These days, many classical musicians would consider themselves fortunate to make one or two recordings a year. Marin Alsop has three discs coming out Tuesday alone.
Alsop has been one of the most prolific conductors in the recording studio for the past several years, working mainly with the remarkably successful budget label Naxos, which is releasing Tuesday's triple volley.
These new releases find the music director designate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra collaborating with two British ensembles - her other BSO, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, which named her principal conductor in 2002; and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. (There are plans for Alsop to start making recordings with her Maryland BSO for Naxos this year.)
The conductor covers a diverse sampling of repertoire in the trio of CDs - Brahms' Symphony No. 3, the third installment in a cycle of his symphonies with the London Philharmonic; Carl Orff's crowd-pleasing Carmina Burana and two big orchestral pieces by Philip Glass, with the Bournemouth Symphony.
The discs provide a timely reminder of the qualities and tastes that the conductor is bringing to the region as she settles more deeply into her Baltimore post (coincidentally, she leads an all-Glass program with the BSO next month). Here's a closer look at this week's abundance of Alsop:
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (Naxos 8.570033)
Nothing is likely to diminish the popularity of Orff's cantata. Some terribly sophisticated musicians have been known to dismiss it because it doesn't sound, well, terribly sophisticated. Others hear the perfectly coordinated stomp of Nazi boots in it, simply because it made its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937 (Orff was no Third Reich toady). But most folks just surrender willingly to Carmina Burana, its celebration of pagan sensuality and medieval tension-release (the texts come from a 13th-century collection of anonymous Middle Ages poets and songsters), its simple tunefulness and bluntness.
Alsop, who invariably shines in music filled with rhythmic assertiveness and living-color instrumentation, taps into the earthy jolt of the well-worn score, keeping things taut and crisp. There's a nice bite to the aggressive passages, an unfussy lyricism to the sweeter ones.
The choral and orchestral forces of the Bournemouth Symphony respond impressively, nowhere more so than in the last movement of the "On the Green" section - 55 particularly incendiary seconds. Alsop has the men's voices building up terrific steam at the end of the "In the Tavern" section, and she likewise generates considerable propulsion in the orchestra-only "Round Dance."
