BACK TO BACH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 738, 4 September 1953, Page 20

BACK TO BACH

cA monthly review by.

OWEN

JENSEN

F you ever want to start a good argument in musical circles, one of the best opening gambits is to shoot out guilelessly some such question as: "Should the pedal be used in playing Bach on the piano?" or, more simply and devastatingly, just: "Should Bach be played on the piano?" Before you can say "John Sebastian," the hounds will be hot on the scent and it will be Bach this and Bach that, harpsichord against piano, the speeds of his music, the dynamics, or the way the strings should bow Bach’s elusive phrases. It is all good, clean fun and, up to a point, the answer is anybody’s bet. You pay your money and you takes your choice, You have your Bach served piping hot or laid out on the ice of 18th Century purism. The first way is well demonstrated by Lukas Foss (piano) and the Zimbler

etring »infonietta, , who together play two .Bach keyboard | concertos, No. 1. in| D Miner and No. 5 } in F Minor (Brunswick AXTL, 1012), , Mr., Foss never for- | gets that he is play-. ing a piano and nearly always femembers that the music was first written for the harpsichord. The precision ef both soloist and strings is built out of meticulous phrasing and_= sensitive attention to suitably graded dynamics. The effect, of course, is hardly the same as if a harpsichord had }

been tne principal protagonist, but nevertheless very: satisfying. If you»prefer your Bach the other way, as authentic as may be, and the pure unadulterated spirit of the music, turn to Maria Van der Lyck, who plays the harpsichord with "the Tonstudio Orchestra of Stattgart conducted by Hans Michael. This time it is Concerto No. 3 in D Major and No, 6 in F Major, the latter with the addition of two solo recorders (Nixa PLP 547). Both these works are arrangements, but being made by the master himself bear the warranty of genuineness. The F Major is a refurbishing of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G and the D Major is a transcription of the E Major Violin Concerto. The performance and the recording, offering intelligent interpretation, clear playing and sensitive instrumental balance are admirable. How not to present Bach-or Handel for that -matter-is illustrated by the Allegro Chamber Society (Allegro AL 53) and, ping Gaerentis.s by Campoli (violin) e Malcolm ~ (harpsichord) ess ac In the recording of the six Handel violin sonatas, Campoli has used all his tone and a good deal of his technique, both of which are conand therefore altogether too

a9 much for the slender threads of Handel’s music, The result is like a Bikini suit at a cocktail party-very attractive, no doubt, but embarrassingly out of place, ‘and perhaps a little in bad taste. Campoli indulges himself at times in luscious swoops and scoops of tone, and in many’ of the fast movements sounds as if he is a little anxicus to catch the last bus home. This, in the end, makes Handel sound for the most. part like Paganini sweetened with Spohr. When Campoli gives you Handel straight, instead of as a shandy gaff, the effect is fine. This happens in Sonata No, 6 and some other odd places, Of the Allegro Chamber Sceiety’ s performance of Bach’s Coffee Cantata with Uta Graf (soprano), Earl Rogers (tenor) and Ralph Herbert (baritone), the less said the better, The approach is pedantically dull, nor have musicians or technicians even made the most of. theif opportunities for being. dull. Music for Wallowing Perhaps it should be said at once, that I regard wallowing as a legitimate and sometimes __ desirable musical

pleasure. Not that it should. be: confused with genuine listening, with whieh it has only a superficial connection, but, like fifteen minutes in a hot’ bath, a little music wallowing may promote a feeling of well-being and perhaps even tone up the listening system, If you are this way inclined, nothing could be better than Verdi’s Aida which, shorn of its stage trappings and presented for listening only by the chorus and orchestra of the Ac@ademia di Santa

Cecilia, Rome, with Ranta Tebaldi as Aida, Ebe Stignani as Amneris, and Albert Erede as conductor (Decca LXT 2735-37), is as good as a hot bath, a brisk rub down gnd a double Scotch. Despite a suspicMus resemblance now and again to Sousa, Moody and Sankey, ‘and an occasional chorus from The Vagabond King, Verdi’s music still, has thrills. aplenty. The performance and recording are both superb. Take away the brisk rub down and substitute a Pernod for the double Scotch dnd you have Debussy’s La Demoiselle Elue, with a spot of choral Chabrier on the other side, This Demoiselle, the selfsame one who appears in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poem, is early Debussy, and suggests a touch of Wagner which, as everyone knows, is likely to make almost the whole World kin. The performance ‘by "Janine Micheau (soprano) and Janine Collard (mezzo-. soprano), with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the Chorale Elizabeth Brasseur (Decca LZT 2743), produces sensuously beautiful music, The Chabrier on the other side is very pleasan too On Being Contemporary It takes all sorts to make "a ‘world and none the less in the world of music, particularly today when music offers! a handy and harmless outlet for a little

mild chauvinism, Leonard (U.S.A,), Bernstein’s ballet. music Fancy Free, is bold, brash and brassy, being the musical adventures of three sailors and two girls with another blonde too late for her date. The Ballet Theatre Orchestra conducted by Joseph Levine (Capitol CCL 7517) present the music without any inhibitions. The same company have also recorded Aaron Copland’s ballet music, Rodeo (Capitol CCL 7516). Copland to Bernstein is as master to pupil, and the music sounds that way, with Copland’s subtleties asking a little more of your listening. Shostakovich’s 100,000 roubles Piano Quintet-it won a Stalin Prize in 1941 -is a different kettle of fish. The titles of the movements-Prelude, Fugue, Scherzo, Intermezzo, Allegretto-suggest a classical background. The texture of the music has something of the flavour of Mendelssohn and a little of the 18th Century seen through a distorting mirror. How Russian this may be only Shostakovich and his critics may know. The music has the clarity of an etching, and despite the sprinkling of clichés is made very exciting by the Quintetto Chigiano (Decca LXT 2749). Down in South America they do things a little differently, although the shadow of the 19th Century still seems to hang about. That prolific Brazilian, Heitor Villa-Lobos, is represented this month by some piano pieces played by Ellen Ballon (Decca LX 3075). The playing is most competent and the music is not at all as exotic as you might expect, It varies from something resembling a more virile Rachmaninoff to what sounds like Europeanised Brazilian folk idioms. Coda Finally; two discs a little off the beaten track. The first is a recital of Old Netherlands Music played on the organ of St. Jans Church, Gouda, by Flors Peeters (Nixa PLP.239). The bril(continued in next column)

liant clear tone of the baroque organ- | this one dates from 1736-seems to record more faithfully than that of the modern organ-or is it that the playing on this disc is so much better! The music from. the great Netherlands School of the 16th Century is timelessly beautiful. It may be an acquired taste, but there is pleasure in ite cultivation. Then there is Merveilles du Chant Choral (Espagne), which sounds much better than "Gems of Spanish Choral Music," and sounds even more attractive sung by the Agrupacion Coral de Camara de Pamplona (Ducretet-Thom-son LPG 8325). In this old Spanish music and Spanish folksongs there is nothing of the gypsy, but you may find something of El Greco or Goya which, you will admit, is worth inquiring: into.