Martin Cotton blows the dust off wartime recordings and some post-war gems
October round-up
The American harpsichordist Frances Cole is an unfamiliar name: she died in 1983 at the age of 45 after a long illness. These performances come from the early 1970s and, despite the nonprofessional recordings and mis-hit notes, she comes across as a powerful player who goes for broke. Her harpsichord is a big instrument, and suits her style in the Baroque, where Scarlatti and Rameau are played with imaginative freedom; and her own arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne is a massive statement. Bartók and Gottschalk piano pieces transfer idiomatically to the instrument, and her adventurousness is confirmed by Ligeti’s Continuum. (Parnassus PACD 96080) ★★★★
During World War II, Nathan Milstein was one of many musicians who made recordings for exclusive distribution to US overseas forces. In Brahms’s
Second Sonata, the dry acoustic doesn’t allow his phrasing to bloom, although his characteristic rich tone comes through, but a romantically inclined version of Vivaldi’s A major Sonata has a better match between sound and music. There’s a great deal of sonic variation in the remaining short pieces, with some distortion and unstable pitch. Gluck’s ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ comes off well, as do the tracks with orchestra from regular post-war RCA recordings: Schubert’s Serenade and Ave Maria stand out. (Biddulph 85015-2) ★★★
Malcolm Sargent performed Vaughan Williams’s music often but recorded little of it, and these live performances from the 1950s and ’60s fill two important gaps. After a spirited Wasps Overture, we move on to a driven Sixth Symphony: this suits the first movement, but the relentless tread of the second is compromised, and the scherzo tends to rhythmic disorder, before a tightly disciplined epilogue. The premiere of the Ninth Symphony was notorious for being under-rehearsed, and much of it sounds like a read-through, with the complex textures and tempo changes not resolved, especially in the finale, where Sargent tends to deny the music space. (SOMM Recordings ARIADNE 5016) ★★★
Despite the presence of Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra, this recording belongs to Clara Haskil, whose reading of Mozart’s D minor Concerto, familiar from her studio recording with Markevitch, still leaves rivals standing over 60 years after her death. It’s not just the tone and limpid phrasing, but the way that she imbues every note with meaning. This comes to the fore in the slow movement, where she paints a long line full of yearning. The 1956 recording from Salzburg is clear, and the performance of the E flat Symphony, although driven too hard at times, will appeal to Karajan fans. (ICA Classics ICAC 5166) ★★★★
Furtwängler ’s decision to remain in Germany during World War II remains controversial, but his Beethoven performances from that dark time have a fierce intensity. The opening of the ‘Eroica’ rages against the dying of the light, while the Funeral March reaches an almost unbearable climax. Recording quality from Berlin and Vienna varies, but there are rewards, if not always comfortable ones: the finale of the Fifth is more desperate than triumphant, and the finale of the Ninth often sounds like the ride to the abyss. Rhythms are relentless in the outer movements of the Seventh, and the Thanksgiving is hard won in the ‘ Pastoral’. (Music & Arts MACD 4049) ★★★★