Customer Reviews

Dvorak - Stabat Mater / Goerke · M. Simpson · Olsen · N. Berg · Atlanta SO · R. Shaw

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the pleasure of singing in the chorus for this recording. The piece was one that was unfamiliar to me, however, it grew on me over time and largely due to Shaw's deep committment to the work. Fittingly, it was the first time Shaw had ever conducted the work. He was continually challenging himself in his final years--always reaching out for new repertoire to bring to audiences. Dvorak's Stabat Mater is indeed a worthy piece. The recording sessions went very smoothly as we finished with some hours of recording time left unused. Some of the movements were done in only two takes. I remember one of the Telarc folks saying it had been a "remarkable experience" as we finished the session. Little did we know it was to be our final one with Robert. For me, my favorite moment, is in the final movement (In Paradisum) in the a cappella homophonic declamatory choral passage. It still has the ability to both thrill me and bring tears to my eyes as the text speaks of paradise. This is, of course, significant and appropriate to Shaw's passing so near in time to this recording. If you are a Robert Shaw fan or a Dvorak fan, do get this CD.

This recording is a wonderful ending to a truly stunning career. Hearing Robert Shaw conduct great choral works in person was always an overwhelming experience. This recording captures much of that experience. Hearing a chorus of this size sing with utter precision is always a wonder to me, and is the mark of Shaw's unique work. All of the soloists are terrific. Ms Goerke's and Mr. Olsen's duet (section 8) is a highlight of this recording. Ms Goerke's soprano truly soars. One hopes to hear more of this great young American soprano in the future. The Atlanta Symphony executes this rarely performed work with great skill. This listener was not familiar with this work. It is introspective and rewards the listener with each repeated listening. It's a keeper.

The "rediscovery" of Dvorak's Stabat Mater is well-deserved if not necessary. This is a spiritual work of such power and magnitude that it should be performed as often as possible. It should be in the choral canon right along side the visceral thrills of Verdi's Requiem. Dvorak and his choir can make some noise, but what is truly amazing about this work is its ability to hit you where you live. The Stabat Mater was a very personal work for Dvorak, who wrote it while coping with the grief over the deaths of his two daughters. As such, it is an intense and most profound work. The swirling and swelling of the opening movement is grief personified, culminating in the most painful outburst of anguish you've ever heard. Dvorak fills the rest of the piece with smaller scale movements of heartbreaking beauty. Robert Shaw is a perfect choice to bring this vast work to life. Shaw's gift is and always has been the chorus. They rise and fall, heave and breathe at Shaw's command. You will be blown away by the power of their control. They can be explosive as in the opening 'Stabat Mater', ghostly transparent in the 'Eja, Mater' and even exquisitely radiant in the 'Tui Nati'. I would recommend the Sinopoli recording on DG for dramatic impact, but Telarc's sound and Shaw's chorus are never to be underestimated.

Though I do not profess myself to be a conossieur of Dvorak's "Stabat Mater", versed in all major recordings of it, this is recording is simply lovely. The crystal voices, and Shaw's superior direction and obvious love for the material make it so. It is beautiful...and is, as has been mentioned numerous times before, a truly fitting final work for one of the last century's great conductors.

The Stabat Mater is a Latin poem which takes place at the death of Jesus. But the subject is not about Jesus, instead, the focus is on Mary, the grieving mother. The poem opens viewing Mary from afar at the cross describing the moment and the scene. The poem moves to a more personal point of view, first expressing empathy, than a want to share the pain of the Virgin mother, moving through prayerfulness, supplication, and eventually acceptance. The end of the poem tells of the sacrifice of Jesus, of Mary, and the eventual resurrection of the soul.

The music is not typical Dvorak. We are familiar with his folk-based works, his symphonies and other settings, but rarely do we hear his orchestrated vocal music, the Stabat Mater is one of the most played choral works. The music is not necessarily rooted in the folk music of his homeland, but it seems the music, the vocal parts, are evocative of the Italian tradition. One wonders if Dvorak knew of the Verdi Requiem, because much of the vocal writing and some of the instrumental settings are reminiscent of Verdi. The Stabat Mater is divided into 10 movements, all are very personal, moving from grief and pain to hope and eventual realization. Dvorak's melodies are short and tuneful, and he uses them over and over, each depicting the text rather well. The soloists play against the chorus, sometimes echoing each other. The choral parts are not extremely difficult (except for the jubilant last movement), but this creates the intimate nature of the text. The music is interesting and is a monumental effort (well over an hour of music), perhaps not as well known as the Verdi or Pergolesi setting, but unique on its own.

Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony provide a stalwart performance of a lesser-known work. The soloists are solid (if not too closely miked), and the chorus is in fine form (the final movement is a good showcase for the choir). Along with an interview with Robert Shaw this is a welcome CD. While the classic Kubelik, Sinopoli, and Macal are good, this CD is a consummate performance.

I bought this disk because I had heard Stanford Olsen sing here in Ann Arbor. He has a wonderful voice - flexible, strong, and able to hit the high notes with a gorgeous tone quality from the bottom to the top. He does an especially nice job at finding the means of expression within the music, that is - he uses the music's own means of expression to bring us to the music rather than imposing an interpretation on it.

But I have to tell you, this recording is much much more than Stanford Olsen. He does a great job, but so do the other soloists, the chorus, and the orchestra - all lead by the great late and lamented Robert Shaw.

This music is very good and is sung most expressively. It is a long work (two disks), but never FEELS long. You feel involved and emotionally captured all the way through (unless you are disposed to dislike 19th century romantic music that wears its heart on its sleeve - no 20th century irony here).

I encourage you to get to know this piece and this is a very good recording of this great work.

Robert Shaw died four months before my chorus was scheduled to sing with him. For that concert, we changed the program to include one of the works he had programmed, but the second half was entirely Shaw/Parker arrangements of a cappella spirituals.

Hearing the wonderful interview on this recording brought back memories of the many times we did perform with him, times I cherish. I have "Shaw-isms" (pieces of great musical, choral, and philosophical wisdom) scribbled throughout many choral scores.

This recording is a superb example of Shaw's genius. While I often prefer other interpretations of many works on disc to Shaw's, in this case, his is IT. I can feel the counting out that his choruses were invariably required to do while learning a piece ("one and two and tee and four and..."), and I can hear the incredible attention to detail that he put into everything he conducted. "Take care of the details," he said, "and the rest is assured."

The soloists are terrific (Shaw knew them all and invariably had the best on his recordings).

If you're not familiar with this piece, listen. It's a piece for connoisseurs of choral music, and perhaps not as instantly accessible or awe-inspiring as, say, the Verdi or Berlioz Requiems, or perhaps Rossini's setting of the Stabat Mater, but it's worth getting to know. The subtleties are as wonderful as are the contrasts. Shaw more than does it justice.

I've sung it, and hope to sing it again someday.

No doubt any admirer of Robert Shaw and his magnificent career will want his final recording. The liner notes, and radio broadcast, are certainly poignant, knowing that Shaw has since passed away. Robert Woods, of Telarc, gives a detailed, emotional description in the liner notes of what happened at this recording. The music, alone, is evidence of Shaw's mastery and he honors Dvorak and all other composers with his gift.

This was Robert Shaw's final recording, and it's a good one. Telarc captured the sessions in DSD (mixed down to 16-bit format for this CD), so we can probably expect future releases in SACD and possibly other formats once the dust settles. With two CDs for the price of one, though, this release is something worth purchasing right now, so don't let the promise of future formats hold you back from enjoying this performance in the here and now. What you will hear is an extremely well recorded and well performed work for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (soprano Christine Goerke), a work with which you are probably not familiar. Most of know Dvorak from his late symphonies and his cello concerto, his Slavonic Dances, maybe a little of his chamber or solo piano music, but very few of us are familiar with this large-scale composition.

No need to feel embarrassed, however, as even Maestro Shaw admitted that he knew very little of the work until a few years ago. But as he studied the work, he grew to admire it, and wanted to record it. In the liner notes by Telarc producer Robert Woods, there is an eloquently told tale of how this recording came to be, and the bonus track on the second disk is an interview that Maestro Shaw did with NPR's Martin Goldsmith. By the way, Telarc has been doing this sort of thing from time to time lately, as in their Benjamin Zander releases, and I commend them for their efforts. Years ago, Telarc took the lead in supplying great sound, and now they are taking the lead in providing educational supplements to may of their recordings. I applaud them for their vision and initiative.

As to the Stabat Mater itself, I must confess that I am still coming to grips with it. I find moments of great beauty, and it is certainly most pleasant to listen to, but it has not yet fully engaged my imagination, save for the final movement, which is truly magnificent and affecting. This is a piece that may take me many more listenings, but I have time (I hope). This is certainly a superlative recording, and I look forward to returning to it from time to time over the years. If you enjoy choral music, this disk is a must-have.

At the time that I first auditioned this Dvorak CD, I was in the midst of changing speakers systems, and had not yet set up my subwoofer. After installing the subwoofer, I did not listen again to the Dvorak until a letter arrived from a $ensible Sound reader who had been bothered by some rumble he had heard on this disk. He wondered why I had not heard or mentioned the rumble (which I had noted on another Atlanta/Telarc recording I had reviewed in the same issue of the magazine, a disk I auditioned after setting up the subwoofer). Of course, soon after I received his letter, I pulled out the Dvorak and gave it another listen, this time with the subwoofer in the system.

By golly, the rumble he mentioned was there; however, I had to adjust my subwoofer level up a little bit over where I usually set it in order for the rumble to reach a level that I would consider truly bothersome. Still, it is there, and once you have heard something like this, it is hard to ignore. I have found that turning the subwoofer level down still leaves a nice-sounding performance (my main speakers of that time were flat down to around 40 Hz). It is a shame to have this extra noise in the recording, although I suspect that 90% of the people who buy this recording will never hear it anyway.

I then decided to ask the good folks at Telarc whether they would care to comment on the rumble in this recording, and received the following prompt reply from their recording engineer, Michael Bishop:

"Low frequency rumble has long been a problem for us in Atlanta. It's not defective recording equipment -- it's equipment that picks up every little sound no matter how low in level. Ever since AT&T erected a huge office building across the street with VERY large underground air handlers, we have had a constant rumble at about 25 Hz on every session in Atlanta. We work closely with the physical plant people at Woodruff Arts Center to ensure that the internal air handlers are off during the recording session, but we have no control over the sounds external to the building. We have always felt that filtering the low frequencies from the recording would do more harm than good to the music. I would hope that with careful adjustment of the Subwoofer level you will enjoy the wonderful final recording by Mr. Shaw and the ASO & Chorus. When it comes down to it, the performance was worth capturing and replaying despite any relatively minor outside disturbances."

Although it is a shame that the recording venue in Atlanta can lead to recordings that are plagued by this extraneous bass energy, I must say that this disk in indeed a fine one, and I have no hesitation in giving it a solid recommendation to those who enjoy choral music.

The last track in this set is an interview with Robert Shaw in which he discusses, among many things, the odd and insinuous spiritual power of the Stabat Mater. Fans of Dvorak will recognize this magic; the composer's ability to make even the simplest and sometimes plain-sounding melodies seem more beautiful with each listening. This disc set has that quality. Listen to it, then listen to it again. You'll discover new rewards each time.