphonie funèbre et triomphale. MILHAUD Suite française. SATIE (arr. de Meij) Ratatouille satirique • Lorenzo Della Fonte, cond; Valtellina Wind O • AGORA AG 237 (59:00)

I live in a small town, in sight of Mt. Shasta, enlivened by scrappy but valiant attempts to get culture. At a recent performance of the pops orchestra I was overtaken by an eerie sensation--a few bars into "Aase's Death" they were all playing together and in tune. The Valtellina Wind Band is better than that--much better--without offering significant competition to familiar performances of the Symphonic funèbre by Sir Colin Davis, Desire Dondeyne, or John Wallace. They're thin, the solo trombone of the Oraison sags, and the Apothéose is glibly hustled. The Milhaud and Satie suites come off better, lifted by the Valtellina's engagement with their lilt. If they played in your village you'd be impressed, but in the collector's global village they don't quite cut it. Credible, if not greatly creditable, one might say. Sound is transparently immediate, but at full price this cannot be recommended.

Adrian Corleonis

SOUSA MARCHES PLAYED BY THE SOUSA BAND: The Complete Commercial Recordings, 1897-1930 • John Philip Sousa, Arthur Pryor, Joseph Pasternack, and others, cond; The Sousa Band • CRYSTAL CD461-3, mono (3 CDs: 193:37)

This is it--the one indispensable historical release John Philip Sousa enthusiasts have been waiting for, lovingly assembled by the fabled collector Frederick P. Williams, and superbly transferred by Seth Winner. It is unlikely that this collection of 64 recordings made from original cylinders and 78s will ever be equaled. Included as a bonus is Sousa's only recording of The Stars and Stripes Forever, taken from a 1929 broadcast. Cleaned up and correctly processed, this performance is not only definitive, it is perhaps the most enjoyable of all march recordings. The redoubtable Sousa expert Frank Byrne explains its special qualities in his notes: "Perhaps the most interesting and illuminating recording . . . the excellent sound quality . . . allows one to hear clearly when the brass instruments are tacit, and . . . the special harp part at the trio that Sousa used in his own performances."

Indicative of the care taken with this production are Byrne's extremely interesting and informative notes, along with fascinating contributions by Sousa biographer Paul Bierley, Fred Williams, and bandleader Keith Brion. The documentation is peerless, including an intriguing discussion of the controversial 1899 cylinder of The Mikado March. (The music in the recording is, in the opinion of leading Sousa scholars, not by Sousa, although he did compose a march of the same name in 1885. Fred Williams's observations on this recording are most illuminating.)

These recordings run the gamut of early sound reproduction, from the most primitive cylinders to the early electrical process. That each one is so listenable is quite a tribute to Seth Winner's marvelous transfers. While none of these records can be called remotely high fidelity, there are surprises. A 1908 Victor of The Thunderer is remarkable for its clarity and definition. Another fine recording is the 1926 The Fairest of the Fair, a sparkling rendition led by Arthur Pryor. Joseph Pasternack leads a rousing On the Campus on a 1920 Victor. Only seven of the recordings are actually conducted by Sousa himself, but when one such as the 1918 Sabre and Spurs comes on, the astute listener will sense it immediately because it sounds so right. Byrne finds this and the subsequent Solid Men to the Front "magisterial" and "instructive in terms of tempo . . . characteristically slower than those by other conductors." (As good as Pryor, Rogers, Pasternack, Clarke, Shilkret, and the others are, there was only one John Philip Sousa.) Some of this material has appeared on Pearl and Delos releases, but they are surpassed in every way by Crystal's monumental set, truly one of the preeminent historical releases on CD. We are very lucky to have this.

James Camner

STRAVINSKY Symphony in 3 Movements. Symphony of Psalms. Symphonies of Wind Instruments • Pierre Boulez, cond; Berlin RCh; Berlin PO • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 457 616-2 (52:04; text and translations)

We have recently been treated to performances of the Symphony in Three Movements that start well but soon begin to meander: Maazel (Fanfare 22:4) and Solti (23:3). Pierre Boulez gets it more or less right: The atmosphere is heavy, the playing strong, and both are consistent throughout the first and third movements. Paul Griffiths's program notes for this release speak of "the sustained instrumental density and clamour of the outer movements"; Boulez sustains where Maazel, Solti, and many others falter. This is as close to Stravinsky's recording with the New York Philharmonic as anyone has come, including the composer in his stereo remake with the Columbia Symphony. The 1946 performance has an appealing nervous energy, perhaps due to the strain of recording a work just three days after the world premiere. The piano plays as important a role in this symphony as it does in Pétrouchka; it comes through better in the ancient recording than in this new one. Boulez makes the central Andante, where the piano does not appear, a thing of beauty, playing it quite slowly and emphasizing the harp. While the Deutsche Grammophon sound is full and rich, some details come through better on the old monaural LP. For the first few measures, this recording sounds a bit dull compared to Solti's London disc; but that is only a momentary impression. The more I hear Boulez's Symphony in Three Movements, the more satisfied with it I become. It joins the two composer-conducted recordings as the preferred versions of this masterpiece.

In the Symphony of Psalms, there is a juice to the composer's final recording that Boulez does not match; he produces dry, tight orchestral sonorities, as if he were trying to be more Stravinsky than Igor himself. Although the composer ranted against Romantic performances of his works, he delivers a greater emotional wallop than Boulez. Part of it is fuller orchestral and choral sonorities, and again the matter of nervous excitement: The stuttering woodwinds of the composer's CBC Symphony in the finale sound underplayed here. The Berlin chorus is also held on a tight rein. The orchestra for Symphonies of Winds is close to that of the Symphony of Psalms, and the former piece serves as a nice introduction to the latter. All these recordings were made in the Berlin Philharmonie in February 1996; they don't quite have the clarity of more recent DG efforts in that venue.

James H. North

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Fanfare Reviews from July/August 2000

Fanfare Reviews
from July/August 2000