Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125 'Choral'

, and would point out in later years that the virtues of his celebrated modern recording of Beethoven's Choral Symphony (made in 1986) were largely in place back in the mid 1950s, when he first recorded the work for the Club Français du Disque. He is absolutely right. Even listening through the surface noise on the original LP pressings, it was possible to hear that clarity, that schlicht (unaffected) approach, already in place almost half a century ago. Now a new generation of music-lovers can judge for themselves.

In the early 1950s Günter Wand was offered two recording opportunities: either to make a small number of recordings with Walter Legge for EMI, or to set down a wide repertoire for the Club Français du Disque, the largest subscription-only record club in France, which in due course developed strong links with other, similar companies elsewhere in Europe, including Bertelsmann in Germany and The Record Society, based in London. Between 15,000 and 20,000 copies of each disc were pressed and distributed. The driving force behind the Club was a former member of the French Resistance who had retained his wartime code-name of 'Monsieur Lhôpital', and it was he who convinced Wand that the Club would offer the better opportunity of setting down performances of the repertoire that really mattered to him. At the time he was making these records, Günter Wand may not have enjoyed the widespread esteem that he did in his glorious 'Indian Summer' of the 1980s and 1990s, but he was a hugely respected figure in his native Germany and in much of Western Europe.
The 1950s and 1960s were a period of great activity for the Club Français and its successor label Musidisc, with Wand recording some 40 works for them, by any token a substantial legacy. It is these productions that are now being made available once again in their entirety in this series, with several seemingly available in stereo for the first time. The recordings were made in Cologne, but Wand had to travel to Paris ∆ often for a week at a time ∆ to supervise the editing process, in the basement of Lhôpital's house. The first records, which were released in 1955, featured Mozart's Haffner Serenade. K.250 and Beethoven's First Symphony. The Club editions came with booklets containing detailed analysis of the works on each disc, assuming an unusually high level of literacy and musical knowledge on the part of the buyer.
Stereo recording was somewhat experimental until 1957 or 1958, so the earlier of these recordings were made in monaural sound only. Most of the recordings were made not in the Gürzenich building, which underwent a ten-year renovation from 1945 to 1955, but in the special event hall at a chemicals factory in Knapsack, to the west of Cologne, and in other halls in and around the city, in Klettenberg to the south-west and Deutz to the east. When the Gürzenich was rebuilt, its acoustic turned out to be less than ideal for recordings, and the few that were made there had to be taped in the dead of night ∆ lest the noise of passing trams disrupt the recording process.
Whilst Wand's later recordings of the classical repertoire have been recognised for some time as yardsticks for all comers, many people will be surprised with the remarkable qualities apparent in these earlier documents, which magnificently transcend the inevitable exigencies of the post-war era. Though they were recorded between 40 and 50 years ago, these records combine the strengths of the modern orchestra with insights akin to those that came subsequently to inform the 'authentic' movement, a movement about which Wand was himself highly sceptical.

The Beethoven Symphonies
It is a pity that we do not have a full cycle of the Beethoven symphonies from Günter Wand. The reason for this is simple. By the time Wand was contracted to record for the Club Français du Disque, the sixth and eighth symphonies had already been recorded for the Club, under the direction of Fritz Lehmann, and it was assumed (presumably correctly) that the subscribers would not take kindly to a duplication of repertoire. The recordings that were made, however, surely more than make up for the omissions.
Beethoven was very important to Günter Wand at this stage of his career. He chose a Beethoven programme for his high-profile UK debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, and waged what started out as a one-man war to clear away the corruptions and accretions that had accumulated in performances of Beethoven's works. Wand's appreciation of Beethoven was first stimulated by Furtwängler, whom he first saw conduct in Wuppertal in 1930. "It was a revelation", he once told me. "I had never heard anything so wonderful". The next time he heard Furtwängler, after the war, it was a different story. This time Wand was left feeling disgusted by a performance of Beethoven's Fifth in which the conductor threw in not only an extra percussion line in the transition into the finale, but also an extra bar of music ∆ all to add to the effect.
When Wand was appointed as music director of the Gürzenich concerts he had negligible experience of the concert repertoire, and made it his business to acquaint himself with the Gürzenich performing scores. He was horrified by what he discovered, particularly in the Beethoven scores. These had been modified by the hands of his predecessors to a degree that he found almost sacrilegious ∆ "I don't just mean dynamic or agogic comments, or suggestions of tempi ∆ I don't mean that at all," he wrote later. "I mean entries that, since the days of Wagner, Mottl, Weingartner and Mahler, had been provided as so-called improvements of instrumentation, for instance in the symphonies of Beethoven".
He thought it extraordinary that, for example, many learned articles were written about whether or not there should be a clash of cymbals at the climax of the Adagio in Bruckner's Symphony No.7 ∆ "all well and good, but who is writing about the fact that whole stretches in Beethoven's symphonies are being reproduced in a tonally distorted fashion, without anyone raising the tiniest squeak of protest?" Up to the very end of his life, the thought of these abuses would prompt Wand to slip into a queasy silence.
For the rededication concert of the rebuilt Gürzenich building in 1955, he himself purchased a new score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and a new set of orchestral parts. The recording of the Ninth was made immediately afterwards, also in the Gürzenich ∆ "and there we had the evidence, what an abuse it was and is, for anyone to disregard the spirit and will of this inspired human being". Günter Wand's recordings of the Beethoven symphonies may have been played on modern instruments, but I would challenge anyone to deny their integrity or, even, their 'authenticity'.