By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
Last September Deutsche Grammophon released a compact disc set entitled Giulini in America: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a compilation of nearly all of the DGG recordings that the revered Italian maestro made when he was music director of the L.A. Phil from 1978-1984 (my review is HERE).
This month comes what might be called a prequel to those recordings: Giulini in America: Chicago Symphony Orchestra (DGG 00289 477 0628), a survey of the conductor’s DGG recordings with that great Midwestern ensemble in the 1970s. (There’s another set, from EMI Classics, entitled The Chicago Recordings, that documents that label’s work with Guilini and the CSO but IMHO this new DGG set has significantly better reproductive qualities).
This new DGG/Chicago boxed set has five CDs (the LAPO box has six) and, at $23.66 on Amazon (slightly less than the LAPO box, which has dropped down to $26.07), it’s a great bargain, considering the superlative sound documented in three recording cycles: April 1976 in Chicago’s Medinah Temple and April 1977 and March 1978 in the CSO’s Orchestra Hall.
It’s worth noting that the three box sets do not duplicate each other in terms of the music offered. This DGG set contains an essay by Bernard Jacobson, who was music critic at the Chicago Daily News during Giulini’s tenure with the CSO.
Here’s how the CSO DGG discs were formatted:
CD 1
*SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417 Tragic
*DVORÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op.95 From the New World
CD 2
*SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944 The Great
*PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1 in D major, op. 25 Symphonie classique
CD 3
*DVORÁK: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88
*MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL: Pictures at an Exhibition
CD 4
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 (Movements I-III)
CD 5
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 (Movement IV)
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D 759 Unfinished
*BRITTEN: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, op. 31
Robert Tear, tenor / Dale Clevenger, horn
* Restored to the catalogue
As you can see, many of these pieces have been out of print for several years, so this set offers significant historical value. Moreover, unlike the EMI Classics box each piece on the DGG recordings does not carry over onto two discs except for Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, which was a necessity because of that work’s length.
Whether you had the pleasure of watching Giulini conduct in Los Angeles or just wonder why veteran critics such as me get misty-eyed at those remembrances, this new set offers myriad clues as to the nature of the man who was LAPO music director from 1978-1984.
Giulini’s approach to music was spiritual; he didn’t conduct works to which he wasn’t totally committed but when he led something, it was always an almost mystical experience. He had a very limited repertoire; the “newest” piece in this collection is Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, which dates from 1943 and features poignant efforts from Tenor Robert Tear and Dale Clevenger on horn. The rest span exactly a century, from Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 (1816) to Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, composed 100 years later.
In this DGG box, you’re aware of Giulini’s reverence for music in all of the pieces he recorded primarily because of two things: (a) his tempos are almost always luxriant — those who grew frustrated with him would call them tepid — and (b) the sound he produced from the CSO was unfailingly mellow, especially in the brass sections.
Three examples: (1) If you’re used to hearing Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony whipped along with breakneck speed, this CSO recording may seem almost pedestrian, but the inner textures that emerge are quite special. (2) There’s a wonderful gentleness to Giulini’s way of leading Dvorak’s Symphony Nos. 8 and 9 that isn’t often emphasized by conductors these days. (3) No one has more poignantly captured Mahler’s sense of impending doom as he wrote his Symphony No. 9, particularly in the final movement (the recording won Giulini the last of his seven Grammy awards, three of which were with the CSO).
If you don’t know the Giulini backstory, it’s worth recalling. He was born on May 9, 1914 (he died on June 14, 2005). He studied both violin and viola and, at age 18, won an audition to become the last-desk violist of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia orchestra, which at the time was considered Italy’s most significant ensemble. There he played under such legendary conductors as Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Fritz Reiner, along with composer/conductors Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky.
In 1940, Giulini won a conducting competition but World War II intervened. Although a pacifist, Giulini served in the Italian army but eventually went into hiding for nine months rather than serve with the Nazi army. On July 16, 1944, Giulini came out of hiding to lead the Accademia orchestra in the first concert after the Mussolini government had fallen.
In 1950, Giulini led his first opera and it was there that he made a growing reputation in Europe. He first conducted in the United States at the age of 41 with the Chicago Symphony in 1955 at the invitation of the CSO’s then-music director Fritz Reiner.
For decades, Giulini conducted rarely in the U.S. outside of Chicago. He became the CSO’s principal guest conductor in 1969 and held that position through 1972. He maintained a strong CSO presence until Ernest Fleischmann, the L.A. Philharmonic’s executive director (later executive vice president and managing director) lured Giulini west in 1978. It was one of Fleischmann’s great coups to convince Giulini to come to Los Angeles (where he replaced Zubin Mehta), a move that ultimately proved to be satisfying for Giulini and a major step forward for the Phil.
However, Giulini never lost his love affair for the Chicagoans. “It was a deep love and friendship,” explained Giulini in 1980, “something that belongs to my body, my soul and my blood.” Moreover, it was definitely a two-way street. “In five minutes,” said Victor Aitay, former CSO concertmaster, “he had an orchestra that loved him … From then onwards, it was a long-time love affair with him.”
That love affair shines through beautifully on these new recordings.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.
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