Kisch and Wolff Conduct Overtures

I had a request for some of the early Decca-London FFRR (full-frequency range) recordings, so here are two such 10-inch discs featuring less-often heard but accomplished conductors who are worth remembering - Royalton Kisch and Albert Wolff. Plus there are a few bonus items. 

Both LPs feature the same generic kettle-drum cover that London was using on some 10-inch LPs in the early 1950s.

Royalton Kisch Conducts Gluck, Cimarosa and Smetana

The English conductor Royalton Kisch (1920-95) made quite a few records when he was young, and his career was progressing well until a back injury forced him to abandon the podium when he was only 44.

Kisch's full name was Alastair Royalton-Kisch, simplified for professional purposes. His London debut was in 1947, followed quickly by a Decca recording contract. His work for Decca over the next several years was primarily overtures and accompaniments, although he did sneak in a Haydn and a Mozart symphony.

Today's post starts with a transfer of Kisch's 1951 London recording of two 18th century overtures, both by Christoph Willibald Gluck - Alceste and Iphigénie en Aulide.

Royalton Kisch

Kisch was a proficient conductor. A Gramophone reviewer called the Iphigénie en Aulide recording "a beautiful performance, played with tension and exquisitely in tune: the music is of a quality that commands the players' best - a noble work." He found Alceste, in contrast, lacking in intensity and missing the tragic sense that informs the work.

In addition to the Gluck works, I've added two additional Kisch recordings from other LPs. Cimarosa's delightful Il Matrimonio Segreto (in a sparking performance) came from the 12-inch version of the Gluck release and was recorded at the same London Symphony session in Kingsway Hall.

Another bonus is Kisch's LSO recording of Smetana's The Bartered Bride overture, which comes from a 1950 Kingsway Hall date. It is neatly done but lacks the irresistible élan of the best recordings. The recording comes from a miscellaneous LP that also contains overtures conducted by Anthony Collins and Georg Solti, not included here.

The Gluck LP is from my collection; I remastered the bonus items from needle drops found on Internet Archive. The sound is excellent in all cases.

Albert Wolff Conducts Massenet and Saint-Saëns

From the young Englishman Royalton Kisch we switch to the very experienced Frenchman Albert Wolff (1884-1970). Here he conducts the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique, where he had once been music director and which was one focus of his career from age 22 on. Wolff also was at various times the principal conductor of the Pasdeloup and Lamoureux Orchestras.

Albert Wolff

The recorded works are two less-often heard overtures - Massenet's Phèdre and Saint-Saëns's La Princesse Jaune. As you might expect, Wolff's readings are highly idiomatic, and also strongly profiled. The Opéra-Comique was not on the LSO's level, but the recording certainly has its attractions due to Wolff's presence.

These are 1951 recordings from Paris' Maison de la Mutualité. The sound is adequate, but nothing revelatory to be sure. This is a remastered version of an LP that I first offered here well over a decade ago via this post.

Both downloads include a few reviews along with the usual scans, etc.

Overtures with Albert Wolff

Albert Wolff was one of those conductors who made fine records, but has no great reputation these days. Of Dutch descent, he was born in Paris and spent much of his career there, conducting the Lamoureux, Pasdeloup and Opéra-Comique orchestras.

Wolff made this LP with the Opéra-Comique orchestra in June 1951. (Actually, even though it says "long playing" on the cover, I think this was what was called a medium-play record in the trade, per our friend Mel - longer than an EP, shorter than an LP.) Decca sent the classic team of John Culshaw and Kenneth Wilkinson to do the recording in the Maison de la Mutualité, and the results are very fine.

Two miscellaneous French overtures aren't usually the kind of thing that attracts me, but Wolff, the Opera-Comique players, and the Decca production team make this a treat.