Classical Keeping Score

MAHLER IN MEMORIAM: German conductor Klaus Tennstedt passed away in January at age 71, his prime having been undercut by a decade of recurring illness. Nonetheless, his considerable achievements‹leading such ensembles as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the North German Radio Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Kiel Opera, as well as making a string of inspired records for EMI Classics‹were celebrated by Gramophone magazine in 1994 with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Among his recordings, Tennstedt essayed Wagner orchestral excerpts with distinction, and his disc of Brahms' Violin Concerto with Kennedy was justifiably popular. But his true legacy stands with his Mahler cycle with the London Philharmonic, which EMI just reissued as a limited-edition, budget-priced 12-disc boxed set.
Titled "The Memorial Edition," the set includes Mahler's nine symphonies and the adagio from the unfinished Tenth, as well as "Das Lied Von Der Erde" (all recorded from 1978-87). It would have been nice if EMI had invested in fresh remasterings or at least a retrospective booklet on Tennstedt's career and relationship to Mahler's music; the discs appear as compiled in '92, with no biographical notes‹only a new maroon box to collect them as a set. Still, it is a wonderful collection musically, full of the intensely humanistic interpretation that earned Tennstedt his admirers. In fact, there are few better ways for music lovers to avail themselves of Mahler than with this affordable edition. Tennstedt's readings may not be as precise as Boulez's or as majestic as Bernstein's, yet they mediate between those two poles with uncommon lan.
For instance, Tennstedt's finale of Symphony No. 1 is terrifying and beautiful by turns, balancing the juxtapositions of grotesque irony and gut-wrenching earnestness with a depth and immediacy surpassing the likes of, say, Chailly on the contemporary side and Walter on the classic end. Likewise, Tennstedt thrills in the opening pages of Symphonies No. 2 and No. 6 as few have, and his sensitivity in the adagietto of the Fifth and "The Farewell" of "Das Lied Von Der Erde" maximizes the sentiment while minimizing sentimentality. His Gramophone Award-winning Symphony No. 8 is distinguished by its rapt finale, which was suitably included as one of EMI's golden moments in the label's lavish centennial boxed set. In Gramophone's obituary for Tennstedt, EMI senior VP of A&R Peter Alward offered a testimony to the conductor's talent that serves as a fitting epigraph for the Mahler edition; he described Tennstedt as an artist of "blatant honesty . . . a natural channel from composer to audience."
IN A DIFFERENT SORT OF HOMAGE, the ambitious new Winter & Winter label is offering pianist Uri Caine's offbeat take on Mahler, which features a cast of New York avant-jazzers emphasizing the composer's sense of irony and affection for folk forms, as well as his Jewish heritage. Titled "Urlicht (Primal Light)," the disc has more in common with New York's edgy Knitting Factory scene than any classical school, although its estimable musicianship and irreverent freshness helped it earn best new Mahler album honors last year from the International Mahler Society.
Hardcore Mahler buffs may bristle at some of Caine's arrangements on "Urlicht": The recasting of one of the "Kindertotenlieder" as a bossa nova is definitely wacky, and some may not cotton to a cantor intoning "The Farewell" from "Das Lied Von Der Erde." But the rough-and-tumble jazz band setting of the opening of Symphony No. 5 and "Der Tambourg'sell" from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" is inspired (with Dave Douglas on trumpet and Joey Baron on drums), as is the klezmer reworking of the "Bruder Martin" motif of Symphony No. 1 and "Urlicht" episode of Symphony No. 2 (with Mark Feldman on violin). And clarinetist extraordinaire Don Byron, DJ Olive, and Caine himself shine on a gorgeous treatment of the adagietto from Symphony No. 5 that you would have to be pretty hard-hearted (and hard-headed) to not fall for‹whether you're a classical listener or a jazz fan.
The 40-year-old Caine first started listening to Mahler as a teenager in Philadelphia and later studied his works with composer George Rochberg by day (while sitting in with jazz cats by dark). His Mahler arrangements debuted in '94 as live accompaniment to a silent documentary of the composer's life. Caine's goal was to reflect the "kaleidoscopic quality of Mahler's music, the feeling that he's having this identity crisis right before your eyes," he says. "I wanted to stress the contrasts of complexity and simplicity, the feelings of loss and feelings of wildness, the high art and the street music." While admitting that his treatments are "experiments that may not all work," Caine says the health of the art demands continual "push and pull. And this is certainly in the spirit of Mahler‹he never stuck by conventions."
Packaged in a striking recycled-paperboard case typical of Winter & Winter productions, "Urlicht" was issued in Europe last spring (selling more than 30,000 copies, according to the label) and comes out June 9 in North America via Allegro Corp. Two volumes of "Voches De Sardinna" and a disc of Bach cello suites by Paolo Beschi are also due in June, along with jazz sage Paul Motian's gorgeous "Sound Of Love" featuring guitarist Bill Frisell and saxist Joe Lovano. Future releases include a set of Schubert piano trios, Caine's "Wagner & Venice," and his straight-ahead jazz disc "Blue Wail." Caine plays Mahler at the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Knitting Factory in June before touring the arrangements through Germany and Italy this summer and the U.K. this fall.