Naxos Historical 8.111265, 74:10 (Not Distrbuted in the USA) ***
*:The third in the Naxos series devoted to Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) brings us the firebrand side of his immense talents, here restored in pungent sound by Mark Obert-Thorn. The 13 April 1946 performance of the Strauss Burleske with the Chicago Symphony and its Belgian conductor Desire Defauw (1885-1960) immediately establishes his high-velocity gloss and dazzling capacity for explosive filigree. This early work (1886) of Strauss calls for the fiery temperaments of Backhaus, Ney, and Serkin; Arrau’s hard patina and colossal technique provide a blistering series of attacks in the bravura passages, then relent for the final waltz that once again segues into a tempest. If Defauw’s memory hardly survives it is not for having failed anyone in this rousing collaboration.
The Schumann Concerto (4 December 1944) remained a virtuoso staple for Arrau throughout his career. I recall complimenting him on his 1951 realization of the tender masterpiece with De Sabata and the New York Philharmonic. Typically, Arrau responded that it was a long time ago, and that any credit had to be deferred to his teacher, Martin Krause. Arrau and Karl Krueger completed the various takes of the Concerto recording in one hour forty-five minutes. There is little perfunctory about the performance, which purrs and thunders appropriately. The sound quality of the Andantino opening suffers deterioration, but the poetic impulse remains. The last movement emanates the electrical charisma Arrau commanded when he played music suited to his large temperament. Blazing non-legato filigree alternates with a facile wrist action to produce endless flurries of wicked runs and curvaceous phrasing that swing like animated pendulums. Volatility and passion–Goethe’s “truth and poetry”–permeate Schumann’s anagrammatic suite Carnaval (3-4 April 1939), an aggressively lyric account, as savage as it is whimsical, urbane as it is naïve. What breathless fire Arrau sported in his heyday!
— Gary Lemco
