History of the Cello: Hans Kindler

In this week's newsletter:

• New this week - Ruggiero Ricci's stereo Decca recordings of the Mendelssohn & Bruch Violin Concertos
  
• New this week - Karajan's only LA Philharmonic concert - and his only ever Charles Ives
  
• Editorial - Six months on listening life after consigning the CD player and discs to the attic
• PADA - Part Three of The History of the Cello: "The conductors"
  
• Recent Reviews:
  Alfred Hertz and the SFSO Volume Three
  - "A really super collection ..."
  Julius Katchen LP Milestones
  - "a staggering tour de force by a young Turk in the throes of his Herculean prowess ..."
  Weingartner in Basle and London, 1928-1929
  - "Much to enjoy in - and to learn from – this new release ..."
  

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Editorial - Life without CDs

We're moving ever further into the digital age. This fact was brought home to me about three weeks ago when a rather badly hand-written sign arrived in the window of my favourite local café here in France stating that free wi-fi access was now available to customers. It was not something I expected to find in a small backwater town where medieval archways characterise the central square, the general populace is not generally particularly well-off, and tourists usually use the town's by-pass en route to more celebrated local destinations.

It was one of a number of excuses I used to justify the purchase of a small Samsung notepad computer, something which was of great use to me during my sojourn to Ireland last week (where Icelandic volcano ash threatened to scupper both ends of my stay), and upon which I'm now writing this, sitting outside that self same French café sipping strong black coffee, well away from my studio's ringing phones and the temptations of an ever-growing record collection.

While I was away I took time out to (finally) write the short tutorial I promised months ago on the use of XBMC software to play our downloads and serve as a central audio-video centre for just about any size of media collection. This can now be accessed online here: http://www.pristineclassical.com/More/XBMC-tutorial.html

All of which brings me in a roundabout way to my intended subject this week. It's now six months since silver discs were banished from my living room, and I thought it might be worth expounding a few thoughts on life without CDs, as well as detailing the actual system which has replaced the traditional CD player and disc shelving in my living room (and also stands in very well for our somewhat fussy DVD player).

First a little history: last year I began to realise that I was wasting a huge amount of time and money copying downloaded or self-produced recordings which were stored on my hard drives onto CDs for listening in my living room. Vast stacks of discs, hundreds at a time, formed on the mantelpiece, always inadequately labelled. My CD shelves, meanwhile, were in increasing disarray. With music acquisitions becoming almost exclusively an online pursuit something had to give...

I started early in 2009 with a hardware solution – an elegant box with a hard drive inside it, which could play almost all of my music and video files. This was fine for a while, but slowly a number of  shortcomings became ever more apparent. I had to carry it upstairs regularly and physically connect it to my network to add new recordings; it required a great deal of thought on my part to the organisation of recordings in order ever to find them again; a handful of minor technical issues in the device's software (or “firmware”) were supposed to have been dealt with by the manufacturer, but as they moved swiftly on to new products, support for my machine was dropped. In short, the system was locked and left no room for future development – and within months it was becoming just a little obsolete.

That's when I chanced upon XBMC (it was increasingly being mentioned on forums populated by frustrated owners of the aforementioned 'box'). I downloaded and installed it on one of my PCs as a test and was immediately converted – and soon set about building a system which would do what I wanted.

As a result, this is now what constitutes my audio replay chain prior to amplifiers and speakers:

1 – The server: I have a 4TB Western Digital MyBook World Edition network server. Inside its unassuming white plastic casing are two 2TB drives which permanently mirror one another, so that if one fails the collection is still there on the other. This resides in our main office, two storeys above my living room, requires little or no intervention, and runs itself. It actually runs reasonably quietly, but frankly it could make as much noise as it likes as it's too far away to hear when I'm downstairs listening to music.

2 – The network: The audio-video server connects directly to our Belkin N+ wi-fi router, which connects both wired and 300Mbps wireless networks together as one and delivers the range and speed I need for music and video file transmission from the office to the living room.

3 – The computer: I chose an ASRock Ion 330 - a bare-bones PC which has a footprint slightly bigger than a CD case and a height of perhaps three inches. It comes without keyboard, mouse, screen, software or operating system, allowing you the freedom to add whatever suits your circumstances – for example, it could be configured to run either Windows or Linux if you want to use XBMC. Right now mine is running XP, though I'll probably change this to Windows 7 shortly to allow XBMC to take full advantage of the hardware video acceleration it needs to play the highest definition videos smoothly.

At this stage almost any suitably powerful computer could take its place, as XBMC runs on a wide variety of operating systems, including the Apple Mac's OSX. For me the deciding factors were size, cost, quietness, flexibility, and a built-in HDMI video port to allow direct digital connection to our HD TV. The wi-fi connection delivers high speed music, video, network and Internet connections to my living room.

4 – Some additions: The beauty of a system like this is that it's modular, and you can adapt and adjust it to your requirements quite easily. I wanted better sound quality than the onboard offering, so I purchased an external E-Mu 0202 USB sound 'card' (it's actually a neat little box) to deliver professional quality audio output. I swapped the regular hard drive for a completely silent solid-state Kingston memory drive to insure against any possibility of a noisy future. I bought a wireless keyboard with an integrated laptop-style trackpad (instead of a mouse) to allow control of the system from anywhere in the room. I added an old 15” flat screen monitor (hard to find one quite so small these days!) so I could surf the Internet from my armchair in comfort – TV resolutions are high and make everything on the web look tiny! Although XBMC is designed to be viewed from a distance, the Internet is not...


And so there you have it – and the discs are consigned to the attic.

Do I miss CDs? No I do not! The ability with XBMC to browse or find immediately anything I want to listen to is unrivalled. New purchases are saved directly to the server, and when I ask it to, XBMC catalogues them, searching the internet for biographies and additional notes and artwork and so on (this can be set to happen automatically but I prefer to be in charge).

The sound quality is theoretically capable of significantly surpassing the 'humble' CD (though this is a somewhat technical point as I personally struggle to hear any great differences between well made 16-bit recordings and their 24-bit equivalents), with a much increased dynamic range over that available from the silver disc. But this particular point is for me secondary to the recovery of all the space previously taken up by discs!

If ever I feel deprived of sleevenotes the Internet provides more information than could ever be found in a small CD booklet.

I've even added a small FM transmitter which takes the headphone output of the soundcard and delivers my music to portable transistor radios in the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom...

Finally, it's a system in constant development. The software is constantly being updated with new features added, existing ones refined, and a team of enthusiasts discussing and offering ideas and criticisms on a continuous basis. The hardware is modular and off-the-shelf - I'm no longer reliant on a particular manufacturer or provider and can update or refine any part of the system as and when I like (or can afford to).

And when I go on holiday I can copy a few files wirelessly from the network onto this netbook and watch or listen on the beach or at the café – using XBMC; of course!

For a lot of people the iPod has transformed music on the move, but ultimately its limitations are shared by those outlined at the start of this article when I described my 'box'. Storage space is limited, it's a very locked-down system, sound output quality can't be improved, many audio formats remain forbidden, and so on. Sure, it's fine for mobile listening, but a home system requires so much more, and that's what mine is currently delivering – very high quality audio and video, silently and on demand, from a vast library, backed up with full access to the Internet for streamed services (such as our own PADA), in a flexible and always up-to-date package which could be replicated in almost any room in the house. Sounds like a winner to me...


Andrew Rose

Ruggiero Ricci, violin
London Symphony Orchestra 
conductor Pierino Gamba
Recorded in 1957 in stereo

Transfers from Decca LP SPA 88 in the Pristine Audio collection
XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, May 2010
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Ruggiero Ricci

Total duration: 50:40 
©2010 Pristine Audio.

For more download and CD options, see our website

Stereo FLAC downloads

New release today:

KARAJAN conducts the LA Philharmonic in Hollywood

Pristine Audio PASC 227

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

conductor Herbert von Karajan

Recorded live in 1959, Hollywood

Transfers of radio broadcast provided by a private collector
XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, May 2010
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Karajan rehearsing for this concert

Total duration: 79:29 

©2010 Pristine Audio.

For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

Karajan's only ever appearance with the LA Philharmonic

Featuring his only ever performance of music by Charles Ives

 

• STAFFORD SMITH The Star Spangled Banner [notes]
  
  
• WAGNER Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Overture [notes / score]
  
  
• IVES The Unanswered Question [notes / score]
  
  
• MOZART Symphony No. 35 'Haffner' in D, K385 [notes / score] 
  
  
• R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 [notes / score] 
  David Frisina, Violin 
  
  Played by Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
  conductor Herbert von Karajan
  

Live radio broadcast from Hollywood Bowl, 2nd July, 1959

WAGNER, IVES, MOZART, R. STRAUSS

This is a real one-off: Karajan opened the LA Philharmonic's 38th season with this open-air concert at the Hollywood Bowl in July, 1959.

It was the only time he ever conducted the orchestra, and includes the only performance Karajan ever conducted of a work by the celebrated American modernist composer Charles Ives, whose short piece 'The Unanswered Question' was undoubtedly new to many concertgoers, despite being composed more than 50 years previously.

In the Wagner, Mozart and Strauss we're in more familiar territory, and Karajan brings forth fine performances of each. The recording, from an FM radio broadcast, has survived in remarkably good shape for this, its first commercial release.

Download long listening sample: (Ein Heldenleben: 4. Des Helden Walstatt)

Notes on the recordings:

Herbert von Karajan opened the LA Philharmonic's 38th Season with this concert at the Hollywood Bowl on 2nd July, 1959. It was the only time he ever conducted the orchestra, and one of only a very small handful of concerts where Karajan conducted an American orchestra.

Adding further to its rarity is the fact that this is the only known performance by Karajan of one of Charles Ives' best known works, The Unanswered Question - indeed, there is no record of Karajan having ever conducted anything else by the composer. It is also interesting to note that no performances of the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, appear in Karajan's official discography and concert performance listings - though the fact that the present performance is also omitted means we cannot be sure that this was the only time he conducted it.

Transfer notes

A few days after the release by Pristine Audio of the third of three volumes of Karajan in New York I was contacted and offered a copy of the present recording for restoration and release by a collector who prefers to remain anonymous. (It should be stated here that this is not unusual - friends and collectors tend to quietly circulate recordings like this between each other, and often may not wish to upset the person who originally offered them their copy when it appears commercially!)

The recording was rather hissy and the sound quality somewhat strident in the mid-range and lacking in bass. Although copies are now easily made using digital media, it's almost certain that this originated on tape, and may of course not be a first-generation copy. As a result I carried out channel phase correction before combining left and right channels back to the original mono (the concert was broadcast in mono and stereo, but we currently have no access to any stereo recording).

XR remastering helped to correct some of those tonal flaws and greatly improve the overall sound quality. I had to contend with a number of aeroplanes - this was after all an outdoor concert - the echoes of which may still occasionally be audible, and there was a short and slight treble reduction during the Wagner, which remains. Overall, however, the sound quality is pretty well retained, with a decent frequency and dynamic range, if not quite the full clarity one might hope for in an FM radio broadcast.

The original recording I was sent ran to some three minutes over the available space on a CD. Fortunately the tightening of some gaps, editing of the announcer's speech and some lengthy applause allowed me to fit the entire performance onto a single disc - so don't be alarmed at the speed with which the conductor seems to leave and reappear on the stage during applause at the end of a performance!

Andrew Rose

 

Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit mono & Ambient Stereo FLAC, 24-bit mono FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

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New MP3 transfers at PADA Exclusives
by Dr. John Duffy
in Ambient Stereo

History of the Cello Vol. 3: "The Conductors"  Hans Kindler Featuring Cellists: Hans Kindler John Barbirolli   Part of a ten-volume series charting the historic recordings of cello music in the 78rpm era, replete with rare and important recordings by the greatest players of the first half of the 20th Century.   This History of the Cello series follows our earlier PADA Exclusives presentation of collections from the Thomas Clear limited edition LP transfer releases, for which we can now also supply scans of Clear-s original typewritten notes: History of Chamber Music:   History of the Violin:   This transfer is presented with Ambient Stereo remastering by Dr. John Duffy. Over 400 PADA Exclusives recordings are available for high-quality streamed listening and free 224kbps MP3 download to all subscribers. Remastered by  Dr John Duffy In Ambient Stereo

Download or stream this recording and many others from only One Euro a week!

Hundreds of historic recordings are available for listening and free MP3 download
  to subscribers to PADA Exclusives, our €1/week streamed audio service.

Other subscription offers give you full access to our entire online catalogue

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Pick of the reviews

GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

Alfred Hertz - Complete San Francisco Recordings Volume 3


PRISTINE AUDIO PASC216
 
...the mono sound quality is mostly very good, with little evidence of intrusive noise reduction.

The same goes for the exceptional third volume of Pristine's Alfred Hertz and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra: The Complete Recordings, which is devoted to French music, the high-point being a 1928 recording of Massenet's Le Cid ballet music, buoyant, well drilled, richly sensual. Music from Delibes's Coppélia and Sylviais also charmingly interpreted, as are Massenet and Auber overtures. I adored the pointedly pompous Funeral March of a Marionette. A really super collection.
 
Rob Cowan

AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

BRAHMS: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5;
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18

Julius Katchen, piano
New Symphony Orchestra
Anatole Fistoulari

PRISTINE AUDIO PAKM 035 [64:28] ****

Pristine Audio owner and engineer Andrew Rose resuscitates two milestone recordings from the London Decca archives and producer John Culshaw, the Brahms Sonata No. 3 in F Minor (11 October 1949) and the Rachmaninov Second Concerto (11-12 April 1951), the first sonata and concerto recordings, respectively, to be issued on single LPs.  Julius Katchen (1926-1969) built a formidable reputation as a Brahms acolyte, even consciously assuming rubato and luftpausen mannerisms traceable to the Romantic performance practice. For the Rachmaninov, Katchen applies his athletic style and muscular aggression to an overtly nostalgic score, perhaps at the sacrifice of sentimental tenderness.

The 1949 Brahms Sonata No. 3--like each of the piano sonatas, in thrall to the Beethoven 5th Symphony--allows the young virtuoso to effect a whiplash first movement, magisterial and relentless at once. Of special beauty, the Andante espessivo reveals Katchen’s pearly play, his capacity to paint the delicate fabric that here ties Brahms to Schumann’s limpid, falling figures. The rain-droplets effect will serve Brahms later in his Intermezzi from Op. 117, while the slow evolution of the Brahms stretti culminates in a passionate convulsion that breaks down and dissipates into a strummed romantic mist, akin to Wagner’s Liebestod. Attacca to the pungent Scherzo, its jabbing accents cogently projected with a tasteful application  of pedal. The grumbling bass of the trio and the syncopated da capo already point to aspects of the D Minor Concerto. The Ruckblick movement exploits the feral Beethoven 5th rhythm quite shamelessly, but Katchen projects its forward drive without undue rhetoric, making the quick transition to the Allegro moderato finale. The polyphonic elements emerge immediately, rather hectic; then the arpeggios and tremolandi announce the Brahms grand melodic line, perhaps an imitation of a Chopin ballade. Again, the Schumann influence permeates the contrapuntal development merged with sonata-form. The last pages accelerate the strands of rhythmic tissue, a real volcanic etude, breathless and brilliant, a staggering tour de force by a young Turk in the throes of his  Herculean prowess.

The Rachmaninov opens with clarion chords and wonderful momentum from Katchen, and Fistoulari elicits high gloss from his New Symphony Orchestra low strings. Katchen may be a literalist performer, but his rhythmic flexibility assures that the poetry of this popular music has been preserved. Speed and elegance combine for the first movement climax, on a par with my preferred William Kapell collaboration with William Steinberg from the same period. Lovely work between Katchen and the New Symphony cello section, with canny pedal and jeu perle from our gifted soloist, who passed from us decades too soon. The wonderful E Major Nocturne--with its reliance on Chopin’s Op. 48 set as examples--the Adagio sostenuto, achieves a poised repose after the innate thunder of the opening movement. The string pizzicati, quite articulate, make their points against Katchen’s exquisite legato, the periods shapely, moonlit, and sympathetic. The Allegro scherzando picks up in the same E Major as the movement prior, but it quickly has the fiery Katchen modulating to the dramatic C Minor. The steeplechase interrupts to allow the violas and oboe the chance to enjoy the full moon, empty arms notwithstanding. The long solo riffs often suggest the slow movement from Chopin’s Third Sonata.  Katchen’s non-legato playing proves as infectious as his more liquid tones, and the whole converges on the fortissimo statement of the second theme. Despite my usual misgivings about Anatole Fistoulari (1907-1995) as an accompanist, his seamless projection of the romantic tissue remains forthright, at times downright explosive, a happy surprise that concludes in vibrant C Major.


--Gary Lemco

MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Der Freischütz - overture (1821) [8:45]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Rosamunde D797 – Entr’acte no.3 in B flat (1823) [4:00]
Felix WEINGARTNER (1863-1942)
The Tempest – scherzettino (“Spuk neckender Geister”) (1920) [3:40]
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Invitation to the dance, J260 (arr. Weingartner) (1811) [7:33]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Symphony no.3 in A minor, op.56 (Scottish) (1842) [34:43]
Basle Symphony Orchestra/Felix Weingartner (Weber, Schubert, Weingartner),
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Felix Weingartner (Mendelssohn)
rec. 3 May 1928, Musiksaal, Basle (Weber, Schubert, Weingartner);
27 March 1929, Portman Rooms, Baker Street, London (Mendelssohn)
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 216 [58:41]

This appears, on the surface, to be a less than promising release. All its tracks were recorded, in sound quality typical of the period, more than 80 years ago. Four of the five works included were relatively insubstantial party-pieces of the sort favoured at the time for commercial release. Those four were, moreover, played by a Swiss orchestra of hardly the highest profile. And the reputation of the conductor, Felix Weingartner, though kept alive since his death by cognoscenti, has been generally overshadowed by that of flashier contemporaries such as Mengelberg, Stokowski and Beecham. Even this CD’s rather drab cover – featuring a relatively dark image on a dark background – doesn’t give much positive encouragement to explore inside the jewel case.
 
Appearances can, however, be deceptive.
 
As it turns out, the quality of the sound, as re-mastered by expert producer Mark Obert-Thorn, is surprisingly good. Moreover, a couple of the supposedly insubstantial tracks are more interesting than they appear: one is an attractive composition by Weingartner himself and another is one of his imaginative orchestrations. All are handled respectfully and played with notable care and precision, for Weingartner, the Basle Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor from 1927 until 1933, was evidently already achieving high standards of execution by the time these recordings were made. Penny-plain he may have been by comparison with his more colourful rivals, but Felix Weingartner was clearly a musician of considerable substance.
 
I think it was a mistake, however, to open the disc with the overture to Der Freischütz. For the first couple of minutes, until the tempo picks up, those deficiencies of 1920s recording techniques that remain impossible to address mean that the horns come through only fuzzily – sounding almost like an impression of horns rather than the real thing – and the strings are a mere indistinct sonic background. Once we are through that phase, however, this is an impressive account of the music: focused and flowing yet also dramatic, vigorous and punchy. Weingartner’s impressive dynamic control effectively offers more of a light-and-shade account than other more monochromatic versions.
 
The Schubert entr’acte showcases some fine woodwind playing from the Swiss orchestra. Meanwhile, Weingartner’s forward tempo and the violins’ relatively restrained (for its era) portamento playing keep any tendency towards sentimentality under control. The strings are in livelier mood in the conductor’s own scherzettino, a piece recently re-recorded by the same orchestra under Marko Letonja (see here). Even in this sonically compromised 1928 recording, however, the sparklingly attractive writing confirms the very positive impression of Weingartner’s orchestral music that we have been deriving from CPO’s revelatory 21st century discs.
 
When, earlier this year, I reviewed a Pristine Audio disc of Leopold Stokowski’s earliest acoustic recordings (see here), I was especially struck by his version of Weingartner’s orchestration of Weber’s Invitation to the Dance. And, as you can’t have too much of a good thing, I was delighted to find that whereas Stokowski had cut the music to less than five minutes in length, Weingartner gives us more than half as much again. This is a colourful, imaginative and inventive reworking of the original that puts the more frequently encountered Berlioz orchestration rather in the shade … which is pretty ironic as Weingartner was a great admirer of the French composer and had edited his complete works. Awash with deliberately exaggerated oom-pah-pah rhythms and indulgent portamento string playing, this is a recording very much of its time but full of irresistible good humour and charm. I can easily see why it was the only one of these Basle tracks to have been commercially released at the time in the USA – and I could easily imagine someone taking it as a desert island disc to raise, even in the bleakest of circumstances, a smile on demand.
 
Weingartner’s account of Mendelssohn’s Scottish symphony is relatively straight by comparison but, even so, displays his considerable virtues as a conductor. Once again this is a performance that exhibits a masterly control of orchestral dynamics, used felicitously so as to draw the listener’s attention to specific passages or to make pointed – and invariably musically justified - contrasts as appropriate. Plenty of power is kept in reserve to be used judiciously at just the right moments. The balance of the orchestra is also expertly controlled so as to keep plenty of the detail of Mendelssohn’s writing audible even in the most congested moments. And, quite noticeably, the music is kept moving along with a consistently maintained pulse - Weingartner was famous for his adage “There is only one tempo ... The right one.”
 
All those qualities are exhibited in a very satisfyingly constructed opening movement and are maintained thereafter. The succeeding vivace non troppo offers plenty of opportunities for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to demonstrate its technical abilities, while the third movement, an adagio, is characterised from the beginning by a rather stronger than usual sense of forward momentum: Weingartner’s powerful pulse is disinclined to allow the listener the chance to linger unnecessarily to sniff the Highland heather. The finale also exhibits the conductor’s characteristic sense of purpose and direction and culminates in a very grand final coda – slower than often heard, deliberate and powerful, though the fact that the brass seems sonically recessed deprives it of its last ounce of cathartic impact.
 
There is, then, much to enjoy in - and to learn from – this new release. My only reservation concerns its rather short measure. Otherwise, it will only add to the very positive picture that is slowly forming as more of the musical treasures of the late 1920s and early 1930s emerge into the light of day from the dim and dusty tombs in which they have been too often hidden for the past eighty years.
 
Rob Maynard




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