Kreisler
plays Kreisler compilations have been popular since
the days of LPs and more than one disc bears that title
in the current catalogues. What Naxos have done is to collate
the fruits of recordings sessions in 1936 and 1938 to form
a satisfying programme devoted to original compositions
and – the bulk – transcriptions. All these recordings are
part of Kreislerian lore and adherents will long have had
them, in one form or another, on their shelves. One thing
that struck me when I was listening to other similar issues
for comparative purposes was how Kreisler’s recordings altered
with extraordinary subtlety. Putting on the “wrong” 1930
recording by mistake (with Michael Raucheisen, a Berlin
session) it took just a few bars to realise the error. It
was nothing to do with the acoustic or the recording quality
or even with the pianist, though that may have been a general
contributing factor; no, it was the violinist-composer’s
rubati, the control of the horizontal aspects of music making
that gave such an infusion of life to his multiple recordings
of these pieces.
I listened to
an EMI release with the same title and to three 78s to make
some conclusions about Naxos’ transfers. Broadly Naxos has
retained a higher level of surface noise than EMI; in Caprice
Viennois EMI captures the piano sonorities with greater
depth and clarity. The Naxos is reproduced at a rather higher
level than the EMI and strives for a more open sound, with
good body of violin tone (as they used to say reviewing
acoustic 78s back in 1924). There are some pitching discrepancies
as well; successive EMI transfers of Schön Rosmarin
do sound rather slow after the brighter Naxos pitching.
In the Bach-Kreisler my sympathies are very much with the
Obert-Thorn work; I like the open, relatively unfiltered
sound he has achieved – it’s airy and that counts for a
lot (and precisely the thing I found so disappointingly
lacking in a couple of his recent Szigeti-Bach transfers).
After a long while listening to Poldini I came to the conclusion
– rightly or wrongly – that the EMI is slightly flat and
that Naxos’ pitch tightening and brightening is to be preferred.
In conclusion
I can recommend the restorative work here; I think the higher
ration of surface noise is a price worth paying for the
advantages of an open sound, and Obert-Thorn’s pitching
decisions seem to me to have been carried out with diligence
and authority. The programme is one that every Kreislerian
will know and love but I hope younger listeners gravitate
toward it and savour his inimitable way with these originals
and transcriptions.
Jonathan
Woolf
Fritz Kreisler (violin)
