Willem Mengelberg (conductor)
The Concertgebouw Telefunken Recordings Volume 4
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”
Julius Röntgen (1855-1932)
Old Netherlands Dances, Op. 46
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Overture
Cesar Franck (1822-1890)
Symphony in D minor
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
rec. 1940-1, Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Pristine Audio PASC719 [2 CDs: 137]

Pristine’s chronological survey of Mengelberg’s Telefunken records has brought us to the end of those made in 1940 and the start of those from 1941. This set contains only a couple of short “filler” pieces, the rest being three substantial works.

We begin with Beethoven’s “Eroica” in a splendidly bracing performance. Tempi throughout are swift and with a real momentum, but are never frenetic. The first movement, at 14.27 is within 30 seconds of both Toscanini’s 1939 and 1953 performances. The playing is big-boned and trenchant with comparatively little rubato, and what there is is less extreme than might have been expected, for example at very beginning of the symphony, at the end of the first statement of the first subject, there is a relaxation at the cadence, but it is relatively slight. There are ralentandos where there would be none today, such as the section beginning about 6.40 into the first movement, but they never impede the larger-scale forward movement. The Funeral March is similarly swift – it’s actually 25 seconds faster than Toscanini’s 1939 performance. It is full of character and detail but never remotely sentimental or indulgent. It may lack the intensity of grief of Furtwängler, but is nevertheless entirely convincing. Both the third and fourth movements are of a piece with the preceding ones, and the orchestra’s articulation is wonderfully crisp, for example at the fugato section 2.44 into the last movement. This is a performance of exhilarating conviction and confidence.

The two movements from Röntgen’s Old Netherlands Dances, Op. 46 are attractive, romantic arrangements very typical of their time. They are not especially memorable, but are beautifully played.

The Meistersinger Prelude is another marvellously alive performance. Mengelberg’s flexibility of tempo and variety of articulation allow each section to be vividly characterised. Many performances of the Prelude on its own make it sound like a stand-alone tone poem, but here it really does sound like it is going to continue into the complete opera, and the widely spaced final two chords come with something of a jolt. At 9.14 it is also close to Wagner’s own suggestion of its duration.

The romanticism of Franck’s D minor Symphony makes this piece one for which Mengelberg’s flexibility is highly appropriate. As with the “Eroica” the tempi are generally swift, this is not a languorously dilatory performance. The introductory Lento is full of tension and foreboding and the Allegro is exceptionally flexible in tempo, giving the impression of a symphonic poem rather than a symphony, but the momentum is sustained throughout. While it cannot be denied that much of the rubato finds no sanction in the score, I find the the whole to be entirely convincing. The second movement maintains the feeling of tension after an effectively lamenting opening cor anglais solo. The contrasting sections with their tremolando strings are at times almost panic-stricken, making the movement a very unsettling experience. Things do not really lighten in the last movement. Again Mengelberg emphasises the dark, insecure feelings in the music, the sense that something awful is inevitably about to happen. Listen to the section beginning about 2 minutes into the movement; the sense of someone’s mind restlessly, aimlessly seeking a solution or a way out is palpable. Only in the final bars does any sense of victory occur, and one wonders if this brevity shows it is also illusory.  Mengelberg seems to have a very dark view of this work, one which will not appeal to everyone, but I find it one of the most compelling and convincing that I know.

It might be worth mentioning that the recording of the Franck is less successful than the other pieces. There is more of a sense of congestion and the high frequencies are rather fuzzy at times. This is most noticeable at the start of the second movement, where the cor anglais solo is quite distorted. I had not remembered this from the original 78s, so I went back to them for comparison. Sure enough, the problem is in the originals, but the surface noise had obscured it; paradoxically, the excellence of the transfer and equalisation of the sound had at this point resulted in making the fault more obvious.

The Heldenleben performance is, of course, the second recording Mengelberg made, and is arguably even more “authentic” than the first one because Strauss had dedicated the piece to “Willem Mengelberg und dem Concertgebouw-Orchester” and the 1928 recording had been with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The received wisdom is that the earlier recording is better than the one under review here, but there seems to me to be little difference between them. It is a performance full of character and detail and the then-new leader of the Concertgebouw, Ferdinand Helman, plays the solo part superbly. This performance has been available on Pristine PASC 103 for something like 15 years, but about whether or not this is a new transfer there is no mention. My guess would be that it is not – I would think that something would have been said about the improvement over the previous issue had it been.

The transfers are, as always, excellent, and any disappointments in terms of the sound are inherent in the original recordings. We are now well over half way through Mengelberg’s Telefunkens, with four large symphonic works and a number of shorter ones still to go. I look forward to the continuation of this excellent series.

Paul Steinson

Availability: Pristine Classical

Recording Details
Beethoven, Röntgen rec. 11 Nov 1940
Wagner rec. 13 November 1940
Franck rec. 12-13 November 1940
Strauss rec. 21 April 1941

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn