Profil to Release 10-CD Backhaus Anthology

courtesy of Naxos of America

This coming Friday Profil will release its Wilhelm Backhaus Edition, a box of ten CDs accounting for recordings of performances by the German pianist made between 1908 and 1961. As usual, Amazon.com is processing pre-orders. However, those that search the Amazon site with keywords “wilhelm backhaus profil” will probably discover that this new box set is a compilation of earlier Profil releases.

This is far from a comprehensive account of the legacy of Backhaus recorded performances. This past January this site reported on the last of the three HMV anthologies produced by Appian Publications & Recordings. There is also an SWR>>classic album of concerts that Backhaus gave for Germany’s Southwest Broadcasting, Südwestrundfunk (SWR) in the Fifties; and that decade is also covered by a 39-CD anthology of recordings that he made for Decca. In that context the Profil release is a bit of a grab bag, but it is not without merits.

Without trying to sound too much like a nationalist, I have to say that, for me, the high point of the collection can be found in the three CDs that account for performances that Backhaus gave in Carnegie Hall in 1954 and 1956. Backhaus was no stranger to the United States and even taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1926. While he became a citizen of Switzerland in 1930, his attitude toward Nazi Germany was, at best, questionable. However, with Swiss credentials, he fared better in performing in the United States after World War II than the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler did.

The earliest Carnegie recording was made on March 3, 1954 with a program of five piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. On March 18, 1956 Backhaus returned to Carnegie to perform Beethoven’s Opus 58 (fourth) piano concerto in G major with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Guido Cantelli. The following April 11, he gave one final Carnegie recital of another three Beethoven sonatas, concluding with the Opus 106 (“Hammerklavier”) sonata in B-flat major. Ironically, when Backhaus died on July 5, 1969, he was working on his second complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas for Decca (which had already recorded the first cycle). The only sonata missing from that second cycle was Opus 106.

In terms of personal preferences, I was glad that the Profil anthology also included both of the piano concertos by Johannes Brahms, both performed with the Vienna Philharmonic. Opus 83 (the second) in B-flat major tends to get far more attention than its predecessor, Opus 15 in D minor. The Opus 83 recording was made in 1953 with Carl Schuricht conducting, and it definitely makes for a satisfying listening experience. However, the 1952 recording of Opus 15 was made with Karl Böhm; and the Backhaus-Böhm partnership makes a throughly convincing case that this concerto is more than a show-off display by a young upstart.

The Wilhelm Backhaus Edition may not be either comprehensive or scholarly, but there is no questioning the abundance of satisfying listening experiences that it offers.