June 1, 2009

Boxed in by Box Sets

When it comes to questions of what sort of recordings -- or what specific ones -- are worth keeping, we sooner or later have to confront the phenomenon of the "integral" series, or cycle, or whatever terminology one may prefer. In the early years of LP, George Mendelssohn’s Vox label ushered in "the Age of Complete" with boxed sets of concerti grossi by Vivaldi, a sound enough premise since Vivaldi and his contemporaries published such works in sets of 12. Now we have, from numerous sources, all the Beethoven symphonies in one box, all the Beethoven string quartets in one box, all the Haydn symphonies -- Haydn symphonies, numbering 107! -- and quartets, and trios, and piano sonatas. And of course similar coverage of numerous other composers’ works in various categories, not necessarily in one box, but identifiable as a single series, with the same performers on the same label throughout.

Well, the "integral" approach is certainly a convenient one. It provides comprehensive coverage, it avoids duplications, and it usually saves on shelf space as well. But, is it really an esthetically satisfying way to go about collecting recordings? Apart from the consideration that the new phenomenon of downloads may render such questions beside the point by the time these words see publication, the answer can only be a resounding yes -- except that it may also be a resounding certainly not.

If common sense is to prevail, then this sort of decision, like so many others, has to be pursued on an individual basis, and that is meant in a double sense, in that each individual listener must judge each individual case on its own merits. What are the odds of getting all-surpassing performances of all those Haydn symphonies from a single performing entity? Not so great, perhaps, but the famous Doráti set with the Philharmonia Hungarica, on Decca, is nevertheless of such exceptional importance, and exceptional convenience, that it may be said to have beat those odds. Ernst Märzendorfer and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra maintained a high level of excellence in the Haydn cycle the Musical Heritage Society issued on individual LPs before Doráti did his; but Doráti’s, undertaken with the direct counsel of the outstanding Haydn authority H.C. Robbins Landon, came out in LP box sets available in stores, and included not only the Sinfonia concertante and the two symphonies identified as "A" and "B" rather than by number but also alternative movements for some of the numbered symphonies boxes that could be purchased in stores around the world. Landon’s exceptionally detailed annotation for the LP sets, treasurable in their own right, has been cut to the bone for the CDs, but here is the entire cycle, with the supplements just noted, in a single box of 33 CDs.

Listeners who love Haydn symphonies enough to invest in that set are surely going to want to supplement it with additional recordings of some of the individual works, but will not value that big box any the less for that. Similarly, there are integral sets of Haydn’s string quartets, but who, with working ears, would think of forgoing the Hagen Quartet’s absolutely incomparable realization of Op.74, No.3 (the one called " The Horseman," or "The Rider")?

David Zinman’s enlivening and revealing readings of the Beethoven symphonies constitute a remarkable set with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, on the economical Arte Nova label. Eight of the nine performances can hold their own against virtually all competition, with only the Ninth in this set excelled by more than one or two other recordings.

There are generally what used to be called "swings and roundabouts" in weighing any "integral" set against the option of individual recordings of the works represented, but it may be acknowledged that there have been more than a few such sets that are unarguably worth buying and worth keeping, simply because everything in them seems to work so well. In this category we might cite the Dvorák symphonies conducted by István Kertész on Decca and by Witold Rowicki on Philips, both with the London SO; the Tchaikovsky symphonies, again on Philips, with the same orchestra under Igor Markevitch; the Beethoven Quartets played by the Talich Quartet on Calliope and by the Quartetto Italiano on Philips; Beethoven’s violin-and-piano sonatas with Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskil, transferred from Philips to Decca; Beethoven’s Trios with the Beaux Arts Trio, on Philips; Beethoven’s piano sonatas with Richard Goode on Nonesuch, Alfred Brendel on Philips, or Anton Kuerti on Analekta Fleur de Lys; Sibelius’s symphonies with Paavo Berglund and the Helsinki Philharmonic on EMI, with Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti SO on BIS, or with Herbert Blomstedt and the San Francisco SO on Decca; the Mozart quartets with the Amadeus or the Hagen Quartet; the Mozart symphonies with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra on Telarc; the symphonies of Arnold Bax conducted by Vernon Handley on Chandos -- and on and on . . .

What provoked these thoughts at this time was the more or less simultaneous appearance of integral sets of orchestral music by two Scandinavian composers, music very clearly beyond what anyone would regard as the "standard repertory." Indeed, some of this music would make the Bax symphonies, which after all have had several "integral" recordings in the last few years, as well as memorable ones of some of the individual symphonies, seem by contrast almost as much a part of the general repertory as those of Nielsen, Bruckner and Mahler.

Particularly striking is the collection of the 16 symphonies and five shorter orchestral pieces by the Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893-1952), issued fairly recently on seven SACDs from Dacapo and now gathered into a seven-disc set (6.200001). Langgaard’s name is not entirely unknown to us -- some of the individual symphonies were available here on LP, and more recently the Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam has recorded some of them -- but the cycle recorded very recently, in SACD, by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard has several things going for it. All the performances are based on the latest scholarly editions and radiate an altogether understandable national feeling and national pride. All seven of the CDs in this new set have been issued separately, so the issue now is simply whether to buy those seven individual CDs or go for the boxed set.

The presentation itself is handsome, convenient and unusually imaginative. Most such packages nowadays that do not involve "jewel cases" use a box that doesn’t conform to the dimensions of the "jewel case" and have the discs in envelopes that are a little too snug for removal without fingerprints on the surfaces. The Langgaard box’s length and width are the same as those of the "jewel case," and its innards are unique: instead of envelopes, the CDs are in a permanently affixed folder that fans out for easy access, and a separate folder contains the annotative booklet. That booklet, however, is where the one drawback is encountered.

When these recordings were issued on individual CDs, each one was accompanied with extensive annotation, mostly by the Langgaard authority Bendt Viinholt Nielsen. The boxed set, however, gives us only that writer’s brief general introduction and the texts of the sung portions of the Symphonies Nos. 2, 8, 14 and 15. This, I’m afraid, is not a minor matter. Langgaard’s music is not at all well known to most of us. All 16 of his symphonies and all the shorter works have programmatic or descriptive titles that call for some kind of explication; there are soloists and/or a chorus in some of the symphonies, and No.5 exists in two different versions, both of which are included here.

Two of the short pieces also involve a chorus, and all five of them have intriguing titles -- Drapa (on the death of Edvard Grieg); Sphinx; Hvidbjerg-Drapa; Danmarks Radio; Res absurda!? -- but there is not a word about any of them, not even a hint as to the meaning of the term Drapa. On the symphonies themselves there is not much more: just the barest reference to the sort of symphonist Valen was, with next-to-nothing on any of the individual works. Space was made available, however, for background on the orchestra and the two choruses and for biographical sketches of the four soloists: the soprano Inger Dam-Jensen, heard in Symphony No.2, "Awakening of Spring"; the pianist Per Salo, who performs in No.3, "The Flush of Youth" (with chorus); the tenor Lars Petersen, in No.8, "Memories at Amalienborg," and the basso Johan Reuter, in No.15, "The Sea Storm."

This represents a curious notion of priorities, and I can well imagine that many collectors would prefer the seven separate CDs on which these splendid recordings were originally issued, simply for the more informative annotation, which in this instance is hardly a frill and might be regarded as downright indispensable. Bendt Viinholt Nielsen not only advises, in the booklet accompanying the CD of Symphonies Nos. 15 and 16 and the five short pieces (6.220519), that the word Drapa is "an old Norse poem of homage," but throughout the series provides a great deal of helpful and detailed information on all the music: what it is all about, how it relates to the composer’s life and times, why we have two versions of the Fifth Symphony, and a good deal more.

In instances of similar omissions of one kind or another, other companies have provided the missing material on their respective websites, but so far Dacapo has not offered that option, and has given no indication that it may be offered in the future. In this case, the omission must be a major consideration, and despite the economy in terms of both purchase price and shelf space, I would have to recommend the individual CDs. Either way, though, this music is worth your attention.

The music of the Norwegian composer Fartein Valen is no less in need of background and description, which BIS of course provides with its customary fastidiousness in its coverage of all of his orchestral works on three CDs issued separately. Valen’s name, like Langgaard’s, has not been entirely unknown to us. Some of this composer’s works, too, had been issued on LP -- more than 50 years ago, on Mercury, and subsequently on Philips. Some 20 years ago the Norwegian label Simax brought out a CD set of Valen’s four symphonies, performed by the Bergen Philharmonic under Aldo Ceccato. The new BIS recordings not only give us everything, but, as we expect from this label, the performances, by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Christian Eggen, and the sound quality are first-rate, and the documentation is authoritative (if not quite as detailed as what Dacapo had for its individual Langgaard discs). In this case the analytical notes, by Arvid O. Vollsnes, are augmented by an explanation from the conductor, Eggen, who assigned himself the task of figuring out from the composer’s sketches what he intended to put into his frequently spotty scores.

Indeed, those scores were not merely spotty but, as Eggen writes, created "numerous practical problems . . . Incorrect accidentals and incomplete instructions are the least of these. It is worse when phrases lack both beginning and end and the so-called fair copy of the manuscript has almost as many mistakes as the printed score. This has caused numerous people (including publishers, copyists, conductors and musicians) to form the impression that this is how it should be, with disastrous results. Valen’s music has been performed with gaping holes and illogical solutions. . . . The idea has been to reconstruct the works just as Valen intended them . . . "

The audible results here are certainly persuasive. Valen was born in Stavanger; his music has a long tradition of performance there, and the orchestra has come through splendidly in adapting to Christian Eggen’s new editions of the scores. So far this "integral" series is offered only in the form of three individual CDs, and there is no word from BIS about the possibility of their eventually being offered in a single box. As there is also no real alternative in this case, the word "integral" becomes synonymous with "self-recommending," and it seems likely that anyone sampling one of these discs will want to follow up with the other two.

Volume 1 (CD-1522) comprises the Symphony No.1, the Violin Concerto (with Elise Båtnes), the Pastorale, Sonetto di Michelangelo and Cantico di ringraziamento. The works in Volume 2 (CD-1632) are the Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, Nenia, An die Hoffnung and Epithalamion. The Fourth Symphony and the Piano Concerto (with Einar Henning Smebye) are the big works in Volume 3 (CD-1642), which is filled out by The Churchyard by the Sea, La Isla de las Calmas and the Ode to Solitude. All the performances on these three discs, like those of the Langgaard works on Dacapo, may be regarded as definitive for more or less the same reasons -- which is to say, in all the ways that count.

. . . Richard Freed
richardf@ultraaudio.com