Sony Classical continue to ring the changes on their backlist of CBS Schoenberg recordings. Less than three years after issuing a nine-disc, mid-price Boulez retrospective (12/93), they have come up with a new four-disc compilation which has three main sources, in performances by Boulez, Glenn Gould and the Juilliard Quartet. Each disc has a title – “The early tonal years”, “The expressionist years”, “Dodecaphony” and “Schoenberg in America”. The rationale, and the educational potential, are clear and, to the extent that each disc breaks the 70-minute barrier, value for money is guaranteed. There is one principal drawback – the total absence of texts and translations, even for the composer’s brief commentary (in German) on Op. 31. One might also query the decision to include only part of two major works, Pierrot lunaire and Moses und Aron, though on balance it is probably better that these masterworks are represented this way than not at all.
The performances as such are a mixed bag. Boulez is at his best in the vocal works, especially Die gluckliche Hand and the marvellous late psalm setting that ends the fourth disc, as well as in Jessye Norman’s spellbinding account of the Lied der Waldtaube. The conductor is at his most detached in the Variations for Orchestra (his full-price performance from Chicago for Erato is more convincing), and by including the first part of his notorious interpretation of Pierrot, in which song completely ousts speech, Sony risk giving an entirely misleading impression of what the composer’s intentions were.
It’s not clear why the Marlboro Festival Orchestra’s recording of Op. 9 is included, rather than Boulez’s 1980 version with the Ensemble InterContemporain. As it happens, however, this is a more than adequate substitute, with an infectious liveliness and sense of character than never degenerates into a scramble, even during the most hectic passages. Since Boulez has never recorded Schoenberg’s well-nigh neo-classical Piano Concerto, Sony turn to the performance by Ax, Salonen and the Philharmonia: not a front-runner, for reasons DJF spelt out in his original review, but characterful and acceptable in this context. Sony were probably wise not to opt for Glenn Gould’s reading of the piece (4/95), fascinating though that is, and the solo performances of Gould which they do include are characteristically variable. Op. 25 is the highlight, while the version of the late Phantasy (Menuhin in Schoenberg!) sounds curiously tentative, and is thinly recorded.
The Juilliard Quartet have never been quite as persuasive in Schoenberg as in other twentieth-century composers, and I still feel that Verklarte Nacht, the Second Quartet and the String Trio are all too insistently tense, with the ensemble’s predominantly tight vibrato magnified in a dry acoustic. As a result, Schoenberg’s expressionism is insufficiently tempered by his no-less-powerful romanticism. These performances are far from unacceptable, however, and help to confirm the general impression that these discs (at medium price) deserve to succeed – even though that fatal absence of texts for the vocal works will surely deter many potential purchasers.
This is where Decca score, since their new double-disc album has all the words for both Op. 8 and Erwartung. As with the Sony Classical compilation, one can say that these performances merit medium-price reissue, though all but one have long since been superseded by rival full-price versions. Mehta’s forthright way with the three orchestral scores still holds the attention, though the sound is often raw and overbright. In Op. 16 Dohnanyi goes to the other extreme, with an interpretation that is too cool and clinical, though with better sound. By contrast, Erwartung is certainly not clinical, and Silja characterizes the vocal line with unsparing intensity. It is not, to put it mildly, a beautiful sound, but this account lingers in the mind long after more polished readings have been forgotten. As for the marvellous Op. 8 songs – not otherwise available at the moment – one could wish for more vocal refinement, but the orchestral playing is superbly burnished and the sound suitably full-blooded.'