Opus Kura OPK 2071, 68:19 (Distrib. Albany) ****:
More clean, polished transfers from the legacy of virtuoso conductor Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951), who led his Concertgebouw Orchestra for 50 years – 1895-1945. The Alceste Overture as arranged by Felix Mottl (rec. 24 June 1935) for English Decca derives from a relatively lean period in Mengelberg’s recording career, in which his only other inscription was the Bach Concerto in D Minor for 2 Violins. While this spare, dramatically tense piece had a brief CD life on Koch, this Opus Kura edition opens up the lower strings’ resonance to decided advantage. The 20 November 1938 reading of the Schubert Rosamunde Overture provides one of Mengelberg’s earliest inscriptions for the German Telefunken, which was quick to initiate a series of recordings with the Dutch maestro. Athletic, driven, and poised for every variegated nuance, the Overture contains many of the same energies and motifs we find in the C Major Symphony, several signature rhythms and harmonic shifts, all of which emerge in buoyant, sinewy style under Mengelberg’s uncompromising tensions.
The Ninth Symphony from November 1942 testifies to Mengelberg’s eminently vocal style of performance, a moving, flexible line that constantly accommodates the individual parts to a flowing, evolving sense of synthesis. The colossal scale of the work finds a balance in the silken legato of the string line and the Herculean projection of the woodwinds and brass. The outer two movements move with such steady velocity that we are tempted to think of a classically-trained volcano. Frenetic cross-rhythms compete with solo instruments for dominance, and everybody wins. Curiously, there are few moments where Mengelberg’s penchant for exaggerated rhythmic distortion seizes hegemony: a bit of a ritard in the final statement of the main theme, first movement; a bit of ritard in the opening statement of the Scherzo theme. But for the final Allegro moderato, there evolves a momentum that is both joyful and undeniable. You either dance to Mengelberg’s tune or you go elsewhere. Conviction, brilliant execution, musically idiomatic, fleet rendering–Mengelberg’s was a musical kingdom answerable only to himself. Wickedly compelling!
– -Gary Lemco
