A recording of the K-piece that gets just about no recognition or mention anywhere, even though it appears to be the very first one (AFAIK) was done by the hornists Gerhard Goermer, Kurt Krumbein, Georg Huehne and Karl Himmer (at least that is how they appear on the jacket of VOX PL 7740; umlauts are likely to have appeared on any German issue). The accompaniment was by The Pro Arte Orchestra, Stuttgart, let by Rolf Reinhardt. The pairing is with the Andante and Variations in b flat minor (2 pianos, 2 celli & horn), which is dredged out of its well deserved obscurity in this case by the playing of John Barrows. I assume that the op. 86 was released earlier in Europe than the 1952 copyright date of this LP, but I have no information on this. Maybe Hans or Bill Melton or Steve O. has knowledge of it. I have a disc of Goermer doing one of the Mozart concerti that shares the same miasmal recorded acoustic of the Vox which wavers and varies with the volume level of the orchestra.
As I am listening to this recording of the Schumann, I am relatively impressed by the playing, but there is a fairly rigid and measured feel to it all. Not surprising that they were not letting it all hang out. I also have heard what seem to be some very poor splices and one bizarre cut of 16 measures in the first movement 5 bars after E (letters in the edition used in the Gumpert excerpt book, vol. 10) to letter F. Still, the high e at the end of the first movement sings out clear and freely. Interestingly, there is not even an attempt at the first e in the last movement (it may well be possible that he played the one at the end, but I found it impossible to hear one way or the other through the murk and clamor of the rest of the orchestra), just the alternate c eighth note is at the top of the descending arpeggio. Overall, I award them the brass balls award for doing what they did and for how well they did it back in the day, yet I does trudge along way more than it soars. And, ooh those nasty cuts and splices (slices, more like it). I now return you to your regularly scheduled afterbeats and transpositions, Peter Hirsch >Chris Wilhjelm wrote: > > I find myself thinking back to my school days when the only recording >that I could get was that old Nonesuch recording with Barboteu et al >and I assume they are playing those piston Selmers with no >"overdrive." Also amazing.....there must be a really old broadcast >recording of some of our early 20th century heroes? >============= > >Chris, >I have reissued the Barboteu, coursier, Dubar Berges recording of the >Schumann on Sotone. We also have the early 1950s Russian recording >with >Yakov Shapiro. If you are interested please email me directly. >BTW- The Barboteu Schumann CD is not yet on the website. > >There was an early 60s recording by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / >Franz >Konwitschny with Peter Damm as first horn. This was reissued by Berlin >Classics with the complete Schumann Symphonies. > >Cheers, >Steve > >Steven Ovitsky >www.sotone.com >www.SantaFeChamberMusic.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
