Tchaikovsky's Manfred

[sejacko]

I find it rather puzzling that, although HvK had an extensive Tchaikovsky repertoire/discography, I've never seen any mention of him performing or recording the Manfred Symphony..

Was it in his repertoire? (And if not, did he ever express a particular dislike of this work?)

[lee]

Hi Sejacko

I'm afraid that according to all the recording registers I have of HvK and John Hunt's concert register, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony was not a work that was in Karajan's repertoire. More's the pity, for (in my opinion) this is a fine work, well suited to Karajan's special brand of podium skills and is a better piece than the first three Tchaikovsky Symphonies which Karajan did record (although never took into the concert hall).

Your question, however, does pose a wider one, for in spite of having a very large repertoire, there are some noticeable gaps in Karajan's repertoire. With Tchaikovsky, as you say, it is strange that in spite of the continuous presence of the last three symphonies in Karajan's recording and performing schedule, the Manfred never made one appearance. Similarly, the tone poem Romeo and Juliet is also a continuous presence, which makes the absence of Francesca da Rimini all the more noticeable. With Beethoven, Karajan probably conducted the Choral Symphony over 100 times in this career, yet the Choral Fantasia was not programmed once. Likewise with Brahms, whose works were virtually omnipresent throughout Karajan's career, the Academic Festival Overture and First Piano Concerto are again conspicuous in their absence.

Karajan himself was sometimes somewhat elusive about discussing works that were outside his repertoire. With Brahms First Piano Concerto, Richard Osborne reported in his Karajan biography A Life in Music, that HvK was as "elusive as the sphinx" as to why he never performed the piece and whenever this work was mentioned in conversation would change the subject as if the work was "cursed" ! On the other hand, in an earlier interview with Osborne, published in Gramophone on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Karajan revealed that he would never conduct the Shostakovich 6th Symphony because he was in such awe of performances given by Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic.

I hope this goes someway towards answering your question Sejacko and I wonder if other Forum Members had any comments to add to the "missing works" in Karajan's repertoire ?

Warm regards, lee

[Dave]

Lee, the moment I saw the direction of this thread, my first thought was the Choral Fantasia too. In fact, when you think about it, there seem to be quite a few gaps when it comes to piano concertos and things of that ilk. I know he recorded and performed some, but as far as I know there's no Beethoven PC cycle, only one Rachmaninov one exists, and I'm still amazed he never recorded the Grieg either. There's no Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev either, something that surprises me because I gather Karajan was something of a Russian ballet fan.

[sejacko]

He did record a Beethoven PC cycle with A.Weissenberg, on EMI (in the 70s), and of course he recorded the Grieg with K.Zimerman in the 80s.

The absence ofthe Choral Fantasia does not strike me as all that strange: as much as I enjoy the piece, it has to be admitted that it's not a masterpiece.

Whereas Manfred certainly *is* a great work..

Jack

[lee]

Hi Dave & Jack

You have both raised some interesting points. With regards to the Beethoven Piano concertos, he did indeed record the complete cycle with Weissenberg and BPO in the studio in the late 70's - there are also earlier recordings of the first with Eschenbach on DG from 1966 and the fourth and fifth with Gieseking and the Philharmonia on EMI from 1951. The third was also programmed many times in the concert hall - there is a live recording with Glenn Gould from 1957 discussed elsewhere in the forum and the work featured quite a few times during the 1970's in performances with Gilels, Lupu, Pollini, Weissenberg and Pommier. However, I beg to differ with you Jack - whilst the Choral Fantasia is certainly no masterpiece, it's absence is strange when one considers that Karajan recorded the complete incidental music of Egmont, all of Beethoven's overtures (including the rare - and frankly not very good - Namensfeier Overture) as well as Wellingtons Sieg, all (with the exception of some of the overtures) very minor Beethoven works.

However Dave, your assertion about Karajan and piano concertos are correct - as a trained pianist as well as a proud and jealous individual, Karajan had a number of tussles with high profile pianists, including Richter, Arrau and Pogorelich, which may go some way in explaining some of the gaps in this part of the repertory in Karajan's concert and recording schedule. With Pogorelich, planned performances and recording of the Tchaikovsky First were abandoned very late in rehearsals for public performances. I'll let Richard Osborne take up the story in his marvellous biography on Karajan, "A Life in Music":

"An engagement to play the Tchaikovsky (First Piano) Concerto with Karajan was every young pianist's dream. It was, however, a terrible risk. Karajan collected star pianists as Duke Bluebeard collected wives. In Pogorelich's case, the union was never consummated. During a rehearsal in the Musikverein, Karajan uncharacteristically ran out of patience. There were heated exchanges. Karajan got off the rostrum and hammered out the rhythm on the piano lid. At the end of the rehearsal, he announced: 'Tommorow evening we play the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6.' Decoded, this meant 'The concerto is cancelled.'
A statement was released announcing that Pogorelich had sustained asn injury to his arm. It was not true. But the following evening when Karajan came on to conduct, there, seated in the hall, was Ivo Pogorelich, his arm elaborately swathed in several feet of white bandage. Even Karajan was amused."

Warm regards, Lee

[john]

Dave & Lee

Your posts on Karajan and Piano concertos is interesting.

Whislt we know he recorded the all the Beethoven, Brahms 2nd, Tschaikowsky 1st, Rachmaninov 2nd, Grieg and Schumann, there where also Mozart's 23rd & 24th with Gieseking and a Leimar piano concerto for left hand from the 1950s.

Furthermore, Karajan never commercially recorded the Mozart 20 & 21, Bartok 3rd & Chopin 2nd, however he did perform these at concerts as well as the Mozart concerto for 3 pianos and the Bach concerto for 4 pianos, the later being with The Czceh Philhamonic at Salzburg 15th August 1971.

There was also the famous Paris TV concert/interveiw in 1978 where Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic with Weissenberg played the Mozart Piano concerto no.20 and Karajan himself replaced Weissenberg (by arrangement) at the piano for the famous 2nd movement, to me this is a magical 'one off' moment.
Although I have a copy of the Video of the TV programme transferred to DVD, if anyone out there has a really excellent quality transfer copy please let me know.

John

[Deleted]

Fortunately one of K's students made a great recording with Oslo PO