BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98; MOZART: Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543 – London Symphony Orchestra/Josef Krips
Pristine Audio PASC 231, 64:54 [avail. in several formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****:
I recall vividly a splendid Brahms C Minor Symphony led by Josef Krips (1902-1974) on the London LP label in stereo (CS 9110), so it was with decided eagerness that I sought this issue of 1950-1951 inscriptions (restored by Andrew Rose) Krips made in London’s Kingsway Hall. Krips could be both a dedicated and energetic leader: I saw him in New York’s Lewisohn Stadium for a summer concert, in which his muscular, jaggedly-pumping elbows approach had the New York Philharmonic players aroused; and he accomplished the same explosive results at Carnegie Hall assisting Shura Cherkassky in the Prokofiev G Minor Concerto! Krips, who had been a dominating force in the cultural rebuilding of post-war Vienna, established himself as a premier Mozart interpreter in the grand and tasteful tradition, though his repertoire embraced diverse musical styles.
The Brahms Fourth (17-20 April 1950, from an Ace of Clubs LP) proceeds amiably enough, its girth and majesty in full proportion. The tragic element seems less the order of the day than grand architecture, the plastic swelling of the strings vivid against the emanations from the oboes and trumpets. The rising and falling thirds of the first movement avoid any sense of the formulaic, and their dramatic progression merges sonata-form and visceral lyricism. Wonderful volleys from the brass to announce the Phrygian march of the Andante moderato, the LSO at one of its many peaks of excellence, the string entries ravishing. As with the great interpreters–recall that Krips took his Brahms from his master Felix Weingartner–the sense of transition proves peerless, the intonation in the LSO reeds immaculate.
A rough-hewn Scherzo ensues, all bubbles, triangle, and hunting horns. The trio section offers penetrating detail in slow motion before the Allegro giocoso bursts forth in rambunctious figures once more to lead us to the halls of antique tradition in the last movement passacaglia. With what equates to an organ sonority, the LSO opens the chorale and variations of the last movement with a fervent passion, a dynamism that startles us after three gemuetlich movements. The whirlwind proceeds to the flute variation, the horns, the woodwinds, and then to what constitutes the “recapitulation” in dire and palatial colors. The velocity increases, the inner pulse unvaried, and the cumulative effect of the extended coda convinces us that the old forms of art retain their ability to shatter our complacency.
The Mozart Symphony No. 39 (18 December 1951 from a Decca LP) confirms the Krips repute in Mozart, especially given his later series of Mozart symphonies inscribed for Philips with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. The LSO string and woodwind response to his opening Adagio–Allegro combines grace and suave articulation, the aristocracy of phrase perfectly chiseled, an exercise in perfect Austrian diction, in its own terms. The Mannheim rockets literally purr despite the ardor and velocity of the phrase-lengths. The Andante con moto may as well stand as a guided tour through the Esterhazy Palace, every item of glass or porcelain a miniature in civilization’s paean to itself. The only tragedy here is that Time itself remains the great destroyer. The Menuetto and Trio bounds with optimism and lithe energy; only Furtwaengler seems to have enclosed a Greek drama within its sinewy confines. The last Allegro muscles and bustles its way in brisk, intricately harmonized figures, a deft happy collaboration of all principals that concludes a fine testament to its conductor‘s way with the Viennese tradition.
–Gary Lemco
