Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms :: Schuricht: Maestro Agile (Box Set)

Great Schuricht In Variable Transfers

Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 06/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 10-disc History CD label tribute to the great German conductor Carl Schuricht (1880-1967) is comprised of five 2-disc "jewel boxes" inside a cardboard "garage" cover. These are 78 rpm era studio recordings 1929-1948, with one "live" exception. Amazon has not listed the contents, so I will list them by individual 2-disc CD number, with corrected recording dates per John Hunt's excellent Schuricht discography.



205640: All Beethoven - 1941 Sym. #1 and 1942 Coriolan Ov. with the Berlin Stadisches Orch., 1947 Sym. #2 (Suisse Romande), and a 1941 "Eroica" (BPO). Schuricht recorded superior versions of #1-2 with the VPO on London LPs that Testament should re-issue. The #3 is less impressive than his live 1964 BPO acount (deleted Originals); the Coriolan is excellent but no match for Furtwangler's (M & A).



205641: Beethoven's Symphonies #4 (1942), #6 (1943), and #7 (1937) are less impressive than the later remakes found in Schuricht's complete set on French EMI. But the 1949 5th, with the Paris Conservatory, is one of the GREAT recordings: lean, swift and propulsive, somewhat akin to Kleiber's but warmer and more expressive. Poor transfer - my LP is far better. Testament, are you listening?



205642: Good transfers. This delightful c.1940 BPO Mozart 34th is better than the 1943 Dresden account on Berlin Clasics. The Brahms Double Concerto (1947 Suisse Romande, with Kulenkampff and Mainardi) is the only memento of Schuricht's way with this work. Kulenkampff is fine, but Mainardi is a bit labored and has intonation problems. The remainder: Bruch Violin Concerto #1 (1947 Zurich Tonhalle), Bizet's "L'Arlesienne" Suite #1 (BPO 1935), Offenbach's "Orpheus" Ov. (1937 BPO), and Franck's "Le chausseur Maudit" (1940 BPO). I prefer Bustabo/Mengleberg in the Bruch - the rest are fine, if not especially idiomatic.



205643: Bruckner Symphonies #7 (1938 BPO) and #9 (1943 Berlin Stadisches). I prefer the 1961 Hague Phil. 7th, despite its lesser execution and too-brisk 2nd mvt. It's a case of the provincial ensemble playing its collective hearts out, versus the "big" band coasting along in neutral. The 9th is rather low key - Schuricht's greatest Bruckner 9th, to my ears, is his stereo VPO account (EMI).



205644: Schumann's "Manfred" Ov. (LPO 1948), Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Ov. (1929 BPO), R. Strauss's "Sinfonia Domestica" (La Scala 1940), and a "live" 1939 Mahler "Das Lied von der Erde" (Concertgebouw, with Ohmann & Thorborg). A fine Manfred and an electifying Dutchman (astonishingly good sound). The Strauss is one of my favorite interpretations (a better transfer is on Preiser). The "Das Lied" is one of THE great performances, along with sich alternatives the Walter (Decca), the Horenstein, and the stereo Klemperer (see my review of the latter at Amazon).



This Mahler is the infamous concert, given just 7 months before Germany invaded Holland, in which a woman walks up to Schuricht (at about 19:30 in "Abscheid") and proclaims "Deutschland Uber Alles, Herr Schuricht!" The audience shushes her and the performance continues without dropping a beat. Whether she was protesting the presence of a German conductor on the podium, or was simply expressing distaste for the Jewish composer's music, will never be known. It's a very eerie moment. This can be heard in better transfers on Bel Age, Minerva, and Archiphon.



Conclusion: the highlights here are the Mozart 34th, the Beethoven 5th, and the Wagner-Strauss-Mahler items. Overall, the 10-disc Scribendum stereo set (at amazon.uk) is perhaps a better survey of this fine conductor's unique talents."