Hermann Scherchen! (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room 1)
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- Опубліковано 24 гру 2024
- A few decades ago Universal Japan issued a Westminster Scherchen edition, and for some reason I collected most of it. Actually, I'm glad I did, and that I hung onto it.
I grew up with my Father’s Westminster recording of Scherchen’s Mahler 1st, which I first heard via a Garrard RC 80 record changer (with a GE VRII cartridge), a Grommes 50PG amplifier, and an
Electro-Voice Baronet corner horn loudspeaker. I still find the last movement hair raising.
Yes, Scherchen! I collect vinyl records and I focus on his Westminster recordings, which are pretty hard to find as first pressings in Europe. I love Scherchen, he's never boring. Just when you think you've heard it all, you should check out Scherchen. Listen to his version of Honegger's Pacific 231 and try to catch *that* train! Or the percussion in Saint-Saens' Danse macabre - it sounds like a bone hitting a trash can, which perfectly captures the piece's humor.
By the way, Scherchen was also really into sound technology, which you wouldn't necessarily pick up from his recordings. But he had his own experimental lab in Switzerland, not far from where I live. Google Scherchen's "Nullstrahler" and check out the crazy stuff he was working on.
One Scherchen footnote - which you may have covered already - Scherchen was one of the first major conductors to encourage and mentor women conductors. Brave in his day. One of them was Beatrice Brown, who led the orchestra (if I'm correct) in Scranton Penn, many years ago.
I have been an on and off Scherchenophile for a long time, and collected a fair number of his recordings. His Eroica with the VSOO is amazing, with the players barely hanging on to keep up with his tempo. The opening of the Pastoral is also very much faster than usual. Finally, the Mahler 2 (which is in stereo) has the most amazing entry of the chorus in the finale that I have ever heard. I don't know if it's an artifact of the microphone placement, or a deliberate balancing decision by Scherchen, but the bass voices are emphasized, making it sound like the Klopstock chorale is coming up from the depths of the earth. Almost sounds like they hired the Soviet Army Men's Chorus for the gig.
On that recording he whips up a climax out of nothing in the scherzo. Very impressive.
As far as I know, there was some copyright loophole and what is called the Vienna State Opera Orchestra was actually a pretty random group of musicians mostly from the Wiener Volksopernorchester. Most of the recordings were made in the years after WW2 where the State Opera building was destroyed and didn't exist, before it was rebuilt and reopened in 1955.
A fascinating character! I didn't realize he had recorded that much Bach choral music (his orchestration on the Art of Fugue is wonderful in its own way, and was my introduction to that work). I've also greatly enjoyed the Wellington's Victory/Entrata (as another poster noted, actually after Byrd)/Gabrieli Canzoni record -- while finding his Beethoven symphonies kind of nuts. From the comments here, the Mahler recordings sound ... interesting, and worth listening to.
The point about Scherchen's contributions to mid-century Bach performance is really interesting; another part of this story is his influence on Karl Ristenpart, whose mother was for a time one of Scherchen's numerous wives (and one of HS's even more numerous children, Wulf, was among Britten's lovers.( Scherchen also taught Ancerl, among many others (including, as another poster notes, many women) -- he seems to have been quite an accomplished pedagogue, even if one player claimed that trying to follow Scherchen's beat was "like trying to milk a gnat!"
I know a couple of guys who played with Scherchen in NYC and Italy. The both loved the guy - he was so much fun to play for. And his knowledge of traditions and styles was exceptional. I still prefer Scherchen's take on Gliere's 3rd over everything that's come since.
And an adventure in uncut-ness when that was unheard of. Stokowski's is half the length. Back in the mid-50s, Scherchen's was hailed as "one of the master performances of the lp era to date."
Delighted that you're "random reviewing" Scherchen recordings. I collected them on LP. Then later on CD. He was never less than interesting, as you pointed out. His recordings of Baroque repertoire favored pared-down ensembles, clear textures, resilient rhythms, and (despite that 15 minute Kyrie in the Bach Mass), often unusually brisk tempos. Check out "And he shall purify" in either of his two recordings of Messiah. In fact, his 1953 mono version, with London-based forces, was the first to restore the "original scoring" of that work. He was a pioneer in what we would call "historically informed" performance today.
His was my imprint B Minor Mass, and I still love the tempo of the first Kyrie, though it's been decades since I last heard it. Everyone at the time told me he was the go-to guy for Bach. 🤷♂
I haven't heard a lot of Scherchen's recordings, but I have a soft spot for him. Dave has often mentioned the narcissism that can grow in the Major Maestros. But Scherchen wasn't one of them. He was a talented guy with immense curiosity about all kinds of music. He worked with second-rank ensembles and was happy to do so. However loopy, his results come from a place of sincerity, not from a place of self-regard. He was on a journey of discovery and hoped that we'd enjoy what he was finding. And, as Dave has pointed out, in Scherchen's baroque and classical recordings the scrappiness of the playing is probably a lot more "authentic" than anything the super professional HIP ensembles can offer. I also must confess that his performance of the Orff Entrata is one of my guilty pleasures (it's an arrangement of William Byrd's keyboard piece "The Bells," which actually works well with Orff's tendency towards repetition). Scherchen and the orchestra play the heck out of it!
Thank you, Dave. I've spent the whole day thinking about Scherchen. I first heard him through my friend who introduced me to classical music (about 1973). We were talking about Handel's Messiah, and Phil pulled out his recording led by Scherchen and said, you will never, ever hear the Hallelujah Chorus more slowly than it is right here. And for the last fifty years, every time I've thought of Scherchen I think of his of sludgy Handel. Thank you for expanding my horizon a bit. Maybe, though, Scherchen just suffered from being a German conductor whose name didn't begin with K (Klemperer, Krips, Krauss, Kleiber, Karajan, Knappertsbusch, Kempe and so on.) Wesley
He's just really interesting. Thank you Dave for quoting on him
I have his Mahler 7th and I think it's fine (o.k. it's with the VSOO, maybe as fine as they could be). Also the 7th with Toronto Symphony Orchestra (?) on a Music and Arts CD made a big positive impression. Some Bach Cantatas, two CD Liszt set. His Carnival of the Animals with Gary Moore reciting the Ogden Nash verses is a hoot.......one to put on for your kids or grandkids when you're introducing them to classical music.
I concur with David about Hermann Scherchen being out there. I remember a recording he did of Mahler s 5th Symphony with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra in which the last note of the first movement was played triple forte by the timpanist when the composer intended it to be played pianissimo. Scared the Hell out of me !
I thought I had heard the name Scherchen before and then I remembered Benjamin Britten had a romantic relationship with his teenage son 'Wulff', which caused some consternation and jealousy amongst a few of Britten's friends. Anyway, as for Hermann I have one recording. It's the Four Seasons (MFP 2118) and it's the antithesis of today's minimalist/original instrument performances with broad, rich, orchestral sound. The playing and recording is beautiful. It's a reminder of a past era of interpretation.
I love the old quip about Scherchen: that he had progeny in every European capital!
I have the Westminster LP of the Beethoven, Gabrielli, and Orff Entrata( which I believe was based on a work by William Byrd) . Always enjoyable if strange coupling.
I love that room! Collector Shelf Space Envy.
Scherchen is so interesting, almost never boring. The rehearsal of Wellington is odd, hilarious and infuriating at the same time. A completely unnecessary lecture inflicted on the players that does nothing for the performance. But I wouldn't be without a lot of his mono Westminster output, like the Messiah. I also like his 2nd round of Beethoven symphonies.
Wow, that's a lot of Scherchen! Curious why you file these recordings under Scherchen rather than under, e.g., Bach or Mahler. Is it that he's so sui generis that when you're in the mood for that sort of thing, it's just easier to find?
Both.