Wladimir Jurowski, cond; David Christopher Ragusa (sop);1 Marisol Montalvo (sop);1 Hedwig Fassbender (mez);1 Michael Hendrick (ten);1 Anthony Michaels-Moore (bar);1 London PO & Ch * JUXTAPOSITIONS 3056808 (2 DVDs: 250:00) Live: London 9/18/2007

Two lavishly produced DVDs document brilliant performances by the London PO under the direction of their principal conductor, Vladimir Jurowski. Adroit camerawork vividly conveys the concert experience, taped last September in London’s Royal Festival Hall. An interesting 50-minute conversation between Jurowski and producer Stephen Wright rounds out the program. The second of the two DVDs is devoted to “conductor camera” shots, allowing the viewer to experience the concert as though sitting in the orchestra.

The Prelude and act III Finale from Parsifal provide a stellar showcase for the orchestra’s superb brass choir. Despite spaciously slow tempos, Jurowski never allows the forward momentum to flag. The formidable demands of Berg’s Three Pieces clearly pose no problems for the London PO, which turns in a polished and deeply affecting performance. Happily, the original 1880 version of Dos klagende Lied, including the opening “Waldmärchen” movement later deleted by Mahler, is presented here. I’ve always been partial to this score, despite the histrionics of Mahler’s libretto (forgivable from so precocious a 19-year-old), because all the fingerprints of the mature composer are so readily discernable. The performance is both passionate and beautifully proportioned. The London PO Choir is superb throughout. However, for my tastes, there is a rather large fly in the ointment, stemming not from any weakness of the musicians, but from Mahler’s inexperience at the time he wrote this epic cantata. The soloists are forced to sit silent for long stretches, and then deliver full-throated utterances, most of which are no more than a line or two of text. With long orchestral and choral interludes separating these critical junctures in the score, the soloists are forced to sing “cold,” and the inevitable wobbles as their vocal cords warm up are a sadly recurrent feature of this performance. Perhaps Das klagende Lied is an anomaly: a large-scale composition better experienced from a studio recording than live in a concert hall.

This reservation notwithstanding, these DVDs exhibit state-of-the-art production values and present compelling performances by a virtuoso ensemble and their gifted young conductor. Patrick Rucker

WAGNER Parsifal: Prelude; Act III Finale. BERG 3 Pieces. MAHLER Das klagende Lied1 & * Wladimir Jurowski, cond; David Christopher Ragusa (sop);1 Marisol Montalvo (sop);1 Hedwig Fassbender (mez);1 Michael Hendrick (ten);1 Anthony Michaels-Moore (bar);1 London PO & Ch * JUXTAPOSITIONS 3056808 (2 DVDs: 250:00) Live: London 9/18/2007

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1518447431.html

by Patrick Rucker

Modern Brewery Age