Classical CDs: Antiphons, ale dances and elves
The Arts Desk
By Graham Rickson
11.01.25
Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)
Big box sets celebrating great conductors are piling up thick and fast, and this one, unusually, features an artist who’s very much alive. Paavo Järvi is just 62 (still young for a conductor). These 31 discs contain the albums he released for Virgin Classics, EMI and Erato between 1996 and 2015: classical CDs were still a big thing back in the late 1990s, and it’s remarkable to see how much quirky repertoire Virgin Classics allowed Järvi to record, including Stenhammar, Arvo Pärt, Eduard Tubin and Erkki-Sven Tüür. One of the earliest albums is 1996’s Searching for roots – Music from Estonia, a disc I still thank for first prompting me to explore the music of Eduard Tubin via Järvi’s exhilarating performance of the first movement of Tubin’s unfinished 11th Symphony, coupled with early dodecaphonic music by Arvo Pärt and three atmospheric works by Tüür. As an Estonian music sampler, it’s unbeatable, and the playing of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic is excellent. Järvi’s account of Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite is as good as the version on BIS conducted by his father Neeme, and there’s a superb account of the early Kullervo with thrilling singing from the National Male Choir of Estonia. Discs containing Sibelius cantatas and the mini-opera The Maiden in the Tower are fascinating, and do sample Järvi’s brooding take on Stenhammar’s weighty Symphony No. 2, the couplings including a gorgeous little Serenade and Anne Sofie von Otter in two attractive songs.
Summa, recorded in 2000 with the Estonian National Orchestra, holds up as a perfect introduction to Arvo Pärt’s mature style; I’d forgotten quite how beautiful his Festina Lente is, and Symphony No. 3, inspired by renaissance polyphony, is a beguiling transitional work from the early 1970s. There’s a whole album of Tüür, the main work a craggy and imposing 4th Symphony with Evelyn Glennie tackling a virtuoso solo percussion part. And don’t forget Järvi’s fascinating Shostakovich collection which includes The Execution of Stepan Razin, an epic, angry 30-minute piece for bass, choir and orchestra with a text by Yevtushenko. It’s coupled with the patriotic cantatas The Sun Shines over our Motherland and Song of the Forests, which you’ll listen to through gritted teeth. The performances are magnificent, though.
Most of the other discs are more mainstream, though a 2013 Dutilleux album with the Orchestre de Paris deserves a shout out for including the ear-tickling Symphony No. 1 and Métaboles, a spectacular work designed to show off George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra. We get a delightful collection of Bizet orchestral music and some affectionate, idiomatic Grieg. Järvi’s Holberg Suite is lovely, and a generous selection of the Peer Gynt music sounds well. A Fauré Requiem from Paris has counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky singing the “Pie Jesu” and there’s a decent if unspectacular Brahms German Requiem made with Frankfurt Radio forces.
Järvi’s skills as an accompanist are demonstrated in recordings of Brahms Piano Concertos made with Nicholas Angelich, other concertante works featuring the likes of Truls Mørk, Leif Ove Andsnes and the Capuçon siblings. A Frankfurt Mahler 2 is well worth hearing for star turns from Alice Coote and Natalie Dessay, and Mahler: 4 Movements includes a melting account of “Blumine” and Britten’s scaled-down transcription of Symphony No. 3’s third movement. Parisian recordings of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphonic Dances, are as good as any I’ve heard, and there’s a bonus disc including excellent live recordings of Franck’s Symphony in D minor and Roussel’s marvellous Symphony No. 3. A super box, then, the hit-rate commendably high. Buy this before it disappears.
Mendelssohn: Symphonies 1-5Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Paavo Järvi(Alpha Classics)
More Paavo Järvi, this time with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (he’s been their Principal Conductor since 2019). It’s striking how tastes change over decades, Mendelssohn symphonies now a relative rarity in concert programmes as everyone’s playing Mahler or Shostakovich or Bruckner instead. That’s our loss; listening to these sleek, affectionate performances reminds us of what we’re missing. As Järvi states in this set's booklet, “Mendelssohn does not get the attention he deserves.” Take his Symphony No. 1, a candidate for ‘Best Orchestral Work Written by a 15-Year-Old’, composed in 1824 as a gift for Mendelssohn’s musically talented sister Fanny. He later dismissed the symphony as “really childish”. Rubbish. This is a highly enjoyable work, opening with a stormy “Allegro di molto” and closing with a finale paying homage to the last movement of Mozart 40. Järvi’s swift tempo here is incredibly exciting, the Zurich strings acquitting themselves brilliantly. The C major coda is a riot here, with bright trumpet fanfares and crisp timpani thwacks. Symphony No. 2 was composed in 1840 and published posthumously, this Lobsegang (Hymn of Praise) composed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Gutenberg printing press. Three weighty orchestral movements precede a sequence of choral and vocal numbers. It’s a patchy work, but the big moments are spectacular here, like the Zürcher Sing-Akademie’s entry in “Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn”. Järvi has excellent soloists, sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold exquisite in “Ich harrete des Herrn.”
Symphony No. 5, subtitled ‘Reformation’ and chronologically No. 2, is another posthumous rarity. The first movement’s slow introduction sounds marvellous here, with some terrific brass playing and a radiant ‘Dresden Amen’ on strings, a motif later used by Wagner in Parsifal. The rest of the work isn’t terribly memorable though, so it was a relief to turn to Symphonies 3 and 4. No. 3’s scherzo is delicious, and it’s good to hear the Zurich horns blasting out when they pick up Mendelssohn’s clarinet theme. The orchestral playing is so deft and witty, and the ensuing “Adagio” really sings. I’ve never had a problem with the symphony’s blazing major-key coda, Järvi’s exuberance suggesting that he doesn’t either. This Symphony No. 4 is as light and effervescent as they come, Järvi whipping up a storm in the closing saltarello. Throw in a bonus disc containing excerpts from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, sweetly done, and you’ve a highly desirable package, the performances captured in glowing, detailed sound.
https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/classical-cds-antiphons-ale-dances-and-elves
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