BRAUNFELS: Te Deum / Leonie Rysanek, sop; Helmut Melchert, ten; Hermann Werner, org; Gürzenich-Chor; Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester; Günter Wand, cond / Acanta 233670, available from eclassical, Records International, Amazon; also available for free streaming on YouTube. Live: Cologne, Germany, December 20, 1952. Also on Profil PH06002 with HINDEMITH: Konzertmusik für strings & brass, Op. 50, available from Presto Music and eclassical.
Walter Braunfels, one last time. Here we review his Te Deum which, like the 1923-26 Grosse Messe, was written more as a secular than as a religious work. Braunfels wrote it in 1920, the year that his hit opera Der Vögel (The Birds) premiered, as an apotheosis to World War I. As in the case of the Mass, he begins the work in angst and suffering, then slowly works his way towards calm and peace.
In addition to this famous radio performance, which despite its date is in surprisingly good mono sound, there is also a digital stereo recording conducted by Manfred Honeck on Orfeo, but although the Honeck recording is good, this one is greater. Günter Wand was, in my view, one of the most underrated German conductors until his old age, when he was finally noticed for the excitement and dynamism of his performances, and this one is no exception. It is also notable for being one of the very few times that Braunfels lived to hear one of his major works broadcast on German radio (he died two years later at age 71). When this performance was issued on Acanta, no location or date of performance was given, but the Profil release gives it as being a Cologne performance from December 20, 1952.
Another reason for preferring this performance is the much more dynamic and dramatic singing of young Leonie Rysanek, possibly her first outing on German radio. As was usual with Rysanek, she had trouble controlling not the top of her range but the middle-lower voice, yet she sounds firmer here than she did in many later performances and is far more interesting than Gitta-Maria Sjöberg on the Honeck recording. Her vocal partner, Helmut Melchert, was one of the better German tenors of the period. Although he is not as well remembered nowadays as some of his contemporaries. he too is superior to his counterpart on Orfeo, Lars-Erik Jonsson.
Someone once mentioned that in terms of his melodic construction and his use of harmony, Braunfels’ music sometimes echoed Mahler, and this is surely evident in the opening section, “Feierlich, breit.” Rysanek’s entrance sounds like a laser beam cutting through the orchestra; and Melchert, an excellent (and somewhat forgotten) tenor who specialized more in concert works than opera (although he sang an excellent Agisth in Astrid Varnay’s hellaciously exciting 1953 broadcast of Elektra and Herod in Christel Goltz’ Salome), also sounds excellent. Even in the more lyrical sections of this work, Wand maintains great forward momentum, something that Honeck, at least in his studio recording, does not, and there is wonderful clarity of orchestral texture which is surprisingly good for a 1952 broadcast. Wand also accentuates the rhythm more clearly than Honeck: listen to the tenor-chorus exchanges at about the 16-minute mark in this opening section.
Braunfels also uses some extraordinary chromatic harmony, once in a choral passage near the end of the “Feierlich,” then again with the trombones (and organ) near the beginning of the “Judex crederlis.” This is both emotionally powerful and intellectually interesting music, and I can’t think of another composer who really ever duplicated this, at least not as well as Braunfels did. He also breaks up the rhythm, moving from a straight 4 to 6/4 in the choral passage of the latter section. In the “Aeterna fac langsam,” Braunfels creates a “floating” sound with light, transparent orchestral textures (flutes holding high notes against the violas and celli figures) before moving from purely orchestral to orchestral-choral passages. Yet the music keeps on morphing and changing in extremely interesting ways, and Wand has no hesitation in bringing these unusual features to the forefront in this spectacular performance. I personally felt that the last section, “Dignare Domine,” did not so much represent peace as a sort of grim resignation to the new way of life under the Weimer Republic. But it is surely effective. At the 9:50 mark in the final movement, Braunfels gives us a nice choral-orchestral fugue which does indeed give us a blaze of glory, but Braunfels again switches gears to a slow, stately 4 in the finale. Incidentally, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra used here has since been renamed the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Cologne.
As noted in the header, the Profil release also includes Hindemith’s Konzertmusik, subtitled “Boston Symphony,” a performance that dates from 1970, when Wand was finally gaining the recognition he deserved for his excellent conducting skills. Wand brings out the humor of the first movement, where the trombones enter on the wrong beat and stay there for several bars, wonderfully well, and in fact the whole performance sparkles in a way that is seldom heard. Personally, then, I recommend this Profil issue over the Acanta, but the Acanta seems to be much easier to obtain, so it’s up to you. Either way, this performance of the Te Deum is a must, even for those who perhaps are immune to the glories of Braunfels’ other compositions.
—© 2024 Lynn René Bayley
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