Ida Haendel in Bruch, Plus Many, Many Reups in Ambient Stereo

One of the most popular posts of the nearly 1,200 on this blog is the one devoted to Ida Haendel's 1953 traversal of the Brahms Violin Concerto, recorded in company with Sergiu Celibadache and the London Symphony. Rightfully so - it's a splendid performance and well recorded.

For this post I've turned my attention to another superior Haendel recording - that of the beautiful Violin Concerto No. 1 of Max Bruch.

The second part of this post is devoted to new ambient stereo remasters of a dozen classical recordings that have appeared here over the years - starting with Haendel's Brahms concerto.

Ambient stereo helps to give the narrow and recessed sound of mono recordings a feeling of spaciousness and to bring them forward, seemingly in front of the speakers - without adding anything at all to the recording. When the channels are combined, the mono image is restored. (More explanation is at the end of the post.)

Let's start off with the Bruch concerto disc, then address all the remasters.

Ida Haendel in Bruch, Plus Encores

Ida Haendel's Bruch concerto recording dates from 1948, when she was just 19. Her recording career had begun even earlier, at age 11, with recordings of short works.

Haendel's collaborator in the concerto was the eminent conductor Rafael Kubelik, who just that year had taken refuge in Britain following the Communist coup d'etat in his native Czechoslovakia.

Ida Haendel and Rafael Kubelik

The two musicians work well together in this lovely work, not often heard in today's concert halls. The Abbey Road sound is most pleasing in ambient stereo.

This transfer comes from side 1 of an early 1950s LP pressing on RCA Victor's budget Bluebird label. Side 2 contains a passel of encore pieces, probably selected from the violinist's recital programs and first issued as 78 singles. The main attraction of those pieces, aside from Haendel's performances, is the presence of the remarkable pianist Gerald Moore.

Gerald Moore learns the contents of the recital program 

The encore items are generally in soupy arrangements, such that a Gramophone reviewer termed two of them "equally nauseating." I can't say that I reached for the Dramamine while working on these pieces, but they are not really my thing either. Haendel and Moore seem to be having a good time, though.

Remasters in Ambient Stereo

As noted, to go along with the Haendel LP, I have re-uploaded about a dozen classical recordings enhanced with ambient stereo. The links below take you to the original posts. The download links will be at or near the end of the comments. (The link to the Bruch concerto disc discussed above is in the comments to this post.)

Brahms - Violin Concerto (Ida Haendel). This 1953 recording is notable for being the last studio appearance by conductor Celibidache. As with all the posts below, I have added new graphics, generally photos of the artists. In this case, it's a photo of the violinist and conductor together.

Works by Robert Sanders, Bernard Rogers and Burnet Tuthill. The first post on this blog 16 years ago was this LP of works by three mid-century American composers. Most enjoyable in worthy performances from a disguised Vienna Symphony and conductor Max Schönherr.

Rawsthorne - Piano Concerto No. 2 (Clifford Curzon). Another early post was this fascinating concerto from mid-century English composer Alan Rawsthorne, in a brilliant performance from pianist Clifford Curzon. The LP has never sounded better.

Schumann - Cello Concerto; Bruch - Kol Nidrei (Joseph Schuster). The exceptional cellist Joseph Schuster made only a few solo recordings, including this Capitol release with backing by Franz Waxman and a Hollywood orchestra. Bruch's Kol Nidrei, plus the great Schumann concerto.

Quincy Porter Conducts Quincy Porter. Ambient stereo has enhanced the sound of this 1955 LP, and in doing so enhanced my appreciation of Porter's Symphony No. 1, Concerto Concertante and Dance in Three Time. The composer conducts a Parisian orchestra.

Violin Sonatas by Delius and Robert Russell Bennett (Louis Kaufman). Kaufman is too febrile for the meandering Delius work, but he was just right for Bennett's sonata. The composer and violinist were well acquainted, both based in Hollywood.

Americana for Solo Winds and Strings. This is surely one of the most pleasant recordings of the 1950s. Howard Hanson conducts pastoral works by himself, Aaron Copland, Wayne Barlow, Homer Keller, Bernard Rogers and Kent Kennan. Fine sound.

Randall Thomson - Symphony No. 2 (Dean Dixon). The American composer Randall Thompson was mainly noted for his choral works, but he also produced three symphonies. I believe this was the first to be recorded. Dean Dixon leads the orchestra.

Rangström - Symphony No. 1; Larsson - Little Serenade for Strings (Tor Mann). As I mentioned in a recent post of Ture Rangstrom's third symphony, the composer's first effort is worth knowing, here in a classic recording from Tor Mann, with a Lars-Erik Larsson makeweight.

Beethoven Concertos No. 2, 4 and 5, Mozart No. 15 (Solomon). I've redone the uploads of historic Beethoven concertos from Solomon, along with his Mozart No. 15, in ambient stereo. These are memorable readings, now sounding even better.

About Ambient Stereo

I suspect that most followers of this site won't have many scruples about the use of ambient stereo in these remasters. But for the skeptical or curious, a few words of explanation.

The term "ambient stereo" can be misleading. It doesn't refer to directional cues but rather the spread of ambiance to provide a sense of space otherwise missing.

I will admit that until now I have not been a great proponent of the effect, although I dabbled in it as far back as 2015 to enhance a few dry recordings. It never struck me as especially helpful until I began experimenting with the Ozone Imager plug-in for the Izotope RX10 audio software. Used in moderation, it often provides strikingly good results.

The Ozone module relies on the so-called "Haas effect." This article explains the effect and its implementation in the Imager plug in.

 

Cellist Joseph Schuster in Schumann, Bruch and 'J.C. Bach'

Joseph Schuster (1903-69) was an exceptional cellist who was neglected by the record companies. To my knowledge, these are his only solo recordings with orchestra. [Correction: I'm told he also recorded Boccherini and Tartini concertos with Jonel Perlea.]

Schuster, born in Constantinople,  achieved prominence as the first cellist of Furtwängler's Berlin Philharmonic from 1929-34. He moved to the US after the Nazi ascension, becoming the leader of the New York Philharmonic cello section. He embarked on a solo career in 1944.

Joseph Schuster

Schuster moved to Los Angeles in 1947, where he came to the attention of film composer Franz Waxman (1906-67). The latter had formed the Los Angeles Orchestral Society in 1947, eventually recording two classical LPs for Capitol and one for US Decca as a conductor. Schuster never appeared in concert with Waxman's orchestra, suggesting that it was Capitol that brought the soloist and conductor together. The cellist was to record a second Capitol LP in 1953, Rachmaninoff with pianist Leonard Pennario.

Franz Waxman

This, the first of Waxman's Capitol LPs, dates from December 1952, and offers two standard items from the cello/orchestral repertory, and one unusual piece. The major work is Schumann's Cello Concerto, a gorgeous creation that here benefits from Schuster's golden, burnished tone and eloquent approach. Some find him emotionally cool; I think his style is ideal.

The Schumann is complemented by another treasurable cello work, Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei of 1880, which again finds an expressive advocate in Schuster.

The final work is announced as a Cello Concerto in A minor by J.C. Bach, supposedly found in the effects of Camille Saint-Saëns by Henri Casadesus, and introduced by Schuster to the US concert halls. Even back then there was some doubt as to its provenance. High Fidelity reviewer Paul Affelder guessed that Casadesus had a hand in composing it. It turns out Casadesus had both hands in it, and these days it is presented as a Henri Casadesus concerto "in the style of J.C. Bach." Also, the work was published as a viola concerto, but neither Schuster nor Capitol make mention of this fact. Regardless, it is an attractive anachronism that is an effective foil to the Bruch and Schumann works, and the cellist is again a persuasive proponent.

Such faux antiquities had a vogue in the early decades of the last century. Another example is a Toccata supposedly by the 17th century composer Girolamo Frescobaldi that turned out to be the work of 20th century cellist Gaspar Cassadó. It was recorded in 1940 as a Frescobaldi composition by Hans Kindler with the National Symphony, and can be found here.

1948 Musical America ad

Capitol's recording is kind to the soloist, while seemingly indifferent to the orchestra, which is set in a boxy acoustic. I have added an ambient stereo effect to help address the cramped sonics. Ambient stereo usually has little to offer, but here it does lend a bit of space to the orchestral sound without altering the mix.

Waxman's only other Capitol recording with the Los Angeles Orchestral Society involved settings of love duets from Romeo and Juliet by Gounod and Tchaikovsky-Taneyev. I have the record and will transfer it later on. The Waxman-LA recording on Decca was offered here years ago and is still available. It couples works by Lukas Foss and Waxman himself. 

Also available here on this blog is an LP of Waxman conducting his music for the 1946 movie Humoresque. The record features Isaac Stern in several arrangements, and Oscar Levant in a Tristan und Isolde concerto that Wagner never contemplated.

Schuster recorded a fair amount of chamber music for Vox, along with the Brahms double concerto and Beethoven triple concerto. This is his first appearance on the blog.

The download includes reviews from The Gramophone, The New Records, Saturday Review and New York Times, along with the High Fidelity article mentioned above.