No. 4, "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgeganen!"
("Often I think they've only gone out!")
Jessye Norman, soprano; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, December 1988
Part I, Allegro impetuoso, "Veni, Creator Spiritus"
Faye Robinson, Judith Blegen (and Deborah Sasson?), sopranos; Florence Quivar, mezzo-sorano; Lorna Myers, contralto; Kenneth Riegel, tenor; Benjamin Luxon, baritone; Gwynne Howell, bass; Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in Symphony Hall, Oct.-Nov. 1980
[SOPRANO NOTE: A third soprano is called for in Part II but not Part I. However, I can't swear that there's been no redistribution of parts in Part I.]
by Ken
If you've visited the previous installment of this series, "Seiji Ozawa (1935-2024), Part 1: Being the preface to a probably-inappropriately-impressionistic (at least at the start) musical remembrance" (Feb. 11), you know that this isn't where we expected to be beginning Part 2. We had, by gosh, a formal agenda! And we'll be coming back to it, though I'm afraid not completing it in this installment.
That plan changed, or at least got rejiggered, as I pondered the possibilities suggested by the presence, among the large volume of Ozawa holdings in the SC Archive, of the complete Part I of his BSO recording of Mahler's grandest symphony, the Eighth, his setting of the old Latin hymn "Veni, Creator Spiritus" -- one of his most extraordinary, and extraordinarily dense, musical concoctions, unlike anything else I know in the musical literature, definitely including Part II of the Eighth, his cherry-picked rendering of Part II of Goethe's Faust, which is as discursive and, er, spaced out (in more ways than one) as Part I is concentrated and compact.
Then, since the content list for this musical talking point already included Nos. 3 and 4 of the Mahler Kindertotenlieder (settings of, altogether, five of Friedrich Rückert's poems on the death of children) in the powerful live recording Seiji and the BSO made with Jessye Norman on tour in Frankfurt, I slipping one of them in here, partly to hear Jessye and Seiji -- whom we've heard collaborating so splendidly in Gurre-Lieder Part I -- together again, but more to illustrate both Mahler's and Seiji's complete comfort with the formally simple and wildly complex musical structures.
WE'll RETURN TO THE "PART 2 TALKING POINTS," BUT FOR READERS GRIPPED BY "VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS" MANIA --
As long as we're here, with the text in front of us, we've heard other performances of Part I of Mahler 8. (We've actually heard several others broken into sections for post discussion purposes.)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 8 in E-flat:
Part I, Allegro impetuoso, "Veni, Creator Spiritus"
Joyce Barker, Elizabeth Simon (& Norma Burrowes?), sopranos; Joyce Blackham, mezzo-soprano; Alfreda Hodgson, contralto; John Mitchinson, tenor; Raymond Myers, baritone; Gwynne Howell, bass; New Philharmonia Chorus, Bruckner-Mahler Choir of London, Ambrosian Singers, Symphonica of London, Wyn Morris, cond. Independently produced, Nov. 20-22, 1972, released by (among others) RCA (LP) and IMP (CD)
Frances Yeend, Uta Graf (& Camilla Williams?), sopranos; Martha Lipton and Louise Bernhardt, mezzo-sopranos; Eugene Conley, tenor; Carlos Alexander, baritone; George London, bass-baritone; Schola Cantorum, Westminster Choir,New York Philharmonic, Leopold Stokowski, cond. Live performance from Carnegie Hall, Apr. 9, 1950
BACK TO OUR "PRELIMINARY MUSICAL TALKING POINTS"
To retrace our steps, the basic idea was to raid the Sunday Classics Archive, richly stocked with Seiji-ana, choosing items that seems to me to exemplify aspects of his musical distinctiveness. The sort-of-categories were, again:
(1) Andante sostenuto, (2) "Pandaemonium,"This agenda was teased with audio clips for each "talking point," and this week we begin going through them, this time outfitted with "value-added" musical examples.
(3) Le Serment (The Oath), and (4) A snatch of Nietzsche
I can tell you straightaway that we're not going to get through all four. The fact is, we're only going to get through #1 before calling it a week's work. (Hey, it's not a race!) That said, bearing in mind that while in Part 1 the performers were fully identified, the musical identifications were pretty stingy, this week we will at least properly identify specimens #2-#4.
Seiji conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra in the "sublime" first movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 73 (September 2009) -- see below.
[#1 of 4] BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68:
ii. Andante sostenuto
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 2, 1977
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Live performance in Kissei Bunka Hall, from the first Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto (Nagano pref.), Sept. 5, 1992
The Andante sostenuto we heard in Part I, as I expect most readers recognized, was from the Brahms First Symphony, recorded (as noted then) by Seiji and the BSO in 1977, which is to say several years I first heard them play it together, during the 1974 Tanglewood Festival weekend I don't seem able to stop writing about (see, most recently, "On the way to our archival array of performances by conductor Josef Krips, we stall at a piece that cries out for more considered attention," Dec. 17, 2023), which culminated in that memorable performance of Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder. Which began more or less like so (this is the live recording Philips was finally able to make in Symphony Hall in April 1979).
SCHOENBERG: Gurre-Lieder: Part I, Orchestral introduction & Waldemar's 1st song, "Nun dämpft die Dämm'rung jeden Ton"
Now dusk mutes every sound on land and sea.
The scudding clouds have gathered
close against the margin of the sky.
Silent peace has closed the forest's airy gates,
the limpid sea waves all have lulled themselves to rest,
Westward, the sun throw off her purple robes,
and dreams upon her couch among the waves
of all the glory of the coming day.
Now not even the smallest bush stirs
in all the wood's resplenent house.
Now not the faintest sound is heard.
Rest, my senses, rest!
My every power sinks into the lap of its own dreams,
and I am inward drawn upon myself,
tranqil and free of care.
-- translation by Donna Hewitt for Universal Edition
James McCracken (t), King Waldemar; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in Symphony Hall, April 1979
And the performance ended about like this:
Part III, Final Chorus, "Seht die Sonne" ("Behold the sun")
Behold the sun, gay-colored, on the margin of the sky.
Morning dreams greet her in the East!
Smiling, she rises out of the night tides,
and from her radiant brow there streams
the splendor of her locks of light.
-- translation by Donna Hewitt for Universal Edition
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in Symphony Hall, April 1979
Naturally there were other musical events that weekend at Tanglewood, among them an orchestra concert (Saturday afternoon, I'm thinking?) that wasn't part of the agenda for the Music Critics Association's annual meeting, but was mostly catchable for those of us who were so inclined by just flopping down on the lawn. The featured work was Brahms 1, and on a lovely late-summer afternoon in that lovely setting, with the orchestra producing the kind of richly textured yet beautifully blended sound that I think of as a BSO trademark, so beautifully sculpted by Seiji, the sheer gorgeousness of the second movement took over my brain. When they finally recorded the symphony, the performance -- the one we heard in Part 1, had pretty much the same effect on me as the Tanglewood experience.
First Day of Issue cover for the 2022 Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto
To it I've added a performance from 15 years later, with the orchestra Seiji co-founded in Japan in 1984 for summer-festival and touring (and recording) purposes, named to honor his first conducting inspiration and teacher, Hideo Saito. In 1992, the same year a Hideo Saito Foundation was established, the summer festival was formally christened in the city of Matsumoto (in Nagano prefecture), often described as the "gateway to the Japan Alps"; our Brahms 1 is from the inaugural Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, and I like this performance -- even richer and more captivating -- better than the 1977 BSO one. (Seiji and Saito Kinen made a commercial recording of the symphony in 1990, which I haven't heard.)
I think the reason I was so available for overwhelming by the Andante sostenuto is that we tend to think of Brahms 1 in particular for its blockbuster outer movements. Some time back I presented a series of posts whose guiding idea -- maybe not always apparent, I admit -- was a hearing of a lot of remarkable music Brahms composed in those agonizing decades when he was establishing a formidable presence on the European musical scene but to his agony wasn't able to produce a symphony, an accomplishment he felt he had to notch to be considered a truly front-rank composer.
We never did follow that arduous -- but intensely creative -- path all the way to, finally, "the" symphony, which you'll recall didn't happen until the opus number assigned to it was 68. One thing I think was suggested in those posts was that Brahms seemed able from the outset to produce memorable "middle"-type movements for all kinds of compositions pretty much at will. The biggest stumbling block was the kind of powerhouse opening movement, and perhaps concluding one as well, which in his mind would sweep the music world.
I don't think there's any doubt that Brahms's oh-so-long-in-the-making Symphony No. 1 delivered everything he could have hoped. And Seiji certainly had the measure of them.
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1: i. Un poco sostenuto - Allegro
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Live performance in Kissei Bunka Hall, from the first Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto (Nagano pref.), Sept. 5, 1992
Symphony No. 1: iv. Adagio - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 2, 1977
But in between those mighty bracketing movements, Brahms created a pair of symphonic treasures. The Andante sostenuto is, for me, as beautiful as any symphonice movement ever written. And we've heard it a lot -- I gave up trying to count how many performances we've got in the archive. And Brahms performed an almost magical feat with the near-miniature-size third movement, no doubt kept short in consideration of the proportions of the symphony's other movements. But Brahms was a master at "intermezzo"-type movements, hardly surprising when we consider how much he loved the "intermezzo" as a form, which turned out to mean anything he wanted it to mean in a given context.
It's worth noting that once Brahms succeeded in creating the long-struggled-for First Symphony, Op. 68, the Second Symphony followed fairly quickly -- it would be Op. 73. And having launched the First Symphony with that blockbuster first movement, he clearly felt free to do something completely different with the first movement of the Second, one of his most sublime creations (as we can hear in the performance underneath the picture above), just as, for example he had done with the first two piano quartets.
BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25:
i. Allegro
Murray Perahia, piano; Amadeus Quartet members (Norbert Brainin, violin; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello). Sony Classics, recorded in Henry Wood Hall, London, June 29-July 1, 1986
BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No. 2 in A, Op. 26:
i. Allegro non troppo
Borodin Trio (Luba Edlina, piano; Rostislav Dubinsky, violin; Yuli Turovsky, cello); Rivka Golani, viola. Chandos, recorded in Layer Marney Church, Colchester, England, July 14-16, 1988
WHICH IS AS FAR AS WE'RE GOING TO GET TODAY
(The rest of our musical talking points will have to wait for Part 2b)
But one thing we can do is rehear the original performances of #2-4, now properly identified. (We've already established that the "Adagio sostenuto" that was "#1 of 4" was the second movement of the 1977 Ozawa-BSO recording of the Brahms First Symphony.)
#2 of 4: "Pandaemonium"
BERLIOZ: The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24:
from Part IV, "Pandaemonium"
After THE PRINCES OF DARKNESS receive assurances from a proffered newcomer's escort that he has freely signed himself over to their ranks, a chorus of Démons et Damnés (Demons and the Doomed) dances around their new, er, soulmate, chanting in what the text describes as "langue infernale," or "the infernal language," with effusive invocations of Mérikariba, Satan, Belphégor, Méphisto (especially), Kroix, Astaroth, and Belzébuth.
Donald McIntyre, bass-baritone; Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1973
#3 of 4: "Le Serment" ("The Oath")
BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony), Op. 17:
from Part III, Frère Laurence, "Jurez donc par l'auguste symbole"
FRÈRE LAURENCE: Swear then, by the august symbol,
on the body of the daughter and on the body of the son,
by this sorrowful tree that consoles,
swear all, swear by the sacred crucifix
to seal between you an eternal chain
of tender charity, of fraternal friendship!
And God, God who holds in hand future judgment,
in the book of pardon will inscribe this oath.
[Emphasis added -- by the composer!]
[A small chorus repeats the soloist's exhortation while combined choruses sing their avowed intent to swear the oath.]
José van Dam (bs-b), Frère Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
Giorgio Tozzi, bass; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 23-24, 1961
#4 of 4: That snatch of Nietzsche
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 in D: iv. Sehr langsam. Misterioso. Durchaus ppp (Very slow. Mysterious. Throughout ppp), "O Mensch! Gib Acht!" (maybe a trifle colloquially: "O mankind! Watch out!")
O man! Take heed!
What says the deep midnight?
"I slept, I slept --,
from a deep dream I have awoken:
The world is deep!
And more deeply conceived than day.
Deep, deep, deep is its pain --,
joy -- deeper still than heartache.
Pain says: Die!
But all joy seeks eternity --
seeks deep, deep eternity."
-- "Zarathustra's Midnight Song" from Friedrich Nietzsche's novel Also sprach Zarathustra; translation by Deryck Cooke
Jessye Norman, soprano; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in Symphony Hall, April 1993
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