Australian Chamber Orchestra; Richard Tognetti - Live In Concert: Bach / Beethoven - Fugue (2017)

Posted By: Designol

Date: Sept. 15, 2024

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti showcase two works of genius by Beethoven and Bach. Recorded live in concert, these seminal works are given a new lease of life, opening up new soundworlds through the vitality and virtuosity for which the ACO has become globally renowned.

Both Bach and Beethoven wrote these pieces towards the end of their lives. Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge was originally conceived as the final movement to his last string quartet; in it, the genre moves away from salon music into what Tognetti describes as “hyper-controlled cacophony, rousing responses ranging from rapture to despair”. This was too much for Beethoven’s contemporaries, and the quartet was soon given a more orthodox ending. In this album the Grosse Fuge is returned to its original place, and is presented in an arrangement for string orchestra by Tognetti which, in his words, is “careful not to exploit the greater dynamic capabilities at the expense of the innerlich heart of Beethoven’s uniquely powerful music”.

Bach’s The Art of Fugue was left unfinished at his death, and is a work shrouded in mystery: it is unclear for what instrument it was originally written. A masterclass in the fugue – a form in which a single musical theme repeats and weaves around itself – the first four movements are presented here using strings, winds and even the voices of the orchestra to bring out the polyphonal parts which, in Bach’s hands, speak as one.

Viol consort and not modern chamber orchestra appears to be the model for the first three contrapuncti of The Art of Fugue, however discreetly supported the ACO strings are by pairs of oboes and horns. Separated articulation for the fugue subject brings contrapuntal clarity and a French-style swing to the rhythms but a commensurate loss in gathering intensity, only partially offset by a restrained bass swell and a grand broadening through each final cadence. The arrangement of the Fourth, however, has grown on me: a pizzicato ballet with Swingle Singers-style backing – not as fey or irreverent as it sounds.

With mind thus uncluttered and palate cleansed, Op 130 strikes home – and not as an arrangement but as music that counts. For so forward-thinking a musician, Richard Tognetti makes the surprisingly old-fashioned claim that ‘the brutality of Beethoven’s music is more easily facilitated in a large concert hall with more troops’. Some readers may already have their minds made up: there are no gains and only losses in amplifying late Beethoven. I urge them to listen to this. There is some discreet alternation between solo and ensemble voices but nothing so fragmented as Terje Tonnesen’s concerto-grosso interventions (BIS, 8/14).

Notwithstanding the ACO’s trademark, wiry body of tone, often stripped of vibrato, the portamento in the Adagio sections of the opening movement belongs to a tradition from Mahler to Sir Colin Davis. Impassioned, positively heart-rending as the beklemmt section of the Cavatina haltingly enters a realm of fresh pathos, it’s a time-travelling sort of performance that brought to mind a stroke of genius in Calixto Bieito’s production of Fidelio, when a quartet descends from the flies to play the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’.

There is no lack of juggernaut bass to launch the Grosse Fuge even in comparison with Furtwängler and Klemperer; indeed, the unanimity of the ACO lends Tognetti’s direction the same agility and unstoppable momentum as a solo-quartet version. I would be hard-pressed to credit the claim of a live recording (no applause or audience noise from three Sydney concerts, edited together), except for my imprinted memory of their performance in London earlier this year. Unusually, the impact has survived the transfer to disc. It’s a formidable achievement.

Review by Peter Quantrill, Gramophone

Richard Tognetti at Allmusic
Richard Tognetti at Wiki
ACO Website

Australian Chamber Orchestra;
Richard Tognetti, artistic director & violin

Tracklist:

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685–1750)
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (selections)
01. Contrapunctus I (2:33)
02. Contrapunctus II (2:38)
03. Contrapunctus III (2:24)
04. Contrapunctus IV (3:59)

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 (with Grosse Fuge, Op.133)
Arranged for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti
05. I. Adagio ma non troppo (13:32)
06. II. Presto (1:59)
07. III. Andante con moto ma non troppo (6:53)
08. IV. Alla danza tedesca (2:55)
09. V. Cavatina (7:53)
10. VI. Grosse Fuge (16:23)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 21. November 2017, 21:55

Richard Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra / Bach, Beethoven - Fugue

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DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-10-04 05:54:35

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Richard Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra / Bach, Beethoven - Fugue
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR10 -1.00 dB -14.44 dB 2:33 01-Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 - Contrapunctus I
DR10 -0.99 dB -14.73 dB 2:38 02-Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 - Contrapunctus II
DR9 -0.99 dB -14.55 dB 2:24 03-Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 - Contrapunctus III
DR14 -1.00 dB -20.08 dB 3:59 04-Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 - Contrapunctus IV
DR9 -0.97 dB -14.93 dB 13:32 05-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - I. Adagio ma non troppo
DR10 -0.98 dB -14.90 dB 1:59 06-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - II. Presto
DR12 -0.97 dB -17.47 dB 6:53 07-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - III. Andante con moto ma non troppo
DR11 -0.99 dB -16.50 dB 2:55 08-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - IV. Alla danza tedesca
DR11 -0.99 dB -16.89 dB 7:53 09-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - V. Cavatina
DR8 -0.96 dB -12.42 dB 16:23 10-Beethoven (arr. Tognetti): String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 - VI. Grosse Fuge
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR10

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Bitrate: 704 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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