Among the great musical monuments to grief, one of the most profoundly moving is
Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4. Not only is it
Schmidt's supreme symphonic achievement -- a four-movement-in-one-span work with every detail incorporated into a wholly integrated structure -- but it is unbelievably, unbearably sad. Mourning the death of his daughter,
Schmidt created a work that embodied his personal grief and transcended it, creating a universal tombeau to hope and love and life.
Not that
Neeme Järvi gets any of that. In his recording of
Schmidt's Fourth with the
Detroit Symphony,
Järvi conducts with technical facility and emotional and spiritual imbecility.
Järvi pushes the tempo in crescendos, causing music of tremendous dignity to sound hysterical.
Järvi pulls the tempo in decrescendos, causing music of terrible sorrow to sound trivial.
Järvi rushes through climaxes, causing music of terrific anguish to sound superficial.
Järvi gets distracted in the details and lost in the structure, causing music of complete integrity to sound ill-conceived. In every way that matters,
Järvi's witless and unfeeling interpretation makes
Schmidt's Fourth, one of the most profoundly moving musical monuments to grief, sound silly and pointless.
In the suite from
Strauss' pseudo-Biblical Joseph Legende ballet,
Järvi's does less damage. Since the music is simply a succession of stupendous orchestral effects without apparent emotional causes,
Järvi's technical faculty and emotional imbecility are not a determent. The playing of the
DSO is as it was in the
Schmidt: more than competent if less than inspired. Chandos sound is very, very loud.