thesuitespot

by Peter Burwasser on Classical

German-born conductor Hermann Scherchen was a major figure in 20th-century music, although he is hardly a household name like Toscanini or Stokowski. This is partially -- perhaps even largely -- due to his absence from American concert halls. He did not conduct on these shores until ’64, just two years before his death, in a subscription concert here in Philadelphia.

His reputation among current music lovers will be enhanced by the revival of the catalog of Westminster Records, a small but influential label from the dawn of the LP era. There are many gems from the Universal Classics re-issues, but the Scherchen CDs are at the heart of the collection.

Scherchen, born in 1891, was a very traditional musician in many ways, favoring a fluid beat and a rich, singing tone from his orchestra, in the grand post-Wagner Germanic manner. Yet he was also a fearless champion of new music, with many important premieres to his credit.

Westminster captures both sides of this inquisitive and wise artist, with excellent-sounding recordings of music by his contemporaries Stravinsky, Honegger, Prokofiev (the most exciting performance of Scythian Suite ever recorded) and Khachaturian. There are also pioneering recordings of Mahler, Symphonies 1 and 7, and the Adagio from the uncompleted 10th. What is striking about his performances of these newer works is the passion and sincerity, and most importantly, powerful expressiveness, that we expect in readings of the core repertoire.

And in the many warhorses that Scherchen recorded, nothing is taken for granted. His Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi and Bach were rendered with large forces and often deliberate tempos that will make period instrument aficionados cringe. But when following the recording of, for example, the Mozart "Requiem" with the written score, Scherchen's tempos seem just right, and his sense for inner voicing and structure brilliantly insightful. It is difficult not to be moved by the strength and beauty of these performances. His famously fleet tempo for the first movement of the "Eroica" Symphony of Beethoven was ridiculed by many at the time, but he pre-dated by decades many current scholars who agree that this was the pace the composer intended.

Scherchen, in short, did not really differentiate between Liszt and Bach and Schoenberg. To him, this art all circulated in the same universe and along the same continuum. It is a way of thinking about music that should serve as an inspiration to us all.