Guido Cantelli’s life was cut cruelly short before he had
time to leave a substantial legacy of studio recordings. Happily,
many concert recordings exist, especially of performances that
he gave in the USA, and as these are issued on CD we have more
opportunities to admire the very special talents of this Italian
maestro.
Many of these recordings consist of performances with either
the New York Philharmonic or, as here, with the NBC Symphony
Orchestra. We learn from the notes on the Pristine Audio
website that
accompany this release that Cantelli gave forty concerts with
the NBC orchestra, more than any other conductor apart from Toscanini
himself. Cantelli’s biographer, Keith Bennett has an extensive
collection of tapes of these concerts, including this present
one, and Pristine are hoping to issue more of them. If they do,
there will probably be some overlap between, for example, the
three boxes of such recordings issued by Testament or with the
marvellous bumper
box of recordings from Music & Arts. However, there’s
no such duplication here, save that one of the Testament boxes
(SBT 1306) contains a different performance of the
Rienzi overture.
The
Rienzi performance, which closes this particular programme,
is a good one. The ‘Rienzi’s Prayer’ theme
is unfolded very spaciously (track 6, from 1:41). Some may think
it too broad, but I love it, especially since Cantelli obtains
such warm playing. Later on the tub-thumping sub-Weber
allegro material
is pretty empty stuff but Cantelli makes as good a case for it
as possible.
I admire very much his account of the Schubert symphony. In the
first movement there’s no autumnal, valedictory dawdling.
Instead, Cantelli’s reading is purposeful and darkly dramatic.
After his finely focused account of I, the second movement is
unfolded quite beautifully. In his note, Keith Bennett draws
attention to the fact that in Cantelli’s 1955 studio recording
(EMI) with the Philharmonia, this movement lasted for over a
minute longer. This tauter New York account doesn’t feel
unduly hasty, though.
For many collectors the main interest in this release will lie
in the inclusion of Britten’s
Sinfonia da Requiem.
Apparently this was the only piece of English music that Cantelli
ever performed and this present performance is one of just six
that he’s known to have given. The performance is interesting
on another account. It took place just twelve years after the
première of the work - also given in New York, by Barbirolli.
Nowadays this is a very familiar work but in 1953 it must have
been very new both to performers and players. This may even be
only the second recording of the work to survive. There is a
recording of Barbirolli and the NYPSO giving the second performance
of the work, the day after its première (NMC D030) but
the sound quality is very poor and the recording is really only
of archival interest. This blistering Cantelli reading is quite
another matter, not least because the sound quality is so good.
Subsequent to the première - and possibly as a result
of listening to the off-air recording - Britten expressed the
view that Barbirolli’s speeds for the first and third movement
were too slow. It’s interesting to note, therefore, that
Cantelli takes 9:04 for the first movement (Barbirolli 9:50)
and 6:05 for the third (Barbirolli 8:05). Barbirolli is a trifle
faster overall in the second movement (4:58 against Cantelli’s
5:35).
What impresses most of all about this Cantelli performance is
its sheer power. The first movement is dreadful - in the true
sense of the word - full of lowering menace. In the opening pages
especially it’s clear that Cantelli understands the ominous
tread of the music and he builds the movement to a shattering
climax (track 3, from 6:49) with some fearfully powerful brass
playing. The entire passage from this point to the movement’s
close is literally awesome.
The scalding second movement spits and snarls and after that
Cantelli judges and paces the beneficently calm finale quite
beautifully. I suggested earlier that many of the players would
have been unfamiliar with this music. If so, it never shows.
They respond to Cantelli’s direction ardently. This is
a very considerable account of the score and makes one wonder
what
Peter Grimes might have been like under Cantelli’s
baton.
I’m delighted to report that the very superior music-making
on this disc is conveyed in excellent sound. Andrew Rose has
done a splendid job in remastering the recording. One can only
hope that more of these Cantelli issues will soon be forthcoming
and while the focus is likely to be on New York one wonders if
it might be possible also to issue performances given with, say,
the Chicago or Boston Symphony Orchestras. There is, for example,
a superb 1954 Boston performance of Respighi’s
Pines
of Rome but so far as I know the only way to hear
this at the moment is by investing in the BSO’s deluxe
Symphony
Hall Centennial Collection box of CDs.
For now, all admirers of Cantelli will be grateful for this issue
from Pristine. Snap it up for the Britten especially. What a
conductor!
John Quinn
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Guido Cantelli 
