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Furtwängler  

Beethoven Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 5 

"The Violin Concerto was recorded during the last concert given at the old Berlin Philharmonie, some 17 days before it was destroyed by Allied bombs in January 1944. It has long been beloved by Furtwängler collectors, despite multiple performances by Menuhin with the conductor, because of the quite unique intensity and incisiveness of this performance, achieved without sacrificing long line. Röhn was concertmaster of the BPO, but plays here with the personality and musical presence of a soloist. Furtwängler seems inspired, and overall this recording deserves the appellation "classic." The surprise here is how much better it sounds on Pristine's transfer than it ever has. Comparing it directly with releases on Deutsche Grammophon, AS Disc, and Archipel, it seems as if a veil has been lifted. This impassioned performance is even more powerful and effective than it ever has been, sounding here almost like an acceptable monaural broadcast from 20 years later than it is. This may be one of the most significant improvements of any of these Pristine releases.

The Fifth Symphony is also an improvement over prior releases, including Music & Arts, Tahra, DG, and Japanese EMI, though the improvement is not as significant because the original source is more limited. Andrew Rose of Pristine points out in his technical note the oddity that the Beethoven Fourth from the same 1943 concert (see below) has much better fidelity. One hopes someday a better source will be found for this wartime Fifth, because its incendiary nature is worth hearing. This is typical of the wartime performances by Furtwängler, with slashing rhythms, fierce accents, extremes of tempo and dynamics. You will not be neutral about it-you will love it or hate it. " 

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The centenary of Beethoven's death stimulated record companies to produce a large swathe of new discs. English Columbia was particularly effective in this regard, issuing a complete symphonic set and adding prestigious chamber works to the catalogue. But Grammophon in Germany was assiduous too, albeit slower. Hans Pfitzner, Richard Strauss, Erich Kleiber and Oscar Fried were conductors chosen to direct the symphonic repertoire, a project that, contrary to expected norms of German efficiency, was delayed until the Weimar Republic was on its last legs. Naxos has issued them all and I've reviewed a number of them. One that escaped me then, but not now, is Fried's recording of the Ninth.
 
Its Naxos incarnation was 8.110929, but it was also issued on LYS279 and, under the counter as it were, on Iron Needle 1395. I've only recently reviewed a very slightly earlier Albert Coates recording of the Ninth - his second, as he was entrusted with a late acoustic version as well. The differences between the volatile, incendiary Coates and the linear, direct, unflamboyant Fried are significant. But I found both performances worked well on their own expressive levels, and good transfers enhance the experience.
 
Mark Obert-Thorn has retained a relatively high level of surface noise on the French Polydors used, the better to allow a good frequency response. This allows one to hear how carefully balanced are some passages. It also reveals moments of sectional untidiness in a few brief places that are not, from the timings, due to nervousness at side changes but perhaps more down to Fried not quite getting things together at those points. They are, I should add, insignificant in the great scheme of things.
 
Fried was a rhythmically precise conductor though his employment of strategic rubati for expressive reasons is exceptionally well judged. He starts with a good underlying pulse, and delivers a first movement that is logical, coherent and impressive. His Scherzo is full of strong accents, dynamic drive. I sensed the turn over in this movement at 4:50. Orchestrally speaking the Berlin State sported some highly accomplished brass players and personable, recognisable wind players too. This adds to the colouristic possibilities open to Fried and he takes advantage of them to notable effect. The Adagio has no idiosyncrasies; there are no lurching accelerandi, and no obviously personalised devices that may seem rhythmically obstructive. I assume that the rallentando at 5:01 is a preparation for the side change, as it doesn't sound structural within the context of the movement as a whole. In the finale we can admire the deep tangy power of the double basses and cellos, and they offer really hefty, 'bottom-up' German string tone at its best. Once again the finale is tautly controlled, and as befits the conductor who had undertaken a massive, late acoustic 1924 recording of Mahler's Second Symphony, large forces didn't daunt him at all. The soloists may not register much as names now, but they did then, and they are all outstanding. Kittel's choir was probably Germany's best at the time.
 
This extremely fine restoration presents an important document from a distinguished Beethovenian. 

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When I first read about this collection of live excerpts from Die Meistersinger some years ago, I was appalled that anyone could be so stupid as to record excerpts from the opera back in 1928 and not bother to preserve Frederick Schorr's performances of the Fliedermonolog and "Wahn! Wahn!" but it turns out that there was actually some method to this madness. As the producer/annotator, Mark Obert-Thorn, points out, the idea was to fill in some gaps by recording passages that had not been recorded earlier and were unlikely to be in the near future. Some 46 sides of 78- rpm recordings were taken down from two performances, some of them duplicating the earlier ones. Ultimately, 20 sides were issued. This CD includes most of two unpublished sides from the April performance. Why was there some hesitation about recording the complete opera on 78s? The producer points out that, when this was finally done in 1951, the opera consumed 68 sides-I assume that most people bought the LP set instead!

I found it both fascinating and frustrating to eavesdrop on a 1928 stage performance-"frustrating" because I start contemplating all the things that might have been recorded back then. I have heard studio recordings from the '20s that sounded worse than this; once you become absorbed by the performance, the surface noise, such as it is, virtually disappears. What makes Friedrich Schorr's Sachs special, at least to me, is the mellow, unforced authority he projects-he sounds wise and humane and his interaction with the other singers is conversational, even though he's singing. I have admired performances/recordings with Theo Adam, Ferdinand Frantz, Paul Schoeffler, Thomas Stewart, Giorgio Tozzi, and José van Dam, but I think he's still the king of the cobblers. Although a powerful motive for this project was the preservation of Schorr's authoritative Hans Sachs, I heard enough of Leo Blech's conducting to make me wish that more of his contribution had been preserved. After all, if you want a "complete" (it's not uncut) Meistersinger with Schorr sounding very nearly as good in 1940 as he did back in 1928, there's a Met broadcast conducted by Erich Leinsdorf in very respectable sound with Charles Kullman as a splendid Walther and a decent supporting cast. It's been issued by Immortal Performances. My review appears in Fanfare 33:1.

Opening the disc is part of David's lecture to Walther. Karl Jöken may not have a particularly strong voice but listen to how vividly he makes his points and executes the ornamentation with the help of Blech's sympathetic, supple support. The scene even takes on a playful, humorous quality. The next excerpt, "Das schöne Fest, Johannestag," unfortunately, features Emanuel List's labored, congested vocalism as Pogner. This and his undistinguished contribution to the scene with Eva near the beginning of act II suggest that the Golden Age of Wagner performance wasn't necessarily pure gold. Among the selections on the disc is a nearly 20-minute chunk of the "Jerum! Jerum!" scene where Sachs sabotages Beckmesser's serenade to Eva. A smaller selection from it is preserved on one of the two unissued sides with the mike apparently placed closer to Eva and Walther (Fritz Wolff on this night), since their brief interjections come across more clearly. From act III, we get the opening scene between David and Sachs; next, the scene where Eva pretends one of her shoes doesn't fit, followed by Walther's Prize Song and Sachs's admonition that he's too old for Eva, and the allusion to Tristan and Isolde. The recording cuts out just before Sachs "baptizes" David. Elfriede Marherr-Wagner and Robert Hutt strike me as solid performers, the kind that even major opera houses need, rather than star singers; I doubt that either was the best or worst thing in any performance in which they participated, and that was surely the case back on a certain night in May 1928. Next, we hear part of the artisans' entrance (as is sometimes the case, the onstage trumpets aren't exactly precise), the beginning of the Dance of the Apprentices, the tail end of the Procession of the Mastersingers, most of "Wach auf!" and the closing scene, even though Schorr had made a previous studio recording of it. The other unpublished side, which concludes the CD, preserves the April 29 Eva/Sachs scene from act III but cuts out before the Prize Song. It seems that the CD just ran out of space (look at the total time) but Obert-Thorn writes that you can download the missing half-minute or so from Pristine Audio's website. Throughout, Leo Blech (assuming it is he-there is some dispute about this) collaborates with the singers, offering a warm, sympathetic foundation for them. Too bad he never recorded the complete opera.

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Polish-born Carl Schuricht (1880-1967) was a highly-regarded conductor who led many major orchestras (including the Vienna Philharmonic with which he made a number of fine recordings) although he never held a major conducting position. Judging from the performances on this new CD, Schuricht was a dynamic conductor who demanded and received terrific performances from orchestra not known for their virtuosity. The program opens with an oddity, the lively overture to the opera Schneider Wibble written in 1937 by Mark Lothar (1902-1985) and continues with a rousing performance of Franck's colorful symphonic poem. Both of these were recorded in Berlin in 1942. The rest of the recordings are with the La Scala Orchestra, the first a lovely work for cello and small orchestra by Zandonai, with Enzo Martinenghi, presumably the orchestra's principal, as soloist. It is remarkable this gorgeous music isn't played more often; there don't seem to be other commercial recordings of it although you can see a performance on YOUTUBE. One of the fastest performances you'll ever hear of the Donna Diana Overture follows, and the program ends with a stunning performance of Strauss's Sinfonia Domestica. The La Scala brass copies admirably with the score's demands. Mark Obert-Thorn's transfers are sheer perfection. Recommended!

The career of Irish-born Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) was focused in England. A composer, pianist and organist as well as a conductor, Harty was chief conductor of Manchester's Hallé Orchestra from 1920-1933. A major figure in London's musical scene, he gave many important works their premieres or first London performances. Harty made a number of highly-regarded recordings, and here we have a varied collection recorded 1927-1933. Performances are vigorous and beautifully played by the superb orchestra. The New World's second movement is given a hasty reading, and for whatever reason, there is a cut of several bars before the final pages of Carnival. Mark Obert-Thorn's meticulous remastering has corrected numerous pitch problems, and the result is a splendid transformation of original disks. There is much orchestral excitement to be heard here.

Mstislav Rostropovic (1927-2007) made at least a half-dozen recordings of Dvorák's cello concerto, and he usually said after each, "this is my best," doubtless to promote sales. Now Pristine has issued one of his earliest (probably the second) recorded in 1952 with the Czech Philharmonic directed by Václav Talich, a combination hard to beat. The monophonic recording is well balanced and here sounds considerably superior to previous issues thanks to Andrew Rose's XR remastering. As a bonus, we have Miaskovsky's Cello Concerto, Op. 66 composed in 1944/45 taped in London 1956 for HMV with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the Philharmonia Orchestra. A definitive issue! This is an important issue.

Another memorable issue is the coupling of Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth piano concertos with Clifford Curzon and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch. These have often been issued previously and currently are available on a modestly-priced Decca CD. However, on this new release they sound better than ever. Pristine's remastering can do nothing about the overly-resonant piano sound of the originals, but it does offer realistic "ambient stereo" for the mono recording of Concerto No. 4 which dates from April 1954, as well as the early stereo recording of the Emperor, recorded in June of 1957. Legendary performances, beautifully presented.