RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

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L’Art de Paul van Kempen - Volume. I Franz LISZT (1811-1886) Les Préludes (Polydor 1937) Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Symphony No.8 (Polydor 1940) Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) The Hebrides Overture (Philips 1951) Giacomo ROSSINI (1792-1868) Guillaume Tell (DGG 1951) Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Benvenuto Cellini (DGG 1951) Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897) Piano Concerto No. 2 (DGG 1952) Adrian Aeschbacher (piano) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Paul van Kempen Recorded 1937-52 as noted above TAHRA TAH 512/513 [61.27 + 55.12]

AVAILABILITY www.tahra.com I reviewed the second of this three-volume tribute to the Dutch-born conductor Paul van Kempen. I’ve now had the chance to catch up with the first, a nicely programmed conspectus with the Berlin Philharmonic. Though he played in the first violins in the Concertgebouw under Mengelberg, van Kempen managed to avoid the older man’s musical spectre, certainly in the later years. There are hints of Mengelbergian influence in the Liszt however – some strong portamenti and an exciting sense of drive accompanied by a ration of shellac hiss but which, in its turn, is overridden by strong frequency response on the 1937 Polydor. The Beethoven is the meat of the first CD – another top quality Polydor, this time from 1940. The performance is superior to his later Philips remake. Here things are fresher, more verdant, more related in fact to the Pastoral if anything – there’s a buoyancy that’s very appealing, even if there’s not room for the first movement exposition repeat (it fitted neatly onto six 78 sides). The Mendelssohn is strong and lithe and the Rossini features some delightful wind principals in addition to the fine cellist. The Berlioz gets a very convincing performance, maybe not quite in Munch or Monteux’s class but nevertheless thoroughly convincing, though the sound is a bit brazen and there are occasional pitch slippages. We end the set with a performance of the Brahms Second Concerto with Adrian Aeschbacher whose wartime broadcast with Furtwängler will be well known by many. In that earlier performance Aeschbacher splashed about unmercifully and the performance frequently veered off the rails. His was not the most adamantine of techniques and it was one that could splinter in the stress of a concert, as indeed it does from time to time with van Kempen – this is a studio broadcast from 1952; only the Liszt and Beethoven are commercial recordings, everything else derives from studio broadcast conditions. There are plenty of smudged runs and van Kempen’s orchestral handling can be slightly pedantic now and then, though we do get to hear details otherwise submerged, such as the inner voice pizzicati in the opening movement. And in the main van Kempen keeps his sometimes wayward soloist in check. I wish the soloist had varied his voicings with more nuance in the Allegro appassionato. I’ve been listening to the almost contemporaneous Myra Hess/Bruno Walter off-air recording and that, so noble and humane, seems far away sometimes. The cello solo in the slow movement is unusually sentimental in phrasing and tone but the main problem here is pitch slippage on the tape that is quite poor, from about 7.00 onwards. I liked the finale, skittish and animated. This is another good slice of van Kempen’s commercial and studio discography. If Tahra can correct those pitch problems this will stand alongside that second volume of their salute. Jonathan Woolf Volume II Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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