Volume 21 Issue 2 - October 2015

Old Wine, New Bottles
Fine Old Recordings Re-Released
BRUCE SURTEES
On July 13, 1955 an audience at the Berkshire Music Festival in
Tanglewood heard the debut performance by the newly formed Beaux
Arts Trio with their founding members Menahem Pressler, piano,
Daniel Guilet, violin, and cellist Bernard Greenhouse. The personnel
remained intact until 1960 when Guilet was replaced by Isidore Cohen
and in 1987 Peter Wiley replaced Greenhouse. Since then there were
other new faces including violinist Ida Kavafian in 1992. However,
it was Pressler who was always at the helm and the mere mention
of the Beaux Arts Trio immediately triggers images of Pressler at the
keyboard scarcely ever taking his inspiring eyes from his colleagues.
The trio disbanded in 2008. In 2013, Toronto’s favourite venue,
Koerner Hall, proudly announced a concert to celebrate Pressler’s
90th birthday with Pressler himself playing with the New Orford
Quartet in a program of Beethoven, Brahms and R. Murray Schafer.
There have been other notable trios over the years: Cortot, Thibault
and Casals; Edwin Fischer, Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Enrico
Mainardi; and many others where prominent musicians who had solo
careers occasionally came together for the pleasure of playing with
each other. Particularly vital was the special combination of Isaac
Stern, Leonard Rose and Eugene Istomin. None, however, had the
longevity of the Beaux Arts, albeit with fresh faces in the strings but
never without the omnipresent Menahem Pressler.
Because of their impeccable musicianship
and extensive repertoire, the Beaux Arts
Trio – Complete Philips Recordings, all 137
of them, is a unique treasure house of hallmark
performances of trios and some larger
works (4788225, 60 CDs). Everything that
they recorded for Philips is here, including the
complete trios by Haydn, Mozart (2), Hummel,
Beethoven (2), Mendelssohn (2), Schubert,
Brahms (2), Dvorak and Schumann (2) plus those by Arensky,
Chausson, Granados, Hummel, Korngold, Shostakovich and others.
Add many more, in addition to works for larger chamber ensembles
with assisting artists. There are two versions of the Beethoven
Triple Concerto: in their 1977 recording with Bernard Haitink and
the London Philharmonic, the Beaux Arts Trio meant Pressler,
Cohen and Greenhouse but in 1992 with Masur and the Gewandhaus
Orchestra, the Beaux Arts Trio meant Pressler, Kavafian and Wiley.
The Schumann Trio No.2 Op.80 in 1966 finds Pressler, Guilet and
Greenhouse. In 1971 there are Pressler, Cohen and Greenhouse.
By 1989 we hear Pressler, Cohen and Wiley. The few multiple versions
are manna to keen listeners whose pleasure it is to pay close attention
to interpretive differences over the years. In truth, regardless of the
personnel, every single performance is arresting.
One of the pitfalls of listening to a succession of different versions of
the same works in a collection of this calibre is that they appear on
different discs and with other works. If you are not careful, you can
start the wrong track and be drawn into a different work. In listening
to this second Schumann trio I mistakenly started the two
Mendelssohn trios and absolutely cannot leave them (that’s what I’m
doing now).
A recent batch of Blu-ray discs from Arthaus Musik includes a 1983
production of Turandot from the Vienna State Opera. The conductor
is Lorin Maazel, Eva Marton is Turandot, José Carreras is Calaf, Katia
Ricciarelli is Liu, John-Paul Bogart is Timur, the dethroned King of the
Tartars and Waldemar Kmentt is Altoum, Emperor of China. Only the
long stairway is depicted in this set. The bejewelled costumes and
masks reflect the opulence of this mythical place. From its first
moment this production seems to be on fire with passion and
conviction. The singers have all been caught at
the peak of their careers. The 37-year-old
Carreras’ blazing performance shows what
supreme powers he had. Maazel, absolutely
inspired and focused, has the orchestra playing
at the top of its form. The unfettered, audiophile-quality
sound combined with an
elemental, totally assured Eva Marton in the
role make for a gripping, compelling Turandot,
one I would not want to be without
(Arthaus 109095).
One hundred years have passed since the
birth of Sviatoslav Richter and collectors
around the world still seek out his recordings
and await new releases of live concerts. Doremi
continues to release these recordings, reaching
Volume 24 (DHR-8043), with a program of
Bach and Beethoven. All but one work were
recorded in Moscow in 1948, a dozen years
before Richter was permitted to travel to the
West and here is an indication that there was a serious Bach performance
tradition in Russia in the earlier part of the 20th century. Richter
went beyond the popular keyboard works and included the Sonata in
D Major, BWV963, an early work rarely performed and seldom
recorded. Apparently he gave several such recitals with significant
Bach content. Russian radio recorded some of them with what
appears to have been an advanced technology for the time, providing
us with high quality sound. In the years after he was free to travel he
included Bach on a regular basis including the French Suite, BWV813
from Dublin in 1968. The 1948 performances of the Capriccio in B
Major, BWV992, Fantasia in C Minor, BWV906, English Suite,
BWV808, concluding with Beethoven’s Sonata No.22 Op.54, enjoy the
same high quality sound.
Conductor Ferenc Fricsay was born in
Budapest in 1914 and died in Switzerland
in 1963. He studied under Bartók, Kodaly,
Dohnányi and Leo Weiner. His instruments
were piano, violin, clarinet and trombone. He
was acclaimed throughout Europe, the United
States and elsewhere, conducting all or most of
the prominent orchestras and in many opera
houses including Vienna, Berlin, London,
New York, etc. Fricsay signed with Deutsches Grammophon in 1948,
recording core classical repertoire and 20th century works. His 1958
Beethoven Ninth with the Berlin Philharmonic, Irmgard Seefried,
Maureen Forrester, Ernst Haefliger and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was
the first Ninth in stereo and has never left the catalog. Last year DG
issued a box of all his symphonic recordings, a collection, I might
add, that has provided endless pleasure. Ferenc Fricsay – Complete
DG Recordings Volume 2, Operas and Choral Works is now available
(4794641, 37 discs including rehearsal DVD and Ferenc Fricsay –
A Self Portrait) with six Mozart operas, Carmen, Bluebeard’s Castle,
Oedipus Rex, Flying Dutchman, Mahler Rückert-Lieder (Forrester),
Haydn’s The Seasons, the Verdi Requiem and more. The listener will
hear the young Fischer-Dieskau and many others whose names will or
should resonate. This set will satisfy many wants. Complete contents
are on the DG site, deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4794641.
74 | Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 thewholenote.com