Hearing the Rhenish live last week was a transcendent experience that made me realize I've misunderstood the work for thirty years. In light of understanding the poetic darkness right underneath the surface dynamism and postcard kitsch, I'm reevaluating everything I've ever known about this piece and listening to many more recordings than I ever did in the past, when I dismissed this work as lesser Schumann.
Toscanini/NBC: Cantabile and attaca as always. Clear orchestration considering its vintage. Surface beauty, but no awareness of the despair or spirituality underneath. B-
Schuricht/Paris Conservatoire I: Completely reorchestrated, under 30', some beauty, but mostly nausea. D+
Schuricht/SDR (whatever that is): Completely different reorchestrations, still under '30, still a nauseously insensitive slow movement, a little better. C
Paray/Detroit: Used to like it: exciting, vivid textures, but drilled, unphrased, unmusical. C
Klemperer/Philharmonia: If only he'd made it five years earlier. He was past it. C-
Mitropoulos/Minnesota: As much a cartoon as Bugs Bunny, but not as good. D
Szell/Cleveland: Constipated. C-
Kletzki/Israel: Some beautiful moments, but much too legato. C+
Karajan/Berlin: Who can deny the skill and thought? But to what end? So smoothened you can see Breker's oiled muscles. Objectively A/Personally C
Leibowitz/International Symphony Orchestra?: Clarity and dynamism, some poetry, some boredom, some wrong notes, he's out to make stupid points. C/C-
Celibidache/Munich: Clarity of texture with no music at all. F
Wand/NDR: The Grand German Symphonic Tradition. Detail and insight in every bar. A- HM
Giulini/Philharmonia: The soul is there, amid too handsome timbre and hollow fury. B-
Giulini/LA: Essential As natural as a stone polished by water. A
Kubelik/Berlin: Karajan's Berliners are an anti-Schumann orchestra, but Kubelik pulls teeth to get them there. B
Kubelik/Bavarian Radio: Very low key, but beautiful poetry. B+
Dixon/Vienna: I remember liking Dixon's Schumann much more. But it's a muddled mess. D+
Bernstein/Vienna: A lot of pathos, a lot of drama, and a lot of the time, really boring. C
Sawallisch/Dresden: The legend. Concerto for Ideal Schumann Orchestra. Not sure what else.... B-
Skrowaczewski/Yomiuri Nippon: Schumann as Haydn. Magnificently clear, balletic, too sunny and perky. B
Tennstedt/New York: This isn't Mahler 8. Panning Tennstedt is painful but he just doesn't get it. D-
Masur/London Philharmonic: Essential Masur has perfect pitch for the Second Leipzig School. A
Semkow/St. Louis: A midwestern orchestra sounds like it's in Leipzig. A- HM
Dohnanyi/Cleveland An immaculately restored painting of a transcendent performance, but we're just in the gallery. B
Harnoncourt/COE: Essential Pure German romantic poetry. Almost like reading it. A
Harnoncourt/Vienna: Basically the same reading but with less physical impact. B/B+
Rozhdestvensky/State Symphony Estonia: Unlikely source, bad reorchestrations, the poetic core's nearly all there. A-/B+ HM
Norrington/LCP: Fuck you.
Zinman/Zurich (video): Undercurrent of mania rather than darkness. Subtle surprises everywhere. Would be A- at least but the TV recording doesn't allow for pianos. B+
Holliger/WDR: Silver Understated melancholy and wit from a cosmic musician who loved Schumann so he stepped in front of the orchestra. A+
Muti/Vienna: He gets it, and yet he makes it into such repellent melodrama. Objectively A-/Personally D
Barenboim/SKB II: Rhenish done as Ein Heldenleben. As bombastic as a cannon, yet there's insight everywhere and absolute transparency. Schumann is there, but I struggle. Objectively: A/Personally: C
Can't find Barenboim/SKB I right now, which I loved until recently. Doubt I'd feel the same way now.
Gardiner/ORR: Period instruments drilled into such immaculate playing it expresses nothing at all. C
Venzago/Dusseldorf: Essential Poetically bizarre. A/A+
Chailly/Leipzig: Magnificently played, but what's the point? C-
Schonwandt/Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic: Bronze One of our unknown best finds lyricism in this music past anyone else. Thanatos becomes eros here. A+/A
Thielemann/Dresden: I hate that guy... but this is pretty wonderful. Relaxed ease and wit everywhere. Too heavy of course but this is... A- HM
P. Jarvi/DKBremen (video): Gold This... is... MUSIC! A+
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