Profil Presents Sinopoli as Conductor and Composer

courtesy of Naxos of America

About two weeks ago Profil released its latest anthology, a set of five CDs collected under the title Giuseppe Sinopoli & Staatskapelle Dresden. Note that, unlike the last Profil anthology discussed on this site, the word “conductor” is not included in the title, even though the cover photograph (see above) shows Sinopoli wielding his baton. The reason is that two of the tracks in this collection were recorded after Sinopoli’s death, providing examples of his efforts as a composer. Sinopoli died on April 20, 2001; and the earlier of these two recordings was made shortly thereafter, on October 6, 2001. Peter Ruzicka conducts the Dresden ensemble in a performance of a symphonic fragment that Sinopoli extracted from his opera Lou Salomé, which is probably his most famous composition. The other track has Sylvain Cambreling conducting with cello soloist Peter Bruns playing the third in a series of compositions entitled “Tombeau d’Armor.” This recording was made from concert performances on March 5 and 6, 2004.

The CD with these two tracks also includes one of Sinopoli conducting his own music. “Hommage à Costanzo Porta” amounts to a deconstruction of polyphonic motets by the sixteenth-century Italian composer of that name. Sinopoli’s “commercial” recordings suggest that he was particularly interested in the music of Webern during his tenure in Dresden. His approach to Porta suggests familiarity with the similar approach that Webern took with the six-voice polyphony included in Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1079, The Musical Offering. Sinopoli’s piece is much shorter, but it takes more adventurous departures from its source material.

When it comes to Sinopoli’s achievements as a conductor, I have to confess that my experiences have been relatively limited. My “first contact” came from his recording with the Czech Philharmonic of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 45 Ein deutsches Requiem, which was included in Deutsche Grammophon’s “complete edition” vinyls of Brahms’ music. Ironically, when that collection was reissued on CD, the Sinopoli recording was replaced by one of Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, perhaps in response to bad feelings that grew out of critics, such as Norman Lebrecht, writing at great length about their discontent with Sinopoli leading the Philharmonia Orchestra.

For my part, on the other hand, I have found it difficult to take seriously anything I have read that Lebrecht has written. I have the Deutsche Grammophon box of all of the Mahler recordings that Sinopoli made with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and I have never been discontented with any of them. As a result, I was particularly interested in comparing his recording of Mahler’s ninth symphony made at the end of his career with the Philharmonia in 1994 with the one he made in Dresden in 1997. My bottom line: The Philharmonia recording is much better engineered, but the recording on Profil seems to have been made during a single concert performance. I would not want to pass on either of them.

In terms of quantity, Mahler definitely dominates the Profil collection. In addition to the ninth there is a 1999 recording of the fourth with soprano Juliane Banse. Those that can manage with German will probably also appreciate a little over fifteen minutes of commentary from Sinopoli included on the same CD as the symphony itself. The only other composer to have two pieces recorded is Richard Strauss with both the Opus 24 “Death and Transfiguration” and the Opus 40 “Ein Heldenleben” (a hero’s life) tone poems. Both of these seem to have been recorded at the same concert, which took place on January 10 and 11, 2001. Personally, I am not sure that I could have taken that much Strauss on a single concert program; but I am happy to report that Sinopoli knew how to play up the music in Opus 40 without giving in to all of the composer’s personal preening!

There is also a concert recording from September 22, 1998 that couples two overtures, Carl Maria von Weber’s for Oberon and Richard Wagner’s for Rienzi. For those that like dramatic intensity, these two make for a good pair. Personally, I wish the CD had pressed them back-to-back rather than inserting Heldenleben between them. One would have better sense of Weber having been part of Wagner’s “roots” when he was just beginning to venture into serious opera.

The remaining selection in the collection is Robert Schumann’s Opus 120 (fourth) symphony in D minor. I have lost track of the number of recordings I have of this symphony. This Sinopoli recording is unlikely to drag me away from my preference for Sergiu Celibidache, but those not as familiar with this symphony may benefit from Sinopoli’s approach to the score.

My only real discontent is that Profil was not able to provide a wider account of Sinopoli’s work in Dresden. However, that just means that I am all the more depressed that he succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 54. This is a case in which we have to take what we can get; and, not withstanding Lebrecht’s ongoing campaign (at least I think it is ongoing), there is much to value in this final stage of Sinopoli’s recorded legacy.