Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Doktor Faust
Henschel, Hollop, Begley, Kerl, Fischer-Dieskau
Orchestre et Choeur de L'Opera National de Lyon
Kent Nagano
Erato 3984-25501-2
3 discs
(flac & scans)
Louis Spohr (1784-1859)
Faust
Skovhus, Hawlata, Swensen, Reiter, Martinpelto
Südfunkchor Stuttgart
Rundfunkorchester des SWF Kaiserlautern
Klaus Arp
Capriccio 60 049-2
(flac & scans)
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Alexander Lokshin (1920-1987)
Symphony No 4
Trois Scènes du Faust de Goethe
Vanda Tabery, soprano
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen
Michel Swierezcwski
Bis CD 1156
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(flac & scans)
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Who, you might ask, is Alexander Lokshin? An entirely reasonable question: I, a hardened Russian-music enthusiast, knew nothing more than a Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga CD (MK 417124) of the Fifth Symphony (Shakespeare s Sonnets, for baritone, strings, and harp), the String Quintet (extra viola, before you ask), and the Suite From Lyrics by François Villon, for tenor, string quartet, and tubaphone—apparently all the Lokshin available on compact disc. Well, that is about to change in the grandest of manners, for this enormously impressive release is the first of a complete cycle of the 11 Lokshin symphonies.
Alexander Lokshin (1920-1987)
Symphony No 4
Trois Scènes du Faust de Goethe
Vanda Tabery, soprano
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen
Michel Swierezcwski
Bis CD 1156
(flac & scans)
Download
Who, you might ask, is Alexander Lokshin? An entirely reasonable question: I, a hardened Russian-music enthusiast, knew nothing more than a Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga CD (MK 417124) of the Fifth Symphony (Shakespeare s Sonnets, for baritone, strings, and harp), the String Quintet (extra viola, before you ask), and the Suite From Lyrics by François Villon, for tenor, string quartet, and tubaphone—apparently all the Lokshin available on compact disc. Well, that is about to change in the grandest of manners, for this enormously impressive release is the first of a complete cycle of the 11 Lokshin symphonies.
Let's first get rid of the externals, which I have condensed from Marina Lobanova's notes with this CD. Lokshin was born on September 19, 1920, in Biysk, Siberia, where his family was expropriated by Stalin's campaign against the kulaks. After study in Novosibirsk, he attended the Moscow Conservatoire under Myaskovsky, was banned from the Conservatoire in 1941, tried tojóin the army, was discharged for poor health (that army, then? He must have been weak indeed—or was it Soviet anti-Semitism at work?). He regained favor with his vocal-symphonic poem Wait for Me, was reinstated at the Conservatoire in 1943, and taught there until the crackdown of 1948, when Lokshin's Jewishness brought him into the sights of the increasingly anti-Semitic Soviet establishment. Not until 1957, after Khrushchev's "thaw," did he begin to make any headway again; he died in 1987.
The 17-minute Fourth Symphony, Sinfonia stretta, written in 1968, is the odd man out among the Lokshin 11 : All the others use vocal soloists and chamber orchestra; this one is scored for full orchestra without voices. It's a theme-and-variations in form, beginning in Bergian angst and passing through a number of variations before finally finding the contrapuntal textures its label promises; though the energy had been building up a considerable head of steam by now, it suddenly seems to disperse, and the work subsides into a bleak coda, with a Shostakovichian bassoon lament over the darkened snowscapes; a final cry of despair brings this remarkable score to a harrowing conclusion.
Lobanova quotes Lokshin to the effect that the Trois Scènes du Faust de Goethe, which sets Pasternak's free translation, was his "12th Symphony" and a "chamber opera for concert performance"; she describes them as "a psychological monodrama: the heroine is shut away in her own solitude, confused, deceived, betrayed, lost." There is indeed an operatic, narrative quality to the music, which is far more concerned with atmosphere than the Fourth Symphony was; the instrumental lines are more fractured; the textures are thinner—Lokshin paints his canvas with extraordinary delicacy. But less is more: Even though this work is almost 40 minutes in length, it seems to disappear in half that time.
The Paris-born Michel Swierczewski obtains what would appear to be entirely reliable performances from the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra; once or twice, I wondered whether he might have liked a little more rehearsal time, but his ability to communicate the intense, nervous energy of Lokshin's bleak work is undeniable. He has sterling help from Czech soprano Vanda Tabery in the Trois Scènes and from his Bremen players, who respond with enthusiasm to what can hardly have been a familiar idiom. The sound is adequate, though it lacks a little brightness.
This is an important release. Lokshin turns out to be the missing link in the part of Soviet music history that led up to Schnittke, a sort of practical equivalent of the theorist and teacher Philipp Herschkowitz. I look forward keenly to the next issue in the series; in the meantime, I commend this one highly. -Fanfare