Berlioz and Weinberger from Cleveland and Rodziński

Artur Rodziński

Today we have more of the recordings Artur Rodziński made with the Cleveland Orchestra during his decade as its music director (1933-43). They include one of their first recordings, of Jaromir Weinberger's Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree, and a later session devoted to Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

The Berlioz piece is the more substantial, so let's examine that recording first. It derives from an April 14, 1941 session in Severance Hall solely devoted to the work.

As far as I can tell, this is the only time the conductor turned his attention to Berlioz in the recording studio. Rodziński's emphasis on clarity and discipline are always admirable, but perhaps not the first qualities that come to mind when thinking about the music of Berlioz. I generally admire the conductor's approach, but this is a work that perhaps requires more fantasy than Rodziński could evoke. My favorite recording is led by Leonard Bernstein with the Orchestre National de France in the 1970s. He emphasizes the hallucinatory qualities of the work, which supposedly were influenced by Berlioz's experience with opium. 

The composer had developed a program for the work which involves a despairing young artist, an obsessive love, an opium-induced dream of his own execution and finally a witches' sabbath. But he later downplayed the program, writing in the preface to its second edition, "The author hopes that the symphony provides on its own sufficient musical interest independently of any dramatic intention." This is certainly the spirit in which Rodziński takes up the work, but one can't help but feel that something is missing. (The New York Times' Howard Taubman would disagree; he praised the recording's "driving, biting impact" in his 1942 review, and the reviewer in The New Records was similarly enthusiastic. These notices and two concert reviews are in the download.)

The transfer came from a early-1950s Columbia Entré LP with reasonably good sound.

Weinberger - Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree

Jaromir Weinberger

The Symphonie Fantastique was well over a century old when Rodziński recorded it, but Jaromir Weinberger's Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree had premiered in October 1939, only a few months before the date with the Columbia engineers.

The Bohemian Weinberger (1896-1967) was newly arrived in the U.S., one of the many refugees from Hitler's Germany. His reputation as a composer had been made 13 years before with the success of his Schwanda the Bagpiper. The Polka and Fugue from this opera are heard even today on orchestral programs.

Weinberger was a facile composer with a gift for melody; both characteristics are apparent in the work under discussion, which has the formal name "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree," Variations and Fugue on an Old English Tune. The old tune in question was likely originally a dance; it had been set by Giles Farnaby and William Byrd 300 years earlier.

John Barbirolli premiered Weinberger's work with the New York Philharmonic in October 1939, but did not record it. Rodziński raced Constant Lambert into the studio to deliver the premiere recording. Lambert's session with the London Philharmonic was on December 21, 1939. Sources differ on the Cleveland date: Michael Gray says it was December 13, 1939; Donald Rosenberg in The Cleveland Orchestra Story specifies January 9-10, 1940.

The Weinberger is an enjoyable piece neatly done by the Clevelanders. My transfer is taken from a 1970s Cleveland Orchestra promotional LP. The album is marked stereo, but as far as I can tell, the only stereo signal consists of surface noise and a very loud rumble, which I have eliminated. Note (February 2024): in preparing the Lambert recording for a post, I noticed that the Rodziński was considerably off-pitch, which I have now rectified.

The download includes reviews of the recording from the New York Times and The New Records, an article by Weinberger published a few days before the concert premiere, and a review of the premiere itself.

One final note: the pianist in the work is Boris Goldovsky, then the Cleveland chorus master, later an opera conductor and impresario and radio personality on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

LINK

Rodziński admires his likeness, produced by sculptor William McVay