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PASC058:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 - Saint-Saëns
MP3
price
Moura
Lympany
National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Warwick Braithwaite
Recorded
in 1945, released as Decca K.1161-3
Matrix numbers: AR-9579-4, Take No.s: 1-2-2-2-3-1
Download ID: 226170
(Duration
22'41")
Play
sample movement:
A
splendid performance... she brings her lightly
worn virtuosity to it in spades. The sound is very good for its
years with plenty of detail...
- James Jolly, The Gramophone, October 2006
Moura
Lympany
This recording
is one which has suffered from perhaps unwarranted neglect. Like a number
of recordings made in the immediate post-war period, it is of high quality,
both in terms of performance and in audio fidelity; its fate however was
sealed by technology and the huge investment in re-recording music for
LP issue that went on in the 1950's.
Elsewhere
on this site, for example, you will find Boult's 1949 recording of Elgar's
First Symphony and the same conductor's 1945 reading of Holst's
Planets Suite, both reissued for the first time since their untimely
departure from the catalogue.
In the
case of Moura Lympany's 1945 recording for Decca of the Saint-Saëns
Concerto No. 2, this was to be remade just six years later with the LPO
under Jean Martinon. The technology might have been updated - tape and
vinyl replacing direct-to-disc 78rpm recording, but the sound here can
stand up alongside the later recording, being one of Decca's very earliest
ffrr (full frequency range recording) issues. Indeed the
company were at this time keeping their sonic developments quiet - the
ffrr logo was not to appear on a record label for another year.
EMI meanwhile had made similar improvements but never advertised this
for fear of losing sales on older material!
As to the
music - well take a listen to that wonderful finale in our streaming MP3
clip here while you read through Bill Rosen's ever-erudite review notes:
REVIEW
OF Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto #2
(Moura Lympany, National Symphony, Braithwaite) (1945)
I
have always thought of the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto
#2 as a jeu d'esprit and Moura Lympany as a rather small-scaled
pianist. Both views have been changed by this recording.
Saint-Saëns
wrote five piano concertos, all brilliant, melodious and delightful.
The second, however is deservedly the most popular in spite
of the fact that it is not very homogeneous stylistically--one
wag said, "It begins like Bach and ends like Offenbach".
It was written in 17 days after Saint-Saëns had unwisely
promised a new work for one of his performances.
Madame
Lympany begins the opening introduction a bit small-scaled
but gains power as the orchestral intoduction approaches.
The main theme and second theme are played with great poetry.
When the arpeggios begin, they are not as an exhibition of
virtuosity, but as luminous, pearly pianism. Listen to the
end of the first movement where the introduction returns pianissimo
on a carpet of magical soft strings.
In
the second movement, Lympany does not quite match Rubenstein's
effervescence, but her playing of the waltz has such insouciant
swing that one is compelled to smile.
The
final movement is incredible--dynamism, speed and power. Both
Lympany and Braithwaite are nearly over the top. There is
no let up; this is large-scale, brilliant and greatly raises
the stature of the concerto in my eyes. This is most likely
the most exciting performance of the finale I've ever heard.
The
sound is quite brilliant, a remarkable remastering of the
1945 recording.
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A
splendid performance... she brings her lightly
worn virtuosity to it in spades. The sound is very good for its
years with plenty of detail...
