Did anyone turn up
to this concert? So well behaved is
the audience, with no consumptives or
even applause, that the ‘live’ label
might well have been left off – more
importantly, the Manchester Camerata
are so disciplined and fluff-free that,
even only a few years ago, one might
have suspected studio trickery. Musicians
these days are used to performing under
the white-hot spotlighting of microphones
which are connected to digital recorders
which will pick up someone scratching
their nose let alone a bum note. Even
allowing for post-performance patching,
of which I hear no evidence; I would
like to congratulate all concerned with
such a fine production.
So, are we in the mood
for more Mozart? At budget price (£6.25)
we most certainly are, even when many
of this CD’s rivals easily manage to
cater for an extra symphony on the one
disc. The Manchester Camerata play on
modern instruments, but Douglas Boyd’s
approach incorporates period performance
practice, so expect a clean sound unencumbered
with too much vibrato in strings or
wind. K550 is so sparingly orchestrated
that transparency is built-in, and the
booklet notes mention Elgar’s comments:
"a pitiful array of instruments,
we may wonder how it is possible that
a great art-work could be evolved from
such sorry material." The orchestra
is true to its chamber character and,
while playing within itself, nonetheless
projects the almost Beethovenian nature
of the final Allegro assai movement.
Boyd’s tempi are brisk without being
overly hasty. Trawling through as many
timings as I could find he seems to
come in under the wire fairly consistently.
Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert
in the more resonant Henry Wood Hall
(DG Archiv) sound heavier even on period
instruments, but with greater numbers
in the strings and lower tuning Pinnock’s
is in any case a grander and more sumptuously
symphonic recording.
I find the compact
nature of the playing and sound in this
recording entirely satisfying on its
own terms. The Bridgewater Hall has
a resonance which somehow manages to
keep out of the way for the most part,
allowing for graceful dynamic decrescendi
without muddying the dramatic tuttis.
This is immediately apparent with the
opening calls of K551, but I agree less
with Boyd’s slight delay each time the
softer ‘answer’ appears – I prefer it
when these grow out of the dying echoes
of the opening tympani, rather than
waiting for them to stop. The first
movement takes a while to take off as
a result of this, but the warmly expressive
playing of the orchestra soon won me
over. The muted violins of the second
Andante cantabile movement are
pleasantly hazed, without sounding at
all woolly, and another strong aspect
of this recording is emphasised: the
clarity and balance of the inner voicing
is exemplary throughout. The Menuetto
is the only moment in this whole
CD where I felt that just a fraction
more speed might have been in order.
Boyd is in no way slow – he comes in
a good deal shorter than Pinnock – it’s
the speed relative to the other movements
which makes this one seem only ever
so slightly pedestrian. Boyd’s rubati
during the trio will also provide cause
for discussion in some circles – little
inflections of flexibility which will
seem either intuitively natural or mannered
and wilful, depending on your point
of view. For me, life is too short for
arguing about such things and I enjoy
these little differences in interpretation
– after all, if everyone played everything
exactly the same the world would stop
spinning on its axis, wouldn’t it?
The Jupiter
closes with an impressive Molto allegro,
and everyone lays into this with gusto
– a big affirmative ‘yes!’ This is Mozart’s
orchestral equivalent of an operatic
finale, where characters and themes
all join and sing together, raising
the roof in a musical free-for-all underpinned
by absolute compositional control. Douglas
Boyd is also in complete and absolute
control at all times, and it’s as if
the opera orchestra has risen from the
pit, elbowed the singers from the stage
and taken over the theatre on a joyous,
bloodless coup d’état.
To conclude, I would
say that the main competitor to this
CD is the same coupling with the Prague
Chamber Orchestra under Sir Charles
Mackerras on Telarc, now available at
mid-price. This came out in 1986, and
was perceived as swift at the time.
Twenty years on and we’ve become used
to intense, brisk tempi which have left
Karl Böhm and the like well behind
in the race, although I still hold an
affection for Krips and the Concertgebouw
on 1970s Philips. If you know and love
the Mackerras recording I might dare
suggest you stick, but if you are looking
for a top notch, modern instrument chamber
orchestra performance of two of the
greatest classical symphonies ever written
then I would say your money will be
very well spent with this issue.
Dominy Clements
see also
BEETHOVEN
Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 Douglas
Boyd Manchester Camerata AV 0040 £6.25
post-free World-Wide
MAHLER
Symphony 4 arranged for chamber
orchestra by Erwin Stein Manchester
Camerata Douglas Boyd Kate Royal AV
2069 £6.25 post-free World-Wide
for
details
Manchester Camerata/Douglas Boyd 
