Rudolf Kempe: The Genius of the Podium
Full track details at end of review
rec. 1956-72
EMI CLASSICS ICON 50999 629557 2 [11 CDs: 75:56 + 73:46 + 72:19 + 74:52
+ 74:59 +72:21 + 75:14 + 78:51 + 73:17 + 78:29 +73:30] 
Sampling these eleven discs has been a real pleasure, whether in coming across
old friends or making new acquaintances. It’s not been an unmitigated critical
success, but one would hardly expect that, even in a box that has been filleted
from Kempe’s commercial EMI discography to put his best face forward.
The recording dates range from 1956 to 1972 and the orchestras are various.
The repertoire is standard, non-contentious, central European, Austro-Germanic
(in the main). Examples of the more exploratory side of his concert-giving
can easily be found in live encounters.
We start with some examples of his Munich Beethoven cycle – Nos.1,
3, 5 and 6. These are relaxed performances, affectionately contoured and stressing
the cantabile element rather more than the viscous driving one. Some will
find them too laid-back rhythmically, whilst others will welcome the unselfconscious
unfolding of melodic lines. Certainly they are internally enviably well-balanced,
though occasional smudges and imprecisions are noticeable. I’d label these
easy-going, rather than exciting. I’m glad that we have his Berlin Brahms
3, which is outstanding, a truly structure-conscious and expressively finely
judged performance - witness the semi shambles Furtwängler made of it. His
Fourth with the RPO is not quite so successful, but it is an affirming, powerful
reading nonetheless.
The fourth disc gives us some Mendelssohn and then majors on Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Scheherazade. The soloist, unmentioned in the booklet, was Alan Loveday who
plays beautifully. This is a good performance all round though it’s not in
the Kletzki or Beecham class, to cite two almost contemporaneous recordings
of the work. I wasn’t especially taken by Dvorák Nine, which
seems rather bland. The other Czech items go quite well – the Schwanda the
Bagpiper lollipop, the suite from The Bartered Bride and the Scherzo Capriccioso;
all these are with the RPO whilst the New World was taped with the Berlin
Phil.
Strauss next and that’s surely self-recommending. Don Quixote dates
from Berlin in 1958 with Tortelier, Giusto Cappone and old-stager Siegfried
Borries; it’s every bit as good as its reputation suggests. Later, in his
Dresden sequence of Strauss recordings, we have Tod und Verklärung, Till,
Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben and the Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome. Heldenleben
features the orchestra’s concertmaster Peter Mirring in a stirring inscription.
And we also get 1968 excerpts from Ariadne auf Naxos – about eleven minutes’
worth. This actually inaugurates a series of sequences from Wagner;
Lohengrin and Meistersinger, and then the standard orchestral fare from Tristan
and Parsifal. They are meant, presumably, to whet one’s appetite for the complete
Ariadne, Lohengrin and Meistersinger, though as ever with selections of this
kind one can’t help wondering if purely orchestral material might not have
been a more just approach.
After a suite from Hänsel und Gretel we reach disc 10, entitled ‘Vienna Philharmonic
on Holiday’ and that about sums up the sequence of intermezzi, waltzes, dances,
ballet music, overtures and Schubert’s Rosamunde. The last disc is
given over to the delectable Strauss family waltz recordings that he
made with the same orchestra in 1958 and 1960.
Skimming the surface of a box such as this gives one an indication of the
variety and elevated music-making it contains. Not everything is equally persuasive,
but that’s to be expected. At his best Kempe’s directness and sense of colour
and structure never fail to impress. This fine box offers some excellent performances
spiced by light-hearted fun in the last two discs.
Jonathan Woolf
This fine box offers some excellent performances spiced by light-hearted fun
in the last two discs.
Full Track Details
CD 1
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 [25:43]
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 'Eroica' [49:29]
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 2
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 [33:19]
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral' [39:49]
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 3
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 [32:11]
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 [39:57]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 4
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
A Midsummer Night's Dream - incidental music, Op. 61 [28:52]
Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Scheherazade, Op. 35 [45:57]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 5
Antonin DVORÁK (1841-1904)
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World' [40:51]
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Scherzo capriccioso, Op. 66 [12:39]
Jaromir WEINBERGER (1896-1967)
Schwanda the Bagpiper - Polka [2:28]
Bedrich SMETANA (1824-1884)
The Bartered Bride – suite [18:37]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 6
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Don Quixote, Op. 35 [41:50]
Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 [22:23]
Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils [8:22]
Staatskapelle Dresden
CD 7
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28 [14:40]
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 [43:31]
Don Juan [16:07]
Staatskapelle Dresden
CD 8
Ariadne auf Naxos - Kindskopf! Merkt auf, wir spielen mit in dem Stück (Sylvia Geszty, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Gundula Janowitz)
An ihre Plätze, meine Damen und Herrn!
Theo Adam
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Lohengrin: Preludes to Acts 1 and 3 [11:57]; Bridal Chorus 'Treulich geführt' [4:57]
Heil, König Heinrich! [5:02]; Was bringen die? [2:49]; Mein Herr und König [5:28]
In fernem Land [6:13]
Jess Thomas (tenor) and Gottlob Frick (bass); Choir of the Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Act III Selig, wie die Sonne [7:39] Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein 'Prize Song' [7:25] lhr tanzt? Was werden die Meister sagen? [5:26] Verachtet mir die Meister nicht [6:22]
Elisabeth Grümmer (soprano); Marga Höffgen (mezzo); Rudolf Schock (tenor) Gerhard Unger (tenor), Ferdinand Frantz (bass-baritone), Choir of the Deutschen Opera and Staatsopera Berlin, Choir of St Hedwigs-Cathedral, Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 9
Tristan and Isolde – Prelude and Liebestod [15:45]
Parsifal – Act I Prelude [15;45] and Act III Good Friday Music [12:30]
Engelbert HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921)
Hänsel and Gretel Suite (arr. Kempe) Overture; Witch's Ride; Gingerbread House; Witch’s Waltz; Traumszene [26:02]
CD 10
Pietro MASCAGNI (1863-1945)
L'Amico Fritz: Intermezzo [4:10]
Amilcare PONCHIELLI (1834-1886)
La Gioconda – Dance of the Hours [9:16]
Framz SCHMIDT (1874-1939)
Notre Dame – intermezzo [3;32]
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Faust – Waltz Act II [5:17]
Josef BAYER (1852-1913)
Die Puppenfee – ballet music [10:53]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819-1880)
Orphée aux enfer – overture [9:27]
Jakov GOTOVAC (1895-1982)
Ero, der Schelm – Kolo [6:08]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Rosamunde – incidental music D797 [22:24]
Christoph Willibald von GLUCK (1714-1787)
Orphee et Eurydice – Dance of the Blessed Spirits (arr. Mottl) [7:19]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
CD 11
Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899)
Die Fledermaus – overture [8:14]
G’schichten aus dem Wienerwald Op.325 [12:05]
Leichtes Blut - polka Op.319 [2:33]
Tausend und eine Nacht – waltz Op.346 [6:52]
Im Krapenwald’l – polka françaises Op.336 [4:21]
Kaiserwalzer Op.437 [10:27]
Josef STRAUSS (1827-1870)
Dynamiden – waltz Op.173 [8:00]
Sphärenlange – waltz Op.235 [8:27]
Johann STRAUSS I (1804-1849)
Radetzky March Op.228 [2:56]
Franz LEHÁR (1870-1948)
Gold und Silber – waltz [8:55]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Rudolf Kempe
EMI CLASSICS ICON 629557 2 [11 CDs; 75:56 + 73:46 + 72:19 + 74:52 + 74:59 +72:21 + 75:14 + 78:51 + 73:17 + 78:29 +73:30]