The
relationship between Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra lasted
all of seven years (1995-2002), during which many discs were
made with the audiophile label Reference Recordings, several of
which were nominated for Grammy Awards. This is one of them, and
as far as this repertoire goes, it's a winner.
|
THE
MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA |
|
The
Minnesota Orchestra was founded in 1903 and has had a rich
and varied roster of musical directors, including the great
Dmitri Mitropoulos, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Eugene
Ormandy, just to name a few. |
First a few words
about the recording itself, for this is one of the most
splendidly recorded discs I have ever heard. I've heard many
good recordings, but this one really takes the cake. The
repertoire naturally lends itself to such display but the
recording engineer captures the orchestra's colours so richly
and vividly that I cannot imagine it bettered.
Great recording
quality does not a great performance make, however, and the
Minnesota Orchestra play magnificently under Eiji Oue,
idiomatically and without a weak link in any section at all.
Jorja Fleezanis plays the solo violin part in The Hero's
Companion with graceful ease and the music never sags or feels
overwrought the way it can sometimes. Oue is a master of
orchestral colour and put to rest any lingering doubts I have
about this work. For the record, I find Don Quixote more
interesting musically and less bombastic, and as a tone poem
more successful than Heldenleben. Strauss'
self-quotations in The Hero's Works of Peace are nicely
brought out and sound good enough that I wanted to hear more of
Eiji in this repertoire! The Minnesota Orchestra need make no
apologies for their playing; it matches up with the very best.
The Suite from Die Frau ohne Schatten, arranged by Erich
Leinsdorf, is not commonly encountered in the concert hall -
usually one finds Der Rosenkavalier Suite instead, in its
different arrangements. Die Frau ohne Schatten is a problematic
opera because of its subject matter and its convoluted plot, but
the music itself is the thing and there's enough music in this
to have Erich Leinsdorf decide to make a suite out of it stiched
together from the orchestral interludes that pepper the opera.
Listeners who enjoy the opera will find much to like here as
well, much of it is typical Strauss, sometimes in his dissonant
idiom but always with that underlying current of lyricism - it's
not the candied stuff of Der Rosenkavalier, but then again
anyone who thinks that Strauss starts with Also Sprach
Zarathustra and ends with Rosenkavalier definitely needs some
horizon broadening - and this suite will do just that. The music
is alternately soaring and beautiful and dark and evocative,
always with Strauss' inimitable mastery of orchestration that
Mahler so admired. Again the orchestra and Oue do themselves
proud.
Eiji Oue is now the musical director of the
Osaka Philharmonic and the Minnesotta is now with Osmo Vanska.
Let us hope that they continue in their separate paths to make
music as vibrantly as they do here!
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