COMPOSERS: Bruch
LABELS: CPO
ALBUM TITLE: Bruch - Das Lied von der Glucke
WORKS: Das Lied von der Glocke
PERFORMER: Eleonore Marguerre (soprano), AnnetteMarkert (mezzo-soprano), Klaus FlorianVogt (tenor), Mario Hoff (baritone); PraguePhilharmonic Choir, KŸhn’s Mixed Chorus;Staatskapelle Weimar/Jac van Steen
CATALOGUE NO: 777 130-2
Twentieth-century politics have
bedevilled reactions to Bruch’s setting
of Schiller’s Das Lied von der Glocke.
Critics have labelled it poor man’s
Mendelssohn with an opportunistic
whiff of Wagner about the choral
writing; while Schiller’s original text
– an allegory in which the casting
of a bell is parallelled with phases
of human life – has been read as
reactionary, packed with unacceptable
attitudes to women as slaves to Kinder
and KŸche. And anti-democratic
too – when do the people out on the
streets in praise of Liberty become a
rampaging mob? So to have now two
recordings of the piece in the catalogue
seems an unaccountable luxury.
Jac van Steen presided over this
live recording in Weimar at New Year
2004/5. With the exception of the
fire that sweeps through the town at
the end of the first part, van Steen
never pretends that he is conducting
a Mendelssohnian oratorio. Indeed
the drama is always subordinate to
the musical narrative. In this he is
ably assisted by the bass Mario Hoff,
in charge of casting the great bell.
Hoff’s opening narration is a model
of vocal clarity. However in the end
the solo singing honours belong to
Annette Markert, the alto. A kind
of small-town Erda, you almost
believe her musings on fate, destiny
and death. Was there a dry eye in the
house in the Weimarhalle when she
came to bury The Mother? However
it’s the combined chorus who excel
themselves, which is exactly as it should be in this kind of 19thcentury
work, with rapt singing in the
opening movement, terror during the
fire, and a sense of wonder when the
Bell is finally cast. Christopher Cook