Arrau with Szell Live from Carnegie Hall = BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15; CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No .2 in F Minor, Op. 21; R. STRAUSS: Burleske in D Minor; WEBER: Konzertstueck in F Minor, Op. 79; LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major – Claudio Arrau, piano/New York Philharmonic/George Szell – West Hill Radio Archives WHRA-6037, 2 CD 67:26; 54:25 [Not Distributed in the U.S.] ****:
Culled from previously unreleased radio archives by Peter Warwick, these collaborations between Chilean virtuoso Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) and conductor George Szell (1897-1970) capture a series of superheated musical moments, each informed by the intellectual and digital bravado Arrau could produce, especially when accompanied by an expert orchestral interpreter on the scale of a George Szell.
Arrau originally made his New York Philharmonic debut with Dimitri Mitropoulos in January 1943 for the Beethoven Fourth Concerto and again in September for the Liszt A Major Concerto. George Szell, whose career detoured into New York at the outbreak of WW II, took up the reins for Arrau’s third appearance at Carnegie Hall (11 March 1945). The wickedly feverish Strauss Burleske and the Weber Konzertstueck–along with the alternative Faure Ballade; not included here, unfortunately, as we have no Faure with Arrau–comprised the program. Szell eventually recorded the Weber and Liszt A Major Concerto with Robert Casadesus for CBS (ML 4588), so we enjoy a distinctive privilege in these resuscitated transcriptions with the volatile Arrau. Glittery and broad, the Burleske brings out the boldness in Arrau as well as his occasional musings into the poetic world of Viennese waltzes.
The Weber piece, which Arrau recorded in Chicago with Desiree Defauw, opens relatively slowly–but only as a Bengal tiger might approach an intended quarry–and then leaps forward with a propulsion that perhaps only a George Szell could maintain. The upward runs by the orchestra itself are a work of art. Some smudges in the acoustic tissue relegate the performances to “period radio transcriptions,” but the musical vitality and astonishing level of digital articulation cannot be denied. The Liszt Concerto–played as an alternate to the Beethoven C Minor Concerto–(15 December 1946) meanders through corridors of harmony and melodic transformations of the same order as the Weber, here augmented by Arrau’s striking sense of the keyboard style, courtesy of his old master Martin Krause. The cumulative effect leading to the grand march and pompous coda proves quite overpowering.
The Beethoven C Major Concerto (11 November 1945) by Arrau adds a muscular luster to a youthful Beethoven, and Arrau chooses the longest of the cadenzas Beethoven created for his own use. Szell imparts a lyrical wit to the orchestral part, incisive and explosive at once. Arrau plays with nobility and poise, the alternately musing and playful filigree from Beethoven’s early Classicism often suavely disarming in its directness in the parlando passages and energized acceleration in the roulades. Listen to the wonderfully graduated dynamics of the transition to the recapitulation, a mystery that defines the art of music. Besides the sheer dynamism of Arrau’s cadenza, its vocalization of the melodic contour–and the potent realization of the left hand bass harmonies–warrants our repeated hearing of this explosive performance, as often in buffa style as in the “grand line.” That same left hand compels our attention no less in the final movement of the Chopin F Minor Concerto (9 January 1955), in what was to be Arrau’s last appearance with the New York Philharmonic. There the sudden appearance of hitherto “buried” chords illuminates the motives with a decided panache. The confidence and plastic ease of articulation never ceases to astonish. Both Arrau and Szell admirers will covet this set with special relish, given the palpable addition of audience response, which always set Szell to exceed his already stellar talent.
— Gary Lemco
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