Arnold Rosé (violin)
rec.1902-31
Rosé String Quartet, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Karl Alwin
Biddulph 85071-2 [76]
Two decades ago, I reviewed a disc devoted to violinist Arnold Rosé, Mahler’s brother-in-law, when Arbiter brought out a disc devoted to some of his recordings.There is overlap between that disc and the one under review – 13 tracks out of 24 on this Biddulph release are also on the Arbiter, but Biddulph has gone further back in time, to include the violinist’s 1902 G & T recordings. These recordings were largely remade in 1909 but there is one example of expansion as he recorded the first part of Ernst’s Fantasy on Rossini’s ‘Otello’ in 1902 and recorded ‘part 2’ seven years later which now forms a harmonious whole.
I’m conscious that micro-reviews of historical performance practice can be tedious to those uninterested in this level of ‘granularity’ so can I refer you to that earlier review for specifics of this august violinist’s way with the repertoire. It is also a function of biography and chronology that performers born at the same time offer radically different aesthetic and expressive identities. If you heard Marie Soldat-Roeger for example, who was born in 1863, the same year as Rosé, and whose recordings I reviewed here two years ago, you might almost suspect that they were recorded in adjacent centuries. Notwithstanding Rose’s own late nineteenth-century style, he sounds immeasurably more ‘modern’ than Soldat.
I’ll just reprise salient elements of my earlier review to give an idea of his playing style. He uses ‘minimal vibrato, its usage reserved for moments of maximal expressive impact. His intonation was said to be unimpeachable and sounds it here; there are very few moments when it sounds compromised – the electric Bach is one case… Possibly gut strings suffered in the studio. Digitally he was athletic and supple and he doesn’t slow down to take difficult stretches as a more technically compromised contemporary might – the English player John Dunn is a case in point. His slides are glamorous and very quick, almost gulped; good taste inured him to gauche finger position changes and many of the extravagant portamenti that players such as Marie Hall and Maud Powell espoused in their recordings. The vibrato itself is slow and sounds undernourished to our ears. The lack of warmth can militate against certain compositions, which have to survive more on elegance than on vibrancy and tonal allure.’
His trill is quite slow in the Bach Air on the G-string and his portamenti are very obtrusive in the Beethoven Romance – Flesch noted that his was playing ‘of the 1870s with no concessions to modern tendencies’ – but his tone is attractive in Mendelssohn and there is a curiously affecting quality to his phrasing of Chopin’s ‘Romance,’ Wilhelmj’s arrangement of the slow movement of the First Piano Concerto. Lovers of such things can hear several examples of studio instructions at the start of some recordings – you’ll hear them clearly in both recordings of Svendsen’s Romance, one from 1902 and the other from 1909. It’s excellent that the Ernst has now been ‘joined up’ as it’s played with great buoyancy and brio. Whilst his Wieniawski is hasty and unconvincing, his Sarasate is a much better reflection of his art though the 1902 recording of Zigeunerweisen has a rather rough start – in any case the 1909 remake is preferable, as it’s a more expanded version, is in better sound and better played. Similarly, the same composer’s Spanish Dance No.8 is heard better in the 1909 version.
There are two abridged movements from Rosé’s famous string quartet on a 1924 Homochord disc. The late Bach Adagio from the Sonata No.1 is the only electric recording here apart from the last track, the ‘Ochs Walzer’ from Der Rosenkavalier in a 1931 recording where the Vienna Philharmonic, of which Rose was the concertmaster for decades, is conducted by Karl Alwin.
Arbiter retained quite a high level of surface noise in its disc, but this Biddulph manages to balance a reasonable level of noise – given that many of these discs are very rare – with openness of sound. Only a very few sides sound worn. The notes are good and this release should be listened alongside Biddulph’s own 1992 release devoted largely to the Quartet sides – three Beethoven quartets and Bach’s ‘Double’ Concerto with his daughter Alma. There’s much to be learned.
Jonathan Woolf
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV1068: Air (‘Air on a G String’)
Beethoven: Romance No.2 in F, Op.50
Mendelssohn: Andante from Concerto in E minor, op.64
Chopin: Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2
Chopin: Romance from Piano Concerto No.1
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor
Goldmark: Violin Concerto in A minor, op.28 – I Allegro moderato
Goldmark: Violin Concerto in A minor, op.28 – II Air: Andante
Svendsen: Romance in G, Op.26 (1st Recording)
Svendsen: Romance in G major, Op.26 (2nd Recording)
Ernst, H W: Fantasy on Rossini’s ‘Otello’, op.11 – part 1
Ernst, H W: Fantasy on Rossini’s ‘Otello’, op.11 – part 2
Wieniawski: Polonaise brillante 1 in D, Op.4
Sarasate: Waltz from Gounod’s ‘Faust’, op.13
Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, op.20 (1902)
Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, op.20 (1909)
Sarasate: Spanish Dance No.8, op.26, no.2 (1902)
Sarasate: Spanish Dance No.8, op.26, no.2 (1909)
Popper: Nocturne, Op.32, No.1
Achille Simonetti: Madrigale
Schubert: Scherzo from Quartet No.14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’
Rosé String Quartet
Tchaikovsky: Scherzo from Quartet No.1 in D major, op.11
Rosé String Quartet
Bach, J S: Adagio from Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor
Strauss, R: Der Rosenkavalier – Ochs Walzer
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Karl Alwin
