Münchinger Miniatures
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/Karl Münchinger
ELOQUENCE 482 6954 [56:22 + 61:47]
Eloquence’s reissue programme has begun to focus on the legacy of Karl Münchinger (1915-1990), a staple of Decca’s Baroque catalogue for decades. Not only Baroque, of course, as this
release, and one of the forthcoming boxed sets, will demonstrate, but rather like Boyd Neel before him, it’s this element of his repertoire that has carved out his particular place in recorded history.
The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was formed in the dying days of the Second
World War, and Karl Münchinger directed its first concert in September 1945.
Primarily a string orchestra it then embarked on a series of nationwide and
indeed worldwide tours, going as far afield as South America, Japan, Russia
and India. In the 1960s it gave coast-to-coast tours of North America. All
the while its recordings were reinforcing its significance as a chamber
orchestra and here we have pieces recorded between 1950 and 1966. The first of the discs is a series of sweetmeats and largely derive from a Decca LP released in July 1967. The cover art of this was ‘Portrait of a Lady’ by Hans Baldung Grien, though it was subject to an attack of ‘60s grooviness by virtue of being recoloured and simplified and with the addition of little photographs of the conductor used as pendants in a chain effect around the lady’s neck. Art work sanity has been restored in this reissue.
These lollipops still afford pleasure. There are a couple of his own little Bach arrangements that are the antithesis of Stokowski’s approach, the inevitable Boccherini and Hoffstetter (ex-Haydn) quartet movement, bulked up to chamber size. There are two slithers from Vivaldi’s ‘alla Rustica’ Concerto in G major, RV151, a low-sugar Bach Air, an elegant Menuetto from Mozart’s Divertimento in D major and a warmly textured Musette from one of Handel’s Concerto grossi. The longest piece is the Chaconne from Gluck’s Paride ed Elena and the most unusual Schumann’s Lebhaft from his piano cycle Bilder aus Osten, in this arrangement for chamber orchestra.
The second disc offers the LP called ‘Contemporary Music for Strings’ recorded in October 1950. Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances: Suite No. 3 comes from a different disc that was first issued in 1951 and included Pergolesi’s Concertino in F minor. Here Münchinger brings out the Grétry-like allure of the opening Italiana, the expressive depth and whispery dynamics of the Arie di corte and the vigorous but perfectly scaled Passacaglia. Frank Martin’s Passacaille for String Orchestra is an arrangement of his organ original made for Münchinger ‘and his wonderful Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra’. Saturated in chromaticism it makes a moving impression in this recording. Hindemith’s bracingly utilitarian Five Pieces, carved out for the amateur performer, finds the ultimate in sophistication from these forces, notably in the penultimate piece where Hindemith shows how much expressive density can be evoked from technically self-limiting means. Clarity, vibrancy and quietly elegiac brevity are the watchwords of Lennox Berkeley’s Serenade for Strings, recorded by its composer for Lyrita many years later in the 1970s to similarly great effect. Barber’s Adagio closes the programme; quite reserved, not wrenching.
The notes by Ray Minshull, the Decca producer, and Anthony Milner, derive from the respective original LP sleeve notes. This
set should be considered alongside Eloquence’s other restorations of the legacy of the chamber orchestra and its conductor. The first disc may suggest Baroque soufflé but it’s tethered to a still-valuable selection of classic string orchestral pieces and reinforces the fact that Münchinger’s ambitions for his orchestra did not stop at 1809.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
CD1
J.S. BACH Fugue in A minor, BWV 947 (arr. Münchinger) [3:43]
BOCCHERINI Minuet (from String Quintet in E major, Op. 13 No. 5) [2:46]
MOZART Les Petits riens, KV app. 10 (ballet) – excerpts [3:51]
HOFFSTETTER (attrib. HAYDN) Andante cantabile (from String Quartet, Op. 3 No. 5) [3:53]
VIVALDI Concerto for Strings and Continuo in G major, R.151 ‘alla Rustica’ – excerpts [2:42]
J.S. BACH Air (from Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068) [3:44]
GRIEG Präludium: Allegro vivace (from Holberg Suite, Op. 40) [2:45]
SCHUMANN No. 1: Lebhaft (from Bilder aus Osten, arr. chamber orchestra) [3:42]
MOZART Menuetto & Trio (from Divertimento in D major, KV 334) [3:41]
HANDEL Musette (from Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6 No. 6) [6:47]
SCHUBERT Minuet & Trio No. 5 in C major (from Five Minuets with six Trios, D.89) [3:26]
J.S. BACH Fugue (from Prelude [Fantasia] and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542 ‘Great’) [4:55]
GLUCK Chaconne (from Paride ed Elena) [9:23]
CD 2
RESPIGHI Ancient Airs and Dances: Suite No. 3 [17:16]
MARTIN Passacaille for String Orchestra (1944/1952) [12:02]
HINDEMITH Fünf Stücke für Streichorchester (1927) [12:21]
BERKELEY Serenade for Strings, Op. 12 (1939) [13:43]
BARBER Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (1936) [5:52]
rec. Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, October 1950 (Respighi), October 1955 (Martin, Hindemith, Berkeley, Barber), October–November 1960 (Gluck); Mozart-Saal, Stuttgart, Germany, 15–17 September 1966 (Bach, Boccherini, Mozart, Hoffstetter, Vivaldi, Grieg, Schumann, Handel, Schubert)
