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Hermann Abendroth – In Memoriam Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No.7 in E major (1883) [61:09] Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 6 Pathétique (1892) [48:37]
Suite No.3 Op.55 [17:42]
Berlin Radio
Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (suite)/Hermann
Abendroth
rec. live, 19 February 1956 (Bruckner); live, November 1950
(Tchaikovsky Symphony); live, March 1951 (Tchaikovsky Suite) TAHRA TAH604-05 [61:09 + 67:08]
Tahra 114-115 contained
a February 1956 performance of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony
given by these forces; the exact dates were the sixteenth
and seventeenth of the month. This is important because the
performance of the Seventh in this two disc set is the one
given two days later, at a concert in the Metropol Theater
in Berlin, for which the earlier performances served, as
Tahra puts it, as dress rehearsals. They also note – though
I didn’t notice the join – that a patch was necessary in
the finale of this public performance. It replaces a wobbly
master take and has been taken from the earlier performances.
The
concert performance is as persuasive as the earlier rehearsals.
The sense of lyric flux is tremendous and retains its independence
of vision. It adheres neither quite to Furtwängler’s overtly
expressive 1949 Berlin statement – his best on disc – nor
to, say, Knappertsbusch’s more considered gravity. It is,
I think, saying something that Abendroth’s performance – never
was his reputation as a “poor man’s Furtwängler” less apt
than here – remains indelibly glowing and powerful in the
memory. The accelerandi are never as quiveringly tense as
they are with Furtwängler but the architectural cogency is
intense. Abendroth moulds the melodic cantilever with extraordinary
power; the weight of his string choirs is calibrated with
perfect control. The Adagio unfolds with rubato-rich depth – a
truly inspiring performance – and the Scherzo is gruffly
tensile, and vividly exciting. The whole performance is like
this.
The
Tchaikovsky Pathétique is the earlier of the two surviving
Abendroth performances – the other was given two years later
with the Leipzig Radio Symphony. The 1950 recording
is by some considerable way the more impulsive, driven, and
temperamental though the 1952 performance was in the main
broader in tempo terms. Abendroth here is in luscious and
extremely voluble form – contrasts are maximised, string
melodies open out with oceanic depth, metrical pulse is often
suspended at moments. It sounds like an exercise in pure
indulgence but actually, when taken on its own terms, the
symphony doesn’t splinter. It’s hardly a model of rectitude
but those powerful brass climaxes do thrill as if in compensation
and the surging legato, the gaunt tragic unfolding, summon
up vistas of feeling. Alongside this torrential passion the
Suite sounds positively cautious though it’s actually charmingly
characterised. The sense of gravity from 7:00 onwards is
also beautifully executed. Additionally this is the only
known recording of Abendroth in the work.
The
recorded sound throughout is pretty good for the vintage.
Of course there are gauzy, unfocused moments but that will
be no impediment to the admirer of this conductor. Good notes
complete a splendid package, a worthy one.
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