Rodziński and the New York Philharmonic

courtesy of Jensen Artists

The latest anthology of a conductor that I encountered is a Sony Classical release of sixteen CDs covering the complete recordings of Artur Rodziński leading the New York Philharmonic for Columbia Masterworks. This box set currently has an Amazon.com Web page that describes it as an import item, but my understanding is that it will go into domestic circulation one week from today on April 23. Whether or not Amazon will create a new Web page on that date remains to be seen.

While Rodziński’s name may no longer be familiar to most readers, he was a major figure during the twentieth century. In the United States his discography includes the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as the Philharmonic. Those recordings were also released by Columbia; and, hopefully, Sony will put them into circulation in the near future. However, where the Philharmonic is concerned, his Columbia albums follow up on those made by his predecessor, John Barbirolli, whose recordings were discussed on this site this past October.

There is also a more personal side to my interest in Rodziński. When I was very young, my parents bought their first turntable for long-playing (LP) records. Their purchase came with a “bonus start-up kit” of LPs, all of which were Columbia releases. One of them was of Rodziński conducing the Philharmonic in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s suite Pictures at an Exhibition. The very idea behind the music riveted me, particularly since the album jacket provided descriptions of each of the pictures associated with each of the movements. That recording is one of the CDs in the new Sony anthology; and, even if the recording technology shows its age, my memories are as vivid as ever.

What is interesting about the collection taken as a whole, however, is the way in which Rodziński balanced less familiar offerings with selections that could be called “audience favorites.” Readers may recall that Barbirolli’s Philharmonic tenure did not go down well with his audiences, even though the musicians liked him. As a result, many of the recordings that Barbirolli made with the Philharmonic tended to be on the adventurous side. Rodziński turned out to be just as adventurous but was much better received than Barbirolli, perhaps by virtue of his past engagement with the Cleveland and the Los Angeles Philharmonic before that.

One thing that sticks out particularly prominently when one makes a side-by-side comparison of the Sony collections of Barbirolli and Rodziński is that neither box has any music by Ludwig van Beethoven. The most “iconic” of the composers represented in the Rodziński collection is Johannes Brahms with recordings of his first two symphonies. The Barbirolli collection, on the other hand, has one CD devoted entirely to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart’s only appearance in the Rodziński recordings involves the four short compositions that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky orchestrated and arranged for his Opus 61 (fourth) suite in G major, given the title “Mozartiana.”

Ironically, the two Brahms CD are completed by two CDs devoted entirely to Richard Wagner. One accounts for the third act of Die Walküre (the Valkyrie), while the other features soprano Helen Traubel in the roles of Sieglinde (Walküre again), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), and Elsa (Lohengrin). The only other composer to be allotted two entire CDs is Sergei Rachmaninoff for his Opus 27 (second) symphony in E minor and his Opus 18 (second) piano concerto in C minor with piano soloist György Sándor.

More interesting is the number of selections that were adventurous in their time. Indeed, Jean Sibelius’ Opus 63 (fourth) symphony in A minor still delivers an intense dose of shock value. On the other hand it was nice to encounter the witty spirit behind Morton Gould’s “Spirituals for Orchestra” under the baton of a conductor other than Gould himself. Similarly, Rodziński was a first-rate champion for the tone-poem qualities of Jacques Ibert’s Escales (ports of call) suite, with movements portraying Rome, Tunis, and Valencia. There are also two “pops” albums entitled Twilight Concert, which may well have been recordings of selections performed during the Philharmonic’s summer concerts at Lewisohn Stadium on the campus of City College of New York.

Overall, the amount of diversity that one encounters across these sixteen CDs is impressive, as is Rodziński’s ability to find just the right foundations of expressiveness for every selection he performs.