More unmissable goodies
from Down Under. August has been Rachmaninov
month with six issues from the Eloquence
label. I have no doubt that this late
harvest will have dyed in the wool collectors
like myself dancing in the street -
not a particularly pretty sight, so
maybe I will curtail the dancing to
my lounge. The three symphonies plus
orchestral and concertante works usually
in performances completely new to CD
from the Decca stable are more than
welcome; in fact they are unmissable.
The astonishing feature
of these releases is the playing of
the orchestra in two of the symphonies.
When in 1969, Ernest Ansermet died,
the Suisse Romande Orchestra, always
a highly proficient band, nevertheless
a little conservative, was taken over
by Paul Kletzki. This maverick conductor
had done some very good work for EMI
in Russian repertoire, in the 1960s
and 1970s but had never been in the
absolute top flight of orchestral conductors.
He was appointed chief conductor of
the Suisse Romande, and based upon the
aural evidence of these discs inspired
this band to perform on a totally different
level to what they had been able to
achieve before. It is not down to the
technical dimension either as the same
company, Decca, was in attendance in
the same location, with the same producer
and recording engineers. The quality
of the playing is incandescent, given
its source and I urge you to try these
discs - Symphonies 2 and 3 in particular.
The passion which Kletzki
whips up, particularly in the slow movement
would, I am sure, have delighted Rachmaninov
himself, had he been lucky enough to
hear these recordings. The passionate
playing is quite out of character if
you have been weaned on the numerous
Ansermet recordings from the same stable.
I am not sure whether they would have
performed Ravel and Debussy better under
Kletzki (I doubt it) but I have never
heard the Russian repertoire sound so
right with this orchestra.
In fact, Ashkenazy
and the Concertgebouw with glorious
tone supported by their own venue and
in performances well known and loved
for their exhilarating response to the
composer are hard pressed to surpass
their Swiss colleagues. When I first
opened the package containing these
discs, I thought "they will probably
be good, but the Ashkenazy performance
will no doubt surpass the Swiss performances."
Having now heard these I am not at all
sure.
The sleeve-notes contain
what is surely an Aussie joke, which
I found very amusing. It describes the
"Isle of the Dead" as "I
Love the Dead"; I had not come
across that one before. So this release
couples the Second Symphony with "The
Isle of the Dead" in wonderfully
ardent performances, in superb sound
quality. It brings to CD for the first
time, this performance of Rachmaninov’s
most popular symphony.
Frankly I cannot understand
why this recording has lain gathering
dust in the archives. Performances such
as these should be treasured. I urge
you all to give this disc a try. You
will not be disappointed.
John Phillips
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Paul Kletzki
(Symphony) 
