MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: October-November 2006
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
Last month I mentioned the Pristine
audio website (link 1) and the facility therein, for a modest
subscription, to access their whole catalogue and play it directly
off the internet, preferably through a hi-fi system. They specialise
in restoring historical recordings which are out of copyright
(i.e. pre-1956) and I have been continuing to explore what is
offered. Pride of place amongst the rich pickings goes equally
to Sir Adrian Boult’s 1949 recording of Elgar’s
1st symphony with the London Philharmonic and Thomas
Jensen’s 1952 Danish Radio orchestra take on Nielsen’s
Sixth. Either of these is a plausible first choice in the repertoire
and few allowances need to be made for the sound. Other orchestral
recordings I found to be of particular interest are Anthony
Collins and the LSO in a Delius anthology made
in 1953 and the famous live in the Concertgebouw Mengelberg
Mahler 4 from 1939. No one could, I suspect, convincingly
argue the latter is a first choice but everyone should hear
it!
There is quite a lot of Mozart
on the site, of which Sammons and Tertis playing the K364 Sinfonia
concertante in 1935 under Harty is another “must hear”.
Reginald Kell in the Clarinet Quintet (1945) and Schnabel playing
the K459 piano concerto under Sargent (1937) are further examples
of recordings that grab and hold one’s attention. There is not
a great deal of opera here but the famous and splendid 1935
Glyndebourne Figaro conducted by Busch is coming down
the telephone line and out of the speakers as I write. Bach
is well represented too with Edwin Fischer’s 48 from the 1930’s
and Hermann Scherchen’s 1950 B minor Mass. Here the sound is
initially disappointing but it gets considerably better quite
quickly and the performance is tremendous. The difficulties
the restorers had with the beginning of this recording are explained
in the notes – another feature of the Pristine site is excellent
documentation.
Lovers of the keyboard will also
find much else to interest them. Despite an interest in Scarlatti
I had not heard of harpsichordist Fernando Valenti before. There
are, so far 11 discs of this combination from the early 1950s
available. The complete oeuvre (555 sonatas in total)
was not recorded until the mid-80s (by Scott Ross) but Valenti’s
pioneering records clearly made quite a big dent and deserve
to be unearthed. Alongside them is Wanda Landowska’s famous
record of 20 sonatas from 1934 and Kathleen Long playing an
interesting Scarlatti selection on the piano. Pick of the piano
discs I have heard so far is the first of two Liszt
recording made by Peter Katin in 1954 which includes the Dante
sonata and Consolations.
I also ought to mention some more
chamber music – notable here are the Italian Quartet’s 1954
take on Beethoven’s first Razumovsky quartet
and Schubert’s B flat Piano Trio. There are two
recordings of the latter with Casals (1926) and Fournier (1953)
as the cellists. I haven’t yet heard the former (although the
beauty of this arrangement is I could listen to it whenever
I want to with just a couple of clicks of the mouse) but the
latter is pretty exceptional – Janigro and Badura-Skoda are
the other artists. Whilst on the subject of Schubert, I must
also get around to listening to the first ever recordings of
his song cycles made in the 1930s by Hüsch and Müller – these
have been reviewed in detail by Anne Ozorio (link 2). Of course,
not everything is going to completely hit the spot, the 1940s
Bruckner String Quintet by the augmented Strub
Quartet is basically a curiosity and has the slow movement placed
second (and here you can’t just reprogram the order of tracks)
but disappointments have been very few so far. Congratulations
are due to Pristine for an amazing achievement.
Much of the historical stuff mentioned
above makes Wilhelm Kempff’s 1950s complete Beethoven
sonata recordings seem relatively modern. This set was issued
about ten years ago, has a Penguin guide rosette and has recently
been on offer at a very low price. Relative to prior high expectations,
though, I found it slightly disappointing. There is a variable
amount of tape hiss and a few pre-echos but the sound is generally
very good for the period and much better than for Solomon’s
incomplete series made around the same time. The playing is,
of course, wonderful in many respects but Kempff is not invariably
convincing, particularly in some of the early sonatas. These
are studio recordings but there are quite a few uncorrected
fluffs and the dates indicate that he was often recording several
works in a single day. Most of the recordings were made in September
and December 1951 and then some gaps were filled as late as
1956. Kempff started with the later works and seemed to be on
better form generally in September than in December 1951. However,
the Hammerklavier is quite lacking in grandeur and taken
quickly (a mere 38 minutes on the clock). There is beauty in
the slow movement but the Fugue doesn’t really hang together.
Despite inferior sound, Solomon is much more convincing in this
great work. Kempff eschews repeats and generally does not linger
(the slow tempo in the opening of the first sonata is an exception
and sounds quirky), either in terms of tempi or on individual
notes – final chords often sound clipped. As a whole, no doubt
this is one of the great cycles but somehow it didn’t quite
match my expectations. John Quinn has just reviewed Craig Sheppard’s
recent live cycle (link 3) and, perhaps I should have gone for
that although the prospect of jewel cases for a nine disc set
would count against it in my book.
Two recent musical outings could
hardly have been more different. First, I was off to Covent
Garden on a Monday night to see the revival of their production
of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
(link 4). This was a fabulous evening’s entertainment with a
plot which makes Shakespeare seem quite tame. Stars of the show
were Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina and John Tomlinson as the
father-in-law whom she murders with rat poison. The orchestra
was impressive too with Antonio Pappano doing a great job in
the pit. The piano music of Elgar in a school
in Oxfordshire proved also to be entertaining, as delivered
in words and on the keyboard by David Owen Norris (link 5) -
part of the English Music Festival. Ashley Wass’s recent Elgar
disc found its way into my reviewing pile (link 6) and it was
interesting to hear the Enigma variations in this form.
Another disc I have reviewed recently
was of chamber music of Ryba (link 7), a little
known Czech composer whose flute quartets are a logical place
to go next if you like Mozart’s well-known and delightful compositions
in the genre. Another name unfamiliar to me was the Japanese
composer Hayasaka (link 8) whose piano concerto
is more influenced by Rachmaninov than by national idioms. Mention
piano concerto and it is hard not to think of the Hyperion Romantic
Piano Concerto series. Disc 41 continues to delight with two
works by Kalkbrenner, another unfamiliar but interesting
composer (link 9). Howard Shelley is again on great form with
his Tasmanian forces.
A disc of English cello sonatas
by Foulds, Walker and Bowen
also found its way into my player and proved worthwhile (link
10). I thought the Foulds to be the finest of the three but
all are well worth hearing.
Patrick C Waller
Links
1. http://www.pristineaudiodirect.com/index.html
2. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Schubert_Husch_PAC0005_PAC0007.htm
3. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2006/Nov06/Beethoven_Sheppard_723341.htm
4. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/SandH/2006/Jul-Dec06/mtsensk0610.htm
5. http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2006/Jul-Dec06/emf2210.htm
6. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2006/Nov06/Elgar_Piano_8570166.htm
7. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2006/Oct06/Ryba_8557729.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2006/Oct06/Hayasaka_PianoConcerto_8557819.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2006/Oct06/Kalkbrenner_CDA67535.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Foulds_Walker_Bowen.htm
