César Franck (1822-1890)
Symphony in D minor (1886-88)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Pélleas et Mélisande (1898)
Berliner Philharmoniker/Daniel Barenboim
rec. live, June 2023, Philharmonie, Berlin
Deutsche Grammophon 4866008 [65]
Around the time of his 80th birthday in November 2022 Daniel Barenboim announced that after a worrying medical diagnosis he was stepping back from engagements and commitments in Berlin and beyond to focus on his health. I know most readers would join with me in wishing him well in his journey to recovery and well-being.
That sense of support was definitely there at the Proms this season when he brought his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra back to play Brahms and Schubert. Depending on your age you are bound to have happy memories of Daniel Barenboim over the years he has been enriching our lives on record, in concert and in the opera house. I only saw him as a pianist once. So my highlights would have to be his trip to the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the opening week of 1996 (an unforgettable Tchaikovsky Fifth) and the Ring cycle he did at the Proms with his Berlin State Opera forces in 2013. On record, his discography is enormous and although not all of it will be indispensable, we will all have discs we would single out as keepers. Try it – there are more of them than you might think at first.
He led the Orchestre de Paris from 1975 until the late 1980s and then took over the helm in Chicago from Georg Solti. His legacy at Bayreuth is rich. Eleven (!) seasons of Tristan and five Rings (1988-92 inclusive, 3 cycles per season). He was latterly in charge at his beloved Berlin Staatsoper where he presided for 30 years.
DG proudly bring us this offering, a concert taping of the Franck Symphony with a lovely filler from June 2023. The concert was completed by Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder with Elīna Garanča (not recorded) in lovely Philharmonie sound.
As a Northerner discovering classical music in my younger years, I was drawn to the writings of Manchester man, Neville Cardus. I remember him drawing links between Franck and Bruckner in one of his books. They were near contemporaries; both were organists and very religious men. Both of them adored and were influenced by Wagner. There are conductors who get this link. Karajan is one in his memorable one-off 1969 EMI recording of Franck’s symphony with the Orchestre de Paris (Karajan one-offs are almost always good, by the way). I am not advocating this approach as the only-way, but it is valid and the work can take it.
Cardus was a wise old sage. He went on to state some differences between Franck and Bruckner. Franck’s Symphony has a touch of sentimentality which is rare in the Austrian’s music and then there’s sensuousness. You may hear this in Franck but never in Bruckner. The very idea would make him run a mile! Daniel Barenboim is a great Wagnerian and a Bruckner specialist to boot. The Bruckner cycle he made in Chicago is a sonic triumph, despite some personal reservations I have with some of his interpretations of tempo (you simply must hear the Chicago horns in Bruckner’s Fourth). I admire his Berlin performances even more, although I haven’t heard the later versions with the Staatskapelle on Accentus and Peral.
Barenboim was in his early 30s when he recorded the Franck Symphony with his Orchestre de Paris in 1976. Issued on DG and available during most of the CD era on their mid-price Galleria label, it is a worthy memento of the relationship between Barenboim and his Paris band of the time. At 80 his account with the Berliner Philharmoniker is a more stately, grander affair.
I am reminded of the wonderful and much missed Carlo Maria Giulini. He, too, made a recording of the Franck as a young man. This Philharmonia version, originally on the Columbia (EMI) label, is a favourite. He returned to it twice more, with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1986, aged 71, for DG and finally with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1993, aged 79, for Sony. These later renditions add little to the earlier version apart from languor. In the Musikverein, the Giulini/VPO movement timings of 22:00, 12:00 and 13:00 are remarkably similar to the Barenboim version now under review.
The Symphony dates from 1888 and caused quite a scene at its premiere. It uses a formula where themes, motifs and tempi are recycled throughout the work. The first movement begins darkly, even ominously, and Lento before moving into Allegro with the principal energetic theme. Franck repeats and then explores these ideas in the long exposition. The second idea is the famous “swinging theme” which soars. The sonority of the BPO is caught really well in rich recorded sound. Barenboim is in no hurry and we don’t arrive at the development proper until the 10-minute mark. When the opening theme returns it is heralded with fortissimo brass, ushering in a long recapitulation that is very thorough in working through all the material. There is a great coda, (Franck always did great codas) in this performance, beginning at 19:44.
The Allegretto combines slow movement and scherzo. Over plucked strings and harp, the famous melancholic cor anglais solo gets us underway. The melody is passed to other instruments. There follow two trios; the first beginning at 2:27 is beautifully shaped here. An anxious, jumpy string theme at 4:58 is developed and underpins the second trio section, which is characterised by a theme in winds with scurrying strings underneath (from 6:35). There is a warm glow to the sound in this movement, which I find to be the most successful of the three in this performance.
The Allegro finale begins with one of Franck’s best and most cherished themes. This is developed as we have come to expect by now, alongside earlier motifs from both previous movements, in an organised and comprehensive way. The coda is masterly.
In the final analysis of Barenboim’s account I have to conclude that although there are special moments of beauty and a lovely rich, warm sound picture, the performance is not going to be able to compete with the classics of the work’s discography. There are, it has to be said, moments where the pulse just dies (for example, in the first movement at 9:30) and though I can see that Barenboim’s spacious tempi is giving room for his wonderful players to phrase and express themselves, there are too many moments where you wish he had injected a little more momentum into the proceedings.
The disc is filled with Fauré’s incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande. This is a fantastic suite of 4 movements, compiled from the music Fauré wrote and conducted in London in 1898. It predates music from Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius on the play’s themes and I am glad to have it in this classy performance. The justly famous Sicilienne is delicious and the most perfect picture of the too-brief snatch of happiness shared by the blissful Pelléas and Mélisande. There is also La Fileuse depicting the scene where Mélisande sits at her spinning wheel (unused by Debussy in his operatic masterpiece) lushly phrased by the BPO principal oboe. With Elīna Garanča waiting side stage for the Wagner in this concert, I suppose we could have been treated to the Chanson de Mélisande too (Ozawa included it in his excellent DG recording) but I am grateful for what we have. It complements the Franck really well.
Thanks to DG for the opportunity to hear Barenboim in Berlin again. May we be doing so for many more seasons to come.
Philip Harrison
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