by Edward Tatnall Canby
E. Power Biggs--24 Historic Organs in 8 Countries Covering 7 Centuries of Music by 24 Composers. Columbia MG 31207, 2 discs, stereo, $ 11.98.
This excellent set of two discs highlights the reissue technique in its most useful and constructive area, not a straight repeat issue nor, yet again, a mere cursory sampling but an important stage in between. Mr. Biggs' travels with CBS technicians and recorders brought back material for a long series of LPs, generally each one devoted to the organs of one European country--Spain, Italy, Germany, France, or to a composer-organ music by Haydn or Mozart or Handel. It was, and is, a pleasure to delve so deeply (relatively speaking) into the instrumental styles of each of these particular elements; we can always profit from detailed examination. On the other hand, a sampling of a sort from the total output would surely have a place, too.
This one is commendably inclusive. That is--each face of the two records is devoted to one major area, except the last, which covers Spain and Italy plus music by Mozart and Haydn. (There was, of course, proportionately less major organ activity in these areas-or Mr. Biggs thought it less important in terms of his available recorded material.) I liked the single-minded approach for each side, which made it easy to follow the drift of things without too frequent consulting of the notes. I enjoyed again many of the memorable recordings, the superb sounds of the old Dutch organs and the North German, the blatty foghorn effects of those curious Spanish "trumpet" pipes, the conservative sound of the Oldest Organ, at Sion in Switzerland. Musically, the very top highlight in the album is that incredibly great and late Mozart Organ Fantasia K. 608, one of his last and most profound works, with all of Bach, and Beethoven too, in its furious; desperately changing harmonies. I played it three times over, and could not leave it.
Performances: B + Sound: B +
Martin Berenbaum. (Hayden, Hummel Trumpet Concerti, Torelli: Sonata A Cinque No. 7, Albinoni Concerto "Saint Marc"). With the English Chamber Orch., Johannes Somary. Vanguard VCS 10098 stereo $ 5.98; VSO. 30012 SQ quadr $ 6.98.
Martin Berinbaum is a purely American musical product, a superb trumpeter whose sound very clearly reflects his background. How? Not easy to describe (and he uses more than one trumpet here), but there is that rich American fruitiness of tone, a trace of vibrato, a solistic emphasis. No great criticism! Other players hereabouts merely sound like trumpeters-playing some music or other.
Birenbaum's technique is outstanding, but so is his genuine attention to the music and its sense, which makes all the difference for those of us who listen to music first and trumpets second.
The ultra-familiar Haydn is at its genial best and--wonder of wonders--the cadenzas don't take up half the record. Thanks, Mr. B! The really novel item, however, is the big Hummel Concerto, a work midway between the late Haydn and Beethoven styles, with a very considerable appeal. It's always good to hear from the also-rans, the near-greats who surrounded the top giants, Beethoven, Mozart and so on-and were forgotten. In their day, they were vital to music and a Beethoven, Mozart and so on-and were forgotten. In their day, they were vital to music and a Beethoven could not have existed without the complementary Hummels, Spohrs, Dusseks, Clementis and Fields.
The two short Baroque pieces are in harmonious contrast, a five-voiced Sonata by the excellent Torelli ("A Cinque") and a transcribed violin work by Albinoni. Johannes Somary is by now a seasoned and lucid conductor of Baroque and classic orchestral music. His leadership, I'd say, has a good deal to do with the good styling of these performances.
Performances: A, Sound: B+
P.S. The two parallel releases of this trumpet recording, in stereo and in SQ quadraphonic, gave me my first chance to AB the two types of release via full SQ-with-logic decoding. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I didn't expect too much difference. A dollar's worth? Understand, of course, that I play all my records, quadraphonic or regular stereo, via four speakers. Have been for a couple of years. I have found that the simpler non-logic or "plain" SQ decoding (found in lower-cost equipment items) does a splendid job on standard stereo discs, preserving the frontal stereo as claimed, spreading out the sound via the extra channels in a smoothly symmetrical fashion, very musical.
The same standard stereo sound via SQ-with-logic tends towards more variable randomness, as the logic circuits grasp for clues as to how to act-and find only happenstance.
(The normal recording has no specific SQ encoded message, but contains a lot of random triggering information.) On logic SQ, the standard stereo sound seems to wave gently in the breeze, so to speak. Curious effect, gentle and not at all unpleasant. A kind of slow sonic rippling, here and there.
By itself, then, the trumpet recording in standard stereo played very well via SQ with logic. Entirely satisfactory, in spite of the mild image shifting as the logic circuits worked away at random clues. But when I put on the same music in the SQ quadraphonic version, the sound instantly smoothed out, the ripples ceased, the space grew larger and less watery, the music was clarified, keener simpler, more incisive in effect. Yesthat dollar makes a difference.
Curious side-observation: the standard stereo had a heavier, tubbier bass than the SQ. I like the SQ bass better.
Single Mic Technique The Kubelik Legacy. Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Vol. I (Mussorgsky, Tchaikowsky, Mozart, Smetana); Vol. II (Tchaikowsky, Dvorak, Hindemith, Bartók). Mercury MG 3-4500/4501 (3 discs each) mono $17.94 ea.
Now here is a prize reissue, that caught my wandering eye in a trice.
About time! For years, back in the Fifties, Mercury's "Living Presence" mono LP releases, done with the difficult single-mic technique that is now gone forever, were show-stopping items at all the shows and standard demo stuff for every hi fi living room.
Who will forget that ringing trumpet in "Pictures at an Exhibition"? Here it is, large as life, 22 years later. The notable Mercury series under Chicago's short-term Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, recorded from 1951 to 1953, is back on a pleasingly revived Mercury classical label and the sound is as good as anybody then thought, the music stands up extremely well to the later RCA Chicago recordings (among the first in stereo) with a more famous conductor, Fritz Reiner. Definitely, these tapes-were they quarter-inch full-track, or 35 mm. film size? were sonic state of the art. They are clean, beautifully balanced and as quiet as Dolby.
The single-mic technique depended on finding the one, critical spot in a hall where (a) the instrumental balance was ideal and (b) the ambient reverb precisely matched the direct pickup. Too close-and the sound, as Shakespeare put it, was stale and unprofitable. Too distant, and all was hazy, flat and uninspiring. But at the exact point of perfection, one-mic music seemed to spring to life. A curious phenomenon, almost a resonance. Mercury got so it could bull's-eye in for almost any sort of music.
True, our tastes today have changed and in fact we have found the means, via many mics and assorted extra-micular aids, to get down a sharper, more detailed definition of music onto our multi-track tapes. In a way, we have sacrificed the warmth and simplicity of the older technique just try it here-for what could be called a higher relief in the sculptural sense, a greater density of information. We have done this willingly and with immense success-I am not one who longs for the good old days! For it is inevitable that a medium which is not a concert hall but, mainly, a living room, should drift away from the concert hall itself towards whatever sound brings the most music into that living room environment.
But we must recognize the heights of achievement along our continuing route, admit that there are values and objections to any recording technique as a matter of course-and keep on working. Mercury's one-mic wonders are an inspiration, and we can thank the new owner, Philips, for bringing them back so handsomely.
Kublik's music, of course, is the reason here behind the single mic. He was a relatively gentle leader, not the fierce disciplinarian that Fritz Reiner was well known to be. The Kubelik Bartók (Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta) doesn't project the steely fury of the Reiner version. (Well, maybe this was the Orchestra's first try at it.) Kubelik's voltage is lower. The Kubelik Tchaikovsky, the Fourth and the Sixth, is good because it doesn't fray the nerves. Just full-bodied, and solid. The famous Mussorgsky "Pictures" is even better and more solid and was rightly almost played to death in our early hi fi years. The Mozart (the " Prague" Symphony--what else!) is clean and neat and a bit old fashioned. Needless to say, the Czech composers are the best of all--the Dvorak " New World" and, particularly, the Smetana duo, Ma Vlast. The familiar old Moldau goes rolling along in really lovely cascades of sound.
All hail to the single mic! It sounds good even in quadraphonic.
Performances: B + Sound: A-
Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, op.6 Nachtstücke, op. 23. Claudio Arrau, piano. Philips 6500 178 stereo $ 6.98.
Schumann's piano specialty was the long, Romantic suite of dance-like and song-like movements, often tied together by various symbolic themes, anagrams of letters and what-not. The two characters of Schumann's imaginative personality-split sides, alas, for his eventual mental disintegration--are often present: the tender, slightly sheep-like Eusebius and the florid, flamboyant Florestan, reflected in contrasting musical moods.
There is, of course, a certain almost hysteric rigidity in these never quite adult musical forms, full of dogmatic repeats, seldom extended beyond a child-like confine. And yet, of course too, they are beautiful simply because Schumann was a first-rate genius at musical expression. But for the modern performer, they aren't easy. One must somehow believe in these early-Romantic conceits (that's easier today than yesterday) and somehow feel a bit paranoid or schizoid as well, to project the simple intensity of the music, whether the restrained Eusebius or the dangerous Florestan, on the very edge of hysteria.
All of which is a prelude to a surprise for me. I can only say that Arrau, for all his celebrity as an elder statesman of the piano, has never been a favorite of mine (1 have disliked him even without knowing who was playing)--but this time, in this Schumann, 1 was very much impressed. It is good, and specifically at the very highest level. This somewhat reserved person, on the undemonstrative and shy side away from the piano itself, has decidedly found the answer to the composer's ultra-difficult keyboard personality. He plays impeccably, forcefully, yet without exaggeration and, somehow, gets across exactly the right pitch of intensely serious yet controlled emotion, totally direct and disarming, Romantic but without a trace of pretentiousness. That can, indeed, take a lifetime to learn.
There are numerous other Arrau Schumann discs, if this one is agreeable, including the familiar Carnival, Op. 9. Perhaps it was the very unfamiliarity of the works on the present record that made them both easier to play and easier in the listening. The Arrau repertory on Philips goes far beyond Schumann, into Liszt, Beethoven, the big works with orchestra.
Performance: A, Sound: B +
Dvorak: Piano Trios: B flat, G minor, Opp. 21, 26; F minor, Op. 65; E minor, Op. 90 ("Dumkyí ). Beaux Arts Trio. Philips LY 802 917/18/19 stereo $6.98 ea.
These three Dvorak discs, issued at intervals during the last year, make a fine set, though they are available separately. The Beaux Arts Trio is not exactly Czech, with Manahem Pressler, piano, Isidore Cohen, violin and Bernard Greenhouse, cello, but the three new world musicians have the Czech spirit down perfectly, as far as these Trios are concerned. It is lifting, spring-fresh Romantic music, lyric even in its serious moments, full of pleasing tunes and dance rhythms.
The powerhouse of the group is the pianist, Manahem Pressler, a rarely communicative artist whose powerful touch and superb rhythm and phrasing radiate the same sort of enthusiasm that Rudolph Serkin conveys-as though constantly saying, Look! Isn't this terrific! He is a pleasure to hear.
Second in musical command is Bernard Greenhouse, whose cello in the occasionally important solos for the instruments sings out in perfect tune and eloquently. A fine cellist interpreter. For some reason, the violinist, Isidore Cohen, nominally the leader, seems a trace tired and not always secure, though his tone is often lovely enough. One senses less force here, though only relatively, the other two being so strong.
I wish I knew what motivates recording engineers in situations like this. Sometimes the piano is a mere accompaniment to ultra-close solos, violin, cello--as in Columbia's Stern/ Rose/Istomin recordings of Schubert.
Here, it is the opposite-the piano dominates, the two strings, especially the fiddle, are sonically on the weak side. In the early Dvorak this is fine.
The first two Trios are in the older Mozart tradition, where violin and cello are mostly subordinate to the piano. But in the late works, especially the "Dumky" with its abundance of cello solo, the balance is a bit too pianistic. Better than the other way around, I'll have to admit! Let's hope we hear more of Manahem Pressler, who has been around quite awhile. He is an absolutely splendid ensemble pianist, and a born communicator on records.
Performances: A, Sound: B
Mozart in Chelsea. Divertimenti and Contredances. Arr. Erik Smith. Academy of St. Martin in-the-Fields, Marriner. Philips 6500 367, stereo, $6.98.
An unusual disc, this, in more ways than one. Mozart, first of all, was in Chelsea at the ripe age of eight, along with Papa Mozart and his sister Nannerl; the purpose-exploitation of the young genius. But Papa got the flu or equivalent (he called it a cold but was down for weeks). They lived in the "village" of Chelsea-could it be the present Chelsea district, just barely out of downtown London? Little Mozart, left to his own devices and away from Papa's normal rigorous routine of instruction, got himself a note book and began jotting down music in semi-shorthand. Little orchestral-style tunes, with one-line figured bass accompaniments. He didn't yet know how to write out orchestral music but he knew very well what it sounded like.
Erik Smith has "realized" a batch of these remarkable little pieces into orchestral form, in the style of Mozart's own later works of the very same sort, and the results are impeccable as well as remarkable. The one-line bass is filled out into harmony for strings and a few winds, the standard small Mozart orchestra of Salzburg; groups of the little pieces are put together into suites or, in Mozart fashion, Divertimenti. It is all very convincing, beautifully played and natural-and the music, for an eight-year-old Mozart, is-well, Mozart! Hard to believe. Only occasionally is there an audible clinker, a clumsy change, a platitude. Mostly, as Smith observes, little Wolfgang was already ahead of his grown-up contemporaries in sheer power of musical invention.
Listen for yourself.
Performance: A, Sound: B+
Zuckerman Plays and Conducts Vivaldi The Four Seasons. English Chamber Orchestra. Columbia MCI 31798, SO quadraphonic, $ 5.98.
One of the occasional debits of the star system is miscasting. It can be awful, or merely a minor miscast, as here. Zuckerman doesn't really have the right sort of fiddle technique for Vivaldi, though he has here approximated it with a great deal of intelligence.
As conductor, he has come a long way (he is young) towards a natural feeling for this music as it should be done today-and has been done on umpteen other competing recordings. (Though this is the first in quad.) Nothing wrong with the English Chamber Orchestra, which is ideal for the music. Not much wrong with Zuckerman's conducting, though it tends a bit towards softness and some tempi are, for today, a bit slow, the endings tend to slow down in the old fashioned way, no longer right in such music. Not quite up to date in style-but leagues ahead of some hideously Romantic versions by older conductors who should know better! As a fiddler, however, Zuckerman's sound and his technique are basically out of the grand tradition; his fiddle has a Heifetz sound to it, decidedly, that rich, luscious tone so good against a large modem (i.e., 19th century)
symphony orchestra, that tight, taut vibrato which helps the sound to stand forth heroically. Being young though, Zuckerman is, shall I say, modified Heifetz. In the slow Vivaldi he is able to play the rigorous, totally accurate, limpid tone, minus vibrato, that is necessary for this music. He manages most of the very fast passages beautifully, too, and with the right brilliance of effect. Good. Yet in a few spots, quite a few, the lightning-fast chordal arpeggios fail to hang in the air, whole chords of fiddle tone, as they definitely do in some other of the available performances. Zuckerman, in other words, makes an excellent try in an area that is not central to his acquired technique.
A big, fat, tank-like reverberation to the quadraphonics, lots of strong back reflections but the source clearly up front.
Performance: B Sound: B
(Audio magazine, Jul. 1973; Edward Tatnall Canby)
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