The Bernstein Legacy: Some Americans in Paris

Looking back at a flawed but interesting 1988 La bohème.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The catalogue of any large record company is filled with interesting failures: pricey boxed sets that get re-issued at a bargain price or in some cases quietly and suddenly dropped from the catalog, only to reappear in complete compilations of a composers or conductors works. One of those rarities is the 1988 Deutsche Grammophon recording of La bohème, made in Rome with the Orchestra of the National Academy of St. Cecilia under the baton of Leonard Bernstein.

The Bernstein Legacy IV: Mahler's Symphony No. 4

Superconductor probes Mahler's dark meditation on childhood.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Boy treble Helmut Wittek, the cover art for Mahler's Fourth by Erte
and a German copperplate portrait of "Freund Hein." Triptych assembled by the author.

The Symphony No. 4 is at once, one of the most popular and most misunderstood of Mahler's  works. Janus-like, it stands at the end of his Wunderhorn period while looking forward to the trilogy of instrumental symphonies that follow it. This symphony sprang to life from its fourth movement, a song-setting originally conceived as the seventh movement of the already massive Third. Mahler wrote that movement first and then created the three that precede it. On this recording, made by Leonard Bernstein with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1987, the symphony's subject matter is squarely to the fore: an attempt to reconcile the innocence of childhood with the inevitability of death.

Recordings Review: This Ain't No Fairy Music

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mendelssohn's five symphonies.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cover portrait of Yannick Nézet-Séguin from his new DG cycle
of Mendelssohn symphonies. © 2017 Deutsche Grammophon/UMG

The five symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn have enjoyed a mixed reputation in the hectic whirl of the 21st century. Two of them remain standard program items: the Third ("Scottish") and Fourth ("Italian"), musical walking tours in which the composer muses on his travels to those two countries. The Fifth ("Reformation") stands between the early Romanticism of Beethoven and the perfectionism of Brahms. And the first two are almost never programmed: a cheerful work of the composer's early maturity and a massive choral symphony that is closer in its nature to a cantata. All these works used to be recorded regularly, but a new cycle of Mendelssohn symphonies is like a tricycle for adults: stable, reliable, but not everyone wants or needs one.

Recording Review: The Luxury Grail Package

The Herbert von Karajan Parsifal.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

King of the Grail: Peter Hofmann (center) takes over in the Herbert von Karajan recording
of Parsifal. Art © 1980 Deutsche Grammophon/UMG. 

The first notes of the Prelude seem to float out of the speakers: a rising figure for cellos and bassoons, later ornamented with shimmering strings and the lilt of harps. There are no coughs, no rustles of cloth, and when the orchestra stops, the silence is absolute. This is the opening of Herbert von Karajan's 1979-80  recording of Parsifal, Wagner's last opera. It could be argued that this Deutsche Grammophon release, which has enjoyed 35 years in the catalogue, is the finest of the Austrian conductor's nine studio recordings of the major Wagner operas.

Recordings Review: All The Young Dudes

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a Don Giovanni for our times.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo in DG promotional art for Don Giovanni.
Image © 2012 Deutsche Grammophon/UMG

When a major label like Deutsche Grammophon puts out yet another recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni, it is a significant event. This 2012 set, (recorded live at a 2011 concert performance in Baden-Baden) is the Yellow Label's seventh, and the first in a new complete cycle of the major Mozart operas under the baton of conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Gallery of Bad Album Art

Another irreverent look at classical music and how it's packaged.
by Paul Pelkonen

We've gone from this....

...to this. Granted, this is cheaper.

The art of the classical music album cover has enjoyed a steep downward spiral in the past decade. Faced with the prospect of compressing their catalogues into boxed sets that have very low sales numbers to begin with, the major labels have resorted to cheap-o artwork that is designed to look good on the touch-screen of an iPhone. 

In the quest to create these "iconic" images for their back catalogues, the few record companies that survive have come up with some covers that look like they were done by a kindergarten student. Others are awesomely tasteless, and a few are just plain dull. We offer ten examples below, and we save the best for last.

The Egyptian slave would be rolling in her grave if he saw this kiddie-style design
for Aida. The whole Opera! series from Universal suffers from similar art.

Opera for the Color-Blind

Universal's Blinding "Opera!" Reissues To Hit Shelves, Blind Customers.

The DG Figaro conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Original slip-case cover art, with the famous chair.

On July 12, the venerable Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels (which, in case you don't read this blog, are the same company) will re-launch their "Opera!" line. The series presents new pressings of recordings of major repertory operas. But in another brilliant move by the Universal Classics marketing department, these recordings have been repackaged a little differently.

Which is to say, they're really ugly.

Now, we all know that record labels, with their deep vaults, are endlessly recycling and regurgitating their catalogues, especially following the over-recording of the CD boom, where every kapellmeister worth his salt would be laughed out of the musician's union unless he recorded heavily.

All over Europe and America, these first (and second) rate maestros felt inadequate unless they recorded and released a Bruckner (or Mahler) symphony cycle, a complete set of Mozart operas, and possibly a Ring. Some of these performances were released. Others languished (and may continue to languish) in the import catalogue or gathering dust in a German warehouse.

Same case. Same recording. New art. Ugh.

The point is, that the catalogue is glutted with recordings, and the ones that came out at the end of the boom (late '80s, early '90s) are the hardest to sell to connoisseurs.

Which is why this supposed "consumer friendly" Opera! series has come out. I guess they figure by stripping anything to do with opera from the covers, people roaming record shops will grab and buy--just because it's, y'know, RED.

This Figaro is just one of the series. Other reissues getting this non-deluxe treatment include:

• Sir Georg Solti's Aida with Leontyne Price and Jon Vickers. Hope it's the remaster and not the "bad" original CD pressing with the dodgy sound.
• Sir Colin Davis' Peter Grimes with Vickers and Heather Harper.
• Jeffery Tate's Tales of Hoffmann with Jessye Norman and Cheryl Studer.
• The Metropolitan Opera/James Levine Die Walküre, which is currently available as part of a budget box with the whole Levine Ring. Bet the Met just loves the purple-and-orange cover with their new Ring in progress.
• Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Cav is under Semyn Bychkov. Pag is led by Riccardo Chailly. Both are good conductors who deserve better fates.
• The second, lesser Herbert von Karajan recording of Der Rosenkavalier with Anna Tomowa-Sintow. Skip it.
• Giuseppe Sinopoli's Madama Butterfly with Mirella Freni, near the end of her career and pretending to be a teenager.
• That really weird Lucia di Lammermoor (conducted by Ion Marin. (Who?)) with Cheryl Studer (again!) and Placìdo Domingo totally miscast as Edgardo. See above.
• Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie conducted by Marc Minkowski. Maybe it's not a total loss.