Beethoven: Piano Concerto in E Flat, Op. 73, "Emperor," with Artur Rother conducting the Berlin Reichsander Symphony Orchestra. Historic Stereo by the Music and Arts Programs of America, 1990 CD 637.
by Jared Smith
Listen closely to this 1944 recording of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, and you can still hear German anti-aircraft guns boom outside the recording hall. For, although this recording on paper tape coated with iron oxide is nearly a half-century old, it still crisply reflects every shade and nuance of a penetrating performance by Walter Gieseking, right down to the faintest "ka-tooms" of heavy artillery in the background. A 1944 disc recording would pop and crackle this faint noise into obscurity, or fade it when digital filters did their work.
At first glance this recording seems like it might be one of those "classics" purchased after a collector already had his fifteen basic performances of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto on his shelf. Even for collectors of Gieseking's work, this might be considered a luxury purchase. He recorded it four times, and his final 1955 recording was in stereo. Ah, but so is this one, and that is the catch. Gieseking played in stereo a full decade before the 1955 performance. He was in top form, and Berlin Radio was eager to work with stereo tapes. The sound is priceless. Artur Rother, Walter Gieseking and the Berlin Reichsander Symphony Orchestra played a masterpiece that autumn day in 1944, and it is a good thing the RRG (Berlin radio) had developed stereo tape recording sufficiently to capture it. No, this is not a luxury purchase of the Emperor Concerto. This is slick enough to be a collector's first CD.
The sound, especially for a 1944 recording, stands brightly above the quiet hiss of the tape. Walter Gieseking's piano leaps, as it should, in and out of the German orchestra, instead of the muted thunder of static or oft-tinny reproduction from vinyl. Leap happens to be a good word to describe his technique in this performance. Of great concertos, the Emperor was one of the first to highlight the solo instrument within a few notes of its beginning, and Gieseking takes his lead well, pouncing upon the arpeggios precisely and poetically. The familiar chords of this concerto should only be recorded by the greatest artists. It is simply too well known, and its tendency to evoke 19th-century emotions (most obvious in Beethoven's well-known ability to bring tears to the eyes of his listeners) is greatly dimmed by mediocre performances.
Fortunately, at the time of this recording Gieseking was well established as a master -- the real work of art on this CD is the original tape. Although stereo recording techniques were established in the early thirties by the Columbia Gramophone Company in England, a decade passed before Germans working with strips of paper made a serious impact on the production of stereo sound. The possibilities inherent in tape recording surpassed anything in stereo discs (the 45-degree angle cutting process was not developed until the late fifties), and state-of-the-art German Magnetophon recorders very quickly carried dual channel capabilities.
Propaganda speeches and music filled a large part of the Nazi program for Germany, and stereo recording suffered no dearth of experimentation in this fertile field. Rumors of earlier tape recordings (Furtwangler and Strauss recordings are sought) may someday be validated, perhaps by opening a long lost Soviet archive. Until that happens, the 1944 recordings remain the oldest stereo tapes known. One other recording from that year is Herbert Von Karajan conducting a single movement of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.
Walter Gieseking was acutely aware of every sound his fingers and pedalling produced; he was a perfectionist of the highest order. The New Grove Dictionary accuses him of setting "standards that have proved impossible to surpass," in his definitive Debussy and Ravel series. His Beethoven concertos were just as notable. In this performance, Artur Rother expertly guides the Berlin Radio Orchestra. The dignified tone set by the first powerful E-Flat chord remains throughout the rest of the concerto. The epithet "Emperor" is well-deserved.
Tom Null's liner notes point out that Napoleon's conquest of Austria culminated while Beethoven composed this piece. As the artillery neared, Beethoven covered his damaged ears with pillows while he took refuge in his brother's cellar. Once the city had fallen, though, he stormed and ranted at Napoleon, and finished this concerto. How ironic and appropriate that booming anti-aircraft guns in the waning days of World War II are perceptible in the background of this performance. Near the end of the first movement's cadenza, a faint "ta-toom ... ka-thoom ... brrrooom" faintly, yet distinctly sounds at a great distance, like some ghost timpani. Gieseking's piano playing rolls right along, gently erasing all remembrance of the storms and stresses of war.
Null suggests that Gieseking played at the height of his technique in 1944. There are four different versions of his "Emperor" extant, including a 1938 mono, a 1950 mono, and a 1955 stereo version recorded one year before his death. The present performance has been released previously on LP several times, including once by MAPA's predecessor organization, Educational Media Associates of America. Although this LP was expertly produced as well, the benefits of CD clarity are most obvious on this issue.
But CD transferring must be done well. According to these liner notes, a recent unauthorized CD release on Melodram MEL-18023, though labelled "stereo" is allegedly mono and has a shrill, distorted sound. The present edition has been "carefully reprocessed on digital equipment from a copy of the original master tape in the archives of the German Democratic Radio."
Technically, the current transfer to CD is of excellent quality. And if these ears are any standard, the remarkably light hiss of the original Magnetephon recording is forgotten long before the first cadenza's faint "ka-booms" of anti-aircraft sound off in wartime Berlin. As a masterpiece with a touch of history, this performance should be standard stock in any audiophile's collection.
Reviewed by Jared Smith, ARSC Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, Fall 1991.
https://www.amazon.com/Gieseking-Plays-Beethoven-Concertos-Piano/dp/B00064AF7S