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| Małcużyński and Susskind smoke and stare |
I am happy to post that recording - and am adding to it the same team's 1953 remake of the concerto, along with Małcużyński's recording of Liszt's Sonata in B minor.
Jean, a conductor himself, is particularly interested in Walter Susskind's work. So I am also adding an LP of Borodin's music that Susskind and the Philharmonia set down in 1952.
Details on these recordings are below.
Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2 (1947 recording), Chopin - Étude, Op. 25, No. 7
The pianist specialized in the Romantic repertoire, particularly Chopin. Here we have his first recorded venture into the music of Franz Liszt.
Not surprisingly, views of Małcużyński's pianism diverged. Some critics, such as a writer in the American Record Guide, were impressed:
"With the sympathetic assistance of Susskind, who is developing rapidly as a conductor, he delivers a stunning performance that
makes the most of the many opportunities
for dramatic effectiveness and virtuosic brilliance, yet thankfully does not indulge in the 'interpretative' orgies that have often been
the feature of this work's appearance in
local concert halls."
Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2 (1953 recording), Sonata in B minor
The other reviews were equally kind both to pianist and conductor.
This transfer is from LP; the original 78 album included the Chopin Étude in C sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 7, so I've appended that recording to the download as well.
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| The Gramophone, May 1948 |
As it did with Cyril Smith's 1940's recording of the Dohnányi, UK Columbia waited only a few years before getting the pianist and conductor back for a remake of the Liszt concerto - presumably warranted by the success of the earlier recording.
As before, the orchestra was the Philharmonia, and again the site was Abbey Road for these March 1953 recordings. This time, the fill-up was more substantial - Liszt's Sonata in B minor.
This time, not all the critics were impressed, at least by the pianist. Andrew Porter wrote in The Gramophone, "Małcużyński seems to me to
be an odd pianist - sometimes very poetical
in his treatment of a singing phrase; then
suddenly brash and harsh." The New York Times' Harold C. Schonberg concurred: "He sentimentalizes, he breaks rhythm; his playing tends to be disconnected...And yet, every once in a while a potentially great pianist is at work."
Borodin - Orchestral Music from Prince Igor
Walter Susskind (1913-80) made quite a number of recordings for EMI in the postwar years, almost all of them as accompanist. Much later he had a chance to record a wider repertoire with his St. Louis Symphony, and via other discs for various labels. Today we have one of his few orchestral outings for EMI, a 10-inch disc done for EMI's Parlophone marque in 1952.
Susskind was a Czech-born British conductor who left his native land in 1939 upon the Nazi invasion. In 1942 he joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and his first recording was soon thereafter in support of that company's Joan Hammond. This set him on the path of being one of UK Columbia's most prolific orchestral accompanists.
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| Walter Susskind |
When the Borodin recording was made, he was the music director of the Scottish National Orchestra; soon he would move to Australia to lead the Melbourne Symphony, followed by seven years in Toronto, and a productive spell in St. Louis. He concluded his career with a few years as artistic advisor to the Cincinnati Symphony.
Parlophone advertises the music as an "Orchestral Suite" from Prince Igor, but it is that true only in retrospect. This is actually the orchestral excerpts from the opera - the Overture, "Polovtsian March" and the famous "Polovtsian Dances." Borodin himself never finished the opera. After his death, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov arranged and orchestrated a performing edition of the work. The Polovtsian music was orchestrated by Rimsky. Glazunov is credited with arranging the Overture, but he did more, drafting it himself using Borodin's opera themes "roughly according to Borodin's plan," as he explained.
Regardless of the patchwork nature of the performing edition, the orchestral works are highly enjoyable. The Philharmonia played well for Susskind, and the critics were generally kind.
The Borodin comes from my collection; the other works were remastered from needle drops found on Internet Archive. The sound is very good in all cases. In addition to the usual reviews and scans, the Borodin download includes a 1972 Gramophone article on Susskind.
