The Art of Rafael Kubelik

[Que]

I have one half of a Brahms cycle he did around that time with the VPO for Decca but find it overly thick and unconvincing.

I'm curious about Kubelik's Brahms symphonies - any other comments?

Q

[MishaK]

The VPO/Decca versions are strangely flaccid and recorded in rather muddied sound. I would avoid. I am not familiar with the BRSO versions.

[MDL]

Kubelik's DG Mahler is wonderfully fresh and lively, although his recording of 6 is is too fast and lacks drama in the finale. 1, 3 and 4 are especially fine, and I've got a soft spot for 2 and 9. His last, legendary recording of Smetana's Ma Vlast should be (and probably is) in everybody's collection. His recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder is excellent, even if the DG recording doesn't always convey the scale of the forces involved.

I don't think that anybody here has mentioned the appalling treatment he endured at the hands of acid-penned critic Claudia Cassidy, who slagged off practically every performance Kubelik conducted in Chicago, eventually driving him from the city. How did such a vile and ignorant woman come to have such power? She was a useless critic. Calling Janacek's Taras Bulba "trash" was bad enough, but referring to Bartok's seminal Music for String Percussion and Celesta as a "potboiler" should have ensured her immediate dismissal with a boot print on her arse. Cassidy was clearly a demented bitch, the Ann Coulter of her day, who enjoyed insulting people for the sake of it, and her treatment of Kubelik was shameful. The people of Chicago have shown a complete lack of taste in naming a theatre after this idiot. It should be renamed the Rafael Kubelik Theatre in honour of the great artist whose American career she destroyed.

[sidoze]

It should be renamed the Rafael Kubelik Theatre on honour of the great artist whose American career she destroyed.

We still have some of his CSO recordings though (for download).

All files are 192Kbps MP3 LAME

Kubelik-CSO 1 (Bloch Concerto Grosso 1 & Brahms Sym 1)
http://rapidshare.com/files/29718505/Kubelik-CSO_1.rar.html

Kubelik-CSO 2. (Mozart 34 & Tchaikovsky 4)
http://rapidshare.com/files/30295574/Kubelik-CSO_2.rar.html

Kubelik-CSO3 (Tchaikovsky 6)
http://rapidshare.com/files/30835201/Kubelik-CSO_3.rar.html


I forgot to mention Kubelik's Missa Solemnis on Orfeo.

[sidoze]

And a 1980 performance with the CSO of Bartok's MfSPC.

http://rapidshare.com/files/30179908/MfSPC-Kubelik-CSO-Nov1980.rar

And a CSO Ma Vlast from 1983

http://rapidshare.com/files/19531588/Kubelik_CSO_Ma_Vlast_1984.zip

[knight66]

"I forgot to mention Kubelik's Missa Solemnis on Orfeo."

Sidoze, can you tell me more about this? I am a sucker for the piece, but do not know this recording at all.

Mike

[sidoze]

Sidoze, can you tell me more about this? I am a sucker for the piece, but do not know this recording at all.

Mike

I can't sorry. First of all I no longer have it. Secondly I'm not good with words. And thirdly I never liked the work all that much (my concentration span ends fai. It's a beautiful recording though, live and in good sound (on 2 CDs I recall). Very sweet violin solo too. I've heard Klemperer (EMI), Karajan and Bernstein, and this was my favourite one.

[Iago]

.

I don't think that anybody here has mentioned the appalling treatment he endured at the hands of acid-penned critic Claudia Cassidy, who slagged off practically every performance Kubelik conducted in Chicago, eventually driving him from the city. How did such a vile and ignorant woman come to have such power? She was a useless critic. Calling Janacek's Taras Bulba "trash" was bad enough, but referring to Bartok's seminal Music for String Percussion and Celesta as a "potboiler" should have ensured her immediate dismissal with a boot print on her arse.

Certainly Cassidy was way off base in deriding Kubeliks work. But the fact is that Kubelik must have somehow alienated every other Chicago critic. Because as far as I know nobody came to his defense in opposition to her.
However as far as her judgements of Taras Bulba and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste are concerned I think she was slightly off base. I don't think they're good enough to be called "potboilers" (in the manner of Verdi). She should have called them plain ol' soporifically boring.

[knight66]

Sidoze, Thanks anyway.

Iago, Thanks also for the laugh....vintage stuff.

Mike

[MDL]

However as far as her judgements of Taras Bulba and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste are concerned I think she was slightly off base. I don't think they're good enough to be called "potboilers" (in the manner of Verdi). She should have called them plain ol' soporifically boring.

Perhaps you'd be happier contributing to the Justin Timberlake forum.

[Daverz]

Oh no, the biggest bomb in recorded history. Nothing wrong with the performance but the opera is terrible.

I haven't paid much attention to the libretto, I've just listened to it as gorgeous symphonic music with voices.

[MishaK]

Certainly Cassidy was way off base in deriding Kubeliks work. But the fact is that Kubelik must have somehow alienated every other Chicago critic. Because as far as I know nobody came to his defense in opposition to her.

What other critics? The other problem rather was that he was a relative unknown and the board wanted someone more famous. So they didn't support him either and took Cassidy's indictments as proof that he should be replaced, since they thenselves lacked any sound musical judgment as well.

However as far as her judgements of Taras Bulba and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste are concerned I think she was slightly off base. I don't think they're good enough to be called "potboilers" (in the manner of Verdi). She should have called them plain ol' soporifically boring.

You should see her comments about Mahler's 5th. 

[M forever]

What did she write about Mahler?

BTW, I am not very familiar with the whole Cassidy story, but I understand that the main problem she had with Kubelik was that he introduced a lot of "new" music and she didn't like that. Like the mentioned pieces by Bartók and Janáček - BTW, both breathtaking masterpieces in my humble opinion. I listened to Taras Bulba again recently and was again very impressed by the incredible originality and how strikingly expressive Janáček's musical language is.

[Bunny]

Kubelik's DG Mahler is wonderfully fresh and lively, although his recording of 6 is is too fast and lacks drama in the finale. 1, 3 and 4 are especially fine, and I've got a soft spot for 2 and 9. His last, legendary recording of Smetana's Ma Vlast should be (and probably is) in everybody's collection. His recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder is excellent, even if the DG recording doesn't always convey the scale of the forces involved.

I don't think that anybody here has mentioned the appalling treatment he endured at the hands of acid-penned critic Claudia Cassidy, who slagged off practically every performance Kubelik conducted in Chicago, eventually driving him from the city. How did such a vile and ignorant woman come to have such power? She was a useless critic. Calling Janacek's Taras Bulba "trash" was bad enough, but referring to Bartok's seminal Music for String Percussion and Celesta as a "potboiler" should have ensured her immediate dismissal with a boot print on her arse. Cassidy was clearly a demented bitch, the Ann Coulter of her day, who enjoyed insulting people for the sake of it, and her treatment of Kubelik was shameful. The people of Chicago have shown a complete lack of taste in naming a theatre after this idiot. It should be renamed the Rafael Kubelik Theatre in honour of the great artist whose American career she destroyed.

What a glorious turn of phrase.

[jwinter]

Business took me to Princeton on Wednesday, and I picked up Kubelik's Sony Schumann symphony set for a song.  Looking forward to checking it out this weekend...

[M forever]

Kubelík also recorded the Schumann symphonies for DG with the BP. I have both sets. Maybe one of these recordings is included in Mystery Orchestra 18? Or maybe not.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Kubelík also recorded the Schumann symphonies for DG with the BP. I have both sets. Maybe one of these recordings is included in Mystery Orchestra 18? Or maybe not.

I listened to both sets back to back the other day and boy they are awfully similar. The SONY sounds  clearer and the BRSO sounds a little crisper and more lucid than the BPO but a week from now if you give me a blind listen I don't think I can tell the two sets apart.

[PSmith08]

Somone here in the earlier incarnation of the forum also highly praised Kubelik's Parisfal on Music & Arts. Would someone like to elaborate? I don't have this yet.

I offered this advice to another member (who shall, unless s/he specifically tells me otherwise, remain anonymous): the choices for Parsifal come down to two recordings. Either Hans Knappertsbusch's 1962 Bayreuth recording on Philips or Rafael Kubelík's 1980 recording on Arts Archive, and it's a matter of taste between them. To my ears, it is really that simple. Kubelík's recording, if I have my story straight, was shelved by Deutsche Grammophon. If you look at the dates, this record should have come out at roughly the same time as Herbert von Karajan's. The assertion has been made that Kubelík's was mothballed in favor of the more-famous conductor's. I don't offer any sort of confirmation or denial.

In any event, Kubelík's set is probably the best post-Knappertsbusch set you could want. The singers are uniformly excellent (with James King and Kurt Moll being standouts in this recording), and the BRSO forces play marvelously. This is just good, idiomatic Wagner: Kubelík doesn't rush things (taking marginally more time than even Knappertsbusch), but things don't seem slow. Orchestrally, I'd say that Kubelík's recording bests Thielemann's, which really revels in the score itself. This recording, had it been released at the time, probably would have been the the set for the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, it would probably be in its second or third incarnation by now. 

[knight66]

PS, Interesting story about Kubelik's recording being shelved. That is exactly what happened to his Meistersingers recording, DG went with the Jochum highlighting Fischer Dieskau's Hans Sachs. Good as it may be the Kubelik, which has now been available on at least two labels recently, is by a margin the best I know of. An all round excellent cast and the sound simply glows.

I don't have access to the recording at the moment, just moved house, but I seem to recall it was recorded at a concert, so all the virtues of a live performance, but no galumphing stage noises.

Mike

[M forever]

Interesting stories indeed. I have no information about this at all (in fact, I had never heard about it before), but I am wondering why DG would have made these recordings if they didn't plan to release them and had other studio productions lined up around the same time.
You know, these things don't happen spontaneously like "hey, let's record Parsifal tomorrow - OK, cool, why not" and then "oops, you know what, didn't we just record that last week - man, yes, I remember now, too, now we two recordings, let's shelve one".
They take a lot of planning and preparation and booking the artists, often 2 years or so in advance. Sure, record companies sometimes do sit on recordings for various reasons, but why didn't release DG them simply a few years later, especially since then the major labels really flooded the market with new recordings and CD releases of older ones?
Plus such projects cost a lot of money. I don't think DG just forgot they had them. It's also not typical for DG to "sell off" their recordings to other labels either. If they think there is a market for it, they re-release them themselves, otherwise, they just continue to sit on them (unfortunately).

knight said the Parsifal is a live recording, so it appears more likely that the BR just taped a live concert performance (they have a habit of doing that since it's a radio station) than that it was actually produced by DG. Maybe there is some connection there after all, maybe the BR offered it to DG but they declined because they had the HvK coming up. They sometimes, but very rarely, release recordings made by someone else. The BR logo on the label also points to that it is likely this was just an original BR production, maybe a live concert recording.

But again, I am just speculating here, I have no other information. It would be interesting though to find out the "truth".