From B to B

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 764, 12 March 1954, Page 18

From B to B

-- | A Monthly Review

by

OWEN

JENSEN

HAT magic there is in the letter "B" I do not know, but if you stop to think about it you may be prepared to admit that there are more composers to admire in this part of the alphabet than anywhere else from A to Z. There is, for instance, John Sebastian Bach, who scores full marks again with a recording of his Ascension Oratorio, otherwise known as Cantata No. 11: Praise Our God (Nixa LLP 8034). Listening to this as performed by the Swabian Choral Singers and the Stuttgart Bach Orchestra, with Claire Fassbender-Luzy (soprano), Ruth Michaelis (alto), Werner Hohmann (tenor), Bruno Muller (bass) and Hans Grishkat as conductor, one is torn between wishing to be in Leipzig in the early 18th Century wher music like this was to be heard at St. Thomas’s every Sunday, and wishing Bach were with us today to hear his music so wonderfully sung and played. Remembering something about the troubles Bach had with his singers, one imagines that he would probably have taken this disc home to show them how it should be done. As you may gather, the performance and the recording are fine. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said so unreservedly about the Magnificat (Nixa CLP 60), in which Bach at times gets a raw deal. This work was recorded from a performance at the 1950 International Bach Festival at Schaffhausen, the performers being the Reinhardt Chorus, the Winterthur Chorus, the Winterthur Orchestra and

soloists under Walter Reinhardt. The interpretation is, in general, pedantic;

the soloists have their off moments and so, too, do the recording engineers. Nevertheless, if you take your Bach in the spirit in which it was written, you still may wish to possess this disc. : Bach’s musical output was so enormous and, within the limits of his style, his ideas so varied ‘and so continually original, that it seems a considerable understatement that he should call a set of little keyboard studies "Inventions." These short two-part pieces will be familiar to most pianists-or should be-either as the quiet delights which they are, or as recollections of tiresome examination assignments. The so-called Three-Part Inventions were actually called "Sinfonias" by Bach, but as this name has acquired a different meaning these days, it seems easier to put these small pieces along with the Two-Part Inventions, and let them take the same name which they grace very well. As played by Lukas Foss (Brunswick AXTL 1027) these Fifteen Three-Part Inventions become much more than studies and are a long way from the examination room. In fact, they are as satisfying music as any Bach ever invented. If you are a pianist, borrow the disc, listen to Lukas Foss and then go away and endeavour to do likewise; if your bent is the voice, the violin, the piccolo, the double B Flat bass, or just the listening, you had better acquire the disc and meditate on what fun pianists have. I cannot feel so happy about or with Wilhelm Kempff’s A Bach Recital

(Decca LXT 2820). Wilhelm Kempff is a fine pianist-there can be no two minds about that; and he presents Bach with an immaculate and flexible technique. Yet, somehow or other, one feels that sometimes there is too much mein Kempff and not enough mein Bach. In other words. Kempff seems too much concerned with turning on good piano playing, which is not always compatible with good Bach interpretation. His Chromatic Fantasie and Fugue, clearly and carefully unfolded, seems not quite to reach what should be its ultimate conclusions. It misses out a_ bit on thegclimaxes. This far more than tolerable playing would be acceptable, however, were it not for the rest of the programme, which comprises six chorales or chorale-preludes and a movement from the Flute Sonata in E Fiat all

arranged — transcribed, pardon me -by Wilhelm Kempff, no other.

ihe result is uneven in quality and in the well-known Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring the pianist so for forgets himself as to permit himself an unbecoming and old-fashioned slow-up in his last phrase. In fact, Wilhelm Kempff’s polish chips off a bit in places. Moving on among the Bs brings us to Beethoven-String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, played by the Pascal Quartet with Walter Gerhardt, second viola (Nixa CLP 1214). The Pascal Quartet have now recorded all the Beethoven String Quartets with, in addition, the Piano Quartet, Op. 16 (with Artur Balsam), and the String Quintet, altogether a notable achievement. In such an undertaking, occasional lapses from the impeccable--and there are some-can be understood and readily excused. The String Quintet, Op. 29, however, needs no excuse, being right on the beam--remarkable music, intelligently played and carefully recorded. Another highlight in the same series is the Op. 18, No. 1 (Nixa CLP 1201), with the Piano Quartet, Op. 16, on the reverse side. Artur Balsam’s piano Playing is first rate. Peter Rybar (violin) and the West Austrian Radio Orchestra conducted by Hans Moltkau play Brahms’s Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (Nixa CLP 1113). Peter Rybar is no mean fiddler and he attacks the Brahms with assurance, with the orchestra backing him up solidly; but somehow-maybe because of too (continued on next page)

much assurance ari solidity-the performance misses fire. To the traditional allitetetion of Bach, Beethoven. and Brahms, we "tan now reasonably add Bela Bartok. This time it is his String Quartet No. 1; Op. 7, played by the Hirsch String Quartet (Argo ATM 1001). This is one of Argo’s more successful excursions into contemporary music, both playing and recording being of a high standard. The music is serious and even severe, but it has the qualities of greatness. Romantic Interlude Was Gustav Mahler, the composer, something of. a musical mountebank, or was he the apotheosis of Romanticism? A good part of the.musical world seems still unable to make up its mind on this point. Further evidénce on the matter is provided) by the Czech #Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, with Maria Tauberoya singing the soprano solo (Supraphon LPM 51-52). The recording is rather shrill and hard, but the performers present Mahler fairly enough. In the hands of the U.S.S.R. State Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff with his Symphony No. 3 in A Minor; Op. 44 (Supraphon LPM 37-38), comes off somewhat better. For all its faded, nostalgic sweetness, there . is strength and brilliance in Rachmaninoff’s music. The players bring out the lushness of the orchestral colours and the fire of the rhythms, The fourth side carries the overture to Taneiev’s opera Crestea, a bright and rumbustious bit of work. A curious bypath of romanticism is About the Eternal Longing, A Musical Poem for Large (sic!) Orchestra by the Czech composer’ Vitezslav Novak. Novak was born in 1870, being just long enough in the 19th Century never to have quite got it out of his system, although he lived until 1949. This Musical Poem-for Large Orchestrais a sprawling, amorphous work which is what an eternal longing might be, I suppose. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karel Sejna (Supraphon LPV 68) make the most of the music’s pleasant sounds. On the reverse side, under Franz Konwitchny, the same orchestra plays Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel, an assured performance which lacks, however, enough sense of humour to bring out the impishness of Till. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Vaclav Talich) have also recorded, it is worth noting, the complete Dvorak Slavonic Dances with a Waltz and the Carnival Overturd as fill-ups (Supraphon LPM 15-16-17). Brief Notes on Today Peter Racine Fricker is a name worth jotting down in your diary. An up-and-coming young English composer, he may very likely be one of the most ‘significant writers of this decade. His Sonata for Violin and Piano is difficult, unsmiling music, but music of character. The last movement is most beautiful. It is played intelligently and appreciatively by Maria Lidka and Margaret Kitchin (Argo ATC 1002). Ned Rorem, a young U.S.A. composer, to judge by his Piano Sonata No. 2, is not likely to be quite so significant, although Julius Katchen does his best to make the music’ sound convincing (Decca LXT 2812). The Eight Pieces from Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, which take up the reverse side, should not be missed. by Bartok enthusiasts. Prokofieff’s ingratiating and by no means aggressively modern Violin Sonata in D Major is played with reckless abandon but ‘not with great subtlety by Ruggieri Ricci (violin) and Carl Busotti (piano) (Decca

LXT 2818). On the reverse side is a violin sonata by Richard Strauss. Ravel’s two piano concertos, one for the left hand alone and the other for both hands, are played by Jacqueline Blancard and L’Orchestre’ de la Suisse Romande (Decca LXT 2816). The playing is neat, lyrical and brilliant, as the exotically exciting. music requires.