Victor de Sabata: New York Broadcasts (1951)
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York/Victor de Sabata
Barber, Schumann, Beethoven & Wagner
Contents beneath review
rec. 18 March (CD 1); 25 March (CD 2) 1951, Carnegie Hall, New York City
Pristine Audio PASC 773 [2 CDs: 147]

Despite his reputation, Victor de Sabata’s commercial discography is miniscule; were it not for the famous Callas Tosca and the Verdi Requiem of 1954 it would essentially be non-existent – and he made none in stereo. Hence this Pristine issue of two concerts broadcast from Carnegie Hall in 1951, here rendered into Ambient Stereo, makes a welcome and substantial addition to his legacy. The presence of two great artists in Claudio Arrau and Eileen Farrell makes them even more attractive.

Pristine previously issued his 1939 Berlin recordings which I favourably reviewed; that includes the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde which are featured here in the second radio broadcast.

Not much about Barber’s overture strikes me as redolent of an 18C comedy of manners but it is strongly played and directed, making an excellent appetiser, de Sabata bringing wit and verve to its performance and the orchestra actually sounding as if it is enjoying playing it. The sound in general is a bit distant and foggy and a few hacking coughs intrude, especially in the finale of the symphony. The Schumann piano concerto suffers rather from a certain tinny over-reverberance which the remastering could not remedy but that does not mask Arrau’s dark, burnished tone and the amplitude of his playing. De Sabata’s accompaniment is generally relaxed and flexible but he knows when to crank up tension as over the last minute and a half of the first movement following Arrau’s enormously powerful cadenza – which elicits some desultory and forbidden applause. The Intermezzo is light and elegant, the finale fluent and virile, although the orchestra sometimes sounds rather distant.

The Beethoven symphony is fully energised, with crisp dotted rhythms and prominent timpani. De Sabata avoids the big sonata-form exposition repeats in the 1st and 4th movements, but does the repeat in the third movement. The Scherzo is delightful, the menuetto bold and assertive, the finale rumbustious and released; this is a thoroughly enjoyable performance without a hint of pernicketiness and the audience shows its appreciation.

The Wagner programme is musically flawless: the Meistersinger prelude is joyous and forthright, again eliciting roars of approval. The mood switches to the austere beauty of the Parsifal prelude; a little tape-print-through pre-echo mars it if you are listening on headphones but it is not as obtrusive as the coughers. The playing is serene and concentrated and the Good Friday music has great dignity and is played daringly slowly; the prelude to Tristan is likewise suffused with surging passion very much in the same style as Karajan’s live recording at Bayreuth the following year – and the heedless, hacking coughs persist throughout the most sublime moments.

The young Eileen Farrell was already an established star at 31 years old and made a speciality of singing the excerpts here; she is terrific: warm, secure and powerful with a lovely line. Interestingly, she made studio recordings of Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene and the Wesendonck-Lieder with Bernstein a decade later at the Manhattan Center but she never sang the entire role. Her “starke Scheite” is a touch marmoreal but those pinging, trilling top notes are a dream, the lower register sturdy and her use of text acute. It is surely one of the most sheerly beautiful hochdramatische soprano voices ever to sing this music and only adds to my regret that she never sang the complete role of Isolde. De Sabata gives her all the time in the world without dragging; “Ruhe, ruhe, du Gott!” is magically intoned, the climax is thrilling and the orchestral playing superb.

This is a fine testament to all three major artists involved – pianist, singer and conductor – and Pristine have done as much with the sound as could reasonably be wished.

(Note: the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York is simply the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; it changed its name the year of these concerts.)

Ralph Moore

Contents:
CD 1:
1. Radio – Introduction
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
2. Overture, The School for Scandal, Op. 5
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
3-5. Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Claudio Arrau (piano)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
6-9. Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
10. Radio – Conclusion
CD 2:
1. Radio – Introduction (1:30)
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
2. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Prelude
3. Parsifal – Prelude to Act I
4. Parsifal – Good Friday Spell
5. Tristan und Isolde – Prelude and Liebestod
6. Götterdämmerung – Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene
Eileen Farrell (soprano)
7. Radio – Conclusion
Announcer: James Fassett