Reviews for
GHCD 2322
Artur Rodzinski
(1892-1958)
Fanfare March / April 2008
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8
•
Artur Rodzinski, cond;
New York P-SO •
GUILD 2322, mono
(58:29)
Live: New York
10/15/1944
Historical recordings need to be listened to with a grain of Salt. Do they have
true historical significance,
or are they merely old? Does poor sound quality outweigh the importance of the
performance?
Are there other, better options available? In the case of the above release, the
answers are
all positives: this orchestra under this conductor gave the work its Western
premiere while the terrible
events that informed the composition were still continuing. The mono broadcast
sound is typically
dry and "in your face," but clear as a hell. Above all, this is a gripping,
disciplined performance
by musicians and a
conductor who understood only too well what this Brand new music was about.
Rodzinski (1892-1958) was rather overshadowed by other expatriate European
conductors in his time. He had a reputation as an orchestral trainer, a
perfectionist, and a fierce disciplinarian of the old school. Perhaps he was not
very jolly, but neither were Szell or Reiner, yet for various reasons
their Stars eclipsed that of Rodzinski. His resurgent reputation today, as
validated by this
release, is based not an
nostalgia but an hard evidence.
The Polish-Born maestro had conducted Shostakovich's First, Fifth, and Seventh
Symphonies prior to the arrival of the Eighth. Toscanini famously introduced the
Leningrad Symphony to the
U.S.,
but showed no interest in premiering its dark
successor. Judging from this broadcast of six months later- the first
performance haven taken place in April of 1944-Rodzinski was the right choice.
The New York
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra plays for hem with commitment. In a live,
one-take performance of a then unfamiliar
score 1 detected only one Split note (at 17 minutes into
the first movement). The tricky ensemble
problems in the third movement are handled with no trouble, yet not an iota of urgency is sacrificed in the narre of precision.
The raw emotion prevalent in
Shostakovich's music may be felt here at first hand, as it were: the threat
implicit in much of the firnt
movement, the unstoppable aggression of the third, and the quiet, questioning
desperation underlying the final
movement's apparent calm.
Like others in the
Shostakovich canon, the Eighth Symphony contains passages of quiet, rambling
counterpoint in ambivalent harmonies, using minimal Instrumentation. In mang
quite presentable modern performances,
these passages come across as dull, lackeng that sense of dread that
brings them to uneasy life. Rodzinski and his first-class orchestra
never relax at these "between peaks" moments; every note in this work holds some
significance for them. Yet, unlike some
Russian performances, they don't overdo it.
The final Bars of the Symphony shimmer with an extraordinary fragility. The
closing soft major
chord is literally hard won, if indeed it is won at all and not a mere respite.
Hearing this performance,
we are reminded that neither the composer nor these musicians had any idea when
or how the war
would end.
1 played the CD an two different Systems. Understandably, the smaller one was
better suited to
the raw radio Sound (especially with a slight treble reduction to tarn the
fierceness of the high violins
in the first movement). 1 detected a slight tape swish at the beginning of the
final movement, but Overall
Peter Reynolds's remastering is extremely clean, and there is nothing extraneous
to impede one's enjoyment of a genuinely significant performance. This
interesting release is recommended to place
alongside Previn, Haitink, Rostropovich, Svetlanov, or Kondrashin in your
collection.
Phillip Scott
American Record Guide – March/April 2008
SHOSTAKOVICH:
Symphony 8
New York Philharmonic/ Artur Rodzinski
Guild 2322-59 minutes
Our editor's sticky note on the jewel case
asked, "Is this worth bothering with? If not,
just tell me
'no'."
More than worth bothering
With, this turned out to be the pick of this
issue's review batch-the
one 1 couldn't stop playing on my long
commutes back and forth to work. This
is a rare gem, and we should thank
Guild for giving us what is not only a
valuable addition to the Shostakovich
discography as a whole, but welcome insight into a brilliant but temperamental
conductor largely forgotten in the
rush of history.
After the feeding frenzy to lead "first" performances
of the Shostakovich Seventh in the
West, interest tapered off among conductors
and audiences for that work's
successor.
lt
could not have found a more sympathetic
champion for its US premiere than Rodzinski,
who had recorded the First and Fifth symphonies on 78s during his tenure with
the Cleveland Orchestra before taking over the
New York Philharmonic in 1943. (He later
made an exciting, if slightly cut, recording of
the Fifth with the Royal Philharmonic that
briefly made it to CD and is worth seeking out.) So he led the first performance
of the Eighth in
the West, on 2 April 1944. The recording is
from a concert a few months later on 15 October
1944.
Rodzinski brings his characteristic clarity, drive, and no-nonsense dramatic
forcefulness
to the music. At a time when the Russia was
not a mistrusted opponent but an ally fighting
a
common enemy, this music must have had a
special meaning for the audience. Rodzinski
brings an urgency and an edge to the music
that speaks of Stalingrad and D-Day and the chaos of a global war whose outcome
was by
no means certain in 1944. More than recent performances, including the Herbig
reviewed
in this issue, Rodzinski emphasizes the Eighth
as a continuation of the Seventh rather than a
change in artistic direction. The pervading
gloom of the opening
pages merely conceals the volcanic intensity
of the pain and frenzy later on in the
movement Il and III are a cohesive
unit, with III building to an almost
unbearable tension before a climax leading to the exhausted hush of IV. Unlike
many modern conductors, Rodzinski
isn't stumped by the curiously
lightweight V; he moves it along
without attempting to push and pull the music
into a weighty statement, ending what is one
of the most satisfying recorded
performances of this work that I know.
Alas, this is not for everybody because of the 1940s "mid-fi" sound. Guild is
not forthcoming
about sources, though they include
part of the announcer's chat before and after
the performance. Certainly, it was taken from
good quality acetates, and the sound is full and
"Honest" with no loss of detail, as good as any
commercial recording of the period. If you're
used to historic recordings, you'll haue no
trouble listening to it.
Aside from the recorded Sound, the other
slight weakness is an orchestra that isn't quite
up to all the demands of the music. There is
some scrambling in II and III and some less
than controlled Sounds in the climaxes of 1, but
this close-to-the-edge quality of things bordering
an coming apart actually adds to the intensity
of the performance.
Well worth
bothering with! HANSEN
International Record Review July/August 2007
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65., Philharmonic-Symphony
Orchestra of New York/Artur Rodzinski.
(medium
price, 58 minutes, ADD).Remastering Engineer Peter Reynolds. Date
Live performance in New York an October 15th, 1944.
This is an important
issue in making generally available the second-earliest performance of
Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony known to
survive.
It was premiered in Moscow by Evgeny Mravinsky on
November 4th, 1943 and the work's western premiere was given an April 2nd, 1944
by the present performers. That by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony on
April 21st is currently the earliest surviving account (there are at least three
versions of the first movement - recorded over the following fortnight - in
circulation, and one from April 1945 that received an official release an
Biddulph; Mravinsky's Studio recording took place only in 1947), but this
broadcast performance of October 1944 is no less significant or authoritative as
an interpretation.
As Robert Matthew-Walker
points out in his booklet note, Artur Rodzinski had a fine track record in
Shostakovich, having already recorded the First and Fifth Symphonies and given
the US Premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district. At around 58
minutes, his is a taut and no-nonsense reading that projects the work in
forcefully but never crassly immediate terms, with little room for the brooding
introspection evident in recent decades. The Adagio is securely wrought,
with an appealingly wistful second theme (4'51") and a central climax (10'15")
whose drama does not preempt either the plangency of the cor anglais soliloquy
(17'15") or the becalmed ambivalence of the coda (22'48").
Neither Scherzo
has quite this focused intensity: the Allegretto has the right forced
jollity, but internal balance on the return of the main theme (3'35") is
congested and the closing bars are fallibly executed; while the Allegro -
bracingly swift, as were most Western accounts using the corrupt parts - lacks
the implacability of either Mravinsky's or Koussevitzky's, though the trio
(2'45") has a wonderfully tensile irony. Balefully launched, the Largo is
finely handled, Rodzinski ensuring the passacaglia theme is audible throughout,
and with a telling 'lightening' of mood so that the close (8'14") is a perfect
transition to the finale. Its subtler shades yet to be explored, this emerges as
cautiously optimistic, with a suave second theme (1'38") and a climax (6'38")
that exudes defiance rather than despair. Ensemble falters thereafter, but the
coda (10'39") still impresses through its hardwon poise.
While it has previously
enjoyed limited circulation (on the Fonotipia label), this charged account -
with Rodzinski just into his second season with the `Philharmonic
Symphony Orchestra of
New York' - needed to be widely disseminated. The present release, transferred
at a high level that conveys the limited hut natural dynamic range, does it full
justice. All credit to the American Rubber Company for sponsoring the original
broadcast and to Guild for releasing it some 63 years on. Richard
Whitehouse
MusicWeb Monday June 11 2007
Dmitri
SHOSTAKOVICH
(1906-1975)
Symphony no.
8 in C minor op. 65 (1943) [58:15]
 Philharmonic-Symphony
Orchestra of New York/Artur Rodzinski
rec. 15 October 1944, Carnegie Hall, New York, live broadcast including
introductory and closing announcements
GUILD
GHCD 2322 [59:06]
Hitler’s attack on Russia and the consequent Soviet shift of allegiance towards
the British-American axis meant that competition became hot for the first
western performances of Shostakovich’s great symphonic fresco the “Leningrad”
Symphony, his seventh. Sir Henry Wood was first off the mark with a BBC
broadcast only three months after the Russian premičre, which had been conducted
by Samuel Samosud on 5 March 1942. A week after the broadcast, Wood gave the
first western concert performance. Then, on 19 July, Arturo Toscanini gave the
first American broadcast.
The surviving recording shows that Toscanini managed to conceal his lack of
sympathy with the musical idiom, but he never conducted the work again and
declined to give the western premičre of no. 8 without even seeing the score.
This new work had been completed on 9 September 1943 and had its first
performance in Moscow, under Mravinsky, less than two months later. The honour
fell to Artur Rodzinski to unveil the symphony to the west at the Carnegie Hall
with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra on 2 April 1944. He repeated
it later the same year in the performance preserved on this disc. The sound is
remarkably clean and clear for the date. The dynamic range is obviously limited,
the quality a little shallow with some shellac hiss, but quite frankly I
wouldn’t expect a studio recording from the same time to sound any better.
Mravinsky’s several recordings, some in fairly recent sound, obviously have a
very special authority. Rodzinski, however, yielded to no one in his
understanding of the music. No less a martinet than Mravinsky himself, he sees
that the long, mainly slow, first movement has a suppressed tension, rather than
the sense of doleful meditation which more recent western conductors such as
Haitink and Previn have found in it. Like Mravinsky, he dares the woodwind to
push their tone to within a millimetre of overblowing. When the explosion comes
it is a fearful one.
The savageries, drolleries and violence of the next two movements are resolved
with whiplash attack while the ambiguous nature of the final passacaglia is
realized with great insight. The pessimistic tone of the symphony won it few
favours at the time, on either side of the Atlantic. Even in 1967 Robert Layton
could write that “it is not a work in which the composer evinces complete
mastery of his material”. Another decade and a reappraisal of Mahler had to
intervene before it came to be seen as one of Shostakovich’s most searching
masterpieces. Sometimes a new work falters because of poor initial performances.
We can hear that Rodzinski’s advocacy and understanding left nothing to be
desired.
A
disc for connoisseurs and specialists, I suppose, but Rodzinki’s art deserves
investigation and the present production is as good a place to start as any.
Robert Matthew-Walker’s excellent essay provided me with the information for my
introductory paragraphs. Christopher Howell
Page revised Wednesday August 27 2008
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