Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Four symphonic excerpts from Lulu (1934) [18:22]
Konzertarie: Der Wein (1929) [11:54]
Three movements from the Lyric Suite (1925-1926) [15:12]
Chamber Concerto (1923-1925) [29:58]
Bethany Beardslee (soprano), Israel Baker (violin), Pearl Kaufmann (piano)
The Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Robert Craft
rec. 16 December 1960, Manhattan Center, New York (excertps from Lulu, Konzertarie), 4 April 1960, Hollywood (Lyric Suite), 8 June 1960, Hollywood (Chamber Concerto)
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC646 [75:26]
When Robert Craft died in 2015 at the age of 92, there was a palpable whiff of Citizen Kane in the air. One could almost imagine “The March of Time” newsreel breathlessly recounting the deceased’s life: precociously talented youth, protean writer, pioneering American performer of early music and mid-20th century avant-garde—and then his fateful meeting with Igor Stravinsky. There were the glory years at Stravinsky’s side as friend/amanuensis/henchman/public alter ego, bringing about the composer’s late and unlikely conversion to the Gospel of Arnold (Schoenberg).
As Stravinsky’s health went into chronic decline in the mid-1960s, so did Craft’s fortunes. The bargaining of his potential to further Stravinsky’s was a Faustian one, a source of pride mingled with understandable resentment. Never fully accepted by Stravinsky’s family and Parisian friends, Craft diminished or excised them altogether from the official narrative of the composer’s late years. Wielding his pen like a flaming sword and not wont to suffer fools gladly, he easily made influential enemies only too happy to return the favor as he emerged from Stravinsky’s death a musical rōnin drifting into irrelevance. Craft spent his final years licking his wounds, incurred by his vainglorious biographical retouchen uncovered by Stravinsky biographer Stephen Walsh, and writing a handful of books whose insights were marred by his indulging in petty settlings of scores with those long gone and unable to answer back. “Then, as it must to all men…” No surprise that the bigmouthed little minds of social media gleefully seized upon their chance to hurl Craft’s still warm corpse down the Gemonian Stairs.
Yet there is no denying the magnetic force of Craft’s conducting, as this excellent reissue by Pristine demonstrates. Thanks to the support of Stravinsky, Craft was able to make some of the first integral recordings of music by the composers of the Second Viennese School, most of which continue to inexplicably languish in Sony’s archives. This selection of Berg’s orchestral, vocal and chamber music exhibits Craft the conductor at his best, sparking with the friction of newness that this repertoire still had for many American musicians (and listeners) in 1960.
In Craft’s hands, Berg was very much a child of the 20th century and its attendant neuroses. The excerpts from the Lyric Suite and Lulu sound like Vienna by way of Douglas Sirk. The bright and “hot” trumpets, which could have wandered in from a Stan Kenton or Billy May session, impart a touch of decadence befitting this music, as does the voice of Bethany Beardslee, the soprano soloist in Der Wein. Part girlish flirt, part torch singer, she effectively conveys this music’s aching and boozy sensuality, inhabiting a nether region between sleazy nightclub and symphony hall. Superb, too, is the playing of violinist Israel Baker and pianist Pearl Kaufmann in the grotesque lyricism of Berg’s Kammerkonzert, and Kaufman’s warm tone sounds especially attractive. The Columbia Symphony Orchestra, a pick-up ensemble composed of New York area musicians, plays with tremendous collective devotion and care. Few recordings of Berg capture the sense of danger, of “dancing on the edge of the volcano” that Craft did here.
Pristine’s transfers are bright and clean, with only a slight addition of reverb. The treble end sounds especially crisp and well-defined.
Although Craft had once called Berg Schoenberg’s “greatest pupil”, he never returned to his music in his later discography, which was devoted instead to Schoenberg, an incomplete Webern cycle, and (who else?) Stravinsky. These recordings are therefore all the more valuable. Whatever Craft’s flaws may have been, however we may disagree with his conduct, none of these diminish the greatness of his artistry. One hopes for further reissues of his recordings from Pristine (or a comprehensive box from Sony) which will help to restore the luster to the legacy of this fascinating and still provocative artist. Even after over 60 years, these recordings remain essential for lovers of Berg’s music.
Néstor Castiglione
