Richard Strauss - Don Quixote; Don Juan (Pierre Fournier; George Szell)

Information

Composer: Richard Strauss

• (01) Don Quixote, Op. 35
• (14) Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 11
• (17) Don Juan, Op. 20

Pierre Fournier, cello (1-13)
Myron Bloom, horn (14-16)

Cleveland Orchestra
George Szell, conductor

Date: 1960 (1-13), 1961 (14-17)
Label: Sony Classical (CBS)

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Review

Just how masterly Szell was as a Straussian is demonstrated in all three of these items, recorded in 1960 and 1961. By then Szell had built the Cleveland Orchestra into what was regularly described – very fairly – as the finest in America. These performances – with a slight reservation over the hectic opening of Don Juan – bear out not just what tautness and precision of ensemble the orchestra were achieving, but the thrusting emotional intensity. Szell as a person was one of the most daunting of conductors, chilling anyone around him; he certainly had musical fires within him, a point I never doubted in the conversations I had with him in his last years. I am glad that the booklet-note includes memories from the horn player, Myron Bloom, bearing out what feelings there were behind the chilly facade.

Bloom, one of the greatest of American horn players, promoted by Szell to be first horn in Cleveland in 1955, a year after he joined the orchestra, is also very well celebrated here. I was sorry when after Szell’s death and Maazel’s succession, he was persuaded to go to the Orchestre de Paris to sort out their horn section, for he made far too few solo recordings, and in Cleveland he might have made many more. This one of the Horn Concerto No. 1 is marvellous at bringing out the enormous range of dynamic and tone colour Bloom had at his command. In the outer movements lightness and agility are wonderfully contrasted with heroic power, and in the central slow movement the impact of the braying fortissimo in the middle section is all the greater when set against such gentle poetry in the outer sections.

The other artist here celebrated is of course the cellist, Pierre Fournier, who made this version of Don Quixote several years before recording it with Karajan in Berlin for DG. The contrasts are fascinating, for against my expectation Fournier is freer in his rubato with Szell, who prefers more flowing speeds than Karajan, making this a noble portrait, the more intense for not being so expansive. The opening of Don Juan, as I said, is hectic in its pursuit of brilliance, but very quickly Szell finds the same combination of opulence and urgency that marks the rest of the disc. A most welcome historic reissue, very well transferred, with sound both warm and detailed.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

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Richard Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, lieder, tone poems and other orchestral works. Strauss was also a prominent conductor throughout Germany and Austria, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss made a large number of recordings, both of his own music as well as music by German and Austrian composers. Along with Gustav Mahler, Strauss represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss

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Pierre Fournier (24 June 1906 – 8 January 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists," on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound. Graduating from the Paris Conservatory at the age of 17, Fournier was hailed as "the cellist of the future" and won praise for his virtuosity and bowing technique. He toured all over Europe and played with many of the most highly acclaimed, prestigious musicians of his time. Fournier was a teacher at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and the Paris Conservatoire from 1937 to 1949. Near the end of his life, he taught privately at his home in Geneva.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Fournier

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George Szell (June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors. Szell is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra (1946-70), and for his recordings of the standard classical repertoire. His repertoire consisted mostly of the core Austro-German classical and romantic repertoire. Szell's manner in rehearsal was that of an autocratic taskmaster, with a well-known reputation as a perfectionist and a deep knowledge of instruments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Szell

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