From the Back Room: Böhm's Brahms 1

My recent post offering to present recordings I had prepared but never posted (Buster's Back Room) produced a variety of responses.

Several of you asked for one of my favorites - the conductor Karl Böhm - in a 1959 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic of Brahms Symphony No. 1. So here it is in my "From the Back Room" series. The transfers, etc., are prepared with the usual care, but my at times talky commentary may be abbreviated.

Karl Böhm

In this reading of Brahms' weighty Symphony No. 1, Böhm displays his usual careful balancing of the orchestral choirs, producing a performance of rare depth.

Here is what Martin Bookspan had to say in Stereo Review: "Bôhm gives us a solid. middle-European performance of Brahms’ granitic work. It is a reading of substance and dignity and is superbly well played by the orchestra and beautifully recorded by the engineers in both the mono and stereo editions. If I continue to prefer Klemperer's Angel recording (35481), it is because the octogenarian brings more of himself to his re-creation of the music. But I'd rate this new Bôhm version close behind that of Klemperer."

The sound from this original pressing is resonant but very good.

LINK

Fritz Lehmann Conducts Romantic Overtures

Fritz Lehmann is a little-remembered conductor whose recording heyday was short, but who did manage to make dozens of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon before his early death at age 52 in 1956.

Lehmann has appeared here twice before - with his recording of The Nutcracker Suite and with Brahms and Schumann overtures, along with two of Dvořák's Slavonic Rhapsodies. This post will revisit the Brahms and Schumann works while adding overtures from the Romantic period by Mendelssohn, Weber and Schubert.

About Fritz Lehmann

To paraphrase myself from an earlier post: Lehmann (1904-56) was a busy conductor who died too young. An enthusiast of Baroque music and early advocate of period performance practices, much of his recorded legacy is from the classical and Romantic periods. DG kept him engaged, but he also recorded for other labels.

Although not reflected in this program, it's important to mention Lehmann's advocacy for Bach and Handel. He was conductor of the Göttingen International Handel Festival, from 1934-44, and then again from 1946-53, where he conducted modern revivals of two Handel operas. His death came while he was conducting a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. At the time he was in the midst of recording the Christmas Oratorio. The final sections were completed with Günther Arndt.

Two Mendelssohn Overtures

In 1951, Lehmann joined with the Berlin Philharmonic for recordings of two sea-going Mendelssohn concert overtures issued on the 10-inch LP above. The first and better known is The Hebrides (also called Fingal's Cave), a marvelous, dramatic work here in a performance that does it full justice.

Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage - written at about the same time as The Hebrides and inspired by Goethe - starts off (uh) calmly. There isn't enough wind to sail. But soon enough the voyage is on its way. The composer's music is never less than interesting, but the work suffers in comparison with its predecessor.

The recordings - like all here with the Berlin orchestra - were made in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche.

Brahms and Schumann Overtures

The second 10-inch LP is the one I have previously featured, but which has been thoroughly reworked for this post.

It combines Brahms' Tragic Overture, the portentous work that has remained familiar in the concert hall for nearly 150 years. Hugely dramatic and impressive, it is one of the composer's best and best-known works. 

Lehmann is a sure hand with this material, again with the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance from 1952.

From that same year we have Schumann's Manfred Overture, the most familiar part of the composer's set of incidental music inspired by the Lord Byron poem. From that music, the overture alone has maintained a footing on symphony programs.

For the Schumann, Lehmann leads the Bamberg Symphony, which is not as refined as the Berlin ensemble, but which still produces a worthy performance whose dramatic qualities make it a good disk mate for the Brahms.

Weber - Der Freischütz Overture

Late in 1952, Lehmann and the Berliners turned their attention to the overture from the first German Romantic opera - Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, which also is well performed by the musicians from Berlin. The opera itself is far more often heard in Germany than here in the US, but the engaging overture is a welcome program addition.

This pressing appeared in American Decca's budget 10-inch line. Decca reprinted many of Lehmann's recordings and those of other DG conductors such as Paul van Kempen and Ferenc Fricsay. This collection does not include the second piece on the Decca LP - Gluck's Alceste Overture - because it is not from the romantic period.

Two Schubert Overtures from the Same Work

Our final selections are two Schubert overtures associated with the same work - the composer's incidental music to Rosamunde, a play by Helmina von Chézy.

When Schubert assembled his Rosamunde score, he opted to use the overture he had written for his opera Alfonso und Estrella. This is the overture that is now sometimes called the Rosamunde, as it is here.

In 1855, well after the composer's death, a publisher substituted Schubert's Die Zauberharfe overture in an edition of the Rosamunde score. Since then, conductors have generally used that piece when they program the Rosamunde music, at least in part because it's considered better music than the Alfonso und Estrella overture.

Here you can judge for yourself in these 1952-53 performances from Berlin, again from Decca's budget 4000 series.

DG's sound during this period was impressive, although with a tendency to bass heaviness, which I've clarified in these transfers.

LINK

Boult and Jochum Conduct Brahms

Two Johannes Brahms symphonies today, with similar approaches although from different conductors and eras. First we have a follow-up to a recent post of Brahms' Symphony No. 2, as led by Sir Adrian Boult - the Symphony No. 1 in a splendid 1972 performance from the same cycle.

Then, a worthwhile version of the Symphony No. 3 as conducted by Eugen Jochum in a 1939 recording from Hamburg.

Boult Conducts the Symphony No. 1

"Judged by this performance, Sir Adrian [then 83] seems younger than ever. His Brahms performances have lost nothing of muscular buoyancy and exuberance in allegros ('bracing' is perhaps the best word), while his insight goes ever deeper, without in the least trying to make points." So wrote Trevor Harvey in The Gramophone when the record was issued. And even 50 years later, the performance seems fresh.

The performance is striking from the first bar. Harvey: "The very opening, for example, with pounding timpani is not very slow; it sounds perfectly marvelous without one feeling that the conductor is out to make the greatest effect possible."

Sir Adrian

The entire work is just as fine, the finale in particular - beautifully balanced and controlled but with great impact. The London Philharmonic is in prime form, and the recording could hardly be better. This symphony - unlike the second - was done in the more resonant Kingsway Hall. My transfer comes from a Korean pressing of the original issue.

1973 HMV ad

Jochum Conducts the Symphony No. 3

Today's reading of the Third Symphony comes from Hamburg, where Eugen Jochum (1902-87) was the music director from 1934-49. In his New York Times obituary for the conductor, John Rockwell called him "one of the last representatives of the traditional German school of conducting.

"From his earliest recordings, Mr. Jochum's interpretive profile seemed well formed. He was neither an intense literalist like Arturo Toscanini nor a brooding mystic like Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom he much admired. His conducting - in Bach, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms as well as Bruckner - flowed purposefully but genially forward, responding to the music without imposing his will upon it in a self-conscious way."

Eugen Jochum in 1941

Although he was relatively young, Jochum was a seasoned recording conductor in 1939, having started making discs as early as 1933. He was to record the first and third Brahms symphonies in the Musikhalle Hamburg for the Telefunken company, turning to the other symphonies later in his career.

This transfer comes from a 1949 LP release on the US Capitol label, one of a series that the label reprinted from the Telefunken catalogue. The critic of The New Records was impressed: "Here is as fine a Brahms Third as we have ever heard. Jochum gives it a well knit, vital reading that is interesting, exciting, and satisfying, and all this without doing malice to the score. His tempo is a shade brisk occasionally, but his conception of the music is so valid, and his projection of it so convincing, that it stands as a great performance."

The sound is good for the time, and is now enhanced by ambient stereo. The Hamburg orchestra was not as skilled (or perhaps as large) as Boult's LPO, but more than adequate and responsive to Jochum's conducting.

The conductor has appeared here previously with Jean Françaix's Serenade for Twelve Instruments, also from Hamburg. It is now available in a new ambient stereo version.

Wieland Wagner in 1954 with three notable conductors: Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum and Wilhelm Furtwängler

Brahms with the New Friends of Music Quartet

My last post featured the two Brahms piano quartets recorded by the New York Quartet, No. 1 and 3. For whatever reason, that ensemble did not record the second quartet, so I looked around for a suitable alternative. My own collection contains only well-known readings, but I did find a gem in the Internet Archive.

That jewel is the 1949 recording by the New Friends of Music Quartet, made for the small Allegro label. It's apparently the only disc made by the quartet, whose members were Hortense Monath, piano, Bronislav Gimpel, violin, Frank Brieff, viola, and Jascha Bernstein, cello.

Bronislav Gimpel, Jascha Bernstein

Hortense Monath, Frank Brieff

Monath (1904-56) was the program director and driving force behind the New Friends of Music, a New York concert society, until its demise in the mid-50s. She was quite a good pianist who had recorded with the Kolisch Quartet and the Trio Pasquier in the 1930s and who made a solo Mozart LP for Allegro.

Bronislav Gimpel (1911-79) was perhaps the best known instrumentalist in the group. He emigrated from Europe to the US in 1937, and soon became the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was a conductor of the ABC radio orchestra at the time of this recording.

Violist Frank Brieff (1912-2005) became better known as a conductor, and was for many years with the New Haven Symphony. He was a member of the NBC Symphony when this recording was made.

I have not turned up much information on cellist Jascha Bernstein, but I do know that he emigrated to the US in 1940, was active in New York at the time of this recording, and much later made a few discs for the Musical Heritage Society.

The Piano Quartet in A is a large-scale work, both in length and emotional scope. It is not tragic like its successor, the Quartet in C minor. Indeed, it is sometimes considered Schubertian in its songfulness, although its scale and dramatic quality are entirely characteristic of its composer. This recording does it full justice. The sound in ambient stereo is well balanced and truthful.

Brahms from the New York Quartet

Alexander Schneider, Mieczysław Horszowski, Frank Miller and Milton Katims

The New York Quartet, comprising four of the outstanding instrumentalists of their time, recorded two of Brahms' three Piano Quartets in the late 1940s. I posted the popular Quartet No. 1 back in 2010, and am now belatedly turning my attention to the tragic Quartet No. 3.

A few words about the New York Quartet, from my first post: Violinist Alexander Schneider had been in the Budapest String Quartet, and would be again in 1956. He also made a good number of records as a conductor. Violist Milton Katims, too, would take up conducting, leading the Seattle Symphony for many years. Frank Miller was the principal cellist with the NBC Symphony when this record was made, and later would hold the same position with the Chicago Symphony. He, too, was a conductor. Pianist Mieczysław Horszowski had an extraordinarily long career, playing well into his 90s.

Now about the Brahms quartet - the reviewer in The New Records had this to say: "The present work has never gained great popularity, perhaps because of its dramatic and somber nature. However, it is considered a finely wrought composition and the discerning music lover will surely find it rewarding. The performance in the present instance is excellent and the reproduction is of the best."

In the 1940s, listeners were not spoiled for choice in the classical repertory. The quartet had been released only twice before the Mercury recording out, and neither was available at the time. Today, one online retailer lists 33 different versions for sale.

The recording was made in 1947, and is well-balanced. The ambient stereo remastering has a striking sense of space. Mercury recordings at the time were made with a single microphone which adds to the sense of a live performance. Some reviewers complained that the label's efforts could sound harsh and wiry - a view I agree with - but here all is well.

Also - I've newly remastered my transfer of Piano Quartet No. 1 in ambient stereo. That quartet is a more genial work, with its last movement a "Rondo alla zingarese" that is both exciting and fascinating. The New York Quartet's performance is excellent. The download link for the first quartet is available both via the original post and in the comments to this post.

Brahms from Sir Adrian and Dame Janet

Dame Janet Baker and Sir Adrian Boult

Two of the most distinguished and beloved British musicians of the 20th century - mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker and conductor Sir Adrian Boult - combined to produce this 1970-71 LP of Brahms' compositions.

On this record, Baker is heard in the Alto Rhapsody, while Boult conducts the second symphony. For Sir Adrian, it was the the second installment in his second cycle of the Brahms symphonies, succeeding his 1954 set. Dame Janet would go on to record a program of Brahms lieder with André Previn at the piano in 1978.

Original and reissue covers

Discussing the Alto Rhapsody, Trevor Harvey wrote in his Gramophone review, "Turgid Brahms, you may think. Yet How can anyone resist Janet Baker’s superb singing and vocal colouring, from a wonderfully veiled tone to great, thrilling outbursts, full of warmth and feeling. Sir Adrian knows exactly how to accompany his soloist with understanding."

Dame Janet, now retired at age 89, is a mezzo-soprano and the work was, after all, written for contralto. But the music is within her range and more importantly she brings great sensitivity to the part. To hear the Rhapsody sung by a true contralto, please look into previous posts by Marian Anderson (newly remastered in ambient stereo) and Aafje Heynis.

Recordings by Marian Anderson and Aafje Heynis

Boult takes a characteristically unfussy approach to the symphony. It may not glow with the radiance of Bruno Walter's late-career recording, but it is cogent in its own way, beautifully balanced and judged. George Jellinek wrote in Stereo Review, "For my taste, the finale does not quite move with the excitement toward which such a finely controlled interpretation should build, but the overall performance displays a maturity, sense of proportion, and delicacy of detail hard to find fault with."

The Alto Rhapsody recording is from a late December 1970 date in Abbey Road Studio No. 1. The symphony comes from January and April 1971 sessions split between Abbey Road and Kingsway Hall. The sound is very good. The excellent performances are relatively closely miked, and any sonic differences between the venues were not noticeable to me. 

The download includes scans from both the first and reissue pressings (the transfer is from the reissue). Along with several reviews, I've included an article about the Alto Rhapsody recording session, along with texts and translations (which HMV did not supply).

This was another of the recordings on non-English music that Sir Adrian undertook in the last years of his career. Earlier we heard from him in Mozart symphonies. Unlike those performances, Boult's Brahms symphonies were issued in the US, but this transfer is from a UK pressing.

HMV ad in the October 1971 Gramophone

Kletzki Conducts Wagner and Brahms

Here is a return to the work of conductor Paul Kletzki, who has appeared on this blog only once before, with the Israel Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Third Symphony. Today we explore his work in more depth, with these two 1950s recordings of Wagner and Brahms, both with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Kletzki (1900-73) worked quite a bit with the Philharmonia in the 1950s, making recordings for EMI, the source of today's two LPs. Born in Poland, he made his early career in Berlin, primarily as a composer, before moving on with the ascension of the Nazis, first to Italy, then to Switzerland, where he became a citizen. During this time he became known for his conducting. His initial recordings were in Berlin in 1932. He began his association with EMI in 1946. Later on he became the director of the Dallas Symphony and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Wagner - Music from Tannhäuser and Tristan und Isolde

These Wagner recordings, dating from June 1953, were made in London's Kingsway Hall. Although mono, the sound is quite good. [Note (October 2023): the sound has now been refurbished in ambient stereo.]

Kletzki programmed the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser along with the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, two glorious pieces of music that Kletzki handles beautifully.

Andrew Porter in The Gramophone was laudatory: "[Kletzki] is astonishingly versatile and does extraordinarily well whatever he turns his hand to." However, he also thought that in the Prelude and Liebestod there wasn't sufficient ecstasy, a verdict shared by the American Record Guide's Peter Hugh Reed. The latter added, though, "Those who like their Wagner played with less emotional stress will do well to investigate this excellently recorded disc with its evidence of musical care and veracity."

Ad in The Gramophone, February 1954 (click to enlarge)

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll, Träume; Brahms - Haydn Variations

The two Wagner pieces in this program are a contrast to the previous pair in that they were written for chamber forces, not the full orchestra of Tannhäuser and Tristan. However, it's possible that Kletzki has expanded the scoring for this recording. 

The Siegfried Idyll was a present to the composer's wife Cosima upon the birth of their son Siegfried. It is tender and loving music, handsomely done here. The critic Paul Affelder wrote, "Kletzki is not a showy conductor. He allows the music to sing, to emerge frankly and naturally, and in so doing serves it best."

The second Wagner item on this program is connected to both Tristan and, in a way, to the Siegfried Idyll. It is an orchestral transcription of Träume, the last of the five Wesendonck Lieder, settings of poems by Mathilde Wesendonck. The composer originally wrote them for voice and piano, and later added a version with chamber orchestra. The arrangement without voice was done to serenade Wesendonck outside her window, as Wagner was later to do for his wife with the Siegfried Idyll.

Paul Kletzki

The composer was working on Tristan at the same time as the lieder, and the music of Träume is related to Tristan. In the recorded arrangement, the vocal part is given to violin, here played by Hugh Bean, the concertmaster of the Philharmonia.

It has been speculated that Wagner and Wesendonck were lovers (she was the wife of his patron Otto Wesendonck). Brahms' Haydn Variations were related to his own love for Clara Schumann, the wife of Robert Schumann, and it too was probably not conceived as an orchestral work. Brahms wrote it for performance by Clara and him, but also transcribed it into the orchestral guise in which it is usually heard today.

The given name of the work is the Variations on a Theme of Haydn, but it sometimes called the St. Antoni Variations because it was based on a melody called the "St. Antoni Chorale" found in one of Haydn's wind partitas. Today the theme is thought probably to have been written by one of Haydn's students.

These recordings date from August and September 1958 and are in excellent stereo. The Siegfried Idyll is a remake of a mono recording that Kletzki did for EMI in 1947.

Hans Kindler, Conductor and Cellist

Detail from 1944 Life ad

I've been interested for some time in the recordings of conductor Hans Kindler, who founded the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., in 1931 and led it until 1949. I posted his reading of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 (Polish) several years ago, and have just remastered it for those interested.

Today I've brought together quite a number of Kindler's other recordings, working from an LP issued in the 1970s by Washington radio station WGMS and a parcel of 78 needle-drops found on Internet Archive. I've also added a V-Disc and two of Kindler's cello recordings from 1916.

These give a very good account of the music that Kindler was conducting and recording, along with a sense for his skill as a cellist.

Kindler in action

The main item in the collection is Brahms' Symphony No. 3, in a most interesting rendition from 1941. The orchestra - then only a decade old - gives a good account of itself.

Also in the collection are a variety of short items: from 1940 we have William Schuman's "American Festival Overture." This was written for Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony and premiered in 1939. But Koussevitzky did not record it; Kindler's was the first on record.

The second work from the 1940 sessions has an interesting back story. It is a Toccata supposedly by the 17th century composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. At least that is what Kindler thought when he made an arrangement for orchestra. He was working from a cello arrangement purportedly of a Frescobaldi work by fellow instrumentalist Gaspar Cassadó.

It came out much later that Cassadó, somewhat in the vein of Fritz Kreisler and his inventions, was the real author of the piece. Regardless, it's a tuneful work.

At about the same time, Kindler, born in Rotterdam, recorded two 16th century Dutch tunes in his own arrangements. These compositions had appeared on the first official concert ever given by the orchestra, in 1931.

From 1941 comes a recording of "Stars" by the American composer Mary Howe, who was the patron of the orchestra. It's a very good composition that has been recorded a few times.

Moving ahead to early 1945, we have Armas Järnefelt's Praeludium and Berceuse along with the "Dream Pantomine" from Humperdinck's opera Hansel und Gretel. The latter comes from a somewhat noisy V-Disc. The work also was issued on Victor, but I didn't have access to that pressing.

Finally, I thought you might like to hear a few of Kindler's early cello recordings. These were made in 1916, when he was the principal cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra. They are J.C. Bartlett's "A Dream" with by an orchestra conducted by Josef Pasternack, and a transcription of Schumann's "Traumerei," accompanied by pianist Rosario Bourdon.

The young cellist

Kindler died not long after ceding the conductorship of the orchestra to his protégé, another cellist, Howard Mitchell, who recently appeared here leading the music of Paul Creston.

The download includes scans of the WGMS LP, the 78 labels, and a variety of promotional photos and ads. The latter includes a spectacular two-page Victor ad from a 1944 Life Magazine. It features the Kindler portrait at top along with similar images of Vladimir Golschmann, Artur Schnabel and Arthur Fiedler.

Marian Anderson in Brahms and Mahler

Here are two uncelebrated but nonetheless remarkable performances by contralto Marian Anderson, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Marian Anderson

This 1950 LP contains the third of her three recordings of Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, and what may be her only recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

RCA has never re-released the Brahms, and I believe the Mahler has only appeared in a reissue series devoted to conductor Pierre Monteux.

Fritz Reiner's conducting generates notes, staves and whirligigs

In the superb Alto Rhapsody, Miss Anderson is beautifully supported by a recording orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner, then at the Metropolitan Opera, and the men's voices of the Robert Shaw Chorale. Her earlier (and better known) versions date from 1939 (with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy) and 1945 (with the San Francisco Symphony and Monteux).

Monteux also leads his San Francisco band in the Mahler song cycle. Monteux did not conduct Mahler regularly - and this appears to be his only recording of that composer. His rendition is understated, which is perhaps not a fault in this wrenching composition. Miss Anderson's warm voice is well suited to this approach.

Pierre Monteux

The Mahler comes from a February 1950 session in the War Memorial Opera House; the Brahms is from an October 1950 date in the Manhattan Center. The sound from San Francisco is good; from New York even better.

My previous Marian Anderson posts were devoted to spirituals and Christmas carols.

Note (August 2023): these recordings are now available in ambient stereo.

Brahms with the New York Quartet

This 1949 performance of Brahms' first piano quartet has been a favorite of mine for many years; I have always been particularly fond of the pianism of Mieczysław Horszowski. So a while back I decided to present it here. 

Horszowski, and the starry group he has with him here - Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims and Frank Miller - were the members of the New York Quartet, but are barely identified as such here for some reason. (You also can here them on this blog in a performance of Copland's Piano Quartet, which is approximately contemporaneous with this recording.)

Alexander Schneider, Mieczysław Horszowski, Frank Miller, Milton Katims

Alexander Schneider had been in the Budapest String Quartet, and would be again in 1956. He also made a good number of records as a conductor. Milton Katims, too, would take up conducting, leading the Seattle Symphony for many years. Frank Miller was the principal cellist with the NBC Symphony when this record was made, and later would hold the same position with the Chicago Symphony. He, too, was a conductor. Horszowski had an extraordinarily long career as a pianist, playing well into his 90s.

The cover above is from the second pressing of this LP. The original pressing had one of those brown pebble-grain covers that are supposed to look like a leather book binding and lend the product some class. These look pretty dingy 60 years later, and probably did back then, as well.

Note (August 2023): this LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Ida Haendel in Brahms

Occasionally I draw attention to an under appreciated artist on this blog - most notably Noel Mewton-Wood. Here is a violinist I admire, Ida Haendel.

Of Polish origin, but for many years resident in England, Haendel had a long career, but made relatively few records. One of the finest is surely this commanding performance of the Brahms violin concerto, made for HMV in 1953. She is accompanied by the London Symphony, conducted by Sergiu Celibidache (who was making his final appearance on commercial recordings before he renounced them as being wrong, or something).

Ida Haendel and Sergiu Celibidache

The mono recording is quite good, providing that welcome you-are-there sensation - even if it is the sensation that you are there in an empty hall. [Note: this now has been remastered in ambient stereo and has excellent sound.]

Above is the cover from the HMV issue, although I have dubbed this from an RCA Bluebird LP of about the same vintage. The RCA has a generic cover, so I have not included it. Instead, I've included the four-page HMV insert to the February 1955 issue of Gramophone that includes an announcement of this recording (see the center spread below). Also part of the package is an August 1955 interview with the artist, containing many questionable details of her life as a child virtuoso (e.g., her father interrupting Joseph Szigeti while he was shaving to demand that he audition little Ida for tutelage - I think I saw something like that in a bad musical). Well, the facts may be fanciful, but the music making is spectacular. I hope you agree.

From the February 1955 Gramophone (click to enlarge)