Gramophone Classical Music Awards 1984
Friday, April 25, 2025
Karajan's live recording of Mahler's Ninth took to top prize – Recording of the Year – at the 1984 Gramophone Classical Music Awards
Recording of the Year and Orchestral category
Mahler Symphony No 9
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Herbert von Karajan (DG)
Producer: Gunther Breest; Recording Supervisor: Michel Glotz; Engineer: Gunter Hermanns
In my review of this recording in July I quoted Schoenberg's dictum on conductors: 'The great conductor knows in the ninth rehearsal that there is something more to be said in the tenth, whereas most conductors have nothing to say after the third.' Schoenberg was thinking of Mahler, but he would readily have saluted Karajan's characteristic achievement in using an award-winning recording of the Ninth Symphony (the 1981 LP set won the Gramophone Orchestral Award in March 1982) as a springboard for a series of quite unforgettable and still more searching live performances, one of which is preserved for us here.
Karajan has been known to over-refine his readings, but not here; this performance is purer, deeper, even more dauntingly alive. I described it as one of the seven wonders of the modern musical world; and others, it appears, agree. Those who have the excellent LPs from 1981 need not disown them, but Karajan's own insistence on this live CD version has given investors in the new medium an enviable gift.
Though somewhat immediate, the sound is well balanced. Silent surfaces are a sine qua non in this work with its silences and critical suspensions of sound, its preoccupation with being and non-being. No previous conductor or orchestra has laid these things before us quite so clearly. And yet it is a performance beyond personality, a distillation of human experience in music; confronting death, as Deryck Cooke once wrote, but 'praising life in spite of everything'. Richard Osborne
Chamber
Beethoven Late String Quartets
Lindsay Quartet (ASV)
Producers: John Boyden and Anthony Sargent
A new set of the Late Beethoven Quartets has to be very special indeed if it is to compete with the Végh and Talich versions. These fine ensembles bring their own special perceptions and insights to this great music, yet such is the excellence of the Lindsay that they can hold their own with any quartet now before the public.
As far as recording quality is concerned, they have better balanced sound than either the Végh or the Talich (though not perhaps the Alban Berg, whose superbly played series is under way on HMV). What struck me most when I heard this set was the way they always found exactly the right tempo: they convey the illusion while one listens to them that this is the only way this music can be played.
Throughout the quartets they place truth before beauty and as a result very largely achieve both. The Greeks always built a flaw into a perfect work of art, for perfection only exists in the other world, and in this instance we have Op 130 with the Grosse Fuge and not the finale Beethoven subsequently composed. In spite of this I am delighted that others share my admiration for this superb set. Robert Layton
Choral
Mozart Requiem
Margaret Price sop Trudeliese Schmidt mez Francisco Araiza ten Theo Adam bass Leipzig Radio Chorus; Dresden State Orchestra / Peter Schreier (Philips)
Producer: Bernd Runge; Engineer: Henk Kooistra
The musical text of Mozart's Requiem, always known to be suspect in those parts he left unfinished when he died, has recently been subjected to some 'cleaning up': fairly unobtrusively by Franz Beyer in 1971, much more radically by Richard Maunder in 1983. Here, however, we have the familiar completion by Süssmayr, and that it continues to sound so convincing despite the findings of modern scholarship is due largely to the passionate conviction of Peter Schreier's interpretation.
He must have sung the solo tenor part in the Requiem on countless occasions (he recorded it in the 1960s), and he brings to his performance a deep, inside knowledge of the score, which comes out not only in his loving and musical shaping of the music, but, perhaps even more strikingly, in his feeling for the Latin words.
The exceptionally fine solo quartet, with Margaret Price singing the soprano part more beautifully than I can remember ever hearing it, is particularly sensitive in this latter respect, but the Leipzig Radio Chorus and the Dresden State Orchestra, too, respond magnificently to Schreier's deeply committed view of the work. Süssmayr or no, this is a Requiem in a hundred. Robin Golding
Concerto
Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 15 and 16
English Chamber Orchestra / Murray Perahia pf (CBS Masterworks)
Producer: James Burnett
These two concertos were completed, astonishingly, within the space of one week, in March 1784, Mozart's Annus mirabilis. 'I really cannot choose between the two of them', he wrote to his father, 'but I regard them both as concertos that are bound to make the performer perspire. From the point of view of difficulty, the Concerto in B flat beats the one in D.'
The one in B flat, the first of Mozart's concertos to emancipate the wind instruments, with its beguiling first movement, its lovely variation-form Andante and its spirited 'hunting' finale, is, most of us would agree, a slightly better work than the festive, but thematically less memorable one in D, despite the grandeur of its two fast movements, particularly the splendid, march-like opening Allegro assai.
Yet Mozart himself would surely have been hard put to choose between them as played here so beautifully by Murray Perahia and the ECO; almost as hard put as to choose between these performances and the rather more extrovert ones of the same two concertos by Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia, that, by one of those strange quirks of the recording world, were issued at the same time by Decca.
Yet perhaps Perahia gets marginally closer to the true spirit of the works: it would certainly be difficult to imagine performances displaying more sensitivity, more sheer love of the music than these. Robin Golding
Early Music (Baroque)
JS Bach Chamber music
Cologne Musica Antiqua / Reinhard Goebel (Archiv Produktion)
Producer: Andreas Holschneider. Engineers: Heinz Wildhagen and Hans-Rudolf Muller
The panel was distinctly taken aback by one or two of the nominations that had been made – even by the most elastic of classifications, Haydn and the early Viennese school cannot be considered Baroque composers; on the other hand, it had few scruples about annexing an entry from the Chamber Music category, advancing as argument that as all the works in it were played on period instruments this set it apart from 'orthodox' performances of classical chamber works and brought it into a more suitable context of music by Handel, Vivaldi et al.
There was a good deal of keen competition, notably from the Rameau operas, the AAM's Versailles disc and the English Concert's Water Music; but the sheer extent, vitality and general excellence of this seven-disc set carried the day. Here is all Bach's music for violin and harpsichord (both obbligato – including the 'early version' movements of the G major Sonata – and continuo), in the stylish hands of Reinhard Goebel; likewise the admirable Wilbert Hazelzet in all the flute and harpsichord music (whether or not really by JSB); and the three gamba sonatas, with that fine player Jaap ter Linden.
Heartwarming performances; very clean recordings; exemplary documentation: a worthy category winner. Lionel Salter
Contemporary
Carter String Quartet No 3 Ferneyhough String Quartet No 2 Harvey String Quartet No 2
Arditti Quartet (RCA Red Seal)
Producer: Torsten Schreier
In his Third Quartet, Elliott Carter virtually recasts the medium in the image of his own musical language (the work consists effectively of two simultaneous duets for two strongly contrasted pairs of instruments, each with its own thematic material).
Brian Ferneyhough, in his mind- and concentration-boggling Second Quartet, subjects the listener to an exhilarating but almost unprecedentedly disparate barrage of musical stimuli. Only Jonathan Harvey's Second Quartet, which at times reminds one how richly eclectic his earlier music was, glances at all obviously over its shoulder at the past.
Yet all three works are aware of the quartet tradition, the Carter most obviously in its exploration of the discourse of four voices (they do not always seem to converse, true, but a discourse it is, even so), the Ferneyhough in its density and earnestness of argument, the Harvey in its use of the four instruments as essentially singing voices; all three demonstrate the coherency of true quartets.
Impressive evidence, then, of the continuing vitality of the medium, all the more so in performances as virtuosic, controlled and deeply eloquent as these. The recording matches their responsiveness. Michael Oliver
Early Music (Medieval & Renaissance)
Dunstaple Motets
Hilliard Ensemble / Paul Hillier (HMV/Erato)
Producer: Gerd Berg; Engineer: Neville Boyling
One of the most interesting features in the 'early music' field, now that the Baroque period has been, and is being, so thoroughly – some might say so relentlessly – explored, is the emergence of Medieval and Renaissance music as a growth area.
Along with the extension of the recorded repertoire has gone a welcome concentration on authentic scholarly interpretations of what are often highly problematic and controversial texts. The performances of songs by Machaut given by the Gothic Voices successfully bore out Christopher Page's long-held contention that this fourteenth-century music should be for voices alone, without instruments; the panel's eventual choice, nine splendid Dunstable motets, seemed to it the most lucid and convincing exposition yet of the work of this still too little known musical genius.
The Hilliard Ensemble's readings show a tendency to under-emphasis – for which, on some of its records, it has been criticised – but this proverbial English characteristic suits this music; and its sheer beauty and the artistry of the singing combine to make this a most rewarding, and much needed, addition to the catalogue.
Anyone tempted to regard the cultivation of fifteenth-century music as mere antiquarianism has only, I think, to listen to the great Veni Sancte Spiritus / Veni Creator to be convinced: if he is not, there's no hope for him. Lionel Salter
Historical (non-vocal)
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Nos 30, 31 and 32
Egon Petri (dell'Arte)
Producer: Stephen G. Smith; Re-mastering Engineer: Bryan Crimp
The year has produced relatively few outstanding historical instrumental reissues, though there are such obvious contenders as the wonderful Arrau retrospective (8/83) or the second of the Schnabel/Schubert compilations (2/84), but giving prizes to these is rather like acclaiming Shakespeare or the Bible: they are self-selecting. Our choice eventually alighted on a little-known record of some interesting Beethoven playing from Egon Petri, recorded at a recital in Mills College, Oakland, California, in 1954 (not 1964, as stated on the record sleeve and listed in the Gramophone Classical Catalogue). Petri was, of course, a Busoni pupil and a great interpreter of the latter, as well as of Liszt. He is not associated with Beethoven, though he did in fact record Op 111 commercially (6/36) among others. Richard Osborne rightly spoke of him as 'a steelier Solomon' and cited his pre-war reputation as 'profound, subtle and masculine'. Although we would endorse all his reservations – artistic and technical – there is much here that is both thought-provoking and illuminating. This recital, given when he was 73, affords us a rare glimpse of an artist who was always underrated and is now in danger of being forgotten. Robert Layton
Historical (vocal)
Brahms and Schumann Historical recordings of Lieder (1901–1952)
Various artists (HMV mono)
Transfer engineer: Keith Hardwick
Conception, research, material and presentation: all excel. The 130 different songs (several in more than one version) represent the composers well, but the special interest of the album lies in the range of performances in date, nationality, style and voice. The earliest comes from 1901 and takes one back further still, for the singer is Nicolai Figner, the tenor beloved of Tchaikovsky and born in 1857, a few months after the death of Schumann.
A personal connection with Brahms is made through the tenor Gustav Walter, highly regarded by the composer, whose Feldeinsamkeit he sings with emotion as vivid as if the 1904 recording were made today. Not that the earliest and rarest recordings are necessarily the ones that provide the greatest pleasure. This probably comes from the inter-war years and from artists such as Lehmann, Schumann, Fuchs, Ginster, Gerhardt, Erb, Janssen and Kipnis. Old friends, all of these.
The anthology introduces others, with a good sprinkling of 'exotics' from opera houses and lands as remote from the centres of German artsong as Bessarabia and Argentina. Most of the recordings are both rare and beautiful; several are published for the first time. All are immaculately transferred. John Steane
Instrumental
Beethoven Piano Sonata No 29
Emil Gilels (DG)
Producer: Hanno Rinke; Engineers: Werner Mayer, Klaus Scheibe and Jürgen Bulgrin
Gilels's reading of the Hammerklavier Sonata is one of the most lucid and sensuous there has ever been on record – and yet, at the same time, one of the most searching and far-seeing. Much of the playing is ravishing – not in a worldly or sensual way, but in a way which is true to Beethoven's idealising, visionary mood.
The lyrical ideas in the outer movements are pure spiritual balm; but the slow movement, gloriously shaped, has a capacity to chill as well as a capacity to soar, which I haven't heard emulated since Solomon's famous old LP. The first movement may be rather too maestoso for some tastes, but the subtlety and quickness of Gilels's thought gives it energy and range, and I find myself unable to deny Gilels his premise. From this starting-point, he unfolds the huge scope of Beethoven's argument across all four movements.
Daunting as the Hammerklavier is, Gilels does it the ultimate service of revealing it as a coherent work of art. In the finale, for instance, he reveals the music's extraordinary equilibrium as well as what Professor Mellers has called 'its astonishing diversity of contradictory attitudes'. The recording is perhaps a shade over-immediate, though it is very lucid; and CD gives us that movement-by-movement continuity which is so important a part of any proper appreciation of this extraordinary work. Richard Osborne
Operatic
Janáček Jenůfa
Elisabeth Söderström sop Lucia Popp sop Wiesław Ochman ten Vienna State Opera Chorus; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras (Decca)
Producer: James Mallinson; Assistant Producer: Michael Haas; Engineers: James Lock and Simon Eadon
The new Jenůfa richly deserves to be set beside its predecessors, maintaining as it does the high standards of performance from singers and conductor, of scholarly preparation of the musical text, of careful and attractive presentation of the album and its accompanying matter, and not least of the excellent recording itself.
Elisabeth Söderström is a Jenůfa of passion and tenderness, also of vulnerability: she sings Janáček’s soaring melodic lines with a marvellous sympathy for their expressive warmth, keeping them firm and filled with meaning. Eva Randová gives an unusually sensitive performance of the Kostelnička – unusual, that is, in claiming so much sympathy for a character who may excite warmth at the denouement but is usually presented as a tyrant. The inclusion of a normally omitted aria explaining her own unhappy past helps to justify this, as well as bringing to our ears some little-known music. Peter Dvorský sings a lively, attractive Števa, self-regarding and weak of nature.
Other 'new' music on the record is actually old – the original ending, seldom heard since the Kovařovic edition passed into currency. Decca handsomely include both, as well as the discarded Jealousy overture. Dr John Tyrrell, who has again prepared the score, contributes his usual excellent notes explaining all these matters. Once again, a splendid achievement all round. John Warrack
Solo Vocal
R Strauss Four Last Songs
Jessye Norman sop Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / Kurt Masur (Philips)
Producer: Bernd Runpe; Engineers: Kees Hekoop and Willem Van Leeuwen
Kirsten Flagstad gave the first performance of Strauss's Four Last Songs. Since her day, they have been adopted by sopranos with more lyrical, less full-blooded voices, notably Della Casa, Schwarzkopf and Popp on record. Now Jessye Norman has come along and shown that a voice of Flagstad proportions can give them an extra sweep and radiance unavailable to the others. Besides that, her breath seems almost limitless at times, helping her refulgent tone to fill the valedictory phrases in glorious fashion.
In any case these final offerings of the composer for his beloved soprano voice seem well matched to Miss Norman's generous heart and dignified manner of utterance. Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra provide suitably refined, translucent support for the singer. On the reverse they are equally attuned to the needs of some of the composer's other best-known songs, the creamy tone of the singer particularly apt to Cäcilie and Zueignung, while the dreamy mood of Wiegenlied is beautifully sustained. Alan Blyth
Engineering & Production
Bax Symphony No 4. Tintagel
Ulster Orchestra / Bryden Thomson (Chandos)
Producer: Brian Couzens; Engineers: Ralph Couzens and Bill Todd
Our quarterly 'Sounds in Retrospect' listening sessions again identified a good number of recordings this year which rated highly as examples of first-rate engineering and production. As usual, we were more interested in the broader aspects of acoustic balance, integration and fidelity to the musical sounds which we would expect to hear at an ideal live performance. Making a single choice was as difficult as ever, but the Chandos team secured a majority vote on account of the completely natural balance achieved, with no instruments sounding too close. Orchestral tone was impressively accurate and wide-ranging, while the dynamic markings in the opulently scored Symphony and the atmospheric Tintagel were reproduced to the best demonstration standards.
Also high on our list was the Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Dutoit recording of Falla's El sombrero de tres picos and El amor brujo which, in its CD version particularly, produced thrillingly dynamic sounds and a total absence of distortion. Other close contenders included the new Karajan version of Mahler's Symphony No 9 and the Jessye Norman recording of the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. John Borwick
