I’m sorry to say that
I shall have to reproduce, in large
part, my disappointment with this series
of reissues of the Hallé/Harty
recordings (noted in my Dvořák
review),
made in this case between 1927 and 1929.
This is all the more dispiriting because
the 1929 Harty/Cassadó recording of
the latter’s arrangement (or if you
prefer orchestral beefing up) of the
Arpeggione Sonata is,
if not rare in its original 78 guise,
at least relatively uncommon. The compilers
of this disc don’t claim this as its
first CD incarnation though I’ve not
come across an earlier version; the
cellist’s much later version with the
Bamberg orchestra under Perlea is on
a good Cassadó Vox Box. The notes
are perfectly serviceable and the disc
functions as a CD-ROM with a lot of
promotional material for the current
Hallé – tickets and booking details
et al.
Why dispiriting? Well
it’s the transfer again. The all-Schubert
programme is a well-chosen one and shows
Harty’s reportorial strengths. He was
essentially a romantic but had strong
classicist strengths as well as a vocation
for promoting some – at least – contemporary
works, though his virtues seldom really
lay in music of his own time. With the
Cassadó recording one can admire
the cellist’s lean, focused tone, splendidly
conceived diminuendi and clever arrangement;
elsewhere the pieces from Rosamunde
show flair, sympathy, imagination and
well executed, portamento-rich individualism.
The characterful (and oft-derided) Hallé
winds are on very personalised form.
So far, so good. But the transfers are,
once more, veiled and subterranean.
If you came to these performances from
this disc you’d never conceive of the
old Free Trade Hall’s acoustic, or the
brightness of the originals. My 78 set
of the Concerto sounds brighter, richer
and more life-like than this submerged
affair with its ‘tubby the tuba’ bass
line, desperate to eliminate the merest
whisper of shellac crackle under a sauce
of noise reduction. Again, because this
is a series I wanted to admire, writing
this is not something I enjoy – believe
me, not at all. It would be wearying
to mention the over-processing, scuffs
and other problems that blight this
issue. I’m sorry – but this is not good
enough.
Jonathan Woolf
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Gaspar Cassadó (cello) 
