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The Concerts at Wolf
Trap, as with Marlboro, saw some distinguished
music making. The trio performance here
unites two astonishing talents, Shumsky
and Wild, with the then nineteen-year-old
Charles Curtis. None of the performances
are actually from Wolf Trap itself.
The Kreutzer Sonata and the Tchaikovsky
Trio derive from a Carnegie Hall concert
and the Barber Sonata was recorded from
a radio broadcast given by Curtis and
Wild. It means no disrespect to the
other performances when I say that the
gem of this collection is the Kreutzer,
played by two musicians who had first
met fully forty years before when Shumsky
was playing in the NBC under Toscanini
and was a member of the Primrose Quartet
and Wild was an NBC staffer (his breakthrough
live 1942 Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
with Toscanini is on Guild).
I saw Shumsky three
times. When he played the Elgar Concerto
I remember he warmed up by playing along
with the first fiddles in the orchestral
introduction. Short, stocky, he gave
the greatest live performance of the
work I’ve yet heard. It was never my
good fortune to hear a recital programme
and listening to this one I can measure
the loss. This is a wonderfully vibrant
performance, intensely dramatic, propelled
forward with invincible logic and superbly
played. Phrase endings are briskly moved
on and whilst there’s drama a-plenty
the tempo is certainly not the kind
of breathless dog fight that Heifetz
and Moiseiwitsch made of it (on APR).
Wild indulges some massive chordal flourishes
(at 7.50) but he is rightly leonine
and Shumsky’s phrasing has fluidity
and elegance. Wild detonates some explosive
left hand accents at the climax of the
first movement at the end of which the
audience breaks out into fervid applause.
Quite right too. The Variations second
movement again moves with powerful inexorability
but each variation is subtly characterised;
nothing is taken for granted. The sense
of direction is paralleled by the incipient
lyricism that both men explore with
perfect understanding. Even some elite
partnerships flounder in this movement
unable to project incident without losing
sight of the canvas; Wild and Shumsky
are not one of them. The finale is taken
at a fine tempo – not too fast for precise
articulation or too slow that we get
some rhythmic laxity. There’s lightness
here, too, as well as powerful authority
and a properly conclusive sense of triumph.
This is a truly remarkable performance
and I strongly recommend you hear it.
The Barber Cello Sonata
sees a balance between formal power
and a keen sense of lean Russian introversion,
most palpably so in the opening and
longest of the three movements. Curtis
has a well-focused tone and reserves
its greatest diversity for the brief
Adagio start to the second movement
(Adagio-Presto-Adagio) in which sun
and vibrance play their part as well.
All three musicians join for the Tchaikovsky
Trio. It marked Curtis’ Carnegie Hall
debut as well. The lyrical string exchanges
are well projected and Wild secures
the piano part with powerful concentration.
Shumsky proves especially poignant,
though strong as well, his tonal inflections
familiar from those who heard him play
the Tchaikovsky Concerto. The trio dispatch
the fugal section of the second movement
with considerable aplomb, piano chording
is admirable and the ensemble work accomplished
and no less so in the finale. Here there
is generous sweep and increasingly tragic
intensity.
In the final analysis
it is in the Kreutzer that we
find the greatest performance but the
Barber and Tchaikovsky are much more
than pendants. They preserve estimable
ensemble performances. Notes are full
and descriptive and Ivory Classics maintain
their happy knack of providing attractive
booklets.
Jonathan Woolf
Oscar Shumsky (violin) 
