Wood conducts Bach and Handel
Brandenburg Concertos Nos 3 and 6 (transcriptions by Wood)
Handel Messiah choruses
Orchestras and chorus/Sir Henry Wood
rec. 1925-32, London
Pristine Audio PASC 732 [76]

If the conjunction of Henry Wood and baroque music means anything to modern listeners it’s going to be our old friends ‘gargantuan’, ‘stylistically inappropriate’ and ‘decidedly not how we do things today’. That certainly applies to the Messiah choruses that he recorded at the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1926 but it’s not true of his Bach. And since each generation believes itself to be unique in its capacity to interpret Bach with ever greater ‘fidelity’, it might be worth listening to Wood for a little while and to reflect on his interpretative strengths.

When he began to record for Decca in the mid-30s, Wood had wanted to record a complete set of the Brandenburg Concertos but this never happened. Fortunately, he had earlier recorded Nos. 3 and 6 for Columbia. No.3 was recorded in the newly opened Abbey Road studios in 1932 with the British Symphony Orchestra and is the fastest pre-war recording of the Concerto that exists. He is punchy and direct, maintains tempi, even at cadences, resists the temptation to extrapolate the problematic second movement – avoiding, for example, Furtwängler’s bizarre ploy of parachuting Bach’s famous ‘Air’ in his recording – and whilst the full orchestral response in the finale can blur lines a little, the playing is athletic, full of brio and without tempo manipulation under the very final cadence.

No.6 was recorded two years earlier with an unnamed Symphony Orchestra, a Columbia freelance unit that probably contained a cadre drawn from Wood’s New Queen’s Hall Orchestra. Once again his conception is forward-looking and mobile, though there are some signs of expressive relaxation from time to time. Wood’s own arrangement of the Suite No 6, with its six movements drawn from diverse source material, was a late acoustic recording made in 1925 with the NQHO. This is, in effect, a study in expressive colouration and orchestral sonority, notwithstanding the limitations of the acoustic system, that exploits the orchestra’s full range. Wood makes use of trombones to buttress top-to-bottom sonority – I’d thought there was a tuba there too, as there often was in recordings at the time, but perhaps not – and two of the movements, in particular, are representative of his sonorous way with the music. The Lament, the second movement, is richly done and the Andante mistico, the fifth movement, is notable for Wood’s colourful employment of winds.

Whilst he’s certainly not as well-known as Stokowski for his Bach refashioning, both men shared a similar background. They were both London ex-organists who saw the potential for using the full capacity of the virtuoso symphony orchestra to project Bach to the widest audiences. Thus, Wood’s arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, recorded in 1935 for Decca owes its existence to the conductor earlier having heard Stokowski’s 1927 Philadelphia recording. Stokowski remains the master of romanticised grandeur in Bach whereas Wood offers a sonorous but more regularised pulse. The smaller Wood arrangements are pert and dapper, notably in the use of pizzicati, and in the Wilhelmj-Wood ‘Air’ one hears a natural dignity of expression shorn of bloating or bombast. ‘Paul Klenovsky’ was Wood’s nom de plume for some of his arrangements and as you may remember from Wood’s recording of Brahms’ Haydn Variations, mistakenly reissued under Toscanini’s name, Klenovsky and Toscanini received the plaudits, and Wood only grudging credit.

Dignity and buoyancy are typical of Wood’s Bach. As for the Handel, the five choruses have been transferred in full for what’s believed to be the first time. Recorded in situ, they’ve always been problematic. The orchestra and chorus numbered 3,500 as Columbia boasted on the record labels, and the discs start and stop abruptly. Audience applause was retained the better to reinforce the live nature of proceedings. This really does represent the gargantuan tail-end of this particular oratorio performance tradition, and a conductor would need sets of traffic lights, not a baton, to keep any kind of discipline.

Nevertheless, Bach is the main focus of this disc, with Handel rounding out the baroque theme and serving as a valuable though fallible appendix. Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers are first class and he’s done the best he can for the Crystal Palace sides. He’s also provided a one-page note.

Jonathan Woolf

Availability: Pristine Classical

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G, BWV 1048
British Symphony Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 16 June 1932 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London ∙ Matrices: CAX 6439-2 & 6440-1 First issued on Columbia LX 173

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat, BWV 1051
Symphony Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 12 June 1930 in Central Hall, Westminster ∙ Matrices: WAX 5617-2, 5618-2, 5619-1 & 5620-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 41/2

(arr. Wood) Suite No. 6 for Orchestra
Prelude (Prelude No. 3 in C sharp from Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 848)
Lament (Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, BWV 992)
Scherzo (Scherzo from Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV 827)
Gavotte & Musette (Gavottes I & II from English Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811)
Andante mistico (Prelude No. 22 in B flat minor, BWV 867)
Finale (Preludio from Partita for Violin solo No. 3 in E, BWV 1006)
New Queen’s Hall Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 5 February 1925 in the Clerkenwell Road Studios, London ∙ Matrices: AX 909-2, 910-2, 911-1 & 912-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia L 1684/5

(arr. Wood) Gavotte (from Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006)
British Symphony Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 16 June 1932 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London ∙ Matrix: CAX 6442-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 173

(arr. Wilhelmj-Wood) Air (from Suite No. 3 in D, BWV 1068)
British Symphony Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 16 June 1932 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London ∙ Matrix: CAX 6441-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 173

(arr. Wood) Preludio (from Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006)
New Queen’s Hall Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 19 June 1929 in Central Hall, Westminster ∙ Matrix: WAX 5031-4 ∙ First issued on Columbia L 2335

(arr. Wood) Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Queen’s Hall Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 2 May 1935 in the Thames Street Studio, London ∙ Matrices: TA 1781-2 & 1782-3 ∙ First issued on Decca K 768

Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Messiah, HWV 56
No. 4, “And the glory of the Lord”
No. 22, “Behold the Lamb of God”
No. 28, “He trusted in God that he would deliver him”
No. 33, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates”
No. 41, “Let us break their bonds asunder”
Handel Festival Choir and Orchestra/Sir Henry J. Wood
Recorded 12 June 1926 in the Crystal Palace, London ∙ Matrices: WAX 1595 (Track 17), 1597 (18), 1599 (19); WA 3413/4 (20); and WAX 1600 (21), all Take 1 ∙ First issued on Columbia L 1768/9 (17-19, 21) & D 1550 (20)