Customer Reviews

Brahms: Violin Concerto / Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a thrillingly exciting disc. Having heard Beethoven's 5th Symphony countless times before, I thought it had reached the stage where there was little else left to be said about it. In terms of recordings, Carlos Kleiber's 1975 VPO recording(which comes with a truly astonishing Beethoven 7th) is generally held to be the last word on the subject, but I think that this new version is better in almost every respect. Kleiber's is very much an old-school interpretation dominated by the strings. It's still a fiery and exciting view, never heavy or ponderous, but Rattle goes a stage further in the process, illuminating all kinds of details that normally go unnoticed yet never at the expense of the bigger picture. The aggressive violin and viola sforzandos in the finale, for instance, are emphasised far more than is generally the case but, when Beethoven alters them in the recapitulation, this emphasis pays dividends. The horns play with stupendous power and the woodwind are admirably balanced, never swamped, and play with marvellous clarity of articulation. The piccolo lines in the finale are very clear, although they pop out of the texture so vividly that I am not entirely sure that it wasn't done using sonic trickery. No human piccolo player I have ever heard is capable of dominating a fortissimo tutti and the fact that some of the piccolo bits are totally inaudible even on period instrument recordings leaves me rather suspicious. Still, the effect is uncommonly interesting. The only other criticism I would make is that Rattle perhaps doesn't do as much with the trombone writing as he might. Their repeated F-A-G at the start of the finale is rather weak, even though he chooses to emphasise the same motif at the start of the coda. The first three movements are superlative- even though Rattle goes for period-performance techniques, the performance is never lightweight and he goes to great lengths to bring out the 'da-da-da-DAAA' motif on which the whole piece is built. The criticism made below of the timpani hammering out this rhythm is hardly fair; it's written in the score like that and so deserves the special attention. As one who has conducted the piece twice, I am in a position to admire the kind of musical imagination that this interpretation evidently required and I just wish I could have thought of the same things! The minor caveats above hardly alter the fact that this is one of the most exciting performances of any work that I've ever heard and, although this is obviously a matter of personal taste, I really think that this CD has to go right to the top of the list of Beethoven 5ths. It's an amazing revivification of a hackneyed work. I just wish I could have seen Rattle and the VPO (who play quite magnificently throughout) do it live.
The Brahms, while not so innovative, is excellent too. Chung plays with a mixture of serene legato and tortured hacking where appropriate to give a performance of great urgency. The result is that her interpretation contains greater emotional extremes than most but, if this makes it sound like the piece is being wilfully exaggerated, don't be alarmed: it just makes it a good deal more involving than usual. Compare this recording to Maxim Vengerov's with Barenboim and the Chicago SO and you find that Chung probes the music far more deeply. The orchestral accompaniment is, again, notable for its clarity and power, while the finale has plenty of bounce and joie de vivre.
In short, this is an indispensable CD. The Beethoven is simply one of the freshest, most brilliant readings of any standard piece in existence and the Brahms is emotianally challenging and musically impeccable. A triumph- and Rattle is recording all the Beethoven symhonies with the VPO in May 2002...

One wonders why Rattle felt compelled to release these live performances on CD. With the Beethoven 5th symphony the most-recorded piece of classical music in history, and the Brahms Violin Concerto not far behind, it would seem that no one in this classical glut would release such a CD unless it contained some revelatory thoughts. I don't hear any here. What I do hear is a HIP-influenced Beethoven 5th (even though this is the Vienna Philharmonic) that's heavy on the banging and light on the subtlety or insight, and a non-HIP Brahms Concerto that sounds like the conductor walked out to the podium and pressed the "autopilot" button, especially in the third movement.

The 5th is lean and fast, and often this is the best way with this work for me. (Sorry, Klemperer.) But what I don't hear is the phrasing. They dash off the notes, give the most perverse and choppy rendering of the contrasting second theme I've ever heard, and race towards the recap with inexplicably exaggerated legato phrasing in the two note exchanges between strings and winds just before the recap. As another reviewer notes, the sudden intrusion of the banging tympani in the recap seems to suggest Rattle doesn't know how else to build excitement here. However, to say this sound is out of place in Beethoven is an error: tympani in his time indeed sounded harsher, and were struck with wooden sticks instead of soft mallets. What's odd to me is how they suddenly rise to the surface here; they sound oddly out of place for that reason. Then there's the perversely romantic phrasing of the oboe solo, at odds with the periodista reading of the rest of this symphony, with a long pause afterward that would be more at home in Tristan than in the Beethoven 5th. The second movement starts off with a very square and to me self-conscious phrasing, as though he were trying to make The Big Statement. I do like oone moment: a passage at mm. 86-96 where the basses and cellos sound especially taut and grim--usually conductors view this passage as kind of a rest, a respite. I think Rattle's dark view is far more in keeping with the tone of the rest of the symphony, but I wish he could have pulled it off with more subtlty and less affectedness, especially rhythmic affectedness. On the plus side, the buildup from the scherzo to the blazing finale is very convincing, one of the high points of the disc. And Rattle's coda is the more convincing I've heard. I've always been troubled by how this movement sounds like it's about to end at about six different points, that it seems to wear out its welcome through an excess of rhetoric. With attention to minute details in tempo and phrasing Rattle makes logical sense of the rapidly changing score and ends the work very convincingly. Another reviewer condemned him for excessive fussing in this section, which he claims is not in the score. I'm certain he's looking at a "traditional" score, and Rattle is using the revised Jonathan Del Marr performing edition that includes many revisions, particularly to this coda.

The Violin Concerto is saved by Chung, who brings to it a passionate intensity (sometimes at the expense of her tone, however). Listen closely and you'll hear subtle changes in color and inflection within her phrases--in other words, phrases-within-phrases. She can quickly move from vibrato on one note to a flat "white" tone in a rapid arpeggio. Mutter also has this technique in spades, but somehow Chung gives it more humanity and relevance to what's in the score, whereas sometimes with Mutter I feel like she's showboating. The slow movement is one of the most sumptuous and emotional I've ever heard--from Chung, at least. Rattle, as I said before, is on autopilot throughout the Brahms. The finale is the most joyous and dance-like I've ever heard, not weighted down by heavy rhythm like many finales are.

The sound is lean and a bit bright. Chung at times suffers, sounding like she's sitting in a barrel. But her electricity comes through, so that it really doesn't matter. No, the biggest reservation I have about really recommending these performances is Rattle. Someone below said this CD shows he is insecure in the core repertoire. I'm not sure I buy that: I've personally heard him give thrilling performances of Mahler, Sibelius, Bartok and Debussy, in music that is undoubtedly core repertoire. I think what he may have meant was "the Germanic repertoire," and there I'd agree. So far I haven't heard Rattle convince me in Beethoven, Haydn, or Brahms. I am reminded of a line in Harold C. Schonberg's book on the great pianists: that many of today's young performers are forced to counterfeit an emotion they do not feel. While he was talking about contemporary pianists, I feel this applies to many younger conductors as well. If you want to hear Rattle conduct music he *believes* in, hear him in Mahler or Sibelius. But I'd be hard-pressed, in a blindfold test, to name this conductor, or to think it's anyone beyond a generic stickwaver. So, with a gazillion recordings of these two works already out there, I can recommend this recording weakly and only for Chung. (Post script: In fact, having later compared the Beethoven to both incomparable Kleibers [father and son] with the same band, Rattle just took a notch down. Sir Simon has much to learn.)

One final thought: the Beethoven is in the latest HIP scholarship, with period-influenced intonation and performance practices and a Del Mar score, but the Brahms is big, fat tubby High Romanticism. Kind of inconsistent.

Kyung Wha Chung has never recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto previously during her distinguished career. This recording with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle winningly communicates an unquestionably musical and spiritual interpretation. As with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Brahms' concerto also particularly demands technical challenges which must serve the musical expression of the work rather than as overt virtuosic displays and pyrotechnic showcases.

Chung's performance reminds the listener, yet again, that her technical feats are completely at the service of musical expression and immediate communication. Her recording conveys a wonderful intensity and absolutely perceptible sense of being "alive". The concerto is truly brought to life bar by bar. Auto-pilot playing or mere physical execution of the piece is never characteristic of Chung's warm interpretation. Cool objectivity, fiery passion, wit, and vulnerability are all elements present within Chung's singing violin.

The first movement embodies dichotomous combinations of tension, serenity, lyricism, cutting aural discord ('tortured hacking' as per the liner notes), open geniality and distant probing. Brahms' most human expressions of light and dark are very much at the forefront in the interpretive approach of Chung and Rattle. A listener perceives that Brahms' intellect, wit, sarcasm, warmth, and humility are so omnipresent in this single movement. Throughout this movement's twenty-three minutes, the breadth is wonderful with a fluidity of pacing/rubato that support the living heartbeat of this music without ever drawing attention onto itself. Chung's Joachim cadenza is simultaneously virtuosic yet personal in her allowance of the passages to unfold phrase by phrase rather than as a single utterance of rushed or programmed violin technique. The sustained hymn-like tutti immediately following the conclusion of the cadenza is most representative of the entire collaborative, chamber-music endeavor of all the performers.

The second movement astonishingly sustains sonic/spiritual serenity throughout with the beautiful legato line drawn from start to finish by Chung with the most empathic intimacy with the Vienna Philharmonic's unique and golden sound. The opening wind serenade is one of the most beautiful on-record for this piece.

Chung exponentiates the giocoso aspects of the finale and may thus seem less heavy than others. However, her agile and acrobatic bow never remains 'earth-bound' during this final movement which thus offers a complete dramatic contrast to the earlier movements. The sparkle, wit, and good humor of Brahms find voice now after the preceding thirty-two minutes of dramatic light, shade, darkness, sturm und drang. The elasticity and spring-like joy to this movement is most delightfully brought to life in the final minute and 40 seconds as Chung leads a spontaneous slight accelerando of double stops into the grand final chords.

The balance between solo violin and orchestra sounds very much like the balance one would find in a concert performance (recording venue: Musikverein, Vienna), preserving Chung and Rattle's approach of this work as a "concerto-symphony". The legendary Vienna Philharmonic's uniquely special sound is beautifully interwoven with the solo violin's cantilena line, and the dramatic tension between the grand forces of the orchestra and the solo violin is judiciously captured in this recording. The chamber-music rapport between the soloist and the orchestra is clearly evident as Rattle and Philharmonic respond with equal power, propulsion, and spontaneity, at times punctuating Chung's solo line while during others "cushioning" it beautifully. This reciprocative chemistry and musical synergy ignite this recording's communicative powers even more convincingly. An exciting and rewarding accomplishment.

The Amazon reviewer is off base on this CD. It's fine to have differences of taste, but she gets the facts wrong. The contrast between Toscanini and Furtwangler has nothing to do with Rattle's influences or his career. The first movement of his Beethoven Fifth isn't unduly fast: it's one second faster than the classic Carlos Kleiber recording on DG. The second movement isn't strict and inflexible--there's more rubato than one usually hears, in fact. Oh well.

To my ears, this is Rattle's best Beethoven. He is playing catch-up with both Beethoven and Brahms, two composers he didn't record for twenty years in England. Now that he has been elevated to Berlin, and in addition has a successful relationship with the Vienna Phil., he is adapting to two composdrs that, frankly, he had little sympathy with.

In this case the results are excelent. Both the live Beethoven Fifth and live Brahms concerto with Kyung Wha Chung are in wonderful, clear, warm sound. the Vienna Phil. plays with incredible beauty, as does Chung in the Brahms. Rattle in general paces eerything with quick, dramatic thrust, but he is far from being a hectic time-beater like Gardiner or Norrington.

This is genuinly great conducting of the kind that Rattle himself rarely rises to. I was deeply impressed.

There are bon mots - and then there are depth charges.

Alfred Brendel's public comment on Sir Simon: "Rattle doesn't have a clear knowledge of what a symphony orchestra should sound like performing Beethoven, spending too much time on repertoire I regard as second rate," is the latter.

Boom, then bang, then bubbles.

Personally, I would have added Brahms and Bruckner (among others) to the list. Be that as it may, what are these live performances like? Are they artistically or forensically interesting?

Truth to tell, after the famous chords had rung out - and somewhat limply at that - I thought I was listening to a lost Sinfonia Concertante by Beethoven that was somehow tributary to the Fifth Symphony. Mozart has his K 297b - why can't his pupil mirror him? For whatever reason, Sir Simon chooses randomly to emphasize a cello-line here or a viola figuration there (for example, check out the slow movement 2'45 or 3'11). It's concertante city throughout the performance. Perhaps he adopted this approach to stand out from the crowd. Mmmmh. If so, I am not quite sure that it is going to weather well over time . . . . .

At the same time, Sir Simon's usual `challenges' as a conductor are to the fore: namely, his inability to sustain tension or intensity in `second gear' or thereabouts (last movement of the Fifth, 0'45 to 1'48 - and I don't know what happens at 3'31). The clutch also slips in 6'36 of the second movement where he is unable to shift from third into a higher gear: how sedate it is. Brendel's maxim comes to mind at 7'21 in the same movement. In Sir Simon's favour, the `Fifth Gear' moments are highly convincing (such as the end of the first movement).

All in all, this performance is superficially appealing `in the loud bits' but seriously deficient in true mastery. One never detects a long considered, interpretative viewpoint on the part of the conductor. There seems little point comparing this performance with the Furtwanger '43 Beethoven - Symphonies 5 & 7 or the Karajan '77 Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 9. One does not pit a flyweight against the big boys in the ring.

To the Brahms. Chung plays with customary fire and passion even if she does not banish memories of Ann Sophie Mutter in New York with Masur. Sir Simon fails to coax anything more than an insert-coins-into-the-meter response from the Vienna Philharmonic: if magic is on offer, it's well below my radar. As other reviewers have noted, Sir Simon runs out of puff - if not puffery - by the final movement: it is drab indeed.

Tedium besets me. After all, there is a little bit of Henry II in each one of us. City of Birmingham, could it be boomerang time - oh please?

This CD is one of my favorites which I bought last year.
The joint of Sir Simon Rattle (now the principal director of Berliner Philharmoniker) and first-rate violinist Kyung-Wha Chung!
The performance of promise, surely.

I must confess that the first time I heard the Brahms violin concerto, I didn't like it as much as now.
Chung's legato sounds too thin, dobble stoppings occasionally have flaws, violin sound captured too far...
If I gave the stars at that time I'd give 4 stars. (not bad..)

But after listening over and over again, I FOUND I were used to the over-amplified violin sound what can be heard only on CD.
Think about the old days performances, do you really think Ginette Neveu had bigger sound than the full scale orchestra?
This one is the one you can hear in the concert hall.
I know what Chung's violin sounds like.

Chung's view of this masterpiece seems that this concerto sould be a medium, expressing Brahms's sorrow and humblity.
If you want to find a one night showpiece fun, try to get younger artists(the younger, the bravura..).
But if you want to feel Chung's sympathetic songful performance, you need to listen this when available.

etc) It should have recorded live...

Simon Rattle is one of the most electric, vibrant young conductors left in the world of music today. This current performance of Beethoven's 5th though, brings into question his knowledge of the core classical Germanic repertoire, and begs to ask whether Rattles new post in Berlin will really work out as expected. The first movement of the fifth is actually rather decent, and certainly exhillerating and exciting; the playing from the Vienna Philharmonic typically flawless and profound(would we expect anything less)? Rattle's opening three notes are clearly stated and direct, though perhaps not carrying the same air of power and profundity of Carlos Kleiber's legendary recording. As stated by the editor, Rattle does use the bassoon recapitulation, though this practice is rather common in recent years, certainly the case in this almost period-instrument reminiscent performance. The first movement's coda though is where Rattle's insecurity of Beethoven surfaces. As a Vienna Philharmonic first violinist once stated bluntly, "Beethoven for Simon Rattle is simply crude barking of orchestral details." This comment certainly bears much weight in the coda, as the timpani's incessant barking of the four note motif makes one wonder, 'What is he trying to accomplish?' The mallets used by the timpani are incredibly hard, resulting in an awful core sound totally inappropriate to Beethoven. The finale is where the wheels simply come off; the violins not even together in the first few bars of the movement. The shrill screaching of the picolo is forever omnipresent, it's ear-piercing shrieks resonating over the rest of the orchestra. Rattle also jazzes it up to a frustrating degree, inserting small crescendos and accelerandos nonexistent in the score. In short, one is forced to think whether Rattle has any idea what Beethoven is all about.
The Brahms concerto with Kyung-wha Chung is hardly better. While her tone is sweet and rich at times, the finale is rather flat and dull, with annoying mannerisms which appear to be picked up from Rattle. For a great performance of this look into the recording of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Kurt Masur and the NYPO on DG.
While Rattle's Mahler and 20th century interpretations (along with much more) is often extremelely good, he just doesn't seem to grasp Beethoven and Brahms, two essential centerpoints of the core Germanic repertoire. If this is the case, the Berlin Philharmonic might not be the perfect fit for Rattle. As Alfred Brendel once said, "Rattle doesn't have a clear knowledge of what a symphony orchestra should sound like performing Beethoven, spending too much time on repertoire I regard as second rate." I could hardly state it any better.