MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595; DVORAK: Symphony
No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 – Freidrich Gulda, piano/Rudolf Kempe conducts
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra – Scribendum SC 004 75:40 (Distrib. Silver Oak)****:
Dusseldorf, this sensational concert features some brilliant
collaboration between Friedrich Gulda (1930-2002) and Rudolf Kempe
(1910-1976), the latter’s having appeared as its primary conductor in
1967, to be succeeded by Rafael Kubelik. The concert had been arranged
as a fund-raiser for the Heinemann Foundation. A rapt audience, of
which you can now be a part, listens spellbound to first a muscular but
singularly transparent rendition of Wagner’s Prelude to Die
Meistersinger, whose polyphonies shimmer in string, brass and woodwind
lines.
Then, with a piano sounding a cross between harp and harpsichord, Gulda
makes deftly music-box sonorities in the last of the Mozart concertos,
a crystalline chain of jeweled notes that will remind collectors of
Gieseking, but with more girth and weight in the chords without loss of
clarity. For those who well know this lovely work, there will be those
magic touches of ensemble that manage to evoke a moment of awe that
always remains in works that are, in the words of Schnabel, better than
can be played. The Dvorak G Major receives a polished and sinewy
reading, with the E-flat Adagio’s having a vibrant pulse between
strings and woodwind that keeps the flow of the piece moving even as
the respective choirs luxuriate in the own sound. The third movement
melancholy waltz in 3/8 and the last movement fanfare and variations
resonate with enthusiasm and plastic rhythms, the various stretti and
peroration no less exuberant than in the Wagner. A rousing and inspired
concert, where the Mozart concerto will transport enthusiasts beyond
their expectations. The contemporary audience goes wild after the
Dvorak.
–Gary Lemco
