Volume 1: Russian Favorites
Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture; Kamarinskaya
Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia; Prelude to Act III of Prince Igor
Liadov: Eight Russian Fairy Tales
Mussorgsky: Sorochinsky Fair
Tchaikovsky: Marche Slav
Rimsky-Korsakov: May Night; Dubinushka; Storm Music from Ivan the Terrible;
"Procession of the Nobles" from Malada; "Dance of the Tumblers"
from Snegorouchka
Stravinsky: "Jeu des Princesses" and "Danse Infernale" from The
Firebird
The London Symphony Orchestra
Koch Historic 3-7700-2 H1
Volume 2:
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody # 1
Weber: Oberon Overture
Wagner: "Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla" from Das Rheingold; "Magic
Fire Music" from Die Walkure; "Prologue and Siegfried's Rhine
Journey" and "Siegfried's Funeral Music" from Gotterdammerung
Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel Overture
Dvorak: Carnival Overture
Strauss: Don Juan; Death and Transfiguration
Bach (arr: Elgar): Fantasia and Fugue in c minor
Respighi: The Fountains of Rome
Holst: "Mars," "Mercury," "Jupiter" and "Uranus"
from The Planets
Ravel: La Valse
The London Symphony Orchestra
Koch Historic 3-7704-2 (2 CDs)
To most classical fans, the very thought of a prim and proper English gentleman conducting
full-blooded Russian blockbusters has about as much appeal as the 101 Strings playing Jimi
Hendrix. Sure, the English do fine with madrigals, Mozart and Mendelssohn, but for
stronger stuff, like Tchaikovsky, Wagner or Stravinsky? Not a chance! Except, that is, for
Albert Coates, whose wildly energetic readings of the late romantics still pack an
enormous wallop.
Coates's ability to cross national boundaries with such ease was
destined from the very start. Born of British parents in St. Petersburg in 1882, Coates
studied both in England and Russia. In 1904, he became a student of Artur Nikish, the most
dynamic conductor of his age. Under Nikish, Coates's own vitality flourished. Coates was a
large man and reportedly worked up an enormous sweat on the podium with his wild,
demonstrative gestures; legend has it that Nikish once told him that he should use a whip
rather than a mere baton to express his feelings.
Amazingly enough, Coates seems to have been fully accepted and
held in great esteem by the highly dissimilar English and Russians, between whom he
divided his career. The chauvinistic English regarded his pedigree and temperament as
sufficiently native to entrust him with many important premieres, including the first
public performance of Gustav Holst's most popular work, The Planets, of which
Coates's pioneering recording is heard on the second of the Koch volumes. The Russians
were equally impressed and appointed Coates chief conductor of the Imperial Opera, where
his reputation was so strong that following the revolution he was appointed head of the
new state opera. That he could conduct the British works with proper reserve and yet lead
the Russian ones with unbuttoned abandon, and was able to gain the respect of both pre-
and post-revolutionary Soviet society testifies to his truly cosmopolitan credentials.
Although Coates recorded prolifically, little of his work has
been transferred to either LP or CD. On the basis of what little we have, he emerges
clearly as one of the very greatest and most individualistic interpreters of his time.
Nearly every piece on the Koch sets bursts with unrestrained vitality, worlds apart from
the polite, well-balanced performances of our time. In works having highly differentiated
sections, such as the Liszt, Borodin and Tchaikovsky on the Koch sets, Coates deliberately
collides extremely fast and slow tempi, caring nothing for seamless transitions and
creating enormous structural melodrama. He recklessly accelerates the Dvorak and Glinka
into dizzying climaxes. And yet he revels in the weighty but colorful orchestration of the
Elgar arrangement of Bach (complete with harps!), Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov.
This is fascinating stuff, but regrettably only hints at what
Coates could do with more extended pieces. The Marche Slav is superb, easily the
finest performance ever recorded, but whets our appetite for what Coates could do with a
complete Tchaikovsky symphony. The two Firebird excerpts are marvelous, but we can
only imagine how Coates would have whipped up the climax into an overwhelming frenzy. And
his compelling Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration suggest that Coates
was one of the few conductors who could have held together one of Strauss's diffuse and
bloated longer works.
Either of these volumes is fine, although the first (a single
disc) is probably the safer recommendation; while Coates does a fine job with the
wide-ranging repertoire on the second volume, it is in the fiery slavic material that he
makes a stunning impression. A consumer note: each disc lasts over 75 minutes, and while
the surface noise is occasionally heavy (even for originals of this vintage), it is all of
the steady static variety which can be easily disregarded, rather than 78 rpm swishes and
gouges, which are far harder to ignore.
Apart from the Koch sets, the only currently available Coates
performance seems to be his amazing 1930 reading of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto # 3
with Vladimir Horowitz as the soloist, included as part of EMI CDHC 63538 (3 CDs). CD
reissues of two other Coates readings would be especially welcome. The first is the love
duet of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior, last
available on Angel LP COLH-132, which explodes with torrents of raw orgiastic passion. The
second is the finest of all interpretations of Borodin's Symphony # 2, recorded in
1929 with the London Symphony Orchestra, last available on Past Masters LP PM-11 that
included as a bonus a 1920 (!) performance of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy; although
reduced to chamber proportions for the acoustic process, the orchestral color and powerful
climaxes come through with amazing clarity and represent our only indication of Coates's
affinity for one of his very favorite modern composers.
But what of Coates's legendary recordings of the deep melodrama
of Tchaikovsky's Symphony # 5 or the swirling coloristic kaleidoscope of
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade? Coates's natural affinity for such works must have
produced absolutely stunning results, but the 78s have never been reissued. Hopefully, the
present sets will sell sufficiently well for Koch or some other enterprising label to dig
these up.
Now that Koch has so proudly served up the appetizers, can't we
please taste a main course?
Copyright 1992 by Peter Gutmann
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