United States Various – ‘Transcription as Translation’: The Orchestra Now / Leon Botstein (conductor). Carnegie Hall, New York, 11.2.2025. (RP)
Balakirev – Chopin Suite
Smetana – String Quartet No.1 in E minor, ‘From My Life’ (orch. George Szell)
Beethoven – Piano Sonata No.29 Op.106, ‘Hammerklavier’ (orch. Felix Weingartner)
Orchestral transcriptions of works for solo instruments or chamber ensembles are hardly rare. Stokowski’s Bach transcriptions are still regularly encountered but, undoubtedly, the popularity of Disney’s 1940 animated film classic Fantasia is a factor there. Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition needed no such Hollywood boost to become a mainstay of the repertoire.
In this Carnegie Hal concert ‘Transcription as Translation’, Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now (TŌN) exhumed three such rarities – Mily Balakirev’s Chopin Suite, George Szell’s orchestration of Smetana’s String Quartet No.1 in E minor and Felix Weingartner’s rework of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata. A quick check on YouTube reveals that none are dead and buried, but Botstein’s reckoning that the Weingartner has not been performed in fifty years has the ring of truth.
Balakirev composed his Chopin Suite to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Polish composer’s birth in 1910, the same year in which the Russian composer died at the age of 73. In the four-movement orchestral suite, Balakirev’s efforts lean towards the grand Russian manner, with Chopin breaking through only in the suite’s lyrical passages
The Balakirev struggled to take flight here. In the opening Préambule, conductor and orchestra leaned too far into a lugubrious melancholy. The brass provided drama in the Mazurka, with gracefulness supplied by some lovely playing from the woodwinds and strings. The third movement dragged but was rescued by excellent playing from TŌN’s impressive horn section. In the Finale, the brass launched the work to a resounding and welcome end.
Szell’s name is forever linked to the Cleveland Orchestra, which he led from 1946 until he died in 1970. Born in Hungary, Szell was a protege of Richard Strauss, and toured as pianist, composer and conductor before settling on the latter as a career. Szell, who was Jewish, left Europe for the US in 1939. He orchestrated ‘From My Life’ the following year and conducted its premiere with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1941.
As a conductor, Szell took a literal approach to a score, which carried through to his orchestration of ‘From My Life’. He rebutted objections to his tampering with Smetana’s string quartet, stating it was practically a duty rather than a crime, and added that Smetana had no quarrel with those who believed ‘From My Life’ was better suited to other forms than the string quartet.
The vibrant score brought out the best in Botstein and TŌN and resulted in playing that was charged with emotion and energy. The brass were the stars of the show, especially in the second movement’s gusty polka. Solos from concertmaster Samuel Frois and principal cellist Sam Boundy added warmth to Szell’s reimagining of Smetana’s expression of the bliss of a first love in the following movement. The orchestra’s engagement with the piece was captured by the smiles on many of their faces in the barn-raising excitement of the finale, which ended with wonderful, low-pitched, Wagner-like rumblings.
Weingartner was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies, starting in 1923 in London and ending in 1937 in Vienna. He strived as a conductor to subordinate himself to the composer and his work, and he took the same approach in orchestrating the ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata – although, as Botstein advised in his remarks, the tempo and expressive markings are Weingartner’s not Beethoven’s.
As with Balakirev, the Weingartner got off to a sluggish start with the opening measures lacking power, crispness and brilliance. The lyrical passages throughout found the orchestra far more engaged and at its best. The strings brought grace to the Scherzo, which the clarinets and flutes punctuated with witty playing, and in the Adagio, the strings brought lightness and transparency to the poignant melodies. Samuel Frois’s playing in the violin solos was elegant and ethereal.
The opening Largo of the final movement sagged, but the movement’s crowning three-part Fugue was crisp and excessive. Tension was lacking, but an entire string section has an easier go of the fiendish counterpoint than a solo pianist pushed to the limits of technique and stamina.
Weingartner’s efforts are an abomination to many. Botstein advised that those familiar with the original best put it out of their minds. His apologia was hardly necessary: Weingartner’s efforts, while not exactly the ‘Hammerklavier’, were pure Beethoven in deed and spirit.
Rick Perdian