CONTINENTAL REPORT From H. C. ROBBINS LANDON 

IN my last report I drew attention to the fine series of old masters being sold by Fabbri in Italy, "I Maestri del Colore", and hoped that one day the series would be available in England. In fact they have been appearing in England since October 1965 under the title "The Masters", and cost 6s. per issue; the publishers are The Masters, 37 Hertford Street, London WA, from whom the series may be had directly (52 weekly copies L15 12s. 0d.). I have been sent number 25, Parmigianino, which looks excellent, and I do recommend the series.

O. G. Preiser

Some time ago, I promised to write about the firm of O. G. Preiser in Austria, which after Amadeo Records (whose production I examined briefly in THE GRAMOPHONE several months ago) is the largest recording company in that country. The following notes are of necessity brief and I have by no means mentioned all the interesting recordings which Mr Preiser has issued; his firm, Otto G. Preiser & Co., Fischcrstiege 9, Vienna 1, will furnish catalogues and other information.

Mr Preiser was formerly the business manager of the Haydn Society's Viennese office, and he has not lost his altruistic love for Haydn. For one thing, he issues several of the old Haydn Society's recordings in Austria, including The Creation and The Seasons (both with Clemens Krauss and the Vienna Philharmonic), the only extant recording (Gillesberger) of the Mariazellermesse, and also the Missa in tempore belli (Gillesberger) and the Mozart Mass in C minor, K427 (Zallinger). Recently he has begun a large series of Haydn string quartets with the famous Konzerthaus Quartet, now disbanded because of two members' deaths. Here is the list as of May 1966 (the series will be continued) : FK50123: "The Seven Words of the Saviour on the Cross", Op. 51. FK50124: Op. 1 Nos. 5 & 6; Op. 3 Nos. 3 & 6. FK50125: Op. 2 Nos. 5 & 6; Op. 3 No. 4; Op. 50 No. 2. FK50126: Op. 9 No. 6; Op. 17 No. 1; Op. 50 No. 1. FK50127: Op. 20 No. 2; Op. 64 No. 2. FK50128: Op. 3 No. 5; in E major Hob. III E-2 (ed. E. F. Schmid); Op. 76 No. 3. FK50129: Op. 9 Nos. 3 & 4. FK50130: Op. 9 No. 1; Op. 17 No. 2. FK50131: Op. 55 No. 3; Op. 50 No. 5. FK50132: Op. 33 No. 3; Op. 64 No. 1. FK50133: Op. 74 No. 1; Op. 74 No. 3. FK50134: Op. 9 No. 5; Op. 77 No. 1.

You could not say that the Konzerthaus Quartet was one of the supremely great quartets of our age, e.g. on the level of the Amadeus or Budapest, but they were fine, sensitive musicians who were particularly good at recreating what one might call Haydn's "Viennese" quartet style (as opposed to the ones for London's public concert halls, Opp. 71 & 74). These are recordings which were made for Radio Vienna ("Ravag"), and although they are not new it does not make all that much difference for chamber music of this kind that we lack stereo sound. As can be seen, there are great many of Haydn's quartets here which are not otherwise available on the European market (Opp. 9 and 17, for example), and some that were never available even in America (Op. 3). There are several particularly interesting performances to which I should like to draw special attention. On FK50128 we have the first recording of a doubtful, but most attractive, Quartet in E major which the late Ernst Fritz Schmid discovered before the war at Göttweig Abbey and published with Bärenreiter in 1938. We have names for most of the doubtful Haydn quartets (they are by Klopp, Vanhal, Schmitt, and so on), but for the E major we have not yet discovered the real author. It is certainly not by Haydn but it is well worth having all the same. It is also good to have the first recordings of several works from the (in)famous Op. 3, which is now thought to be the work of Pater Romanus Hofstetter; apart from the ubiquitous Op. 3 No. 5 with the celebrated "Serenade" (still a lovely movement—enough to make Hofstetter famous for ever), we also have Op. 3 Nos. 3, 4 and 6. Thus we have four representative works by Hofstetter, who wrote a couple of dozen string quartets of a high artistic level (Op. 3 is far more winning, and more 'fetchingly' composed than the real Haydn of Opp. 1 and 2 which are awkwardly written and experimental in nature). Musicological interest apart, however, I do hope that lovers of Haydn's quartets will sample these serious and dedicated performances; it is incredible that so few of these great works are available, and one must be thankful to Mr. Preiser for his courage in releasing so many records whose sale, especially in Austria, must be depressingly small. In fact it is a rather horrendous thought that Haydn quartets would sell much better these days if people thought they were by Telemann or Vivaldi. All the Haydn quartets are on 12-inch LPs, by the way, as are all the following recordings, unless otherwise noted.

Franz Schmidt

One of the most ambitious series in the Preiser catalogue is the complete chamber music by Franz Schmidt, a controversial Austrian composer who died in 1939: controversial in the same sense that Bruckner used to be, i.e. Schmidt's reputation in Austria is enormous but abroad is practically nil. Some years ago there was a frightful scandal in Vienna, when one of the younger Viennese critics, Karl Löbl, dared to call Schmidt's music "hillbilly" (we translate freely from "Hinterwaldler"): the Vienna Philharmonic called a Press conference, which I attended, during which several members of that august body distinguished themselves for stupidity, chauvinism and provincialism; they attempted to make a fool out of Löbl but succeeded only in winning a lot of sympathy for the young man. Although it is grossly unfair to sum up the work of any composer in two lines, we would say that Schmidt's music is not nearly so good as the Austrians think but not nearly so bad as his detractors make out. It is honest and very often mediocre, post-romantic, and technically well composed. On one of the sleeves you can read: "Franz Schmidt [is] the great symphonist after Bruckner and Brahms" (notice the order). Having thus neatly dealt with the works of Gustav Mahler and others, we return to the Preiser series. It includes, FK50114: First String Quartet (1925), by the Konzerthaus Quartet, a recording from the Radio Vienna Archives, with a most attractive slow movement and a fugued Scherzo, but the finale is naive and derivative. FK50115: Second String Quartet (1929), by the Konzerthaus Quartet again, is available both in mono and stereo (and thus a much newer recording). It is a better work altogether whose crown is the slow movement, which is close in spirit to the Bruckner Quintet. FK50116: Quintet for piano and strings in G (1926), with Jörg Demus (piano) and string players partly from the former Konzerthaus Quartet. The Weihnachtspastorale in A (1934) completes this disc. The Quintet is the first of three chambermusic works for the left-handed pianist Paul Wittgenstein; the version for both hands is by Friedrich Wührer. The notes go overboard here, too, for it says of the second movement, "there is hardly its like in the whole literature of music". Again, the Quintet is basically good, wholesome post-romantic stuff. The Christmas Pastorale is an arrangement by Jörg Demus from the Prelude and Fugue for organ in A major; it is sentimental and faintly charming.

FK50117 contains the Quintet for clarinet, piano, violin, viola and 'cello in B flat (1932), together with three piano pieces (Romanze, Intermezzo, Toccata). Alfred Prinz (clarinet), Jörg Demus (piano), Anton Kamper (violin), Ferdinand Stangler (viola) and Werner Resel (cello), play the work beautifully and the recording, in mono and stereo, is good. There is an interesting piano solo (again for Wittgenstein) in the second movement which is original and arresting. The piano pieces are very second-rate; the Toccata is more a harpsichord piece (Schmidt said you could play it on either) with a pseudo-Baroque layout serving for Schmidt's heavily romantic style, while the Romanze might have been written eighty years before. FK50118, the Quintet for clarinet, piano, violin, viola and 'cello in A major (1938) is a Radio Vienna recording with Leopold Wlach (the late first clarinet of the VPO), Jörg Demus and members of the Konzerthaus Quartet. This is a late work—Schmidt died the following year— written shortly after the composer's principal effort, The Book with the Seven Seals (the oratorio can be had on Amadeo records, by the way), and Schmidt was slightly worried about writing anything after the large oratorio. The piano part was again composed with the left-handed Paul Wittgenstein in mind and the version for two hands is by Wiihrer. It is, in retrospect, incredible that such a comfortable, platitudinous work should have been written just as Austria was being overrun (or liberated, depending on your viewpoint) by the Nazis; and the merry too-doo-loos of the clarinet—exquisitely played by the late Leopold Wlach, who was one of the great clarinet players of Europe—have in the context a slightly Kafka-esque overtone.

An odd comparison sprang to mind as I listened to this Quintet—the unbelievably tragic face of Sigmund Freud, photographed in the car as he arrived in London, an exile from Vienna, leaving behind him the NSDAP and the lilting sounds of Franz Schmidt, doodling away in A major.

Vocal music

Julius Patzak is undoubtedly one of the great artists of our time; his voice has declined over the past twenty years but it shows you how powerful his personality is if you remember that he is still singing. I recall a Fidelio at Covent Garden more than ten years ago which was boring and mediocre until Patzak appeared on the stage; from then on, the opera came to life; he seemed to whirl everyone, including the conductor, with him. He has now recorded the whole of the Winterreise for Preiser (FK50119/20, mono and stereo). There are no doubt many other versions which are vocally far superior, but for pure style Patzak is unique, and he is materially assisted by the beautiful and sensitive playing of Jörg Demus. Every young singer can learn a great deal about how to sing these masterpieces by listening to these records.

Patzak is joined by Elfriede Ott in two 12-inch LPs of Viennese "Komödienlieder", songs for the Singspiele of the local theatres (e.g. Josefstadt, Theater-an-der-Wien, and so on) with a chamber orchestra conducted by Gustav Zelibor. The repertoire ranges from Haydn (Das abgebrannte Hazes) to Suppe and contains some charming music (FK50112-3, mono and stereo).

As you will have gathered, Preiser's catalogue specializes in chamber music, Lieder and the like: there is a whole record (FK50111) devoted to Ballades by Carl Loewe, sung by Oskar Czerwenka accompanied by Gustav Cerny. Loewe's songs are interesting parallels to those of Schubert, and in some of the works here recorded Loewe reaches real dramatic depths, such as in Odins Meeresritt, Op. 118 (Cerny's piano playing is first-rate here). Czerwenka sings the music rather heavily, but possibly that is what the music calls for. On the whole, Loewe seems to me to offer second-rate romantic music of a very decidedly Teutonic cast (which no one would dream of saying about Schubert, for instance). Czerwenka and Cerny join forces on a 12-inch LP devoted to Lieder by Franz Salmhofer, the former Director of the Vienna State Opera and a prolific composer who enjoys a certain popularity in Austria. This LP was produced by Preiser and Czerwenka for Salmhofer's 65th birthday a year ago last January; it is pleasant music of no lasting importance, well (if occasionally somewhat artificially) sung (FK50122).

FK50121 (mono and stereo) is a record devoted to folk songs by Beethoven. As is now known he followed Haydn's example and shopped out some of his several hundred Scottish folk songs to his pupil Sigismund Neukomm. I could never work up much enthusiasm for Haydn's Scottish songs, even for those of undisputed authenticity, and the writer of the sleeve-note for this record seems most embarrassed that Beethoven turned his attention to such low-grade forms; they are not, however, all that bad, though the Tyrolean songs made me wince a little (nor is Emmy Loose's bright soprano voice always subtle enough to cope with the Lieder style: she is joined by Kurt Dieman, a pleasant baritone voice, and a piano trio). Some of the songs on this record are rather intriguing (the eastern European section, for instance), but they are curiosities more than anything else. FK50135 gives us a Radio Vienna recording of Mozart's String Quintet in C minor (K406) and the Sextet for piano, violin, viola, violoncello, bass and clarinet, Op. 55 by the German composer Hans Pfitzner (mono only). The Mozart is an arrangement, now believed to be his own, of the magnificent Serenade for wind band K388; and unlike most such arrangements, it is just as good for this combination of strings, which leads me to agree with the latest theory that only Mozart himself can have done it (Artaria published it in Mozart's lifetime). It is most lovingly played by the Konzerthaus Quartet with Helmut Weis, second viola. The Pfitzner is a post-Brahmsian, rhapsodic piece with some interesting tonal experiments, ravishingly played by members of the Konzerthaus Quartet and Walter Kamper (piano) with Leopold Wlach (clarinet). Another major Pfitzner work, which I heard on whitelabel test pressings, is the Quintet in C, Op. 23 for piano and strings with a fill-up of the Wolf Italian Serenade, again with members of the Konzerthaus Quartet. It, too, is excellently played, and if you like lush, late Romantic music which is off the beaten track, sample these two records. I was given another test pressing: a 12-inch LP of the Schubert String Quintet in C, Op. 163, also with the Konzerthaus Quartet and a second 'cellist whom I cannot identify (white labels); this appears to be a Radio Vienna tape (thus only mono) but it is a marvellously relaxed and poetic interpretation.

Spoken Word

Mr Preiser has also made a large number of spoken word recordings, of which some have achieved an international reputation: perhaps the most famous is Herr Karl (LW1), a brilliant and terrifying monologue about an Austrian shopkeeper written by Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger; Qualtinger's acting is an incredible tour-de-farce, and the trenchant self-criticism of all that is bad in the Austrian character is leeringly brought out. It is one of the most negative pieces about any country I ever heard in my life. If you can understand German, it is a record you should not miss. Another terrifying LP is a documentary report entitled "31 December 1932, Evening Edition", showing the atmosphere on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, brilliantly put together by Marcel Faust and edited by Jurgen E. Schmidt; it uses old records, tapes, and so on and conjures up the Berlin of Isherwood in all its fascinating degeneracy. Of the many plays Mr Preiser has issued, I would draw attention to one of particular interest to musicians: Hofmannsthal's Der Rosenkavalier as a straight play, i.e. without any Strauss whatever. Preiser has assembled a splendid cast (Qualtinger, Kathe Gold, Albert Rueprecht, Hermann Thimig, Aglaja Schmid, etc.) which is directed by Rudolf Steinboeck. The experiment was attempted successfully on the Viennese stage a couple of years ago and the new set proves (a) that Hofmannsthal's libretto is beautiful and moving, which we all knew anyway; (b) that the last act doesn't work on records without the music and (c) that the whole libretto works even better with the music than without it. All of which goes to show that a great opera libretto is as great as the music it goes with; but it was an experiment well worth doing (LW2-3). One small comment: what is that dreadful, Telemann-like (is it Telemann?) Tafelmusik for wind band doing in an Austrian play (last act?) Couldn't they have found some Austrian music of the period instead? I cannot imagine that the Austrian nobility of the eighteenth century preferred Telemann to Haydn or Dittersdorf, and I doubt if they would have known Telemann's music anyway. Next we shall be having Vivaldi as background music to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

To summing up: Preiser's catalogue is a courageous effort worthy of note. For those who are looking for out-of-the-way chamber music of all kinds, his lists will be a refreshing change. A 12-inch LP costs 150 Austrian Schillings (roughly: £I = 70 Austrian Sch.).

Walter piano

From Austria comes an interesting record (10-inch) on which Franz Eibner plays two Haydn piano sonatas on the Walter piano at Eisenstadt; the Sonatas are in G major (Hob. XVI: 27) and A major (Hob. XVI: 26), and the record may be ordered directly from the Landesmuseum, Museumgasse 5, Eisenstadt (Austria); it costs 90 Austrian Schillings plus 10 Schillings postage abroad. This is the first of a projected series of gramophone records to be made on the recently restored Anton Walter piano which is in Haydn's house in Eisenstadt. Anton Walter was Mozart's favourite pianoforte manufacturer and his own instrument by Walter, heavily restored, is now in the Mozart Museum at Salzburg. Haydn also thought highly of Walter's instruments—there were several at Esterhazy Castle—but considered them too heavy for his friend Maria Anna von Genzinger's hand, and also very expensive. The Eisenstadt piano has been beautifully restored by Professor Joseph Mertin, even to the iron strings, the manufacture of which had previously presented a problem. It is a magnificent instrument. I recently had the opportunity of playing on it at some length and found it better restored than the Mozart piano.

We all know that the piano for which Haydn and Mozart wrote differs fundamentally from the modern piano; but up to now, I cannot say that I ever liked a recording of a fortepiano, as they call these old pianos on the Continent. Apparently it is as difficult to record as the clavichord, and all praise must go to Dr G Gellrich and Teldec (Germany's Decca affiliate) for the excellent recorded sound. As to Eibner, who is a pupil of Heinrich Schenker, hats off for daring to play with intelligent rubato; nowadays Haydn and Mozart are usually played with machine-gun precision, and it takes some courage to play the music as flexibly as this. You have never heard Haydn—or Mozart, or early Beethoven—until you have heard this remarkable record. I wish the series a long and prosperous life.

Speaking of series, Haydn's trios for piano, violin and cello are to be recorded complete by the Beaux Arts Trio for Philips—not just the 31 in the Peters or Breitkopf lists but the 45, of which some 15 are unprinted. The recording supervisor is to be Kurt List, who is also managing another large Haydn project: the complete Haydn symphonies, conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer, the young Austrian conductor who is having such a success at the City Centre Opera in New York. Dr List has already put on tape the first fifteen symphonies, which were recorded in the same hall as that used by Goberman in Vienna (a casino on the outskirts); I also noticed many of the same musicians in the orchestra. Märzendorfer has also captured all those incredible high As in the horn parts of Symphony No 5, and he is a good, reliable Haydn conductor; the series will appear in America on Columbia's record club, the Musical Heritage Society.

Sweden and Schwann 

I have received two interesting 12-inch LPs from Sweden. The first is put out by a firm called Expo/Norr (no number, no address from which to order, but presumably easy to obtain in Stockholm) and is by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Comissiona. Side 1 is a stunning performance and recording, on a flawless surface of the Kodaly Dances from Galanta with Thore Janson, clarinet. Side 2 is a frightening, indeed horrifying, new work by Karl-Birger Blomdahl entitled Forma Ferritonam which sounds like John Donne's The Curse set to music. It is very impressive and the recorded sound is simply hair-raising. The second record is by the far-out boys (and I hadn't realized just how far out they had got these days), entitled, in Swedish with English translation, "Swedish music from the sixties" (Artist ALP 102, available from AB Nordiska Musikrörlaget, Fack 8, Stockholm Tull, Sweden). It includes a String Quartet by Sven-Erik Back, Transit If by Bengt Hambraeus, Jan Bark's and Folke Rabe's Bolos (fabulous trombone playing), and two organ works which have to be heard to be believed by Bo Nielsson (born 1937) and Jan Morthenson (born 1941). All I can say is what Stravinsky said when he first heard Bernstein conduct the Symphony of Psalms—"Wow!"

There are several new releases from Schwann, who produce Musica Sacra and a new series, Musica Mundi. British readers will already know that you can get these fine records from Disc Imports Ltd. of 16 John Dalton Street, Manchester 2. The new parallel series Musica Mundi is presumably made to complement the religious music in Musica Sacra; as far as I can determine, its policy (or rather that of its musical director, the Abbe de Nys) is to record only previously unrecorded music. All the records here mentioned are 12-inch stereo LPs. VMS2001 contains two works by the famous German Romantic poet, E T A Hoffmann, a Quintet for harp and string quartet in C minor, and a "Grand Trio" for piano, violin and cello in E major, both exceptionally attractive works played by various French musicians (Marielle Nordmann's harp playing is first-rate). VMS2003 is unknown music by Rossini: a pretty Sinfonia di Bologna in D major; a Prelude, Theme and Variations for horn and piano which is dreadful; Variations in C for clarinet ane orchestra which is not much better; and ending with an Allegro agitate for cello and piano, also rather bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. The playing, by various Italian musicians, is most competent; I understand you can get the Sinfonia, neatly conducted by Massimo Pradella, separately. VMS2004 is entitled "Music at the Swedish Court" ; side A has a Sonata for four violas and basso continuo by Buxtehude and three very attractive Dances by Gustaf Dueben (1647-1690); side B is a suite of six movements from the huge Drottningholms Musiquen, or Drottningholm Suite, for flute and strings by J H Roman (1694-1758), Sweden's leading baroque composer. I must say that I have heard better music by Roman that this: there are very strange things in this suite which make me suspect a faulty manuscript (leading notes that don't resolve, and so on); for whatever Roman was, he was certainly an expert craftsman.

Haydn and Bach

In the Musica Sacra series there is an important first recording of Haydn: the original version, for orchestra alone, of the Seven Words, on two 12-inch stereo records (AMS72-3), recorded by the Chamber Orchestra of Catalonia conducted by Antoni Ros-Marba. For some reason, this work has become best known in a wretched adaptation for string quartet, which is about as revealing as Haydn's Salomon Symphonies in the first edition for piano, violin and cello. Later, when he returned from England, Haydn arranged it for soli (SATB), chorus and slightly different orchestra (with clarinets and trombones), adding a marvellous movement for solo wind band. It is the first version of 1786 which is undoubtedly the finest, however; Harry Newstone used to play it on the Third Programme, but for some reason it was never recorded. The new records have a vast echo, which Abbe de Nys says corresponds exactly to the acoustics of the two possible churches in Cadiz where the first performance must have taken place: the crypt of the Cathedral, or the "Holy Cellar" of the Parish Church, Santo Rosario, known as "Santa Cueva". The orchestra has a good tone, but there are one or two bad horn fluffs which should not have been allowed to pass. Apart from these small reservations, the performance is deeply felt and recorded with great attention to detail (stereo well spread). It is without doubt one of Haydn's very greatest works and it was high time it was recorded.

Bach cantatas are also receiving their due attention from gramophone companies these days. Eurodisc is putting out a series, presumably from radio tapes, of the Thomanerchor with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, conducted by the late Gunther Ramin (all 12-inch mono records). 71534KK brings us BWV144 Nimm, was dein ist and BWV92 Ich hab'n Göttes Herz und Sinn; 71596KK contains BWV24 Ein ungefarbt Gemüte and BWV177 Ich ruf' zu dir, Hen- Jesu Christ; 71528KK has the fabulous and hitherto unrecorded "Ratswahlkantate", BWV119 Preise, Jerusalem which opens with a French Overture not at all behind those of the Orchestral Suites Nos. 1-4, together with the better known BWV65, Sic werden aus Saba alle kommen; 71530KK includes BWV36, Schwingt freudig euch empor and BWV57 Selig ist der Mann. These are good, competent performances with the famous Choir (sopranos and altos are boys) of St Thomas's Church in Leipzig, where Bach and Ramin were both cantors. There are many of these cantatas which have not, as far as I can establish, been recorded hitherto. Some, like the Ratswahlkantate, are absolute revelations, but there are great things in all of them. I can never understand why these works are not part of the standard repertoire, nor why they don't sell particularly well. Nowadays Telemann's Tafelmusik outsells Bach cantatas: it seems scarcely credible, but there you are. I suppose if Telemann and Bach were to apply all over again for the post of Thomascantor, Telemann would get the job hands down, if record collectors were doing the voting; just as Vivaldi would oust Handel (and indeed The Four Seasons outsells a work like Israel in Egypt 20 to 1). I'm afraid I'm just not with it.