Kempff's 1962 DGG Mozart Recordings now on CD

[Lance]

~ Mini-Review ~

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in A Major, K331
Fantasy for Piano in D Minor, K397
Fantasy for Piano in C Minor, K475
Piano Sonata in A Minor, K310
Wilhelm Kempff, piano
Recorded Berlin, January 1962
Deutsche Grammophon 477.5907, ADD, 57:51
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During the celebration of Mozart's 250th birthday, huge numbers of recordings are being reissued by the major labels. While many have had it up to their ears with Mozart's music—on- and off records—I have no quibble with any of it. As the years pass, you will be delighted that you have acquired many of these recordings, which, if the recent past is an indicator, will not remain in the active catalogues too long. Indeed, many of DGG's "The Originals" are not being exported to the USA.

Having been an admirer of most of Wilhelm Kempff's recordings from the early 78s right up to those he made near the end of his life, any new reissue of his work is something to celebrate.

Now DGG has finally reissued on CD the four works outlined above as recorded by Kempff in 1962. After reading the outstanding notes of Jeremy Siepmann, and some of his displeasure about some of the tone quality produced in Kempff's playing, I had to dig into my memory because I did not recall the occasional harshness the Siepmann mentions. Sure enough, though, some of this harshness is decidedly there. I also compared the sound to the original DGG LP, which I still have. Initially, I thought some of the harshness was due to the analogue-to-digital transfers. In my opinion, it is not.

Deutsche Grammophon's "Original Series," often observes that these reissues are substantially more brilliant on the high-end of the audio spectrum, much more so than in the original LP discs, and there seems to be more general "focus," due to the discs being remastered, apparently, at higher volume levels. Kempff handles the music of Mozart with much ravishing tone, but on occasion, he "digs in" to his keyboard more than I remembered from the LP. It's the piano—and the man playing it—that creates the occasional harshness of tone when he goes for a triple forte, or perhaps, more than a ff.

As a concert piano technician, I listened intently to this entire disc, paying close attention to the sound from the instrument itself, and the pianist's technique. I found that the "split" (almost distorted) notes on a few occasions was not due to the now over forty-year-old recording, which might be attributed to "tape print-through," but because of the pianist's sonority. I would judge the instrument to be a Hamburg Steinway with a lovely liquid sound in general but with a bit more stridency in the uppermost range. The microphone, indeed, picks this up harshness in the pianist's playing. The piano is also microphoned closer than usual giving more immediacy to the sound.

In the end, while this disc has some golden moments, I also had the feeling that Kempff was a bit out of his element with the music of Mozart. He is supremely recognized as a Beethoven exponenent; even his Schumann and Chopin (for me), has never been the most authoritative on discs, though it certainly represents another side of this great Beethoven scholar and pianist. I also prefer his Bach over his Mozart/Schumann/Chopin inscriptions.

Wilhelm Kempff is a pianist in the grand tradition of the last century. I would still want to hear his Mozart from time-to-time because he was an exceptional interpreter with many individual ideas in performance, thus carried through to his recordings.

[Werner]

I always thought that Kempff played a Blüthner. Am I wrong, or did he change? Somehow, I've never paid too much attention to him.

[Lance]

I always thought that Kempff played a Blüthner. Am I wrong, or did he change? Somehow, I've never paid too much attention to him.

Near as I know, all the recordings Kempff made for Deutsche Grammophon used Hamburg Steinway instruments. In his earlier 78s, he may have used Blüthner pianos. They were a much more refined and delicate sound than the Hamburg Steinways; if he used Blüthners in general, I would be very surprised. Maybe he should have in the case of this Mozart recording!

[Donald Isler]

My first piano tacher, Sina Berlinski, who is from Leipzig (and with whom Dad also studied) had (and still has) a Blüthner, so that's what my first lessons were on, though I was so young I don't remember anything about the quality of the instrument. I always assumed she had brought it over to this country until a few years ago when she told me she bought it here.

[Brendan]

Quite partial to Kempff's Schubert as well as his Beethoven recordings.

[Corlyss_D]

Quite partial to Kempff's Schubert as well as his Beethoven recordings.

Me too. If Lance hadn't covered it, I was going to ask if he thought it was equal to the Beethoven and Schuberts, not to mention the Brahms, which tears me up, and the Bach transcriptions.

[Lance]

Quite partial to Kempff's Schubert as well as his Beethoven recordings.

Me too. If Lance hadn't covered it, I was going to ask if he thought it was equal to the Beethoven and Schuberts, not to mention the Brahms, which tears me up, and the Bach transcriptions.

Ah, Kempff's Schubert can be mentioned in the same breath as his Beethoven (especially his early monaural cycle, also for DGG). And his Brahms trails right behind ... exquisite Brahms in fact. That's why I find it strange that the Mozart doesn't quite come up to these other levels; you would think they would. He paces himself superbly well in Beethoven/Schubert and swiftly moves to Brahms with the same kind of heartfelt expression.

[Lance]

My first piano tacher, Sina Berlinski, who is from Leipzig (and with whom Dad also studied) had (and still has) a Blüthner, so that's what my first lessons were on, though I was so young I don't remember anything about the quality of the instrument. I always assumed she had brought it over to this country until a few years ago when she told me she bought it here.

Blüthner's are suddenly becoming popular again. People are moving back to Bechsteins, Blüthners, Bösendorfers, [the 3 Bs, 4 if you include Baldwin!] and now Faziolis. Even the great old Mason & Hamlin is building pianos again, in the old tradition, but I haven't heard how successful they are yet with artists. I've worked on some of the new, smaller grands. The actions were exceedingly "light."

When Marianne and Fritz Wallenberg left Munich during WW II and made Binghamton their home, Fritz, also a cellist, founded the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra. In their home was a six-foot Blüthner, one of two they had in Germany. One was sold and they kept the other. It has the rocker-type under action (no capstan screws like we have today). Many who left Germany also brought their pianos and ultimately sold them here, that's how some of the German pianos gained their way to the "used" market. The Blüthner was was well constructed, but very difficult to work on action-wise. The early Bechsteins and Blüthners both had this kind of action, the type of which is no longer used in pianos built by these companies.

Among the Wallenbergs friends was a piano tuner from, I think, Germany, the father of pianist Ursula Oppens. Whenever he came to Binghamton to visit for a day or two, he refused to do any work on the piano because he couldn't tolerate working on it. This was long before I entered the picture. I believe that piano is now with the Wallenberg's daughter in New York City. Each string of a three-string unison had its own "hitch-pin," not the wrap-around strings used today and I believe each string course had agraffes rather than presently-used pressure bars in the upper treble range.

I've hard some of the newer Blüthner concert grands ... and they are quite lovely. A former pupil of Clara Wieck Schumann, Adelina de Lara, made many of her recordings on a Blüthner, which possessed a sweet, singing, totally non-strident piano tone. (Much of this was due, of course, to her technique and training from Clara.)

You see what happens when you get me talking about pianos? I don't know enough to stop! Long live Blüthner pianos!