Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Symphony No.1 in B flat major, Op.38 Spring (1841) [31:26] ¹
Symphony No.3 in E flat major, Op.97 Rhenish (1850) [26:01] ²
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Parsifal (1882): Four Orchestral extracts; Act I; Transformation Music [4:42]:
Act II; Introduction [3:05]: Act III: Prelude [4:19]: Act III: Transformation
Music [3:59]
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Salome (1905): Two orchestral excerpts; Jokanaan descends to the cistern [3:01]:
Jokanaan is brought before Salome [3:02] ³
National Symphony Orchestra/Piero Coppola ¹
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/ Piero
Coppola ²
Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup/ Piero Coppola ³
rec. Kingsway Hall, London 1946 (Symphony No.1); Salle Rameau, Paris, 1933
(Symphony No.3, and Wagner): 1934, Paris (Strauss)
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 335 [79:32]
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
Justice done to justice to a musician who was much more than just a ‘house
conductor’.