The Real Handel

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1053, 30 October 1959, Page 22

The Real Handel

by

DISCOBOLUS

HOPE a better recording of the Beethoven 5th Symphony than that by André Cluytens and the Berlin Philharmonic doesn’t come out because I’m so satisfied with it, and I don’t want to change. This is exactly the way I want this masterpiece among symphonies to sound, and stereo-recording on ASDM 267 lets the glorious tone of the Berlin Philharmonic be fully heard. I hadn’t expected Cluytens to be so convincing. An excellent performance of the Leonora No. 3 is thrown in as a makeweight. As this is the Handel bicentenary year we may (I hope) expect more. of what is to my mind our most neglected composer. A welcome Decca 10-inch is LWM 5342 of eight of the greatest choruses of Messiah by the London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra under Boult. It is interesting in view of the controversy about the recent Wellington performance under Hopkins which was given in the Victorian tradition of large choir (34 tenors, 111 sopranos-I counted them) and extra orchestra, to see that this record has a small choir and an orchestra in which the voice of the: harpsichord is heard in the land. The result is that Handel’s polyphonic lines can be clearly heard. This is to my mind real Handel, and I am glad to see the sleeve note draw attention to the fact that several of the choruses are adapted by Handel from his Italian duets, Cherubini is a man who was almost lost between two eras of music, bridging the gap between classical and romantic, More attention has been paid to him recently with the spectacular success of his opera Medea in America and Europe. Philips have issued on A 00428L a magnificent recording of his Requiem. Mass by the chorus of the Verdi Theatre in Trieste under Luigi Toffolo which I found superb. The Dies Irae is simply overwhelming. The recording is satisfactory. Two recent vocal records could hardly be more of a contrast, though both are by sopranos. Renata Tebaldi has for long been a notable operatic soprano, but on LXTM' 5410 she sings with piano 14 Italian songs by Scarlatti, Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Rossini, Mascagni among others. These are by no means old chestnuts and the record is welcome for the music, but the great voice of Tebaldi is ‘almost too great, especially as the accompanist is by no means a Gerald

Moore. Some of these songs ask to be tossed off as delightful trifles, and not taken seriously. The three most interesting I found to be Rossini’s three Venetian gondolier songs. The other record (33 CX1570) is Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing schmalzy Viennese operetta songs as only she and Elisabeth Schumann can sing them. Not coy and not making sentimental rubatos, but just plain captivating. The operettas are The Count of Luxembourg, ° Boccaccio, Dubarry, Giuditta, Casanova (Nun’s Chorus), Bird-Seller and so on, and if the names sound strange you can be sure you will recognise the charming melodies, I have always thought Australian conductor Charles Mackerras to be one of the coming men and his records are almost invariably first-class, but on HMV MDLP 1168 he outdoes himself with the magnificent Philharmonia Orchestra in a superb record of Berliozthe Hungarian March, Ballet of Sylphs and Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps, from the Damnation of Faust, the march from The Trojans, and the Roman Carnival Overture. The Philharmonia woodwind are incredible: listen to the end-presto pianissimo-of the Minuet. The whole record is one I can warmly recommend-and it’s a ten-inch! (continued on next page)

If Mackerras is up and coming, Charles | Munch has been there a long time and he | brings ripe experience to three Wagner | pieces of music, the Magic Fire Music) from The Valkyrie, Siegfried’s Journey | to the Rhine from the Twilight of the | Gods and the Overture and Venusberg | Music from Tannhauser, with the Bos- | ton Symphony on RSL 3544. There is | no voice in the Fire Music. The playing and recording are most satisfying if you | are prepared for these dissected pieces | of Wagner. I was amused to see jan simple innocent face of Botticelli’s Venus | on the cover when the Venus of Tann- | hauser is a lady of a very different | complexion. RCA give us two records called a Toscanini Omnibus in -which he conducts three Weber Overtures, Oberon, Euryanthe, Frieschutz, the Carmen Suite No. 1, overtures to Don Pasquale, La Forza del Destino, Poet and Peasant, ' Mignon and a number of smaller things ) on RSL 3545 and 3546. Toscanini recorded these in 1952 with the: NBC Sym- } phony, and the recording has that slightly dry quality which he always | wanted in his records which gives a com- | plete separation of the threads of the | sound. You don’t expect the fullness of | the most recent recording, but the music | blazes. I once asked a man who had» played under Toscanini how he con-| ducted minor music. "When Toscanini ' had the baton" he said "there was no} such thing as minor music." That’s what | these records sound like. A disappointing record is Karel Ancerl | conducting the Vienna Symphony on the stereo Fontana 875 002CY in a Tchaikovsky record-the Nutcracker Suite, the Waltzes from the Serenade, Op. 48 and the Sleeping Beauty, and the Marche Slav. He makes unauthorised and | ineffective changes of tempo in the March and the Nutcracker is singularly ineffective, with what are for stereo blemishes in audibility; for example, of the badly articulated tambourine in the Arabian Dance. The waltz from the Serenade is rather on the pallid side. Satisfactory only if you must have this combination of compositions. For combinations, though, you can’t possibly beat the I Musici strings and Vivaldi. In Philips A 00462 L they play in their usual impeccable style five of his concertos. The word is as usual freely interpreted, for some are simply for |. string orchestras, some have a solo for one instrument, violin or cello, some for two strings. All are simply enchanting. I am fast developing from a Vivaldi fan to a Vivaldi addict. |