Piero Coppola = SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 “Spring”; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 “Rhenish”; WAGNER: Parsifal: Act I: Transformation Music; Act II: Introduction; ACT III: Prelude; Act III: Transformation Music; R. STRAUSS: Salome: Jokanaan descends into the cistern; Jokanaan is brought before Salome – National Sym. Orch. (Schumann First)/ Orch. de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire/ Orch. des Con. Pasdeloup (Strauss)/ Piero Coppola – Pristine Audio PASC 335, 79:32 [various formats available at www.pristine classical.com] ****:
Italian maestro Piero Coppola (1888-1971) retains a strong reputation for his willingness to champion new and audacious scores of the first third of the 20th Century. His athletic style and rhythmic vigor set him in a rank quite high, if not on a plane competitive with Arturo Toscanini. Producer and restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has resuscitated several of Coppola’s excursions (rec. 1933-1946) into Romantic repertory, particularly the Schumann scores upon which Coppola lavished considerable affection.
While the Schumann 1841 “Spring” Symphony (rec. 11-12 July 1946 in Kingsway Hall, London) has enjoyed prior issue via the Dutton label, this Pristine incarnation proves exceptionally strong, vibrantly alive with the conceits of Spring and the joyful energies that inform Schumann’s paean to rebirth in nature as well as to the early conjugal days of his recent marriage to Clara Wieck. Coppola treats the opening trumpet “summons to life” as the prime mover in the entire first movement, the pacing and sonic definition quite the model for the Leonard Bernstein inscription with the New York Philharmonic some twenty years later. As the songful Larghetto proceeds, we can already hear intimations of the famous slow movement of the C Major Symphony. Coppola’s execution of the wily Scherzo and its two trios proves extremely deft, and he takes a lovely breath in the midst of the concluding Allegro animato e grazioso finale to allow the flute its poignant solo. The music trips lightly and lovingly, its exuberant flourishes regaining the spirit of invocation in the opening Andante’s fanfare. The coda pulsates with brilliant, erotic energy, a fine testament to the natural sympathy between composer and interpreter.
The Schumann 1850 “Rhenish” Symphony (rec. 7-8 November 1933) sets a high standard for efficient and controlled virtuosity. The sense of pageant manifests itself throughout the first movement Lebhaft, the often contrapuntal energies layered with meticulous clarity despite the blazing tempos, the luminous figures more than not indebted to Beethoven‘s Eroica. So often, the drooping figures in Schumann’s melodies point quite immodestly to the Brahms Third Symphony opening. I find the acoustic of the Salle Rameau in Paris rather dry, but the grand scale and muscularity of the playing well compensates for the cramped resonance. The ensemble may occasionally betray the nasality typical of French instrumentalists, but the conception runs a nice balance between Italian fleetness and German depth, not far from a Carl Schuricht reading of the score. The ensuing Scherzo enjoys a fluid motion tinged with a hint of solemnity, a combination that will swell with massive dignity in the Feierlich movement that invokes the Cologne Cathedral. The Nicht schnell movement basks as a bucolic interlude before three trombones set the tone of the mighty slow movement in E-flat Minor. The glorious finale Lebhaft in E-flat Major moves with sudden flights of fanciful running figures, the trumpet work adept and lithe. The sheer hustle of the movement indeed means to rival Toscanini for precision and fluid elegance of execution; with the reappearance of the “cathedral” motif the scale of sound increases in texture and intensity most impressively, and the coda resounds with spiritual victory.
Coppola recorded the Parsifal orchestral excerpts 6 November 1933 also a Salle Rameau, Paris. The Paris Conservatory Orchestra seems pinched in sound as a Wagner ensemble, but the devotional ethos of the music strides forth, beginning with the Act I Transformation Music. Other than Coppola, I could not easily name potent Paris conductors of Wagner in this era, unless Eugene Bigot, Roger Desormiere, and Albert Wolff contributed substantially to the genre, of which I am unaware. Coppola’s Introduction to Act II certainly conveys a mysterious atmosphere. Thin and reedy strings rather enervate the effect of the Act III Prelude, though the melodic line remains taut, and the brass work redeems the effort. The final sequence of Transformation Music affords us some fascinating harmonies, at times they point to Debussy’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastien.
Coppola inscribed two convulsive excerpts from the Richard Strauss Salome 20 March 1934, each section having been devoted to the attempt by Salome to seduce John the Baptist, his rejection of her, and his subsequent consignment into the cistern-cell. Elements of Wagnerian harmony sneak into the seduction scene, grotesquely erotic on its own terms; what Joseph Conrad might have deemed “the fascination of the abomination.” These last two sides certainly warrant the price of admission, if confident and stylish versions of Schumann were not motivation enough to pursue this fine restoration.
—Gary Lemco
Charles Munch – Elgar Variations; Martinu Piano Concerto; Boston Symphony Orchestra – Forgotten Records
Another set of historic recordings, Munch and the BSO