Aug. 04--Jean Martinon was the "forgotten" music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, his reputation unfairly dwarfed during his tenure (1963-68) and beyond by the lionized conductors who reigned on either side of him, Fritz Reiner and Georg Solti.
I wasn't around for the Martinon years and, much to my regret, never heard the French master in concert. But I recall the excitement each new RCA album by Martinon and the CSO produced in me back when I was starting to build a classical record collection. Here was combustible musicmaking of the first order. And what virtuosic playing Martinon drew from his orchestra!
Nine Martinon/Chicago albums were released commercially, most of them devoted to 20th century symphonic works, largely ignoring other areas of the repertory he led with comparable authority. RCA Red Seal has reissued the entire lot of them in a 10-CD "original jacket" box that includes a (somewhat sketchy) 44-page booklet and a bonus Martinon-conducted recording, made in Paris in 1969, of Robert Casadesus' neoclassical Piano Concerto No. 2, with the composer as soloist.
A couple of these recordings previously appeared in 24-bit transfers on RCA's High Performance audiophile line; the rest are newly remastered. Included are several CD premieres and three Ravel orchestral pieces that appeared only on vinyl discs sold as premiums during several WFMT-FM 98.7 membership drives.
Martinon drew savage reviews from the Chicago Tribune's all-powerful Claudia Cassidy. Those critical drubs -- combined with a nasty imbroglio that pitted a hapless Martinon against the musicians union and the late Ray Still (an outspoken Martinon detractor whom the conductor tried to remove as principal oboe) -- finally prompted him to resign and head back to France. The modest maitre enjoyed later success as principal conductor of the French National Orchestra (1968-73) before his untimely death in 1976, at 66.
Martinon's CSO recordings came in for consistently high praise among reviewers, and in fact these razor-sharp performances of scores by Bartok, Varese, Ravel, Hindemith, Carl Nielsen, Albert Roussel and Frank Martin remain benchmarks roughly a half-century after their initial release.
Indeed, they refute the commonplace assertion that Martinon allowed playing standards to slip during his five-season tenure in Chicago. In fact, he was a rigorous musical caretaker who handed a world-class orchestra over to Solti, who didn't hesitate to take the credit for making it so.
Delving through this trove of treasures, I was reminded of Martinon's prowess as a composer, with the return to circulation of his craggy, powerfully argued Symphony No. 4 ("Altitudes"), commissioned for the CSO's 75th anniversary. The score repays repeated listenings, as does its disc-mate, Peter Mennin's athletic, hard-boned Symphony No. 7 ("Variation Symphony").
Solti also got credit for building the world's greatest symphonic brass choir, even though the CSO's key principal brass players already were in place during the Martinon era. They and their colleagues deliver a blazing account of Nielsen's "Inextinguishable" Symphony, my favorite performance in the set. (An unwritten five-second gap inserted by a clueless record producer between movements 3 and 4 for a previous CD re-release of Martinon's Nielsen Fourth has been eliminated.)
The clear yet full-bodied sound of these transfers is a distinct improvement over the overprocessed sonics of RCA's original Dynagroove LPs. At a time when CSO recording activity has slowed to a pathetic crawl, this wonderful collection should bring back many golden memories for older concertgoers and collectors, even as it affords the younger generation with a telling glimpse into an important, if all too brief, era in the long recorded history of the Chicago Symphony.
Another great conductor whose American recording career lasted some 50 years longer than Martinon's was Leopold Stokowski.
Two of the orchestras the legendary magician of orchestral sound founded -- the All-American Youth Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra -- occupied much of his attention just before America's entry into World War II and immediately following the conflict.
Music Arts has gathered some of the rarest of Stokowski's Columbia and RCA Victor recordings with those ensembles and issued them in an essential, three-disc box of CD premieres, in listenable transfers by famed restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn. A 24-page booklet contains detailed notes by Richard Freed.
Sonic values have, of course, improved considerably since the 1940s, but the strongly personalized interpretations that were Stokowski's signature represent a kind of musicmaking that no longer exists. Deep-piled orchestral sonorities, infinitely flexible lines and sometimes flagrant liberties with the letter of the score transfigured the notes on the page into something uniquely Stokowskian: a mesmerizing fusion of sonic intensity and deep emotional feeling.
The recordings in this set range from a warmly contoured Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" Symphony, a glinting Stravinsky "Firebird" Suite, Stokowski's vivid Symphonic Synthesis of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" and his own orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (much darker and starker than the more familiar Ravel transcription), to encores and bonbons arranged by Stokowski. Ten selections represent his only recorded versions of those works. The musicmaking tingles with a vitality undimmed by the sonic deficiencies of the original source material.
A must for Stokowski completists and a trove of musical revelations for everyone.
WFMT's Bach keyboard project
Hard on the heels of last year's WFMT Bach Organ Project, the fine arts radio station is producing a live-performance marathon of J.S. Bach's keyboard music. The Bach Keyboard Festival will comprise 11 concerts performed by more than 70 musicians at venues across the Chicago area, from Sept. 18 to Nov. 1.
Artists include harpsichordists Jory Vinikour, David Schrader, Stephen Alltop, Philippe LeRoy and Jason Moy, and pianists Winston Choi, Anthony Molinaro, Lara Downes and Adam Neiman. Members of the keyboard programs at Northwestern, Roosevelt and DePaul universities, and the Wheaton College Conservatory, also will take part.
Choi, Molinaro and Alltop will discuss and perform Book 1 of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" and "Goldberg Variations" as part of a daylong Bach keyboard event Oct. 3 at Winnetka Congregational Church in Winnetka.
The cost for attending the entire series is $200; individual concert registrations are available at $25 for general admission, $15 for students. Tickets for the Oct. 3 event are $65, $35 for students, including a boxed lunch. For more information, go to wfmt.com/events.
Conductors in the news
--The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons have agreed to extend his contract as music director through the 2021-22 season. His initial five year-contract, which began in September 2014, will be replaced by an eight-year contract that includes an "evergreen clause" reflecting a mutual desire to maintain what the orchestra calls "a long-term commitment" well beyond the eight years of the new contract.
--Ravinia has named conductor James Conlon a life trustee, making him a permanent member of the festival family. His 11-year term as music director of the CSO residencies will end this summer.
--Lyric Opera music director Andrew Davis has renewed his contract as chief conductor of Australia's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, through 2019. He took up his post in 2013.
Sharps and flats
--Chicago-born actress, singer and comedian Jane Lynch will bring her cabaret show, "See Jane Sing," to Lyric Opera for four holiday performances, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Dec. 17 and 18 at the Civic Opera House. The audience will be seated onstage, with drinks and edibles served during the performances. Ticket prices begin at $50; 312-827-5600, lyricopera.org.
--Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez head the cast of Rossini's rarely heard "La Donna del Lago," the latest "Great Performances" at the Met telecast from the Metropolitan Opera. The performance will air locally at 2 p.m. Sunday on WTTW-Ch. 11. Michele Marriotti conducts. Paul Curran's staging is a co-production with Santa Fe Opera.
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
