Oh, Happy Days! Or: Just where are all the Robert Casadesus recordings?
Posted by: Todd A on 21 February 2003
As I progress in my CD collecting I find that there are an ever increasing number of artists that I enjoy and admire, and increasingly they are more obscure or forgotten artists. One such artist is Robert Casadesus. I’ve had his Ravel recordings and one disc of Beethoven violin sonatas for a while, and I’ve grown ever fonder of his playing. Alas, few other recordings are readily available. Or were. I had read about a Robert Casadesus Edition available only in France, so I decided to look into it. Sure enough, I found it at Amazon France. Some separate discs and multi-disc sets are available, but sell at full price. Too much I thought. But then I looked at the entire 29-disc collection and its total price is 133 Euros. A misprint I thought. But no! What the hell, I figured, why not buy it? Initially, I thought the price excluded shipping, but it included both shipping and VAT, which I don’t have to pay, so I snapped it up. Total cost for me after adjusting for exchange rates? $133. The only downside was that I had to wait for five weeks for it to arrive. That didn’t really bother me, either, after I saw on the invoice that shipping cost Amazon 31 Euros (I was charged 11).
This set is really a spectacular compilation. As far as I can tell it includes most or perhaps even all the recordings that Casadesus made for Columbia. The recordings range from the mid-30s to the late 60s and encompass a huge range. Beyond that, I counted two dozen recordings that have never been reissued on CD before. There are recordings of works by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Franck, Chausson, Satie, Brahms, Schumann, Scarlatti, Haydn, Rameau, De Falla, Liszt, Weber, Faure, Saint-Saens, Schubert, D’Indy, and by Casadesus himself. The foci of the set are clearly the Beethoven violin sonatas with Zino Francescatti, the dozen Mozart concertos with George Szell, and the Ravel. But some of the other recordings promise to be sublime.
Even a cheap box set is worthless if the music contained therein is mediocre or just plain bad. No such worries so far. I have only worked my way through a handful of recordings so far, and I am indeed thrilled with this purchase. Since I was already familiar with Casadesus’ Ravel and Beethoven violin sonatas, I decided to listen to some other goodies first. The six Scarlatti are dazzling and among the finest piano versions I have heard, and the Rameau works sound excellent even on piano. The three Mozart concertos I have listened to so far are all top-notch, easily comparable to the best available by, say, Serkin or Perahia or Gieseking. The D-Minor concerto, in particular, is a tremendous recording, both technically and interpretively; no dainty Mozart here. Swift tempos combine with a dark hue for maximum impact. Period playing this is not; great music making it most certainly is. The two Faure violin sonatas are simply beautiful, both in terms of playing and interpretation, and the sound belies their having been recorded 50 years ago. The Bartok (!) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, recorded with his wife on the second piano and cousin (and one other musician) on percussion is quite an unexpected treat. The sound is too closed in, the percussion too closely miked, and the venue too small for the ensemble – as the accompanying photo demonstrates – but the performance is worth a listen. If not the most idiomatic Bartok imaginable, it trumps that horrendous Perahia/Solti debacle (how did that get green-lighted) and comes up just short of the near-perfect Thorsen/Thorber production on Olympia. Especially involving are all of the little percussion effects which, no doubt due to some engineering jiggery-pokery, sound front and center. Take the end of the Lento ma no troppo where the xylophone plinks out the same five-note figure that concludes the Concerto for Orchestra just before the coda. Illuminating.
Perhaps the biggest surprise thus far has been Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, with Edward van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw. This is quite simply one of the best recordings of this work I have yet heard. Coming so soon after hearing Kempff’s mono recording for the first time I initially thought that there was no way this could be better. It is. Casadesus’ playing is more technically accomplished, his ability to deliver controlled and sustained left-hand rhythm with right-hand leaps and bounds is astonishing, and the overall brisk and buoyant approach to the work is something to marvel at. To my ears, only Schnabel has him beat, but Beinum’s orchestra easily outdoes Sargent’s. Why Sony has not reissued this on CD before is beyond me. I just hope the 4th and 5th concertos, likewise never reissued on CD, are of comparable achievement.
Not everything is so wonderful. Some of the recordings are merely excellent. His Haydn sonata No 31 is fun enough, but sounds slightly mannered. Somewhat surprisingly, the solo Debussy I have heard is somewhat of a letdown. By that I mean that Casadesus never quite reaches the same heights as Michelangeli, Moravec, or Gieseking. While that hardly damns his Debussy credentials, I was hoping for more. His playing rather reminds me of another paragon of mid-century pianism, Rudolf Firkusny, whose 1950s Debussy is perhaps a bit too restrained and precious, but is nonetheless nice to listen to. I’d give the nod to Firkusny if push came to shove. (Firkusny, too, is under-represented in the catalog.) I have no doubt that some other less-than-perfect recordings await me, but who cares?
Most of the set is freshly remastered, except the Ravel which sounds identical to the earlier Masterworks Heritage incarnation, and sounds about as good as one could hope for. The early mono recordings have come up quite well, thank you. Some of the early stereo works suffer from odd balances and gimmicks, and there are the odd poorly done tape edits, and a good level of hiss appears quite often, but these are mere trifles. No, they don’t sound as good as Walter Legge productions, but they will suffice. If you like Casadesus, or have a hankerin’ for some fine Gallic pianism, here’s your chance. I don’t think there are too many bargains quite as good as this out there. Looks like I’ve got a couple of months of good listenin’ ahead of me.
This set is really a spectacular compilation. As far as I can tell it includes most or perhaps even all the recordings that Casadesus made for Columbia. The recordings range from the mid-30s to the late 60s and encompass a huge range. Beyond that, I counted two dozen recordings that have never been reissued on CD before. There are recordings of works by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Franck, Chausson, Satie, Brahms, Schumann, Scarlatti, Haydn, Rameau, De Falla, Liszt, Weber, Faure, Saint-Saens, Schubert, D’Indy, and by Casadesus himself. The foci of the set are clearly the Beethoven violin sonatas with Zino Francescatti, the dozen Mozart concertos with George Szell, and the Ravel. But some of the other recordings promise to be sublime.
Even a cheap box set is worthless if the music contained therein is mediocre or just plain bad. No such worries so far. I have only worked my way through a handful of recordings so far, and I am indeed thrilled with this purchase. Since I was already familiar with Casadesus’ Ravel and Beethoven violin sonatas, I decided to listen to some other goodies first. The six Scarlatti are dazzling and among the finest piano versions I have heard, and the Rameau works sound excellent even on piano. The three Mozart concertos I have listened to so far are all top-notch, easily comparable to the best available by, say, Serkin or Perahia or Gieseking. The D-Minor concerto, in particular, is a tremendous recording, both technically and interpretively; no dainty Mozart here. Swift tempos combine with a dark hue for maximum impact. Period playing this is not; great music making it most certainly is. The two Faure violin sonatas are simply beautiful, both in terms of playing and interpretation, and the sound belies their having been recorded 50 years ago. The Bartok (!) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, recorded with his wife on the second piano and cousin (and one other musician) on percussion is quite an unexpected treat. The sound is too closed in, the percussion too closely miked, and the venue too small for the ensemble – as the accompanying photo demonstrates – but the performance is worth a listen. If not the most idiomatic Bartok imaginable, it trumps that horrendous Perahia/Solti debacle (how did that get green-lighted) and comes up just short of the near-perfect Thorsen/Thorber production on Olympia. Especially involving are all of the little percussion effects which, no doubt due to some engineering jiggery-pokery, sound front and center. Take the end of the Lento ma no troppo where the xylophone plinks out the same five-note figure that concludes the Concerto for Orchestra just before the coda. Illuminating.
Perhaps the biggest surprise thus far has been Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, with Edward van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw. This is quite simply one of the best recordings of this work I have yet heard. Coming so soon after hearing Kempff’s mono recording for the first time I initially thought that there was no way this could be better. It is. Casadesus’ playing is more technically accomplished, his ability to deliver controlled and sustained left-hand rhythm with right-hand leaps and bounds is astonishing, and the overall brisk and buoyant approach to the work is something to marvel at. To my ears, only Schnabel has him beat, but Beinum’s orchestra easily outdoes Sargent’s. Why Sony has not reissued this on CD before is beyond me. I just hope the 4th and 5th concertos, likewise never reissued on CD, are of comparable achievement.
Not everything is so wonderful. Some of the recordings are merely excellent. His Haydn sonata No 31 is fun enough, but sounds slightly mannered. Somewhat surprisingly, the solo Debussy I have heard is somewhat of a letdown. By that I mean that Casadesus never quite reaches the same heights as Michelangeli, Moravec, or Gieseking. While that hardly damns his Debussy credentials, I was hoping for more. His playing rather reminds me of another paragon of mid-century pianism, Rudolf Firkusny, whose 1950s Debussy is perhaps a bit too restrained and precious, but is nonetheless nice to listen to. I’d give the nod to Firkusny if push came to shove. (Firkusny, too, is under-represented in the catalog.) I have no doubt that some other less-than-perfect recordings await me, but who cares?
Most of the set is freshly remastered, except the Ravel which sounds identical to the earlier Masterworks Heritage incarnation, and sounds about as good as one could hope for. The early mono recordings have come up quite well, thank you. Some of the early stereo works suffer from odd balances and gimmicks, and there are the odd poorly done tape edits, and a good level of hiss appears quite often, but these are mere trifles. No, they don’t sound as good as Walter Legge productions, but they will suffice. If you like Casadesus, or have a hankerin’ for some fine Gallic pianism, here’s your chance. I don’t think there are too many bargains quite as good as this out there. Looks like I’ve got a couple of months of good listenin’ ahead of me.