The seventh and eighth CDs in the From Hollywood to the World: The Rediscovered Recordings by Pianist and Conductor José Iturbi collection revisit three of the concertos performed on the first two CDs. These are the two concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the first CD, the K. 466 concerto in D minor (for which Iturbi plays cadenzas composed by Ludwig van Beethoven) and the K. 365 two-piano concerto in E-flat major with cadenzas by Iturbi, who is joined by his sister Amparo. The eighth CD then begins with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 37 (third) concerto in C minor.
What distinguishes this “second round” of performances is that instrumental accompaniment was provided by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, for which José served as Music Director between 1936 and 1944. This orchestra is not as “anonymous” as the ensemble on the first two CDs, the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra. All three concertos were recorded in the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. The Mozart concertos were recorded in March of 1940, and the Beethoven Opus 37 was recorded the following year in May of 1941. Once again, José serves as both concerto soloist and conductor.
The eighth CD also revisits George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” this time in José’s arrangement for two pianos without orchestral accompaniment. Personally, I prefer this version without the orchestra; and I was blown away by the way José takes parallel octaves and warps them by a half-step (not to be found in the Gershwin score)! For the remainder of that CD, he conducts the Orchestra in two arrangements of keyboard music prepared by Ottorino Respighi. The first of these is the solo piano version of Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante défunte.” Given that Ravel wrote his own orchestral version and that there is no indication of an arrangement by Respighi in the IMSLP listing for this composition, I would probably risk a small bet that this Respighi attribution is a misprint!
On the other hand the second arrangement is of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 582 C minor passacaglia, whose theme is given fugal treatment after a series of variations. In this case I am sure that the arrangement really is by Respighi, because I once checked out the score of that arrangement from the Free Library of Philadelphia! Mind you, there was a certain element of chutzpah in my learning about Respighi’s orchestration, since most recordings of an orchestral performance of BWV 582 involve arrangements by two of Philadelphia’s past major conductors, Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy!
While it goes without saying that I prefer Bach’s organ music to be played on the organ, I did have an opportunity to listen to Ormandy conduct his version in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. I have to confess that I was drawn by the spatial qualities of his arrangement, qualities that were never given very much justice by any of the recordings Ormandy made. Needless to say, those spatial qualities do not emerge on Iturbi’s Rochester recording.
One final thought: As I have already observed, the book for this release includes any number of photographs to keep the listener occupied. I personally have a soft spot for a 1947 shot that captured José playing the piano with President Harry Truman. However, there are also many images of album covers; and I cannot resist sharing the one for the Beethoven concerto:
from an eBay Web page for the original 78 RPM Victor album of Beethoven’s Opus 37 piano concerto
There is no acknowledgement of the designer of that image, but I would be willing to bet that (s)he had a fair amount of interest in surrealism!
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