Piero Coppola (1888-1971) was born in Milan and studied piano and
composition
at the city’s conservatoire. Successively chorus conductor, opera
and
symphonic director, he is perhaps best known to record collectors for his
pioneering
work as artistic director of HMV in Paris where he was also active as a
conductor.
It was Coppola who brought Prokofiev to London to record his music, and
who
accompanied him on disc in the Third Piano Concerto. But from 1920 he had
been
active in Parisian studios as house conductor and this was where he
remained
until 1940.
Coppola had a most curious but intriguing discography: a lot of Debussy
and
Ravel, certainly, but also smaller pieces by Molinari, Roussel, and
Honegger,
as well as big works like Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony,
Chausson’s
Symphony in B flat and Rimsky’s Antar Symphony, all recorded
before
the War. It’s a legacy well worth exploring. In this release both
sides
of that wartime divide are included.
Schumann’s First Symphony was recorded in London for Decca in July
1946.
The location was the acoustically superior Kingsway Hall, London, and the
orchestra
the hardworking National Philharmonic. One interesting feature was the
set’s
release date. Checking Michael Smith’s Decca Discography shows that
not
until June 1949 did it see the light of commercial day, fully three years
after
it had been set down. Coppola was a studio veteran by now and little could
disturb
him. His Spring Symphony opens with majesty and considerable
breadth,
slightly italicised in respect of phrasing but nevertheless cumulatively
grand.
He elicits a good body of tone from the orchestra - not everyone could,
and
not everyone did - and moulds the Larghetto with considerable
distinction.
He ensures horns and winds are well balanced sectionally.
That this Schumann success was no one-off can be demonstrated by his
earlier
recording of No.3, the Rhenish. This was recorded in Paris in 1933
and
reveals freshness, energy, and a considerable amount of orchestral
incident
and colour. Clearly Coppola’s affinity for Schumann was of some
standing
as he marries flexibility and gravity with a genuine sense of underpinning
momentum.
In short, he cultivates a real Schumann sound.
Gap-plugging ensures that his pre-war, non-French recordings make an
appearance.
There are four excitingly forward moving orchestral extracts from
Parsifal
and two vivid, if brief extracts from Strauss’s Salome.
Coppola’s current status would certainly be enhanced by reissuing
his
Balakirev, and his d’Indy as well as the composers mentioned above,
and
others besides. These current transfers are excellent, and do justice to a
musician
who was much more than just a ‘house conductor’.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review of the Schumann First performance on a Dutton
release
by Gerald
Fenech
Masterwork Index: Schumann symphonies
National Symphony Orchestra/Piero Coppola ¹ 