Dinu LipattiMaurice Gendron

Edmund Leloir L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Ernest Ansermet

SCHUMANN

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2Piano ConcertoCello Concerto

Adagio and Allegro Manfred Overture

Eloquence

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ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

CD 1 69’26

Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38 ‘Spring’1 I Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace 11’322 II Larghetto 6’113 III Scherzo (Molto vivace) 5’404 IV Allegro animato e grazioso 7’46

Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 615 I Sostenuto assai – Un poco più vivace – 12’33

Allegro ma non troppo – Con fuoco6 II Scherzo (Allegro vivace) 6’577 III Adagio espressivo 9’178 IV Allegro molto vivace 8’59

CD 2 74’08

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 541 I Allegro affettuoso 15’332 II Intermezzo (Andantino grazioso) 4’523 III Allegro vivace 11’27

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 1294 I Nicht zu schnell 10’345 II Langsam 4’036 III Sehr lebhaft 7’22

7 Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Orchestra in A flat major, Op. 70 7’50orch. Ernest Ansermet

8 Manfred Overture, Op. 115 11’59

Dinu Lipatti, pianoMaurice Gendron, cello

Edmund Leloir, hornL’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Ernest AnsermetTotal timing: 143’34

Robert Schumann did not complete his firstsymphony until he was 30, having devoted mostof his energies as a composer during theprevious decade to writing works for the solopiano. That’s not to say that he hadn’t giventhought to the idea of a symphony prior to1841. In fact, between approximately 1829 and1833, he made several attempts at writing one.The most advanced of these was a proposedsymphony in G minor, the so-called ‘ZwickauSymphony’, of which the first movement wasperformed in 1832. At the time, Friedrich Wieck,Schumann’s erstwhile piano teacher and futurefather-in-law, granted that although themovement was well-designed, it was too thinlyorchestrated. Schumann revised the movementand sketched two more to follow it, but theproject came to naught, and it wasn’t untilJanuary 1841 that Schumann began writing hisfirst mature symphony. It took him less than amonth to complete.

What led up the ‘Spring’ Symphony, as he calledit? By 1832, Schumann realized that hisintended career as a concert pianist was over; hehad lost the full use of one or more fingers on hisright hand through strain, or, as has beensuggested, through mercury poisoning – atreatment for syphilis. No longer practicing thepiano six or seven hours a day, Schumann

occupied himself not just in writing music forthat instrument, but in other ways as well. Musiccriticism at that time often ignored orsuppressed original voices, or promoted shallowvirtuosity, so in response, Schumann co-foundedthe Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik in 1834.Within a short time, Schumann’s vision andintegrity caused him to become one of Europe’smost respected music journalists. In 1835, thecordial relationship between Schumann andClara Wieck, Friedrich’s daughter (and a first-class pianist herself), began to burn with a hotterflame. Friedrich disapproved, and for severalyears he did anything he could to stand in theway of the union. Finally, in 1840, he admitteddefeat and Robert and Clara (ten years Robert’sjunior) were married in September of that year.

The ‘Spring’ Symphony is the work of anewlywed, then, and it is filled with youthfulhappiness and impetuosity. Marriage was notthe only impetus behind this work, however.Late in 1839, Schumann encountered Schubert’s‘Great’ Symphony in C major and was greatlyinspired by it. Clara already had beenencouraging Schumann to try his hand atorchestral writing, telling him that she thoughtthat the piano restricted his creativity too much.There are signs, too, that Schumann wasbecoming bored with the Neue Zeitschrift. Also,

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winter was drawing to an end, and Schumannconfessed that he was stirred by the longingsfor spring which stir all men, regardless of theirage, at that time of year. And so, on January23, 1841, the ‘Spring’ Symphony was begun.The opening horn fanfare corresponds to thewords of a poem by Adolph Böttger: ‘O wende,wende deinen Lauf – im Tale blüht der Frühlingauf’ (Oh turn back, turn back – in the valleySpring is blossoming). Originally, Schumannintended to give the four movements titles –‘Spring’s Beginning’, ‘Evening’, ‘MerryPlaymates’ and ‘The Fullness of Spring’ –although he removed them before publication.The symphony was premiered on 31 March ofthat year, and the conductor was FelixMendelssohn. For the most part, the premierewas a success, although commentators boththen and now remarked that the symphony’sopaque and unvaried textures and itsunidiomatic writing for one instrument oranother suggested that Schumann still hadlessons to learn about orchestration.

Ansermet creates anything but ‘opaque andunvaried’ textures in this recording, which has achamber music-like clarity – sometimes exposingthe endearing idiosyncrasies of tone among theOrchestre de la Suisse Romande’s wind players.The first movement has plenty of bustle, but it is

unforced and relaxed, and the Larghetto isallowed to expand as if it were a slowmovement from Beethoven’s early period.Ansermet’s conducting suggests that the thirdmovement’s ‘merry playmates’ are of the rusticsort, and the beginning of the little trio isdelightfully coy. A giddy tempo in the finalekeeps the OSR on its toes, and also prevents themovement from becoming too portentous.

Schumann’s personal springtime was not to lastvery long. His physical and psychological healthtook a downturn in 1844. He, an expectantClara, and their two children moved to Dresdenlate that year, hoping that his health wouldimprove away from the stressful and lesstemperate Leipzig. One of the major works fromearly in his time in Dresden was the PianoConcerto. This was not a completely new work,however, but one that originated from a single-movement Phantasie for piano and orchestracomposed a few years earlier. (In turn, thePhantasie had been inspired by a concerto thatClara herself had written.) A trial performancetook place in August 1841, with Clara at thepiano and Felix Mendelssohn on the podium.Schumann then shelved the Phantasie, notbecause he disliked it, but probably because herealized that a single-movement work wouldhave only limited appeal, and probably also

because he was too busy at the time to devoteany more effort to it.

It wasn’t until 1845 that Schumann wouldreturn to the Phantasie and add the twoexpected movements. In spite of the hiatus, heimpressively recaptured the ebullientlypassionate mood of the Phantasie in theIntermezzo and in the Allegro vivace finale. Theconcerto seems to have been composed in asingle gesture, and describes a perfect arc ofromantic feeling in which self-doubt and morbidemotions are completely absent. Unlike many ofhis contemporaries, Schumann had little use forgrandstanding virtuosity, and the concerto’stechnical difficulties are hidden beneath bushelsof flowers, rather than signaled by fireworks.Fittingly, the public premiere of the completeconcerto was given by Clara at the end of 1845.

Dinu Lipatti, the pianist heard in this liverecording from 1950, made an indelible markon the music world despite the fact that he diedwhen he was only 33 – less than ten monthsafter this performance, as a matter of fact.Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1947,he continued to play in public – brilliantly – upuntil almost three months before his death. Thepresent performance, compared to his 1947studio recording with Herbert von Karajan, is notnote-perfect, but it has an impetuosity not

found in other Schumann recordings conductedby Ansermet. Lipatti’s spontaneity (for example,in the first movement’s cadenza) is treasurable,and Ansermet’s accompaniment is sturdy,imaginative and sensitive. Here, Lipatti broughtout the best in Ansermet.

Schumann was busy with other things during hisyears in Dresden. For example, he had beenstudying counterpoint, and in December hebegan work on what would become known ashis Symphony No. 2, although it actually was histhird completed symphony. (The Symphony No. 4, in its revised form, was last to bepublished, but was composed in between theFirst and Second symphonies.)

There were still signs that all was not well withSchumann. He wrote to Mendelssohn andclaimed that his mind was throbbing with thesounds of drums and trumpets. Later, he told acolleague that he had been ill as he wrote hisnew symphony, although it remains unclearwhether Schumann was experiencing trueorganic illness, or whether his ailment waspsychosomatic. (There is much aboutSchumann’s diaries and letters suggestinghypochondria.) Because of illness and otherdistractions, it took him much of 1846 toorchestrate the new symphony, and its premieredid not occur until November of that year. Once

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again, Mendelssohn was the conductor. Thepublic greeted it coolly, but contemporary criticsvoiced their approval – one compared itfavourably to Beethoven’s Ninth.

This is the most traditional and ‘objective’ ofSchumann’s symphonies. His recent study ofcounterpoint is apparent. Also, as in the previoussymphony, there are thematic interrelationshipsbetween movements – the opening fanfare, forexample, reappears in the second and fourthmovements – and the themes are transformedwith sophistication, contradicting anysuggestions that this symphony was the work ofa composer whose mental faculties were on thewane, for whatever reason. Schumann alsoalluded to the work of earlier masters in thissymphony – to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in thethird movement and to Beethoven’s song An dieferne Geliebte in the finale. The opening fanfareand its subsequent transformations alsoanticipate the symphonies of Bruckner.

Throughout this symphony, Ansermet refines theorchestra’s sonorities to create a shapely, classicalsound. The opening movement is built to a sure,taut climax, and the Scherzo, in spite ofAnsermet’s tight control, is played with a lighttouch that suggests Mendelssohn. Ansermetresists the tendency to make the thirdmovement overly sentimental, despite its

marking of Adagio espressivo. The finale issturdy and masculine, and once again Ansermetkeeps a firm hold on the proceedings, withoutcompromising the music’s flow and spontaneity.

Schumann considered both the Nibelungliedand the legend of Lohengrin as possibleoperatic subjects. (Richard Wagner ‘scooped’him on both, of course.) In 1847, he startedwork on Genoveva, a drama about a wifefalsely accused of unfaithfulness, and hecompleted the four-act opera by August 1848.Today, except for the overture, the score is morediscussed than performed. After completingGenoveva, Schumann immediately immersedhimself in Byron’s Manfred and by October, hadcompleted an overture. Again, this is the onlyportion of Schumann’s score to have achievedpopularity, although he wrote more than adozen musical numbers to support hisadaptation of Byron’s drama.

In 1849, the valved horn was only three decadesold, and composers (and performers) were stilldiscovering its potential and its limitations. (Infact, there were other composers who wouldcontinue to prefer the valveless or ‘natural’ hornfor some time to come.) Schumann’s Adagio(originally Romanze) and Allegro for horn andpiano was part of his bid to establish a newrepertory for this instrument – not just for

professionals, but for talented amateurs as well.The work treats the instrument idiomatically, andgives it an opportunity to show off its singingvoice. In spite of the work’s difficulty, it was asuccess, and so Schumann almost immediatelyfollowed it with the more famous Konzertstück(Concert Piece) for four horns. The publisher alsoprepared versions in which the horn wasreplaced by violin or cello.

The orchestration heard here was created byAnsermet himself in 1952 for horn playerEdmond Leloir, winner of the Concoursd’Execution Musicale in Geneva that year. Leloirwas principal horn of the Orchestre de la SuisseRomande from 1939 until 1977, and hisdistinctively nasal tone can be heard to goodadvantage here. This was the first, and foreighteen years, the only recording ofAnsermet’s orchestration.

In September 1850, about a year aftercompleting the Adagio and Allegro, Schumannleft the political unrest of Dresden and moved tothe provincial city of Düsseldorf, where he hadbeen invited to take on a relatively unchallengingpost leading the local orchestra and choir. (Nodoubt he hoped that he would be able to devotemore time to composition away from theresponsibilities and stress of Dresden.) Thealways practical Clara accepted piano pupils.

Within about two months he had completed amajor new work, the Cello Concerto, and hebegan work on a second, the Symphony No. 3(‘Rhenish’) almost immediately afterwards. Theconcerto wasn’t actually published until 1854,however, and it wasn’t performed in public until1860, four years after Schumann’s death.

As was often the case with Schumann, the titlehe gave the Cello Concerto provides clues as tohow he viewed the music. In his personalcatalogue of works, he once again called it aKonzertstück. In other words, as with theaforementioned work for four horns andorchestra, he did not feel obliged to adhere tothe characteristics of standard concerto form.The Cello Concerto’s three movements arelinked together, and there is a little of thestandard interplay between soloist and orchestrathat one expects in a traditional concerto.Similarly, and as in the Piano Concerto, theemphasis is not on feats of obvious technicalshowmanship, but on expressive song. This mayexplain why Schumann’s Cello Concerto neverhas been as popular with audiences as those by Dvorák or Elgar, for example, despite the advocacy of many of the world’s greatest cellists.

Ansermet’s soloist here, the French cellistMaurice Gendron (1920-90) had a wide-rangingrepertoire and excelled in works by Bach,

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AOhstrewwtyErnest Ansermet

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Swiss conductor ERNEST ANSERMET was bornin Vevey on 11 November 1883 and died aged85 in Geneva on 20 February 1969. He wasinclined to music from an early age, learning theviolin and the clarinet. He was also interested inmathematics and taught the subject. Ansermetstudied music in Paris and Geneva and made hisconducting debut in 1910. Although Ansermetis particularly associated with the Geneva-basedL’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, he also guest-conducted throughout his career – including inAmerica (with numerous top orchestras thereand in 1962 conducting Debussy’s Pelléas etMélisande, an opera Ansermet twice recorded,at the Metropolitan, New York) and England(with London orchestras and not least when heconducted the première of Benjamin Britten’sopera The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne in1946). Ansermet had previously made his debutat the Salzburg Festival, conducting the ViennaPhilharmonic in 1942.

Ansermet’s relationship with the Suisse RomandeOrchestra lasted for 50 years – from 1918, whenhe founded the orchestra, to 1967 when hestood down as its conductor (and handed thereins to Paul Kletzki). Ansermet continued towork in Geneva until his death; his final concertwas in December 1968 and consisted of atypically eclectic mix of composers – on that

occasion it was J.S. Bach, Bartók, Debussy andHonegger. In his early days (between 1911 and1927) Ansermet held appointments in Montreuxand Buenos Aires and also conducted forDiaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. It is howeverthe Ansermet/Suisse Romande association thatremains an indivisible partnership – one keptalive by the many recordings they made forDecca and which document Ansermet’s highly-regarded interpretations of Debussy, Ravel andStravinsky (he knew all three composers) as wellas lucid and satisfying versions of symphonies byBeethoven, Brahms (both complete) and Haydnas well as copious further examples of French,German and Russian repertoire, both core andless familiar. LP collectors have long treasuredthese recordings, which fully exploit the splendidacoustics of the Victoria Hall in Geneva, and theycontinue to grace the catalogue on compact discfor their musical and audiophile excellence.

Ansermet prepared performances notable fortheir clarity and intelligence; he took all heneeded from the composer’s score and saw noneed to add his own gloss (or vanity) but to focuson the composer’s intentions and – as Ansermethimself said – ‘to touch the heart of the musicso as to make its heart-beats heard by thelistener’. Thus Ansermet’s art is not onlyauthoritative it is also timeless and cuts throught

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fads and fashions.

Criticism has been levied on the technical qualityof the Suisse Romande Orchestra. While it is truethat the ensemble was not super-virtuoso orimmersed in centuries-old tradition, what isalways apparent in these recordings is that theorchestra consisted of dedicated andknowledgeable musicians very much attuned toAnsermet’s direction and leaving the listener inno doubt as to their candid commitment tomusical truth. Sometimes fallible in execution,maybe – but also capable of inspiration – there isa musical focus that engrosses, illuminates and sustains.

Colin Anderson

Maurice Gendron

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CLASSICS

Dinu Lipatti

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Recording producers: Victor Olof (Symphony No. 1, Cello Concerto); John Mordler (Symphony No. 2,Manfred); James Walker (Adagio and Allegro)Recording engineers: Arthur Haddy (Symphony No. 1); James Lock (Symphony No. 2, Manfred); RoyWallace, Gil Went (Adagio and Allegro); Gil Went (Cello Concerto)Recording location: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, February 1950 (Piano Concerto – broadcast ofa public performance, made available by courtesy of Radio Suisse Romande), March 1951 (SymphonyNo. 1), November 1953 (Cello Concerto), November 1957 (Adagio and Allegro), April 1965 (SymphonyNo. 2, Manfred)Mastering: Audio Archiving Company, London, UK; Digital Compact Disc Mastering, Sydney, AustraliaEloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-HomjiArt direction: Chilu Tong · www.chilu.comBooklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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