Angel 35418: Janos Starker - Milhaud and Prokofiev Cello Concertos

 

Angel 35418

Serge Prokofiev: Cello Concerto, Op. 58

Darius Milhaud: Cello Concerto No. 1

Janos Starker, cello

Philharmonia Orchestra

Walter Susskind, conductor

Recorded July 14, 16, 17, 1956, Kingsway Hall

Matrix numbers: XAX 1005 - 2N / XAX 1006-3N 

An interesting pairing of 20th century cello concertos, recorded when Starker was 32 years old and released on US Angel in 1957. This was when Angel LPs were still manufactured in England and shared the same high production quality as their UK HMV/Columbia counterparts. These records have beautifully designed jackets and a wooden dowel spine.

The 1956 recording sessions with Janos Starker, Walter Susskind, and the Philharmonia Orchestra that produced this album were among Starker's earliest for the UK Columbia label and were issued in the UK as Columbia 33CX 1425 and in the US as Angel 35418. The matrix numbers for the two are identical. Also recorded during the sessions was the Fauré Élégie, which, with the Dvorak Cello Concerto (recorded a few days earlier on July 11-12, 1956), was released separately in both mono (Columbia 33CX 1477 and Angel 35417) and stereo (Columbia SAX 2263 and Angel S35417). Why the Milhaud/Prokofiev pairing was never released in stereo is an interesting question.

The Milhaud cello concerto was commissioned by French cellist, Maurice Maréchal, and completed in 1934. Maréchal gave its first performance on June 28, 1935 at the Concerts de la Sérénade under the direction of D. E. Ingelbrecht. Starker's recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra appears to be the first one of this concerto on LP. The liner notes were penned by the composer himself and offer interesting insight into the genesis of the work. Among available stereo versions, there is a 1969 Supraphon recording with Stanislav Apolin and the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra (SUA ST 50864), Rostropovich's 1990 digital recording with Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra (Erato 2292-45489-2), and most recently, South Korean cellist Hee-Young Lim's 2018 recording for Sony Classical with Scott Yoo and the London Symphony Orchestra (S804425C).

The Prokofiev Cello Concerto has an interesting history. Prokofiev began sketching out the concerto in 1933 and completed it in 1938. Its first performance was given on November 26, 1938 in Moscow by the cellist Lev Berezovsky and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Melik-Pashayev. From what I have read on the subject, the debut may not have been well executed or well received. The concerto was rarely performed thereafter until Prokofiev heard Rostropovich play it in concert in 1947. This inspired the composer to rewrite the concerto as the Symphony-Concerto, Op. 125. As with the Milhaud, Starker's recording of the Prokofiev concerto in its original form is one of the first on LP. 

The monophonic sound of this recording is warm and detailed. Starker is front and center, but there is good balance between soloist and orchestra. Both Starker's beautiful robust tone as well as the Philharmonia's sensitive accompaniment are reproduced with striking clarity, as you can hopefully hear in the sound clips below:

Excerpt from Milhaud's Cello Concerto No. 1, Joyeux:

Excerpt from Prokofiev's Cello Concerto, Allegro giusto:

References:

• Pettitt, Stephen. Philharmonia Orchestra: Complete Discography 1945-1987. Travis & Emery, 1987.