Weber & Mendelssohn: Orchestral Works

Album review

Posterity sees Hans Rosbaud mainly as a dedicated interpreter of contemporary music; this view results from his regular participation in Donaueschingen, where he conducted first performances and premières of works by Messiaen, Boulez, Stockhausen and many others. Discipline, capacity for enthusiasm, precise knowledge of the orchestral instruments and his faithfulness to the works were qualities Hans Rosbaud was enormously admired for. However, he did not exclusively consider himself as a champion of the modern age but cultivated the entire repertoire, conducted – especially in Aix-en-Provence – preferably Mozart operas but equally cultivated the works of Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler. Therefore, it is only fair to release other – so far unpublished – recordings by Rosbaud, the “specialist on new music” who certainly did not specialise with any exclusivity. Here we get to know him as an interpreter of overtures from the early Romantic period and concert pieces by Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn. Weber’s overtures are considered to be virtuoso orchestra “treats” and, although Rosbaud distinctly shifts emphases he does not spurn the flashing sound. He sticks to the tempi, thus allowing the different groups of instruments to develop the themes to the full. Among these overtures, the album features a special masterpiece, the overture to Turandot which Hindemith used for his extraordinary and virtuoso Metamorphoses. Further works on the album are two concertante pieces: the Konzertstück by Weber with pianist Robert Casadesus, and Mendelssohn’s Capriccio Brillant with the unexpected but highly competent Yvonne Loriod. All these recordings, dating 1955 to 1962, come from the SWR archives and have been remastered based on the original master tapes. © SM/Qobuz