Jesús María Sanromá (piano)
The Complete Boston ‘Pops’ Recordings
Boston Pops Orchestra/Arthur Fiedler
rec. 1936-41, Symphony Hall, Boston, 1939-41, unknown location (Campos)
APR 6045 [2 CDs: 155]
On this marvellous twofer APR brings together the six concertante works that Jesús María Sanromá recorded alongside Arthur Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra over a five year period from 1935. As a bonus it includes a selection of eight Puerta Rican dances by Morel Campos that Sanromá recorded in two sessions in 1939 and 1941. What a difference the passing of time makes; I am trying to imagine a pops concert or recording nowadays, even in the U.S, that would include either of the concertos by MacDowell or Paderewski. Even the Liszt Totentanz wouldn’t be near the top of my list of probable candidates though Gershwin’s Rhapsodie in blue certainly would. It is refreshing then to have them all released here.
At the age of twelve Sanromá was pronounced a boy wonder in Puerta Rico where the family had settled after leaving Barcelona a decade before he was born. Reading Jonathan Summers excellent notes his rise does not strike one as the usual Wunderkind story, with young pianists, age barely into double figures, throwing off Liszt études with casual disdain. That said he did win an important competition aged seventeen where he impressed such luminaries as Pierre Monteux and Rudolf Ganz. He studied with a former Paderewski pupil, Antoinette Szumowska, with whom he worked on her teacher’s A minor concerto. What is clear is that he absorbed repertoire quickly – he claimed he learned Liszt’s treacherous Totentanz in just four days ready for this recording – and he had a big virtuoso technique that was ready to tackle even the toughest works. He happily included new music in his large repertoire; Stravinsky, Loeffler, Malipiero and Hindemith were just a few of the composers he championed and his recordings include works by Krenek, Copland and Schönberg. All this is a far cry from the recordings on this set however which documents his happy association with the Boston Pops.
I have had a soft spot for the MacDowell concerto since hearing Eugene List’s recordings of both concertos and Earl Wild playing the presto giocoso of the second. Yes, as a romantic concerto it is quite over the top with blazing octaves and scintillating fingerwork, dazzling in Sanromá’s capable hands, but the melodies are gorgeous and MacDowell judges the drama wonderfully. The string opening to the first movement is highly atmospheric and is mirrored in the rather lovely tranquil ending after the big cadenza. Excellent playing all round and Fiedler is excellent at anticipating Sanromá’s surges of tempo in the second and third movements. Three years later they laid down Paderewski’s equally thrilling concerto. For all the drive and excitement of the outer movements the highlight for me here has always been the beautiful central Romanze with its simple melodic outline that charms at the outset and uplifts when it returns full voiced after the intricate writing at the heart of the movement. Is it perhaps a nod to his grandteacher that Sanromá plays with slightly de-synchronised hands? Paderewski knew how to reach his audience and it is surprising that this tuneful and energetic concerto is not better known. What a shame the Polish Fantasy wasn’t recorded at the same time.
Disc two brings more familiar fare. Mendelssohn’s G minor concerto is a perfect vehicle for Sanromá’s fleet fingers and quick reflexes. The light and shade that he finds in the most taxing fingerwork is a marvel and it is accompanied by crisp and responsive playing from the Boston Pops players. Their tone at the opening of the andante is rich and rounded and if Sanromá still has some of the Paderewski school dislocation of hands that we hear in his A minor concerto it is not excessive and does not detract from his lovely singing lines. The finale is infectious in its effervescence. From the bright sunlit Mendelssohn to the dark drama of Liszt’s Totentanz is quite a leap but the dazzling fingerwork that Sanromá displayed in the Mendelssohn is now joined by the phantasmagoric piano writing of Liszt’s invention at its most devilish. It is astonishing if Sanromá did indeed learn this in just four days; he has not just grasped the notes but also the dichotomy in its depiction of death, heaven and the underworld. This is one of the most gripping performances I know.
The earliest recording here is Gershwin’s Rhapsodie in blue, recorded in 1935; I rather like Summers’ inclusion of the snobbish and dismissive Gramophone review of this disc. The piece is apparently “one of the more pretentious essays in jazz idiom which never had much of interest to detain a musician”; thankfully the musical world doesn’t seem to have received the memo yet and it is a popular now as it ever was. This is a vigorous and energetic reading, taken quite fast but unlike another fast version that I reviewed recently Sanromá doesn’t sound perfunctory. He is really committed and even adds his own touches in many places – I love the downward chromatic run that accompanies Gershwin’s written rising chromatics and the sudden flamboyant cadenza just over half way through. There are several cuts but all the pertinent material is there. Gershwin began these Pop concert recordings and they ended in 1940 with more Gershwin, the concerto in F. Sanromá is at his most urbane here and the opening piano passage is beautifully fashioned with glorious tone. He seems to have been born to play this music and along with the orchestra seems to be enjoying himself immensely. There is a slightly different feel to the performance in that the jazz idiom of the Rhapsodie is felt more in the music here than in the playing, both orchestra and soloist giving more classical performances though no less gripping or characterised.
To really pack this fabulous collection APR have also included eight of the Puerta Rican Dances by Juan Morel Campos that Sanromá recorded in two sessions between 1939 and 1941. He began to add a selection of these pieces to his recitals from the 1930 and their engaging rhythms, a precursor to the works of composers like Lecuona or Nazareth in their respective countries and shows Sanromá letting his hair down a little.
Presentation and sound are excellent and this is a wonderful tribute to this dynamic pianist though it necessarily only presents one aspect of his playing. In addition to the contemporary composers mentioned above he recorded Stravinsky’s Capriccio, a work he gave the American premiere of as well as Hindemith’s Sonata for piano duet with the composer. Alongside his own transcription of Wagner’s Magic Fire Music and some more familiar fare – Mendelssohn, Liszt and Grieg – there is certainly scope for a future release.
Rob Challinor
Previous review: Jonathan Woolf
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Contents
Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)
Piano Concerto no.2 in D minor, Op.23 (1885)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.17 (1888)
Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896)
Puerto Rican Dances
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.25 (1831)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Totentanz, S126 (1865)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Concerto in F (1925)
