Cembal d’amour CD 125, 75:01 [Distrib. Qualiton] ****:
Another sparkling addition to the legacy of violinist David Nadien (b. 1927), the esteemed New York musician who served as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Nadien teams up with violist/conductor Emanuel Vardi in two distinct roles, as fellow chamber artist in Mozart’s illustrious Divertimento in E-flat Major, K. 563 (from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1960) and as solo in Vivaldi’s perennial The Four Seasons in a studio recording from New York, 1961. The cellist in the Mozart, Jascha Silberstein (b. 1934), held a thirty-year tenure as principal cello in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, 1966-1996.
The sheer clarity of attack and molding of the melodic lines in Mozart’s sunny Divertimento will compel many re-hearings of this fine performance. The first Menuetto-Allegretto movement alone is worth the price of admission, so much does it rail, bubble, and sing in exalted interlacings of the musical textures. The Andante is another of Mozart’s splendid theme-and-variations that begins with childlike ingenuousness and ultimately has us agog with musical wonders in harmony and textural ingenuity. The cello brandished by Silberstein, a 1720 Goffriller, belonged to Emanuel Feuermann, himself a fierce advocate for this late masterwork of Mozart. A small cut in the opening note of the second Menuetto-Allegretto does not mar the delicate lilt of the entire movement, a pre-Lanner German dance of wit and debonair sophistication. Haydn would be proud to claim the last movement Allegro, whose sudden shifts in accent are so superbly rendered that they spit fire and grace at once.
The sound is a bit distant for the Vivaldi, but we can still savor the intense sweetness and vivid propulsion Nadien imbues into each of the four concertos. Performed 1961, this Four Seasons might easily pass the one of the earliest of the 1960s Vivaldi Revival entries that would spur the likes of Renato Fasano and countless others (especially De Koven) to encourage a deeper look into the music of the Red-Headed Priest. Last, the music had me recall my many moments with Igor Kipnis–we shared the microphone on WQXR’s “First Hearing”–a true baroque aficianado whom we miss. Would he were here in the flesh as he appears so fervently on this eminently collectible CD.
— Gary Lemco
