Fritz Busch
Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Carnival Overture Op. 92 (1891) [9:20] ¹
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Alto Rhapsody Op 53 (1869) [12:38] ²
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21 (1830) [30:32] ³
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67 (1805) [25:23]
Marian Anderson
(contralto)²; Claudio Arrau (piano) ³
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Busch ¹
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Busch
rec. 26 August 1950, live, Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival (Dvořák);
10 December 1950, live, Metropolitan Opera House, Human Rights Day Concert
(remainder)
GUILD GHCD
2354 [78:20]
None of these performances is making a ‘first release’ appearance
but all are welcome nonetheless in Guild’s well upholstered transfers, and
with typically useful notes. There is one intact concert here – the Human
Rights Day concert given in November 1950 at the Metropolitan Opera House
in New York. Then, from slightly earlier in the year, there is the only surviving
document of Busch’s work at the Edinburgh International Festival, in the shape
of Dvořák’s Carnival Overture. This was something of a
favourite of his, and he had in fact recorded it much earlier in 1933. The
performance has been reissued several times by Danacord. The tempo is almost
identical and whilst he was never quite as fast as Reiner, say, in this spirited
work, he always brought to it a fiery intensity. The opening chords tend to
splinter in the 1950 off-air recording. But we can still admire the vigorous
and rhythmically persuasive way Busch drives through the music, vesting it
with carnal life and lissom verdancy. It makes one wonder, afresh, at Busch’s
otherwise scanty interest in the composer’s music. The Edinburgh performance
once appeared on JS Editions 07159.
Talking of which, Marian Anderson’s performance of the Alto Rhapsody
was issued on JS Editions 07209, on Discocorp, the NYPS Society (on LP) in
1987, and privately from Indiana University. There are several inscriptions
of her noble way with this work, and there is indeed Busch’s own with Ferrier
and the Danish Radio Orchestra from 1949 [DACOCD301]. Well recorded at the
Met with Anderson’s voice characterfully forward, this yields to none of these
competing versions in directness and gravity. Arrau’s Chopin Concerto has
also done the rounds over the years: the Indiana private release noted above,
a Bruno Walter Society LP, Urania 22.145 and it’s also to be found housed
in an unwieldy 20 CD box from Habana/JBM – as well as more congenially on
a single CD on Music & Arts 1158. It’s a strong, sinewy reading, with
an unshrinking violet approach all round. The slow movement doesn’t aim at
delicate refinement and there’s some skittish, and authoritative playing in
the finale.
Finally we have Beethoven’s Fifth; see also its appearance on the Indiana
release, a Discocorp LP, and Urania 22.159. This receives a fleet, rugged
and essentially Toscanini-like performance which reveals Busch’s hallmarks
as a Beethovenian of distinction – as the other few surviving examples of
his work amply demonstrate. One thing will perplex listeners however. There’s
a swingeing cut in the finale. It doesn’t sound like tape loss because the
rest of the concert is in decent sound and suffers no such problem. Might
it have been for broadcast reasons – to keep the programme within a certain
allotted time span? That seems more likely but I’m still somewhat surprised
at Busch proving so amenable.
In short then this is a well compiled programme devoted to a conductor of
high moral and musical qualities.
Jonathan Woolf