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In the Shadow of the Verein: Mahler, Debussy, Busoni
The Smithsonian Chamber Players (Kenneth Slowik, conductor, with Russell Braun, baritone)
At the end of the First World War, Arnold Schönberg established his brilliant but short-lived Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen (Society for Musical Private Performances) in Vienna, dedicated to performing contemporary music at the highest possible level. Two earlier Smithsonian Chamber Players CD releases documented the Mahler transcriptions (of the Fourth Symphony, the Wayfarer Songs, and Das Lied von der Erde) that were made, or intended for, the Society's use. Ironically, just as Schönberg's aesthetic for transcribing Mahler reached a new level of relative opulance--inspired, no doubt, by his experience of hearing the entire Mahler oeuvre at Willem Mengelberg's 1920 Mahler-Feest with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra--the financial underpinning of the Verein faltered, due in part to Austrian hyperinflation, and its last concert was given on 5 December 1921.
For the present disk, conductor Kenneth Slowik imagined the transcriptions that might have been made if the Verein had been able to continue its work. Following detailed instructions Schönberg issued in conjunction with his initial work on the Das Lied arrangement, Slowik presents Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Rückert-Lieder (with Canadian baritone Russell Braun), plus Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, in new chamber orchestra guises. The program is rounded out with Schönberg's own version of Ferruccio Busoni's haunting Berceuse élégiaque, one of the works Mahler chose for the last concert he gave (with the New York Philharmonic) before his untimely death in 1911.
Debussy, arr. Slowik: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
"These new arrangements by conductor Kenneth Slowik are simply stunning, as is the audiophile quality of the recording. Russell Braun sings magnificently, wresting every bit of meaning from the heavily emotional texts, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players respond accordingly, cradling Braun's rich yet supple voice with a range of instrumental colors that fairly belies the fact that these are transcriptions and not the original settings. A surprise find is Ferruccio Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque. Heard in Schönberg's arrangement for nine instruments, it weaves a mesmeric spell, as if one is intently watching the slow motion of kelp washing in and out with the tide. Highest recommendations!"
The CD Shelf
Price:
$16.00 plus $2.98 shipping and handling
On this album:
Claude Debussy (arr. Slowik): Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Gustav Mahler (arr. Slowik): Rückert-Lieder
Ferruccio Busoni (arr. Schönberg): Berceuse élégiaque
Gustav Mahler (arr. Slowik): Kindertotenlieder
