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.

 

Solomon in the Brahms Concertos

The great pianist Solomon has appeared here a number of times recently. This latest apparition brings two of my favorites - the Brahms piano concertos, both done with the Philharmonia Orchestra - the second in 1947 and the first in 1952, both for HMV.

Let's discuss them in the order of their recording.

Piano Concerto No. 2

Brahms' Concerto No. 2 is an extraordinary work, quite long due to its encompassing four movements rather than the usual three, and demanding for the soloist.

As was his pattern, Solomon surmounts all the challenges seemingly without difficulty, and without ever drawing attention to his own virtuosity. He is of one mind with the conductor, the Russian-born Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). The interplay in the fourth movement is something to hear.

Issay Dobrowen

As the critic Richard Freed wrote, "Pianistically, Solomon is dazzling; musically, he and Dobrowen make sublime good sense, balancing the lyrical and the heroic, the grand and the intimate elements of the work in a clean, classical reading that has plenty of thrust but no heaving and churning in the name of Romantic expressiveness, no gestures toward monumentalism."

I enjoyed Dobrowen's work here and will be transferring some of his recordings of Russian music for a future post.

This recording comes from Abbey Road, April 29-May 1, 1947.

Piano Concerto No. 1

For the first piano concerto, HMV, the orchestra, conductor Rafael Kubelík and Solomon moved to the more resonant acoustic of Kingsway Hall, with sessions on September 3-5, 1952. For whatever reason, HMV didn't get around to releasing the recording in the UK until 1955, although it seems to have come out in the US somewhat earlier.

As was often the case with Solomon's concerto recordings, the critics were split in their verdicts. The Gramophone: "It seems to me that the combination of Solomon and Kubelík could have produced a superlative recording, but there must have been a lack of watchfulness in the making of the disc, for there are many flaws in balance and interpretation." Stereo Review: "The performance is certainly among the most outstanding on disc and will be the very first choice of many listeners. Solomon virtually owned this music: it held no problems for him technically. and he was obviously completely at one with its musical message."

Rafael Kubelík

The performance is not showy, to be sure, and the pianist was the opposite of flashy. As with Solomon's other recordings, there are times when more fire might be warranted, but that was not his way.

At the time of the recording, Kubelík (1914-96) was about to embark on his final season as the music director of the Chicago Symphony, an unhappy tenure that lasted just three years. As for this recording, Harris Goldsmith wrote in High Fidelity, "Rafael Kubelík conducts sympathetically, although I don't sense the extraordinary meeting of minds evident in the B flat concerto with Dobrowen." I think that's a fair comment.

I believe I have presented most of Solomon's concerto discs here in the relatively recent past. He also recorded the Tchaikovsky first concerto (twice), Mozart concertos and the Scriabin concerto. I have have the Tchaikovsky and Mozart recordings and plan to transfer them. The Scriabin work is not in my collection.

As was the case with a few of my recent posts, I've presented the Brahms concertos in ambient stereo, which adds some air around the mono signal and brings it forward. These transfers came from a very clean HMV reissue from the 1970s, as found in my collection (literally - I forgot I had it). The sound is remarkably good.

The download includes several reviews and a 1949 article on Solomon from The Gramophone.

Ad in The Gramophone, September 1955 (click to enlarge)