CLASSICAL

Reviewed by: Record Reviews John Canarina AllanKo:inn Scott Cantrell Paul Henry Lang Kenneth Cooper Irving Lowens R. D. Darrell Karen Monson Kenneth Furie James R. Oestreich Harris Goldsmith Conrad L. Osborne David Hamilton Andrew Porter Dale S. Harris Patrick J. Smith R. Derrick Henry Paul A. Snook Nicholas Kenyon Susan T Sommer

BIRTWISTLE: Punch and Judy. CAST: Pretty Polly/Witch PhyllisBryn-Julson (s) Judy/Fortune Teller Jan DeGaetani (ms) Lawyer Philip Langridge (t) Punch StephenRoberts (b) Choregos/Jack Ketch DavidWilson -Johnson(b) Doctor John Tomlinson (bs) London Sinfonietta, David Atherton, cond. [James Mallinson and Andrew Cornall, prod.] DECCA HEADLINE HEAD 24/5, $23.96 (two discs, manual sequence) (distributed by London Records). The fate of Harrison Birtwistle's Punch and Judy is instructive. The work was . premiered at the 1968 Aldeburgh Festi- val by the English Group, which Polish conductor Marek Janowski leads a new generation of Wagnerian singers in had commissioned it, and was then Rheingold, to launch Eurodisc's complete digital Ring cycle-See page 86. played in Edinburgh and London. Greeted with a mixture of incomprehen- BEETHOVEN: Missa solemnis, Op. choral shout of "Et resurrexit," which sion, anger, and disdain, it was not heard 123. has bone -chilling impact in the 1953 again in for ten years, though it Sylvia Geszty, soprano; DorisSoffel. Toscanini RCA edition, sounds low- was staged here, in Minneapolis. Then alto; David Rendall, ; Kurt Widmer, keyed indeed in these performances. the London Sinfonietta revived the piece bass; South German Madrigal Choir, CoIle- But there are important and reveal- in a brilliant 1979 London concert, gium Aureum, Wolfgang Gonnenwein. cond. ing differences between the approaches which received positive reviews; Decca [Thomas Gallia and Paul Dery, prod.] PRO of Pro Arte's Wolfgang Gonnenwein recorded it with the same performers, ARTS2PAL 2005, $19.96 (two discs, manual sequence). Tape: 2PAL 2005, $19.96 (two cas- and Eurodisc's Kurt Masur. Most ob- and that two -disc set has now received settes). vious, Masur uses a large -scaled modern the International Record Critics' Anna Tomova-Sintov, soprano; An- orchestra, Gonnenwein smaller forces Koussevitzky Award. The recording is a nelies Burmeister, alto; Peter Schreier, tenor; and "original" instruments. I much pre- stunning, powerful account of an Hermann Christian Polster, bass; Leipzig Ra- fer the clarity and detail of the Colle- evidently coherent and deeply felt score. dio Chorus, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, gium Aureum to the somewhat remote, It is disconcerting that, but for the imagi- Kurt Masur, cond. EURODISC 85 760, $19.96 generalized drabness of the Leipzig Ge- nation and enterprise of the London Sin- (two discs, manual sequence) (distributed by wandhaus as distantly miked by East fonietta, the work might still be on the Tioch Productions, Inc., 65 W. 55th St., Suite 's competent but overly con- shelf, dismissed as a failure; that should 9E, New York, N.Y. 10019). servative VEB Deutsche Schallplatten. prompt some thoughts about our post - Beethoven's sublime Missa solemnis can Even more to the point, however, is the premiere treatment of new works. withstand, and even profit from, manycontrast between the conductors: Gon- Much of the annoyance at the time interpretive approaches. On records we nenwein, for all his low -pressuredout- of Punch's first performance centered on have had the fervent, almost operatic look, gives a certain poignant intimacy to the libretto, written by the Brooklyn - treatments of Toscanini and Bernstein, a the writing, while Masur, whose work born pianist and Steuermann pupil, Ste- more soberly granitic but equally strong has impressed me elsewhere, seems phen Pruslin. Even a more recent study Klemperer, a scrupulous albeit detached overly detached (and in the opening, of Birtwistle's music (by Meirion Jochum, and agemiitlichGiulini. rapidly paced Kyrie, even perfunctory). I Bowen) calls the libretto "obtuse, over- Both of these editions are variations had hoped to be able to revise my earlier written." Difficult indeed, it weaves vir- on the theme previously offered by such opinion of the Eurodisc set (see my re- tuosic displays of subtle wordplay and contenders as Gunther Wand (Nonesuch view of theBOhmversion, November parody into an intricate, strictly pat- HB 73002) and the late Karl Bohm (DG 1975), all the better to welcome Euro- terned ritual framework. It needs to be 2707 080). Sharp contrasts are avoided; disc's entry into the American market, read as well as heard; at the premiere it slow tempos flow along and fast ones are but that pleasantry will have to await a was apparently inaudible, but good mi- generally held back. A similar moder- more auspicious release. Both pressings crophone amplification for the singers ation contains the dynamic range; the are fine. H.G. changed that in the revival. Here, too,

68 HIGH FIDELITY