Sándor Végh (conductor)
Soloists of the International Musicians Seminar
Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg
rec. 1987-1994, Cornwall, Vienna, Salzburg
CAPRICCIO C7422 [6 CDs: 389]
It is twenty-five years since Sándor Végh’s death and this commemorative box set forms a fitting tribute to him, ranging across music from the Classical era to the mid-20C. Apparently music pervaded his whole being like the grain in wood; as well as being a virtuoso concert artist he was also an inspirational teacher and conductor. Capriccio here presents eight composers on six discs providing six and a half hours of music as testimony to his versatility and artistry.
I did not include - indeed, did not have access to – Végh’s versions of Haydn’s Seven Last Words or Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, in my surveys of those great works, but having written them at least gives me some perspective on the quality of these recordings. My references for comparison with the string orchestra arrangements of Beethoven’s String Quartet No 14 and the Große Fuge have to be three classic accounts: Bernstein with the VPO for the former, Klemperer with the Philharmonia and Furtwngler with the VPO for the latter.
I began listening to this set with the Haydn piece on the second disc, the earliest work here, and was immediately struck by the subtlety and variety of Végh’s application of gradation in dynamics and the shaping of phrases; everything sounds carefully thought through and even newly minted without any suggestion of calculatedness or preciousness. The delicacy of the pulsing strings in the Seven Last Words is remarkable and there is depth of sound without bombast. The orchestra here is relatively small but never sounds under-powered and their tuning is immaculate. Vibrato is very sparingly applied in deference to period awareness but there is no whining or squeezing. Végh seems to have all the time
in the world to let this music unfold but takes the conventional hour over it and it never drags – except I would have liked a little more drive and urgency in the concluding Il terremoto. Nonetheless, I unhesitatingly add this to the recommendations I made in my survey for the orchestral versions.
Végh captures perfectly the stark, searing melancholy of the fugal Adagio first movement of the orchestrated Beethoven quartet. This is a leaner, faster account than Bernstein’s but the inner voices emerge clearly, especially in the strong bass line. Rhythmic co-ordination and maintenance of unison playing in the cadenzas and pizzicato passages are notably fine. The result is a performance of unearthly beauty, suffused with both joy and suffering.
The Große Fuge is taken at the same speed as Klemperer’s, two and a half minutes shorter than Furtwängler’s monumental nineteen minutes. Of course, the sound here is far preferable to either, especially Furtwängler’s live, mono account. Grand and compelling as that is, it is really of specialised, historical interest; Klemperer’s is equally imposing and obviously in somewhat better sound but still muddy and distant compared with this recording under review. In any case, I cannot imagine better performance of this wild, desperate music than we have here; if anything, Végh is rather better at encompassing the range of moods and colours in this music than the two old German masters.
The two middle discs contain the four last Schubert symphonies. Végh delivers a fleet, charming and graceful account of the Fifth and a relaxed, genial Sixth very akin to Beecham’s – more so than, for example, Maazel’s somewhat po-faced but vital readings (see my review of his complete set); there is more lilt here. As always in comparison with vintage accounts, the sound here is to Végh’s advantage. However, I must declare myself disappointed with the “Unfinished” and the “Great”, both contain what I hear as egregious flaws in pacing. For example, I am not at all taken by the rather diffident opening to the “Unfinished”. It seems small-scale, ponderous and lacking in import, especially in comparison with Sinopoli’s recording with the Staatskapelle, which positively oozes menace and mystery and has far more tension about it. Likewise, the tempo chosen for the Andante in the “Great” is a miscalculation; Knappertsbusch in his live 1957 recording shows how it should be done, as does Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra. Other movements go better but there is a general limpness about proceedings which plays into the hands of those who consider Schubert’s symphonies to be lightweight - and no matter how good the rest, if both symphonies contain a poorly paced movement, that disqualifies them from recommendation.
I was unfamiliar with the string orchestra arrangement here of Brahms String Quintet No 2, but am now very impressed by my first encounter with it. It frequently reminds me of another, favourite work for strings, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade and is played here with all the freedom and rapture missing in the later Schubert symphonies. In fact, I was so bowled over by it that I immediately played it again and hurried to find the original, late chamber music works on my shelves. It is lyrical, passionate, elegiac and profound by turns – and if anything, it gains from being couched in the denser textures and richer colours of this string arrangement. The Presto coda is a riot.
The ensuing work could hardly present a greater contrast to Brahms’ exuberance. I am a Verklärte Nacht obsessive and never pass up a chance to hear a new recording. This one sounds as if it lies somewhere between the full-fat orchestral arrangement and the chamber version, the Salzburg Mozarteum Camerata Academica being a somewhat smaller band; as such, for me it rather falls between two stools and climaxes do not quite deliver, nor do heavy chords really bite, but there is no doubting the passion and commitment of the players. Balances between instrumental groups are excellent and the lyrical sections of love music, such as at the start of the penultimate track, and the ensuing shimmering “starlight music”, are deeply satisfying, even if the lead violinist’s tone is rather thin. The last section is best of all, moving towards a transcendent close.
The sixth and final CD contains a medley of music by three different composers which is not especially to my taste – but that does not mean that I cannot recognise how well it is played. Bartók, Berg and Stravinsky were almost exact contemporaries – but of course, the latter lived far longer than the others – and these three pieces are all prime examples of the modernist trend in classical music pre-WW2.
A brief biographical note - unidiomatically translated into English - is provided, but nothing at all about the music and no information about which or whose arrangements have been used. A “curate’s egg” is an awful cliché but useful shorthand to describing what is on offer here, because some of it is very good indeed – but only in parts.
Ralph Moore
Contents
CD 1:
Beethoven: String Quartet No 14 in C-sharp minor, Op 131
Beethoven: Große Fuge in B-flat major, Op 133
Soloists of International Musicians Seminar
CD 2:
Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross (Orchestral version, 1786)
CD 3:
Schubert: Symphony No 5 in B-flat major, D485
Schubert: Symphony No 6 in C major, D589
CD 4:
Schubert: Symphony No 8 in B minor, D759 'Unfinished'
Schubert: Symphony No 9 in C major, D944 'The Great'
CD 5:
Brahms: String Quintet No 2 in G major, Op 111
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op 4
CD 6:
Bartók: Divertimento for Strings, Sz. 113
Berg: Lyric Suite - three movements for string orchestra (1928)
Stravinsky: Apollon musagčte
Camerata Academica Des Mozarteums Salzburg, Sandor Végh (CDs 2-6)
