Carl Seemann: The Orfeo Recordings

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Carl Seemann – The ORFEO recordings – Carl Seemann was the kind of pianist who didn’t try to impress audiences with brilliant virtuosity. Instead, he...

Carl Seemann – The ORFEO recordings – Carl Seemann was the kind of pianist who didn’t try to impress audiences with brilliant virtuosity. Instead, he understood the piano as his ideal medium for revealing a polyphonic structure on a single instrument. After his death on November 26th, 1983, at the age of 73, in Freiburg, it took some 25 years before the recordings of his studio and concert performances began to be re(dis)covered and today he is once again regarded as one of the leading German pianists of the post-war era. On the occasion of his 40th year of death, ORFEO releases this 7 CD anniversary box with all his recordings on the label and an additional booklet that highlights Carl Seemann’s artistic background and his pianistic environment.

REVIEW:

Pianist Carl Seemann (1910-1983) largely specialized in the Viennese classics, and tended to shine more in collaborations than when under the solo spotlight.

His 1965 Bach Partitas, for example, range from workaday (Nos. 2 and 6) to sensitive and cultivated (No. 3 and No. 5’s outer movements). By contrast, his 1964 recital with frequent partner violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan features congenial and inspired readings of the Bach E major, Beethoven E-flat Op. 12 No. 3, Mozart B-flat K. 454, and Schubert A major D. 574 sonatas.

The 1979 Mozart C major concerto K. 503 with the NDR Symphony Orchestra under Wilfried Boettcher is sluggish and heavy in the outer movements compared alongside Seemann’s 1950 DG studio recording, which wasn’t all that great to begin with. However, the 1972 E-flat K. 449 captures Seemann on fine form in a work he otherwise did not record. Here his energized and poetic solo work is complemented by Leopold Hager’s shapely orchestral framework.

Seemann’s boring and heavy-handed Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 precedes a stylishly flexible 1962 performance of that composer’s Sonata No. 9 in E major Op. 14 No. 1. The 1952 broadcast of Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op. 126 is basically a sonically drab replica of Seemann’s engaging, vibrant, and better engineered 1951 DG studio version. As I listened to cellist Enrico Mainardi’s 1956 Bach Viola da gamba Sonata in D major BWV 1028, I was struck by how the pianist’s tone seemed unusually mellifluous and nuanced. Then I looked at the booklet, and it turned out that the pianist was Carlo Zecchi, not Seemann! No wonder! Yet the real Carl Seemann holds more interest throughout a 1973 Reger Sonata No. 4 than Mainardi, who was way past his prime by that date.

The collection’s final disc focuses on Paul Hindemith conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. They are not so polished as The Philharmonia Orchestra in Hindemith’s EMI recording of the Symphony for Concert Band, yet they bring more urgency and surface excitement to the fugal finale. The Bavarian musicians rise to the occasion in The Four Temperaments, where I prefer Clara Haskil’s limpid and sparkling fingerwork to pianist Hans Otte in Hindemith’s DG Berlin Philharmonic recording.

Considering that Berg’s Chamber Concerto was hardly a repertoire staple in 1955, Hindemith obtains impressive ensemble cohesion and discipline. Seemann handles the difficult piano part cleanly and securely, capably complementing violinist Wolfgang Marschner’s expressive agility. That said, Marschner comes more alive partnered alongside Paul Jacobs’ fleeter, more incisive pianism in a 1959 Köln Radio broadcast featuring Hermann Scherchen’s volatile podium presence.

At the very least I’m happy to have Seemann’s recital with Schneiderhan, his Mozart K. 449, and his more successful Bach Partita movements in my permanent collection, together with the Zecchi and Haskil selections. Christoph Schlüren’s annotations provide useful biographical information about Seemann and his career.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)



Product Description:


  • Release Date: May 19, 2023


  • UPC: 4011790260235


  • Catalog Number: ORF-C260007


  • Label: Orfeo


  • Number of Discs: 7


  • Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Max Reger, Franz Schubert


  • Conductor: Wilfried Boettcher, Leopold Hager, Istvan Kertesz, Paul Hindemith


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: NDR Symphonieorchester Hamburg, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks


  • Performer: Carl Seemann, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Enrico Mainardi, Clara Haskil, Wolfgang Marschner



Works:


  1. Partitas (6), BWV 825-830

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)


  2. Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Keyboard in E Major, BWV 1016

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Performer: Wolfgang Schneiderhan (Violin), Carl Seemann (Piano)


  3. Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-Flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Wolfgang Schneiderhan (Violin), Carl Seemann (Piano)


  4. Duo Sonata in A Major, Op. 162, D. 574

    Composer: Franz Schubert

    Performer: Wolfgang Schneiderhan (Violin), Carl Seemann (Piano)


  5. Sonata for Violin and Keyboard No. 32 in B-Flat Major, K. 454

    Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Performer: Wolfgang Schneiderhan (Violin), Carl Seemann (Piano)


  6. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 25 in C Major, K. 503

    Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Ensemble: NDR Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)

    Conductor: Wilfried Boettcher


  7. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 14 in E-Flat Major, K. 449

    Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Ensemble: NDR Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)

    Conductor: Leopold Hager


  8. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Ensemble: North German Radio Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)

    Conductor: István Kertész


  9. Sonata for Piano No. 9 in E Major, Op. 14, No. 1

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)


  10. Bagatelles (6), Op. 126

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)


  11. Viola da Gamba Sonata in D Major, BWV 1028

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Performer: Enrico Mainardi (Cello), Carl Seemann (Piano)


  12. Cello Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 116

    Composer: Max Reger

    Performer: Enrico Mainardi (Cello), Carlo Zecchi (Piano)


  13. Meine Erinnerungen an die Begegnung mit Max Reger in Heidelberg 1913

    Composer: Max Reger


  14. Symphony in B-Flat Major

    Composer: Paul Hindemith

    Ensemble: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carl Seemann (Piano)

    Conductor: Paul Hindemith


  15. Theme and Variations, "The 4 Temperaments"

    Composer: Paul Hindemith

    Ensemble: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Clara Haskil (Piano)

    Conductor: Paul Hindemith


  16. Chamber Concerto

    Composer: Alban Berg

    Ensemble: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Wolfgang Marschner (Violin), Carl Seemann (Piano)

    Conductor: Paul Hindemith