Bedich SMETANA (1824-1884)
The Bartered Bride - overture (1866) [6:39]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Hungarian Rhapsody arr. Doppler [9:13]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dances arr. Parlow; No.5 [2:24]; No.6 [2:56]
Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Symphony No. 9 From the New World Op. 95 (1893) [33:40]
Carnival Overture Op. 92 (1891) [7:13]
Slavonic Dance No.1 in C major Op.46 No.1 [3:30]
Myra Hess and Hamilton Harty (piano duet: Slavonic dance)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Hamilton Harty (Smetana)
Hallé Orchestra/Hamilton Harty
rec. London and Manchester, 1929-33
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC331 [65:36]
The centrepiece of this disc is Hamilton Harty’s 1927
recording of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. It has
been issued before, on Symposium 1169 and on Hallé Tradition CD
HLT8000, but this Pristine Audio comfortably surpasses them both. The
lifelike but noisy Symposium had a number of annoying ticks, and the
Hallé Tradition was a dead duck, being badly over-processed. Pitching
has also been corrected in this latest transfer.
Though repeats were light on the ground in this Columbia recording,
the basic elements of Harty’s performance are intact. Its linearity is
coupled with intensity to produce a performance of volatile drive. There are
even times when one thinks of Harty’s English contemporary Albert
Coates. Harty certainly drives to the crest of the climax in the first
movement with powerful zest. One appreciates too the Mancunian winds, as
individualistic as ever, and the famed, taut brass. The strings play with
considerable dash led, I think, by Alfred Barker - this recording was made
just after Harty and his leader Arthur Catterall fell out with spectacular
results. It’s a recording in which Allegro molto means just
that and in which con fuoco means con fuoco. Idiosyncrasies
noted, there is a huge amount to admire, not least in the poetic sensibility
brought to bear on the music which, combined with its masculine fervour,
alerts one to the all round stature of the direction and music making. Harty
made very few bad records.
Harty, at the turn of the twentieth century, one of London’s
most admired piano accompanists, was joined by Myra Hess for a clubbable and
ebullient Slavonic Dance in C major, the first of the Op.46 set. At a time
when most of Harty’s acoustic piano recordings lie languishing in
limbo, it’s good to find this 1933 electric restored to the
marketplace. I remember it fondly from a Pearl LP transfer. The
Carnival Overture (with the London Philharmonic this time) was
recorded a few days before the Symphony in a mini
Dvořákfest. This makes it the earliest of the pieces in
this disc. Once more we feel Harty’s liking for lithe and directional
intensity - purposeful, dynamic, and alive with kinetic energy. His
accelerandi are truly inspiring. To complete the Czech theme we have the
overture to The Bartered Bride from 1933, another brisk, zesty
traversal.
Don’t overlook the famous Doppler arrangement of Liszt’s
Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 in which the Halle principals can be heard in their
vivid splendour, as can some truly luscious portamenti from the Hallé
strings. Nor the two Brahms arrangements where the sound in the Free Trade
Hall is more recessive than Central Hall, Westminster two years later. The
boxier sound for the Brahms duo is not fatal.
This well selected programme with its Czech and Hungarian theme has
been finely transferred.
Jonathan Woolf
This well selected programme has been finely transferred.