Furtwängler Returns with Schumann and Beethoven

The great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler has more fans among Big 10 readers than I would have suspected. So to follow up on my recent post of him leading Beethoven, here he is with more from that composer, along with two works by Robert Schumann.

The recordings are with the Berlin Philharmonic (unless otherwise stated) and date from 1947-53.

Before we get to the music, why does Furtwängler hold our attention even today? Here is critic Andrew Porter following the conductor's death:

"[H]e played Beethoven's symphonies, and Brahms's and all music for that matter, as if he were playing them for the first time, the only time. A lifetime’s study and the full concentration of the man was going into this one, particular performance.

"More than any other conductor he loved Klangschönheit [sonority], and delighted in sheer beauty of tone; and he ensured with loving rehearsal an intimate balance of orchestral detail. Perhaps there was a lack of driving rhythmic impulse in long movements: but it arose less from preoccupation with passing beauties than as a result of large-scale mountings of tension."

Porter's testimonial, which appeared in The Gramophone, is included in the download.

Schumann - Manfred Overture

If this cover looks familiar, it's because I included one of the works therein on my first survey of Furtwängler's art - Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2. I had a request for the other item - Schumann's Manfred Overture, so here it is. A different recording of Leonore No. 2 is also in this set. 

The Manfred overture is heard much more often than the other pieces of incidental music that the composer wrote that were inspired by Lord Byron's 1817 poem. It's a splendid piece - don't be put off by the ragged opening here; the performance proves worthy of the work. The recording is from 1951.

Schumann - Symphony No. 4

Schumann's final symphony, written in 1841, was revised for publication a decade later, five years before his death. The work exists in two versions - the original and the later version. Brahms himself had the original published, much to Clara Schumann's displeasure. I believe this recording uses the later version.

I love Schumann's symphonies; this is a grand performance of No. 4. The 1953 sound is particularly good.

Beethoven - Egmont Overture; Leonore Overture No. 2

Similar to Manfred, Beethoven's Egmont Overture is the first item in a set of incidental music, in this case written for a 1787 play by Goethe. The composer premiered the work in 1810. It extols the 16th-century nobleman Lamoral, Count of Egmont from the Low Countries, who was condemned to death for resisting oppression.

The stirring composition is one of Beethoven's greatest and most popular. Furtwängler's performance with the Berlin Philharmonic dates from 1947.

The curious case of Beethoven's four overtures for his opera Fidelio (earlier titled Leonore) was explained in my first post devoted to this conductor. This is a different recording from the one discussed there. That was a 1954 recording; this one comes from 1949. It's not clear why the conductor remade the piece so quickly, although the reason might simply be that they were done for two different companies (Electrola vs. Deutsche Grammophon).

It remains to be said that Furtwängler's live performances are generally considered to be superior to his studio efforts. I don't find that to be the case, but it is a common opinion.

Furtwängler had an unusual conducting style (which probably had something to do with the imprecise opening of Manfred noted above). You can see it in a 1950 film of him leading Strauss' Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche - not my favorite music, but indicative of the eminent conductor in front of an orchestra.

Hope you enjoy this latest taste of the conductor's artistry - not to mention that of Schumann and Beethoven.

LINK

A Beethoven Program with Furtwängler and Menuhin

Here is a program devoted to Beethoven featuring recordings by one of the most famous 20th century conductors - Wilhelm Furtwängler. The soloist is violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

These recordings were made late in the conductor's career - from 1952 to 1954. Furtwängler died in late 1954 at age 68.

The program begins with Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2, followed by the Violin Concerto and the Symphony No. 3.

Furtwängler was often contrasted with the other preeminent conductor of his time - Arturo Toscanini. Here is the critic Neville Cardus in a tribute published following Furtwängler's death: "[He] conducted in a manner exactly opposed to the Toscanini objectivity: in plainer words, he did not regard the printed notes of the score as a final statement, but rather as so many symbols of an imaginative conception, ever changing and always to be felt and realized subjectively. His variations and tempo often irritated musicians who, in increasing numbers during a period of anti-romanticism, persuaded themselves to believe in music as an arrangement of patterns conveying no emotion or meaning reducible to terms or language related to merely human or egoistical significance."

Furtwängler paradoxically conducted in a manner than appeared improvisational, while also seeming to penetrate to the work's essence - at least to his admirers, of whom there are still many. He was a remarkable figure.

Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a

Beethoven wrote no fewer than four overtures for his only opera, which eventually was called Fidelio. The original title was Leonore, after one of the leading characters, and three of the overtures carry her name. Furtwängler programmed the Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a, which, to add to the confusion, was actually the first Beethoven composed. It is quite long (this performance lasts almost 16 minutes); the others were more succinct.

Here is Timothy Judd's precis of the opera: "The plot centers on a heroic struggle for liberty: Leonore, disguised as a male prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from political imprisonment and death by gradual starvation."

Judd then discusses Op. 72a: "The Overture opens with a titanic unison G which gives way to a searching, descending, modal scale - a musical descent into the darkness of Florestan’s prison cell ... A few moments later, the theme from Florestan’s soliloquy offers a glimmer of light amid mystery and lonely solitude. This music is filled with a sense of heroic struggle, an intense longing for freedom, and Florestan’s thoughts of Leonore ... Just as Leonore Overture No. 2 reaches a climax of ferocity,  a sudden, distant trumpet call is heard, signaling Florestan’s impending freedom. At first, there is numb shock and disbelief. Then, the Overture’s final bars erupt into a joyful, unabashed celebration of freedom."

The recording, with the Berlin Philharmonic, is from 1954.

Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61

Yehudi Menuhin recorded several concertos with Furtwängler, with whom he had a great affinity. On a broadcast following the conductor's death, he stated, "Furtwängler was perhaps the last exponent of a tradition carrying us as far back as the Indians and the Greeks, a tradition of music as a hallowed link with divinity, with the Gods. As we all too tritely say, nothing is sacred today, but I believe something should be and some music should be. Furtwängler accomplished a sacred rite each time he conducted a Beethoven or a Brahms or a Bach work."

Wilhelm Furtwängler and Yehudi Menuhin

Their recording of the Violin Concerto is a classic. The Gramophone's verdict: "This [is] an exhibition of superb fiddling, but there is in the performance also a poise, a spaciousness and depth of musical feeling for which it would be less than just not to suggest that Furtwängler was equally responsible ... Menuhin gives a magnificent reading of the work (not without deviations from the printed notes in a couple of places) which will stand the test of the most searching analysis and more than satisfy those whom the perfect recording has long eluded."

Furtwängler and Menuhin recorded the work in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1953.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

Beethoven first wanted to name his third symphony "Bonaparte" in honor of Napoleon. But after Napoleon declared himself emperor - to the composer's dismay - Beethoven changed the title to "Eroica," or the "Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man."

The cover of this original Electrola LP may lead you to think that the "hero" was the conductor, but in actuality this is a famous performance that is true to Beethoven's intentions. The critic Michael Marcus wrote: "The performance is a great one. Here Furtwängler shows incomparably how to extract the utmost meaning from any phrase while never losing sight of the over-all design. The lead into the coda of the first movement is a masterpiece of sustained and controlled tension, and in the coda itself the giant stride of the composer's imagination is unforgettably unleashed. The Finale, too, is welded together with supreme force and vigour, and the Vienna Philharmonic horns are superb."

Furtwängler attempted to penetrate to the core of the work; and in that aim he was not different from that of Roger Norrington in the recording of the Ninth Symphony recently heard here. Their methods, however, were opposed, with the younger maestro seeking insight from Beethoven's markings and the evidence as to the instruments and sound of the orchestra in the early 19th century, while Furtwängler, as Menuhin put it, was an exponent of "a tradition of music as a hallowed link with divinity." In contrast, Norrington remarked that conducting is "not about consecrating a sacred object. It’s about exploring and being curious and having fun."

The Furtwängler Eroica recording was made in late 1952 in Vienna.

The sound on all these discs is quite good.

LINK

Norrington's 'Uniquely Important' Beethoven 9

Nearly 40 years ago, when Roger Norrington's recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony first appeared on the market, it was considered "uniquely important" by critic Richard Osborne of The Gramophone.

Sir Roger has now died at age 91, so today let's reassess this performance and the reasons why it was so well received.

The first thing to mention is that it is what today we would call a "historically informed performance." The instruments are similar to those used back in 1824, when the symphony was first heard. The performance practices are of the time. And the tempos follow the composer's guidance - unusual in 1987.

Roger Norrington

The 1980s witnessed a flowering of such performances. Norrington's was, I believe, the first Beethoven symphony cycle of its type, but others were in process and many more were to come. On the Norrington recording, Osborne writes that it displays "glimmering, vibrato-free strings, plaintive woodwinds, keen toned and at times strangely keening horns and trumpets, and those wonderful small, hard, sonically explosive drums."

Norrington views the Ninth "looking, Januslike, both backwards and forwards from its historical vantage-point in 1824 ... [T]here is no doubt that by using period instruments and a smallish choir, all admirably caught on LP by EMI in this lively Abbey Road Studio No. 1 recording, Norrington has given us an account of the Ninth that is both uniquely persuasive and uniquely important."

[An aside - unless the LP sound has somehow deteriorated over the past 40 years, the recording quality was not all that good to begin with - dim and boomy, which I have addressed.]

As for the tempos that I mentioned above, both Osborne and Richard Freed in Stereo Review were generally if not universally convinced. Freed: "[T]he start of the vast final movement is refreshingly free of the expected monumentalism: When the great 'Joy' theme makes its first appearance, it does not lumber, it flows. The bass recitative, still in tempo, may strike some listeners as being too nervously agitated when what is wanted is a reassuring gesture of peace, but that is probably the only conceivable objection one might have to the entire performance..."

Of course there are other ways to interpret Beethoven than historically informed performances. As Osborne wrote, "[I]t is not Norrington's aim to give us a transcendental Ninth in the Furtwängler style. This is a Ninth which owes nothing to Wagner but quite a lot to Bach and Haydn."

Norrington - genial and relaxed

That is not to say that Norrington was inflexible or stern: he was famously genial and generally relaxed on the podium. He wanted the audience to enjoy themselves and encouraged applause between movements of a symphony. 

In Norrington's New York Times obituary (gift link) he is quoted as remarking that he didn't conduct the great orchestras of America and Europe until relatively late in his life, meaning that "I actually knew what I wanted. And this meant I could relax and treat music-making as something that is full of love and laughter. It’s not about consecrating a sacred object. It’s about exploring and being curious and having fun.”

Allan Kozinn in the New York Times: "He rebelled against the notion that one could recreate historical performance styles by merely playing what was written on the page. And he inveighed against those who treated performances as museum pieces.

"'A performance is for now, and one instinctively tailors it for today,' he said in a 1989 interview, adding, 'To say that you don’t put your personality into it is rubbish.'"

Coincidentally, I am working on a post that will feature several Beethoven compositions led by the famed conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, he of the "transcendental style" mentioned above. These performances are indeed a contrast to Norrington's. Neither is wrong or right; just different. One aspect of enjoying such music is in relishing the difference in performance styles.

Norrington has appeared on this blog twice in recent years, with fine recordings of Schütz's Christmas Story and of baroque Christmas music.

One final note: while I transferred the Beethoven Ninth performance from my LP copy and have included the related scans, I have added the booklet from the corresponding CD issue because it includes an additional essay missing from the LP and much more information about the performers, etc. Also in the package are the two reviews cited above, along with a contemporary article on Norrington.

LINK to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Fritz Lehmann - A Pops Program and More Overtures

Longtime friend of the blog Jean Thorel, himself a conductor, asked for a transfer of this particular recording of Beethoven's Coriolan overture, which I am happy to provide as the final work of this program of pops favorites and overtures as conducted by Fritz Lehmann.

As noted in a previous post devoted to Lehmann, he was a talented conductor who died young in 1956, during a very productive period making recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon company. Today's selections were transferred from contemporary issues on the American Decca label, as detailed below. The sound is quite good.

Music by Bellini, Rossini, Meyerbeer and Verdi

Lehmann made most of his recordings with the Bamberg Symphony, such as these pops items derived from 19th century operas. He switched to the Berlin Philharmonic for the heavier material, such as the Coriolan overture later in the program.

These 1952-53 performances include the following, all highly pleasing and seldom performed on symphonic programs these days:

• Bellini - the Overture to Norma

• Meyerbeer - the Coronation March from Le prophète

• Rossini - the Act III ballet music from Guillaume Tell

• Verdi - the Ballabile from Act III of Otello

Dvořák - Serenade for Strings

Dvořák's Serenade for Strings in E major, Op. 22, is utterly delightful music that is quite light and thus does not often appear on today's concert programs with their ponderous diets of Bruckner, Mahler and contemporary music. But it makes for pleasant listening on a program such as this.

The recording is from 1955.

Auber - Fra Diavolo Overture

Daniel Auber's charming music is represented by the overture from his 1830 opéra comique Fra Diavolo. This 1951 performance comes from the Munich Philharmonic (also known as the Bayerisches Staatsorchester München).

One English critic complained (without naming him directly) that Sir Thomas Beecham would have made more of this music, an assertion that is impossible to disprove. I can tell you that this is a fine performance.

Gluck - Overture to Alceste

The overture to Christoph Willibald Gluck's 1767 opera Alceste was a popular item back in the days of 78s, being recorded by everyone from Malcolm Sargent to Wilhelm Furtwängler. It's an extraordinary work, here done well by Lehmann and the Berlin Philharmonic.

This is the only composition on the program not written in the 19th century. The recording is from 1952.

Beethoven - Coriolan Overture

Beethoven's overture was written for Collin's 1804 tragedy of that name. It was first performed, however, on a symphonic program, along with premieres of the composer's fourth symphony and fourth piano concerto.

This extraordinarily powerful music is tautly performed by Lehmann and the Berlin orchestra in this 1952 recording.

LINK to all the above performances

Fritz Lehmann

A Beethoven Program from Berlin

Paul van Kempen

Conductors and soloists who did not record in the stereo era are often forgotten. A good example is Fritz Lehmann, recently heard here in a Romantic overtures program. He died in 1956. Another is Paul van Kempen, who lived from 1893-1955 and was active as a conductor for little more than 20 years.

For longer-lived artists, their stereo recordings often overshadow worthy readings of the same pieces made in the mono era. This was the case with pianist Wilhelm Kempff and to a lesser degree violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

So today we have a program of Beethoven featuring those three musicians in Deutsche Grammophon recordings from Berlin made in 1952-53, before the stereo era.

The program begins with the Consecration of the House Overture, continuing with the Violin Concerto and the Piano Concerto No. 4.

Consecration of the House Overture

The recordings all come from the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, DG's invariable recording site for the Berlin Philhamonic during this period. Van Kempen's Consecration of the House Overture from 1952 provides a hugely dramatic opening to the program in one of the most effective performances I have heard. The contemporary critics called it "imposing" and "forceful, idiomatic."

The sound here and throughout the program is excellent mono. These transfers all come from US Decca's licensed pressings from DG masters.

Violin Concerto

Like van Kempen, Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915-2002) had a extensive career playing in orchestras before he began a full-time career as a soloist. The Vienna native had been the concertmaster of that city's famed Philharmonic from 1937-51. The next year he was to make a famous set of the Beethoven sonatas with Kempff. This recording of the concerto comes from the next year.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan

Schneiderhan's stereo recordings are far better known, not least because he had introduced his own adaptation of Beethoven's cadenzas for the piece. The composer did not write those cadenzas directly for the violin concerto, but rather for his adaptation of that work for the piano. But here we have what I believe are the cadenzas by Joseph Joachim. (Please correct me if I am mistaken.)

In her obituary for Schneiderhan, Anne Inglis wrote in The Guardian, "Wolfgang Schneiderhan’s first commercial recording of the Beethoven Concerto (under Paul van Kempen, for DG) was long considered a benchmark: its purity, dignity and sense of inner calm were often favourably compared with the more extrovert, even glamorous qualities claimed by its various rivals."

The truthful sound from 1953 is well in tune with the performance of Schneiderhan and the Berliners under van Kempen.

Piano Concerto No. 4

Wilhelm Kempff (1895-1991) elicited superlatives from the critics throughout his life and thereafter. Here's Dabid Mermelstein in the Wall Street Journal: "The German pianist Wilhelm Kempff was blessed with more attributes than any artist seems entitled to, even a great one like him. Intelligence, grace, tonal beauty, technical aplomb and interpretive rigor were hallmarks of his playing."

Wilhelm Kempff

Kempff recorded both mono and stereo Beethoven concerto cycles. "His stereo set from 1961, with Ferdinand Leitner conducting, still rightly sits prominently on many record shelves," Mermelstein wrote. "And were I sent to that proverbial desert island, I wouldn’t want to be without his mono survey from 1953, with Paul van Kempen on the podium. I cannot recall another cycle that possesses authority and poetry in such equal measure."

The pianist was inclined to ruminate about music. Here is what he said about the opening of the fourth concerto in 1951: "The orchestra is silent. But is not the piano also silent in its own way? These first bars should not really be played at all; it is just a listening to the soul ... There is infinite charm in this allegro moderato, in which Beethoven proves his genius as a composer. Everything is spiritual, and even the dramatic development only serves to show what peace of soul really is."

I am inclined to prefer the more straightforward approaches of Maurizio Pollini and Noel Mewton-Wood.

Ad in The Gramophone

But the Kempff-van Kempen recording is rightfully considered a classic, although not uniformly. The critic of The Gramophone, Malcolm MacDonald, complained that the first movement lacked "effortless repose" and that the cadenzas - which I believe are Kempff's own - were "unsuitable."

Here, too, the sound is excellent. These recordings come from my collection and Internet Archive.

LINK

Noel Mewton-Wood

In the early days of this blog, I often featured the Australian Noel Mewton-Wood, who died very young, leaving a striking legacy of inspired piano playing.

In all Mewton-Wood appeared here seven times, in concertos by Schumann, Chopin, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

I've now gone back to the original files and greatly improved the sound, due both to improved tools and many years of experience. The downloads now also include complete scans. 

All the Mewton-Wood records here - and most of the ones he appeared on - were for the Concert Hall Society. Almost all the discs below were issued in the 10-inch format on its budget subsidiary, the Musical Masterpiece Society.

Very little documentation survives as to when these recordings took place, and the orchestras usually were pseudonymous. The Classical Discography dates then from 1951 to 1954. The latter must be the year of issue. Mewton-Wood died in December 1953.

About Mewton-Wood

Mewton-Wood was born in Melbourne in 1922. A prodigy, he moved to England at a young age to study at the Royal Academy of Music. His debut performance at the Queen's Hall was in 1940 - Beethoven's third concerto with the London Philharmonic and Sir Thomas Beecham.

His death was by his own hand at age 31. He blamed himself for his partner's death of a ruptured appendix.

His obituary in The Times of London described the effect of his 1940 debut: "At once his remarkable control and his musicianship were apparent: the ascending scales in octaves, with which the pianist first enters, thundered out with whirlwind power, but he could summon beautiful cantabile tone for the slow movement and the phrasing of the rondo theme was admirably neat for all the rapidity of the tempo." You will find all that captured in the recordings below.

Walter Goehr

Walter Goehr

A word about the hugely skillful conductor Walter Goehr, who is in charge of the varied orchestral forces in all these recordings.

Born in 1903 in Germany, he came to England in the 1930s, soon becoming a house conductor for EMI. He became a free-lancer later on, making many recordings for the Concert Hall Society. Goehr also was a composer - as was Mewton-Wood. Goehr son, Alexander, was also a well-known composer who died last year. Walter Goehr died in 1960.

Schumann - Piano Concerto

The recordings all were made over the period of a few years and the dates are uncertain; the discussions below are not in chronological order.

The Schumann concerto was apparently released in 1954, which suggests but does not prove that it was one of the last ones recorded. (The Pristine release dates it as "circa 1952.")

As with several of these records, the orchestra is billed as the "Netherlands Philharmonic." While there is an orchestra by that name today, it did not form until 1985. The band accompanying Mewton-Wood is thought to be either a Dutch radio orchestra, or an ensemble chosen from players in those orchestras.

This was a good recording and a superb performance by the pianist. Goehr, as always, is highly effective.

LINK to Schumann Concerto

Chopin - Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2

The Chopin piano concertos, both masterfully done, date from about 1952 and 1953 respectively. (Please note that the Pristine release dates the latter as being from 1948.)

The sound of the first concerto was a trifle tubby, which I've tamed. The second concerto has an "empty hall" sound and was somewhat steely sounding, which I have again addressed.

The first concerto is with the "Netherlands Philharmonic." The ensemble in the second concerto is listed as the Radio Zurich Orchestra, which as far as I can tell was a pseudonym. A Classical Discography lists the performers as the Radioorchester Beromünster, but that ensemble did not exist under that name until 1957.

That said, the performances are fine. As others have noted, the orchestras are nothing special, but Goehr has them on alert.

LINK to Chopin Concerto No. 1

LINK to Chopin Concerto No. 2

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4

The majestic Beethoven concerto comes from 1952, per the Pristine release. The accompaniments are by the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra, which actually existed, but had changed its name to the "Utrechts Stedelijk [Municipal] Orkest" by the time this record was made. To complete the circle, that ensemble was to become part of the newly formed Netherland Philharmonic in 1985.

Neither the recording nor the orchestra is the equal of the Vienna Philharmonic, who recorded this concerto with Maurizio Pollini and Karl Böhm, recently uploaded here. The pianist is another matter.

LINK to Beethoven Concerto No. 4

Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos No. 1 and 3, Concert Fantasy

By the time the Tchaikovsky first concerto came out circa 1954, the Musical Masterpiece Society had run out of pseudonyms, so it just listed the band as the "MMS Symphony Orchestra." It seems likely that this is a Dutch ensemble of some complexion.

The third concerto - coupled with the rarely heard Concert Fantasy - comes from Winterthur, Switzerland and 1951. (Pristine says 1952.) Concert Hall Society listed the orchestra as the "Winterthur Symphony," which is likely the Winterthurer Stadtorkester. (It later became the Musikkollegium Winterthur.)

The recording of the first concerto is OK; the third was fog-bound, which I've tried to dispel. The latter was also well off pitch, which has been corrected.

The performances seem fine to me, but I am far from a Tchaikovsky piano concerto aficionado.

LINK to Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1

LINK to Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 3 and Concert Fantasy

Stravinsky - Firebird (1919 Suite), Concerto for Piano and Winds

The Stravinsky disc is the only one where Goehr is given a solo turn, so to speak. He leads a lively reading of the 1919 suite from Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, a 20th century masterwork.

Mewton-Wood is heard in Stravinsky's neo-classical Concerto for Piano and Winds, from 1923-24 and often described as "spiky." That it is - except the work begins with a dirge-like Largo.

The performance does show Mewton-Wood's range - at least after he joins in to a motoric passage following the Largo. He has this work well in hand - and the orchestra is much better too.

These performances are listed as by the "Netherlands Philharmonic." A Classical Discography claims the concerto is with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. It dates the concerto as being from 1952 and The Firebird from 1956.

LINK to Stravinsky works

Beethoven with Pollini and Böhm

A quick tribute to the remarkable pianist Maurizio Pollini, who has died at age 82, in the form of one of my favorite recordings.

It is Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, here in a magnificent 1976 performance by Pollini and the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Karl Böhm.

The quality of this recording is evident from the opening bars. The pianist's astonishing perfection is beautifully set off by the warmth of the Vienna Philharmonic under the masterful Böhm.

In The Gramophone, Richard Osborne wrote: "Pollini’s performance is both brilliant and beautifully proportioned; driven but never over-driven, fierce but only to glowing point," adding that "Böhm and the Vienna Philharmonic are ideal partners."

David Hall's verdict in Stereo Review: "The slow movement is, as it should be, the high point, altogether moving in its flawless blend of tonal beauty and gripping drama. The finale ripples along its joyous way in the most satisfying manner imaginable."

I have treasured this LP since it came out in 1977, when I had very little money and almost never bought full-price albums. This was an exception. I found the record awe-inspiring nearly 50 years ago, and still think so today.

LINK

More Beethoven Concertos from Solomon

I recently posted the Beethoven first and third piano concertos in the 1956 stereo recordings from the great instrumentalist Solomon. Today we have his discs of the other three concertos, which date from 1952-55.

These all possess the remarkable control and gorgeous tone that Solomon always displayed. Like the later concertos, many still consider them reference recordings.

In addition to the Beethoven, this set includes the pianist's traversal of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15.

Beethoven Concerto No. 4

Sessions in early November 1952 produced both the Concerto No. 4 and No. 2, the latter of which is discussed below.

As with the recordings in the previous post, the orchestra was the Philharmonia, but the recording location and conductor were different. EMI's Walter Legge had wanted to match Solomon with conductor Herbert von Karajan, but the pianist refused to work with Karajan, per Solomon's biographer Bryan Crimp. Otto Klemperer was not available, so the Belgian-born French conductor André Cluytens (1905-67) was engaged. Unfortunately this arrangement was not ideal, not so much because of soloist-conductor incompatibility, but because Cluytens did not get along with the orchestra, Crimp tells us.

André Cluytens

However, there is little evidence of this in the final product. As with Solomon's later concerto recordings, this is notable more for refinement than temperament. The Gramophone reported, "Solomon and the Philharmonia play exquisitely... A beautifully clear, limpid style on the part of the soloist is matched by a perfect orchestral partnership..." However, the Saturday Review disagreed, complaining that the first movement was "unduly slow and lacking in animation," a point echoed in other reviews.

There were complaints, too, about the sound, particularly the piano tone. The notes to the RCA Victor pressing report that EMI used two microphones for the orchestra and an additional spot for the piano. This all took place in the Kingsway Hall, famed for its acoustics, and it's true that there is a bit of empty-hall sound to the proceedings, particularly on the piano. But in general, things are well balanced and pleasing.

Beethoven Concerto No. 2; Mozart Concerto No. 15

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 was actually his first essay in the form, although published second. It is the most Mozartian of the five; accordingly, EMI coupled it with the older master's Concerto No. 15 for this release.

The Beethoven reading has the familiar Solomon hallmarks - clarity, elegance and insight. The reviews I have included in the download generally approve of the recorded sound, and most praise the Philharmonia's orchestral backing, led again by Cluytens.

Otto Ackermann

Mozart's Concerto No. 15 had not been recorded many times in the 1950s, although that is not true today. It is a rewarding work that Solomon handles splendidly. This recording comes from September 1953, with the Kingsway Hall as the location. The Philharmonia again is the orchestra, although this time the conductor is the Romanian Otto Ackermann (1909-60), who is remembered primarily for his operetta recordings.

Beethoven Concerto No. 5

The final recording in today's group is also Beethoven's final essay in the form - the Concerto No. 5, dubbed the "Emperor," although not by the composer. While the work has nothing to do with empire, it is indeed a majestic work, done full justice by the soloist.

Harold Schonberg in The New York Times contrasted Solomon in the work with a contemporary LP from Emil Gilels: "If you want a muscular, exciting reading... Gilels is your man. If your taste in "Emperors" runs to the elegant, intimate style, Solomon will fill the bill. Both of these are excellent performances of their kind."

Herbert Menges

For this recording, HMV again paired Solomon with the Philharmonia, this time not in the Kingsway Hall but in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, with sessions in May 1955. For this date, the label engaged Herbert Menges, a longtime friend of the pianist and perhaps his favorite accompanist.

Unlike the recordings in the previous Solomon post devoted to Beethoven, all these were recorded in mono. The Concerto No. 5 may be the best of them, with the orchestral colors more vivid and the piano tone well caught. The slow movement is exceptionally fine, both as a recording and performance. [Note: these are newly (July 2023) available in ambient stereo versions with much more vivid sound.]

Just a reminder that the earlier post of Beethoven concertos from Solomon also includes the Grieg and Schumann concertos, and there is another with the Bliss concerto and Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia.

Solomon's Final Recordings

A debilitating stroke ended the career of the great English pianist Solomon (1902-88) in late 1956, a few months after he had made several concerto recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Herbert Menges.

Today's post gathers those four works together - Beethoven's first and third, and the Grieg and Schumann concertos. These are all mainstays of the repertoire, just as Solomon's recordings have been standards by which others have been judged for nearly 70 years.

This is a follow-up to my recent post of Solomon in works by Bliss and Liszt, which was well received. Some personal sentiment enters into it as well, for I have owned all these recordings for several decades, and remain fond of them.

The artist who recorded these four concertos was different from the phenomenon who had dispatched the difficulties of the Bliss concerto seemingly effortlessly. These final sessions were afflicted with technical problems that left the pianist almost in despair. Solomon's biographer, Bryan Crimp, wrote that the Grieg concerto sessions "proved to be a desolate and wholly demoralizing experience, with Solomon's incapacity at its worrisome height, possibly exacerbated by the intensive work of the previous days." Even so, none of these travails are evident on the final product. The success of the recording, Crimp noted, "is a reflection of the skill and patience of all concerned: producers and editors, orchestra and conductor, but above all to the supreme effort of the soloist." The slow movement is a particular delight, with lovely horn playing, presumably by Dennis Brain.

Herbert Menges

The conductor Herbert Menges had been Solomon's friend since they were fellow piano students of Mathilde Verne. Menges had been associated with the Old Vic and was the conductor of the Brighton Philharmonic and its successors. EMI engaged him fairly frequently as a concerto accompanist, and these performances are successful in that regard.

Contemporary reviews of these recordings generally fall into two camps - those who were satisfied with the pianist's refinement and poetic playing, others who longed for more passion, which Solomon may no longer have been able to summon. Reviewing the Beethoven first concerto in the American Record Guide, C.J. Luten writes, "He has a pearly, singing tone, a genuine legato, and a fine mechanism. Moreover, his general culture and musical manners are as refined as anyone could wish for. His work invariably gives the pleasure of order and beauty of sound. Solomon's playing would be unforgettable if only he had temperament."

The wonder is that these performances have seldom been out of the catalogue since they were issued, a few years after they were made. Despite what Luten wrote above, I find the Beethoven concertos to be entirely successful, as is the Grieg. But to me, the Schumann finale would benefit from the some of the fire Solomon brought to the Bliss concerto, but may have no longer been able to ignite.

On the LP, Beethoven's first concerto is paired with his Sonata No. 27, which Solomon also handles well. (Note that the Sonata also appears on the transfer of the Beethoven third concerto that I used.) The sonata comes from an August 1956 session, also in stereo.

The recordings were all made in Abbey Road Studio No. 1 and are in true stereo, which is one of the delights of the set. Later reviewers would complain that there was little "stereo spread," having become accustomed to the use of multiple microphones in orchestral recordings. But these simply-miked performances have a convincing coherence that is unobtrusively right. My only cavil is that there is little bloom on the strings, possibly an artifact of the studio, which is not all that large. 

The HMV covers

I did not transfer my well-used records for this post, relying instead on good copies I found on Internet Archive and refurbished for the purpose. The Beethoven Concerto No. 1 is from a US Angel pressing, the Concerto No. 3 is from a EMI reissue from the 1960s, and the Grieg and Schumann are from a Classics for Pleasure 1976 reissue. The downloads include complete scans along with the original HMV covers. The latter were designed in a simple, elegant form by Atelier Cassandre, which did quite a few such covers for EMI at the time, probably through its French associate, La Voix de son maître. The download also has many reviews of the three LPs.

 

Mewton-Wood, Part 2

Continuing our series of the recordings that Noel Mewton-Wood did for the Musical Masterpiece Society circa 1950, we have a wonderful performance of this supreme work by Beethoven.

Mewton-Wood was one of those artists whose work always seems perfectly natural; whether elegant or impassioned, it just seems right. To achieve such results in rushed sessions for a budget label continues to be a source of wonder.

In this concerto, he partners with the Utrecht Symphony, which was a "real" orchestra (unlike the Netherlands Philharmonic heard earlier in this series). Once again, the conductor is the talented Walter Goehr.

I do hope you will listen - and forgive the noise at the beginning of the transfer. It soon fades, but the impression left by Mewton-Wood's artistry does not.

(Note: this noise has now been all but eradicated in the latest version.)

LINK