Friedrich Wührer (1900-75) is indeed ’Back from the Shadows’
in a number of respects, the main one being the re-establishment
of a healthy number of his studio performances in the current
catalogue. I’ve already written about him in the context of
another disc,
noting in brief that he was an associate of Franz Schmidt, whose
music he programmed frequently, and he was also closely allied
with the Second Viennese School in the 1920s. He performed Schoenberg
at a time when most didn’t, and he was also sympathetic to Hindemith
and Stravinsky, and later on, Pfitzner. Maybe his greatest legacy
on disc is his vast series of Schubert recordings for Vox, but
his Beethoven discs are also an important component of that
legacy. And here Tahra has come to our aid in timely fashion.
He recorded the concerto cycle but not in a way we would necessarily
recognise – one orchestra, one conductor, a concentrated period
of recording. No, for Wührer it was three orchestras and four
conductors. This haphazard-seeming conjunction may seem an impediment
to a single collaborative view, but it’s not necessarily the
case that this parcelling out of duties is in any real sense
a limitation. In some ways it’s a strength, given that a particular
conductor may show a greater sense of insight in a particular
concerto.
The first two concertos were with Hans Swarowsky (No.1) and
Walter Davisson (No.2). Both were experienced and practical
musicians, used to studio recordings; Swarowsky is now the better
remembered. My own preference is for him, too, for his approach
better fits Wührer’s biting fluency, his highly accomplished
articulation and choice of the most difficult and formidable
of Beethoven’s three cadenzas for the first movement. Nevertheless
Davisson provides adept in No.2, if not quite as insightful
as his colleague in Vienna. But he scores well in the C minor,
again with the Stuttgart Pro Musica. There’s a lot of detail
here, and quite a good sound spectrum for Vox. The first movement
cadenza is characteristically powerful, Wuhrer driving into
it as he invariably did. He isn’t averse to coarsening his tone
in the interests of differentiation and serving the musical
argument. He was, in any case, not one to float or parade the
beauty of his tone; he preferred a gaunter, terser attack, almost
brittle. And yet he could relax, without over-emoting or over-pedalling,
as he does in the slow movement of this concerto. He’s also
not particularly emotive in the Fourth Concerto with Jonel Perlea
in Bamberg. Dynamics are strong, the music-making selfless and
never Olympian in character, rather directed toward a just balance
between the two poles of the music’s character. The Emperor
Concerto has tonal variety, grandeur, powerful chording, dignity
and – one moment of rhythmic retardation aside – straightforward.
This disc also contains the Tripe Concerto, with violinist Bronislaw
Gimpel, cellist Joseph Schuster and conducted again by Davisson.
This has always received a bit of a mixed critical reception
and whilst acknowledging its inferiority to the stellar trios
who have espoused it on disc, I rather enjoy its personable
music-making, anchored with great security and intelligence
by Wührer.
This leaves the last disc, number four, which contains the three
last piano sonatas. I’ve played Op.109 many times since receiving
the disc for review purposes, and find it consistently laudable.
It’s reserved, sinewy, and possesses a degree of objective clarity.
It is wholly different from, say, Schnabel’s more obviously
warm and communicative approach. But I do find it cumulatively
intensely satisfying, intellectually cogent, rigorous and eloquently
and perceptively performed. The same goes for the two companion
sonatas, though not to quite the same degree. Wührer’s relative
tonal gauntness, and his refusal to caress and linger may be
off-putting to some, but it is an excellent corrective to more
self-conscious performances, and a fine contribution to the
history of the sonatas (and concertos) on disc.
This is thus an outstanding historic set. None of the concerto
performances can really be considered epochal as recordings,
but to have the set of five, with the Triple, available in this
way is a major achievement. Full marks to Tahra for this and
for its French/English booklet and restoration work.
Jonathan Woolf
Friedrich Wührer (piano); Bronislaw Gimpel (violin); Joseph Schuster (cello)
