Thomas Zehetmair, Camerata Bern - Schönberg, Veress, Bartók: Verklärte Nacht (2001)

Bartók and Schoenberg, passionate perfectionists both, would have loved this disc. Both the Divertimento and Verklärte Nacht receive extraordinary performances, played with an astonishing mixture of hair-trigger precision and high emotion. In the latter work, the small string ensemble size of Camerata Bern offers an ideal compromise between the need to maintain the chamber music textural detail of the original sextet and the desire to have big symphonic climaxes. You won’t hear the sheer sonic richness of Karajan and Stokowski here, but the swift tempos and carefully shaped dynamics generate their own special intensity leading to an almost physical release at the moment of “transfiguration”.

Similar virtues grace Bartók’s Divertimento. Thomas Zehetmair gets his players to attack the opening bars with true peasant earthiness–robust, strongly accented rhythms that give the music the “kick” it really needs. The musicians sustain the evocative stillness of the slow movement with the utmost sensitivity and attack the finale with abandon. This is great playing and conducting, without a doubt. Sándor Veress’ four Transylvanian Dances, a bit more stylized and harmonically advanced than Bartók’s works of similar derivation, make the perfect interlude between the two works, and you can play this entire magnificently recorded disc as a single recital and come away totally satisfied. It’s a wonderful musical experience, plain and simple.