21 October 2011

A tale of two concurrent issues of Keilberth's 1960 BPO Bruckner Ninth -- Part 1

Orfeo's issue: A stunningly dedicated performance in glaringly compromised sound


Orfeo C838112B

Keilberth had recorded a memorable Bruckner Ninth in 1956 for Telefunken with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg before this 17 August 1960 performance with the Berlin Philharmonic at the 1960 Salzburg Festival, in the new Grosses Festspielhaus.

Given the scarcity of Keilberth's Bruckner live recordings, it is tempting to compare this live recording with the studio one he made almost 4 years earlier. I have 2 versions of the studio recording. One is the Japanese Teldec release. The other is from the label Spectrum Sound which apparently is sold in Japan with a limited edition of 1500. The sound source is the German Telefunken LP SLT 43043 Black Silver first edition. In the CD booklet a long list of sophisticated equipment is named to show the care put in in remastering. They are not bluffing; the resulting sound of the CD is very impressive.

Japanese Teldec WPCS-6053
Spectrum Sound CDSM 007 JT


Let's see the timings first.

                            1956 Teldec             1956 Spectrum Sound              1960 Orfeo
1st mov't                 23:16                             23:21                               23:57
Scherzo                   10:53                             11:02                               10:45
Adagio                     22:22                             22:34                               23:57
                                                                                (music ends, applause not counted)

As it is now well known that Testament is also issuing the same 1960 Salzburg performance, it is inevitable that comparison of the sound of the CD transfers will be made. A little bird in Europe told me that Orfeo had someone with the possession of a batch of Salzburg Festival archive recordings "sell"/"license" them this batch in a lump sum of a few thousand euros. Testament, on the other hand, had their license through someone close to the Berlin Philharmonic, presumably Dr Helge Grünewald. There is no contest of copyright infringement issues now as the sound recording of this performance has passed the 50-year rule and is effectively in public domain. What counts for consumers now is the difference in sound, documentation, packaging and price. For Orfeo, the liner notes are written by someone closely connected with the Salzburg Festival, Gottfried Kraus, detailing Keilberth's performance history in this Festival and the press response at that time. For Testament, the writer is Mike Ashman, a musical historian, opera director and critic. He gives us a short biography of Keilberth and his diary entry of this concert. The packaging is just typical of either company's. Which cover photo is better is up to personal taste. Not much difference price-wise.

Then we come to the most important element -- the sound. As I haven't got my Testament CD, direct A-B comparison cannot be made at this time. But even considered on its own, the sound of the Orfeo issue is really disappointing. The sound stage is narrow, the dynamic range limited, the sound dull and distant, and the whole sound picture well below par of recordings of that vintage. When I brought the CD to Savio's home for him to have a listen, he just remarked that it sounded like an aircheck.

The poor sound will definitely hamper our appreciation of Berlin Philharmonic's sound and its distinguished soloists. Heinrich Kralik in his review in Die Presse 3 days after the concert: "In the Bruckner symphony it was possible to hear the outstanding artistic merits of the Berlin Philharmonic: its stylistic rigour, its straightforward playing, the mellow, rich sound of its string section and the special qualities of its winds. Nor was there any lack of the fullness and mellowness of tone that Bruckner's music demands." All these cannot be discerned through the poor sound of this CD. Lother Koch's solo oboe, Karlheinz Zöller's solo flute and Karl Leister's solo clarinet in the middle part of the Scherzo should be delectable but there is no way to enjoy them fully in this transfer. 

Although my copy of the Testament CD has yet to arrive, judging from previous releases from Testament of recordings of that vintage, I have every reason to believe that their CD will have much better sound than this Orfeo release which simply does not do justice to this important sound document of history, not just for the Bruckner but also for the Schubert and Berg. 

As for Keilberth's reading it is best to wait till the Testament transfer has arrived before a full review is made. This will be the job of Part 2. However, even fettered by the poor sound, there is no mistaking that it is a stunningly dedicated performance.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Horace,

    Thanks for sharing the "inside" information about two different archive sources.
    In my memory, many of Orfeo's issues got poor or limited sounds(e.g. Knappertsbusch/WP's Bruckner #7).
    Hope you have a happy Christmas!

    Odyy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Odyy,
    Thank you and merry Christmas to you too.
    Best wishes,
    Horace

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