Schoenberg: Transfigured Night, Chamber Symphonies
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG)
(scroll down for English review)
奧菲斯室樂團的DG錄音中有張這張荀伯格專輯，《昇華之夜》是只聽有調音樂的朋友都會接受的名曲，《第一室樂交響曲》是現代音樂經典，《第二室樂交響曲》又經常配搭上一首，不過一碟落齊這三首樂曲又真的少見，也令我有藉口重溫兩首室樂交響曲。
先談《昇華之夜》（軌一至五），這裏演奏的當然是弦樂團版而不是弦樂六重奏版，不過奧菲斯室樂團的演奏人數，聽來不超過三十人，聲響的定位是大型樂團和室樂之間，頭半我覺得這個大小，較諸大型樂團演奏時，更多一分室樂的彈性及透明，不過去到後半就顯得太單薄，做出的高潮太弱。不只是音量及厚度，而是做不到一種宏大的姿態。
《第一室樂交響曲》（軌六至十）是寫給15支樂器的作品，雖仍是「後浪漫派」的荀伯格，但已見到要掙脫傳統的端倪。表面上這首樂曲應該很適合奧菲斯室樂團，但其實此曲真的需要指揮，並不是由他去建構詮釋，大家聽他發施號令，而是一個讓15位儼然獨奏的樂手，不用思前想後放膽演奏，居中作微調的協調者。這個演奏我就覺得太過謹慎，太過互相聆聽而缺乏動力及激情。
荀伯格寫完《第一室樂交響曲》便立即寫第二首，但要隔了三十幾年才寫得完《第二室樂交響曲》（軌11至12），當時他不單流亡美國，也已經用了十二音技法十多年子，不過此曲卻沒有大改他動筆時的風格，所以是他後期作品少有的有調音樂。
雖然都是叫室樂交響曲，但其實編制上有基本性分別，《第一》是用人數多的室樂陣容模擬交響曲，《第二》卻更接近一首「室樂團」交響曲，少一點人的交響樂團而已。本來是全碟中最適合奧菲斯室樂團的一首，不過作品質素實太遜色，第一樂章還好，有一點浪漫派旋律，第二樂團就好像卡在有調及無調之間。
The DG mega box set of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra contained this all-Schoenberg album. Transfigured Night or Chamber Symphony No.1 are hardly hardcore stuff, but a combination of them with Chamber Symphony No.2 is hard to find.
The string orchestra version of Transfigured Night (tracks 1-5) was used here. But from what I heard, there wouldn’t be more than 30 strings on this reading, so the sound was built on somewhere between chamber music and a full string section. In the first half such an ensemble had the advantage of chamber music-like transparence, but the second half was obviously underpowered. Not just the decibels or volume were lacking but the gesture of grandness as well.
You might think Chamber Symphony No.1 (tracks 6-10) is an ideal work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, but I think this work really can’t do without a conductor. This conductor isn’t really a “you play as I conduct” commander but a facilitator to balance and full tune everything while the musicians are playing their hearts out. This performance was too cautious to me, without enough momentum and passion.
Chamber Symphony No.2 (tracks 11-12) was started right after No.1 but Schoenberg only managed to finish it some 30 years later, as an exile in America and the grand inventor of the 12-tone system. Yet Schoenberg didn’t tamper with the style so this became the odd tonal work in his dodecaphonic period.
But instrumentally No.2 was quite different No.1. The former work was scored for 15 (rather) solo-ish instruments, but the latter work sounded more like a “chamber orchestra” work, something for a smaller orchestra. This is the most adequate work for the Orpheus players of the whole album but sadly the work is a lesser one. The first movement still contained a romantic melody to savour but the second movement was embarrassingly neither tonal nor atonal.