Vladimir Ashkenazy, RSO Berlin - César Franck: Symphony in D minor; Psyché; Les Djinns (1990)

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Vladimir Ashkenazy, RSO Berlin - César Franck: Symphony in D minor; Psyché; Les Djinns (1990)

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It is very interesting, but also quite a shock, to play the contents of this disc in the wrong order. What a born Franckian Ashkenazy is, one thinks, listening to his account of Les Djinns and admiring both the boldness of outline and colour in the orchestral sections and the long-breathed nobility of phrasing that he brings to the piano theme that calms the music's turbulence. And the impression is redoubled by his voluptuous reading of Psyche (of its four orchestral movements, that is; the choral ones are as usual omitted, though Decca puzzlingly print Franck's synopsis of them in the accompanying booklet). What a fine control of sustained, arching line and of slowly built crescendo and, in the fourth movement, what a shrewd understanding of how much sensuality underlays Franck's image of pater seraphicus! Distinguished readings, both of them, of works that should be as well known as the Symphony but aren't, because Psyche isn't a 'proper' symphony nor Les Djinns a 'proper' concerto, being in one movement.
One is by now eager to hear Ashkenazy's account of the Symphony itself, and it is most disconcerting: by far the fastest I have ever heard. I had feared that some conductor would soon break the 45 - minute barrier in this work, but Ashkenazy goes in quite the opposite direction getting through it in under 36 minutes, over eight minutes faster than Flor on RCA, six minutes quicker than either Bernstein (DG) or Karajan (EMI). In the first movement he presumably takes the view that Franck's alternating lento and allegro are relative terms, signifiers of mood rather than precise tempo, and although his lento is decidedly fast by most standards it is well marked off in character (not least by a frequent use of rubato) from the allegro. The approach seems to go with a determination to achieve textural clarity and to re-examine the role of the brass section in Franck's orchestra, and the result is powerfully urgent, lean and gleaming.
His way with the piece makes sense and so it does, up to a point, in the central movement, but here it isn't only comparison with other readings that convince you that Ashkenazy is hurrying: the music is nicely phrased, its textures never thick, but it has no sense of repose. And in the finale the absence of jubilance, the unremitting haste and the vast unmarked slackening of tempo that he's obliged to adopt to make any sense at all of one of Franck's espr. markings really did half-convince me that Ashkenazy dislikes the movement and was eager to get it over with.
A shock, as I say, and a great pity in the light of the other splendid performances in this collection; even in the light of what promised to be a provocative re-interpretation of the Symphony. Since Psyche and Les Djinns occupy half the playing time I would still recommend this recording on their account (yes, they are that good), but you'll need another version of the Symphony.

–Michael Oliver

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Vladimir Ashkenazy, RSO Berlin - César Franck: Symphony in D minor; Psyché; Les Djinns (1990)

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