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Any other fans of conductor Erich Bergel (1930-1998)?

Erich Bergel is a conductor who, I feel, ought to be more famous than he is, although he did not help his cause much by being so uninterested in recording. He was born in Transylvania to a German father (born in Luxemburg) and Spanish/Hungarian mother. (How's that for some complicated ethnicity?) In 1959, he became conductor of the Cluj Philharmonic in Transylvania, but was arrested that same year for "crimes against the state". His actual "crime" was that he was performing too much religious music! He was sentenced to seven years in prison and served three and a half years before getting out in a 1962 "amnesty". Between 1962 and 1965, he recovered from his prison experience through the practice of yoga and by an intense study of Bach's "Art of Fugue". In fact, his study was so intensive, that it resulted in the writing of two separate books about that work (which were later published in 1980 and 1985 respectively). In 1965, he took over the Cluj Philharmonic once again, and, partly because of the efforts of Herbert von Karajan on his behalf, he was able to leave Romania in 1971. In that year, he also guest-conducted the Berlin Philharmonic (again, with Karajan's support), as well as many other internationally known orchestras.

I heard Bergel guest-conduct the San Francisco Symphony (I believe it was around 1980), and I was so struck by the performances of this unknown (to me) conductor, that I even mentioned it to my piano teacher at that time. One of the works on the program was the Beethoven Symphony No. 7, and one striking aspect about it was this gigantic grunt from the podium at the work's outset, and throughout the performance there were some loud Celibidache-like vocal encouragements from the conductor! This seemed so strange that I stayed after the performance to talk with one of my friends in the double-bass section of the orchestra. I asked him, "Hey, is this guy some kind of nut?" My friend replied that he was very normal in conducting rehearsals, and, in fact, seemed rather more insightful about the music than most other conductors were.

At that time, I noticed that Bergel was guest-conducting other American orchestras too, and I think he may have been chief conductor in Houston for a while (?). Over the years, I kind of lost touch with his career, but I've recently become re-acquainted with his greatness (yes, greatness) as a result of acquiring two CD-sets on the Budapest Music Center label:

Both of these sets were recorded after the fall of Communism, with his old orchestra, the Cluj Philharmonic, later re-named the Transylvania Philharmonic. I suspect that, since Bergel did not like to make recordings, these were radio broadcasts which survived in the archives, thank goodness! In the Brahms set, recorded in 1994, the thing which leaps out at you is Bergel's meticulousness with the balance. For instance, in the mighty peroration at the end of the First Symphony, many conductors allow the brass to swamp the rest of the orchestra, but not here! Tempos are mostly pretty standard except in the First Symphony's first movement (slower than usual) and second movement (faster than usual). Since these were radio broadcast performances, there are the odd lapses of ensemble, but nothing serious. There are so many great sets of Brahms symphonies that I could never recommend this one as "the best" or "definitive", but it was clear to me that Bergel brings a real point of view to these works, which I found compelling, and that's certainly not something I can say about most Brahms symphony sets.

The Bach set (recorded in 1992) is, if anything, even more irresistible. I have other recordings of The Art of Fugue, mostly piano (Kocsis, Sokolov, Koroliov), although I've got one of those saxophone quartet recordings too. I guess I was influenced by Charles Rosen's argument that the voices in Bach's counterpoint should not be wildly differentiated by tone color, but should be "half differentiated, half blended", as you would get on a single keyboard instrument, or a family of instruments (like saxophones!). Bergel argues that the voices should be differentiated similarly to what one could achieve on the organ. So in his realization of this work, Bergel often orchestrates in a way where, for example, a woodwind instrument doubles the strings in one voice, while a different woodwind instrument doubles the strings in another voice. This too achieves the "half differentiated, half blended" sonority, although, in certain places, Bergel orchestrates with woodwinds without the strings. The overall effect however is not unlike the Bach-Stokowski arrangements, or the Bach-Markevitch realization of the Musical Offering (if you've heard that pre-stereo recording). Bergel's realization does add a degree of sensuousness to the music which may not appeal to listeners who like a more "sackcloth and ashes" approach to it!

The most overwhelming aspect of this performance (recorded in-concert at the Synagogue of Dohány-utica in Budapest) is Bergel's courageous and daring completion of Bach's final fugue (the one which just stops in the middle where Bach died). This enormous quadruple fugue (over 14 minutes in this performance) creates such a tremendous effect in Bergel's realization that I found myself emotionally wrung out at the end - which is not something I can say from listening to other performances of The Art of Fugue. All I can say is, this is really some powerful stuff! BTW, neither the Bach nor the Brahms performances feature any vocal sounds from the podium, such as I noticed when he conducted in San Francisco.

I'll end this post with a quote from Bergel, which you may or may not agree with, but which obviously informed his own music making:

"Music is basically always a religious service. I thank God every day that he made me a musician."

p.s.: both of these set are available at Berkshire Record Outlet, the Brahms for $9, the Bach for $6. There's also another recording (which I've just ordered) of his perofrmances of the Strauss Metamorphosen and the Honegger Symphony No. 2.



Edits: 11/14/11 11/14/11

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Topic - Any other fans of conductor Erich Bergel (1930-1998)? - Chris from Lafayette 14:59:37 11/13/11 (2)

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