Whilst there are some on this list to whom he is a very well known, the
name Scherchen may in general be largely unfamiliar to many.  Especially
now that Tahra have released a series of his recordings I hope that his
time has come at last.

Hermann Scherchen was born in Berlin in 1891 and played as a violist
under Nikisch, Mottl, Strauss, Oskar Fried and Weingartner and died in
1966.  Although he certainly did conduct a lot of contemporary music he
also left many fascinating recordings of Bach, Handel, Beethoven and
Mahler.  Even though a lot of people may still associate the name of
Scherchen with Schoenberg, his repertoire was wide and also included
Berlioz, Bartok, Berlioz, Wagner, Mozart, Tschaikovsky, Schumann and
Mendelssohn.  He conducted a lot of Mahler at a time his music was not
widely accepted.  His Beethoven cycle is important in that he anticipated
more recent approaches by broadly observing the metronome markings.

Recently I have been kept busy catching up with a pile of Scherchen
Recordings that had been arriving through the mail.  It has turned out
to be something of an embarrassment of riches.

The first big surprise came in the form of his mono 1950 recording with the
Vienna Symphony of J.S.  Bach's Mass in B Minor.  It is remarkable in that
he uses a chamber choir with what appears to be a scaled down orchestral
accompaniment.  He achieves a textual clarity that compares quite favorably
to the best period instrument conductors.  The next big surprise is in the
tempi, which are generally extremely close to John-Elliot Gardiner, except
at certain points where he is either remarkably slower or faster than
Gardiner.  A good example is how Scherchen takes 15:53 to get through the
opening Kyrie eleison compared to Gardiner's 9:29, whereas Scherchen takes
2:41 in the closing Dona nobis pacem compared to Gardiner's 3:20.  No
matter how extreme he may seem there always seems to be purpose behind his
tempi.  Still more important than any consideration of absolute timing is
the fact that Scherchen always maintains a natural sense of forward flow
such that he seems less static than Gardiner even when the two clock in at
exactly the same tempi.  This is especially telling in the Domine Deus duet
where Scherchen is only marginally faster at 5:04 compared to Gardiner's
5:18 - yet it is Scherchen who achieves a disproportionately greater
fluidity in the movement's forward momentum whereas Gardiner just seems
too static by comparison.  Most remarkable of all is Scherchen's superior
ability to build up structured arguments to their inevitable climax.  I had
always used Gardiner's performance as a yard-stick for this work and I was
totally gob smacked listening to a mono recording generally surpass the
Gardiner, even if I did miss the unique sounds of the period winds.

If that were not enough a boxed tribute set from Tahra seems to be packed
full of the most remarkable treasures.  The performances of the Bartok
Music for String Percussion and Celeste, and the Schoenberg 1st Chamber
Symphony were both the finest I have yet to hear.  In the Bartok he
surpasses famous performances by the likes of Fricsay and Reiner.The Tahra
tribute set also contained a dress rehearsal of the Beethoven 9th in which
he and the Lugano orchestra play through the whole symphony.  Again I
listened transfixed by one of the finest performances of this symphony I
had every heard.  In its choice of tempi it was similar in to 9th's by
Hermann Abendroth and Oskar Fried, only much more urgently 'expressivo'
with Scherchen pleading with the orchestra in Italian "canto!  canto!", and
at certain moments in the first movement demanding that they play "triste!"
He gets exactly what he asks for as well.  The sense of a genuine cantabile
in the slow movement at a tempo close to Beethoven's metronome marking
is truly remarkable.  Equally remarkable in the Tahra tribute set is an
inspired chamber ensemble arrangement of the Bach's "Ein Musikalisches
Opfer" not too dissimilar in concept to that of the Trio Sonnerie.  Tempi
again never lack forward momentum, with tremendous concentration and
unforced immediacy of expression.  I prefer this performance to that of the
Trio Sonnerie which just seems to lack that inner hush that Scherchen
brings to Bach.

The Tahra Scherchen series can be purchased from Music and Arts on line:

   http://www.musicandarts.com/

The Scherchen Bach B Minor mass appears to have been released by Millennium
Classics but I am unable to find anyone locally who sells this particular
release so I have purchased a Japanese transfer from HMV Japan:

   http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=237937

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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