Serge Koussevitsky was a champion of modern music, commissioning, among many other important works, two of the most popular orchestral showpieces in the repertoire: Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. So this CD of “live” broadcast performances of both works by Koussevitsky and his great Boston Symphony Orchestra should immediately qualify as a “must-have” for historical collectors. Alas, I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately, the demerits outweigh the merits for all but the most fervid Koussevitsky fan. The sound is wretched, about what you’d expect to hear on a table radio in 1943-44, when these performances were broadcast. Historical collectors are used to listening through subpar sound, but these large-scale colorful works demand modern engineering. The Pictures are cut, shorn of four pieces, including “The Old Castle” and “Bydlo”. The Bostonians don’t sound all that good either, with some clumsy playing–a limping side drum at the start of the Concerto’s second movement “Giuoco delle coppie”, some sloppy brass, early timpani entries, occasional faulty coordination in the Bartók, and a trumpet vibrato you could drive a truck through in the Pictures, among others.
Aren’t Koussevitsky’s interpretive insights ample compensation? Nope. He does whip up terrific excitement in both pieces, notably the Bartók Finale, but the opening of the Concerto is leaden, parts of its Intermezzo go slack, the hilarious takeoff on Shostakovich’s Seventh is underplayed, and the last movement has its chaotic moments. There is some nice wind playing (and some that’s not so nice) and the Boston strings are fabulous. The Bartók concludes with the composer’s original, abrupt ending which he wisely revised.
If you must have a Koussevitsky Pictures, the 1930 studio version on Pearl is better played and recorded. If you must have a Boston Concerto for Orchestra, RCA’s High Performance series boasts a terrific one with state-of-the-art sound led by Erich Leinsdorf. Both pieces are also blessed with outstanding recordings in modern sound–Dorati, Reiner, Solti, and Bernstein are at or near the top of the pack for both. This one’s for the hard core crowd.
