Ulf Hoelscher - RSO Frankfurt - Alun Francis

KRITIK

W.Goertz in FonoForum 9/96: «Keine Sekunde tönt modernistischer Grobianismus aus der Musik: sie klingt, als wäre sie hundert Jahre früher komponiert: schwer nach Romantik... Hoelscher behandelt Wolf-Ferrari, als sei er die Entdeckung des Jahrhunderts, spielt sich tonschön und expressiv durch Linien und Kadenzen. Das RSO Frankfurt besticht durch seine Ernsthaftigkeit und Freude am unverbrämten Ausdruck. Klangbild: direkt, trennscharf, doch von schöner räumlicher Natürlichkeit und großer Expansivität.Exzellentes Beiheft-Essay von Herbert Rosendorfer.»

BBC Music Magazine Critics Choice 1996: «Ein Konzert von erstaunlicher lyrischer Schönheit.»





Rivinius - RSO Frankfurt - Alun Francis

KRITIK

L. Flich in «Der Standard» (Österreich)16.8.96: «Große, unverbesserlich romantische Melodiebögen. Augenblicke, die sich sinnlich einprägen, sind garantiert. Sehr gute Klangqualität.» The Daily Telegraph 24.8.96: «Ein grandioses Konzert. Rivinius spielt mit Intensität und Wärme. Dies ist Musik, die von Herzen kommt. Ein Bravo für CPO.» N. Hornig in FonoForum 10/96: «Inspirierte und eigenständige Musik. Wolf-Ferrari erfindet Melodien und Wendungen, die so selbstverständlich sind, daß sie einem bekannt, längst geläufig erscheinen.»


The following is a newsgroup exchange which may be of interest in reading these reviews.

Rob Barnett wrote:
Having recently reviewed the CPO recording of the Wolf-Ferrari violin concerto I am curious about this Wisconsin-born violinist. The W-F violin concerto was written for her and dedicated to her con ammirazione. It was premiered by her in war-time Germany (1944?).

How on earth did Bustabò get to do this? This was a première by a US citizen (?) with an Italian name in Nazi Germany. It seems incredible. The concerto BTW is very attractive and fresh in its ideas though the essential language is Brahmsian. Can anyone shed light on Bustabò, her other recordings, her biography and her relationship with Wolf-Ferrari. There is an off-air tape of Bustabò playing the W-F with the Munich PO and Kempe. This dates (I believe) from early 1970s. W-F died in 1948.
Guila Bustabò (with accent grave on the final o, suggesting a pronunciation [g(h)ila Bustabò]) (so given in the 1948 Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music) remains a mysterious figure in the history of musical performance in the 20th century. I don't have the New Grove to consult, but I can report that neither Baker's 8th Edition nor (incredibly!) MGG (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart) has an entry for her. She did make a handful of 78s, mostly in Germany, where her base of operations appears to have been, even before WWII. Among these is a recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto (C-LWX 372/5), with Fritz Zaun conducting the Berlin Staatskapelle. Since in the 78rpm era all recordings of this work were up against the stunning Heifetz/Beecham recording, there were understandably few reviews, and I was unable to turn up any, even in the books by David Hall. There is also a live performance of Max Bruch's Violin con. #1 in G-min. with Bustabò and the Royal Concertgebouw Orch., cond. Willem Mengelberg (rec. 27 Oct. 1940) in Music & Arts CD-780 (four CDs, a set of live concert recordings by Mengelberg and his orchestra).
Does anyone know how W-F was viewed in Nazi Germany. The notes imply that he was not encouraged or very much supported.
The book, Die Musik und Musikpolitik im faschistischen Deutschland, ed. H-W Heister and H-G Klein (Fischer Taschenbuch 6902), 1984, reports, p.149, that W-F's opera Der Campiello, which received 100 performances during the Third Reich, was one of the successes of that era. Joseph Wulf's Musik im Dritten Reich (rororo 818-819-820), 1966, includes, pp.51-52, some correspondence (all in the most bristling bureaucratic Reichsbeamtendeutsch) with a certain Dr. Achim Gercke, whose title was «Der Sachverständige für Rasseforschung beim Reichsministerium des Innern» [«the authority (literally: the one who understands the matter) on racial research in the Imperial Interior Ministry»], this concerning W-F's racial heritage. Dr. Gercke replies that, as far as the accessible documents indicate (NB, there was a specific request, for reasons not given, not to extend the research onto Italian soil), W-F's ancestors were «arisch und frei von jüdischem und farbigem Bluteinschlag» [«aryan and free of Jewish and colored strain»]. (FWIW: The same pages in the Wulf contain reports on the ancestry of Alban Berg, and the report correctly states that Berg was not Jewish.)
Hope this helps... E.A.C.





Yvi Jänicke - Bruno Canino

WDR am 22.2.96: «Wunderschöne Miniaturen. Schon beim zweiten Hören hat man das Gefühl, guten Bekannten zu begegnen, und wenn man in der richtigen Stimmung ist, kann man sich in den natürlich aufgenommenen Klavierklang und in die Stimme der Sängerin sogar ein wenig verlieben.»
Tages-Anzeiger (CH) v.20.3.96: «Eine geschickte Auswahl, mit blühendem Mezzosopran vorgetragen. Toskanische Volkspoesie, gefällig, einschmeichelnd - und irritierend zeitfremd.»
H.Schönegger in FonoForum 5/96: «Voll strömende, meist aber schlank und locker fließende Stimme.»





FonoForum 11/99: «Exzellente Musiker, eine unterhaltsame und abwechslungsreiche Repertoire-Erweiterung.»

Fanfare 4/2000: «A fin-de-siecle Italo-Germanic lyricism that transcends Mahler's and that leads to Schoenberg's. His music is elegantly crafted, with a highly polished finish that brings Mozart and Haydn to mind. Beautifully intoned and deftly played performances. Splendidly played and recorded.»