The new Simon Rattle-Berlin Philharmonic recording of Schoenberg's
"Gurrelieder" more than measures up to the high expectations that have
awaited it ever since the announcement of its Olympian cast:  Karita
Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Moser, Philip Langridge and Thomas
Quasthoff.

On an EMI Classics CD, due in the US on June 4, music and technology meet
in the stratosphere - and yet, it's the most human-scale, clear-clean,
straightforward, non-turgid performance in my "Gurrelieder"-obsessed
experience.

 From the shimmering opening bars to the stunning narration by Quasthoff,
leading to that incredible C major sunrise finale, this is a keeper,
the kind of recording you want to hear again and again, not just the
highlights, but all of its 110 minutes.  It is a worthy sonic-feast upgrade
to that hitherto unequalled first recording, by Stokowski, 70 years ago.

The many, mostly current, recordings of this strange, wondrous masterpiece
in-between Stokowski and Rattle - including those by Boulez, Abbado, Ozawa
- all had memorable high points, but to my ears, this is the one that has
the same kind of flawless integrity and unity as that old LP, which served
as the introduction to the work during the decades live performances were
extremely rare.

Rattle's interpretation stands in stark, welcome contrast to one of the
biggest advocates of the work, Zubin Mehta, whose frequent overheated,
convulsive presentations piled excess on excess.  The sound here is huge
and broad, but it is also anchored in a kind of normality from which the
climactic excesses gain even more power and, even, validity.

The Tristan-and-Isolda theme, the heaven-storming, God-defying grief
(resolved so differently from its helpless fellow damned - the Dutchman,
Kundry, Bernstein's "Kaddish" Symphony among them) must be reined in, and
Rattle does that powerfully, but not to the extent of Boulez's excessive
control.

Giving wings to the interpretation, the Philharmonic plays with a hearty
brilliance, as perfectly as in the Rattle-conducted Mahler Seventh Symphony
a couple of years ago, in the concert that introduced this great new
partnership.

The cast is stupendous.  You could very well have expected Mattila's
clarity and precision as Tove, von Otter's dramatic and deeply-felt
Wood-dove, but Moser - an honest, skillful, big-hearted singer one keeps
rediscovering as a memorable Grimes or Palestrina - is surprising.

The vocal requirement for the role of Waldemar is somewhere between
heldentenor and dramatic tenor, and Moser nails it.  From the love-dazed
"So tanzen die Engel," to the ecstatic fulfillment of "Es ist
Mitternachtszeit" and "Du wunderliche Tove," to the extreme desperation of
"Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest," Moser sings the music, rather than
showing off top-note fireworks.  There are instances of audible effort in
his voice, but Moser fits in all the better with Rattle's human/humane
reading.

There is nothing short of perfection in Quasthoff's case.  His Speaker
is an amazing relevation.  Great singers long beyond their prime usually
perform this lengthy Sprechtstimme narration - Hans Hotter, Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau memorably among them - but here is a great artist at the
top of his game, delivering rhythmic speech, this ur-rap, as music.  It's
thrilling, to the point of raising the hair in the back of the listener's
neck.

Langridge's Klaus-Narr and the combined choruses of Berlin's Rundfunkchor,
Ernst Senff Chor and Leipzig's MDR Rundfunkchor are all worthy participants
in this huge effort.

Speaking about "Gurrelieder," Rattle has made two points relevant to this
performance.  First, that even with 400 participants, this is still "the
world's largest string quartet, the most gigantic chamber music ever
written - it should be very transparent." It is that, and clear in
phrasing, diction, every way.

The second remark about Schoenberg's work (begun by the 25-year-old
composer in 1900 and completed by a very different artist in 1913) is
typical Rattle with its unpretentious, lighthearted relevance.

Calling "Gurrelieder" an "old love," from the time he first heard it
at age 10, and praising its "French sensibility, generosity and sheer
brilliance," Rattle also deals with the loud-and-fast/too-lush portions
(mostly from the first draft):  "So much of this sounds like cartoon music.
I like to remind people that many leading cartoon composers were Schoenberg
pupils - particularly Scott Bradley who wrote all the `Tom & Jerry' music.

"Listen to the end of Klaus-Narr:  if you don't hear cats and mice running
there, you don't have a pair of ears!

"People took everything from Schoenberg, and his music's been a playground
for composers ever since.  Composers like Magnus Lindberg and Oliver
Knussen have the score of `Gurrelieder' on their desks all the time, and
Knussen even travels with it because he says it's really a text of what can
be done."

Rattle's performance is a delightful demonstration of what can be done with
"Gurrelieder" in the concert hall, on a CD to be treasured.

Janos Gereben/SF
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