Comparison Recordings:
Op 8, complete. Liszt Ferenc Chamber
Orchestra, Rolla Hungaroton
"Four seasons" Jan Tomasov,
I solisti di Zagreb Vanguard
"Four seasons" Julia Fischer,
ASMF DVD
Kaufmann’s
biography: A Fiddler’s Tale:
How Hollywood and Vivaldi Discovered
Me
Is this very first
version of the Vivaldi Four Seasons
really the best recording of it ever
done? Some people think so, 1947 monophonic
sound notwithstanding. Just listen to
the opening of the final movement of
"La Primavera" and see if
it convinces you. One would expect that
a 1947 recording would not observe modern
sensitivities toward original instrument,
original performance practice (OI/OPP)
considerations, and one would be right.
Kaufmann uses subtle but delicious portamento
in his solo part and the shimmering
vibrato of the violin section is tickling
and sensual. Yet for its time this was
the cutting edge of authentic Baroque
style. There is no doubt in my mind
that Vivaldi would have loved every
minute of it as much as I do.
One must also point
out that this is one of the best recordings
ever done of the other concerti in Op.
8 as well. Listen to #12 and see if
you don’t think so. Nobody since has
got that particular life and bounce
in the phrasing. It is remarkable that
the two parts of the recording were
by different orchestras and conductors,
even on different continents, yet the
force of Kaufmann’s musical personality
is so strong that the sense of style
is continuous and uninterrupted.
Restoration Engineer
Anthony Casuccio had access to the Kaufmann
Foundation’s private collection of mint
condition original disks to work from
and is to be congratulated on an excellent
job of restoration. If I had restored
these disks I would have explored utilising
subharmonic synthesis to restore truncated
bass notes and increase bass range clarity,
dynamic expansion to increase mid-range
clarity and transparency, and constructing
reverberation tails to avoid abrupt
silences at the end of the movements.
But what you have here is as perfect
a depiction of what is on the original
disk as is humanly possible. Overall
sound quality is pleasant and very listenable.
The violin sound is amazingly realistic,
and the wide range of the orchestral
accompaniment very satisfying. I know
this recording very well, having been
listening to it regularly for fifty
years, and yet here I heard orchestral
details I’d never heard before.
Now, Mr. Casuccio,
which of us is going to restore Kaufmann’s
1954 Torelli Opus 8 recording from Oiseau-Lyre?
An advantage of being
a studio musician is that Kaufmann recorded
every working day. As a consequence
he was able to refine his tone production
to maximise its effectiveness on recordings.
No wonder he sounds so good as he does
here. Other violinists who disdained
recordings and pleased live audiences
may have had bigger reputations then,
but they are gone, and Kaufmann now
lives with us forever.
Paul Shoemaker
Jonathan Woolf
has also listened to this recording
Here’s is a welcome
blast of Louis Kaufman, Vivaldi style.
This 1947 Four Seasons, here coupled
with the 1950 recordings of the remainder
of Op.8, has long been unavailable.
It’s billed by Naxos as the first ever
recording. Well, yes and no. There was
an earlier recording made in Rome in
1942 and conducted by Bernardino Molinari
which was once on CD on Ermitage. This
used the conductor’s own performing
edition – essentially rewriting it for
mass strings without solo violin. Sound
quality, given the prevailing wartime
conditions, was rather constricted but
it’s an important and pioneering document
albeit one very much of its time and
which tends by its nature to obscure
the soloistic.
This was something
that the 1947 Kaufman never did. Given
his opulent expressivity, a compound
of molten Elman, MGM warmth and quicksilver
contemporary athleticism, this is a
highly idiosyncratic and personalised
reading, even given the prevailing aesthetic.
Whilst clearly it may sound anachronistic
now it didn’t necessarily at the time.
Concert Hall recorded it and employed
Kaufman, the Czech conductor Henry Swoboda
and a pickup string section composed
exclusively of members of the New York
Philharmonic. In the ensemble was an
organist, Edouard Nies-Berger, and harpsichordist
Edith Weiss-Mann. The sound is a bit
muddied and with higher frequencies
rather dampened down but the recording
conditions were not ideal even though
the location was none other than Carnegie
Hall. The performances are replete with
lavish vibrato, multi variegated and
full of coiling intensity, and numerous
rallentandi. Slow movements, such as
that of Spring, are garnished by Kaufman’s
intensely vibrated sound, full of lustrous
portamenti and tonal splendour. Tempi
are more sedate than they were later
to become, trills fatter though no less
Olympian in accomplishment and Kaufman
turns the slow movement of Summer into
a positively Bruch-like experience.
The overt pictorialism
of the Four Seasons isn’t over-stressed
though Svoboda has clearly given thought
to the role of the organ (in the Presto
finale of Summer) and the harpsichord
in Autumn, where it’s attractively heard
behind the thrummed strings of the Phil’s
players. The violinist’s masculinity
is blazingly apparent from the uplifting
portamenti of the Largo of Winter, through
the pellucid trills of its finale and
the constant ear titillating colouristic
devices he employs to bring warmth and
life to the set. These are devices he
employed a few years later when he recorded
the balance of the set in Zurich, this
time with Clemens Dahinden conducting.
Once more there is his ultra romanticised
bowing – just listen to the Allegro
finale of No.8 in G minor - or the sheer
intensity he cultivates over the harpsichord
and cello continuo in the slow movement
of No.12. The orchestra here is somewhat
thicker in sonority. Kaufman makes a
startlingly charismatic pairing in the
Concerto for two violins alongside another
Czech musician, the distinguished Peter
Rybar - who is all classical lyricism
next to Kaufman’s opulent breadth, though
they do focus on bowing and timbral
unanimity in their tutti passages.
The entire Op.8 set
is contained on two CDs, neatly annotated
with a good "in action" shot
of the New York recording session. There’s
quite a bit of Kaufman on CD now but
there’s room for plenty more; let’s
hope Naxos has more on the production
line.
Jonathan Woolf
Louis Kaufman (violin) 
