Courtesy of Naxos of America
Having written towards the end of last week about the latest addition to the Hans Rosbaud Edition produced by SWR Classic, it seems appropriate to follow up with a new release on that same label featuring conductor Sergiu Celibidache. Back when I was writing for Examiner.com, I did my best to keep up with “all things Celibidache,” particularly since this conductor was, for the most part, averse to having his performances recorded. It was only towards the end of his life, after he took over the Munich Philharmonic in 1979, did he accept the fact that recording technology had advanced to a state that would be worthy of documenting his performances. This led to EMI Classics releasing four box sets in 2011:
- Symphonies (14 CDs)
- Anton Bruckner (12 CDs)
- French & Russian Music (11 CDs)
- Sacred Music & Opera (11 CDs)
The new SWR Classic release is a remastering of a recording made of a live broadcast by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra that took place on September 17, 1959. Presumably the recording was kept only for archival purposes, but this new album is the result of digital remastering by Gabriele Starke and Boris Kellenbenz. The contents consists of two symphonies separated by a little less than a century. The first of these is Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken I/102 symphony in B-flat major. This is followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 74 (Pathétique) symphony in B minor. Haydn worked on Hoboken I/102, Hoboken I/103, and Hoboken I/104 concurrently in 1794, while Tchaikovsky’s Opus 74 was competed in August of 1893.
Some readers may recall that my admiration of conductor Leonard Slatkin owes much to a precept stated in the “Codetta” of his book Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro:
You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.
Sadly, the Celibidache discography does not honor this precept very well. Nevertheless, the Symphonies volume accounts for the other two symphonies that Haydn worked on in 1794. One is immediately aware of Celibidache’s nuanced approach to Haydn from the very opening measures of Hoboken I/102; and I suspect that, if Slatkin has any interest in historical recordings, he will probably be as drawn to Celibidache’s approach to this symphony as I was. (In my case this was a matter of listening to it several times.)
Where Tchaikovsky is concerned, it was only a couple of months ago that my listening to the Opus 74 was focused on Dimitri Mitropoulos. Like Celibidache, Mitropoulos understood the value of nuance in disclosing the full resources behind a Tchaikovsky symphony. Nevertheless, I would probably credit Celibidache with being more meticulous but then qualifying that bias by noting his skill as being meticulous without being fussy! The fact is that there are any number of high-intensity moments in Opus 74. Both conductors realized that they had to be prioritized, but Celibidache stands out through his skill in managing a broader scope of those priorities.
Those that share my “all things Celibidache” interest are likely to be highly satisfied with these interpretations of both Haydn and Tchaikovsky.
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