Volume 23 Issue 1 - September 2017

Old Wine, New Bottles | Fine Old Recordings Re-Released
BRUCE SURTEES
Naxos was launched in 1987, when CDs were just four years new
and the major labels were busy digitally recording new
performances and remastering acclaimed recordings from their
archives. New recordings from the major companies retailed for $20+
in Canada. Naxos introduced CDs to retail for about the price of an LP,
for which we at The Classical Record Shop were agreeable to allot
some space. The Naxos representative insisted on a display dedicated
to their product alone, apart from the composer or artist section. Soon
customers began asking for the Naxos rack and it was not uncommon
to see persons make a beeline for the Naxos display. “What’s new on
Naxos?” became an often-heard inquiry. Naxos continues to grow,
utilizing today’s (and tomorrow’s) technology to best deliver their
performances everywhere. A few years ago, I interviewed the man
behind Naxos, Klaus Heymann. When speaking of future
developments the one word that did not appear to be in his
vocabulary was “if.” Nothing he spoke of was ever if, but when. In the
ensuing years many of his prognostications have already come to pass,
not the least of which is the revolution in dissemination of the printed
word and digital platforms for music.
To celebrate their 30 years of producing a
continuous stream of standard and non-standard
repertoire in addition to works by lesserknown
composers, always in state of the art
sound, Naxos has assembled The Anniversary
Collection (8.503293). Appropriately
containing 30 CDs selected from the
9,000 titles in the company’s archives, The
Anniversary Collection offers a selection of
performances by prominent artists and others who may not spring to
mind immediately but who are informed masters of their repertoire.
Good news for collectors who already own the usual basic repertoire
– you will discover many new delights without unnecessary duplications.
Here are a few in no particular order: Chopin and Liszt piano
concertos; Dvořák and Elgar cello concertos; Tchaikovsky Manfred
Symphony and Violin Concerto; three Spanish guitar concertos; Glière
Symphony No.3; Grieg Peer Gynt Suites; Handel Water and Fireworks
Music; Daugherty Metropolis Symphony; Barber of Seville highlights…
and many more well-chosen discs including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,
Naxos’s bestselling recording in the catalogue. It dates from 1987 with
Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki and Capella Istropolitana from
Bratislava. There is a complete table of contents at arkivmusic.com.
Following the success of Elgar Remastered,
the collection of forgotten and priceless
recordings conducted by Elgar derived from
test pressings sent to Elgar by HMV and never
released (SOMMCD261-4, 4CDs), SOMM has
issued a follow up, Elgar Rediscovered
(SOMMCD 0167), an anthology of forgotten
recordings. As before, the transfers and restorations
were performed by Lani Spahr. The CD
opens with the Elegy for String Orchestra, Op.58 recorded by the BBC
Symphony in Abbey Road Studio 1 on April 11, 1933. Test pressings
were sent to Elgar, who wrote back that “The records have come and
are very good.” However, HMV did not issue them as Elgar had elsewhere
expressed the wish to re-record. A new recording with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra was issued by HMV and the premiere
version remained unissued until now. A very good case is made for
preferring this earlier performance, which is a variant of the
published one. This original has a real verve, an ebb and flow and
vitality missing in the LPO version. The Coronation March, Op.65,
commissioned for the coronation of George V, is played by Landon
Ronald conducting the LPO. It is followed, appropriately, by The
Coronation March and Hymn composed by Elgar’s contemporary
Edward German, who was also commissioned for the occasion.
Grandly celebratory, they were both recorded on March 7, 1935 in
London’s Kingsway Hall. The premiere recording of the Violin
Concerto, Op.61 was made in April 1916 in a 15-minute truncated
version by Albert Sammons, with orchestra conducted by Henry
Wood. Thanks to the quality of the original and the technology
employed, the violin sound is clear and present with the orchestra not
far behind. Also included are some items that must have been popular
78s at the time including Kyrie from Gerontius; Fringes of the Fleet;
The Pipes of Pan; Where Corals Lie from Sea Pictures; and others,
performed by Alfredo Campoli, Fred Austin, The Black Diamonds
Band, John Barbirolli, et al. A genuine curiosity is a private recording
of May Grafton playing the Sonatina that her uncle Edward wrote for
her in 1889 to encourage the eight-year-old to practise. In this 1960
recording she plays from her 1889 original score, which differs from
the published version. The final recording on this unusual collection is
Salut d’Amour, Op.12 played to perfection, without the layers of
emotion now fashionable, by Albert Sammons with Gerald Moore,
recorded in 1940.
Another offering from SOMM, Kathleen
Ferrier Remembered (SOMMCD 264) contains
a selection of lieder by Schubert and Brahms,
Wolf and Mahler together with songs by
Stanford, Rubbra, Jacobson and Parry. The 26
tracks were recorded for broadcast by the BBC
between November 1947 and September 1952.
The accompanists are Frederick Stone, Gerald
Moore and Bruno Walter. These are moments
to be treasured and some are heartbreaking, notably Urlicht from Des
Knaben Wunderhorn accompanied by Frederick Stone. Revelatory are
four songs by Schubert and Brahms from September 1951 in which she
is accompanied by Bruno Walter, who held her in the highest regard.
Following her death on October 5, 1953, Walter wrote: “The greatest
thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and
Gustav Mahler—in that order.” Her voice sits perfectly on the six British
songs that are among the 19 previously unpublished recordings.
Volume 5 of the Michael Gielen Edition
is devoted to the music of Bartók and
Stravinsky. Although his name has appeared
on other labels over the years, Gielen’s most
consistent recordings have come from the
SWR (Südwestrundfunk), who recorded
the orchestras of Baden-Baden and Freiburg,
Saarbrucken and Stuttgart (SWR19023CD,
6CDs). Collectors who have heard the
performances in the four earlier volumes and elsewhere will need
no endorsement for Volume 5. Once again we are treated to exemplary
and individual readings directed by a figure who had earlier been
avoided by the record companies for his out-of-the-mainstream repertoire
and individual interpretations, deeming them non-commercial.
Thanks to SWR, who recorded his performances over the years
with their orchestras, we can enjoy and appreciate those performances...
Some of the tracks on volume five, as before, have been available
on a few labels but not with the meticulous attention paid to
the smallest details in order to extract the most out of the originals.
Technically, the recordings are very convincing, the instruments are
heard in place and the illusion is of hearing an orchestra rather than
the recording of one.
The Bartók scores are: Suite from The Wooden Prince; Concerto
for Orchestra; Four Orchestral Pieces, Op.12; Violin Concerto No.1;
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Dance Suite Sz.77; Piano
Concerto No.2 and The Miraculous Mandarin. The Stravinsky entries
are Pulcinella, Apollon musagète, Scherzo à la russe, Le roi des
étoiles, Canticum Sacrum, Agon, Requiem Canticles, Aldous Huxley
in Memoriam, Symphony in Three Movements, Symphony in C and
Symphony of Psalms.
84 | September 2017 thewholenote.com