Gerhard Bosse and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Bach Orchestra made
a number of recordings together, notably the Violin Concertos
in A and C for Eterna and Philips. For Eterna, Bosse also recorded
some Beethoven piano trios with colleagues Kootz and Erben.
He also popped up in a complete set of Handel’s Op.6 Concerti
grossi with the Handel Festspielorchester Halle where they were
conducted by Horst-Tanu Margraf and quite successfully too.
Otherwise he’s pretty well unrecorded, which makes this live
concert interesting.
It was taped at St Pancras Town Hall in London in 1966 during
an orchestral tour. The programme is what you’d call ‘solid
roast beef’; Bach, Mozart, and Haydn. Bosse is the soloist and
director and he’s an accomplished practitioner in both arts.
There’s a picture in the booklet of Bosse listening intently
through headphones to a playback, fiddle in hand, and the first
violinist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus is indeed, as expected,
a first rate performer.
He plays the E major with unassuming directness and musicality,
maintaining a fine ensemble and rapport with the orchestra behind
him, with the exception of a brief lapse in the finale. There’s
plenty of pathos in the slow movement, with a lot of plangency
of phrasing. It’s a performance of considerable merit. Bach’s
First Orchestral Suite is strongly etched but is by no means
too heavy. The bassoon chugs along amiably in the Ouverture,
and the Forlane is well characterised. Mozart’s Divertimento
is richly and warmly played, and a fine example of this orchestra’s
attention to balance, detail and weight. The Haydn Symphony
is the Sixth, Le matin, and it’s here that one registers
Bosse’s subtlety at its most acute. The mysterious opening of
the symphony is followed by a sprightly Allegro, with a full
complement of brio attached. The concertante roles are well
taken and so too those solo moments called for. Note too the
fine thrummed accompaniment in the Minuet.
The recording is very decent, capturing Bosse’s tone with fidelity.
This specialist programme will appeal to those interested in
soloist and/or orchestra, in the main. One appreciates the potential
audience may well be small, but such releases serve posterity
well in making available performances that might otherwise be
lost forever.
Jonathan Woolf
Leipzig Gewandhaus Bach Orchestra/Gerhard Bosse (violin and director)
