FREE 128k MP3 to download this week

Mengelberg  

Concertgebouw Orchestra

play  

Beethoven & Brahms

First Symphonies

Live recordings from 1940

Download it now from our Cover Page  

Sometimes referred to as "the Irish Toscanini," Sir Hamilton Harty (1897-1941) commands respect for his prowess both as a composer and powerful interpreter, particularly noted for his work in the music of Berlioz. Producer and editor Mark Obert-Thorn resuscitates two potent Schubert inscriptions, the first of which is the arrangement by Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966) of the 1824 Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor as a cello concerto (rec. 5 March 1929), performed with an unnamed pick-up British ensemble.  Cassado's tone resonates as both clear and sweet, his phrases arched with the same melodic contour for which his eminent teacher Pablo Casals gleaned fame. An excellent accompanist-conductor--recall Harty's contribution to Szigeti's fine 1928 Brahms Violin Concerto--Harty surrounds Cassado with loving harmonies, and the Adagio seems all too brief. The lovely segue to the Allegretto finale proves worth re-hearing, the movement itself a tender, if lumbering, dance of limpid beauty, especially as the woodwinds support Cassado. The original singing quality of the arpeggione (a bowed guitar) endures in this glowing rendition, in which the Allegretto's middle section transition momentarily becomes a charming wind serenade.

The Schubert Ninth Symphony (14 January 1928) allows Harty his natural breadth and expansive vision as a committed interpreter of the Romantics. The initial series of first movement themes proceed a flexible linear fashion, a cross between Toscanini's literalism and Mengelberg's idiosyncratic rhythmic canter. Wonderful support in the Halle brass and lower strings aid in the steady acceleration of two distinct tempos over an unfaltering sense of pulse.  The Halle woodwinds--scored mostly in thirds--consistently impress us with their tonal accuracy. Once the essential motion is fixed, Harty moves the Allegro impulses with fervent authority, a combination of flowery lyricism and explosive menace. What clearly emerges from the colossal amalgam of forces and stunning periods is the potent discipline of the Halle orchestra, certainly on a par with ensembles on the European continent, with Harty himself functioning on a sonic level with Albert Coates. The peroration simply glories in the aural splendor of Schubert's plethora of ideas, with Harty's deliberate slowing down of the coda to underline a gripping realization of unique power. 

The sonics can occasionally sound thin and reedy in the A Minor Andante, but Harty's resolute outer sections provide a grand contrast to the sublimely slow middle section, whose horn solo tolls a single note of metaphysical questioning. We do hear Harty's recourse to portamento that aligns him more with Mengelberg than Toscanini, but the fervor of the reading never allows the drama to degenerate into less than noble sentiment.

The C Major Scherzo ushers in a series of visceral dance energies, the song a combination of laendler and ennobled courtly or dramatic tissue. Wonderful legato strings announce the main melody of puttering woodwinds. Harty's tempos, quite brisk, urge the virtuosic impulse, a competitive vision akin to Mengelberg's. The rustic character of the trio--given some frenetic alterations of the tempo-- comes forth from a sonority that suggests the drone of a hurdy-gurdy. A Scherzo with "personality," to be sure!  The whirlwind Allegro vivace becomes a showpiece of orchestral discipline, given Harty's idiosyncratic approach to the tempo, with his insistence of strong woodwind and string definition. The counter-theme receives the slowing-down that allows Harty to build up a fierce tension while Schubert expands the sonata-form to Herculean proportions. The transition to the coda--another miracle of measured rubato--testifies to Harty's natural musicianship. Vitality and spontaneity of feeling mark every bar of this heroically epic movement, a monument to its composer and an immensely accomplished conductor.  

PASC 282 Harty  

The violinist Josef Wolfsthal was just 31 years old when he died in a 1931 influenza epidemic. He left three concerto recordings, a Grammophon acoustic version of the Beethoven which was replaced in 1929 by an electric re-recording, and Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto, K219, which was made for Parlophon. The latter two performances are coupled on PASC239 (67mins). It is a somewhat poignant experience to hear this fine player 80 years after his life and career were so cruelly cut short. The first movement of the Mozart suffers from a patch of poor intonation which should have caused there to be a another 'take', but otherwise Wolfsthal plays with notable beauty throughout the work. His style is quite 'modern', yet expressive and very elegantly turned. Frieder Weissmann conducts the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in a rather close but clear recording. Manfred Gurlitt and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra are Wolfsthal's attentive partners in the Beethoven concerto. Again, Wolfsthal's performance is highly expressive and beautifully wrought, and a somewhat forward balance does not detract from his beautiful tone quality.

In June 1928 the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra visited London with its conductor, Ernô Dohnânyi, better known as a fine pianist. Their recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17, K453 was made in an unnamed Columbia studio with a very dry acoustic. Dohnânyi gives a strong, characterful account of the solo part and the piano tone is not bad, but the close-up sound exposes painful deficiencies in his orchestra, particularly in the string section. With Dohnânyi on the rostrum the Budapest orchestra gave a somewhat better-played and lively account of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1, with Berlioz's "Hungarian March"(the original 78rpm fill-up). Two days later they recorded the Berlioz again in the more forgiving acoustic of Queens Hall, this time for HMV, with a group of short Hungarian nationalist pieces. All the above items, except a couple of the Hungarian items, are included in a collection, "Dohnânyi in London" master-minded by Mark Obert-Thorn. Also included is Dohnânyi's vivacious 1931 HMV recording of his Variations on a Nursery Tune, with the London Symphony Orchestra under Lawrance Collingwood (better played than the composers slightly arthritic 1956 HMV version). In the fill-up Dohnânyi conducts the LSO in one of his Ruralia Hungarica pieces. Good Obert-Thorn transfers (PASC252,79mins).

Another interesting and well-produced Obert-Thorn collection gathers together 1936-42 recordings made mainly for Odeon by the German conductor Herman Abendroth. The major item is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, very finely played by the Berlin Philharmonic, but conducted by Abendroth without his usual flair. Earlier in that month of November 1937 Furtwangler had recorded his famous HMV version with the same orchestra. Could that have anything to do with Abendroth's apparent lack of involvement? In Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2 Abendroth and the BPO are much more exciting. The collection also includes pieces by Dohnânyi and Sibelius, and a 1942 HMV recording of Reger's Mozart Variations (without the Fugue!) well played by a Paris Conservatoire Orchestra whose members no doubt resented this wartime Germanic experience (PASC256,77mins).

Pierre Monteux's HMV recording of Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps with the Paris Symphony Orchestra, made in January 1929, was by a short head the first version of the work, beating Stokowski's and Stravinsky's first recording, both made later in the same year. This was just 16 years after Monteux had conducted the infamous premiere. The playing is inexact sometimes, and a lot of detail is missing, but it is still an exciting performance, with Monteux continually driving and challenging his players with fast tempi. In Ravel's La valse from 1930 the same orchestra is hard-driven again, but the overall effect is rather brash in this rather more subtle work. Piero Coppola's Interlude dramatique is typical conductors music, elaborately scored but lacking in substance (why didn't Coppola himself record it?). Chabrier's "Fête polonaise" from Le roi malgré lui receives another very lively performance (PASC219, 62mins).

PASC 239 Wolfstahl 

PASC 252 Dohnányi

PASC 256 Abendroth 

PASC 219 Monteux