Pristine Classical release: Kulenkampff's 1936 Beethoven Violin Concerto & 1947 Brahms Double Concerto

[Andrew Rose]

KULENKAMPFF
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Brahms Double Concerto
Recorded 1936/47

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:
Andrew Rose



BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D
Georg Kulenkampff violin
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt conductor

BRAHMS Double Concerto for violin and cello
Georg Kulenkampff violin
Enrico Mainardi cello
L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande
Carl Schuricht conductor



Web page:
http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Orchestral/PASC325.php


Short Notes

"Kulenkampff made this recording for Telefunken before the war, and
reviewers of modern versions of this concerto are constantly referring
to it as the pinnacle of artistic achievement... Nothing so serenely
beautiful as Kulenkampif's playing of the slow movement has come my way,
and it is perhaps this quality of mature reflection which will most
appeal to connoisseurs of instrumental style, and lovers of this
concerto in particular" - The Gramophone, April 1954 (LP reissue)

Kulenkampff's Beethoven Concerto recording of 1936 was indeed one of the
great interpretations on disc, and set the standard for many years after.

Now it can be heard in its full glory in this 32-bit XR remastering, its
pitch anomalies ironed out, and coupled with possibly the violinist's
final orchestral recording, his 1947 Brahms Double Concerto with
Mainardi and Schuricht. Fabulous music-making throughout.




Notes on this recording

As the Gramophone reviewer noted (below), the 1936 Telefunken Beethoven
recording played considerably sharp - at 78rpm the average pitch of the
recording was A=456.57Hz. Here it is offered at concert pitch, A=440Hz.
Some of those Telefunken sides were exceptionally long, resulting in
considerable treble loss at the end of some sides. As my aim here has
been to preserve as much top end as possible, this will be apparent in
one or two places. Likewise the listener will hear a slightly raised
level of hiss, left in order to preserve as much as possible of
Kulenkampff's superb upper tone.

If it seems unfair to put a mid-30s German recording up against Decca's
superb 1947 ffrr recording of the Brahms, well the Telefunken certain
stands up well, even without the extended frequency range of the later
recording. The Decca recording was Kulenkampff's penultimate session for
the company, and may well have been his final orchestral studio
recording - he was to go on to record three sonatas with Solti at the
piano the following summer, just weeks before his untimely death.

The Beethoven recording was naturally very reverberant, and I have not
added to this. By contrast, the Brahms seemed excessively dry, and a
small amount of convolution reverberation has been added to compensate
for this - in the absence of a suitably Swiss acoustic space I've used
the fine sound of Birmingham Symphony Hall, England, albeit very sparingly.

Andrew Rose




REVIEW Beethoven Violin Concerto

Kulenkampff made this recording for Telefunken before the war, and
reviewers of modern versions of this concerto are constantly referring
to it as the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Capitol made a LP
transfer of the performance for America, and Supraphon also issued a set
taken from the original. It was to be expected that the recording would
eventually turn up in this country in LP form, and here it is on a
Telefunken disc, having turned a full circle. How much it has lost or
gained in the transference it is impossible for me to say, as this is
the first time I have heard it. The Record Guide had issued a timely
reminder that without some adjustment of speed it played almost in the
key of E fiat-it still does. Comparing this LP issue with others in the
February, 1954 number of THE GRAMOPHONE, I find a choice between it and
Menuhin's H.M.V. ALP 100 a difficult one to make. Nothing so serenely
beautiful as Kulenkampff's playing of the slow movement has come my way,
and it is perhaps this quality of mature reflection which will most
appeal to connoisseurs of instrumental style, and lovers of this
concerto in particular. There is a great deal to be said for the H.M.V.
record as regards finish and clarity of orchestral support, but I shall
not be so foolhardy as to state categorically that buyers will derive
most pleasure from Menuhin's performance-not without repeated hearings
of the Telefunken disc which holds great promise as a source of lasting
satisfaction. It did occur to me that Kulenkampff made rather heavy
weather in the cadenza to the first movement, and the actual recording
does not reveal the superlative technical finish of its competitors.
What this interpretation undoubtedly has is the nobility of style one
associates with the great virtuoso, and we can be grateful that this
fine record has at last been added to our own LP catalogue.

I.C. - The Gramophone, April 1954





MP3 Sample Violin Concerto, finale

http://tinyurl.com/PASC325

[Edward Cowan]

I got out my copy of Teldec Historic 9031-76443-2 which contains the
Beethoven violin concerto with Schmidt-Isserstedt and also the Bruch
no.1 cond. Keilberth. Indeed, when I checked out the pitch of the
Beethoven (mvt.1) with a pitch-pipe tuned to A = 440, the pitch of the
Beethoven was very sharp indeed! Placing the CD in my Pioneer CDJ-500G,
a CD player with variable pitch, I had to lower the pitch to -7.5 on a
ten-point scale to get the recording tuned to A = 440. (I may have been
a hair off the true pitch, as I had only my ear to go by and not an
electronic pitch-synthesizer.) This resulted in a rather slow
performance, slowing-down the trills and other features of the
performance. I did ponder whether the recording had indeed been made at
78 rpm using the pitch heard as recorded. Does anyone know for sure what
the pitch setting for the Berlin PO was back in the 1930s? --E.A.C.


--
hrabanus