Notes and Editorial Reviews
SCHMANKERLN & POSTRES
•
Ralf Mathias Caspers (vn); Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (pn)
•
GENUIN 10531 (59:58)
SÄNGER
Intermezzo scherzoso.
RACHMANINOFF
Daisies.
FALLA
Jota.
Pantomime. Nana.
HEUBERGER
Midnight Bells.
KREISLER
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class="ARIAL12bi">Schön Rosmarin.
DVO?ÁK
Slavonic Dance
No. 1.
VILLA-LOBOS
O canto do cisne negro.
BRAHMS
Hungarian Dances
: No. 2; No. 1.
SAINT-SAËNS
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
CHAPLIN
Coffee and Cakes.
GRANADOS
Danse espagnole.
NIN
Cantilena asturiana.
TCHAIKOVSKY
Melody.
MORRIS
Young Frankenstein:
Intermezzo.
PROVOST
Intermezzo
Ralf Mathias Caspers and Tamaki Takeda-Caspers’ collection of “delicacies and desserts” includes both chestnuts and exotica. Gustav Sänger’s poignant Intermezzo scherzoso appears in an arrangement by Jascha Heifetz and, as does Rachmaninoff’s
Daisies
, also arranged by Heifetz, offers the duo a showcase for a kind of expressivity that’s become rarer as the opportunities for such stylings have receded in importance in concert programs (even in the mid 1960s, none of my fellow students studied a single encore piece as part of their degree programs—their diet, like mine, consisted entirely of meat: etudes, sonatas, and concertos). It’s clear from the first few notes of Sänger’s miniature that Ralf Mathias Caspers nurtures an affinity for this kind of literature, which his idiomatic performances should help to keep off the list of endangered species. Portamentos abound, yet his slides remain clean at times when violinists of older generations might have taken longer to reach their destinations. If he isn’t so stylish as Heifetz in Rachmaninoff’s
Daisies
, nor so elegant as Milstein in the movements from Falla’s suite, he’s not far behind, and his tone sounds more lush than either earlier violinist in the recorded sound provided for them. In Heuberger’s (Kreisler’s)
Midnight Bells
, however, the duo must compete with the composer himself, whose five recordings, from 1923 through 1945—the last with orchestra) dwarfed such a later one as that by Robert McDuffie, who played it with orchestra about a dozen years ago (in
Viennese Violin
, Telarc 80402,
Fanfare
20:3); it’s no surprise that, given its intensity, that it dwarfs this one, too. Francescatti played Villa-Lobos’s miniature,
O canto do cisne negro
(and recorded it in 1951—now it’s available on Biddulph 80224,
Fanfare
32:2), and Caspers’ sounds about equally atmospheric if lower in surface tension. The duo has drawn a bead on Brahms’s
Hungarian Dances,
delivering the Second and First with Gypsy élan, conveyed by a number of expressive devices, slight ritards and accelerandos, that never seem to overstep the bounds of contemporary (ours) propriety. They also endow Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (the longest piece on the program) with both Gallic elegance and Iberian passion in a performance that’s individual enough to evade comparison with the Russian Heifetz and the Franco-Italian Francescatti. The cleanliness of violinist Caspers’ technique and the sumptuousness of his tone production show themselves to particular advantage in this often-played showpiece (most “often-played” with orchestra), which serves as the program’s center of gravity. Joaquin Nin’s less familiar miniature,
Cantilena asturiana
, allows violinist Caspers to smolder on the G string. Charlie Chaplin’s
Coffee and Cakes
turns out to be a nostalgic reminiscence in the duo’s sympathetic performance. Granados’s
Spanish Dance
sounds more exotic (if also less smoothly elegant) in this performance than it did in, say, that of Arthur Grumiaux, who certainly had a knack for putting across miniatures of this kind and endowing them with haunting ethnicity. Tchaikovsky’s Melody may be more familiar in Auer’s arrangement, but Flesch’s assigns a repetition of the melody to a higher register and incorporates some devices that either clutter or lend interest to the theme. If neither the duo’s arrangement or its performance equals Nathan Milstein’s dashing reading of Auer’s version, it’s heartfelt and expressive in its own right. Gil Shaham included the music from
Young Frankenstein
on his recording
Devil’s Dance
(Deutsche Gammophon 289 463 483-2,
Fanfare
24:3), but he sounds more formulaic than does the Duo Intermezzo. Florian ZaBach played Heinz Provost’s Intermezzo at the beginning of each of his TV programs in the 1950s, and it’s difficult to listen to the piece, even as played by Toscha Seidel and Louis Kaufman in the movie itself, without hearing him. But as a simple Viennese confection, the Duo Intermezzo plays the eponymous tune with nostalgic yearning.
The engineers have captured the duo at a distance that allows its lavish tone production to emerge without blemishes. If other recordings supersede these in individual cases, the felicities here seem numerous enough to warrant a look at the forest rather than the trees. As a forest, this recital seems splendid enough to deserve a very strong recommendation, especially to lovers of miniatures.
FANFARE: Robert Maxham
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Works on This Recording
1.
Intermezzo scherzoso by Gustav Sanger
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers ()
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 50 Secs.
2.
Songs (6), Op. 38: no 3, Daisies by Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: 1916; Russia
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 5 Secs.
3.
Canciones populares españolas (7) by Manuel de Falla
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1914-1915; Spain
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 55 Secs.
4.
Midnight Bells [after Heuberger] by Fritz Kreisler
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers ()
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: Austria
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 27 Secs.
5.
Schön Rosmarin by Fritz Kreisler
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: Austria
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 12 Secs.
6.
O canto do cisne negro, W 123 by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: 20th Century
Written: Brazil
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 14 Secs.
7.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Piano 4 hands, WoO 1: no 2 in D minor by Johannes Brahms
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers ()
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: 1868; Austria
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 11 Secs.
8.
Introduction and Rondo capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 28 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: 1863; France
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 9 Minutes 21 Secs.
9.
Cantos populares españoles (20): no 14, Cantilène asturienne by Joaquin Nin
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: 20th Century
Written: by 1923
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 34 Secs.
10.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Piano 4 hands, WoO 1: no 1 in G minor by Johannes Brahms
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Written: 1868; Austria
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 28 Secs.
11.
Coffee and Cakes, for pops orchestra by Charlie Chaplin
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 40 Secs.
12.
Melody in E flat major (after Tchaikovsky's Op. 42/3), for violin & piano by Carl Flesch
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 23 Secs.
13.
Intermezzo from Young Frankenstein, for violin & piano by John Morris
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 22 Secs.
14.
Slavonic Dances (3) for Violin and Piano: no 1 in G minor by Fritz Kreisler
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers ()
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: Romantic
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 5 Secs.
15.
El amor brujo: Pantomime by Manuel de Falla
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1914-1915; Spain
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 54 Secs.
16.
Nana (after Falla), for violin & piano by Pawel Kochanski
Performer:
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 2 Minutes 30 Secs.
17.
Danse espagnole for Violin and Piano [after Granados, Op. 37 no 5] by Fritz Kreisler
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 24 Secs.
18.
Souvenir de Vienne, intermezzo for violin & piano by Heinz Provost
Performer:
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (),
Ralf Caspers (Violin),
Ralf Caspers (),
Tamaki Takeda-Caspers (Piano)
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Duo Intermezzo
Venue: Studio of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmo
Length: 3 Minutes 14 Secs.
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