Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Symphonia domestica, Op 53 (1903)
Concerto No 1 for Horn & Orchestra in E-flat major (1883)
Myron Bloom (French horn)
Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell
rec. 1961/64
Reviewed as download
HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFERS HDTT13828 [57]
I happened to re-listen to this for the purposes of this review straight after re-auditioning the Reiner recording
(review), both revitalised by HDTT’s remastering. Both are superb and I would not want to be without either. Let me first quote from my survey of this oft-scorned work, in which this was one of my top four recommendations:
“I have owned this recording for years, first on cassette and then on CD and it is definitely one of my desert-island discs for both sentimental and aesthetic reasons. It seems inconceivable that Columbia recorded this nearly sixty years ago; the music fairly leaps out of the speakers. Occasionally Szell’s exhortative grunts are audible but they are merely indicative of the passion he communicates to his players.
This is one of the fastest performances on record and none the worse for that. Szell was a master of the Straussian idiom and makes the best possible case for this awkward work; this is a thrilling, exhilarating, life-enhancing performance and I always feel like punching the air and shouting "Yes!" when I reach the end of it, it is so remorselessly driven yet still joyous. Intonation, dynamics, precision in ensemble here are all just wondrous and the violin solo is a virtuoso highlight. Despite the speed and directness of his approach, Szell finds a really Romantic, singing quality in the Adagio and the big moments are spectacular. Finally, for all his reputation as being dour and humourless, Szell had a wry, sarcastic sense of humour and clearly relishes the wittiest and most protracted conclusion since Beethoven's Fifth.”
I stand by all that yet was interested to note that Szell’s manner in the opening section was rather more rigid and deliberate than Reiner’s, underlying the ironic nature of Strauss’ writing about his domestic life. There is surely nothing to choose, however, between the Cleveland the Chicago orchestras; both were almost inconceivably virtuosic ensembles, trained but also inspired to within an inch of their lives by Hungarian martinets of exceptional musical sensibility – and rigour. As much as I love Reiner’s version, I declare that I hear I special kind of madcap anarchy in Szell’s finale which eclipses even Reiner’s joyful release.
An advantage this HDDT issue has over the Reiner one is that it offers a bonus in the form of Strauss’ first Horn Concerto. This brief work, only sixteen minutes long, was written by the eighteen-year-old Strauss for his father, and proved to be too difficult for him, but is here despatched with graceful aplomb by Myron Bloom. It is an amiable, lively, tuneful, not especially distinctive work and certainly not indicative of Strauss’ mature style in that it tends to sound like a pastiche of Schumann’s Konzertstück; it is hardly what you would call a deal-breaker but is pleasant and interesting. The lyricism of Bloom’s playing in the central Andante section is particularly beguiling and the five-minute finale demands a bravura display of Mendelssohnian delicacy.
Ralph Moore
