There were two
Tchaikovsky/Koussevitzky festivals in Boston, in 1933-34 and again in 1939-40, and he set down commercial recordings
of the last three symphonies – amongst his most deservedly famous
recordings. But these three live performances, which span the
years 1943-49, will be unknown to many if not most of the conductor’s
adherents. They are powerfully personalised, full of metrical
idiosyncrasies and in parts not simply flexible (rubati and
rallentandi naturally) but also remarkably quick: parts of the
Fifth in particular are dramatically fleet.
Music and Arts
deal honestly with the aural problems so let’s get these, majorly,
out of the way now. The Fourth is really only for Koussevitzky
completists. The microphone had been lifted to roof level during
performance, which accounts for the sound perspective. This,
in all honesty, is bizarre, Horns blare, percussion batters,
the strings are semi audible and in quiet passages nothing very
much is audible at all; the distance from microphone to string
pianissimo was an unbridgeable one. At times it sounds like
sectional rehearsals; the finale becomes an assault and battery
for the percussion section. It’s difficult to make much sense
of the performance, other than it sounds fluid and flexible
in the best Koussevitzky manner. But I doubt that you’ll listen
to this more than once.
Six years earlier
in 1943 he led the Fifth Symphony. This is a nobly conceived
reading with strongly etched rubati and a singing line and the
strings moulded with great finesse in the slow movement where
the sense of unfolding declamation is both intense and held
in passionate check. The Fifth is split across the two discs,
two movements to each, and it’s in the Valse that we feel most
keenly Koussevitzky’s powerful vesting of rhythmic impetus in
Tchaikovsky. Tension is screwed up that notch or two tighter
than in his commercial recording. The caveat once more the recording
quality. It’s a world away from the Fourth’s impossible perspectives
but it does sound dampened down and muffled with constricted
top frequencies. I’ve a hunch that this is to do with an attempt
to limit acetate damage and scuffing but it does sound excessively
filtered.
The Sixth also
sports muffled sound but this time it’s rather distant as well;
along the way there is some groove overload at fortes and what
sound like pitch drops and wow at the end of the opening movement.
These latter however are brief. The Allegro is slightly too
pulled about for my own taste but there is certainly an electric
charge through the performance that is compelling; the finale
in particular has an evocative power that is at least the equal
of his commercial recording.
Given the sonic
limitations I would have to rate this an adjunct for the commercial
Koussevitzky discography. But as an adjunct of some power and
distinction it offers compelling evidence of his electricity
in live performance.
Jonathan
Woolf
