Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Andor Földes)

Andor Földes, 1956

The Hungarian pianist Andor Földes (1913-1992) studied under the two towering musical figures of his time and place - Ernst von Dohnányi and Béla Bartók, and in fact became best known for his performances of the latter composer's works. He came to America around 1940, and would first have become known to American record-buyers through his role as accompanist to another compatriot, violinist Joseph Szigeti, in a series of prewar Columbia recordings, most notably sonatas by Schubert and Debussy. In 1947, Földes gave the New York première of Bartók's Second Concerto, and made the first recording of it two years later, in France:

Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 (1931)
Andor Földes, piano
Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux conducted by Eugène Bigot
Recorded June 27 and 29, 1949
Polydor (France) A6.320 through A6.322, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 65.70 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 43.66 MB)

These French Polydor pressings, though looking lovely, turned out to be quite noisy. I did what I could with them with several different styli, but some sides still have an audible swish and in fact the right channel turned out to be unusable. Despite this, I still think it sounds better than the Vox LP which was the recording's only issue in the USA.

Roussel: Symphony No. 3

Well, Satyr has been giving us a number of fine recordings by Albert Wolff lately, over on the blog "78 toeren en LPs," and here's my contribution to the Wolff-fest: the first recording of Roussel's Third Symphony, from a set of French Polydor 78s.  This was recorded c. 1932, shortly after Wolff and the Lamoureux Orchestra gave the Paris premiére of the symphony, and only a year or two after the world premiére, in October 1930, by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky, who commissioned the work as part of the orchestra's 50th anniversary celebrations.  It was a rare honor in those days for a contemporary work to be recorded so soon after its unveiling!

Roussel: Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42
Lamoureux Orchestra conducted by Albert Wolff
Recorded c. 1932
French Polydor 566126 through 566128, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 56.18 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 25.75 MB)

Albert Roussel (1869-1937) is one of those curious composers (like Scriabin or Szymanowski) whose works written in the last fifteen or so years of his life are so unlike his earlier, yet fully mature works that it's sometimes hard to believe they're by the same composer.  In Roussel's case, he migrated from a post-Impressionistic style to a somewhat abrasive neo-classicism as found in this Third Symphony.