Maestro Erich Kunzel may have made more recordings than
almost any conductor in history, but when it came to the music of the Strauss
family, he didn’t quite project the delight of a Willi Boskovsky, the glamor of
a Herbert von Karajan, the energy of an Antal Dorati, the elegance of a Josef
Krips, the warmth of a Eugene Ormandy, the high spirits of a Lorin Maazel, or
the Viennese charm of a Fritz Reiner or Zubin Mehta or Jascha Horenstein.
Instead, Kunzel’s readings are more exhilarating than illuminating. That said,
when the sound comes across as impressively as it does here in this LIM
audiophile remaster of a 1985 Telarc release, it probably doesn’t matter. The
sonics rather overwhelm the notes and carry us along, making us marvel anew at
the creative genius of the Strauss family.
The program begins with a bang, with a real explosion at
the start of the Explosions Polka.
Then, we get three more quick-paced polkas and galops, again with sound effects
such as, literally, various bells and whistles, popping corks, pistol shots,
and thunderclaps in the Im Krapfenwald’l
Polka, the Champagne Polka, and the Banditen
Galop. Some purists may feel Telarc indulged in too many such aural
effects, but one should keep in mind that when the Strausses wrote this music,
audiences enjoyed and expected a degree of extravagance.
The first big waltz comes with On the Beautiful Blue Danube, in which Kunzel seems at first a
little earthbound and mundane; however he soon warms up to the piece, even if
he never quite gets the full measure of the waltz rhythms involved. Likewise,
his handling of Tales from the Vienna
Woods never exactly catches fire until well underway. It’s as though the
conductor were holding something back for as long as he could and then still
wasn’t entirely sure how to cope with the pulses of a waltz. There follow the Radetzky March, the Feuerfest Polka, the Auf der Jagd
Polka, the Bahn Frei Polka, the Pizzicato Polka, and the Unter Donner und Blitz Polka, numbers
that come off best.
If I have any reservations about the album, they include
the short playing time (48:10) and the preponderance of fast tunes on the
program, with only two waltzes (The Blue
Danube and the Tales from the Vienna
Woods). So it’s more of showpiece than I’d like. Still, with the inclusion
of an outstanding Radetzky March,
it’s hard not to enjoy the selections.
Although there is a certain lack of subtlety in Kunzel’s
conducting and although the Cincinnati Pops lack the plush precision of a
Vienna Philharmonic, the conductor and orchestra are clearly having a good
time, and their enthusiasm shows.
Telarc recorded the album in 1984 at Music Hall,
Cincinnati, Ohio, releasing it the following year, and LIM (Lasting Impression
Music, a division of FIM, First Impression Music) remastered it in 2012 in
their UltraHD 32-bit mastering process. Engineer Michael Bishop, who helped
with the original recording, supervised the remastering, and the meticulous
UltraHD system did the rest. The sound is very dynamic, with a slightly
improved transient impact over the original Telarc product. Yet we also hear a
very smooth, warm, lifelike response, without a trace of brightness or edge,
which is probably the best quality of the remastering. Music Hall imparts a
pleasant resonant glow around the sonics that some audiophiles may think
detracts from the disc’s midrange transparency and others may feel adds to the
album’s overall realism. Adding further to the natural-sounding effect of the
acoustic is a good measure of depth to the orchestra; it’s easy to listen
“into” the players and distinguish their relative distances from one another.
Thus, imaging, always a hallmark of Telarc, is better than ever. Finally,
you’ll of course find the big Telarc bass drum in evidence throughout. This
remastering is all about big, room-filling sound, which you get in spades.
As always, LIM dress up the disc with an attractive,
high-gloss foldout container, the disc itself enclosed in an inner paper sleeve
and a static-free liner. It’s a handsome package.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
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