Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex; Symphony of Psalms

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"No need to mince words here: this is the finest Symphony of Psalms available. . ." (David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com)

My reference recording of "The Symphony of Psalms" has always been the one on Telarc with Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. In the mid-90s, Dr. Shaw came to Minneapolis to direct the work and the Durufle "Requiem" with the combined forces of the Minnesota Orchestra and The Dale Warland Festival Singers. I was fortunate to be a member of the latter group. It was an awesome experience, one I shall treasure all my life. The chorus was expertly prepared ahead of Dr. Shaw's arrival in town, so the great man spent most of his time inspiring us and creating something deeply spiritual - and musically stunning.

Today, however, I was totally blown away by this recording. Although new to me, it was originally recorded in 1966. Even though Robert Shaw is responsible for some of the finest choirs in America, the Prague Philharmonic Choir is (or was) undoubtedly one of the greatest choral ensembles ever, rivaling the Russia's finest. The timbre of those voices is darker and richer than American and/or English choirs, yet they sing with great expression and nuance. Additionally, the Czech Philharmonic is an outstanding ensemble, which, under the direction of Karel Ancerl, was surely one of the finest orchestras in the world. And praise must be given to recording director Eduard Herzog and to sound engineer Miloslav Kulhan for an amazingly natural-sounding recording. Listen to the space and air around the woodwinds in the fugue that opens the second movement. Feel the impact of the brass choirs. Marvel in the balance between singers and instruments. Could it be that vacuum tube analog recording is warmer and more three dimensional that its digital counterpart?

To further quote from David Hurwitz: "If your hair doesn't stand on end when, in the first movement, the massed voices hurl out the words "et deprecationem meam", then you are either aurally challenged or dead. Has Stravinsky's immaculately cool wind writing ever sounded better? Has the second-movement double fugue ever been more clearly phrased or the closing pages sung with such calm intensity? Here's the bottom line: if you haven't heard this performance, then you simply don't know the Symphony of Psalms. Orchestra, chorus, and conductor are all beyond praise."

"Oedipus Rex," although an opera, is often performed as a concert piece. The original intent was for the actors and narrator to "remain static on stage in statuesque manner, with their faces hidden behind masks, to create the impression, true to the classical antiquity's dominant pattern of thought, of helplessness in the hands of cruel fate." (liner notes) Although a French-speaking narrator introduces the play and reports on its progress, the rest of Jean Cocteau's libretto is in Latin. Unfortunately, no English translation is provided, my only complaint. The soloists are superb, especially Ivo Zidek as Oedipus and Karel Berman as Creon. "As in the Symphony, the choral singing is stunning, and Ancerl's direction is a model of clarity and rhythmic incisiveness." (Hurwitz)

In 1968, "Oedipus Rex" was awarded both the GRAND PRIX DU DISQUE DE L'ACADEMIE DU DISQUE FRANCAIS and the ORPHEE D'OR DE L'ACADEMIE DU DISQUE LYRIQUE. More recently, this Ancerl Gold Edition disc received a 10/10 rating from ClassicsToday.com, for both Artistic Quality & Sound Quality. It is not to be missed.

I was delighted to find this Symphony of Psalms. I have the LP from the 60s and always thought it very fine. The CD is no disappointment. The original sound and the digital remaster are wonderful. The recording is quite "chorus forward". The performance is full-blooded. I like it better than Stravinsky's own.

The Supraphon label has been doing an excellent job of reissuing large parts of their back catalog over the last few years. Not only are they releasing numerous performances with the Czech Philharmonic and visiting conductors like Kletzki and Matacic (see my reviews), but they've also remastered (in 24/96) many of the recordings of conductor Karel Ancerl in the new "Gold Edition." Volume 14 of this series features Ancerl and the Czech PO performing Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" and the Symphony of Psalms. The performances are golden-age stereo recordings from 1964-65 and 1966 respectively. "Oedipus" is certainly an acquired taste (hence the four stars), but the Psalms performance is surprisingly as good as those by Ansermet and the composer himself. It is an enjoyable disc, and I look forward to purchasing (and reviewing) more titles from Karel Ancerl's "Gold Edition."

Jean Cocteau committed here a great short version of the eternal story of Œdipus, that son of a king who kills his father, marries his mother, and finally discovers truth, and that leads to the blackest drama of all. This opera-oratorio is in latin, so Jean Cocteau has included a narrator that summarizes the story in French for us to follow the plot without having to make the effort of learning latin anew. Stravinsky produces a music that contains no strings. He hence uses the magic of wind instruments and percussions to create the necessary atmosphere. He opposes Œdipus as a tenor to all other men, Creon, the messenger, Tiresias, and the shepherd who are basses and sing in a very low coloration. Œdipus and his tenor voice become the embodiment of vanity and the refusal of God, and this vanity leads him to the trap in which he falls. Jocaste, his mother and wife, is a soprano and she brings a soothing atmosphere and discourse in the drama, but her light and elegant voice becomes even vainer than Œdipus' because she rejects any kind of oracle. Her aria on the subject is quite effective and famous : she is totally blinded by her iconoclastic conviction, belief. This piece of music closes with the story of the drama : Jocaste hanging herself and Œdipus blinding himself. This finale is entirely built around the four repetitions of the burden about Jocaste's divine head being dead. This fourness, this squarish construction and the music that goes along with it is like the absolute closing of a door that tries to signify that there is no escape from fate, no possible refusal of destiny or providence. We are nothing but toys in the hands of the great forces that govern us from beyond death as Jean Cocteau says, and Stravinsky sings. Ancerl's performance and conducting give that music a clarity, a neatness that fit perfectly the story, the Greek mythology that looms behind, the Greek sunshine under which such stories are unimaginable, but also the happy and merry 20s when everything seemed possible and when artists were reminding people that the world is in constant danger of being infested with some plague that is always man-made or at least man-caused. This shiny clarity of the music, the singing and the conducting provides us with the strongest argument about our doomed human fate on earth. Could men listen to that lesson !

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU