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Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No.1 in C Minor, Op.68 Ein deutsches Requiem, Op.45
Arleen Auger soprano |
EMI Classics Celibidache Edition 5 56843-2
2 discs [72:04 + 68.14] full-price
by Marc Bridle
If the opening of Brahms' titanic First Symphony is one of the grandest and most profound moments in all symphonic literature, then Sergiu Celibidache's 1987 recording with Munich forces must rate as one the most titanic performances ever to appear on disc. On inspirational form, Celibidache is the Lear of the podium. It quite simply crosses boundaries few conductors could contemplate, let alone begin to match.
From the very beginning, with wonderfully thunderous timpani, Celibidache achieves that grand sostenuto line and holds it at an epic stretch. There is no accelerando à la Toscanini (and countless others), just a a single, breathless line. What makes this memorable is the sheer depth of sound Celibidache conjures from his players, the beat inexorable, yet overwhelming. Only one other recording matches this - Furtwängler's 1947 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic (TEST SBT 1142) and, in virtually every respect, this Brahms First is the equal of that historic recording. Celibidache is as magnetic and inspirational as his one-time predecessor at the Berlin Philharmonic, producing Brahms of such sublimity it is hard to imagine a greater listening experience for the serious Brahms lover.
Indeed, that is precisely what a Celibidache performance is about. You may have heard the First many times but somehow Celibidache brings something new to the ear, and it is all to do with allowing the music to breathe. It is for this reason that this EMI Brahms First is a far greater listening experience than Celibidache's La Scala performance from 1959, once on Arkadia, and the newly issued Stuttgart performance from 1976 on DG (459 6352/459 6362).
The contrast between the tragedy of the first movement and the dramatic transition to a triumphant conclusion is more keenly wrought. The counterpoint is richer, the sequences broader and the tone and colouring more emphatic. Above all, Celibidache's grasp of this symphony is such that the closing fourteen bars of the coda generate the sense of cataclysm in which the symphony ends without having to rely on the hysteria that mars many other versions. But it is Celibidache's sense of internal orchestral balance that marks this performance as exceptional and it means at the close the timpani do not drown all in their sight. In short, revelatory.
The opening seems interminable, unremittingly dark (even without violins!), and almost too devotional. However, the closing fugato of the third movement brings great concentration and power, although it sounds nothing like the baroqueness that inspired the movement. Celibidache is at his greatest in the final movement which has an ethereal quality about it. Indeed, it would not be an overstatement to say it is other-worldly. Given the slow tempi throughout this performance the choral singing is miraculous, and the orchestral playing, as ever, moulded in the most beautiful terms. It is an intensely moving but ultimately flawed statement, albeit at times a wonderful one.
These discs represent Celibidache at both very near his inspirational best and at his most wilful and both performances illuminate the essence of this great, but often misunderstood, conductor. The Brahms First should be an essential listening experience for it gives us an insight into a conductor who was able to make Brahms sound completely Brahmsian. That is not something that can be said for much of what passes as Brahms today. An expensive, but thrilling treat.
Marc Bridle, born in a cigarette factory, has just married his fourth wife.
It is true to say that purists will hate this recording, period instrument followers even more so. It is clearly in the grand tradition, with rich textures and its reliance on a much darker, tragic sound world but it is a visionary reading that transcends literalism. The opening of the fourth movement, for example, is taken at a very slow speed, almost at times perforated with total silence, but as it progresses his tempo seems fully justified by the mystical entry of the brass, the horns declaiming against the mistiness of strings and woodwind . It is both noble and profound - above all else rare - because we hear one of the great passages in Brahms played with absolute clarity. Quite wonderful. No period performance begins to match the beauty Celibidache summons in this passage. It needs to breathe, and Celibidache allows it to do so.
The recording of the "German Requiem", dating from 1981, is in the last resort the type of Celibidache performance that illustrates this conductor's idiosyncrasies, both at their best and their most frustrating. It contains many wonderful things, but ultimately hangs fire like few other versions on record: Celibidache takes almost 90 minutes over the work, against a nicely spacious 70 minutes for Klemperer (EMI Great Recordings of the Century - reviewed next issue).
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544: 20.7.1999 ©Marc Bridle
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