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Following their first
Ionisation disc (inspired by the Varèse
piece of the same name of course) we
have volume No II, an equally diverting
and eclectic brew. It certainly makes
for diverting juxtapositions – I’m fairly
sure this is the first time you will
listen to four Bruckner Scherzi in a
row (though doubtless that’s how Thomas
Beecham preferred his Bruckner) and
it’s not often that Toscanini’s surgingly
frenzied Tallis Fantasia is programmed
alongside the rare New Music Quarterly
recordings that Nicolas Slonimsky made
of various movements culled from Ives.
If you fancy, in addition, hearing the
Weimar banjoings of Mark Lothar or Egk’s
impressionism-cum-Spanishry then this
might be the disc for you. Those of
a less lurid frame of mind or those
whose wish to be battered by Bruckner
Scherzi might be less pronounced might
well want to start with Roussel’s recording
of his own ballet Le Festin de l’Araignée.
Roussel’s 1929 recording,
with a short "autographe vocal"
- that’s to say a little speech appended
(something the French record companies
were keen to enshrine – and bravo to
them for it) - allows one to hear a
shorter than expected series of symphonic
extracts. The uncredited orchestra,
presumably a freelance affair, furnishes
Roussel with crisp and incisive rhythm
and a real sense of style (try the Rideau
et Entrée des Fourmis) as
well as a Waltz full of bustling and
bright colour. The idiomatic winds shine
in the fluttery Death of the Mayfly.
Other recordings were made of the ballet
around this time, by Staram and his
orchestra on Columbia and by the Opéra-Comique
under Fourestier on French Pathé
but there is a real frisson listening
to Roussel. The Bruckners were part
of a drive to test the waters for fuller
recordings. We have the Scherzi from
No "0," 1, 2 and 3. Fritz
Zaun (1893-1966) was a capable conductor
– and a more than useful partner for
soloists – but the most convincing performance
is that of No. 3 by Anton Konrath whose
extract was recorded in 1930. Mark Lothar
was born in Berlin and studied there
under Schreker, later pursuing composition
lessons with Wolf-Ferrari. He wrote
operas (Tyll in 1928, Lord
Spleen in 1930, Münchausen
in 1933 and on throughout the 1930s)
and was a music director in Berlin and
Munich. The brief extract here shows
an agreeably frivolous turn of mind,
with plantation style banjo and hints
of a kind of Russo-Egyptian ethos. I’m
not sure if these kinds of Weimar hijinks
could survive long in his work – and
it’s likely that the later operas conformed
more to the dictates of state imposed
Volksoper – it would be nice to know
for sure.
Egk’s Kleine Abraxas
Suite is by turns seething in impressionist
nuance and then, come the second movement
Dance, coloured by Spanish colour and
the clack of the castanets. He was always
a more subtle composer than history
has allowed and the 1951 sound accorded
Fricsay and his Berlin forces allows
one to hear the orchestration and admire
it. Toscanini’s eruptive Tallis dates
from 1945 and we finish with Ives –
his In the Night and a Barn
Dance throbbing with warped Americana
and scattershot quotation. Good especially
to have these rare sides available.
Pioneer orchestral
recordings is the subtitle of this
disc and that’s no mistake though I
prefer to see it as a reference disc
that preserves some notable examples
in otherwise unavailable form. Fine
sound.
Jonathan Woolf
SYMPOSIUM 1258 [75.05] 