Romberg The Song of the Bell
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Andreas Jakob Romberg
Label: Opus 111
Magazine Review Date: 7/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 53
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OPS30-67
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Das) Lied von der Glocke |
Andreas Jakob Romberg, Composer
(Das) Neue Orchester Andreas Jakob Romberg, Composer Barbara Schlick, Soprano Christoph Spering, Conductor Cologne Chorus Musicus Frieder Lang, Tenor Klaus Mertens, Baritone Mechthild Georg, Mezzo soprano |
Author: Richard Wigmore
The name of Andreas Romberg (1767-1821) is not one to set the pulse racing today: a cursory entry in Grove, a couple of chamber works in the Gramophone Classical Catalogue listings. But in his time he was famous both as a violin virtuoso and as a composer; and by far the most celebrated of his works was his 1809 setting for soloists, chorus and orchestra of Schiller's Das Lied von der Glocke (''The Song of the Bell''), which in Romberg's lifetime and for decades afterwards challenged the Creation and Seasons in popularity. Romberg could hardly go wrong with this particular work: Schiller's long ballad, with its lofty rhetoric and its mingling of moral idealism and homely Biedermeier sentiment, was on everybody's lips in early nineteenth-century Germany, though its explicit denunciation of the French Revolution outraged many who felt betrayed by a poet once exiled for his seditious writings.
Not surprisingly, there are constant half-echoes of Haydn's late oratorios in Romberg's cantata, occasionally more than that, as with the quartet and chorus ''Holder Friede'' (''Sweet Peace''), which actually cribs from the trio and chorus ''Sei nun gnadig'' in the Seasons. Romberg was also evidently partial to the more solemn scenes in The Magic Flute. He can turn a shapely melody, sometimes in an attractive folksy vein, and his orchestration often goes beyond mere efficiency, as with the evocation of the sombrely tolling funeral bell in the chorus ''Dem dunklen Schoss der heiligen Erde'' (''To the Dark Womb of the Sacred Earth''). But much of Romberg's invention is frankly tame and short-winded, harmonically limited, rhythmically foursquare and unvaried in texture, with counterpoint given a wide berth throughout. The easy euphony of Das Lied von der Glocke understandably struck a ready chord with the Biedermeier bourgeoisie; but its subsequent neglect is not wholly surprising. Still, collectors of curios will find it very decently performed here, with outstanding solo work from the radiant Barbara Schlick (at moments sounding uncannily like a young Gundula Janowitz), and from the sonorous, oaken-voiced Peter Lika as the Master Founder. Chorus and period orchestra both acquit themselves capably, though several of the numbers (notably the 'fire' chorus, ''Wohltatig ist des Feuers Macht'') would have benefited from tauter, more urgent direction. The recording is truthful and wellbalanced.'
Not surprisingly, there are constant half-echoes of Haydn's late oratorios in Romberg's cantata, occasionally more than that, as with the quartet and chorus ''Holder Friede'' (''Sweet Peace''), which actually cribs from the trio and chorus ''Sei nun gnadig'' in the Seasons. Romberg was also evidently partial to the more solemn scenes in The Magic Flute. He can turn a shapely melody, sometimes in an attractive folksy vein, and his orchestration often goes beyond mere efficiency, as with the evocation of the sombrely tolling funeral bell in the chorus ''Dem dunklen Schoss der heiligen Erde'' (''To the Dark Womb of the Sacred Earth''). But much of Romberg's invention is frankly tame and short-winded, harmonically limited, rhythmically foursquare and unvaried in texture, with counterpoint given a wide berth throughout. The easy euphony of Das Lied von der Glocke understandably struck a ready chord with the Biedermeier bourgeoisie; but its subsequent neglect is not wholly surprising. Still, collectors of curios will find it very decently performed here, with outstanding solo work from the radiant Barbara Schlick (at moments sounding uncannily like a young Gundula Janowitz), and from the sonorous, oaken-voiced Peter Lika as the Master Founder. Chorus and period orchestra both acquit themselves capably, though several of the numbers (notably the 'fire' chorus, ''Wohltatig ist des Feuers Macht'') would have benefited from tauter, more urgent direction. The recording is truthful and wellbalanced.'
Romberg The Song of the Bell
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