Classical CDs Weekly: Strauss, Weinberg, Rolf Lislevand

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (ABC Classics)

This isn’t a Heldenleben of extremes, but it’s definitely a performance to live with. ABC’s live recording is exceptionally good; the opening theme on lower strings and horns leaps out with a pleasing oomph. Sir Andrew Davis paces “Der Held” to perfection, the pleasingly rich sound suggesting that Strauss’s hero is narrating his life story from a well-upholstered sofa. The scoring never feels too thick – everything’s nicely blended but you can still taste the component parts. The Melbourne critics aren’t as barbed as some, but the Hero’s considered response is silkily phrased. Dale Bartrop’s extended violin solo is full of character, preceding a riveting, sharply-etched battle sequence. And “The Hero’s Retirement from the World” is rightly moving, its horn and violin duet leading to the deepest, most sonorous of brass chords.

Davis also gives us the Four Symphonic Interludes drawn from the 1924 opera Intermezzo. Plot knowledge isn’t necessary; these ripe offcuts are superbly enjoyable as abstract music. There’s a lovely moment in the first one where the scoring suddenly thins and an obbligato piano introduces a waltz. “Dreaming by the Fireside” is ripe but moving, before a card game leads to one of Strauss’s happiest, most unbuttoned endings. All sensationally played and winningly conducted. Can we have more from this source, please?

Weinberg: Solo Sonatas for Violin nos. 1-3 Linus Roth (Challenge Classics)

Linus Roth’s recording of Weinberg’s powerful Violin Concerto remains an ideal entry point for anyone unfamiliar with this important, if uneven, composer. Here he turns to the composer’s three sonatas for solo violin, interspersing them with violin and piano transcriptions of the Three Fantastic Dances composed by Weinberg’s friend and mentor Shostakovich. Wittily accompanied by José Gallardo, they provide much-needed light relief, Roth pleasingly smoochy in the second dance. Weinberg wrote 12 unaccompanied string sonatas. The first two are multi-movement, middle period works. No. 1’s opening is an abrasive sequence of screeches and scrapings, before a serene, intensely melodic Andante steals in. Weinberg’s third and fourth movements are playful and stark by turns, and the finale doesn’t resolve matters. Easier on the ear is 1967’s Second Sonata, its seven short movements sounding like a sequence of character portraits. Whimsy, wistful melancholy and dry wit coexist. And, it’s beautifully held together by Roth, playing the work as if he’s delivering a series of soliloquies. You suspect that we’re hearing Weinberg’s true voice; we’re certainly not being talked down to. The work’s ending is something to savour: guitar-like strummings leading to a perfunctory closing gesture.

The Third Sonata presents additional challenges for any player – notably the fact that besides the technical demands, its single movement form means that any violinist brave enough to tackle it needs a page turner to avoid grinding to a halt. Roth pulls it off by putting the score on an iPad, using a foot switch to turn the pages. Composed in memory of Weinberg’s father, who had been murdered in the Holocaust, it’s predictably intense. Poignant scraps of folk-like melody rub shoulders with fierce, florid writing, the klezmerish closing passage recalling Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no. 2. It takes real persuasiveness to bring such uncompromising music to life, and Roth succeeds brilliantly. Essential listening.

Rolf Lislevand: La Mascarade - music by Robert de Visée and Francesco Corbetta (ECM)

Robert de Visée and Francesco Corbetta were guitarist-composers in the court of Louis XIV – the former was occasionally asked by the monarch to play his guitar whilst walking a few steps behind him through the gardens at Versailles (“the first Walkman or iPod in musical history”). Rolf Lislevand’s rambling, ornate booklet essay arguably reflects the aesthetics of the time, though it’s still an entertaining and poetic read. La Mascarade is the title of a Rondeau by de Visée, with Lislevand using the title in a more general sense to describe these pieces – where “an appearance is not the true face… nothing is to be taken literally.” The music’s formal elegance never quite masks the deeper, darker currents flowing below the surface: La Mascarade’s polished surface conceals a melancholy underbelly.

As a sensual experience, this disc is sublime: if you’ve never heard a theorbo (“the king of the lutes”) before, sample de Visée’s brief Chaconne en la mineur, the plucked bass notes ringing out like bells under Lislevand’s elaborate finger picking. He also plays a lighter-sounding Baroque guitar, heard to radiant effect in Corbetta’s gorgeous little Sarabanda per la B. Corbetta’s pieces tend to sound a little brighter and less troubled than those of his pupil de Visée: his tiny Folie is simpler and more direct than a piece like de Visée’s La Muzette, the repetitive opening bars of which sound disconcertingly modern. A desert island disc, and something to wallow in and savour. ECM’s production values are usually impressive, but this disc is exceptional by their standards. Lislevand describes relaxing in a Versailles hotel room with a glass of red wine before tackling de Visée’s Sarabande en si mineur. As listeners, I urge you all to follow his example.

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