The two musicians who
lend their names to this disc’s title
are Artur Balsam and Louis Kaufman.
Balsam has been heavily promoted by
Bridge, not least in his role as accompanist
to the string elite, and other companies
have captured his artistry as well.
Kaufman’s discs have been reissued by
a number of companies but there is still
an awfully long way to go before this
charismatic player’s discography has
been fully mined.
Bridge reminds us that
the recordings here were all made for
Concert Hall – though weren’t the Romantic
Pieces on Capitol? Some of them certainly
appeared under licence. My copy of the
F minor Trio for instance appeared on
a ten inch Classics Club. And many years
later Masters of the Bow brought out
the Romantic Pieces in one of their
LPs devoted to the violinist. And while
we’re on the subject of Bridge restorations
and reclamations perhaps they can be
persuaded to dig deeper into the vaults
to give us some of the following Kaufman
recordings, none previously transferred
to CD so far as I know (some Japanese
issues tend to escape me hence my caution);
sonatas by Franck, Delius No.1 (fruity
performance), Bloch, Hindemith No.2,
Ravel (with Balsam and also on Concert
Hall), a vibrant Respighi, and the Stravinsky
Duo Concertante. Then there’s Smetana’s
Trio in G with van der Berg and Firkušný
- has Vox reissued this?
That’s the plea for
what remains missing so now a few words
about what we actually have. Those Romantic
Pieces reveal Kaufman in all his powerfully
singing and expressive commitment. The
tone is bewitchingly intense, tone colours
are vibrant almost to the point of being
lurid; the extrovert masculinity is
powerfully focused and sweepingly active.
The Fourth is somewhat over-vibrated
at least in relation to the previous
three and one could, with reason, find
this kind of performance overdone and
alien. I admire it for all that I find
it too intense. The Trio receives a
similarly full blooded and fluently
fast performance. Cellist Marcel Cervera
has rather a nasal tone, which doesn’t
make matters of string tone easy on
the ear, but the vibrancy of Kaufman’s
contribution can’t be denied. The luscious
portamenti and period expressive devices
are constant in the slow movement, allied
to which Kaufman’s vibrato takes on
increasingly juicy power. This isn’t
the most neat and tidy performance and
this isn’t the most sympathetically
recorded performance either but it does
capture a laudable ensemble musician
in the shape of Balsam anchoring his
two string colleagues in a rather tonally
unbalanced traversal.
The E flat major Quartet
witnesses some more inequalities. This
is the only piece without Kaufman. Instead
we have Peter Ryba with Balsam, joined
by violist Oskar Kromer and cellist
Antonio Tusa. The latter two are apt
to phrase a touch woodenly and there
is a lack of optimum tonal consonance,
finely though the splendid Rybar plays.
It’s Balsam who strikes most sparks
here and he proves a galvanising partner.
There’s a bad edit at 3:30 in the scherzo
about which Bridge could do little.
But they could here, and elsewhere,
have cleaned up the pops and clicks
that are far too numerous for comfort.
The remaining work
is non-Dvořák
and is the hothouse Chausson Concerto.
It wasn’t well recorded and imparted
a certain thinness to the string tone.
Kaufman, though, is gloriously over-heated
and the quivering nervousness he imparted
so often, works very much to the advantage
of the ensemble. Balsam shares
as big or indeed – like the Franck Violin
sonata – an even bigger musical burden.
My quibbles centre on Kaufman’s salon-leaning
tastes in the Sicilienne, and the occasionally
untamed tone of the Pascal Quartet (as
recorded). Once again it’s by no means
a tidy performance – but it is big,
bold, and vibrant.
Bridge used to be rather
more scrupulous about recording matters
than of late. The fact that all these
recordings were made for Concert Hall
is acknowledged in the booklet notes
but there are no issue numbers or approximate
dates of recording given. I’d put them
at 1949-52. As for the transfers Bridge
has done well with the Romantic Pieces;
the sound is very much more forward
than on the LP transfer mentioned above
but as a by-product it has imparted
a slightly razory tone to Kaufman’s
playing. The same is also true of the
Trio – forward but a touch brittle;
and these were hardly the most advanced
recordings of their age in the first
place. Regarding the transfers though,
my main complaint centres on the false
economy of not cleaning pops and ticks.
Otherwise Kaufman and
Balsam admirers will find much on which
to feast.
Jonathan Woolf
for details
Louis Kaufman (violin) Artur Balsam (piano)
and Marcel Cervera (cello) ¹ 
