Mischa Elman (violin)
The complete Victor recordings (1926-32)
Biddulph 85050-2 [2 CDs: 162]

Slowly but surely Mischa Elman’s discography has been transferred to CD to an extent that would be unimaginable in the days of LP. In particular, Biddulph has approached matters from both sides of the chronology, years ago releasing multiple volumes devoted to his 1919-24 Victor acoustics and much more recently releasing discs focusing on his 1939-51 RCA Victors. With this latest twofer it covers the overlooked years of 1926-32 and the long sequence of (largely) sweetmeats he recorded with such expressive passion. It also includes four sides he made for HMV in London.

Elman was one of the greatest tonalists in music and he could spin succulent, songful warmth like no other, unless you include his fellow Auer student, Toscha Seidel. But he was also a capricious and teasing master of rubato as one can hear in Arensky’s Serenade in G, played with so flirtatious and coquettish a sense of metrics that it defeats mere bar lines – even when he did too much, as he does here, it remains inimitably Elmanesque. The plasticity of his phrasing, as one can hear in Cui’s Letter of Love, is both charming and winning, qualities that irradiate many of the examples in these two discs.

Elman’s love of quartet playing is reflected in the Haydn Quartet he recorded in January 1927 with his new line-up of colleagues Edwin Bachmann, William Schubert and Horace Britt and in the slow movement of the Emperor Quartet and the Tchaikovsky Andante cantabile, electric remakes of earlier acoustic recordings. Neither is as heavily vibrated as one might have expected, Elman solicitously not drawing attention to himself too much. The only other piece in the first CD that’s not piano-accompanied is Cui’s Orientale where one finds a little ensemble directed by Rosario Bourdon. His Dvořák Humoresque is poised and lyrical and there’s an especially lovely Rachmaninov Vocalise in the Michael Press arrangement. Massenet’s Méditation from Thaïs is irradiated (or bombarded) by an array of slides and express shadings to such an extent that it becomes a piquant soufflé of sounds. He plays his own Tango and was to go on to make two more recordings of this attractive piece. He also plays Rimsky’s Hymn to the Sun in Sam Franko’s arrangement, not Kreisler’s.

The second disc continues the chronological presentation of these discs, something of which I strongly approve. Raff Cavatina is heavily over-vibrated and disfigured by excessive rubati; it’s barely coherent and an example of his unbridled romanticism. As Albert Sammons once said of Elman’s wayward rhythm; ‘two years in a symphony orchestra would have taught him something’. The two-sided 78 that houses Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade mélancolique is, however, undiluted pleasure. His rubati tend to teeter on the edge in Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen but the piece just about survives the treatment. Give me Zimbalist though. His recording of Harry Waldo Warner’s Serenade, Op.20 No.2 is, I think, still the only one ever made and that’s a real shame given its quotient of pixie frolic. Warner was the violist in the London String Quartet and had just retired so perhaps the recording was a tip of the hat from Elman. The session that produced Ravel’s Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera, recorded on 20 February 1932, sounds rather different from the others – it’s quite dry and Caroll Hollister’s piano sounds covered, unfortunately, blunting the impact of the playing, which isn’t particularly expressive in any case. Those last four HMVs include a fine Ysaÿe Rêve d’enfant and one (of three) recordings Elman made of Espejo’s Airs Tziganes. It brings this long sequence to an end with something of a flourish.

The copies used are first class and remastering has kept in some surface the better to preserve air, studio acoustic and that fabled Elman tone. There’s an extensive five-page booklet note from Wayne Kiley that strikes all the right notes.

Jonathan Woolf

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Contents
Arensky: Serenade for Violin and Piano, Op. 30 No. 2
Cui: Letter of Love in F Sharp Major, Op. 50, No. 21
Friml: At Evening arr Kramer
Haydn: String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 76, No. 2
Haydn: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3
Haydn: String Quartet “Emperor”, Mvt 2
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 Mvt 2
Cui: Kaleidoscope in G Minor, Op. 50, No. 9
Cui: Orientale
Dvořák: Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7
Drdla: Souvenir
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
Bach, J S: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV1068; Air on the G-String
Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957, D957; Serenade
Sibelius: Valse Triste, Op. 44 No. 1
Wieniawski: Caprice in E-Flat Major (Alla saltarella) in E Flat Major, Op. 10, No. 10
Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15, Op. 15, No. 7; Traumerei
Schubert: Ave Maria, Op. 52 No. 6, D839
Massenet: “Méditation” from Thaïs
Elman: Tango
Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d’Or: Hymn to the Sun
Josef Bonime (piano)
Raymond Bauman (piano)
Marcel van Gool (piano)
Elman String Quartet
Unnamed Orchestra/Rosario Bourdon
The Victor Symphony Orchestra/Nathaniel Shilkret
Beethoven: 6 Minuets, WoO 10 in G Major, WoO 10, No. 2
Raff: Cavatina for violin & piano (or orchestra), Op. 85 No. 3
Wagner: Albumblatt
Schubert: Valse sentimentale, D783, No. 10
Wieniawski: Légende, Op.17, Op. 17
Saint-Saëns: “The Swan” from The Carnival of the Animals
Wagner: “Prize Song” from Die Meistersinger
Tchaikovsky: “Mélodie” from Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op. 42, No. 3
Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique in B Flat Minor, Op. 26
Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 (Version for Violin & Piano)
Drdla: Serenade in A Major
Drigo: Sérénade from Les millions d’Arlequin:
Warner, H W: Serenade, Op. 20, No. 2
Drdla: Longing, Op. 228
Ravel: Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera
Mendelssohn: O for the Wings of a Dove, WoO 15; MWV B 49
Chopin: Nocturnes, Op. 27 (Arr. for Violin & Piano by August Wilhelmj) in D Major, Op. 27, No. 2
Ysaÿe: Rêve d’enfant, Op. 14
Espéjo: Airs Tziganes, Op. 11
Josef Bonime (piano)
Carroll Hollister (piano)
The Victor Symphony Orchestra/Nathaniel Shilkret