Historical Round-up
takes a listen to a selection of reissued archive recordings
Historical Round-up
The latest brace of live BBC broadcasts sourced from the Richard Itter archive each feature performances from a single month in the mid-1950s. Given these twodisc sets were recorded from radio broadcasts, the sound is remarkably good, if clearly some way below studio quality. Yehudi Menuhin is heard in Mozart Violin Concertos from January 1956, two with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcom Sargent and Alfred Wallenstein respectively, and three with the London Mozart players under Harry Blech. Menuhin’s charm and exquisite tone shine through, even when confronted with Sargent’s oversized orchestra. The performances with Blech are lovely and vibrant throughout, whether in the vigorous Rondos or the rapt beauty of the slow movements (ICA ICAC 5153 HHH).
Mahler, Wagner, Haydn, Brahms draws on Bruno Walter ’s residency at the BBC’S May Festival in 1955. Typically authoritative in Mahler’s First Symphony, he gives the BBC Symphony Orchestra a real workout, while the yearning in Brahms’s Schicksalslied is utterly sublime despite the woolly sound. Haydn’s Symphony
No. 96 is rather big-boned in Walter’s hands, but remains attractive nonetheless; the highlight is the searching performance of Wagner’s A Faust Overture in Walter’s only post-war recording (ICA ICAC 5151 HHH).
While the Menuhin and Walter sets provide sometimes enchanting alternatives to their commercial studio recordings, Lyrita’s release of an Australian radio broadcast of Eugene Goossens’s oratorio The Apocalypse marks this ambitious work’s first appearance on disc. Drawing on vast resources, not quite gathered in their entirety for this live recording from 1982, it is an intriguing, if flawed, behemoth. Striking passages nestle among more pedestrian material. An engaging sense of collective endeavour tempers the rough edges of this performance, ensuring that what is likely to remain a unique document of the work gives a clear flavour of its character (Lyrita SCRD.371 HHH).
At almost the same time as Goossens’s late-romantic exploration of the end of the world, Karlheinz Stockhausen was distilling his radical ideas at the piano to build a brave new compositional world. Dedicated to the extraordinary pianist David Tudor, his radio performances of the pieces have been gathered by Hat Hut for Historic First Recordings of the Klavierstücke I-VIII & XI. These modernist masterpieces remain endlessly fascinating, provoking and surprising, from the pointillist gestures of the early pieces to the unpredictable mobile form of No. XI. Tudor’s authoritative performances have the air of joint discovery, making essential listening for anyone interested in this repertoire (Hathut hat[now]art 172 HHHHH).
Innovative pianism of a different kind underpins the works on the George Gershwin Centennial Edition disc, even though these live 1998 performances conducted by José Serebrier only showcase the piano in the Concerto in F. Leopold Godowsky III is a fine soloist, though occasionally lacks direction. Serebrier’s arrangements of the Three Preludes and Lullaby are largely convincing, and despite their fullfat approach to Gershwin’s textures, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra play these and An American in Paris with relish
(Somm ARIADNE 5003 HHH).