Interesting programming has gone on here to conjoin Kulenkampff’s
famous 1936 recording of the Beethoven with his overlooked 1947
Brahms Double with Mainardi in Geneva. There have certainly
been those who have dissented from the general view that his
Beethoven is deserving of the highest admiration, but the dissent
is not always musically motivated. It tends to be rooted instead
in the tension between supporters of Kulenkampff and his older
German contemporary Adolf Busch. The latter group routinely
denigrates the younger, Hanseatic violinist.
Let’s leave the partisan politics to one side. Kulenkampff
and Schmidt-Isserstedt fashion a performance of great beauty
and eloquence. The orchestral super-structure is revealed in
considerable strength by this commanding Beethoven conductor,
and Kulenkampff reveals pellucid upper position work of great
beauty and vibrancy. He varies his passagework with imagination
fashioned at all times with the music’s centrality at
the core of his thinking. He doesn’t slow as much as his
contemporaries, remaining elastic. Even so, his first movement
is by no means fast. He plays the Kreisler cadenza, but then
he’d already recorded the Mendelssohn Concerto - for export
only, for obvious reasons. Very occasionally there are intonation
slips but these blemishes are very rare. One can hear the recording’s
long reverb after tuttis. The slow movement reveals the refined,
seraphic side of this often exciting, in many ways un-German
violinist whose affinity with Slavic and Nordic music was considerable.
It was certainly more pronounced than his countrymen’s.
He essays more portamenti here than earlier, slowing for reasons
of expressive heightening and expansive legato. The finale is
extremely fine, with a well integrated orchestral tapestry -
outstanding horns, for example - and a fine, flexible lead from
Schmidt-Isserstedt. There’s no question that this recording’s
reputation is well deserved. It’s one of the most important
recordings of the concerto on 78.
After the war Kulenkampff teamed with Enrico Mainardi, and Carl
Schuricht, who directs the Suisse Romande orchestra in Brahms’s
Double Concerto. For tensile power the pre-war Heifetz-Feuermann
set the standard. Much earlier, Thibaud and Casals had mined
the work’s expressive potential (not least of the central
movement). These two recordings operated at very different levels
and occupied far removed poles. If Kulenkampff had been partnered
by someone else then his recording, astutely conducted by Schuricht,
might have turned out to be more revealing and recommendable.
But to me, at least, Mainardi’s every entry signals a
drop in tension, in rhythm, and in excitement. He is in dogged
mood, and is outclassed technically by his string partner, whom
one feels somewhat accommodating his natural tempo to Mainardi’s,
or trying to press on discreetly. The Decca FFRR recording is
splendid, and one can certainly admire the very forwardly balanced
wind choir, and the sinewy strings; and one can certainly admire
Kulenkampff who plays with quicksilver engagement; and even
Mainardi has his moments. But overall this was something of
a mismatch. Andrew Rose has applied some light reverberation
to the dryish studio sound.
Jonathan Woolf
Masterwork Index: Beethoven
violin concerto ~~ Brahms
double concerto
Georg Kulenkampff (violin); Enrico Mainardi (cello) 