A legend in his own time for his concentration, his intensity, and his relentless pursuit of perfectly lucid performances,
Hans Rosbaud made only a handful of studio recordings during his lifetime. But after his death in 1962, those recordings eventually went out of print and
Rosbaud went from being a legend to being a memory as his LPs slowly wore out. This five-CD set of
Rosbaud's complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon made from 1948 through 1956 returns to the circulation performances of almost perfect lucidity. In everything from his luminous accompaniment to Mozart's ethereal and delightful Violin Concerto in D major to his fuliginous interpretation of Berg's hellish and terrifying Drei Orchesterstucke,
Rosbaud comes as close as any conductor ever has to representing the score without any trace of interpretation. Yet
Rosbaud's interpretations are never less than completely musical: both his performances of two of Haydn's symphonies are models of humor in music and both his performances of two of
Stravinsky's ballets are demonstrations of movement in music. But the best thing about the set is the inclusion of
Rosbaud's performances of Boris Blacher's bright and vibrant Concertante Musik and brilliant and vivid Piano Concerto No. 2, two superb works that are given what might as well be called definitive performances. And if one might reasonably question
Rosbaud's performance of
Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 as idiomatically sleek and his performances of Sibelius' lighter works as uncharacteristically polished, one cannot question Deutsche Grammophon's lovingly remastered sound.