Comparison recordings:
Vivaldi, Four Seasons, Louis Kaufman,
NYPO [OP] Concert Hall Society LP
Messiah, Scherchen, LSO & Chorus,
[ADD] Archipel ARPCD 0255-3
Messiah, Somary, ECO, Amor Artis Chorale
[ADD] Vanguard OVC 4018/9
When I saw these recordings
announced my first horrified thought
was, "What new violence is Stokowski
going to wreak upon these baroque masterpieces?"
I had never forgiven him for what he
had done to the Bach Brandenburg
Concerto #5, nor ceased to be amazed
at how he could get those musicians
who obviously knew better to go along
with him.
Well, I needn’t have
worried. Stokowski was perfectly capable
of beating time straight off if that
was what was called for, and that’s
mostly what he did here. True, he has
extended and deepened some of the ritardandos
and encouraged the soloists to more
expressive rubato than one usually hears,
and incidentally led the orchestra to
accompany them with great sympathy.
However these are performances that
would have been accepted as quite unexceptional
in the 1950s.
Indeed, the famous
"first" recording of the Four
Seasons with Louis Kaufman made
in the 1950s is very similar to this
one in style. The major reviewers of
the time agree with me that this Stokowski
version is one of the most listenable
versions of the Four Seasons
ever made. Remastered here in 96kHz/24Bit
sound the orchestra string tone is beautiful,
unlike the earlier Scheharazade
recording (CALA
CACD 0536) where I was rebuked by
several friends for not warning them
in my review how harsh the strings sounded.
I confess: in regard to that recording
I was begeistered and not able to offer
sensible criticism. But I am now fully
awake.
Comparing Hermann Scherchen’s
1953 recording of Messiah, on
many lists as the best recording ever
made, with members of the LPO only 13
years previous to this one is also interesting.
The Scherchen recording was one of the
first salvos to be fired in the Original
Instrument/Original Performance Practice
revolution. Stokowski’s orchestra and
chorus are so disciplined that they
don’t sound greatly oversized even in
comparison to the Scherchen version
which was shockingly under-staffed by
contemporary standards. But Stokowski
does strive for grandeur and mostly
returns to the tempi of his childhood
recollection, or perhaps at least of
his immediately previous performance
of Messiah — in Cincinnati, Ohio,
USA, in 1909. The soloists are all in
good voice, but all sound "churchy"
and none of these arias is greatly memorable,
although Sheila Armstrong’s Redeemer
is pretty good. The choruses tend mostly
to be slow and grand, the result being
a rather undistinguished performance
overall, perhaps excepting the ‘Pastoral
Symphony’ which is pure lush Stokowski
larghissimo string tone, if you
like that sort of thing.
Somary’s Messiah
recording made four years later in Wembley
Town Hall, London, uses smaller forces
and faster tempi, but still has a little
romantic spirit about it and is in fact
my preferred complete stereo version.
If Handel was so upset
at the nations furiously raging together
in 1744, it’s merciful he didn’t live
to see the next 68 years. He died thinking
of Colonel George Washington as a loyal
servant of the King.
Paul Shoemaker