Great David! The two trumpeters were probably Bernard Adelstein and David Zauder. Both legendary players. Zauder was one of the great 2nd trumpeters ever. A native of Poland, he survived multiple Nazi concentration camps as a child. He emigrated to the US and was in the Cleveland Orchestra for 30 some years, also serving as personnel manager. A great man. Incidentally, Szell was famous for tweaking things he felt were important or that got lost. Listen to the Szell: Ride of the Valkyries, for the added trumpet "hoyotoho" @ 3:12 (recreating the missing sopranos). Szell wrote out the fanfare and gave to to Adelstein to play. I love it!
I listened to the Dvorák "New World" symphony again with Szell/CO. I noticed another detail regards to brass: at the end of 1st movement there is a moment where brass play rising notes and sustain the last note and do it again and again (I am not musician I just tried to describe what I hear). They play it something like crescendo-decrescendo. I downloaded the score. I can't read the score but somehow I managed to find it: it starts in the 412. bar, they play it 4 times. And yes: the score contained the crescendo sign. But I never heard it in other performances (even Fricsay's performers at his famous recording don't play like that. They sustained on one level.).
This recording is indeed astonishing. When I first heard it, probably more than 20 years ago, I was completely in shock. The night scene with the fairies/nymphs/whatever is amazingly beautiful, and the ending is absolutely marvelous. But since I love “Ma vlast” I almost never listen to the “Moldau” alone (my brain even “hears” the first chords of “Sarka” when the “Moldau” ends). It’s a shame that Szell never recorded the complete cycle.
The Szell/CO recording of "The Moldau" was made in Severance Hall in 1963. Bernard Adelstein and Thomas Wohlwender were 1st and 2nd trumpets of the Cleveland Orchestra that season and it's probably their playing one hears on the recording. The trumpet parts at the end of "The Moldau" are not technically difficult and I assure you they are being played accurately in any recording by a modern professional orchestra. The problem is in making them ‘sound’ clearly and that’s where most performances fall short. The issue is that the low notes in the 2nd part, especially when they drop down to the tonic in the full arpeggio bars, simply will not project over the rest of the orchestra while they’re sawing away at full bore. This isn’t an issue for the 1st player whose higher notes will project easily, so what one usually gets is an inaudible or partially audible 2nd part and a partially or fully audible 1st part. The short 1st and 3rd notes of the arpeggio, split between the two parts, will also get swallowed unless the players articulate them very cleanly and forcefully, which is why you sometimes hear only the top note in the 1st part clearly. Szell was well known for his credo that everything the composer wrote should be heard, and in pursuit of this goal he encouraged his wind and brass players to articulate the beginnings of notes very sharply. You can clearly hear this style of brass playing on the legendary 1969 Philadelphia, Cleveland & Chicago recording of antiphonal works by Gabrieli. The first entrance in the left channel is the Cleveland brass players (including Adelstein & Wohlwender) with their very sharply articulated attacks, answered immediately in the right channel by the Philly players (Gil Johnson & company) with their smoother, more euphonious attacks. Horses for courses. This partially explains why the trumpet parts in Szell’s Moldau recording are clearly audible, but I suspect it’s not the whole story. The 2nd part may have been doubled or the players (or Szell) may have done a little customization to the parts to achieve the goal of making it ‘sound’. Who knows? The bottom line is it does ‘sound’ and remains true to the composer’s intentions. I read an interview with Tom Wohlwender some years ago where he related the story of Szell calling him into his office to rehearse an important passage in the 2nd trumpet part in the last movement of the Bartok "Concerto for Orchestra". I instantly knew what passage he was referring to, it's where the 2nd trumpet launches the secondary theme, followed by the 1st trumpet with its inversion of the theme. The problem is the same as above. It’s difficult to make notes in that register ‘speak’ on the trumpet, particularly when they are quickly articulated as in this passage. Wohlwender finally did it to Szell’s satisfaction, and to this day I’ve never heard another recording of the piece where all the notes in that brief passage are as clearly audible.
I love this music and love Szell/Cleveland, so I would like to take this opportunity to share a Szell story. During Grad school I had tthe opportunity to have a couple private lessons with long time principal Tuba (Ron Bishop) of Cleveland. After a lesson we were packing up and chatting and he told me that when he auditioned for Cleveland it was just him and Szell in the basement of the Concert hall. During one of the Wagner excerpts Szell stopped him and ask, "are you playing a CC tuba? Yes sir. Try it again, but with this alternate fingering...I think you will find the passage easier and better in tune." Now how many conductors could do that, and be correct 😁
It's funny. I was JUST listening to this exact piece in this exact recording yesterday because you recommended the Stokowski version of Bizet's Symphony in C. I don't think I've ever heard the Szell version of the Moldau before. I was just remarking to myself how wonderful it was. The Moldau is one of those pieces that is so often just tossed off as a filler if it's not in a recording of Ma Vlast, you never expect it to be of this quality. It's just interesting that we paralleled each others listening on this. Such fun!
This actually depended on the version. There is a 1941 broadcast (with a sublime Barber Adagio for strings). You can here the trumpets. Slightly more prominent than in the Talich version. Also the trumpets in the NBC orchestra tended to sound like Coronet. This was the tone of Harry Glantz. Toscanini was quite whimsical with respect to certain scores. Hari
Did not know the recording so decided to listen to it with the score--thanks so much for recommending it. It seemed crystal clear throughout, with all of the overlapping textures very beautifully handled. It is an interesting notion that the key moment of the piece had never really been heard at least in recorded performance until Szell finally insisted on it, makes me wonder what other pieces have a hidden golden ticket lying in their textures.
Very informative and enjoyable. As a trumpet player I can attest to the difficulty of getting this passage right. I just listened to Berglund and, as you say, the Dresden trumpeters almost nail it.For many years my go-to was Bernstein /NYPO, but , as in most recordings, the trumpet parts ( in this particular section) are underplayed or obscured. Szell reigns supreme.
As a native Clevelander and a (very) amateur euphoniumist, I'm always happy to see deserved praise heaped on Szell and the Cleveland brass; I also took cornet lessons from the late Orchestra trumpeter Harry Hereforth as a young lad in the early 90s. As mentioned by another commenter below, it would have been great if Zsell recorded the full Ma Vlast, but c'est la vie. I agree that this performance can't be beat. Incidentally, the Antoni Vit Ma Vlast on Naxos you recommended is bold and brilliant. Everyone should run out and grab the disc or listen on the streaming service of their choice.
Great analysis. I am late to this video. I in the 80s as principal trumpet of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, before I left to be a lawyer I remember playing this. I had a marvelous second trumpet ,C. Evan Hauawout, and we blasted the heck out of it, artistically, of course. It sounded fine to us, but we never heard a playback to confirm that. Thanks again for your detailed insight on this piece.
Back in '98, I hosted 40 listeners on a fabulous trip to Prague. One of our guides was an elderly former radio producer named Libuše -- great name for Smetana fans, eh? (Maybe she had a sister named Šárka.) The tour group, of course, called her Libby. Every time we crossed the river, she would call out in a cackly voice, "und now, ve cross ze river Vltava, in Cherman Mol-DAU!" By the third time, practically everyone in the group was mouthing along with her.
Indeed! There’s no other like it. Not only the trumpets and the ending, but also a perfect tempo for the wedding dance-not too fast, but so buoyant! Thank you again for your discussion.
Very interesting. I have the same reaction when hearing Bruno Walter conducting Dvorak's 8th symphony. The trumpets in the 4th movement are unique. I've never heard anything like this by any other conductor. Thanks Mr. Hurwitz for your immense work. It became my daily highlight.
I listened to Szell's rendition and it is one of the better performances I've heard. My favorite section of Moldau is the serene water nymphs section, played unhurried. Szell does this part very well. Thanks for sharing. My favorite Moldau version is an older mono recording by Joseph Keilberth/Bamberg Symphony on a 10" Telefunken LP (from the early 1950s?), backed with From Bohemia's Meadows and Forests. The strings section on the water nymphs part is very dreamy with sustained notes more pronounced than most recordings. The ending tempo is slower too.
Boy, did I miss this video (by 3.5 years), and YES..BEST Moldau ever. Anyway, as stated below the trumpeters were Bernie Adelstein and Tom Wohlwender. I'll never forget (spring, 1970) at the Cleveland Institute, where Wohlwender (a very nice guy with whom I would occasionally chat) was giving a lesson in his studio and I had to speak to his student. I knocked lightly on the door, Wohlwender stuck his head out and said "what's on your small mind?" Cracks me up to this day. Very sadly, Wohlwender's playing was impacted by an accident of some sort in (I think, 1971) at a Cleveland sporting event; the story I heard when it happened was some moronic fan threw a beer bottle which hit Wohlwender in the mouth. Others say it was a scuffle with a pick-pocket. In any case, the damage to his lip ruined his lower register, and he retired prematurely from the orchestra in 1972. And to think, that was the sad fate of the guy whose brilliant LOWER register playing distinguishes the coda in Szell's 1963 "Moldau" LR
Love your videos! Dug out my own favorite-Stokowski/RCA Symphony 1960-to compare. Interestingly, both trumpets are perfectly balanced in that one, too. I first learned of it in Martin Bookspan’s “101 Great Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers” where he points out that it only got recorded because there was time left at the end of a recording sessions. Parts for the Moldau had been left in the studio after a previous session with another group so they passed them out, did a quick rehearsal, and recorded it. The last time Stokowski had conducted it was 50 years before!
Thanks for another wonderful video. You brighten my day during these trying times. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the various recordings of Knoxville Summer of 1915.
Dave - I just played the triangle part in the Moldau Saturday night with Montreal's Sinfonia... Also the TamTam and the bell in Bald Mountain... I am following in your tracks...
Entertaining and informative as always. I've had a number of performances of this work on vinyl and CD, with fond memories of a Decca(UK) issue of the Kertesz/LSO LP recording. I have Szell recordings of other works and will now be looking to add this disc to my collection - thanks.
Just got SONY's 7-dsic box SZELL CONDUCTS DVORAK & SMETANA. Absolutely true that Szell's Cleveland version is the greatest MOLDAU / VLATAV ever. I am not one of those Szellots who insist that he could do no wrong EVER, but there isn't a dud anywhere in the box. The Dvorak Symphonies 7-9 are almost peerless - and I'll drop the qualifier with the 7th. The 1956 Dvorak SLAVONIC DANCES are miraculous in feeling and execution. The CARNIVAL & BARTERED BRIDE Overtures are almost superhuman. The orchestrated Smetana FROM MY LIFE is a spiritual tour de force. And even if it's not necessarily "the definitive recording", the Dvorak PIANO CONCERTO comes off of as a neglected masterpiece. I found myself playing it twice in a row. Enough, already - this is supposed to be about the MOLDAU. Hard to stop listing to it.
True story. My childhood "The Moldau" was Toscanini and I still love his furious, colorful tempi. For example, his speedy opening is how a mountain stream tumbles in real life; other conductors are much too languid. And so on with his peasant dance (the girls kick sky-high), river rapids (a storm nearly kills you), etc. Anyway, after watching this video I tried to remember how Toscanini handles "those" trumpet bars. He omits them! They're missing!
This actually depended on the version. There is a 1941 broadcast (with a sublime Barber Adagio for strings). You can here the trumpets. Slightly more prominent than in the Talich version. Also the trumpets in the NBC orchestra tended to sound like Coronet. This was the tone of Harry Glantz. Toscanini was quite whimsical with respect to certain scores. Hari
I am guessing here, but as a former conductor it makes sense to me to have each trumpet take a whole measure each.....in other words play the whole passage individually, that way the rhythmic glitch you mention would not happen, and each player has a breather to articulate the passage. You are right, that playing at the end is magical...I listen raptly to my old timpani teacher Cloyd Duff as well....
When I hear a „new“ Moldau, I’m first listening to the wedding scene, because nobody is doing it like Fricsay. Szell’s Moldau is a very fine performance, but there is nobody dancing at the wedding. In Germany we say, this is the „Knackpunkt“. I‘m not sure if „sticking point“ is the right translation.
I love the way Fricsay makes the music sing--he has so many great details in the phrasing as well as the balance. As always, it's which detail matters to you as to which will be your favorite. Have you watched Fricsay's rehearsal of the Moldau on video (SWR Stuttgart)? He makes some funny comments about how to do the wedding dance "frogissimo" with the bowing. Also, at the end, he has the trumpets (there are 4 total) doubled judiciously, but not on the arpeggiated figure--only when the trumpets are the melody. And he gestures to them to hold back a couple of moments to allow the strings to make "unforced tone" and it works beautifully for the strings--they make a fantastically sweet sound at that spot despite all the ff and fff markings. The two trumpets playing at that moment are audible, but the detail that's important to Fricsay is the color and swelling/receding of the river music. Which make sense--this is the river tone poem. The trumpets are layering in echoes other aspects of the cycle. It all depends on what picture you want to paint. Anyway, it's a fascinating video (on YT, of course).
I first become aware of the important trumpet part while listening to BBC Music magazine cd with the piece conducted by Vilem Tausky. The trumpets seem even more prominent than Szell, but Tausky accomplishes this by really slowing down the ending, resulting in a performance that takes 2 minutes longer than Szell's. Of course the disc is not available, but it did make me aware of how important hearing those trumpets is for me. I always feel let down when the trumpets are drowned out. At least I now know I'm not the only one!
Those trumpets are clearly audible in the Kubelik/Czech Phil (1990) recording, Kubelik/BSO, Harnoncourt/VPO, as well as in Szell's. They are buried in Fricsay/Berlin.
Check out the live Harnoncourt/COE...even there, he doubles one of the trumpets. You won't be surprised by the Kubelik/Czech Phil video online, showing an outdoor concert in Prague. Big orchestra (maybe 12 cellos?) and all the winds are doubled...but there are...count 'em...8 trumpets! Quadrupled! The effect comes through and it's hard to tell with the sound but in an important respect it sounds like mass trumpets emerging from distance, rather than in your face. It's clearly an important motif elsewhere in Ma Vlast, so it's good that it comes through that way, very "realistically" and comfortably as opposed to just blatted FFFF over the rest of the textures. The reverberation in the city square outside must have made it sound like a call to battle. Very cool.
Also...just caught up with Kubelik's 1990 Prague Festival with Kubelik on video (I've lived with it for years on CD)...four trumpets, doubling the arpeggios. Well balanced with the rest of the orchestra there. It's so great to hear this again.
Did Dvorak really intend that climactic tutti to sound like a trumpet concerto? I attribute this effect to the engineers - it sounds like close miking to me.
I doubt Smetana would have written those specific trumpet parts merely for the sake of harmony, and the resulting "fanfares" are all of a piece with the triumphalism of that passage.
And it doesn't sound like a trumpet concerto.Twenty seconds or so of solo writing in a 12 minutes piece does not a concerto make, any more than the flutes at the start make a flute concerto, or the horns during the hunting scene make a horn concerto, etc.
Someone here said that Szell was famous for "tweaking things... that got lost." Do you think it's possible that he did something like that here, because of the difficulty of getting the right effect? (I know nothing about brass instruments.)
It's not an uncommon tweak. Harnoncourt, with a smaller orchestra (Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as seen in video) actually doubles one of the trumpet parts (i.e., there are three players, not two, even though there are only two parts). You would think a small orchestra wouldn't need to double a trumpet to get the effect to cut through the texture, but it's balanced just right. I think the Karajan/BP video also may show three trumpets in similar fashion.
Thank you for quick response. The old version was issued on a historical CD a few years ago and I have that somewhere - I'll listen again if I can find it. I remember thinking that it didn't compare with the Cleveland one. And thank you for all your talks - just listening to Albeniz.
That's exactly what I think - he rescored it to make it work. Szell was no purist and tampered with the Dvorak 9th, Prokofieff 5th and other things. Yes, that arpeggio is rewritten.
@@martinhaub2602 I know he was no purist. He re-scored the Schumann symphonies very extensively. But I hear two individual trumpets pretty clearly. Not that it matters, really, as long as it works!
I promptly brought this on Itunes. Some pottering around on the interwebs threw up good reviews for Szell's recording of Haydn's early London symphonies.... am wondering whether to download 'em ..... at this rate I am going to run out of space on my 256GB Ipod !! :( :( Better start avoiding your channel..... :) :)
Another case: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is the only conductor ever to make you hear the ascending line of the two flutes, twelve bars before the ending of Bruckner's Fifth.
No, Abbado let's you hear it too, although not as well, but he doesn't have to knock the whole orchestra down to piano to do it. I think this is a different case because Szell doesn't have to mess with the general dynamics to bring the trumpets forward.
Clearly you're going to have to do a "Worst Moldau Ever" video devoted to the last bars of the Toscanini/NBC Moldau (March 1950?). Some may bury the trumpet parts, but the Maestro slashes the arpeggios out...and then goes on to erase additional triplets and edits other bars of the ending to wrap up early for his espresso break.
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Great David! The two trumpeters were probably Bernard Adelstein and David Zauder. Both legendary players. Zauder was one of the great 2nd trumpeters ever. A native of Poland, he survived multiple Nazi concentration camps as a child. He emigrated to the US and was in the Cleveland Orchestra for 30 some years, also serving as personnel manager. A great man. Incidentally, Szell was famous for tweaking things he felt were important or that got lost. Listen to the Szell: Ride of the Valkyries, for the added trumpet "hoyotoho" @ 3:12 (recreating the missing sopranos). Szell wrote out the fanfare and gave to to Adelstein to play. I love it!
Thanks for the lore!
I listened to the Dvorák "New World" symphony again with Szell/CO. I noticed another detail regards to brass: at the end of 1st movement there is a moment where brass play rising notes and sustain the last note and do it again and again (I am not musician I just tried to describe what I hear). They play it something like crescendo-decrescendo. I downloaded the score. I can't read the score but somehow I managed to find it: it starts in the 412. bar, they play it 4 times. And yes: the score contained the crescendo sign. But I never heard it in other performances (even Fricsay's performers at his famous recording don't play like that. They sustained on one level.).
Good for you for checking!
This recording is indeed astonishing. When I first heard it, probably more than 20 years ago, I was completely in shock. The night scene with the fairies/nymphs/whatever is amazingly beautiful, and the ending is absolutely marvelous. But since I love “Ma vlast” I almost never listen to the “Moldau” alone (my brain even “hears” the first chords of “Sarka” when the “Moldau” ends). It’s a shame that Szell never recorded the complete cycle.
Michael Charry says in his Szell book, that this recording was done in one take.
The Szell/CO recording of "The Moldau" was made in Severance Hall in 1963. Bernard Adelstein and Thomas Wohlwender were 1st and 2nd trumpets of the Cleveland Orchestra that season and it's probably their playing one hears on the recording. The trumpet parts at the end of "The Moldau" are not technically difficult and I assure you they are being played accurately in any recording by a modern professional orchestra. The problem is in making them ‘sound’ clearly and that’s where most performances fall short. The issue is that the low notes in the 2nd part, especially when they drop down to the tonic in the full arpeggio bars, simply will not project over the rest of the orchestra while they’re sawing away at full bore. This isn’t an issue for the 1st player whose higher notes will project easily, so what one usually gets is an inaudible or partially audible 2nd part and a partially or fully audible 1st part. The short 1st and 3rd notes of the arpeggio, split between the two parts, will also get swallowed unless the players articulate them very cleanly and forcefully, which is why you sometimes hear only the top note in the 1st part clearly. Szell was well known for his credo that everything the composer wrote should be heard, and in pursuit of this goal he encouraged his wind and brass players to articulate the beginnings of notes very sharply. You can clearly hear this style of brass playing on the legendary 1969 Philadelphia, Cleveland & Chicago recording of antiphonal works by Gabrieli. The first entrance in the left channel is the Cleveland brass players (including Adelstein & Wohlwender) with their very sharply articulated attacks, answered immediately in the right channel by the Philly players (Gil Johnson & company) with their smoother, more euphonious attacks. Horses for courses. This partially explains why the trumpet parts in Szell’s Moldau recording are clearly audible, but I suspect it’s not the whole story. The 2nd part may have been doubled or the players (or Szell) may have done a little customization to the parts to achieve the goal of making it ‘sound’. Who knows? The bottom line is it does ‘sound’ and remains true to the composer’s intentions. I read an interview with Tom Wohlwender some years ago where he related the story of Szell calling him into his office to rehearse an important passage in the 2nd trumpet part in the last movement of the Bartok "Concerto for Orchestra". I instantly knew what passage he was referring to, it's where the 2nd trumpet launches the secondary theme, followed by the 1st trumpet with its inversion of the theme. The problem is the same as above. It’s difficult to make notes in that register ‘speak’ on the trumpet, particularly when they are quickly articulated as in this passage. Wohlwender finally did it to Szell’s satisfaction, and to this day I’ve never heard another recording of the piece where all the notes in that brief passage are as clearly audible.
Thanks for the insider info.
I love this music and love Szell/Cleveland, so I would like to take this opportunity to share a Szell story.
During Grad school I had tthe opportunity to have a couple private lessons with long time principal Tuba (Ron Bishop) of Cleveland.
After a lesson we were packing up and chatting and he told me that when he auditioned for Cleveland it was just him and Szell in the basement of the Concert hall.
During one of the Wagner excerpts Szell stopped him and ask, "are you playing a CC tuba?
Yes sir.
Try it again, but with this alternate fingering...I think you will find the passage easier and better in tune."
Now how many conductors could do that, and be correct 😁
Great story!
It's funny. I was JUST listening to this exact piece in this exact recording yesterday because you recommended the Stokowski version of Bizet's Symphony in C. I don't think I've ever heard the Szell version of the Moldau before. I was just remarking to myself how wonderful it was. The Moldau is one of those pieces that is so often just tossed off as a filler if it's not in a recording of Ma Vlast, you never expect it to be of this quality. It's just interesting that we paralleled each others listening on this. Such fun!
Great minds....
This actually depended on the version. There is a 1941 broadcast (with a sublime Barber Adagio for strings). You can here the trumpets. Slightly more prominent than in the Talich version. Also the trumpets in the NBC orchestra tended to sound like Coronet. This was the tone of Harry Glantz. Toscanini was quite whimsical with respect to certain scores. Hari
Did not know the recording so decided to listen to it with the score--thanks so much for recommending it. It seemed crystal clear throughout, with all of the overlapping textures very beautifully handled. It is an interesting notion that the key moment of the piece had never really been heard at least in recorded performance until Szell finally insisted on it, makes me wonder what other pieces have a hidden golden ticket lying in their textures.
Very informative and enjoyable. As a trumpet player I can attest to the difficulty of getting this passage right. I just listened to Berglund and, as you say, the Dresden trumpeters almost nail it.For many years my go-to was Bernstein /NYPO, but , as in most recordings, the trumpet parts ( in this particular section) are underplayed or obscured. Szell reigns supreme.
Glad it was helpful!
As a native Clevelander and a (very) amateur euphoniumist, I'm always happy to see deserved praise heaped on Szell and the Cleveland brass; I also took cornet lessons from the late Orchestra trumpeter Harry Hereforth as a young lad in the early 90s. As mentioned by another commenter below, it would have been great if Zsell recorded the full Ma Vlast, but c'est la vie. I agree that this performance can't be beat. Incidentally, the Antoni Vit Ma Vlast on Naxos you recommended is bold and brilliant. Everyone should run out and grab the disc or listen on the streaming service of their choice.
Great analysis. I am late to this video. I in the 80s as principal trumpet of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, before I left to be a lawyer I remember playing this. I had a marvelous second trumpet ,C. Evan Hauawout, and we blasted the heck out of it, artistically, of course. It sounded fine to us, but we never heard a playback to confirm that. Thanks again for your detailed insight on this piece.
Another Szell triumph! Thanks. This was informative and educational at a basic level.
Back in '98, I hosted 40 listeners on a fabulous trip to Prague. One of our guides was an elderly former radio producer named Libuše -- great name for Smetana fans, eh? (Maybe she had a sister named Šárka.) The tour group, of course, called her Libby. Every time we crossed the river, she would call out in a cackly voice, "und now, ve cross ze river Vltava, in Cherman Mol-DAU!" By the third time, practically everyone in the group was mouthing along with her.
Indeed! There’s no other like it. Not only the trumpets and the ending, but also a perfect tempo for the wedding dance-not too fast, but so buoyant! Thank you again for your discussion.
Very interesting. I have the same reaction when hearing Bruno Walter conducting Dvorak's 8th symphony. The trumpets in the 4th movement are unique. I've never heard anything like this by any other conductor.
Thanks Mr. Hurwitz for your immense work. It became my daily highlight.
Walter’s Dvorak 8th is unbeatable. The level of care lavished upon the finale is unequalled. His 9th is fine too but doesn’t reach the same heights,
What about Szell's 8th? PERFECTION!!!
Good to see you on youtube. Really appreciate your work in getting me more familiar with classical music over the years!
Thank you, whoever you are!
I listened to Szell's rendition and it is one of the better performances I've heard. My favorite section of Moldau is the serene water nymphs section, played unhurried. Szell does this part very well. Thanks for sharing.
My favorite Moldau version is an older mono recording by Joseph Keilberth/Bamberg Symphony on a 10" Telefunken LP (from the early 1950s?), backed with From Bohemia's Meadows and Forests. The strings section on the water nymphs part is very dreamy with sustained notes more pronounced than most recordings. The ending tempo is slower too.
Boy, did I miss this video (by 3.5 years), and YES..BEST Moldau ever. Anyway, as stated below the trumpeters were Bernie Adelstein and Tom Wohlwender. I'll never forget (spring, 1970) at the Cleveland Institute, where Wohlwender (a very nice guy with whom I would occasionally chat) was giving a lesson in his studio and I had to speak to his student. I knocked lightly on the door, Wohlwender stuck his head out and said "what's on your small mind?" Cracks me up to this day. Very sadly, Wohlwender's playing was impacted by an accident of some sort in (I think, 1971) at a Cleveland sporting event; the story I heard when it happened was some moronic fan threw a beer bottle which hit Wohlwender in the mouth. Others say it was a scuffle with a pick-pocket. In any case, the damage to his lip ruined his lower register, and he retired prematurely from the orchestra in 1972. And to think, that was the sad fate of the guy whose brilliant LOWER register playing distinguishes the coda in Szell's 1963 "Moldau" LR
Love your videos! Dug out my own favorite-Stokowski/RCA Symphony 1960-to compare. Interestingly, both trumpets are perfectly balanced in that one, too. I first learned of it in Martin Bookspan’s “101 Great Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers” where he points out that it only got recorded because there was time left at the end of a recording sessions. Parts for the Moldau had been left in the studio after a previous session with another group so they passed them out, did a quick rehearsal, and recorded it. The last time Stokowski had conducted it was 50 years before!
Thanks for another wonderful video. You brighten my day during these trying times. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the various recordings of Knoxville Summer of 1915.
Dawn Upshaw...
Dave - I just played the triangle part in the Moldau Saturday night with Montreal's Sinfonia... Also the TamTam and the bell in Bald Mountain... I am following in your tracks...
Mazel Tov! Wish I could have been there to cheer you on!
Christophe Huss is not your only friend in Montréal.... Next time you visit - let me know!@@DavesClassicalGuide
Entertaining and informative as always. I've had a number of performances of this work on vinyl and CD, with
fond memories of a Decca(UK) issue of the Kertesz/LSO LP recording. I have Szell recordings of other works
and will now be looking to add this disc to my collection - thanks.
I agree. 100%. A miraculous performance.
I bought this moldau last month. I am glad I picked the best one. Yay
Enjoy it!
Bernard Adelstein and Co. were pretty hard to beat in their day.
Preach it again!! Fine trumpeter.
When the horns come in with the fanfare after the first main theme......It's the best version EVER
Just got SONY's 7-dsic box SZELL CONDUCTS DVORAK & SMETANA.
Absolutely true that Szell's Cleveland version is the greatest MOLDAU / VLATAV ever.
I am not one of those Szellots who insist that he could do no wrong EVER, but there
isn't a dud anywhere in the box.
The Dvorak Symphonies 7-9 are almost peerless - and I'll drop the qualifier with the 7th.
The 1956 Dvorak SLAVONIC DANCES are miraculous in feeling and execution.
The CARNIVAL & BARTERED BRIDE Overtures are almost superhuman.
The orchestrated Smetana FROM MY LIFE is a spiritual tour de force.
And even if it's not necessarily "the definitive recording", the Dvorak PIANO CONCERTO
comes off of as a neglected masterpiece. I found myself playing it twice in a row.
Enough, already - this is supposed to be about the MOLDAU. Hard to stop listing to it.
True story. My childhood "The Moldau" was Toscanini and I still love his furious, colorful tempi. For example, his speedy opening is how a mountain stream tumbles in real life; other conductors are much too languid. And so on with his peasant dance (the girls kick sky-high), river rapids (a storm nearly kills you), etc. Anyway, after watching this video I tried to remember how Toscanini handles "those" trumpet bars. He omits them! They're missing!
Annoying, isn't it?
This actually depended on the version. There is a 1941 broadcast (with a sublime Barber Adagio for strings). You can here the trumpets. Slightly more prominent than in the Talich version. Also the trumpets in the NBC orchestra tended to sound like Coronet. This was the tone of Harry Glantz. Toscanini was quite whimsical with respect to certain scores. Hari
I too know the Toscanini recording....and always thought the Czech wedding dance sounded more like an Italian Tarantella! Way too fast....
The trumpets are also audible in the Ancerl/Czech PO recording on supraphon
Not clearly. The come and go.
I am guessing here, but as a former conductor it makes sense to me to have each trumpet take a whole measure each.....in other words play the whole passage individually, that way the rhythmic glitch you mention would not happen, and each player has a breather to articulate the passage. You are right, that playing at the end is magical...I listen raptly to my old timpani teacher Cloyd Duff as well....
Please read the comments. This has already been discussed extensively. We don't need another rehash of the same points.
When I hear a „new“ Moldau, I’m first listening to the wedding scene, because nobody is doing it like Fricsay. Szell’s Moldau is a very fine performance, but there is nobody dancing at the wedding. In Germany we say, this is the „Knackpunkt“. I‘m not sure if „sticking point“ is the right translation.
I suppose it depends on who is getting married.
I love the way Fricsay makes the music sing--he has so many great details in the phrasing as well as the balance. As always, it's which detail matters to you as to which will be your favorite. Have you watched Fricsay's rehearsal of the Moldau on video (SWR Stuttgart)? He makes some funny comments about how to do the wedding dance "frogissimo" with the bowing. Also, at the end, he has the trumpets (there are 4 total) doubled judiciously, but not on the arpeggiated figure--only when the trumpets are the melody. And he gestures to them to hold back a couple of moments to allow the strings to make "unforced tone" and it works beautifully for the strings--they make a fantastically sweet sound at that spot despite all the ff and fff markings. The two trumpets playing at that moment are audible, but the detail that's important to Fricsay is the color and swelling/receding of the river music. Which make sense--this is the river tone poem. The trumpets are layering in echoes other aspects of the cycle. It all depends on what picture you want to paint. Anyway, it's a fascinating video (on YT, of course).
Szell was a true master.
誰が何と言おうとVltavaにSzellを超える演奏は無い。過去も未来も！Szell is Best！！！
I first become aware of the important trumpet part while listening to BBC Music magazine cd with the piece conducted by Vilem Tausky. The trumpets seem even more prominent than Szell, but Tausky accomplishes this by really slowing down the ending, resulting in a performance that takes 2 minutes longer than Szell's. Of course the disc is not available, but it did make me aware of how important hearing those trumpets is for me. I always feel let down when the trumpets are drowned out. At least I now know I'm not the only one!
Those trumpets are clearly audible in the Kubelik/Czech Phil (1990) recording, Kubelik/BSO, Harnoncourt/VPO, as well as in Szell's. They are buried in Fricsay/Berlin.
Not to the same degree, or played with the same accuracy.
Check out the live Harnoncourt/COE...even there, he doubles one of the trumpets. You won't be surprised by the Kubelik/Czech Phil video online, showing an outdoor concert in Prague. Big orchestra (maybe 12 cellos?) and all the winds are doubled...but there are...count 'em...8 trumpets! Quadrupled! The effect comes through and it's hard to tell with the sound but in an important respect it sounds like mass trumpets emerging from distance, rather than in your face. It's clearly an important motif elsewhere in Ma Vlast, so it's good that it comes through that way, very "realistically" and comfortably as opposed to just blatted FFFF over the rest of the textures. The reverberation in the city square outside must have made it sound like a call to battle. Very cool.
Also...just caught up with Kubelik's 1990 Prague Festival with Kubelik on video (I've lived with it for years on CD)...four trumpets, doubling the arpeggios. Well balanced with the rest of the orchestra there. It's so great to hear this again.
Did Dvorak really intend that climactic tutti to sound like a trumpet concerto? I attribute this effect to the engineers - it sounds like close miking to me.
I doubt Smetana would have written those specific trumpet parts merely for the sake of harmony, and the resulting "fanfares" are all of a piece with the triumphalism of that passage.
And it doesn't sound like a trumpet concerto.Twenty seconds or so of solo writing in a 12 minutes piece does not a concerto make, any more than the flutes at the start make a flute concerto, or the horns during the hunting scene make a horn concerto, etc.
@@DavesClassicalGuide My point is that the prominence of the trumpets seems unnatural. It wouldn't sound like that in the concert hall.
@@ThreadBomb I disagree. I've heard it.
Someone here said that Szell was famous for "tweaking things... that got lost." Do you think it's possible that he did something like that here, because of the difficulty of getting the right effect? (I know nothing about brass instruments.)
I doubt it. He just had them play what Smetana wrote.
It's not an uncommon tweak. Harnoncourt, with a smaller orchestra (Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as seen in video) actually doubles one of the trumpet parts (i.e., there are three players, not two, even though there are only two parts). You would think a small orchestra wouldn't need to double a trumpet to get the effect to cut through the texture, but it's balanced just right. I think the Karajan/BP video also may show three trumpets in similar fashion.
Szell recorded the work also earlier in mono with NYPO - do you know if he managed to get the same balance with the trumpets then too?
He did not!
Thank you for quick response. The old version was issued on a historical CD a few years ago and I have that somewhere - I'll listen again if I can find it. I remember thinking that it didn't compare with the Cleveland one. And thank you for all your talks - just listening to Albeniz.
@@mrktdd It's also in the Szell box, naturally. It doesn't sound bad, but it's no comparison.
...I think Szell doubles the trumpets on the arpeggios... but my goodness it's amazing
I don't think he doubles them, but it's not a bad idea if necessary.
... sounds very like they’re doubled to me... give it a whirl on headphones!🤟🍹🐙
That's exactly what I think - he rescored it to make it work. Szell was no purist and tampered with the Dvorak 9th, Prokofieff 5th and other things. Yes, that arpeggio is rewritten.
@@martinhaub2602 I know he was no purist. He re-scored the Schumann symphonies very extensively. But I hear two individual trumpets pretty clearly. Not that it matters, really, as long as it works!
I agree - distinctly two trumpets.
Now, if only he had recorded the entire Má vlast.
I promptly brought this on Itunes. Some pottering around on the interwebs threw up good reviews for Szell's recording of Haydn's early London symphonies.... am wondering whether to download 'em ..... at this rate I am going to run out of space on my 256GB Ipod !! :( :( Better start avoiding your channel..... :) :)
The Haydn performances are also fantastic.
Another case: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is the only conductor ever to make you hear the ascending line of the two flutes, twelve bars before the ending of Bruckner's Fifth.
No, Abbado let's you hear it too, although not as well, but he doesn't have to knock the whole orchestra down to piano to do it. I think this is a different case because Szell doesn't have to mess with the general dynamics to bring the trumpets forward.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I knew you would come up with another conductor! Nice. Will have to check out the Abbado, then!
@@JohanHerrenberg They are both great performances.
Dare i say sound engineering as a serious part in this. Talich may have sounded similar with the same recording equipment and set up?
No, he would not have. It's not a function of the engineering.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks for clearing that up. Its a one of the great discs with the Bizet Symphony coupling.
Clearly you're going to have to do a "Worst Moldau Ever" video devoted to the last bars of the Toscanini/NBC Moldau (March 1950?). Some may bury the trumpet parts, but the Maestro slashes the arpeggios out...and then goes on to erase additional triplets and edits other bars of the ending to wrap up early for his espresso break.
I agree. It is horrible beyond imagining.