Alfred Hertz and The San Francisco Symphony = LISZT: Les Preludes; WAGNER: Parsifal: Prelude Act I; Good Friday Spell; Tristan und Isolde: Prelude, Act I and Liebestod; BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances No. 5 – Pristine Audio

by | Mar 1, 2010 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

Alfred Hertz and The San Francisco Symphony = LISZT: Les Preludes; WAGNER: Parsifal: Prelude Act I; Good Friday Spell; Tristan und Isolde: Prelude, Act I and Liebestod; BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor; Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D Major – San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Alfred Hertz

Pristine Audio PASC195, 61:46 [avail. in several diff. formats at www.pristineclassical.com] ****:

Producer Mark Obert-Thorn presents us a second installment of electrical recordings from the legacy of Alfred Hertz (1872-1942), conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, 1915-1930.  Particularly noted for his affinity for the music of Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera, these 1925-1928 inscriptions testify to a fierce orchestral discipline and vivid sonority in each of the selections, several on a par to the more flamboyant Willem Mengelberg, whose collaborations with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam set the standard for virtuoso ensemble.

Aptly enough, the first selection offered, Liszt’s Les Preludes (27 February 1928), recorded at the Scottish Rite Temple, Oakland, for RCA, communicates the massive scale and bravura intensity associated with Mengelberg’s more famous reading of the score for Columbia from 1930. One must confess that poor original recording at the opening mars the first four minutes acoustically, if not musically. The flexibility of rhythm and the ability to soften the orchestral sheen to a sultry quilt of layered harmonies certifies Hertz’s power over his color panoply.

Despite some persistent swish in the originals, Parsifal Act I Prelude (24, 26 and 31 January 1925) provides resonant interior woodwind lines in the opening motifs. It is no accident that it was Hertz who debuted Parsifal in the USA, and his sympathy for this score informs every measure. Mysticism and erotic urgency combine in a broadly woven tapestry of sound, the SF trumpets–especially in the “Dresden Amen” phraseology–and strings in etched definition. The Good Friday Spell (2 February 1925) extends the spirit of religious exaltation–Percival is anointed in preparation to confront the Holy Grail-particularly as the SF bass line clearly moves in etched strokes to gird the brass harmonies on top.  The thinner textures prove as diaphanous as the denser sonorities remain colorfully stratified. Despite some tubbiness in the sound, the atmosphere rings with poignant intimations of a higher world.

Hertz recorded the Tristan excerpts 20 and 22 April 1926 in Oakland, and the restoration by Obert-Thorn proves quiet and undisturbed. Hertz lingers over the cello line, a la Stokowski and Knappertsbusch, letting the upper strings carry the melodic tissue, fully cognizant of the disturbed grindings in the bass. Hertz does permit a degree of old-world portamento to infiltrate the first violin line. The spirited reading of the Prelude imparts an erotic expectation that virtually becomes a sickness unto death. And so, the brisk Liebestod, all shimmering strings and harp, French horn and clarinet, ascendant in voluptuous harmony.

For the inscription of two Brahms Hungarian Dances (13 April 1927), Hertz and company had moved to a larger space, and the resultant warmth of resonance traverses the years with vitality and finesse. The elan and rhythmic elasticity of the SFO easily rivals the slickly nuanced sound Stokowski achieved in Philadelphia, so collectors can enjoy both conductors’ natural affinity for spirited miniatures.

— Gary Lemco

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