The Bell Telephone Hour, Vol. 2: Classical and Romantic Music for Violin and Orchestra – Michael Rabin, violin Donald Voorhees, cond. – Parnassus PACD 96093/4 (8/14/24) (2 CDs 64:47; 63:36, complete contents listed below) [www.altocd.com/parnassus] *****:
Producer Leslie Gerber has undertaken an expansive project, the release of all surviving performances of American violin virtuoso Michael Rabin (1936-1972) as he appeared on The Bell Telephone Orchestra broadcasts. Rabin’s father George played in the violin section of the New York Philharmonic, so it came as no great surprise when the young virtuoso, at age thirteen, first performed with Leon Barzin and the National Symphony at Carnegie Hall and not long after, in 1951, with Dimitri Mitropoulos in the Paganini First Concerto.
Michael Rabin had begun serious lessons at age seven; but despite the “late” start, he auditioned for Jascha Heifetz who immediately recommended studies with Ivan Galamian at the Meadowmount School of Music. Rabin seems to have concentrated on Romantic, 19th Century, repertory, which may have been more a product of commercial marketing than his individual taste. He sported a true, virtuosic technique, always passionate, which could execute every demand for staccato, spiccato, double stops, and altissimo tessitura a composer could devise, all with an elastic facility of motion. He first recorded for Columbia and then for EMI, and his friend and colleague Zino Francescatti recommended Rabin for performances with The Bell Telephone Hour as led by Donald Vorhees (1903-1989), who proved an ardent champion, despite Rabin’s having been under-age originally in 1950. Rabin projected a sweet, bel canto tone, but that did not obviate his capacity for demonic drive and depth. His vibrato feels controlled and selective, and he rarely indulges in portamento, unless the archaic style, as in Kreisler, allows it. We might align Rabin with Heifetz, certainly, but no less with the chastity and ardent commitment we hear in Szigeti and Menuhin.
If Disc 1 grabs us with astonishment, it begins at band four, with Josef Suk’s Burlesca (March 1955), which he tosses off in a manner equal to Neveu and Bustabo, its European acolytes. The finale from the Tchaikovsky Concerto sizzles. Gerber has cut audience response, which I must confess to wanting to hear. The Mendelssohn Concerto finale (16 May 1955) has a suave, precious quality, though with no loss of fluid fury, and with seamless, elastic control, quite reminiscent of Mischa Elman, an artist I beheld once in Mendelssohn, at Lewisohn Stadium. Speaking of Elman, Rabin performs a sentimental favorite, Massenet’s Elegie, with tenor Brian Sullivan, a regular at the Vorhees concerts.
On 13 June 1955, Rabin plays music by three kindred spirits: Dvorak, Kreisler, and Brahms, imparting a fast vibrato and a touch of the gypsy to each. Rabin adds individual touches and ornaments to the Dvorak, augmented by triangle colors from the orchestra. The sparkling rendition of La chasse maintains an earthy, rasping heraldry. The Brahms finale wastes no time injecting a firm vigor into the Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace. Lacking the accreditation, we might think this were Heifetz playing, the drive and piercing intonation vehement. The Heifetz gift for effective transcription occurs in two charmed examples from the 18 June 1956 concert, with Mendelssohn’s “Sweet Remembrance” and the Prokofieff March from The Love for 3 Oranges. While the plaintive appeal of Rabin’s tone and exalted line find a fine vehicle in the 24 October 1955 performance of Mendelssohn’s “On Wings of Song,” rivaling my own favorite rendition by David Oistrakh, the Kroll and Sarasate selections, Banjo and Fiddle and Gypsy Airs, demonstrate a startling command of alternating arco and pizzicato/spiccato effects in the hands of a past master on a par with either Heifetz or Ricci.
Disc 2 opens with a decisive, exemplary exercise (18 June 1956) in studied virtuosity in scalar passages and slides, with the Saint-Saens piano Caprice now a violin Étude via Ysaye. The concert of 3 June 1957 provides the most ambitious set of pieces, six, including a bit of past Vienna by way of Kreisler’s The Old Refrain, then a blistering – though heavily abridged –Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto first movement, driven and explosive in all respects technically and emotionally, if one forgives the edits, which urge the intense cadenza and coda closer in time. Lighter but by no means less stylistic, Sarasate’s Romanza Andaluza emerges in the best, expressive tradition of sighs and deep song, akin to what Ricci typically delivers. Wieniawski’s Caprice sets a breathless moto perpetuo on a driven course, especially as edited by Sarasate himself. The two excerpted movements from Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy suggest their crowd-pleaser status, though the last movement offers some mild militancy in the form of a theme and variations. The extensive harp part receives no credit.
On 3 February 1958 Rabin returns with two of his previous composers, Sarasate and Bruch, accompanied by a Heifetz transcription of Godowsky and a short piece by Samuel Gardner, From the Canebreak. The Alt Wien is warm and cuddly Old Vienna, literally, one step away from having been sung by Richard Tauber. The Gardner work, new to me, has a Southern drawl effect, tinted by hues of Dvorak’s sentiment cross-bred by Stephen Foster. Sarasate’s impassioned Habanera gains much force by having the orchestral support to accompany Rabin’s wily, aerial slides and pizzicatos. The finale from Bruch’s most famous G Minor Concerto possesses a demonic flair and dramatic poise, on a level with the great performances by Jascha Heifetz and Tibor Varga. The chronological progression ends on 2 February 1962 renditions of two Kreisler works, his sly, affectionate, Viennese and Chinese aperitifs, respectively. As a bonus track, much appreciated, we have from 28 April 1952 Rabin’s collaboration with friend and mentor Zino Francescatti in Bach’s Double Concerto – first movement.
In the late 1950s Rabin suffered a fall from the concert stage, the beginning of long speculations on neurological disorders to mental disease, manic depression, and drug abuse. That he died from a fall from his New York City apartment is acknowledged. Whether by accident or by deranged will, the loss of this great talent continues to be felt: his teacher Galamian, who instructed many fine violinists, spoke of Michael Rabin as his most treasured pupil, “an extraordinary talent – [with] no weaknesses, never.”
The Parnassus transfers, courtesy of Audio Restoration by Gene Gaudette, are superb.
—Gary Lemco
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Michael Rabin on The Bell Telephone Hour, Vol. 2: 1954-62 =
KREISLER: Liebesleid;
NOVACEK: Moto perpetuo;
RACHMANINOFF (arr. Kreisler): Variation 18 from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini;
SUK: Burleska, Op. 17/4;
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto: Finale;
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto, Op. 64 – Finale;
MASSENET: Elegie;
w/ Brian Sullivan, tenor
DVORAK (arr. Kreisler): Slavonic Dance in E Minor;
KREISLER: La chasse;
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto, Op. 77 – Finale;
MENDELSSOHN (arr. Achron): On Wings of Song;
KROLL: Banjo and Fiddle;
SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen;
ENGEL (arr. Zimbalist): Sea Shell;
MENDELSSOHN (arr. Heifetz): Song without words, Op. 19/1;
PROKOFIEFF (arr. Heifetz): March from The Love for 3 Oranges;
SAINT-SAENS (arr. Ysaye): Caprice/Etude, Op. 52/6;
BRANDL (arr. Kreisler): The Old Refrain;
TCHAIKOVSKY Concerto in D – Finale;
SARASATE: Romanza Andaluza;
WIENIAWSKI (arr. Sarasate): Caprice in A Minor;
BRUCH: Scottish Fantasy: 3rd & 4th Movements;
GODOWSKY (arr. Heifetz): Alt Wien;
GARDNER: From the Canebreak;
SARASATE: Habanera;
BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1 – Finale;
KREISLER: Caprice Viennois; Tambourine Chinois;
BACH: Double Concerto in D Minor: Vivace
w/ Zino Francescatti, violin
Bell Telephone Orchestra/ Donald Voorhees, conductor
