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Anton BRUCKNER (1824–1896)
Symphony No. 8 in C minor (Haas Edition) (1884-87, rev. 1889-90) [78:43] Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Cello Concerto in B minor Op.104 (1895) [42:17]
Enrico Mainardi (cello) Sinfonieorchester des Hessischen Rundfunks (Bruckner), Sinfonieorchester
des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Dvorak)/Eugen Jochum
rec. 30 May 1949 (Bruckner) and 27 October 1950 (Dvořák) TAHRA TAH638-39 [57:11
+ 64:05]
I
was amazed to read that, according to Tahra’s researches,
Eugen Jochum never conducted a single Dvořák
symphony. One appreciates that musicians feel indifferent
to certain areas of the repertoire but this was surely a
wretched state of affairs. And yet he was asked to record
the Violin Concerto, of all things, with Kulenkampff in 1941,
a recording inferior to the contemporaneous Příhoda/Berlin
State/van Kempen. Given these feelings of repertoire indifference
it was all the more intriguing to see what Jochum would make
of the Cello Concerto in this 1950 broadcast.
His soloist was Enrico Mainardi,
a deeply serious artist who
had already recorded the Concerto in Dresden with van Kempen
and was to record it again soon in Berlin with Fritz Lehmann.
Of the three conductors regrettably Jochum is the least impressive
and the most unsympathetic to the idiom. This is a slow,
fitful performance, blustering and Brucknerian in places
and sentimentalised in the slow movement. Jochum opens slowly
and Mainardi enters rather sullenly. He uses a great deal
of rubato and his tone is not always likeable; his fast vibrato
also limits sensitivity of colours. Mainardi’s intonation
and playing wander badly off course approaching the first
movement’s climax. In theory one admires the depth and serious
lyric intensity of the cellist’s playing in the slow movement – but
in practice it’s too much and too undifferentiated and far
too slow. The finale is rough and ready. Mainardi is ponderous
here and Jochum isn’t able or willing to subdue raucous orchestral
playing. Additionally it should be noted that the recording
can barely contain the tuttis and becomes blowsy and overloads
quite frequently.
All things considered, and interest in Jochum’s Dvořák
sated, it’s probably best that posterity has been saved further
examples of his way with the composer.
Bruckner of course is another matter. The conjunction of
the two composers is in fact almost a polar opposite in terms
of repertoire interests and competencies. He left behind
two famous LP cycles of the complete symphonies, the first
in the 1960s shared between the Bavarian Radio Symphony and
Berlin Philharmonic (who play the Eighth) and the second
recorded in Dresden in the late 1970s. Specifically the Eighth
recordings were made in 1964 and 1976. There are also performances
from Hamburg in 1949 – shortly before this Tahra Frankfurt
one - and a late Amsterdam performance in 1984. He remained
loyal to the Haas edition until some point in the 1950s when
he migrated to the Nowak. By the later 1950s certainly he
had entirely renounced the earlier editor’s work in favour
of Haas’s successor, and this of course had implications
in respect of Nowak’s cuts. But back in 1950 we find a similar
level of romanticised expression as in those later commercial
cycles. His opening movement is brisk but not quite as brisk
as it was later to become; he remained however a very forward
moving conductor of this particular movement and those who
revere, say, Wand may perhaps find Jochum a touch perfunctory
here. Much however is impressive even if the fuller tragic
implications of the work emerge more powerfully in other
hands.
An interesting reclamation then albeit Jochum has little
penchant for Bohemia. And the Bruckner might seem superfluous
to requirements given the existence of the other LP sets
but this is, in fact, not quite the case. It offers a view
of the younger Jochum, powerfully energised and romantically
affiliated.
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