Gramophone – September 2019

50 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

Orchestral

EdwardSeckersononMahler’slast

symphonyfromHerbertBlomstedt:

PwyllapSiônhearsavariedo
ering

fromviolinistMariSamuelsen:

JL Adams

Become Desert

Seattle SymphonyChoraleandOrchestra/

Ludovic Morlot

Cantaloupe F (CD+◊)CA21148(40’• DDD)

EdgardVarèse,Peter

Sculthorpe,Michael

Finnissy,SteveReich–

severalcomposers

have written musicthathasdrawn

inspiration fromthedesert’slunar-like

landscape. Starkandinhospitable,its

forbidding otherworldlinessforcesusas

humans to reassessourrelationshipwith

the world aroundus.

Now there arefarmorereasonstodo

this. The worldisgettingwarmer,and

after the risingofthetidesitmayoneday

‘become desert’.Nowonderthesearid

areas form thefinalpartofJohnLuther

Adams’s large-scaleorchestraltriptych,

after Become RiverandBecomeOcean.

Become Deserthasbeendescribedby

Adams as ‘bothacelebrationofthedeserts

we are given andalamentationofthe

deserts we create’,butitsmainqualities

lie in the music’sabilitytoallowlisteners

to navigate theirowncoursethrough

something that’ssomuchlarger.Ittiesin

with the processofself-realisationthat’s

key to the work.Theenormouswave-like

shapes of BecomeOceangivewayheretoa

gentler and morestaticsoundworldwhere

shimmering harmonicsvibrateabove

resonant low basses,theirresonatinghues

dissolving intokaleidoscopicparticlesof

liquid sound –amusicpulsingwitha

sapping heat thatconsumeseverything

in its wake.

During thefirsthalf,softstrings,

voices and chimingpercussionalmost

imperceptiblycoalesceintopulsing

harmonic shapesandchords.It’sasifwe’re

witnessing thegradualcoming-into-being–

mirage-like – ofastrangeandethereal

tonality. At aroundthe20-minutemark,

the music momentarilytakesadarkerturn

with deep brass,bassesandrumbleof

drumspenetratingfloatingsheetsofsound

thatquiverinthefragileair.Atusslebreaks

outbetweenlowandhigh,withtrumpets,

voicesandhighstringsasserting

superiority.Nosoonerhasthemusic

changedthanwebecomeawarethatwe

havecomefullcircle.Thelastsevenorso

minutessignalareturntotheopening.In

thisimmutablelandscapenothingseemsto

change,yeteverythingchanges.

Otherthanafewglitchyedits,the

soundbalanceonthisrecordingis

excellent.Italsofeaturesameasured

andassuredperformancefromtheSeattle

SymphonyandSeattleSymphonyChorale

underLudovicMorlot.Thepackage

includesanaccompanyingDVD

containinganoverlappinggalleryof

loopedimages–sweepingpanoramic

rock-likevistas,aridlandscapesandsturdy,

shrub-likevegetationappearingagainst

sandycontours.

BecomeDesertmanagestocapturethe

elementalbreathofnatureinsoundwhile

providingasalutaryremindertousallas

theearth’sclimatecontinuestochange.

PwyllapSiôn

Brahms

CompleteSymphonies

MusikkollegiumWinterthur/ ThomasZehetmair

ClavesFb 50 1916/17(156’• DDD)

Brahms visited

Switzerland

frequently. In August

1856 he met the

music publisher Jakob Melchior Rieter-

Biedermann on the first of 14 trips to the

country. The composer often stayed

with the publisher in Winterthur, a town

20km north-east of Zurich. Brahms was

welcomed by the family and there was

much music-making. Rieter-Biedermann’s

wife, Louise, and one of his daughters,

Ida, even helped Brahms select biblical

passages for his German Requiem, one

of 22 works entrusted to the Winterthur

publishing house.

Perhaps Brahms even heard the

Musikkollegium Winterthur on one

of his visits, as the orchestra can trace

its history back to 1629. Under principal

conductor Thomas Zehetmair, they now

offer a fine cycle of the four symphonies,

having played them in a six-day Brahms

festival at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Being a chamber orchestra, they reveal the

sort of textures that Brahms himself might

have recognised. Claves’ booklet has no

details on the number of strings deployed

but the cover photo indicates just eight

first violins – we know Brahms had 10

at Meiningen.

Chamber-orchestra Brahms symphonies

are nothing new. Paavo Berglund and

Charles Mackerras recorded refreshing

cycles two decades ago which opened many

ears to ‘smaller-scale’ Brahms. Mackerras’s

Telarc cycle was made with the Scottish

Chamber Orchestra, who last year released

a new cycle under Robin Ticciati, which

provided much of my comparative listening

here. Reviewing that set, Andrew Farach-

Colton wrote that the opening to Ticciati’s

Brahms First ‘sounds an awful lot like

Beethoven played on period instruments’.

And it does, particularly through the use

of small-bore trombones and Viennese

horns, and limited use of vibrato. You

wouldn’t think that here, though. Although

Zehetmair’s performances are quite pacy,

there’s no sense of revelation. The major

benefit of playing these symphonies with

chamber-orchestra forces should be the

clarity of textures, bringing woodwind

articulation to the fore. But here, the

strings don’t sound as lithe as their

Scottish counterparts and the acoustic

is quite cloudy, meaning that not as

much detail comes through as you’d expect,

especially when compared with Ticciati’s

readings. But the sense of ‘enlarged

chamber music’ does come across and

these are enjoyable accounts.

The opening of the First Symphony is

fast and purposeful but it never feels driven

too hard, nor does it play up to period

manners. Unlike Ticciati, Zehetmair

observes the first-movement exposition

‘The second-movement Ländlerfavoursgood-

natured ebullience over anysuggestionthatit

might be a dance of death’ REVIEW ON PAGE 57

‘In Glass’s “Knee Play 2”,coruscatingrepeating

patterns leap o the soundboardasiffingers

were treading on hot coals’ REVIEW ON PAGE 62