Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
John Barbirolli / London Symphony (Warner)
(scroll down for English review)
巴比奧尼EMI錄音全集的一張，1969年的《英雄的一生》錄音，樂隊不是他的哈雷管弦樂團，而是倫敦交響樂團。速度稍慢，頗為悠閒，我甚至覺得太過悠閒。我覺得這個錄音，要是從軌七開始的最後的三分一才算很值得聽，那就是戰役過後、很多朋友覺得不夠刺激的最後三分一。
首先較為悠閒的速度令弦樂齊奏頗為飽滿，但我認為最有奇功的是軌七約兩分鐘開始，史特勞斯將他以前作品的旋律，層層疊大晒冷的這一段。在這個速度，以及這個清晣度，各個旋律聽得很清楚。
其餘大家較關心的段落，又未至於不好，氣勢雖是較弱，但由於巴比奧尼這個演奏的銅管及敲擊多數會吹得或奏得狠快準，可能有人會很喜歡。
From the box set of Barbirolli’s complete EMI recordings. This 1969 recording wasn’t done with his Hallé players but with the LSO. Tempi were on the slow side, but sometimes too relaxed for my taste. This performance is most enjoyable from track 7 on, that’s the last third of the work which many listeners prefer to skip when the battle is over.
The slightly slow tempi enabled the strings to deliver a full robust sound, but I think the real magic starts from 2:00 of track 7, when Strauss gave a retrospective of his past works, piling his melodies and themes on top of one another. At Barbirolli’s tempo they no longer sound like a mess.
I wouldn’t say that the other highlights were dully played but Barbirolli seemed to be making a consistent choice in having the brass and percussion give punchy and razor-sharp accents or smashes. I believe some would be glad to hear those.