The Klemperer whose Resurrection with the Philharmonia
in 1972 stretched so long and far is not immediately recognisably the
same Klemperer whose Concertgebouw performance in 1951 took 75’41 and
is so blazingly alive. Klemperer was an itinerant conductor at the time,
recording for small labels, beset with the manic-depressive tendencies
that dogged him throughout his life. He conducted at the State Opera
in Budapest and recordings have revealed a revelatory drive and drama
to his performances; Amsterdam, where he was a frequent visitor, was
perhaps less than wholeheartedly taken by him. Admiration was tinged
with a certain squeamishness and a notable distaste for what it saw
as his less than technically adroit performances and his unpredictability;
in London critics were equally squeamish about his programmes, ticking
him off like a child.
He was in Vienna in May 1951 to perform and record
the Resurrection which, according to Peter Heyworth’s biography he found
a shattering event. Two months later he returned to Amsterdam for the
Holland Festival and three performances to mark the forty years since
Mahler’s death. Heyworth incidentally notes the dates of the performances
as 11, 12 and 14 July; Paul Campion in his Ferrier discography notes
that the 12 July performance was broadcast and recorded for the Dutch
Radio Archives; Guild give the performance date as 6 July which I assume
is a mistake. The performance has been reissued since on LP and CD but
not many reissues have printed Ferrier’s characteristically straightforward
comments on Klemperer in this performance; "I hate to work with
Klemperer …I find he shouts like a madman…just to try to impress – though
why he should think it impresses I can’t think. Perhaps his Mahler comes
off sometimes, because he wastes no time nor sentiment – but ohh!!!
Whattaman." It couldn’t have helped that she had just been diagnosed
with the cancer that was soon to kill her.
The recording quality is variable but more than acceptable,
some intractable surface imperfections apart, and accepting the rather
veiled quality generally. Klemperer is vibrantly propulsive and energetic,
the orchestra on fine form, showing none, or very few, of the technical
shortcomings that so irritated the Dutch critics on Klemperer’s other
visits to the Concertgebouw. Orchestral principals are alert, string
tone sonorous, portamenti audible and pervasive – Mengelberg’s Mahlerian
fingerprints were hard to erase and with reason – and both Ferrier and
Vincent on excellent form, notwithstanding Ferrier’s strictures about
the conductor. The conclusion is overwhelming in its impact, even with
some choral smudges; the applause long and heartfelt.
A few demerits; the ambiguous date; a surfeit of misplaced
apostrophes in the booklet notes; Richard Caniell’s biographical notes
on Ferrier, whilst sincerely meant, read very strangely – stilted sentences,
short, staccato, as if translated into English from a foreign language.
Jonathan Woolf
See review by Robert
Farr
Kathleen Ferrier contralto