Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Ashkenazy - Boris Blacher: Symphonic Works (1998)

I admit that, apart from the Paganini variations, I was relatively unfamiliar with the music of Boris Blacher before I acquired this disc. This, however, is marvelous stuff. Blacher’s music is sleek, urbane, lean, clear, alert and enormously imaginative, full of surprises and good ideas – Blacher seems to have had an almost uncanny ability to weave gold out of almost nothing. The Concertante Musik from 1937, for instance – Blacher’s first success, which became rightfully popular in its tim - t is a delectable combination of neo-classicism and (mildly) jazzy syncopations, somewhat redolent of Hindemith, or an elegant sports version of Hindemith, with open textures (it is superbly scored), captivating melodies and momentum.

The opera Princess Tarakanowa was premiered in 1941 (despite the fact that Blacher was apparently a known anti-Nazi figure) and the suite suggests another work of great invention though – it is of course hard to tell from a suite of orchestral excerpts – perhaps not much depth. But the selections here, angrier, more sarcastic and more astringent than the Concertante Musik, are very compelling. The post-war works are somewhat more economical, and partially characterized by a refusal to ever let a note go to waste. The Two Inventions are somewhat economical (“austere” would be the wrong term), though still very resourcesful, but the Music for Cleveland is brilliant and clever.

The latest work here is a masterpiece. The Clarinet Concerto was written in 1971 and is similarly economical in its use of the material, but in addition to the clear, lean textures and magnificent melodic material it achieves a sense of urgency and wonder that belies the almost inconsequential materials Blacher chose to use. The theme for the second movement variations, for instance, seems nondescript at first, but it doesn’t take long before you find yourself (well, at least I found my self) captivated by the endless flow of inventive touches and details, all in the service of a deeply compelling musical argument. All the performances exhibit the same virtues as the music – clear, lean, alert, energetic and with clear sense of structure. The recorded sound is similarly clear and open. A tremendous success of a disc, urgently recommended.