Rudolph Ganz (conductor)
The Complete St. Louis Symphony Recordings
rec. 1923-1925, St Louis, Missouri; piano recordings; 1930, Victor Studios, Camden, USA
Pristine Audio PASC739 [79]
In the United States, the name of Rudolph Ganz (1877-1972) is still honored within the piano world. He occupied important teaching positions at schools in Chicago and New York for many years, his piano students including Joseph Bloch, Jeffrey Siegel, Abby Whiteside, and Vera Bradford. Many lesser-known students carried his pedagogical work forward in hundreds of communities throughout the country. His work as a conductor, specifically the Young People’s concerts of the St. Louis Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Chicago Symphony, also contributed greatly to the musical life of the United States.
He took up the baton of the St. Louis Symphony in 1921, conducting that band for the following six years. This new Pristine album features the St. Louis Symphony’s first-ever recordings, as well as a handful of discs Ganz made as a pianist for Victor.
The initial recordings made in late October of 1923 with the acoustic process are scrappy both as performances and as recordings. The string section struggles with Weber’s passagework in the Euryanthe Overture, and they don’t cover themselves with glory in the sickly portamenti that festoon the piece’s more lyrical sections. The winds sound consistently undernourished in the acoustic selections, as one might expect, and the tubby brass is a trial to listen to. For his part, Ganz keeps the music moving and manages to hold everything together without too many ensemble lapses. Of the acoustic sides, the one I found most convincing was Eugen d’Albert’s Overture to The Improvisator, an early 20th century “Historic-romantic folk opera in three acts.” Ganz liked this piece enough to bring it with him to the New York Philharmonic for a performance two years after making this recording. Oddly enough, the orchestra plays this quasi-Straussian overture with much more panache and technical control than they show on the Weber record made two days earlier. Ganz drives the music mercilessly, and it is quite exciting. Modern orchestras should consider taking up what sounds like a poor man’s Don Juan. The “Artist’s Life” Waltz is overly aggressive, with a particularly militaristic-sounding snare drum.
The electric sides display more of the same in terms of rather anemic winds and slack brass. The string section provides a better impression with the improved sonics, though their ability to play as a unit is still questionable at times. Of the electric selections, I enjoyed Edward German’s Dances from Nell Gwynn; it is charming music, even at the remove of a hundred years, and the St. Louis group handles it without too much difficulty. A rather leaden “Song of India” from Sadko rounds off the orchestral selections.
The piano selections here represent the most lasting contribution to Ganz’s recorded legacy. All four of the recordings display his polished technique, pleasingly round tone, impressive command of color, and a subtle sense of rubato. His shimmering arpeggios and scales, and a handful of coy diminuendi in Jensen’s Murmuring Zephyrs are a delight. A beautifully voiced recording of that old warhorse Liebestraum no. 3 is one of the stronger entries in that piece’s discography, lusciously shaded and given the same respect Ganz probably gave to Beethoven. The Chopin Waltz op. 34 no. 1 receives an energetic, masculine performance with thumping basses and vigorous crescendi in the passsagework that would have shocked fans of “The Chopinzee”, Vladimir de Pachmann.
I hope that Pristine will consider releasing a disc of Ganz’s many piano discs made for Pathé Records.
Richard Masters
Previous Review: Jonathan Woolf
Availability: Pristine Classical
Contents
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Euryanthe – Overture
Eduard Lassen (1830-1904)
Festival Overture
Christian Sinding (1856-1941)
Rustle of Spring
Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932)
The Improvisator – Overture
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)
Artist’s Life – Waltz
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
The Barber of Seville – Overture
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Hebrides Overture
Edward German (1862-1936)
Three Dances from Nell Gwyn
Giovanni Bolzoni (1841-1919)
Minuet
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Song of India from Sadko
Adolf Jensen (1837-1879)
Murmuring Zephyrs* (arr. Niemann)
Felix Mendelssohn
Spring Song*
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Liebestraum No. 3*
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Valse Brillante, Op. 34, No. 1* (arr. Joseffy)
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Rudolph Ganz (*piano)
