Carl Schuricht’s 78s from the 1930s and ’40s are at last getting their long-playing due. His Berlin “Eroica” sounds a shade more impactive and fuller here than in its “official” transfer for Deutsche Grammophon’s Beethoven Edition. The conductor sustains momentum through judicious balancing of orchestral choirs and soft-grained yet solid rhythm. Though not quite state of the art for 1941, the sonics convey a chamber-like immediacy that strikes a happy medium between the overly reverberant Weingartner/Vienna and slightly claustrophobic Toscanini/NBC 1939 recording from Studio 8H. By contrast, Schuricht’s 1946 Fifth reveals Decca’s full frequency range recording at its late 78-era finest. The conductor strips decades of interpretive fat from the score, and delivers a bald, unsentimental account that sears with unrelenting intensity. The French musicians play with remarkable precision and dynamism that matches, and sometimes surpasses their American and Dutch counterparts in Toscanini and Erich Kleiber’s similarly conceived readings. Historic-minded collectors should consider acquiring these potent performances by one of the century’s underrated podium giants.
