In 1971, I was captivated by the
cover of this record. I discovered it in the music library at Coatbridge High
School. As a teenager, I think that I was immediately fascinated by the
beautiful lady – ‘Elvira Madigan’ - featured on the front cover as played by Pia
Degermark. Furthermore, I understood that Deutsche Grammophon was probably the
‘best’ record label available. I had never heard of Geza Anda and the Salzburg
Mozart Camerata Academica at that time. I am not sure that I had heard any of Mozart
Piano Concertos, save perhaps by accident on Radio 3. I remember asking Mrs G’s
permission before borrowing the album and heading home on the school bus. I was
probably ribbed by more progressive music listeners who used to carry the
latest LPs by Led Zeppelin, Yes and Genesis to and from school.
Notwithstanding, I got it home and put it straight onto the Decca radiogram in my
parent’s sitting room. I started at track one and played it through without a
break - apart from turning the LP over. I was only half listening. At least
until got to the second track on the second side. I was stopped in my tracks by the beautiful
‘andante’. I recall thinking that I had never heard anything so lovely.
Strangely, nearly 50 years later, I still hold to this view. I am not a great
Mozart fan, but like the person once said, I like what I know, and know what I
like. This concerto displays for me classical perfection tinged with a deep
early romantic sensibility.
No need to provide a detailed
note about the Piano Concerto No.21 in C major. Analyses abound. Save to say
that the work’s first movement, ‘Allegro maestoso,’
is a vivacious, precursor to the introverted and perfectly balanced second
movement, ‘Andante.’ The finale, an ‘Allegro vivace assai,’ is a high-spirited
and irrepressible romp.
As
for the 1967 film Elvira Madigan, it seems to have disappeared into
oblivion. I have read the plot, but have never seen the film, and am not sure
that I need to see it in full. Certainly, I have watched extracts on YouTube,
and it appears to be a film of its time, slightly sub-hippy. That said, the photography is often quite
beautiful. But nowadays, mention the title and virtually ‘everyone’ associates
it with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20. In fact, for many people the two are
inseparable – Piano Concerto in C major ‘Elvira Madigan’ K.467.
The
record has been remastered and re-presented on many occasions, from LP to
cassette tape, CD and download. The recording issue history of this version is
quite complex, with the Concerto having first been released in 1962 coupled
with the Piano Concerto No.17 in G major, KV 453 on side one. I never actually
bought a copy of the original vinyl album, but the picture and the music has
haunted me down through the years. I know that there are some 142 recordings of
this concerto in the current record catalogues with big name performers like
Alfred Brendel, Martha Argerich, Earl Wild and Howard Shelley. Yet, when I want
to hear this work, I always turn to Geza Anda’s recording made nearly sixty
years ago. It is permanently on my now aging iPod.
Finally,
the entire Piano Concerto in Geza Anda’s 1961 performance can be heard on YouTube, complete with some selected scenes from the
film (Rated PG). (Accessed 11 April 2020)
As the saying goes "you had to be there".
ReplyDeleteI can still recall seeing this at the old Academy cinema in Oxford Street with my first girlfriend.
It was a heady mixture indeed and I bought this LP pretty quickly.
Alas, judging by what I saw of it on TV sometime within the last decade, the film doesn't really hold up, although I would like to see Bo Widerberg's next film again: Ȧdelen 31, about a strike in that town in 1931 which ended violently (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings).
I will say, though, that Elvira Madigan (the movie) still looks gorgeous and I too love Anda's recording of K.467 above any of the other 46 recordings I have on my hard drive. At least part of the reason is his cadenzas: it may be "imprinting" but they just seem to fit seamlessly into the music, unlike anyone else's.
DGRB
ReplyDeleteThanks for that!
J
As a whole, Anda's complete Mozart Concertos are still the best, by far in the early and middle concerti with Anda's inimitable cadenzas where necessary. In the late great concerti Anda can still shine but there is room for other marvelous performances and records. Unfortunately the Elvira Madigan movie as a Blu Ray which is how it should be seen, as the DVD is horrid, is currently only available as part of an expensive Widerberg boxset locked to Region A. The Vivaldi music (D' Amore Concerto) was also reissued as a CD in Japan with a different still from the film on the cover.
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