Tag Archives: Music History

From the house of Master Bohm

 

 

John O’Donnell (harpsichord)

MELBA  301143 TPT: 79’48”

 

Liszt Wagner Paraphrases

Asher Fisch (piano)

MELBA  301141 TPT: 67’07”

 

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

How much we take photocopying machines for granted nowadays. But I’m old enough to  recall vividly as a child in the 1940s (when photocopiers were in their infancy and certainly not standard equipment in business offices),  painstakingly copying out piano pieces note for note from my teacher’s music books out of print or unavailable due to wartime restrictions. And if, say, in an insurance office, copies of  letters were needed, they had to be typed by an employee in the typing pool, a time- consuming occupation.

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What has this, you’ll be wondering, to do with the music of Georg Bohm and the generous and welcome selection from his harpsichord output on a recent MELBA release? It seems that what little we have of Bohm’s music is largely, though not entirely, due to the efforts of the then-15-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach who  studied with Bohm at the time and, crucially, and painstakingly, made copies of some of his teacher’s compositions which he handed round to members of the larger Bach family. Without these, Bohm might, at best, have been little more than a footnote to music history.

 

And what a splendid performance we have courtesy of John O’Donnell, a musician whose playing has the unmistakable stamp of authority. Much of the performance on disc is informed by a quite captivating joie de vivre – and the extraordinary skilled presentation, with notes clothed in golden tone and informed by an authoritative confidence, makes this CD quite exceptional. Bravo!

 

This compilation is yet another instance of the imaginative resourcefulness that is a hallmark of the Melba label. As I have mentioned before a number of times – but it certainly warrants reiteration – there is much more to a Melba CD than the disc itself. Invariably, there are fascinating liner notes and a finely designed CD container. This is particularly so here.

 

Melba’s preparedness, music-wise, to embrace the novel, the forgotten and the challenging makes this label – small in relation to the international big names – a giant insofar as courage and enterprise are concerned. At every level, this product is a joy. The playing has the stamp of authority; it glows with golden tone and the stamp of authority. Highly recommended for anyone interested in baroque harpsichord playing at an august level.

 

Wagner was a man of many parts: embezzler, anti-Semite, anarchist, serial adulterer and a person of incorrigible vanity. He was also a genius. His cause has not been helped by being Hitler’s favourite composer. The vile leader of the Third Reich also possessed a number of Wagner’s original opera scores which he cherished.

 

Asher Fisch needs little introduction although his primary claim to fame is as conductor rather than pianist. He has also been at the forefront of events in presiding over the Wagner Ring cycle in Adelaide, the recordings of which deservedly garnered high praise internationally.

 

In the late nineteenth century, without radio or recordings, the chances of encountering ‘live’ performances of a Wagner opera were very few and limited to those in cities boasting an opera company. But, through the great skill of Liszt (among others), keyboard paraphrases of scenes and/or arias became very popular at recitals and soirees.

 

In recent months, a tsunami of CDs devoted to Wagner’s operas has almost overwhelmed the music scene. A few are disappointing and will sink without trace, some will keep afloat – and a significant few are riding the crest of the wave.

 

Fisch’s recording of Liszt/Wagner paraphrases certainly belongs to the last mentioned category. It’s fascinating fare Asher Fisch Liszt Wagner Paraphrases cover HIGH RESpresented with high musical intelligence and beautifully recorded. I especially admired the skill brought to bear on the Spinning Chorus from The Flying Dutchman, the whirring figurations beautifully managed – and the Pilgrims’ Chorus from Tannhauser is no less meaningful. Its broadly paced measures and, where required, introspective moments as well as climactic episodes are the acme of refined taste. So, too, is Entry of the Guests; I’ve returned to Asch’s account of it a number of times – it’s a consummately fine offering.

 

Wagner wrote almost nothing for piano solo but here are three rarities, miniatures written as gifts for friends. They amount to very little. They are rather introspective little pieces with a faded charm which, without the magic of Wagner’s name attached to them, would long ago have disappeared into music history’s wastepaper basket.

The Classic 100

Australia’s 100 favourite symphonies

ABC Classics 480 2832/ 480 2837  8 CDs

reviewed by Neville Cohn

480 2842 Symphony 100 Box 3D

It was an event unique in the music history of Australia: a countrywide vote for the nation’s favourite 100 symphonies, an event hosted by The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

This was not the first time that the ABC  – and the record label ABC Classics – had instituted an initiative along these lines – but not in relation to symphonies.

In earlier years, there had been nationwide voting to establish Australia’s tastes in chamber music as well as the piano repertoire, favourite Mozart moments and many other music genres along these lines.

This symphonic countdown was a particularly remarkable experience. After voting had closed, the ABC began the mammoth task of broadcasting each of the 100 symphonies in their entirety, starting with the symphony at number 100 ( by co-incidence, it was Haydn’s Symphony No 100).

It was a fascinating experience, not only listening to the works in their order of popularity but also to messages  – reactions, opinions, congratulations, reservations – from those many enthusiasts across Australia who phoned in to the ABC to share their views on the whole enterprise.

Has any other radio station anywhere provided such a mammoth listening experience?

The collection on the ABC Classics label – on eight compact discs – contains the ten symphonies voted as most popular in their entirety with a number of the remaining 90 symphonies each represented by a single movement. It’s not an ideal arrangement and

I’m certain that the compilers would have wanted all 100 symphonies to have been available in toto. But I imagine that the full collection would have been so expensive as to be beyond the pocket of many, if not most.

One would have to wonder how some of these works got onto the list – and how many votes were cast in total? Without this crucial component, one can only speculate.

Were the numbers so small as to be an embarrassment? I rather doubt that – but one cannot be sure.

How many voted for Ross Edwards’ Symphony? How many votes were cast in, say, New South Wales or the Northern Territory – or Christmas Island?

How many voters plumped for, say, Tchaikowsky or Sibelius? How did Brahms fare in Tasmania, say, or Haydn in Norfolk Island – or Messiaen in W.A.?

It seems to me that if such an ambitious enquiry into Australia’s symphonic tastes was undertaken, why not get the figures out there? And if whatever reason, voting numbers are to be suppressed, then why not provide percentage figures in relation to the total vote count which would certainly be of great interest.

Intriguingly, how many votes were cast in favour of symphonies that didn’t make the list at all? Which were they? How close did they come to inclusion?

The answer could well be revelatory – or not. Without these figures, one is left to surmise.

How many would have voted for Australia’s No 1 symphony – Dvorak’s New World, a worthy winner, although possibly a surprise to those who might have felt that  Beethoven’s Ninth or Tchaikovsky’s Sixth would be first over the line?

Audience tastes, of course, vary over time and place. Consider these results from a poll taken in 1938 by New York radio station WQXR. It makes fascinating reading:

Beethoven’s Fifth came out on top with 23.9% of the votes, Beethoven’s Seventh came second with 18.3% and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth came third with 16.5%.  Beethoven’s Ninth, Third and Sixth were respectively fourth, sixth and twelfth.

At the time, it was suggested by some commentators that it was only a matter of time

before the Seventh outstripped the Fifth. Time has shown that it didn’t happen. It  probably never will.

(I wasn’t able to obtain figures for other composers: placings for Dvorak, Mozart, Haydn and Mahler which would have made interesting reading.)

If, for whatever reason, the ABC Classics compilers didn’t want to reveal the voting numbers, it would surely have been a straightforward enough task to disclose the percentage voting figures as was the case with the New York radio station.

Although some of the recordings of the Top Ten works are of leading overseas orchestras, a very considerable number of the tracks on these eight CDs are by Australian orchestras, although one would wonder why the W.A.Symphony Orchestra is represented by only one track. The WASO’s form has come along impressively in recent years and it’s a shame it doesn’t have more representation on compact disc.

Apart from the top ten in toto, single-movement excerpts from 19 other symphonies round out the eight CDs of the set – ten hours listening time.