Great Recordings of the Century: The DVD
Program: MOUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition–Baba Yaga and the Great Gate of Kiev; BEETHOVEN: Ninth Symphony: Finale; VERDI: Overture to I vespri siciliani; ROSSINI: La Cenerentola–Nacqui all’affano; BACH: Bouree I&II from Cello Suite No. 3 in C; SCHUBERT: An die Musik; Der Lindenbaum; FALLA: Jota; MONTSALVAGE: Canciones negras–Cancio de cuna para dormir a un negrito; LISZT: Funerailles; Gnomenreigen; MENDELSSOHN: Song Without /Words in C, Op. 67, No. 4; BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata ib C, O. 102, No. 1; Romance in F, Op. 50; PUCCINI: Gianni Schichi–O mo babbino caro; BRAHMS: Violin Concerto: Rondo Finale; PAGANINI: Paganiniana (arr. Milstein); CHOPIN: Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53; WAGNER: Preluide to Die Meistersinger; BERLIOZ: Un Bal from Symphonie fantastique; DEBUSSY: Toccata from Pour le piano; R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier: Act I Finale – Mstislav Rostropovich, cello/Sviatoslav Richter, piano (Beethoven)/Maria Callas, soprano (Puccini); Yehudi Menuhin, violin/Sir Adrian Boult (Beethoven)/David Oistrakh, violin/Rudolf Schwarz (Brahms)/Georgy Cziffa, piano (Chopin, Op. 53 and Liszt Gnomenreigen); Aldo Ciccolini, piano (Liszt Funerailles and Mendelssohn)/ Leopold Stokowski (Wagner)/Herbert von Karajan (Berlioz)/Nathan Milstein, violin (Paganini)/Samson Francois, piano (Debussy)/Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano/Hertha Torpper, mezzo-soprano/Sir Charles Mackerras (R. Strauss)/Andre Cluytens (Moussorgsky)/Carlo Maria Giulini (Verdi)/Victoria de los Angeles, soprano (Falla, Montsalvage)/Paul Tortelier, cello (Bach)/Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone (Schubert, with Gerald Moore, piano)/Teresa Berganza, soprano (Rossini, with Eugen Jochum)/Agnes Giebel, soprano/Marga Hoeffgen, contralto/Ernst Haefliger, tenor/Gustav Neidlinger, bass/Otto Klemperer (Beethoven 9th)
Studio: EMI 50999 2 06788 9
Video: 4:3 Black &White and Color
Audio: PCM Mono
No region coding
Length: 2-DVDs – 97:15, 65:20
Rating: ****
Culled from the EMI studios archives, 1957-1972, we have concert footage of many of the luminaries who graced the EMI music catalogue and whom we might not have had the privilege of seeing in person. I opened with Disc 2, having a fiery Andre Cluytens lead the Orchestre National de la RTF (1960) in the last two sections from Moussorgsky’s Pictures, a big effect, certainly. The complete last movement of the Beethoven Ninth under Klemperer proves most special: Klemperer in 1964 (November 8) Royal Albert Hall is quite frail, directing from a seat, but the fury of the Ode to Joy has his mouthing every word as he leads orchestra, chorus, and soloists. A nice touch is the use of English titles for each of the vocal lines in Beethoven and all vocal sequences that follow. The standing ovation that follows proceeds for several minutes, glowing tribute to a conductor from the Old School.
A young, gorgeous Carlo Maria Giulini leads the New Philharmonia in a rousing Verdi overture before a 1968 audience. A ninety-year-old Leopold Stokowski, marking the 60th anniversary of his London Symphony debut at Royal Festival Hall, leads the Prelude to Die Meistersnger (14 June 1972), sonically lustrous in trumpet, winds, and harp. Few can make this contrapuntal extravaganza sound as voluptuous as Tristan. Herbert von Karajan makes an appearance with the Orchestre de Paris (25 June 1970) in The Ball sequence from the Fantastic Symphony. Eyes closed, never to open, Karajan disappears behind the red-coated harp, then stands before a camera he surely manipulates himself to show off simultaneously that leonine mane and the sublimely smooth string tone that permits no rough edge. The color design is worth a Freudian analysis all its own!
Teresa Berganza is one of many solo singers who appear: she works melismatic, high-coloratura Rossini cavatina with Eugen Jochum and the French Orchestre National de la RTF in 1964. Dietrich Fiscgher-Dieskau, looking prosperous, sings An die Musik (14 May 1959) with studied accompaniment from Gerald Moore, the words ever grateful for the divine art. Just the accompaniment for Der Lindenbaum suggests Gerald Moore could have swept through Mozart piano concertos. Fischer-Dieskau himself enunciates with lofty, noble, vocal security, his persona having found peace under the linden tree. From 1957 (14 November) Victoria de los Angeles lilts from Falla’s sensuously pasionate Jota from the Seven Popular Spanish Songs, with Gerald Moore. Her diminuendo drips with flirtatious favor. The Montsalvage–a somewhat politically incorrect lyric but rife with tender affection–comes from the 1967 Besancon Festival, Felix Zanetti, piano. A baton-less Georges Pretre molds every string and harp phrase for Maria Callas from Paris, May 1965 for O mio babbino caro, almost a living lament for her relationship with Ari Onassis. Disc 1 ends with a 25-minute selection, the entire First Act Finale from the Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (24 October 1964) from a London production under Charles Mackerras and starring the immortal Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Despite a rather bleached black and white video image, the musical values soar into wonders of lilted characterization, a haunted recollection of lost youth. Hertha Toepper’s Octavian projects just as much ardor and slavish frustration as Schwarzkopf, each a victim of relentless time and common sense.
Among the solo instrumentalists, Paul Tortelier appears (25 June 1964) from the Norwich Festival in two Bourrees from the C Major Bach Suite, BWV 1009, the camera close up on his sweet, elastic bow. From Paris, Aldo Ciccolini (16 February 1965) plays the Funerailles from Liszt’s Poetic and Religious Harmonies. Massive, studied, it celebrates the spirit of Chopin and Romantic fervent generally. Ciccolini’s hands look like huge, immensely gifted spiders tracing their way across the keyboard. The camera enjoys a bit of razzle-dazzle double-exposure with Ciccolini’s hands for the bravura Spinning Song of Mendelssohn. There will only be one Nathan Milstein, and the magic violinist plays (10 December 1968) from Paris his own arrangement of Paganini caprices and concerto riffs–beginning with the No. 24 in A Minor–with restrained, flamboyant precision. La Chasse in E Major bounces and slashes with merciless gusto. The great, gypsy-style piano virtuoso Gyrogy Cziffra (25 September 1963) plays a flawless Liszt Gnomenreigen, the elves dancing in triplets and double octaves without self-consciousness. On 3 May 1961 Cziffra delivers a potent A-flat “Heroic” Polonaise on the Gaveau instrument, its contours deftly sensuous for the salon and bold for the concert hall. Samson Francois makes luxurious sense of Debussy’s boldly orchestral Toccata from Pour le piano (23 January 1962), a Paris performance shimmering in the various applications of tone and touch, of muscular, left-hand ostinati.
For instrumental collaborations of the highest order, we open with the Rostropovich-Richter Cello Sonata in C, Op. 102, No. 1 (31 August 1964) from Usher Hall, Edinburgh, a tonally thrilling moment of ensemble, the warm cello sound pitted against Richter’s glacial keyboard. Polished and eminently thoughtful, the performance roused the audience, especially when the Allegro vivace second movement burst forth. A warm, prolonged greeting at Royal Festival Hall (26 April 1966) for Yehudi Menuhin as he and Adrian Boult step out to perform the second Beethoven Romance in F, Op. 50 with the London Philharmonic. Always plaintive and supremely vocal, Menuhin’s violin tone captures the warm humanity of Beethoven and his own, gracious persona. To watch the electric David Oistakh perform the last movement of the Brahms Concerto (11 May 1958) is to watch a fluid machine for music, but no less so is the uncanny stick technique of conductor Rudolf Schwarz before the talented BBC Symphony. The hot camera lights not withstanding, Oistrakh plays brilliantly.
One caveat: keep the remote at your side: you must (tediously) forward every cut on both CDs, include multiple tracks devoted even to one performer. [Difficult to believe; I suggest trying another DVD player. That’s even worse than the Blu-ray navigation problems some of us are experiencing…Ed.]
–Gary Lemco
