BARTOK: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; BLOCH: Concerto Grosso No. 1 – Chicago Symphony Orch. /George Schick, piano obbligato/Rafael Kubelik – Pristine Audio

by | Jan 30, 2010 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

BARTOK: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; BLOCH: Concerto Grosso No. 1 – Chicago Symphony Orchestra/George Schick, piano obbligato/Rafael Kubelik

Pristine Audio PASC201, 51:52 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****:


Listening to these remastered Mercury inscriptions–courtesy of Andrew Rose–the vivid, crystalline realizations of these still-contemporary classics–it is hard to believe that conservative Chicago critic Claudia Cassidy made life a living hell for the talented conductor Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) during his brief tenure with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. That Kubelik favored the music of Bartok proved provocation enough–she considered Bartok a “musical degenerate”–to earn the acid from Cassidy’s malign pen, despite the virtual purity of Kubelik’s performances. The present case in point, Bartok’s 1936 Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (rec. 24 April 1951), Cassidy called a “potboiler,” dismissing its intent as so much chromatic trash.

Meanwhile, for those of us who have braved the throes of Bartok, we have an intensely pointed, sincere effort on the part of the CSO, which finds a fine vehicle for the orchestra’s several choirs. The slowly arched fugue, centering around the tone of A, invites moody, eerie reveries from strings and celesta, the xylophone’s offering sequences in the form of a palindrome. The Allegro might be a near cousin to the Bartok piano concertos, heavily syncopated and metrically sly, moving from 2/4 into 3/8 with plenty of pizzicati to keep us edgy. Xylophone and tympani conspire in the Adagio’s “night music” progress, where Kubelik’s control seems most manifest in the layerings of graduated sound. The last movement, energetic and heavy, brings back the motifs of the opening Andante tranquillo, but now more feverish for having passed through an angular folk dance, but also diaphanous in an unearthly way, tinged by a world-weary regret.

The Bloch first Concerto Grosso (23 April 1951) from 1925 strikes us as kin to the neo-Classic expression of Igor Stravinsky, slashing and sinewy, elastic and youthful, all at once. Bloch seems to have accepted a challenge from students at the Cleveland Institute that one could write a modern score based on traditional tonal techniques. Even the Dirge belies its solemn character, exerting a primal force in the lower strings and piano obbligato that heaves with restless energy. Its middle section emanates an “oriental” languor, veiled mysteries and suggestions of a dune-surrounded oasis.  The delicate Pastorale and Rustic Dance lean toward something Welsh and mystically rustic, the spirit not so far from Peter Warlock or Malcolm Arnold. The use of the keyboard more than once nods to Vincent D’Indy. The final Fugue in the manner of Bach carries an acerbic driving power of its own, though its more transparent episodes suggests a lithe response to the third of the Brandenburg Concertos. The clarity of the CSO line, the sweeping gestures, the forceful conviction of execution, each contributes to a most resolutely satisfying exploration of two outstanding scores.

–Gary Lemco

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