Three labels in particular have done much to bring
the name of violinist Gerhard Taschner to international prominence;
Tahra, German EMI, and MDG (see reviews of the
Beethoven
& Fortner and
Sibelius
and Khachaturian concertos on MDG). Born in 1922 in what is now
Krnov in the Czech Republic, also known as Jägerndorf to German
speakers, he had early success in Prague and was leader of the Brno
opera orchestra. This Czech background is a little deceptive as his
musical orientation was broadly Austro-Hungarian, given that he studied
with Jenö Hubay in Budapest between 1930 and 1932. His first conducting
mentor was Hermann Abendroth who recommended to him to Furtwängler.
It was through this latter association, and Taschner’s appointment
as the Berlin Philharmonic’s leader at an incredibly young age,
that he first rose to prominence.
Though he became the leading German violinist by the early 1950s, after
the deaths of Kulenkampff and Busch, his career didn’t last long.
He gave up solo performances when he was 40, devoting himself to teaching.
Thus it is that Taschner, who didn’t like studio recording, lives
posthumously through radio broadcasts such as these.
I’ve never been wholly convinced by the documents that have survived.
Great claims have been made for Taschner but I find them seldom supported
by the playing, attractive, indeed intense though it can often be. Whereas
I didn’t elsewhere much like his Bruch, his Mendelssohn is rather
more convincing. True, he makes some expressive gestures that don’t
sound wholly integrated into the fabric of his playing - something I’ve
often noticed in his performances, a kind of expressive inconsistency
- he plays thoughtfully and often imaginatively. There is a musing quality
to the slow movement, and a rhythmically attractive control in the finale
- neither too fast, nor too sluggish. Like the fine concertmaster that
he was, good rhythm is the name of the game. He is somewhat let down
by Fritz Lehmann and the Bamberg Symphony who are heavy handed from
time to time - especially the lower strings, which boom - and by a recording
that is inclined to spread.
With his old orchestra (which he had left in 1945) he performs the Tchaikovsky,
in April 1948. Artur Rother, an old hand, proves a more suitable accompanist
here. Like his Hanseatic colleague Georg Kulenkampff, who died that
same year, Taschner was attuned to the Slavic muse. Indeed Taschner
would have been listening avidly when Kulenkampff performed, as he did
so often, with the Berlin Philharmonic and Furtwangler during the War.
Taschner binds the first movement’s second subject well, though
very occasionally one notices a blanching of tone. Fluent but not overtly
personalised, he is affectionate in the
Canzonetta, and effective
in the finale. The final piece is the wartime
Zigeunerweisen
with Michael Raucheisen, which has been reissued at least twice before,
I believe.
There’s no faulting MDG’s commitment to Taschner’s
legacy, which I am happy to commend. The notes are good and the restorations
similarly.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review by
Stephen
Greenbank
Masterwork Index:
Mendelssohn
violin concerto ~~
Tchaikovsky
violin concerto
