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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
This disc is a bit of a non-starter, I'm afraid - tempting though the selection of works on it might be.
Naxos have made good progress since their early days in bringing their sound quality up to the standard of the major players in the classical recording industry; this disc, while not as poor sound-wise as their earliest efforts, is a far cry from that standard however.
The sound is not the only problem: while no-one these days, I think, would subscribe to the view that Schumann's orchestration needs re-touching, his orchestral textures (particularly in the later works in this collection) do need a more sensitive and skilled hand with the baton than Johannes Wildner displays here. Perhaps a piece like the concert overture `Julius Caesar' will never be regarded as anything but an interesting failure, but the sluggish playing of the orchestra does little to bring out the occasional virtues of the piece (the striking opening gesture, for example) let alone challenge received opinion; combined with the restricted acoustic, experimental elements such as "the curious blurring effects [made] by combining straight and syncopated notes on top of one another"* are lost in the general morass of sound.
One might consider the fault as much Schumann's as Wildner's in that rather effortful work but it is representative of this issue as a whole: the eloquently expressed tragedy of `The Bride of Messina' comes off best among the lesser known pieces but `Faust' and especially the masterpiece, `Manfred', are almost unlistenable; the urgency of Schumann's inspired construction is rendered flaccid in the latter by the way Wildner and his forces rush through it; and there is little sense in this performance of Byron's anti-hero, the spirit of whom Schumann beautifully evokes in this most Romantic of his orchestral compositions.
We still wait for a decent, modern collection of Schumann's works in this form; there are plenty of fine versions of the `Overture, Scherzo and Finale' available, including a very recommendable one in Sawallisch's set of the complete symphonies: Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4. That classic account proves what a fine orchestra and a sympathetic conductor can achieve without tampering with Schumann's scoring.
The two stars I've awarded this disc are for the adventurousness of the repertoire, at a time when Naxos was less interested than it is now in recording works that were not concert staples; even so, despite the fact that it is well-nigh impossible to hear some of these overtures anywhere else on disc (except occasionally as a filler to some other work), this isn't a very recommendable recording.
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* quote by Hans Gal in his long out-of-print but pithily written, `Schumann Orchestral Music': Schumann Orchestral Music (Music Guides).
Naxos have made good progress since their early days in bringing their sound quality up to the standard of the major players in the classical recording industry; this disc, while not as poor sound-wise as their earliest efforts, is a far cry from that standard however.
The sound is not the only problem: while no-one these days, I think, would subscribe to the view that Schumann's orchestration needs re-touching, his orchestral textures (particularly in the later works in this collection) do need a more sensitive and skilled hand with the baton than Johannes Wildner displays here. Perhaps a piece like the concert overture `Julius Caesar' will never be regarded as anything but an interesting failure, but the sluggish playing of the orchestra does little to bring out the occasional virtues of the piece (the striking opening gesture, for example) let alone challenge received opinion; combined with the restricted acoustic, experimental elements such as "the curious blurring effects [made] by combining straight and syncopated notes on top of one another"* are lost in the general morass of sound.
One might consider the fault as much Schumann's as Wildner's in that rather effortful work but it is representative of this issue as a whole: the eloquently expressed tragedy of `The Bride of Messina' comes off best among the lesser known pieces but `Faust' and especially the masterpiece, `Manfred', are almost unlistenable; the urgency of Schumann's inspired construction is rendered flaccid in the latter by the way Wildner and his forces rush through it; and there is little sense in this performance of Byron's anti-hero, the spirit of whom Schumann beautifully evokes in this most Romantic of his orchestral compositions.
We still wait for a decent, modern collection of Schumann's works in this form; there are plenty of fine versions of the `Overture, Scherzo and Finale' available, including a very recommendable one in Sawallisch's set of the complete symphonies: Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4. That classic account proves what a fine orchestra and a sympathetic conductor can achieve without tampering with Schumann's scoring.
The two stars I've awarded this disc are for the adventurousness of the repertoire, at a time when Naxos was less interested than it is now in recording works that were not concert staples; even so, despite the fact that it is well-nigh impossible to hear some of these overtures anywhere else on disc (except occasionally as a filler to some other work), this isn't a very recommendable recording.
-------
* quote by Hans Gal in his long out-of-print but pithily written, `Schumann Orchestral Music': Schumann Orchestral Music (Music Guides).
This CD is an interesting addition to the Schumann Library, including as it does several rare overtures, as well as the ever popular Overture, Scherzo and Finale. I was particularly interested in a decent recording of this latter piece, but was very favourably impressed with the other items on the CD. The price was very reasonable, too, and delivery was first class, with it arriving within just a few days.
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