November 1: Sony Classical Presents Emanuel Feuermann – The Complete RCA Album Collection

Sony Classical Presents
Emanuel Feuermann – The Complete RCA Album Collection

New Release Date: November 1, 2024
Reviewer Rate: $34.40

Pre-Order Available Now

“Anything he played he engraved in your memory” – Richard Taruskin

For the first time ever, Sony Classical is issuing a complete collection of the recordings made for RCA Victor by the fabled Austrian cellist Emanuel Feuermann with 11 works for the first time on CD transferred from the original master discs. The set, which will be released on September 20, 2024, comes with new liner notes by violin expert John Maltese as well as photos and facsimiles from the private archives of cellist Marika Hughes, granddaughter of Emanuel Feuermann.

In his tragically short career – mainly in Germany, until the Nazi regime dismissed him from his position at the Berlin conservatory in 1933, and in the US, where he emigrated five years later – Feuermann took the art of cello playing to new heights. Eugene Ormandy declared that his cello revealed to the conductor what music really means. In the words of American critic-pianist-composer Jed Distler, “Feuermann had everything: an intense, focused tone that sings with expressive economy, controlled warmth, centered intonation, a smooth yet variegated bow arm, one of the most adroit left hands in the business (what effortless double stops!), unswerving integrity, and impeccable taste.” “Anything he played he engraved in your memory,” wrote musicologist Richard Taruskin.

Feuermann made some celebrated recordings in Germany and England, but it is the post-emigration albums for RCA on which his iconic reputation largely rests. Produced in New York, Philadelphia and Hollywood between 1939 and 1941, the year before he died at the age of only 39 (the result of negligence during a routine operation) – they include the Brahms Double Concerto (with violinist Jascha Heifetz) and Strauss’s Don Quixote, both with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy; and Bloch’s Schelomo with the Philadelphians under Leopold Stokowski.

Feuermann’s benchmark RCA chamber music catalog comprises Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Brahms piano trios with Heifetz and Rubinstein; a Beethoven string duo and a Dohnányi string trio with Heifetz and viola great William Primrose; as well as a host of duo recordings – some never before issued at all – with the outstanding German-American pianist Franz Rupp (accompanist of Fritz Kreisler and singers from Lotte Lehmann and Beniamino Gigli to Marian Anderson), including Mendelssohn’s Second Cello Sonata and shorter works and transcriptions ranging from Bach and Handel to Fauré and Canteloube.

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:

Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102 with Jascha Heifetz, violin
Bloch: Schelomo - Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello & Orchestra

DISC 2:

Schubert: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, D. 898 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano

DISC 3:

Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 97 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano
Beethoven: Duet in E-Flat Major, WoO 32 with William Primrose, viola

DISC 4:

Mozart: Divertimento in E-Flat Major, K. 563 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano

DISC 5:

Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano
Dohnanyi: Serenade, Op. 10 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; William Primrose, viola

DISC 6:

R. Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35: Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character

DISC 7:

Mendelssohn: Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 58
Canteloube de Maralet: Bourée Auvergnate in A
Fauré-Casals: Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 (Transcribed for Cello by Pablo Casals)
Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 3: Movement I (Arranged for Cello and Pinao by Emanuel Feuermann)
Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 3: Movement II
Beethoven: Introduction and Polonaise brilliante, Op. 3
Chopin-Feuermann: 12 Variations from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Op. 66
Davidov: 4 Pieces, Op. 20: 2. Am Springbrunnen
J.S. Bach-Casals-Siloti: Organ Toccata in C Major, BWV 564: Adagio
Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op.4, No.3: Movement I
Canteloube de Maralet: Bourée Auvergnate in A
Davidov: 4 Pieces, Op. 20: 2. Am Springbrunnen
Fauré-Casals: Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 (Transcribed for Cello by Pablo Casals)
Ochs: Arioso -"Dank Sei Dir, Herr" with Hulda Lashanska, soprano
Schubert-Pasternack: Litanei, D. 343 with Hulda Lashanska, soprano