Nach der Vollendung der Schostakowitsch-Reihe nimmt sich das Mandelring Quartett...

The Mandelring Quartet, in concert or on disc, always achieves an instinctive...

The Berg Concerto was central to Christian Ferras’s repertoire. His EMI version is no longer listed here but – like the 24 London bus – three replacements have come at once. (Two actually, as both Orfeo and Testament have the same 1960 Salzburg performance; the one here, also live, is from 1964.) A victim of depression and alcohol dependence, Ferras took his own life aged 49. His early musicianship is shown here in the Beethoven: the execution is masterly for a teenager. Alas the opening motif of the Larghetto was excised back in 1951 and Audite has decided against reinstating it via bars 2-3 (the identical phrase).

Few music premieres have created such uproar as Le Sacre du printemps, given in Paris in 1913 under Pierre Monteux. Nowadays the score presents few problems either to conductors or orchestras; the same may be said of much 20th century music. But have we lost something along the way? It’s an argument often put by the critic Robert Layton – citing early recordings (such as those by Stravinsky) as evidence.

Look back 40 years to the 1961 Gramophone catalogue and there’s a substantial Bartók listing: six versions of the relatively popular Concerto for Orchestra, for instance – though none far better than the 1948 Decca 78rpm set by van Beinum. One name that recurs is that of the Hungarian conductor, signed to DG, Ferenc Fricsay. He was in charge of the RIAS Orchestra (Radio in American Sector, Berlin), with access to the Berlin Philharmonic for certain projects. Sessions were held in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, which had excellent acoustics. The classical director of the orchestra Elsa Schiller invited Fricsay to Berlin in 1948; later she would become a key figure in organising Deutsche Grammophon’s postwar repertory.

The German company Audite has now issued a 3CD set [21.407] from radio tapes duplicating most of the DG material but with different soloists, eg. Foldes in the Rhapsody; Kentner in the Third Piano Concerto [live]. A 1953 studio Second with Géza Anda adds to his live versions with Karajan, Boulez, et al. There’s no Concerto for Orchestra or First Piano Concerto, but Audite offers alternatives for the Second Violin Concerto (Tibor Varga) [live]. Cantata profana (Fischer-Dieskau/Krebs), Dance Suite, Divertimento for strings [live], Two portraits (Rudolf Schulz) and Music for strings, percussion and celesta.

These RIAS recordings were also made in the Berlin church; the live tapes are from the Titania-Palast. The booklet note veers from dry facts to contentious opinion!

Some tape!
We all know that, as Allied bombers were flying over Germany, radio engineers were still tinkering with stereo and were able to record on wire (precursor to tape). The tape quality on DG mono LPs has always amazed me and in this Audite set there’s a prime example with the Third Piano Concerto. The levels were set, frankly, far too high and with the soloist rather close. But even when the overload is obvious, somehow it still sounds ‘musical’.

This is the performance which stands out for me as most significant. Louis Kentner, born in Hungary (as Lajos), had come to the UK in 1935, marrying into the Menuhin family, and had, with the BBC SO under Boult, given the European premiere of this work – they recorded it the very next day, in February 1946.

A Liszt specialist, he plays here with total aplomb, notably in the counterpoint of the finale. The ‘night music’ section of the Adagio religioso, instead of bristling with insects and eery rustles, sounds more akin to a Beethoven scherzando. His touch put me in mind of something the composer had demonstrated to Andor Foldes: ‘This [playing one note on the piano] is sound; this [making an interval] is music.’ The last two notes of movements (ii) and (iii) here are very much musical statements. Notwithstanding the limitations of the 1950 source, many orchestral colours struck me anew. In sum: this may not be a version to introduce a listener to the concerto, but it’s a version those familar with it should on no account miss. And it illustrates perfectly the thesis that today’s smoother readings lose something indefinable yet essential.

Brilliant illumination
Fricsay died aged only 49. If you don’t know his musicianship, the intensity in the slow movement of the Divertimento here (far greater than on his DG version) will surely be a revelation. He appeared, said Menuhin, ‘like a comet on the horizon … no-one had greater talent.’

In den Jahren 1935 bis 41 hatten es sämtliche Künste in Deutschland sehr schwer, sich entfalten zu können – natürlich auch die Musik. Ob direkt betroffen wie der jüdische Komponist Pavel Haas oder emotional involviert wie Benjamin Britten – ihre Musik war geprägt von einer neuen Intensität und Intimität. Zu hören jetzt auf der neuen CD der Oboistin Birgit Schmieder, die sich gemeinsam mit Akiko Yamashita am Klavier mit dieser Zeit auseinander gesetzt hat.

Benjamin Britten: "The Wasp", aus "Two Insect Pieces" (2’00)

Gerade mal 22 Jahre alt war Benjamin Britten, als er 1935 seine „Zwei Insekten-Stücke“ für Oboe und Klavier schrieb – eins davon haben wir eben gehört: „Die Wespe“, eine kleine musikalische Fabel, die in all ihrer kompositorischen Ökonomie schon einiges von Brittens späteren stilistischen Merkmalen andeutet. Das allerdings mit überraschend viel Witz, der ansonsten in der Musik dieser düsteren Vorkriegsjahre nicht allzu verbreitet war. Paul Hindemith, der Schönberg-Schüler Nikos Skalkottas und der 1944 in Auschwitz getötete Pavel Haas – das sind die anderen Komponisten, denen sich die Oboistin Birgit Schmieder auf ihrer neuen CD widmet. Sechs Jahre, von 1935 bis 41, in denen sich die anbahnende Katastrophe in der Musik dieser direkt betroffenen Künstler widerspiegelt. Statt der großen Entwürfe im Stile Mahlers griffen sie allerdings eher auf intimere, kammermusikalische Formen zurück. Und gerade dabei kam der Oboe mit ihrer quasi menschlichen Stimme natürlich eine wichtige Rolle zu. Denn schon Hector Berlioz charakterisierte sie in seiner Instrumentationslehre mit den Worten: „Ihren Tönen ist Jungfräulichkeit, naive Anmut, stille Freude oder der Schmerz eines zarten Wesens angemessen“. Klangeigenschaften, die insbesondere Paul Hindemith in seinem umfangreichen „Sonatenwerk“ mehrfach gekonnt einsetzte, auch mit Hilfe des noch etwas schwermütiger wirkenden Englisch Horns. Auch dieses Werk aus seiner Exil-Zeit findet sich auf der CD „Temporal Variations“. Jetzt hören wir aber den ersten Satz aus seiner Sonate für Oboe und Klavier aus dem Jahr 1938. Es spielen Birgit Schmieder und Akiko Yamashita.

Paul Hindemith: Sonata for Oboe and Piano, 1. Satz (4’15)

Paul Hindemiths Sonate für Oboe und Klavier – Birgit Schmieder spielt auf ihrer neuen CD “Temporal Variations” Musik für dieses Instrument aus den Jahren 1935 bis 41.

Mehrchörigkeit war ein Markenzeichen der Musik alter venezianischer Meister. Da...

In recent years, Audite has released a series of recordings featuring the chamber and orchestral music of Eduard Franck (1817–93). This brand new SACD is the latest in a succession of discs that have given us the composer’s string quartets and sextets, piano trios, violin sonatas, two violin concertos, and two symphonies. Born in the Silesian province of Breslau, he was no relation to César Franck; indeed, he was neither Belgian nor French. He was, however, father to yet another Franck, Richard (1858–1938), whose works are also being attended to by Audite.

Not unlike Mendelssohn, with whom he studied, Eduard came from a financially secure and cultured family whose home attracted such visitors as Heine, Heller, Mendelssohn, and Wagner. Franck pursued parallel careers as pianist, teacher, and composer. In the last-named capacity, he was not as prolic as a number of his more famous contemporaries, and as a self-demanding fusspot, he resisted publishing his works until he had polished them to a high degree of perfection. This resulted in much of his output not becoming known until near the end of his life, by which time his very Mendelssohnian musical vocabulary and style had been largely eclipsed by Bruckner, Liszt, Brahms, and the Belgian-French Franck, César.

Eduard’s largest and most significant output falls into the category of chamber music, and being the chamber music maven I am, I’ve collected all of Audite’s previous Franck releases. Listening to them, as well as to this latest disc of string quintets, there are two things I can state unequivocally: (1) in a game of guess-the-composer, you would not be disgraced if you guessed Mendelssohn; and (2) if you love the chamber music of that ilk—and that would include not just Mendelssohn, but the likes of Joachim Raff, Franz Lachner, Niels Gade, Louise Farrenc, Mihály Mosonyi, and that school of mid-19th-century, post-Mendelssohn composers who remained relatively untouched by the influences of Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms—you will love Eduard Franck’s string quintets, as well as all of his other chamber works Audite has made available. I highly recommend them to you in toto.

The players listed in the headnote are so delightful, delectable, and delicious in these performances I could just eat them with a spoon. It’s hard to imagine this music being played more spontaneously and joyfully than it is here. The E-Minor Quintet’s quirky, Mendelssohnian Scherzo is gleeful and giddy, and the C-Major Quintet’s gorgeous and expansive first movement unfolds its fragrant melodies like the petals of a flower, each opening in turn to seek the sun.

Audite’s recording team has picked up the ensemble just right for this exceptionally clean, clear, and vibrant SACD. For those who tend to be skeptical if a piece of music was not written by a composer with a famous name, I can’t urge you too strongly to give Eduard Franck a listen. This is gloriously beautiful music beyond any telling of it.

La mise à disposition des répertoires musicaux les moins fréquentés...

Nacido en Graz, Austria, Karl Böhm (1894-1981) siguió en principio los pasos de su padre, abogado, y se doctoró en derecho en 1919. Pero pronto pudo más la vocación musical y en 1920 debutó en su ciudad natal como director de ópera. Los primeros años de su carrera transcurrieron en Alemania, en Múnich, Darmstadt y Hamburgo, con el apoyo de Hans Richter, Karl Muck y Bruno Walter, hasta alcanzar en 1934 la titularidad de la Ópera de Dresde, en la que sucedió al exiliado Fritz Busch. Durante casi un decenio desarrolló allí una gran labor, en estrecha colaboración musical con Richard Strauss, de quien estrenó “La Mujer Silenciosa y Dafne”. Su buena relación con el nazismo le pasó factura cn la posguerra y hubo de sufrir un periodo de desnazificación de dos años, transcurrido el cual dió proyección internacional a su carrera: Austria y Alemania, por supuesto, pero también Milán y Nápoles, Londres y América, con especial presencia en Buenos Aires. Chicago y el Met lo acogieron a finales de los 50 y Bayreuth en 1962. Sus visitas a España fueron escasas.

Böhm alcanzó la cima de su carrera y el unánime reconocimiento internacional en los años 60 y 70, gracias a sus colaboraciones con las grandes orquestas de Berlín y Viena y la London Symphony, más las de los teatros de ópera de las ciudades citadas: todas ellas rendían al máximo guiadas por su batuta firme y segura, sus gestos sobrios pero eficaces y su infalible buen gusto. Pese a su rigor en los ensayos y su vivo genio, Böhm fue un director favorito de los Filarmónicos de Berlín y Viena, con quienes realizó magníficas grabaciones de los grandes clásicos, especialmente de las grandes óperas de Mozart y de los ciclos de sinfonías de éste, de Beethoven y de Schubert, además de muchas partituras de Richard Strauss, su autor preferido junto con Mozart. También briIló como intérprete de Haydn, Bruckner, Wagner y Alban Berg.

Audite nos lo presenta ahora al frente de la Orquesta de la Radio de Colonia, con dos significativas adiciones a su discografía, que hacen especialmente valiosos estos dos CDs: el “Concierto para violín no 5” de Vieuxtemps, con la interesante violinista Lola Bobesco - ¿recuerdan su CD Testament de música francesa, comentado en este Boletín? - y la “suite de EI Pájaro de Fuego” de Stravinsky, registros procedentes de un concierto celebrado en Colonia eI 5 de abril de 1963, que se completó con una notable “Primera Sinfonía” de Brahms de creciente intensidad (se advierte que la pista 3 del CD contiene no solo eI tercer movimiento, sino tambíen la introducción del cuarto; de ahí lo inhabitual de las duraciones). Pero lo más destacado de esta entrega son la “Sinfonía 28 K 200” de Mozart, de sobria elegancia y perfecta proporción y un sensacional “Don Juan” de Richard Strauss, obras umbas muy bien tocadas por la orquesta. Notable sonido.

«Mama, was kauft der Mann da!» Ein Schmunzeln, ein Wundern – und dann...