RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Symphony No.5 in E minor Op.64 (1888) [40:22]
Ouverture Solonnelle ‘1812’ Op.49 (1880) [14:53]
Alexander GLAZUNOV (1865-1936)
Stenka Razin – symphonic Poem Op.13 (1885) [17:06]
Ural Cossacks Choir (1812)
Berlin State Opera Orchestra (symphony) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1812,
Razin)/Alexander Kitschin
rec. 1928-29, Berlin
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 268 [72:21]
This is exciting. We have an almost unknown conductor, little known recordings,
including a major symphonic statement, first class Polydor pressings, and
splendid restorations by Mark Obert-Thorn.
The conductor is Alexander Kitschin, about whom almost nothing is known. He
was married to soprano Xenia Belmas, and – I’m reliant on the brief notes
for my information – he emigrated to Germany with her from the Soviet Union
in 1921. They moved to South Africa in 1938. He accompanied her on some vocal
discs in Berlin, as well as these three orchestral outings. All were made
in Berlin, and even here there’s been some debate as to attribution. The Tchaikovsky
Symphony is label-credited to ‘The Opera-Orchestra, Berlin’ but it’s been
ascribed elsewhere to the Berlin-Charlottenburg Opera Orchestra. Obert-Thorn
thinks it’s actually the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, who recorded the work
two years later for Leo Blech, who ironically later trod the same journey
as Kitschin, only in reverse, ending up in Russia.
Kitschin’s conducting ethos, on the basis of the symphony in particular, might
be generally likened to such outsize individualists as Mengelberg, Coates,
Stokowski, and Golovanov. In another twist, I assume he was living in South
Africa at around the same time as Albert Coates, whose conducting his so resembles,
so maybe some trace remains of him there, as some recorded traces do of Coates
in broadcast performances.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Fifth open in such a way as here; a doleful,
trudging, hugely introspective tempo, but one that is, amazingly, just about
sustained through the opening paragraphs. Thenceforth we are treated to a
remarkable display of personalised music making – powerful moments when the
music stop-starts, slows down, speeds up. Rhythms are hugely flexible, and
things are taken to phrasal and expressive limits. The slow movement is not
especially slow in any way, but as throughout it’s the variety of phrasing
and of orchestral colour that lends this performance its strategic purpose.
He encourages distinctive wind playing and phrasing, and brings the orchestra
along with him to a remarkable degree. There are cuts in the finale but these
were, I think, not unusual at the time and even later conductors, such as
Schmidt-Isserstedt and Sargent, used them. If you’ve had the good fortune
to hear Coates’s 1922 traversal of the symphony you will certainly note a
kind of kinship of interpretation. What is undeniable is the flair, excitement,
and extremes generated by this unknown conductor.
As a bonus we have Glazunov’s Stenka Razin, in a purposeful, powerful
traversal, and the ‘1812’, with the full-blooded contribution of the Ural
Cossacks Choir.
These set the seal on a rather amazing disc.
Jonathan Woolf
A rather amazing disc.