Search - :: Hindemith/Schoenberg/Bartok/Kodaly

Sensational Kubelik/Chicago Performances

Henry Mautner | Ludlow, KY, USA | 12/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the intriguing aspects of the great early 1950's Mercury recordings of the Chicago Symphony is the contrast it affords in comparison to those made immediately afterwards under new music director Fritz Reiner. Some of my most treasured recordings are from the Reiner/Chicago era, but I can't help but note what was lost with the exit of Rafael Kubelik from the scene.To be direct, the Chicago Symphony under Kubelik played with more humanity, warmth, and stylistic flexibility than under Reiner. What Reiner brought to the podium was an insistence on hair-trigger precision coupled with an exceptionally powerful musical intelligence. But while, for a martinet, his tastes were surprisingly catholic, it was Kubelik who in his very short tenure demonstrated truly extraordinary musical and emotional range, recording everything from Smetana to Mussorgsky to Schoenberg.The Kubelik performances on this disc include the most wonderfully paced recording I know of the Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis, and the fabled Mercury "Living Presence" sound lives up to its moniker. It's particularly interesting to note that the fabled "Reiner sound" of the brass may have had less to do with Reiner than with the amazing principal trumpeter Adolph Herseth and the rest of his colleagues; the trumpets and trombones in particular sound as spectacular here as on any Reiner recording. The Schoenberg "Five Pieces" are given a superbly intelligent, evocative, and exciting reading, and in terms of overall playing quality is even finer than the Hindemith. Then, there are the equally famous Dorati performances which conclude the disc. While I know I am in the minority on this issue, these excite me considerably less. Certainly few conductors are more at home in the idiom of Bartok and Kodaly, and the CSO is in blazing form. But the performances are so inexorably driven that there is no emotional breathing room - they are all tension and no release. One could argue that the music demands this approach, but there are other more finely shaded recordings of these works available. Given the price, the Kubelik performances alone earn the five stars, and the Dorati performances will keep the adrenalin flowing. Buy, and enjoy."

Excellent interpretations and good sound

Henry Mautner | 08/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's good to have these interpretations back. Kubelik gives a joyful reading of Hindemith's Metamorphoses and an inspired interpretation of Schönberg's Five Pieces, op. 16, that really convinced me that dodecaphonic music could also be enjoyable.Antal Dorati's readings of Kodaly's Peacock Variations and Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin Suite are just marvelous, even if, in the Peacock Variations, a faint microphone buzz can be heard (nothing disturbing though).The mono sound of the 1950s is astonishing, no less, and the booklet is really fascinating. Another indispensable recording."