The companies once
known as CBS (later Sony) and RCA are
now part of the same household, BMG.
They are both delving into their back
catalogues for this "Complete Collections"
series. However, the habit of competition
apparently dies hard. Not so long ago
they put out a 5-CD set of the Mozart
piano sonatas plus the two fantasias
and the two rondos recorded by Alicia
de Larrocha for RCA in the early 1990s.
This is still available and is illustrated
on the back cover of the booklet to
the present set. Meanwhile the Sony
side of the operation has come up with
a cycle on just 4 CDs set down by Lili
Kraus for CBS in 1967-8.
I reviewed
the de Larrocha set with considerable
enthusiasm and it was awarded a "Bargain
of the Month" status, though not
all critics agreed. "Gramophone"
dismissed it with a few lines, confirming
the generally lukewarm reception the
single discs had been given when they
originally appeared. Not long after
I found myself dealing with the cycle
recorded by Joyce Hatto, mostly in the
early 1990s review
. This was also on 5 CDs, though containing only the sonatas
apart from the C minor fantasia which kept its time-hallowed
position before the sonata in that key. My conclusion, after
commenting singly on the five discs, was that those who had
purchased the de Larrocha cycle could rest content that they had
acquired an excellent product, but those still waiting to buy a
cycle of Mozart sonatas would on balance do better still with
Hatto. Both pianists took unhurried views with the difference that
de Larrocha sought out the elements in the earlier sonatas that
harked back to Scarlatti or the Bach sons, thereby presenting the
cycle as a historical progression, while for Hatto Mozart was
truly Mozart and a sublime genius from the first. The differences
between the two artists'
approaches hence became less as the
cycle reached its conclusion.
I have recently become
aware that a certain injustice currently
exists. My reviews of the single Hatto
discs can be read on the site, but since
then the records have not only been
brought together in a single box, they
have been remastered and re-edited,
with the insertion of a few additional
takes made by the pianist in the last
year of her life. The discs reviewed
are therefore not exactly the ones you
will now buy. I have been sent the new
boxed set and have made this my principal
comparison with the present Kraus cycle,
but I have also referred back to the
original Hatto discs. I will make it
my next task to write a review of this
new package, noting any differences.
Suffice to say here that the changes,
insofar as I have detected them, are
more the sort of details which concern
a self-critical artist. Hatto certainly
did not modify her basic approach and
the performances remain substantially
as I have described them.
So back to Kraus, and younger readers might be
wondering who she was. BMG offer no help apart from two
photographs and the passing comment that "in the 1950s - she was one
of the first to devote her attention
to Mozart's solo piano works, producing
a complete recording of the sonatas".
Maybe they feel that this sort of semi-historical
issue will be bought principally by
specialists and connoisseurs who will
know all about Lili Kraus, and they
could be right. But then for such purchasers
the detailed, rather over-earnest, notes
on the music by Ruth Seiberts will be
a case of coals to Newcastle and they
will regret that the generally proficient
translator, Clive Williams, knows so
little of musical terminology as to
perpetrate "3 Sonatas for piano
solo [...], the first ex C, the next ex
A and third ex F". This is a literal
transcription of the original German
(translation is something different);
Mozart means "in" C, A and
F. The French translator gets it right.
They will also be amused or sorry or
hopping mad (according to their temperaments)
to see that in the track list BMG have
adopted what might be called the BBC
syndrome of tarting up the classical
product by having it dealt with by someone
who knows nothing about it. Thus we
get all the tracks of the four discs
correctly listed (let us be thankful
for small mercies). But instead of putting
Mozart's name at the top, it is left
to the small print at the bottom to
reveal to us: "All selections composed
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart". The
hapless gentleman is probably still
telling his friends, in a bemused fashion,
about that strange classical album with
no additional arrangements, vocals,
percussion, synthesizer, special sound
effects or whatever.
Back
to Lili Kraus. She was born in Budapest in 1903 or 1905 or 1908,
according to which reference book you use. A little surfing in
internet reveals that her biographer Steve Roberson opts
unequivocally for 1903, no doubt on the strength of due research,
and that Kraus herself admitted to one of her pupils in later life
that she had changed her birth-date. She was therefore one of a
notable generation of musicians - particularly pianists and
conductors - who emerged from the
Ferenc Liszt Academy of Budapest at
a time when the teaching staff included
such names as Bartók, Kodály,
Szekely, Weiner and Dohnanyi. From Kraus's
generation were the pianists Louis Kentner
(1905-1987) and Ilonka Deckers-Küszler
(1901-1996; not a household name but
revered in teaching circles) and conductors
Antál Doráti (1906-1988)
and Laszlo Somogyi (1907-1988). Just
a little later came pianists Andor Foldes
(1913-1992), Annie Fischer (1914-1995)
and Livia Rev (b.1916) as well as conductors
Georg Solti (1912-1997) and Ferenc Fricsay
(1914-1963).
It is interesting that such a galaxy of
teaching talent does not appear to have imposed any especially
perceptible "house style" on its products. It is also interesting
that, though the pianists and conductors named were all born
within about ten years of each other, some seem very recent
memories, almost contemporaries of ours - I understand Livia Rev
still performs sometimes - while others carry the aura of a very
distant past. Although Lili Kraus continued to play in public
until only a few years before her death in 1986, somehow one feels
she belongs to the latter category. My father used to have her
Beethoven "Eroica Variations" on Parlophone 78s and retains fond
memories of the performance. I see that it was recorded in 1939
and a Pearl transfer of this and other pre-war recordings is
available through ArkivMusic - see
link on this site if you want to follow
up Lili Kraus in a big way. Following
her studies in Budapest Kraus went on
to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin
and thereafter specialized in the Viennese
classics, though not forgetting her
earlier teacher Bartók.
A concert tour of Java
unwisely undertaken in 1942 led to Kraus's
capture and internment by the Japanese.
After the war her career gradually picked
up again, principally in the United
States where she was also active as
a teacher. The internet yields numerous
memories of her vivid personality and
it may be that an American reader will
not agree with my remark that she seems
to belong to a very distant past. She
recorded quite extensively in the 1950s
and 1960s but usually for smaller labels
such as Vox, Vanguard and Concert Hall.
In 1954 she set down for the Haydn Society
what was probably the first complete
cycle of Mozart sonatas. It was actually
very much a cheek-to-cheek contest with
Walter Gieseking, who finished only
a little later the first set of all
Mozart's solo piano music - the Kraus
recordings included a number of the
miscellaneous pieces, but made no attempt
at completeness. Nevertheless, the Gieseking
approach to Mozart was and remains controversial
and the hard-to-get (in the UK) Kraus
Haydn Society cycle acquired a considerable
cult status. It is now available on
Music and Arts and this, too, can be
obtained from ArkivMusik, so I hope
to be able to compare the two cycles
in the not too distant future. A slightly
earlier cycle still, by the way, was
recorded for the BBC by the late Nina
Milkina. Given the BBC's track record
it is probably useless hoping that the
original tapes survive. If anyone reading
this possesses an off-the-air taping
of passable quality it would be nice
to think it could one day be issued,
since Milkina's credentials in this
repertoire were at least equal to those
of Gieseking or Kraus.
Just to clear up a
few practical points, Kraus's later
cycle is on 4 CDs as compared with de
Larrocha's and Hatto's 5 partly because
she does not include the composite K533/494
sonata (de Larrocha also adds the A
minor Rondo), partly because the playing
times are slightly more generous, and
especially because her tempi are almost
invariably faster. Her second disc,
for example, has sonatas 6-9 while Hatto's second can only
accommodate 6-8 - it
lasts 66:52 even so. Artists of Kraus's generation could be
fairly cavalier over repeats and I was expecting this to be
further factor, but it proves not to be. All three artists agree
that first repeats are to be played, including those in slow
movements. Not everybody has the patience for this even today.
They also agree that big second repeats in sonata-form movements
need not be observed and are pragmatic over short second-half
repeats in finales - Kraus
actually includes one that Hatto omits.
The recording quality
is acceptable but not really equal to
the best the late 1960s could produce.
It is clear, clean and close, a little
dry and airless, with the occasional
curdling of incipient distortion. The
effect is a shade aggressive and may
have a bearing on how I hear the performances.
In the first movement
of the first sonata Kraus immediately
announces herself as an artist of energy
and abundant enthusiasm. There's plenty of kick to it all but
after a while it begins to seem a bit unvaried, the vitality
concealing a lack of distinction in phrasing and touch. If you
turn to Joyce Hatto you are in a different world. It is as though
you are no longer looking at the music through a zoom lens but
watching it patiently unfold in the distance. Hatto quite clearly
felt - and was able to convey the idea in her playing - that
Mozart, even when in real life a Cherubino-like adolescent - had
from the beginning a contact with something sublime, outside this
world. On a purely technical level we may note the way in which
the various ornaments - trills, turns and mordents - fit into
the musical line at her steady tempo,
whereas with Kraus they seem intrusions,
proof perhaps that the tempo Mozart
imagined was closer to Hatto's.
Yet it is not only
a question of tempo, for in the first
movement of the second sonata their
tempi are virtually the same, yet Kraus's
ornaments stick out of the musical line
like carbuncles whereas Hatto's sound
perfectly natural. It doesn't exactly
help that Kraus regularly starts her
trills on the upper note, which I always
thought was a baroque practice. By applying
this to the pastoral-like Adagio of
this same sonata she gives the idea
that she is altering the principal theme
while Hatto, who begins the trill on
the lower note, seems to be decorating
it. The opening Adagio of the fourth
sonata brings some left-hand-before-right
which sounds too slushy for Mozart.
All in all, Mozartian grace is singularly
lacking and I wondered if her brusque
manners and tendency to divide up the
music might not have been more appropriate
to Haydn's more wayward, unpredictable
personality or to Beethoven's sheer
physicality. From the sonatas on the
first disc there seemed to be no contest
and it was only the D major Rondo which
made me realize that it was not going
to be quite so straightforward. There
is no Hatto comparison here, but Kraus
is much more detailed in her response
than de Larrocha.
D major often inspired Mozart to write music of
a festive nature and Hatto responds to this, with the result that
the two performances of the opening movement of K.284 are more
similar than usual - honours about even,
I think. Furthermore, I prefer Lili
Kraus's more flowing tempi in the "Rondeau en Polonaise", a
difficult movement to make sense of. This sonata is rarely
performed, partly on account of this movement and partly because
its final Theme and Variations can seem interminable - these performances come in at 17:04
(Hatto) and 15:14. Hatto takes the view
that if it is all made as beautiful
as possible it will not outstay its
welcome. This tilts the scales slightly
in her favour for me, but I must say
I found some of Kraus's individual variations
very characterful.
The C major sonata,
K.309, also offers a genuine alternative
to Hatto if your preference is for something
more vivacious and gutsy. The A minor
is also a very characterful affair,
Kraus's expressive nudges clearly arising
from deep familiarity and identification
with a piece she must have played hundreds
of times. In my review of Hatto's performance
I compared her steady unfolding of the
first movement with Klemperer's similar
treatment of the G minor symphony. In
the wake of Kraus's treatment I found
myself slightly missing the latter artist's
more overt engagement even while appreciating
Hatto's more objective inner serenity.
Two complementary performances, then,
which leave you feeling that the one
approach necessarily excludes the other.
However, the famous Lipatti performance
succeeds miraculously in wedding formal
objectivity to intense expressivity
and whatever decision you make over
a complete Mozart cycle you should not
be without that extraordinary document.
The clumpy opening
chord of K.311 suggests, and the humdrum
Andante con espressione confirms,
that this is to be one of Kraus's less
pleasing performance.
The third disc is another
mixture, with K.330 a very valid alternative
to Hatto if you want something a little
punchier, and some will prefer Kraus's more Beethovenian
dynamics in the striding - proto-Eroica - passages of K.332's
first movement. The much-loved A major
sonata finds her at her least ingratiating,
apart from a lively finale, but the
remainder of the disc is exceptional.
I don't know if Kraus
made a speciality of pairing the D minor/major
Fantasia with Mozart's last sonata,
also in D major, but the music seems
to have a very special meaning for her.
The rhetorical, rhapsodic elements of
the Fantasia suit her down to the ground,
and there is a delightful spontaneity
in the way she eases into the Sonata.
Furthermore, if she lacks Mozartian
grace elsewhere, she certainly doesn't
here. Hatto's remains a superbly poised
performance but Kraus's has an extra
speaking quality, above all in the first
movement.
The final disc has
similar ups and downs. One or two nervous
spurts apart, K.333 could be preferred
to Hatto if you like a more energetic
approach; for myself the timeless tranquillity
of Hatto's Andante cantabile would be
the deciding factor. One might have
predicted that Kraus would be at her
best in the proto-Beethovenian C minor
Fantasia and Sonata; it is a full-scale,
authoritative and vital reading. Yet
Hatto's more restrained Fantasia seems
to illuminate the music from within
and ultimately sounds more Mozartian.
In the outer movements of the Sonata
I'll have to hand it to Kraus for her
panache; as Hatto sees these movements,
it is the wistful contrasting themes
which lie at the heart of the music.
As a result she can seem a little constrained
in the forte passages. On the other
hand, while Kraus sings out the Adagio
like a grand operatic aria, very effectively
in its way, Hatto gives one of her most
inward interpretations. Seemingly simple,
she evokes an other-worldly quality
which is deeply affecting. For this
I would have to prefer her overall,
though I shall return to Kraus for her
outer movements.
If the "simple" C major sonata continued as
well from Kraus as it begins - and the same could be said of the
Andante - it would be a very winning performance. Unfortunately
she adds a few impatient, aggressive touches, while Hatto is a
miracle of poised serenity. Children - including grown-up ones -
studying this much abused sonata while find a wonderful example in
Hatto's performance.
It would be nice to
say that K.570, widely considered Mozart's
greatest piano sonata, summed up the
best of each artist's approach. Unfortunately
Kraus is brusque and snatched, with
a heavy-handed Adagio while Hatto is
a miracle of Olympian grace.
In conclusion, it may
be said that Hatto's cycle is unfailingly
illuminated by those spiritual qualities
which I believe are most needed in our
desperately material age. Maybe you
don't agree and would rather have performances
of an earthier vitality. But the problem
remains that, while Hatto assuredly
gives the finest possible performances
of her particular point of view, this
can only intermittently be said of Kraus.
I couldn't honestly recommend this set
as the sole version in your library.
However, in view of its modest price,
those who have Hatto (or de Larrocha)
might consider it a useful supplement,
offering a very different view and propounding
it magnificently for about half the
time.
Christopher Howell
see also
review of the Joyce Hatto cycle
Lili Kraus (piano) 
