AVAILABILITY
www.symposiumrecords.co.uk
Vása
Příhoda was the most internationally successful Czech violinist
of his generation and also the most controversial. After Jan Kubelík’s
career petered out the superior Jaroslav Kocian should have become
the leading representative of the Czech School but he soon tired
of touring and settled instead for teaching in Prague. He trained
two generations of native violinists, among them the most eminent
Czechoslovak players. So into this apparent void burst Příhoda
as a Paganini redivivus. Down on his luck in Milan and heard and
admired by Toscanini, engagements and a recording contract followed.
Soon he was an international artist recording prolifically for
Fonotipia, Edison, Deutsche Grammophon and Cetra and making repeated
re-recordings of his warhorses for new generations under ever
better recording conditions. His marriage to - and divorce from
- Alma Rosé, Arnold Rosé’s daughter, has become
a cause of disquiet (she died in Auschwitz), as was his conduct
during the War when he played, taught and recorded in Germany.
Aside
from matters of biography however this disc collates the DG-Polydors,
splendidly recorded, made between 1935 and 1943. The most imposing
is the magnificent Dvořák Concerto from 1943, a true benchmark
recording that has not reached the paradigmic heights of the Casals-Szell
1938 Cello Concerto because of its restricted wartime provenance,
the earlier Menuhin set and also, I suspect, because the Violin
Concerto has long lagged behind the Cello in esteem. If you have
either the Suk/Ancerl or the Suk/Neumann you will perhaps need
some persuading to consider this recording and that would be a
mistake. Sound quality is vintage 1943 but that is vintage DG
1943 and means splendidly defined and quite able to capture the
soloist’s tonal qualities with refinement, depth and frequency
response. What makes Příhoda’s performance so persuasive
are his elastic lyricism, his control of rubati, his crystalline
upper register playing and the panoramic sweep and cogency he
brings with a concomitant emotive generosity. This is no metronomic
traversal and it’s remarkable how flexibly he phrases, seemingly
across the bar lines but in the slow movement one hears with undiluted
admiration the fabulously tight and centred trill and the beautifully
modulated and natural sounding diminuendi (compare and contrast
with many of today’s players whose application of diminuendo is
accompanied by knee sagging "here it comes" theatricality).
There are even times in the slow movement when the lyric sweep
and swoop brings to mind a Bohemian Lark Ascending (did VW hear
the Concerto?). If you have either of his other surviving performances
(Prague Radio conducted by Krombholc at the 1956 Prague Spring
on Multisonic or the SDR Symphony/Hans Müller-Kray from the
same year on Podium Legend) you will note that he is much more
leisurely and expressive in 1943 than for Krombholc, though he
adopts the same basically slowish tempo for Müller-Kray.
Maybe the tension-ridden return to Prague accounted for the relative
haste of that, in any case technically rather impaired, performance.
The finale is driving, wonderfully rustic and it’s a fascinating
study in itself to hear the variety of colours across the strings
he can elicit; the lower two not quite so sounding as the pellucid
upper two This is the epitome of idiomatic panache, a real poet
and peasant drama, the best of his Concerto performances and a
must-have for informed listeners. It’s doubly fortunate that this
Symposium is in such good sound quality; there are a few minor
scuffs in the slow movement but these are fine copies, sensitively
treated. The Concerto was also on A Classical Record, now deleted,
but only the Concerto performance was by Příhoda.
His
Bach is also most impressive. Those who think of him, due to his
Paganinian exploits, as a string gymnast will doubtless have cause
to reconsider in the light of this disc. It’s by no means an intellectual’s
Bach but it possesses a compelling drama and theatrical trajectory.
Maybe some of the swellings in the Fugue and a few of the voicings
do not convince but this is real and vital playing nevertheless.
His Devil’s Trill makes for an interesting
comparison with the recording by Albert Spalding also on Symposium
and also reviewed by me. Spalding’s classicist imperatives are
very much to the fore whilst the Czech player is much more the
subjectivist romantic. He opens very calmly in a stately detachment,
employing a reduced terracing of dynamics. Apart from one rather
gauche slide early on his playing is relatively clean and deeply
expressive and almost caressing in its intimacy. His passageworks
in the Tempo giusto is exceptionally delicate, his articulation
splendid, pianist Otto A Gräf’s little harmonic fill-ins
apposite and tasteful. There’s a patch of poor intonation at 3.50
but it’s of passing account (usually his harmonics and double
stopping are right on the button intonationally speaking unless
he chooses to flatten for expressive potential). It’s true he
rather rushes at the start of the Allegro assai but he makes up
for it in expertly deployed rubati and whilst his own cadenza
isn’t as appealing as the usually played Kreisler it makes a fine
change.
The
disc is rounded out by a Paganini finger buster, a favourite of
Jan Kubelík’s before him, the Nel cor più non mi
sento variations. The left hand pizzicati here are dizzying in
their exactness and in the Bazzini the meltingly lyrical episodes
are followed by immediately resinous hyper-drive; fantastic control
and a fizzing pizzicato end. There are a few moments of blasting
on the disc used but they pass.
The
success of this disc is cemented by Tully Potter’s excellent notes.
Full matrix details are given but, strangely, not commercial issue
numbers. Leaving aside the extensive Podium Legend series, which
is generally dedicated to surviving German off air recordings,
this is now the most important single issue Příhoda disc
in the catalogue. Sound quality as I said is of the finest and
I urge all Dvořákians who have yet to hear it to acquaint
themselves with his Concerto recording; it’s special, very special.
Jonathan
Woolf
Warner
have just issued a 3CD set of all Příhoda’s Cetra recordings
5050466-3248-2 to be reviewed
Vása Příhoda
(violin) with