by Edward Tatnall Canby
The Cat's Meow
AFTER SOME FORTY YEARS of electrical recording, we are at last beginning to understand, most of us, that a recording is a recording. Not a concert on records. The two are separate media with values, principles, procedures, customs, and techniques remarkably unlike each other. Unlike but equal-that is the toughest thought for many of us to absorb, especially musicians! After these forty years, a lot of us still go around thinking that "live" music is naturally better than recorded.
Why, sure! Of course, it is. In its own way, in the right places, within its special limitations. We might also suggest that the "live" stage is similarly better than the recorded film, if you want an argument. Definitely--within its special limitations. In both cases, the live art is not exactly adaptable to the family living room. But there's a lot more to it than that. These media are different.
Why compare? If we will just quietly forget about live music being either better or worse than recorded, if we will just admit that recordings exist and are useful in their own terms (just as movies are) , if we can understand that recordings and actual concerts share only two elements, performers and musical scores, all else being fundamentally unrelated-then (to come to the point) we can really enjoy Angel's recent album, Homage to Gerald Moore. Because it is a recording of an actual concert.
And it is a remarkably successful one, only equaled in my memory by another Angel effort, the famed series of humorous Ho f f nung concert albums of some years ago.
Gerald Moore is-was--one of the finest piano accompanists (classical division) who ever effaced himself behind some famous singer. He was tops, incredible, wonderful, ranking among the very few of the sort, such as Paul Ulanowsky, Coenraad V. Bos. Like others in this league, his specialty centered about the standard Romantic and semi modern song literature from Beethoven and Schubert-vast quantities of Schubert and never so perfectly played-on into Fauré and Debussy.
Like others of his sort, he played the piano parts with unbelievable suppleness, exquisite phrasing and touch, perfect timing, absolutely right emotion; he powerfully sustained and often guided the great singers from his piano, while appearing to be no more than a mousy little man off in the background. That's the tradition.
Gerald Moore decided to retire -- early. His hair isn't even gray. Walter Legge, genius of British musical production, decided to give him a public blast, which for once would feature the accompanist in the spotlight, to the tune of no less than three celebrated song-makers: Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria De Los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. They all sang, together and in solo groupings. And Gerald Moore, mousy as ever, played for all of them.
----- HOMAGE TO GERALD MOORE
But the audience at this concert, decidedly hep (not hip), cheered and bravo'd and shouted its delight, and its sorrow, especially for Gerald Moore's last appearance, the pianistic mouse about to retire. It was a tremendous occasion, and the better because it was humorous as well as sad. Under the impetus, a rare communication built up like an electric charge; everyone let go, bars went down, audience and performers were as one. Was "live" music ever so uniquely itself? Was not his the essence of the living concert? And Angel took it all down in stereo! Now it is released; not on one, but on two fat LP discs. The works.
What makes this rare recording of an actual concert unique is its astonishing honesty to the live medium.
Too often, concert recordings are misguidedly compromised. Applause is hastily faded out, as though it were an embarrassment, the carefully casual tempo of the occasion is edited away, the feeling of being there is deliberately minimized, making a good live performance into a poor studio job. Not here! Angel had the sense (or the luck) not to try for sonic perfection, to let things happen as they would, let the sounds fall as they might. Thus the very imperfection of the mike pickup, the un-ideal acoustics, the erratic balances, the un-cued interruptions, the bursts of laughter (we must guess what caused them) , even the obvious "projection" efforts of close-to singers trying to fill a very large hall, add up to a kind of realism, a sense of presence, that carries us along with a grand documentary sweep. It has seldom been done as well on records-indeed, it defies the very medium itself. That takes real art.
'Course you have to know a bit of what all this music is about; Schubert, Wf, Brahms, Verdi, Mendelssohn. Not much, if you are open minded. But if you do get bored, then skip quickly to the incredible Verdi duet between two lady cats – De Los Angeles and Schwarzkopf---all one burst of hilarious meows.
That'll break you down.
Homage to Gerald Moore
Angel SB 3697(2) stereo ($11.58)
Performance: A Sound: B+
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CLASSICAL RECORD REVIEW
EDWARD TATNALL CANBY / MARVIN ROTBARD
The Russians are coming
Polovetsian Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Dances Ippjolitov-Ivanov: Two Caucasian Sketches
Leonard Bernstein Borodin: Polovetsian Dances
The New York Glinka: Russian and Ludmilla Overture Philharmonic Mussorgsky: Khovantchina Prelude. Columbia MS 7014 stereo ($5.79)
. . . Well, you get the idea. The above is copied exactly from the album's cover. Read down, as well as across. Get it??
Good stuff! It's been awhile since I've played a Leonard Bernstein chestnut--war horse potboiler, and I am impressed. Don't know how he does it.
Not only is the sound immediately alive in impact, with a wide, deep sense of real space and lots of clean attack, but the performances are remarkably alive, well phased and communicative--as if these slightly faded show pieces of the later Nineteenth century were quite new. Amazing. But that's Bernstein. Under other conductors these pieces tend to be either noisy, or slickly suave, or just plain dull. E.T.C.
Performance: A
Sound: A
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4. Hamburg Philharmonic, Mackerras. Checkmate C 76004 stereo only.
I find the musical interpretation much less satisfactory than that in the releases reviewed last month.
Tchaikovsky is never easy to project and nowhere more difficult than in this Fourth Symphony. There are, admittedly, many possible approaches to its high-tension music. My preference is for tension via the built-in architectural strength of the work (emphasized in my annotations for this album). Mackerras gives us instead a juicy, uneven flow of music, overdoing some parts, de-emphasizing the sense of continuity. Not to my taste, though it may be to yours. E.T.C.
Performance: C+
Sound: B+
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake-complete sound track. (Fonteyn-Nureyev). Vienna Symphony, Lanchbery. Angel B 3706 (2) stereo ($11.58)
This is a typical anomaly of our day--a movie-ballet sound track, minus the movie and minus the dancers! All that is left, of course, is the original music just as it was in the first place, more or less. A mixed-media presentation de-mixed.
Nice cover, good write-up and all that. But the music itself is all that really counts. I found the recording minimally effective in stereo and somewhat on the dull side as compared to normal Angel jobs. (This even though it surely came from the original master tapes.) Musically, the playing-without the accompanying dance-seems often logy and heavy.
If you're going to do ballet music for the ears alone, then it should be tailored for listening. Not watching. E.T.C.
Performance: C
Sound: C
Prokofiev: Oratorio "Ivan The Terrible" (from the Eisenstein films). Valentina Levko, mezzo; A. Estrin, narr., Moscow State Chorus, U.S.R.R. Symphony Stasevich. Melodiya-Angel RB 4103(2) stereo ($5.79 ea.)
This big cantata-like piece is a close relative of the now familiar Alexander Nevsky. Both works are concert pieces derived from the music for the films of the same name (not sound-track recordings but new performances), the music arranged in concert form. Both shoot the musical works--huge orchestra, soloists, large chorus, sound effects, Russian bells in the fanciest Russian manner.
I found the piece really exciting, whether with the accompanying translation (and the Russian text, too), or just via plain listening as music. Either way it is highly dramatic and beautifully performed. Prokofiev was a master of dramatics and a composer who could write in "popular" film style without degrading his expression. It's an impressive work, if on the traditional side in respect to musical idiom, as might be expected; and in this all Russian performance, even the narrator speaking in Russian, there is a rightness that would be missing, say, in an English-language performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. E.T.C.
Performance: A
Sound: B+
Prokofiev: Concerto No. 2 in G. Minor.Sibelius: Concerto in D Minor. Itzhak Perlman, violinist with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA Victor LSC-2962 stereo ($5.79)
Here is a good example of competent engineering ideas coupled to the sort of music they suit well. Where the Prokofiev Violin Concerto is brittle and brilliant with sharply etched color against a constantly varying background, the Sibelius is richly romantic, fully integrated in its sound with a close support of the soloist provided by the orchestra.
Thus RCA has recorded the Prokofiev with excellent hall feel. Mr. Perlman stands well away from the orchestra, stereo spread is broad, and miking is placed to produce a bright sound that separates each instrument from that next to it.
In the Sibelius, distance is still held, but the tone is distinctly warmer, as if different microphones were used. The soloist is closer to the orchestra, occasionally being slightly swallowed by it.
Each technique is suited to the music, but Prokofiev comes off somewhat better than the Sibelius. Perhaps this is because I prefer the exciting Prokofiev to the popular Sibelius. As a demonstration showcase of equipment, the Prokofiev also has more to offer due to profusion of solo instrument displays. The final movement offers a series of chords accented with kettledrum beats that are guaranteed to shake your floor.
Itzhak Perlman makes his recording debut here. This 21-year-old Israeli shows every evidence of maturing into a truly major artist. His technique now is strong and exceptionally pure.
So you will want this disc because it represents an auspicious debut. And, it presents two important, and totally different examples of the violin literature. Add RCA's quiet grooves and you come up with an impressive package. M.R.
Performance: (Prokofiev) A (Sibelius) B+
Sound: A
Lieder Music Hanne-Lore Kuhse-A Lieder Recital (Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Dvorak) with Takikiro Ilmori, pianist. RCA Victor LCS 2967 stereo ($5.79)
For those who "dig" German Lieder this is an attractive record and an easy one for anyone's listening. The East German soprano has a big voice (she sings Isolde in Tristan) but it is beautifully controlled and most intelligently used in these relatively small-scale songs with piano. She is modest, thoughtful, earnest and-best of all she has an impeccably accurate sense of pitch. Does that make a difference! Wouldn't it be nice if all big-name singers sang in tune.
The accompanist is typical of today's international music-making. He comes from Manchuria, via study in Tokyo. He is good, though not in the league of the great European Lied accompanists. E.T.C.
Performance: B+
Sound: B
Post-modern music The New Music. (Stockhausen, Penderecki, Earl Brown, Pousseur). Rome Symphony, Daderna. RCA Victrola VIC(S) 1239 stereo ($2.50)
Theoretically, this record of very new music--"new music" is that which has come after "modern music", now old fashioned--should be 'way over your head, and mine too. If you read the scholarly accompanying annotations, it get worse and worse (though the notes in themselves make interesting reading). But sound is sound, and this is very expertly contrived sound, by leading exponents of their art from Germany, Poland, the U. S. and Belgium. The recording is excellent, and the extraordinary noises produced by the orchestra and, in the Belgian piece, a tape-recorded sound track as well, are ideal for hi-fi reproduction, full of astonishing color and rhythm.
The thing to do is simply to forget that this is perhaps "music"--just listen to it as so much very efficiently organized noise. You won't go for all of it but you may find a lot of fun in some of the effects.
The strangest thing about this latest instrumental music is that it now sounds like electronic music! Somehow, they have managed to make the old fashioned instruments play for all the world like a batch of oscillators. E.T.C.
Performance: (A?)
Sound: A
(Audio magazine, Jan. 1968)
Also see:
AUDIO EQUIPMENT PROFILES (Jan. 1968)
Audio, ETC, by Edward T. Canby
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