Mendelssohn Special with Kletzki, Szell, Barbirolli, Borries and Celibidache

Rummaging through my collection a while back, I came across several interesting discs with the music of Felix Mendelssohn, and decided to transfer them for this post, and possibly one more to come.

Here are the details of today’s offering. The sound quality varies, but is never less than good.

Symphony No. 3 (Israel Philharmonic/Paul Kletzki). This particular record was among the first to be made by the orchestra, dating from April/May 1954. The download includes scans of an eight-page commemorative booklet included in the American Angel release. Kletzki leads a good performance, although the coda, marked Allegro maestoso assai, is more maestoso than allegro.

Symphony No. 4 (Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli) and Violin Concerto (Siegfried Borries; Berlin Philharmonic/Sergiu Celibidache). This coupling on RCA Victor’s Bluebird budget label combined Manchester and Berlin sessions that both transpired in February 1948. Barbirolli elicits a spruce performance from the resuscitated Hallé, which remained underpowered in the strings five years after the conductor revived its fortunes. Siegfried Borries, then the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, offers an assured reading of the concerto, with an excellent accompaniment led by Celibidache during his postwar years as the orchestra’s conductor.

Symphony No. 4 (Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell) and Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Philharmonic-Symphony of New York/Szell). The fine Cleveland performance is from November 1947 dates in Severance Hall; the terrific New York rendition of the Midsummer Night’s Dream music is from January 1951 and Columbia’s 30th Street studio. I don’t like making comparisons, but for me the New York band of this period was second to none. This particular coupling had two different covers, both of which are in the download along with images from a 78 set and 10-inch LP.

If there is interest, I will transfer Mendelssohn overtures from Adrian Boult and Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts from Sargent and Old Vic forces including Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Stanley Holloway.

George Szell blisses out to a 1951 recording session playback

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)