Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica - After Mozart (2001)

I've been reading, lately, that postmodernism is dead, but CDs such as this one show that its burial is a little premature. It's a compilation of two night-themed serenades by Mozart, a "toy symphony" by his father, and three Mozart-inspired works by composers from the former Soviet Union. Gidon Kremer calls it an attempt "to set Mozart in the frame of our own time." From Peter Sellars's productions of the Da Ponte operas to Bobby McFerrin's and Chick Corea's interpretations of two piano concertos, Kremer is hardly sailing unknown seas. What makes this CD worth hearing, however, are the works by Alexander Raskatov (a first recording) and Valentin Silvestrov.

Raskatov, born in 1953, purports to give us a snapshot of five minutes from Mozart's life. Scored for violin, strings, and percussion (here, played by Andréy Pushkarev), Raskatov's work is almost unbearably innocent; nothing so naïve could be anything but knowing. The nectar is sweet – cloying, really – and the listener is tempted to perch on the edge of this little musical pitcher plant, only to fall inside and be digested. The more carefully one listens, the more one is disturbed by these five minutes (5:11, really). The "problem" is that no one living in a civilized nation in the year 2001 can identify with the legendary purity of Mozart's music, and when it is served to the listener on a silver platter; the shock is no less hard for being so subtle.

Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) had a minor "hit" a few years back with his Symphony #5, a work of frighteningly post-nuclear uneventfulness and quiétude. The Messenger - an allusion, I suppose to the ghostly figure of legend who delivered the commission for Mozart's Requiem - is hardly less lost in the Elysian Fields. It was written in memory of the composer's wife, Larysa Bondarenko. Blown in by the sound of synthesized wind, this is half-heard music; we are cautioned not to pump up the volume. As if from another room, we hear strings and piano work haltingly, inconclusively through a Mozartean text. The music, lost in a dream, seldom goes quite where we think it will. Bondarenko, now clothed in a gown from the eighteenth-century, gestures at her husband like Euridice in a powdered wig.

The Schnittke work ("Mozart fragments… put through the compositional equivalent of a food processor," in annotator Bob Gilmore's words) is familiar enough to need little comment here. At the end, the audible footsteps of the departing musicians are a nice touch. Suffice it to say that Kremer and fellow violinist Eva Bindere make it into a provocative experience, but not a deep one. The two Mozart serenades are played enthusiastically, with no attempt made to replicate period style. The idea of interpolating jazz and other modern-style cadenzas into the last movement of the Serenata notturna is an eyebrow-raiser; I can't vouch for more than that. In father Mozart's Kinder-Symphonie, the toys have been modernized: the cuckoo and the little drum have given way to the microchip. I admit to finding the idea and its execution cute – I think of Mozart in Tokyo's Ginza district - but possibly only because the musical value of the Kinder-Symphonie is so slight to begin with.

Try this for the Raskatov and Silvestrov works and you'll probably stick around for the rest.

Review by Raymond Tuttle, Classical.Net

This is yet another enterprising attempt from Gidon Kremer to bridge the gap between old and new, and in the process give the listener a thoroughly stimulating experience. He did a similar thing with his recording of Piazzola’s Four Seasons re-working; in this case, he juxtaposes ‘real’ Mozart (father and son) with contemporary pieces either inspired by, or written as a response to, the world of Mozart.

To deal with the ‘authentic’ Mozart first, it is good to report refreshing, vigorous readings of some very familiar music. Kremer and his colleagues use modern instruments, with vibrato included, but adopt a fresh, pointed rhythmic response to the phrasing, so that everything emerges with clarity and vitality. He is not afraid to ‘century-hop’ in this music either, interjecting what he calls ‘polystylistic cadenzas which suggest the influence of time-travelling jazz musicians with a knowledge of Shostakovich and Berg’. This is most evident in the finale of the Serenata Notturna, and points to his association with Schnittke, whose wacky cadenza to the Beethoven Violin Concerto Kremer recorded some years ago. In Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, everything is played more or less straight, though Kremer enjoys inserting solo lines and improvisatory embellishments here and there, giving the piece a kinship with the concerto grosso form of Mozart’s predecessors. Both works get a thorough ‘dusting down’ that is very welcome, and I can’t imagine even purists complaining, as it’s all done with a conviction and playfulness worthy of Mozart himself.

The band obviously have a riotous time in Mozart senior’s Kinder-Symphonie (sometimes wrongly known as the Toy Symphony) where the use of realistic or imitative devices was often sanctioned. In this case, we have pagers and mobile phone interjections (I guarantee you’ll be reaching for your pocket!) giving the piece the required contemporary slant, whilst remaining completely authentic. ‘It is’ says Kremer, ‘as if we’d invited Mozart and his father into the studio to fool around with us’. All very enjoyable.

The contemporary items are no less revealing, and all seem to inhabit a sort of dream world, where snippets of Mozart are put through a 20th century ‘lens’. Alexander Raskatov’s 5 min. aus dem Leben von W.A.M (here receiving its first recording) takes several characteristics of Mozart’s style (charm, innocence, naïveté), and explores them in a new light, adding the odd soft tone-cluster, mixing percussion with the strings, repeating a short cadential sequence with various combinations of instrumental colour. It makes for a short but thought-provoking musical memory of a past age.

Silvestrov’s The Messenger inhabits an even more dream-like aural landscape, which is not surprising, as it was written shortly after the death of the composer’s wife. This is a haunting piece, originally for piano solo but reworked for strings, piano and a synthesized background of ‘wind’, a desolate breeze that comes to us from a great distance. The Mozart fragments then come and go, strange chord progressions do not resolve, melodies appear and fade away. The composer seems to be trying to reconcile past and present, beauty and a deep sense of loss and regret, and he himself tells us ‘it is as if a visitor from some other dimension of time had come to us with a message’. Kremer sees it as ‘a miserere, of the kind Mozart might have composed were he alive today’.

Schnittke’s typically provocative Moz-Art à la Haydn has been recorded by Kremer before, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The piece was sparked by Schnittke’s fascination with a Mozart fragment of 1783, which he took as a starting point before putting it through what the booklet writer calls ‘the compositional equivalent of a food processor’. The result is an inventive collage of sounds, melodies, quotations, all piled on top of one another and blended together. It was presented at the Berlin festival of 1988 as a ‘play with music’, the piece accompanying a masked performance in the style of an Italian carnival. It ends (or rather collapses) with the musicians leaving the stage one by one, still playing, in the manner of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, while the conductor directs an invisible orchestra and only the bass player remains.

The whole disc is an absorbing experience, a witty and imaginative attempt to set Mozart ‘in the frame of our own time’, as Kremer aptly puts it. The punningly titled Kremerata Baltica have always enjoyed working with new music, and their expertise is obvious in every item. It is good to hear them play the ‘straight’ stuff so winningly too, and I would recommend their Eine Kleine to anyone who feels they are bored with its familiarity. The recording is in the demonstration bracket, and there are very illuminating notes from Bob Gilmore. Another excellent and rewarding Nonesuch issue.

Review by Tony Haywood, MusicWeb-International.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

Отчёт EAC об извлечении, выполненном 27. июля 2013, 10:25

Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer / After Mozart

Дисковод: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT33N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Режим чтения : Достоверность
Использование точного потока : Да
Отключение кэша аудио : Да
Использование указателей C2 : Нет

Коррекция смещения при чтении : 103
Способность читать области Lead-in и Lead-out : Нет
Заполнение пропущенных сэмплов тишиной : Да
Удаление блоков с тишиной в начале и конце : Нет
При вычислениях CRC использовались нулевые сэмплы : Да
Интерфейс : Встроенный Win32-интерфейс для Win NT/2000

Выходной формат : Пользовательский кодировщик
Выбранный битрейт : 1024 kBit/s
Качество : Высокий
Добавление ID3-тега : Да
Утилита сжатия : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Дополнительные параметры : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%


TOC извлечённого CD

Трек | Старт | Длительность | Начальный сектор | Конечный сектор
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:19.10 | 0 | 23934
2 | 5:19.10 | 4:13.00 | 23935 | 42909
3 | 9:32.10 | 3:47.55 | 42910 | 59989
4 | 13:19.65 | 6:56.17 | 59990 | 91206
5 | 20:16.07 | 9:41.25 | 91207 | 134806
6 | 29:57.32 | 5:57.08 | 134807 | 161589
7 | 35:54.40 | 5:16.17 | 161590 | 185306
8 | 41:10.57 | 2:10.63 | 185307 | 195119
9 | 43:21.45 | 4:03.30 | 195120 | 213374
10 | 47:25.00 | 11:46.62 | 213375 | 266386
11 | 59:11.62 | 3:04.65 | 266387 | 280251
12 | 62:16.52 | 2:40.53 | 280252 | 292304
13 | 64:57.30 | 1:28.22 | 292305 | 298926


Характеристики диапазона извлечения и сообщения об ошибках

Выбранный диапазон

Имя файла O:\!Rips\Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer - After Mozart.wav

Пиковый уровень 99.7 %
Скорость извлечения 2.2 X
Качество диапазона 100.0 %
CRC теста ED401974
CRC копии ED401974
Копирование… OK

Ошибок не произошло


AccurateRip: сводка

Трек 1 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [9909FA58] (AR v2)
Трек 2 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [69FAA643] (AR v2)
Трек 3 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [C32C4E88] (AR v2)
Трек 4 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [B49B9EC4] (AR v2)
Трек 5 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [992252CC] (AR v2)
Трек 6 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [E73313FB] (AR v2)
Трек 7 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [182C48DC] (AR v2)
Трек 8 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [914458DB] (AR v2)
Трек 9 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [AB408C8A] (AR v2)
Трек 10 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [B6C8829E] (AR v2)
Трек 11 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [17AD5480] (AR v2)
Трек 12 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [55CADBFD] (AR v2)
Трек 13 : извлечено точно (доверие 3) [46598FDC] (AR v2)

Все треки извлечены точно

Конец отчёта

==== Контрольная сумма отчёта 291D83C29C937FBA8F6D41C96ABB97CDF35999C6F7C07B21F04F51CE45C3C199 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-12-19 20:48:44

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Alexander Raskatov / After Mozart (1)
Alfred Schnittke / After Mozart (2)
Leopold Mozart / After Mozart (3-5)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR18 -0.97 dB -26.83 dB 5:19 01-5 min. aus dem Leben von W.A.M. (1999)
DR16 -0.10 dB -22.78 dB 11:47 10-Moz-Art a la Haydn (1977)
DR14 -0.02 dB -18.19 dB 3:05 11-Kinder-Symphonie ('Berchtolsgadener'), I. Allegro
DR15 -0.47 dB -21.65 dB 2:41 12-Kinder-Symphonie ('Berchtolsgadener'), II. Menuetto - Trio
DR12 -0.03 dB -15.67 dB 1:28 13-Kinder-Symphonie ('Berchtolsgadener'), III. Finale - Allegro
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 5
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 556 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Statistics for: 05-The Messenger (1996)
Number of samples: 25636800
Duration: 9:41
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Left Right

Peak Value: -22.55 dB –- -24.58 dB
Avg RMS: -42.81 dB –- -43.58 dB
DR channel: 14.76 dB –- 14.35 dB
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Official DR Value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 556 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / After Mozart
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -0.05 dB -19.81 dB 4:13 02-Serenata Notturna, D Major, K. 239 (1776), I. Marcia - Maestoso
DR16 -1.10 dB -21.88 dB 3:48 03-Serenata Notturna, D Major, K. 239 (1776), II. Menuetto - Trio
DR16 -0.15 dB -23.42 dB 6:56 04-Serenata Notturna, D Major, K. 239 (1776), III. Rondeau - Allegretto
DR14 -0.31 dB -19.51 dB 5:57 06-Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, G Major, K. 525 (1787), I. Allegro
DR17 -0.10 dB -23.86 dB 5:16 07-Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, G Major, K. 525 (1787), II. Romanza - Andante
DR14 -3.57 dB -23.09 dB 2:11 08-Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, G Major, K. 525 (1787), III. Menuetto - Trio
DR14 -1.34 dB -21.62 dB 4:03 09-Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, G Major, K. 525 (1787), IV. Rondo - Allegro
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 7
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 556 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================