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Old Wine, New Bottles | Fine Old Recordings Re-Released
Many of us have attended or heard
performances of the Brahms First
Symphony that for the most part
have slipped from memory. As
important as it is, this symphony has fallen
into the war-horse, crowd-pleaser category
and a performance whether heard live or via
recordings can appear to be just another work
on the program, or a revelation! Granted any
first hearing will be a unique experience but
one would need to be quite familiar with a
few different versions to recognize that a particular
new performance is exceptional. Case
in point is a new release of a concert performance
by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Sergiu Celibidache (Vienna
Symphony CD, WS002 mono).
Celibidache refused to make commercial
recordings, stating that
such documents would only
reveal how he conducted the
work at that time of day, on that
date, in that venue ... etc., etc. On
the evening of October 30, 1952, in
the Konzerthaus, this is how they
played! It remains a truly memorable
event. The playing is articulate, no
slurring, clean winds and brass
and no pregnant pauses. The music
seems to drive itself. This is a passionate
performance directed by a
young firebrand and is no way akin
to his later settled-in and comfortable
versions — from the 1976
Stuttgart RSO (DG) and the 1987
Munich Philharmonic (EMI). This
performance remains not a monument
to Brahms but a celebration.
The mono sound is full bodied
and dynamic, typical of the best engineering
of the day.
Although there were others, for the second
half of the 20th century and beyond, when
one considered performances of Schubert
lieder, the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
enjoyed his well-deserved prime reputation.
Of course, he was also known for his Mozart,
Beethoven, Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Mahler
and Richard Strauss and others from Bach
to Berg and Britten. And he loved to make
recordings.
He recorded the three Schubert cycles
many times, because, unlike instrumentalists
and some conductors, he wanted a wide
audience to know how he sang it that day
BRUCE SURTEES
with that accompanist. He talks about this
in a charming interview/conversation dating
from the 1985 Schubertiade, part of a
DVD release from Arthaus Musik of Schubert
(Arthaus 107523, 2 DVDs). Die Schöne
Müllerin was recorded live in 1991 at the
Montforthaus in Feldkirch with Andres Schiff
including, as a bonus, the conversation
with Franz Zoglauer.
Winterreise was filmed a dozen
years earlier in Siemens Villa,
Berlin in 1979 and includes
almost an hour of rehearsal for
the recital with Alfred Brendel.
So why would this singer require
a rehearsal of what was his basic
repertoire? As he says
on the other disc, different
accompanists
can elicit different
variations in his
interpretation and
together they work it
out. Together, the two
DVDs provide a most
satisfying evening.
I must remind readers
of what I consider
to be the most satisfying
recording ever of
Das Lied von der Erde:
Fischer-Dieskau conducting
the Stuttgart
Radio Symphony
Orchestra with alto,
Yve Janicke and tenor
Christian Elsner (Orfeo
C494001 B). Not surprisingly,
the orchestral
playing is unusually expressive and much
more sublimely lyrical than other versions
particularly, but not only in the winds. The
overwhelming loneliness and resignation of
Der Abschied is heart-breaking. Recorded in
concert on June 22 at the 1996 Schubertiade
in the medieval town of Feldkirch, this would
be one of my ten Desert Island discs.
Alfred Cortot was one of the most respected
musicians and pianists of the early 1900s
and into the 1950s. His recordings were once
the cornerstones in the libraries of Chopin
and Schumann aficionados around the
world. Cortot was born in 1877 in the Suisse
Romande and studied and was awarded in
Paris. He was choral conductor in Bayreuth
in 1901 and was responsible for the mounting
of Götterdämmerung in Paris in 1902
which he also conducted. The Cortot, Casals
and Jacques Thibaud Trio had a well-deserved
reputation and was in part responsible for
elevation of the trio form from the salon
to the concert stage. Cortot was a sensitive
accompanist for singers and string
players alike. He also conducted
notable recordings.
Today, perfect technique has
become the norm and the prime
concern of audiences who, to
paraphrase Professor Higgins,
don’t care about what instrumentalists
play as long as they play all
the right notes. Cortot was one of
the last musicians from the times
when personal and intuitive interpretations
overrode minor concern
for technical perfection.
The motherlode of his
recordings, Alfred Cortot An
Anniversary Edition, contains
every EMI recording
from 1919 to 1959 including unreleased
items (EMI 5099970490725 40
CDS). As of this writing, a complete
list of the some 275 works
can only be seen at Arkivmusic:
arkivmusic.com/classical/album.
jsp?album_id=817326.
Chatting about this totally new,
all newly remastered set recently,
I was asked “Did they leave in all
the wrong notes?” Yes, they did.
ICA Classics continues to
release DVDs of concert performances
featuring Benjamin Britten
conducting the English Chamber Orchestra
in The Maltings Concert Hall in Aldeburgh as
they were recorded for broadcast by the BBC.
From June 16, 1968 (ICAD 5025) Mstislav
Rostropovich is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s
Rococo Variations Op 33 and the Pezzo
capriccioso Op.62. The orchestra plays the
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Also
on this DVD, the orchestra is joined by the
Aldeburgh Festival Singers on June 5, 1970,
from a performance of a suite from Britten’s
Gloriana: The Tournament, The Lute Song
(with Peter Pears) and Apotheosis. As this is
the only recording of Britten conducting anything
from Gloriana it will be of particular
interest to collectors.
60 thewholenote.com February 1 – March 7, 2013