Paul Hindemith/Oskar Sala - Elektronische Impressionen (1998 compi, rec. 1976-78)

As promised when the Genzmer disc went up, here's another venture into the sound world of the Trautonium, that early electronic instrument of which Oskar Sala was the main proponent.  This time around, there's only a short orchestral segment, giving a much closer look at the sound of the trautonium and its capabilities.  That these recordings all date from the 1970s also helps enormously, in the vastly improved sound quality over the Genzmer recordings.

Presented first are two works by German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), who like Genzmer was fascinated by the new instrument and wrote for it, in close collaboration with Sala, in the early 1930s.  We start with a seven-part feature for three trautoniums, which in contemporary concert was performed by Hindemith (the top part), Sala (the middle part) and Rudolph Schmidt, a piano teacher (the bass part).  Here, Sala performs all three in overdub, left, centre and right in the stereo picture respectively.  They're nice short and melodic exercises, and must've sounded revolutionary in 1930.  Pleased with the results, a year later Hindemith wrote the brief concerto that follows, integrating the diverse tonal colours of the trautonium very well with the orchestra.

The real treasure on this collection is saved for last though, and reissues in its entirety the 40-minute LP shown at the very bottom of this post.  Elektronsische Impressionen from 1978 is composed and performed by Sala, using the more advanced Mixtur-Trautonium that he'd developed by the 1950s.  The nine tracks here utilize the full range of the instrument and the recording studio, and frequently find Sala nudging closer to Conrad Schnitzler at his most minimal/experimental than anything in the classical world.  Although this whole CD is worth listening to, Elektronsische Impressionen gets special praise from me - it's nothing short of an avant-garde electronic classic in its dark atmospherics and juddering melody lines and effects.  Highly recommended.

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Original LP covers

Harald Genzmer - Trautonium-Konzerte (1986 compi, rec. 1950/1958)

Two concertos by German composer Harald Genzmer (1909-2007) today, mapping the development of the Trautonium.  Like the Ondes Martenot, the Trautonium was an early electronic instrument dating from the late 1920s, capable of eerie, vacuum-tube vibrato and much more: it was invented by Friedrich Trautwein, who was soon joined in the instrument's development by Oskar Sala.  The latter man would become most closely associated with the Trautonium and its developments for the rest of his life, and performed on several recordings including those collected here.

Genzmer's Concerto for Trautonium and Orchestra was completed in 1939 for performance with the slightly more portable Konzerttrautonium, and this recording was made at Radio Bremen in 1950.  What might otherwise be an enjoyable if unremarkable mid-20th century orchestral work is transformed by the leaps and twirls of the lead instrument.  Genzmer doesn't sound like Messiaen per se, but the comparison crossed my mind given the use of an ancient proto-synth; if anything, this sounds more raw and exciting than Messiaen's work with the Ondes Martenot to my ears, but perhaps that's just the limitations of the period recording quality (all the Turangalîla's I've heard have been post-1980).

By 1952, Sala had developed the Mixtur-Trautonim, capable of polyphonic chords - this would be the one that Sala played on the soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  Inspired by the advances in the instrument, Genzmer wrote another concerto, and this recording (tracks 4-8) was taped at SD Rundfunk in 1958.  Genzmer's writing for the instrument now took advantage of the frequency inversions that the Mixtur-Trautonium was capable of, resulting in a fuller sound and blend with the orchestra.  More Sala to come in a few weeks.

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