Much less well known than their Bach the Busch Chamber
Players’ Handel dates from 1946 and was recorded in New York. As the
producers make clear this set of the Op 6 Concerto Grossi is exceptionally
rare and in fact copies used in this transfer were borrowed from Adolf
Busch’s widow as were the acetates from the 1943 Town Hall concert,
the by no means trifling appendix to this three CD collection. The live
performance of the Bach Violin Concerto from the same concert is on
Pearl Gemm CD 9298.
Busch wasn’t the first to record the complete set of
Op 6 – Boyd Neel’s had been issued in piecemeal fashion between 1936
and 1938, and in fact earlier than their Neel set, Decca had issued
half of Op 6 with their own orchestra, led by no less than William Primrose,
under Ernest Ansermet. Busch employed an expensive harpsichord player
in Mieczyslaw Horszowski, who is for the most part almost entirely inaudible.
Neel had used the excellent Arnold Goldsborough and his subtle and apposite
playing gives a fillip to the Neel discs. Busch tends to expressive
extremes in Handel – though Neel also takes and extends tempi to breaking
point - and there are times, it has to be said, when in both sets tempos
congeal. Busch’s phrasing is generally crisp, string tone is firmly
focused - though never unpliant – and portamenti are restrained and,
where employed, well judged. As a pendant we can hear a live performance
of the First Orchestral suite of Bach, somewhat weightier and slower
than their famous 1936 commercially recorded set. Christine Johnson
makes a good showing in the Schütz – piano continuo by the young
Lukas Foss. Presentation is excellent and given the rarity of the originals
the sound is of remarkable fidelity.
Jonathan Woolf
Adolf Busch