Tahra has been paying
handsome tribute to Schmidt-Isserstedt
of late and this is by no means the
first of their sets devoted to a still
underrated conductor. This one has a
satisfying feel to it, the feel of an
admittedly very long concert – but a
good and convincing programme nonetheless.
I should add that all the performances
are from live broadcasts and all derive
from separate concerts.
The Pachelbel is perhaps
rather unusual material both for the
conductor and the time but in its warm
and teak-stained way it has a satisfactorily
and non-coagulatory profile. Granted
I Musici and Boyd Neel would not have
been so accommodating of the big band
approach but then Schmidt-Isserstedt
was approaching this repertoire from
a large orchestral perspective and from
the viewpoint of the Romantics. In any
case this is a sensitively shaped and
winning performance and whets the appetite
for his Purcell, which I doubt has ever
been re-released - as an aside he also
recorded the overture to Wallace’s Maritana
on 78s, a quite remarkable thing for
1936.
The soloist in the
Paganini Concerto is Christian Ferras,
a player to whom I’ve never quite reconciled
myself. I find his vibrato usage unsettling
– though this is a minority view and
most commentators admire his elegance
and Gallic finesse. Here I’m happy to
confound myself. His excessively nannying
vibrato is largely lacking and it only
surfaces in some overdone expression
in the outer movements where there’s
too much fat in its deployment. Otherwise
this is impressive stuff. His technique
is perfectly equal to the demands, even
the stratospheric whistling harmonics
in the finale, and his spiccato is seldom
found wanting. His oratory in the slow
movement is equally fine and though
the recording tends to accentuate some
glassy orchestral tone this doesn’t
affect Ferras, who, though no great
molten tonalist, had a tightly focused
sound capable of considerable colouration
at speed. Of especial merit is the fact
that this is new to Ferras’s discography
– and the conductor’s as well I believe.
The 1954 Haydn Drum
Roll suffers a little from an ill-defined
recording where the timpani roll doesn’t
register with as much clarity as it
should. Schmidt-Isserstedt is strong
on the relative rusticity of the driving
momentum, though he yields to Beecham’s
1951 commercial recording in respect
of sensitively moulded string lines.
Schmidt-Isserstedt doesn’t quite get
the pesante feeling of the Andante and
nor does his rhythmic snap register
with as much aeration and dynamism as
Beecham’s – but that’s not to imply
that the German performance is stolid.
It’s a healthy and very worthwhile traversal.
Finally there is the
mighty Bruckner 9 in the earliest of
the quartet of performances, this one
dating from April 1952. The brass is
full blooded and the strings respond
with flexibility and weight, the playing
being not at all stagnant. The ebb and
flow of the first movement is acutely
measured whereas the scherzo is very
strident and bristly, almost hectoring.
String moulding is necessarily to the
fore in the long third movement. Things
are perhaps lighter in the bass than
would be the case elsewhere in Germany
at the time but this adds to the sense
of separation that clarifies detail
without squandering emotional depth.
There’s tension and grandeur here, considerable
power and, if not quite the heft in
the strings that one would ideally like,
the direction in which Schmidt-Isserstedt
takes the music is compelling in its
own right. The sound has a certain stridency
but is otherwise acceptable.
The booklet consists
almost entirely of a complete 78 discography
of the conductor who was especially
busy in the studios with Georg Kulenkampff.
They collaborated on big concertos but
also the scandalous Schumann and the
(export only) 1935 Mendelssohn, by then
of course banned in Germany, but not
above being exported to feed the National
Socialist coffers. This is in short
another very satisfying contribution
to Schmidt-Isserstedt’s standing in
the hierarchy of mid-century Germany
conductors.
Jonathan Woolf
Christian Ferras (violin) 
