Adolf Busch (violin)/Rudolf Serkin (piano)
At the Library of Congress 1944-48
John Stafford Smith (1750-1836)
The Star-Spangled Banner (arr. Busch)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Violin Sonata No 1 in G major, Op 78
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Rondo Brillant in B minor, Op 70 D895
Adolf Busch (1891-1952)
Violin Sonata No 2 in A minor, Op 56
rec. live, 1944-48, Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA
PRISTINE AUDIO PACM114 [68]
We’re very fortunate that so much material has survived from the many concerts that took place in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, Washington DC. Here is another example of the perspicacity of those who ensured that concerts were recorded: Busch and Serkin in fine form over a four-year period of three concerts.
This seems to be the only surviving version of a piece they must have played many times - The Star-Spangled Banner in Adolf Busch’s own arrangement. It’s followed by something else performed at that 7 October 1944 concert, Brahms’ Violin Sonata No 1. They made a famous HMV set of this in 1931 but APR has also issued a BBC broadcast of 1936, preserved on acetates, that is impressive. Busch and Serkin invariably located the masculine directness of the music, allowing it to flow unimpeded with a strength that ensured that Busch’s ‘room to breathe’ rubato could be experienced to best effect. There is some damage at the start of the Adagio but the depth of expression generated is compelling. We can hear Busch tuning up before the finale which is also remarkably fine – one squeaky note apart. This Washington performance is much better sonically speaking than the earlier BBC version and has been enhanced by XR though it’s as well to note the significance of APR’s release, which is also a must for admirers of the great duo.
This is also the première appearance of Schubert’s Rondo brillant in this January 1948 performance. The duo played Schubert as well as anyone at the time and an earlier 1943 performance of this has survived, also recorded at the Library of Congress. This 1948 version is, if anything, livelier still though I personally find the XR piano boost excessive.
Busch’s own Second Sonata concludes the disc and was recorded in December 1946. This was the work’s premiere performance and it’s been released on Music and Arts (review), a 4-CD box that also contains the Schubert noted above. As I wrote on its appearance in that box it’s ‘Post-Regerian in orientation, has taken Brahmsian elements too, but what one most takes from it is its melodic distinction. The lively and frolicsome scherzo is a delight, and Busch has the confidence, like Brahms, to end his sonata quietly.’ This XR restoration brings the sound forward appreciably.
The one-page note is by Jürgen Schaarwächter of the BuschBrothersArchive at the Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe and lays out the facts succinctly. With three of the four works being first ever releases Busch and Serkin adherents will not waste much time in hearing these consistently elevated and wholly idiomatic recordings.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review: Rob Barnett
