David Atherton made a fine reputation for himself as a contemporary music conductor back in his salad days with the London Sinfonietta, nowhere more so than in his three-disc (now two-CD) set of music by Kurt Weill. He certainly hasn’t lost his magic touch in the intervening years. These performances of the two symphonies sweep the (not very full) board. Swift, lean, incisive, and always exciting, Atherton reveals all of this music’s anger, irony, and bittersweet lyricism without a trace of histrionics or self-indulgence. Indeed, a certain coolness is part of the point too. And so in the marvelous Second Symphony, Atherton catches the neo-classical temper of its outer movements with impeccable wit and grace, making the passionate intensity of the magnificent central slow movement all the more shocking as a result.
Similarly, his almost brutally direct reading of the angular First Symphony at once emphasizes its youthful rage and provides the necessary long line (without which it tends to fall apart into a series of disconnected episodes). Bastille Music, a suite assembled from an incidental score (to Strindberg’s Gustav III) by Weill scholar David Drew and premiered by Atherton, makes the perfect filler, bridging the gap between the First Symphony’s acerbities and the Second’s almost balletic poise. The Hong Kong Philharmonic plays with enthusiasm and discipline, and the recorded sound has great clarity and presence but could use a bit more warmth and bass frequency information. Still, this is a first rate achievement, and a sequel far too long in coming. Atherton rightly describes the Second Symphony as “one of the 20th century’s forgotten masterpieces.” How right he is, and how true he makes his claim sound!
