Berg: Violin Concerto, Seven Early Songs, Three Pieces for Orchestra
Gil Shaham (violin), Susanne Philips (soprano)
Michael Tilson Thomas / San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media)
(scroll down for English review)
MTT和三藩市交響樂團的全貝爾格專輯，樂曲排序似是從淺入深。這應該是沙涵的第二個貝爾格《小提琴協奏曲》錄音（軌一至二），我沒比較過舊錄音，在這個錄音，我覺得他每個音都「鍊」到好盡，雙音及和弦都拉得很滿，不過第一樂章這麼拉我就覺得他不是想拉出柔和夢幻之感，而是一開頭就要悲傷。而第二樂章他就將這種情緒帶到悲痛，樂章後段的聖詠我覺得都算超然優美，不過整個演奏而言，我寧願獨奏及樂隊都可以壓低一點，毋須用這麼重量的音質。
軌三至九的《七首早期作品》，女高音Susanne Philips選得不錯，因為我覺得此套歌曲毋須太注重文字，用飽滿的歌聲表達出旋律的逸樂就很足夠，樂隊也和剛才的《小提琴協奏曲》一樣，做到很緊貼的伴奏。
軌10至12的《三首管弦小品》是我最喜愛的貝爾格作品，此曲可謂貝爾格企圖超越馬勒，尤其是他《第六交響曲》的嘗試，不過它真的頗難奏，聽也不容易聽，因為細節很多很密，耳朵不知要跟哪一邊好。這個錄音，我覺得較多是錄音師混音混出來的，在現場聽，細節不會那麼清楚，不過純粹當是錄音欣賞，我覺得都可以這樣來實現作曲家心想的效果，即使和現場演奏未必相符。
第三樂章（軌12）是向馬勒六的終曲的致敬，也用了木槌。不管混音會否太假，MTT始終將個別細節奏得很準，也很放膽照樂譜的指示去轉速，而不怕樂隊會出軌，美中不足就是高潮不夠痛快，或者就是這種混音方法的後遺症。
This all-Berg album seemed to arrange the pieces in order of difficulty to the listener. This must have been Shaham’s second recording of the Berg concerto (tracks 1-2), I haven’t compared this with the old recording, though. His tone in the first movement attempted to squeeze the full emotional intensity out of each note. To me, Shaham seemed to play this movement as an elegy rather than as a nostalgic dream. Such elegiac quality was escalated to agony in the first part of the second movement, and Shaham’s playing of the chorale section was dreamy enough to my taste. But generally speaking I wished both soloist and orchestra deliver a lighter sound and texture.
Seven Early Songs (tracks 3-9) are very enjoyable with Susanne Phillips as soprano. I like it precisely because she simply gave a full sound in her singing, without worrying too much of the text. The orchestra, as it did in the Violin Concerto, followed her voice closely.
Three Pieces for Orchestra (tracks 10-12) is my favourite Berg work. In it Berg tried to follow Mahler’s footsteps. But this is a tough work for the orchestra, the conductor, but most importantly, for the listener. There are simply too many details for your ears to catch. I feel that this recording was constructed on the mixing console because the details wouldn’t be all so clear in concert. But a recording is a recording, I wouldn’t really oppose such approach to realize Berg’s ideal picture.
The third movement (track 12) is an hommage to the Finale of Mahler 6, and the wooden hammer also has a prominent role here. Regardless of the mixing, MTT did render all details carefully yet he was brave enough in his tempo choices and made daring gradual or sudden changes in tempi. But the climaxes didn’t sound crushing to me, perhaps that’s because of the fuzzy mixing.