Brahms and Schoenberg make apt disc-mates. The latter greatly admired the former, finding in him the model for his concept of “developing variation”, and both stand at the peak of what may be called “the cranky German school”. The most wonderful thing about these performances, though, is that there is nothing at all cranky about them. Heinz Rögner’s Brahms recalls Bruno Walter’s mono cycle with the New York Philharmonic for Columbia: it is very swift, light, and exciting, but never crass or vulgar. His First Symphony lacks the heroics of a Furtwängler or Klemperer, but it flows beautifully, while Nos. 3 and 4 must stand with the most electric and uninhibited performances on disc. The Fourth in particular comes very close in tempo and tone to Stokowski’s late recording for RCA, and it’s really remarkable to hear how much freshness Rögner gets out of the Second Symphony’s outer movements without any sense of artificially whipping things up just for effect. You don’t hear Brahms played like this very often these days, which is a pity.
The same observations hold true of Rögner’s Schoenberg, which is amazingly organic in feel, never strained, and always lucid in texture. Given the fact that these are all live recordings, the quality of the playing is impressive (though not perfect). Pelleas und Melisande seldom has sounded less muddy and more Romantically impulsive. The tougher atonal works, such as the Five Pieces and the Variations, come across with a familiarity and ease in phrasing that will have you believing that this music can actually sound normal, even ingratiating. Given the various recording venues and dates (1978-91), the sonics inevitably vary from one performance to the next but never obscure what Rögner is doing. This is decent, broadcast-quality stereo. Collectors of either composer will find this idiosyncratic but always musical set well worth adding to their CD libraries. Certainly Rögner’s way with the music is of much more than merely historical interest.
