Furtwiingler did in his La Scala Ring cycle. There's good news about Windgassen, too; he's in considerably better voice than he would be in 1966 at Bayreuth, less throaty and leathery. (Complaints about his unbeautiful tone were common, but in retrospect we should be laying lilies on his shrine.) Hilde Rossl-Majdan is a passionate Brangiine with plenty of stamina, although I wish she didn't have a fast beat in her voice. Gustav Neidlinger, a famous Alberich, makes for a dark, coarse Kurwenal, and he has patches of shouting and errant pitch-I didn't enjoy him. Hans Hotter's noble Marke is a known quantify, and his singing in 1959 was free of the wobbles. Too bad his monologue is caught a little too far away. I've done my best to describe the long and the short ofit, but there's no getting around the re- ality that the glories of Tristan und Isolde are shrunk to the size of an AM table radio. If that's tol- erable to you, the oppornrnity to eavesdrop on Nilsson's unique collaboration with Karajan is a priv- ilege. Huntley Dent WALLY Caprice Ul), mosalques for Piano Trio: See HAYDN. t mffot|| Cello Concerto'. Passacaglia. HINDEMITH Gello Concertot. Solo Cello Sonata, op. lFrank 2513 . Christian Polt6ra (vc); Shipway, cond; 'Sao Paulo SO . BIS 2077 (59:44) As the notes with this issue point out, Walton and Hindemith are ideal partners for this program because they were lifelong friends. Hindemith was the soloist at the premiere of Walton's Viola Concerto. and Walton later used a theme from Hindemith's Cello Concerto as the basis for a set of orchestral variations. Both composers'cello concertos were written for Gregor Piatigorsky, the great Ukraine-bom cellist who emigrated to the USA (where he married into the Rothschild family, and taught at the Curtis Institute). Like his Hindemith Variations, Walton's Cello Concerto is a late work, dating from 1955-56. While it has generally had a lower prohle than the showier concertos for viola and violin, successive recordings have edged the work towards the mainstream. Its profusion of lyricism-the first move- ment is basically one long melody-and the sense of unruffled calm that sets the tone, plus Walton's precise and subtly colored orchestration, combine to create a late masterpiece. (Much as I like Walton's other string concertos, this one is my personal favorite.) Polt6ra has recorded other 20th-century concertos for BlS, including those by Honegger, Barber, and Frank Martin. Excellent as he was in those works, he is truly in his element with the Walton. He produces a sweet, singing line, and points detail effectively, but overall his approach is what we once called aristocratic, which is to say that nothing is overcooked or pushed to expressive extremes. The orchestral playing under the late Frank Shipway is similarly detailed and clear: rhythmically incisive inthe allegro molto section of the last movement, for example, which is taken at a faster lick than I have heard before. Piatigorsky established the work's reputation by recording it with Charles Munch and the Boston SO for RCA, and for a very long time that was the only version around. Their 5S-year- old performance still sounds wonderful: Piatigorsky's warmth in the first and third movemenrs goes straight to the heart, as does the richness and passion ofthe BSO strings, but I would say Poltera has the edge in the scherzo in terms ofpoise and sheer technique. Polt6ra's relative detachrnent (certainly in comparison to the work's dedicatee) is ideal for walton's swift repeated motifs. Poise and an element of detachment are also assets in Hindemith's Concerto. This is the third and most substantial of his cello concertos, and the first work he composed in the USA when he ar- rived there in 1940. It is best known for its lyrical slow movement (whose lovely opening cello theme Walton used for his variations). The third movement is a typically Prussian march, initially for winds, that recalls the ballet score Nobllesslma Visione. Though Piatigorsky gave the concerto's premiere in Boston with Koussevitsky, to my knowledge he did not record the work. This might ex- plain its chequered recording history. Performances on disc have been few and far between. There are versions by Starker and Tortelier, which I have not heard. (Not for want of trying! My order of the rare Supraphon disc of Tortelier's acclaimed mono recording was cancelled midstream by the Amazon affiliate who had offered it for sale. Perhaps the seller changed his mind?) For comparison I have a Hungaraton recording by Mikl6s Per€nyi, conducted by Gyorgy Lehel, that dates from some time before 1990. In FanJare 17:2, James H. North labeled it "a strong performance which scores 440 Fanfare May/June 2015 over mediocre competition." I like Perdnyi's vigor, but there can be little doubt that Polt6ra is now the front-runner in this under-populated field. The first movement's explosions of orchestral color are tremendously exciting in the new recording. After writing the previous paragraph, I suddenly remembered a recent recording of the Hindemith that elicited a very positive review from James H. North in Far/a re 35'.3 .It features cellist Johannes Moser, with Christoph Popper conducting a new orchestra based in Saarbriicken. These mu- sicians give forceful performances of the outer movements and a most sympathetic one of the slow movement, and are well recorded. If Moser's couplings appeal, that could swing it: He couples the Hindemith with concertos by Martinri (No. l) and Honegger. I think Poltera has a slight edge, partly because ofBIS's sound: The engineers get the balance in the concertos absolutely right, with the cello standing out but not artificially highlighted. Poltera's instrument is brought closer to us in the two solo works that provide a significant makeweight. Hindemith's brief solo sonata, from a group of sonatas that comprise his opus 25, "resembles an updated and miniaturized Bach suite," to quote the notes by the late and much missed Malcolm MacDonald. The cellist is particularly moving in the moumful third movement. Walton's Passacaglia is more of a showpiece, and Polt6ra digs into its technical chal- lenges with aplomb. Even so, I continue to find the work somewhat intractable. To sum up, this is an imaginatively programmed and winningly performed disc, and comes highly recommended. I reviewed the program in the form of a download from Classics Online. (l am unable to ascer- tain what type ofdownload it is.) As usual. I have now ordered a copy ofthe physical disc. I know this habit will prove costly before long. but I like collecting CDs so I might as well keep doing it while they still exist. And they sound better. Phillip Scott WALTON Cello Concertol. Passacaglia. HINDEMITH Cello Concerto'. Solo Cello Sonata, op.2513 lFrank lSao . Christian Poltera (vc); Shipway, cond; Paulo SO . BIS 2077 (SACD: 59:44) The first question I had when I saw this release was: What do William Walton and Paul Hindemith have in common? I am familiar with one of my favorite of Walton's later works, his Variations on a Theme by Hindemith, which in fact uses the theme from the slow movement of Hindemith's Cello Concerto performed here as its basis. But, other than their close birth dates (Hindemith in 1895, Walton in 1902), I was unaware of their connection. But there were quite a t-ew: Hindemith, it tums out, was, on short notice, the soloist in the world premiere performance of Walton's Viola Concerto, with Walton on the podium; both of their cello concertos were given their premieres, albeit about a decade and a halfapart, by the same cellist, Gregor Piatigorsky; both of their cello concertos have unfortunately never gained immense popularity; both composers were considered enfant terribles in the 1920s; both ofthem were influenced by Bach, notably in the two solo cello works here-the Hindemith Sonata, really more of a suite, the Walton Passacaglia, most probably by Bach's more famous chaconne for violin solo-and perhaps most importantly, the two remained lifelong friends, the aforementioned orchestral variations being composed only a year or so before Hindemith's death in 1963 in gratitude to him for his performance of the viola concerto more than two decades earlier. I said "unfortunately" previously, as both of these works are gems-two pieces that should be much better known than they are. In performances of this caliber they both truly shine. And while the soloist here, the Zurich-born cellist Christian Polt6ra, is spectacular in virtually every way-his rav- ishing tone, his ease ofexecution, the freshness that he brings to these scores, his attention to detail, and his obvious joie de vivre in performing these neglected works-so much of the credit here must also go to the late Frank Shipway, a disciple of both John Barbirolli and Igor Markevitch, and the very fine Brazilian ensemble, the Sio Paulo Symphony Orchestra, whose playing is both exciting in the faster-moving sections and sensitive in the more intimate ones. They play this music as expanded and orchestrated chamber music, always reading the soloist's intentions and playing off of them. And the effect throughout is spectacular, nowhere more so than in a movement such as the finale to the Walton Concerto, an elegiac theme with improvisations (really variationlike commentaries on the theme). The two forces are constantly pitted against each other in different ways-sometimes the orchestra leading, sometimes the soloist; sometimes the cellist plays alone, sometimes only the orchestra, before Fanfare May/June 2015 441 the piece finally ends with both forces recalling the material from the opening ofthe concerto coun- tered against the finale's theme.