Guild GHCD 2339, 77:19 [Distrib. by Albany] ****:
Fritz Busch (1890-1951) served music as part of an illustrious musical family which counted brothers Hermann and Adolf among the great instrumentalists of their era. A man of personal integrity as well as immense talent, Fritz Busch turned his heels on National Socialism soon after Goebbels suggested Busch head all musical activities for the Third Reich. Having wandered around South America during World War II, Busch came to work in Denmark, where he and Nicolai Malko proved instrumental in building the musical life of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. An infrequent recording artist, Busch left a small legacy of inscriptions to which any addition is a welcome member for the disciplined excitement of his art.
The Haydn 88th (4 and 7 November 1949, from Electrola) enjoys the earmarks of the Busch style, including close attention to the woodwind details of the second movement, and the pungency of the sforzati that insist on a dramatic presence in the midst of an otherwise unruffled Largo. The muscular Menuetto bristles with aerial lyricism and manly swagger, each repetition gaining in monumentality and flair, especially in the horns and tympani. The rustic Trio drones and lolls with an irony worthy of Brueghel. The high energy of the two outer movements allows for brisk virtuosity in the woodwinds and string attacks, particularly as the flute leads a series of explosions and jocular counterpoints in the rollicking finale. More than one commentator has noted the similarity of the Busch energies to those of the demon Toscanini.
The Haydn Sinfonia Concertante (26-27 January 1951, from HMV) gives us fervent music-making at the end of Busch’s career, when his repute had already spread to the Metropolitan Opera as well as Glyndebourne. The seamless integration of parts in the 1792 Sinfonia finds a thoroughly congenial realization in the Danish ensemble, a lovely balance of symphonic and chamber music aesthetics. The antiphons between bassoon and violin and tutti prove enthralling, a marvel of cassation and military pomp combined. Collectors will likely compare this performance to that of Toscanini’s live broadcast with the NBC. Delicacy of detail in the oboe and violin mark the tender Andante, the cello line alone seeming to float on a mist provided by string pizzicati, ostinati, and woodwind pedal. The violin part approaches the Mozart style perhaps more serenely than in any other Haydn work. The last movement Allegro con spirito resounds with sweet, light, bucolic evanescence, pert, liquid, and thoroughly at ease in the Viennese universe it so naturally inhabits.
The first of the Mozart works, the G Major Serenade (10 October 1948, from PLP) maintains a light step at all times, more than once reminding us of the Furtwaengler approach, despite some swishy acetates. Strong bass harmonies fill out the harmonies of the Romanze, a steady pulse and sinewy majesty alternates with the tripping figures of the middle section, which at several points point to romantic figures in Mendelssohn. An assertive, streamlined Menuetto–although the trio sounds like a veiled calliope–leads a chugging, lightly pesant version of the Rondo finale, the gossamer mixed with the impishly thunderous.
The Busch Linz Symphony (7 November 1949, from HMV), in the Toscanini mold, hardly dawdles; instead, seeking the long, inflamed line, the music moves with militant urgency, a virtuoso conception. Clean, polished sound for the period assists in our appreciation of the rounded, elastic periods in the happy pomp of the first movement’s Allegro spiritoso. Even in spite of the rather andante pulse Busch applies, the Poco adagio still maintains a nobly warm series of gestures, a valediction forbidding mourning that pay a debt to Mozart‘s Masonic leanings. After the aristocratic, swaying Menuetto and its bucolic trio, the final Presto plays the bravura trump card, alternately tripping and sizzling through space, a veritable whirlwind of Viennese flair. If we have no documents of Busch before the Vienna Philharmonic, this wonderful performance more than suffices.
–Gary Lemco
