Concerto for Orchestra; Music

Marin Alsop's Bartok cycle on Naxos has struck me as attractive and middle of the road. Bartok wrote a handful of orchestral masterpieces that have been recorded by great conductors with virtuoso orchestras. It's hard to get excited about middling good. Alsop's tactic in the Concerto for Orchestra is to back away from the bravura and flash of most readings - and that's a viable approach. The result is unusually low key, ad since Naxos' recording doesn't throw us into the middle of the orchestra, the reading seems even more low key.

But there were times n every movement that low key turned to slack as the rhythmic edges were smoothed out. For all the nice atmospheric touches, especially in the night music that begins the third movement, my attention wandered. Perhaps there's no going back now that the Concerto for Orch. has become a showpiece. In the finale, which is the most difficult music to play technically, Alsop's cautious tempo gives the impression of trying to make things easier for the Baltimore musicians.

The same holds true for the Music fro Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, although being less frequently played and not a showpiece that everyone has recorded a hundred times, the score gives Alsop more room to try something new. She romanticizes the opening movement, which probably isn't what the composer intended - he set it out with mathematical precision - but her way is appealing. The performance as a whole benefits from the clarity of the recorded sound, which is quite natural at capturing the strings and piano, a big plus compared with older recordings. We're still in the middle of the road, and Hungarian flavor isn't on the menu, yet this reading of MFSPC did hold my attention from beginning to end.

This kind of music is rare and seldom surpassed in its joy for life although the composer was on the brink of mental breakdown caused by a personal bankruptcy and severe illness when he wrote it in commission of the Koussevitzky Society memorizing Sergei's late wife Natalie. Marin and the Baltimoreans have picked up this fenomenon very well. With great understanding of the music of the first half of the 20th century they played every note with a sparkle of livelyness. Glittering Debussian varnish followed by deep Mahlerian drama. This piece will surprise in every bar, move and corner it rounds.
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta breaths completely different mood and atmosphere. More grimm and dark. Only in the Allegro Molto there is a, deceiving, kind of uplift. This music is composed in the wake of the Second World War and is predicting it: Premature war music?
The sound of these recordings are well-balanced, luxurious and warm at the same time. (Naxos recordings aren't so clear and tranparent like those of HM, DG and EMI by example, the well-known Naxos blanket is often covering the sound image of many recordings.)
Another fine gem to add to collection and to listen joy for many times. And the price to laugh about.
Naxos started a revolution and it ain't over yet, more have to follow...
And Marin deserves more credits than she gets nowadays: Many glittering prizes but less credibality that counts.

Ms. Alsop treats this death-to-life progression as well as almost anyone, although there are times when one wishes she had made the contrasts even more pointed. Best of all, she never sentimentalizes or glamorizes the music in the style of, say, a Karajan. She keeps it spare.

John J. Puccio
Classical Candor