R. STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude, Act III; MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56 “Scottish” – Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Artur Rodzinski
Historical Recordings HRCD 0052, 67:36 [www.historic-recordings.co.uk] ****:
We have here assembled some of the work conductor Artur Rodzinski (1892-1958) inscribed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which he led for one season, 1947-1948. (He also did the Prelude to Act I and the Love-Death from Tristan, plus the Gayne Ballet Suite No. 1 by Khachaturian – both in 1947.) A brilliant organizer and trainer of orchestras, Rodzinski lacked political savoir faire with management, and his uncompromising dedication to operas-in-concert often depleted symphony budgets. An authoritarian, a paranoid who carried a pistol, Rodzinski made a colorful character in musical circles; and despite admiration gleaned from Toscanini and various soloists, Rodzinski found it difficult to maintain any one post, spending his last years between Europe and South America.
The Also Sprach Zarathustra (18 November 1947) displays great rhythmic elasticity and dynamic girth; like Koussevitzky (1930), Rodzinski likes a ritard in the opening C-G-C motif. The various sections expand the breadth of the piece, culminating in The Dance Song, which sails and twitters and purrs with vocal virtuosity in woodwinds and violin solo. The original RCA side breaks and noisy surfaces find seamless remastering here, and the performance at key points earns the epithet “elegant.” The figures assume a decidedly Viennese character, a bit of schlogabers and pastry. Before the intentionally harmonic ambiguity of the last pages, the athletic character of the playing emerges in strings, brass, and tympani. (We must note that the next great recorded Zarathustra, too, would come from Chicago, this time under the peerless Fritz Reiner.)
The Tristan Act III Prelude may not quite plumb the depths of despondency as does Furtwaengler, but it quite suffices to invoke the mysticism and fatal longing in this part of the drama: Tristan’s wound and the imminent love-death. Rodzinski omits the pastoral element, the Shepherd’s melody, unfortunately. The Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony (13 December 1947) must compensate then. The first movement Rodzinski takes rather broadly, but the linear momentum belies the expansiveness of the concept, and we find ourselves muttering Scottish war chants among the highlands before we quite know it. The CSO string cellos and basses prove sonically acute and imposing, providing a deep resonance for the furies riding above; and the legato phrasing from the same string players haunts us with its warm clarity. The Vivace non troppo second movement shimmers in its highland reel, again marked by hints of a martial flavor. Rodzinski has powerful competition in the third movement–Klemperer and Maag to name but two equally convincing interpreters–but his sinewy, rounded phrases sway with natural affection for this nationalistic score. The trumpets and woodwinds might be calling to the clans for war counsel. The finale turns the Scottish patriots loose in spectacular colors, only to become decidedly Germanic in the last pages. Sterling performances, beautifully mounted.
— Gary Lemco
