BaL 9.06.12 - Dvorak's Cello Concerto (merged threads)

[Richard Tarleton]

Without doubt, one of the great recordings of these works...

Along with....but that's another thread.....

[PJPJ]

That's worth knowing and it makes sense since two of the few facts I know about Finnish are that words are stressed on the first syllable and that it is related to Hungarian as a Finno-Ugric language. It was pointed out to me by a Finn a long time ago when I misplaced the stress on "Kalevala" and it has been a simple and useful rule ever since. (This man also taught me a Finnish exclamation of annoyance which I later found out was grossly offensive and unrepeatable).

How many times had you used the expression before its meaning was pointed to you?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How many times had you used the expression before its meaning was pointed to you?

Reminds me of the Larsson cartoon where an aging Lone Ranger is given an American Indian Dictionary and discovers that "kimo sabe" means "manure breath"!

[rodney_h_d]

.....Hungarian names should begin with surname; should we refer to him as Dorati Antal?...

Probably! This [apparently] Hungarian does, and he doesn't agree with Jan Smaczny's pronunciation of Dorati.

http://www.forvo.com/search-hu/Dorati/

I find that site is quite useful.

I seem to recall that back in the LP days the Rostropovich/Boult was preferred by many to the Karajan. I bought the Boult on LP, but on CD now have the Rostropovich/BPO/Karajan as well as the notorious Rostropovich/USSRSSO/Svetlanov 1968 Proms performance which I attended, as well as the Casals/CzechPO/Szell which I couldn't resist at £2.50!

[Barbirollians]

One thing I forgot to mention . I thought the inadequacy of the recently raved about Zuill Bailey recording was very well illustrated by playing it after the Rostro/Boult in the same passage . Another rave review for it in IRR I see where the cellist's grainy tone was seen as an advantage !

[Barbirollians]

I think an excerpt of the Rostropovich/ Karajan recording would also have been useful in illustrating the difference in sound of the Berlin Philharmonic for Szell and for Karajan just seven years later. When I first heard the Fournier/ Szell recording (blind), I could have sworn it was a Czech band.

I agree - the wind playing in particular is superbly idiomatic to my ears.

[Pabmusic]

I've just noticed this 1935 recording from Gaspar Cassadó and the Berlin Phil. with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt: http://satyr78lp.blogspot.com/

I don't know it, or the cellist*, but Nazi Dvorak might be interesting.

* it seems he was a composition pupil of both de Falla and Ravel.

[Ariosto]

[QUOTE
I seem to recall that back in the LP days the Rostropovich/Boult was preferred by many to the Karajan. [/QUOTE]

Intresting because although I know neither of these recordings Boult was known (from personal experince too) as a lousy accompanist. I'm not a great fan of Karajan, and as a musician I greatly admired Boult except when working with soloists. But maybe some Boult recordings like this one are the exception to the rule.

[Barbirollians]

I know you have expressed that view about Boult before but I have not come across such a phenomenon in his recordings whether studio or live . What were his inadequacies ? Technical or like Celi was sometimes reputed to be determined to impose his tempo on the soloist ?

[Pabmusic]

I know you have expressed that view about Boult before but I have not come across such a phenomenon in his recordings whether studio or live . What were his inadequacies ? Technical or like Celi was sometimes reputed to be determined to impose his tempo on the soloist ?

Can I express my own scepticism? A quick glance through Michael Kennedy's biography, and a little googling, reveals at least a dozen comments, not apparently linked, about what a good accompanist Boult was ("as good an accompanist as Barbirolli"!). So it is surprising to hear that Boult was "known...as a lousy accompanist". Alan Sanders' discography show that he made about 104 recordings as an accompanist (not including choral pieces) including multiple recordings with Backhaus, Schnabel, Solomon, Cherkassky, Casals, Menuhin, Michael Rabin and Kirsten Flagstad.

Certainly I can attest that Norman del Mar used to recommend Boult as an example of how to prepare and execute a concerto accompaniment.

[Nick Armstrong]

Boult was known (from personal experince too) as a lousy accompanist.

Really? Maybe. It merely sounded great...

[PJPJ]

I've just noticed this 1935 recording from Gaspar Cassadó and the Berlin Phil. with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt: http://satyr78lp.blogspot.com/

I don't know it, or the cellist*, but Nazi Dvorak might be interesting.

* it seems he was a composition pupil of both de Falla and Ravel.

To my knowledge Hans Schmidt-Issestedt was not a Nazi.

[amateur51]

Really? Maybe. It merely sounded great...

What do we know, Caliban? We only pay to go their concerts, buy their CDs

[umslopogaas]

Pabmusic, Gaspar Cassado gets a brief mention in 'Am I Too Loud? by Gerald Moore (pp 98 -99). Apparently he had "... some contraption on the bridge which amplified the tone ..." Moore says he liked the result, but unfortunately doesnt elaborate on what this gadget was. I once asked a lady cellist I knew, but she had no idea what it could have been. This was pre-WW2, so I dont think it could have been electric amplification?

[Richard Tarleton]

To my knowledge Hans Schmidt-Issestedt was not a Nazi.

He wasn't, and well done PJPJ for picking this up. He had avoided joining the Nazi party, and was picked by the British authorities after the war to form the Nord West Deutsche Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra. His first wife (the mother of Erik Smith, the great record producer) was Jewish. although they were no longer together when she and young Erik left Germany in 1939 to come to England. Erik writes affectionately of him in his privately and posthumously published memoir "Mostly Mozart".

He had had polio as a child - anyone who saw him conduct as I did a handful of times in the early 1970s will recall he walked with a limp.