George Szell
was a conductor who was feared and respected
rather than loved by his players. In
this, he wasn’t that different from
many eminent maestros of his and earlier
generations, and I don’t get the impression
that it worried him overmuch. There
is no doubting his great musical talent,
and the discipline he brought to his
rehearsals and performances.
He
is represented here in repertoire for
which he is well known – Dvořák,
Wagner and others of that era – along
with some that one wouldn’t immediately
associate with him. CD1 begins, for
example, with a fizzing account of the
enticing Fra Diavolo overture
by Auber, full of wit and élan.
It finishes with a loving and equally
stylish version of Delius’s exquisite
prelude to Irmelin.
Also
on CD1 is a Dvořák Eighth recorded
with the Cleveland Orchestra – the band
with which he was most strongly linked
– in 1970, just months before
his death. It
is a fine account, with a sure sense
of architecture yet careful projection
of the many characteristic details.
Now, I grew up (along with how many
readers, I wonder?) with a Szell Dvořák
Eighth, published by Decca on the
old ‘Ace of Clubs’ label. It was with
the Concertgebouw, and packed with a
joyous sense of adventure and incident.
One has to take care, because one always
remembers such recordings with misty-eyed
affection. But on checking, I was struck
by how much more sense of urgent forward
movement there was in the opening Allegro
con brio, and elsewhere. An earlier
date, a younger, more energetic Szell,
no doubt. But equally, I was struck
how Szell had refined his interpretation
over the years, with many small fluctuations
in the tempo to add emphasis.
A splendid La Mer
follows, from 1962, and, though
the playing of the Cologne Orchestra
is not always up to the highest standards,
they play their hearts out for Szell,
and give a thrilling account. It by
no means suffers by comparison with
the Giulini recording from the same
era that I
reviewed a week or two back.
CD2 begins with a brilliant
Italian Girl in Algiers, followed
by a truly resplendent Tchaikovsky Fifth.
There is a sense of urgency and
drive about Szell’s conducting here,
which serves the music exceptionally
well. Listen, for example, to how he
refuses to allow the first movement’s
second subject to relax too much (CD2,
track 2, around 4:28). So many conductors
lose the plot here and imagine themselves
in a ballet suite rather than a symphony!
Bracing.
A magisterial Mastersingers
prelude, and, just to underline
the point of what a truly great stylist
Szell was, a totally intoxicating one
of one of the less well-known waltzes
from the Strauss family, Josef’s Delirien
complete CD2. The playing
he draws from the Cleveland strings
in this last number is out of this world.
Szell was truly an
aristocrat among conductors, and nothing
on this fine set falls below the superb
standards he set for himself and his
orchestras.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
EMI/IMG
Great conductors of the 20th Century