Karel Ančerl (conductor)
Live Recordings: Concertos
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
rec. 1953-66, Smetana Hall of the Municipal House; Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague
Supraphon SU4349-2 [7 CDs: 477]
This is the companion box to the 15-CD set ‘Ančerl Live Recordings’, which I don’t believe was reviewed here. It’s half the size at 7-CDs and contains mostly ex-Praga, as well as Supraphon, Cantus Classics and Preludio material, unlike the orchestral box which contained some ear-startlingly rare music. Nevertheless, many people won’t be familiar with previous incarnations and may be curious as to the range of repertoire and performers in this new box.
There are innumerable surviving examples of Richter playing Beethoven’s Concertos but he and Ančerl, despite a slightly restive audience, are certainly livelier in the First Concerto than, say, the Boston-Munch traversal, to cite just one. The Third Concerto from 1962, six years later, is in better sound and graced by a fluidly athletic cadenza.
The Beethovenian theme continues in CD 2 which leads with Szeryng’s performance of the Concerto from 1966 complete with a layer of tape hiss. Szeryng is seigneurial and deliberate and for my tastes, for all his innate nobility of expression, inclined to be rather dull. Schumann’s Piano Concerto is played by one of the major Czech players of the time, Jan Panenka, rather better remembered these days for his chamber work with the Suk Trio and for his solo work. His piano is rather recessed – the broadcast dates from 1955 – but his playing isn’t, and he belies any assumption one might have had that he’d be small-scaled. On the contrary, he’s imaginative and lithe.
CD 3 wears a very familiar look as it’s Ida Haendel, who has been represented in this Beethoven-Sibelius brace at least twice before on CD, along with much else, by Supraphon. Whichever soloist he had – Szeryng, Haendel or Herman Krebbers – Ančerl tended to insist or suggest the same tempo, though the expressive nuances of each soloist, naturally, differed. Despite certain pedantic moments here, for what it’s worth, I prefer Haendel’s liveliness to Szeryng. Haendel’s Sibelius has always been admired and justly so.
Richter dominates CD 4 playing the First Concertos of Liszt and Tchaikovsky. The Liszt is earlier than the LSO/Kondrashin recording and full of bravura and poetry, the soloist and conductor having perfect rapport. The Tchaikovsky was taped the same day as the Liszt, in preparation for the following two days when he and Ančerl met to make the studio recording on 4-5 June 1954 and I think this is making its first appearance on disc. The final concerto on this CD is Chopin’s Second, played by William Kempff with unselfconscious directness and some poetry.
Dvořák is the focus of CD 5. Rostropovich’s most famous recording of the Concerto was made with Talich on 16-18 June 1952 but this performance with Ančerl was given a fortnight earlier on 4 June and I don’t think it’s been issued before. The cellist always praised Talich for having led him to the core of the music which makes this earlier reading of some interest, as he still seems to be feeling his way into it. Ančerl is rhythmically more on point than Talich but the older conductor has the richer conception, and he encourages a less restful tempo in the slow movement than Ančerl. In 1950 David Oistrakh was in Prague to perform the Concerto though not with the Czech Philharmonic but with the Prague Radio Symphony – the only occasion in the box where the Czech Philharmonic is displaced. It’s been released on Praga and Cantus Classics. It’s standard early Oistrakh and a convincing reading.
There’s another Tchaikovsky Concerto in CD 6 played by Emil Gilels about seven months before the Richter. This has definitely been around before on Praga and Urania. Gilels is somewhat faster in the first movement than Richter but also more inclined to draw colour from the work. Another recording that I think is making its first appearance commercially is Ravel’s Piano Concerto, performed by Eva Bernáthová in 1959. The Hungarian-born pianist who was Czech ‘by marriage’ recorded with the Janáček Quartet as well as solo Bartók, and moved to London where she died at the age of 96. The Czech winds are at their most distinctive in the slow movement in this effective reading. Though Ančerl wasn’t especially known for his Ravel he did record some – Boléro, Rapsodie espagnole, Scheherazade with Danco, and Tzigane with Haendel.
The last disc contains Ida Haendel’s Stravinsky Concerto contained in the 5-CD Supraphon box already mentioned. Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos is played by Juliane Lerche and Ingeborg Herkomer with charisma and style. If you don’t know it, the concerto has everything you’d want for a good time – neo-baroque in places, with descriptive wit, insinuating charm, a lovely if somewhat unstable slow movement and a crisply droll finale. The last work in this disc is Prokofiev’s First Concerto played by Ivan Moravec in November 1962. Richter had recorded it with the Prague Symphony in 1954, but this Moravec performance is just as fine. It has colour, verve, incision and rhythmic resilience without any sense of pummelling. With Ančerl on board, an especially fine conductor of Prokofiev (and Shostakovich), the box ends on something of a high.
Much of this material exists on Praga and other labels but this box has been remastered from the original magnetic tapes in the Czech Radio archives and represents the best sound quality available, even when it’s only ‘School of 1955’ sound quality. There’s a well-illustrated and well-written booklet too.
Jonathan Woolf
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
rec. 2 June 1956 (No.1) and 21 June 1962 (No.3)
CD 2
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Henryk Szeryng (violin)
rec. 28 May 1966
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Jan Panenka (piano)
rec. 15 April 1955
CD 3
Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
Ida Haendel (violin)
rec. 18 October 1957
CD 4
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S 124
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
rec. 3 June 1954
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
Wilhelm Kempff (piano)
rec. 16 May 1959
CD 5
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Cello Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 104, B 191
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
rec. 4 June 1952
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, B 108
David Oistrakh (violin)/Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
rec. 27 May 1950
CD 6
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Emil Gilels (piano)
rec. 11 October 1953
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto in G major, M 83
Eva Bernáthová (piano)
rec. 13 February 1953
CD 7
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in D minor, FP 61
Juliane Lerche and Ingeborg Herkomer (pianos)
rec. 3 March 1960
Igor Stravinsky
Violin Concerto in D major
Ida Haendel (violin)
rec. 13 May 1962
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10
Ivan Moravec (piano)
rec. 15 November 1962
