富尼埃的录音录于60年代初，大师接近60岁时。这时，立体声录音技术早已成熟。那是个大师录音杰作不断涌现的年代。富尼埃在录制了这个录音之后的年代中，巴赫这套作品逐渐变成了他的演出曲目中的焦点。在1974年，也就是卡萨尔斯死后的第二年，富尼埃应邀到法国南部的普拉德斯(Prades)在卡萨尔斯创立的年度音乐节上演奏这套巴赫组曲。那天在普拉德斯城外的圣米切德卡萨教堂内坐满了听众。他们深深地被富尼埃追思卡萨尔斯的演奏打动。在全曲结束时，没有鼓掌，而是全部听众在寂静中肃立。

《巴赫：无伴奏大提琴组曲》(BWV1007-1012)，大约作于1717年的克滕宫廷。这一套组曲采用标准的古典组曲形式，由数种古典舞曲组成。当时克滕宫廷中有两位古大提琴演奏家阿贝尔与李尼希克，巴赫以这两位演奏家作为对象作成这套组曲。这套组曲谱系巴赫的第二位妻子安娜·玛格达琳娜抄录，原谱没有速度标记。现在这套组曲的速度标记有多种历代著名大提琴演奏家所标标志，公认的版本是19世纪著名大提琴家贝尔卡所标，卡萨尔斯所标版本也极为重要。
演奏者皮埃尔·富尼埃（Pierre Fournier 1906-1986）是20世纪法国著名的大提琴家，以演奏风格高雅、情感浪漫著称。富尼埃的录音录于60年代初，大师接近60岁时。这时，立体声录音技术早已成熟。那是个大师录音杰作不断涌现的年代。富尼埃在录制了这个录音之后的年代中，巴赫这套作品逐渐变成了他的演出曲目中的焦点。在1974年，也就是卡萨尔斯死后的第二年，富尼埃应邀到法国南部的普拉德斯(Prades)在卡萨尔斯创立的年度音乐节上演奏这套巴赫组曲。那天在普拉德斯城外的圣米切德卡萨教堂内坐满了听众。他们深深地被富尼埃追思卡萨尔斯的演奏打动。在全曲结束时，没有鼓掌，而是全部听众在寂静中肃立。
皮埃尔·富尼埃的《巴赫：无伴奏大提琴组曲》共有三套录音(另外两个版本为TDK和Philips)，且尤以这个版本最受欢迎，他的速度舒缓，节奏把握恰到好处，几乎是所有版本中最为合理妥帖者。音色温厚，内涵深刻，情感流露自然，这个演奏如娓娓道来而又虚怀若谷，并不以表现自我为目的却自有个性，且拥有一种浓烈的慈父性格，恰与巴赫人格与作品特有之父性相契合。且录音优良，确实是首选版本。

Beethoven: Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56
Géza Anda (piano), Wolfgang Schneiderhan (violin), Pierre Fournier (cello)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ferenc Fricsay
Recorded: 1960-06-01
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin
Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A minor, Op. 102
Wolfgang Schneiderhan (violin), Janos Starker (cello)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ferenc Fricsay
Recorded: 1961-06-05
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

Almost without exception, these performances by pianist Wilhelm Kempff, violinist Henryk Szeryng, and cellist Pierre Fournier are the most magnificent, the most magisterial, the most monumental, and the most fun of any ever recorded of Beethoven's piano trios. Separately, Kempff, Szeryng, and Fournier were among the best Beethoven players of the middle years of the twentieth century, and together they play like old friends whose affection for each other and the music has only grown deeper over the years. And, of course, the amazing thing is that these were, for the most part, ad hoc performances, performances done in the studio for Deutsche Grammophon's 1970 Beethoven edition but performances that have withstood the test of time so well that DG reissued them for its 1997 Beethoven edition. From their emotionally extravagant Op. 1 trios through the superlatively balanced Op. 70 trios to their final grand and sublime Op. 97 trio, Kempff, Szeryng, and Fournier's performances are superb. And while one might quibble with the inclusion of the Beaux Arts Trio's stolid performance of Beethoven's arrangement of his septet, no one would quibble with the exquisite performance of Beethoven's arrangement of his Symphony No. 2 by Besch, Brandis, and Boettcher. And the inclusion of every work Beethoven wrote for piano trio only increases the set's value.

过去现在以及将来，贝多芬带来的音乐，常使人迷惑究竟是尘世间曾诞生过一位神，抑或是一位神曾光顾了人间，究竟是何等的才华，才能使最伟大的交响乐，协奏曲，和室内乐，能如此完美的结合于一身；又究竟是何等的恩赐，带给后代的艺术家们亲自体验经典重现的机会。无须再去费心设想如果没有贝多芬和贝多芬的音乐，人间将会失去多少的感动与欢乐，此刻的我们所应完成的，是在巨星逝去的一百八十年后，在那仍璀灿无比的光辉之下，静静聆听。

Fournier first performed the Elgar Concerto in 1949. His recording with the Berlin Philharmonic and Wallenstein was made in 1967 and in between came numerous performances, amongst them this one, taped in Cologne in 1955. The conductor was Hans Rosbaud, a superb and still under appreciated, dedicated musician. Fournier represented the noble strain of the French School in this work, in which expressive gestures were at the service of architectural and structural goals – never a means in themselves. The most internationally famous French player of the concerto was Tortelier, who had studied it at college where it was taught, but Fournier’s natural aristocracy offered a valid alternative; Navarra’s rougher-toned but no less important place in this Trinity offered three great and fruitfully divergent approaches.
Since I’ve never made much of a secret of the fact that Franco-Belgian string players are probably closest to my heart it’s always a particular pleasure to encounter a broadcast such as this. That said Fournier is on slightly fallible form and pedants will want to note these slips. Intonation is certainly not infallible – Fournier was no Gendron when it came to matters of intonation – and he takes a little while to settle. Dignity and a refusal to linger are hallmarks of Fournier’s Elgar. He’s slightly broader in the slow movement here than in the Berlin recording but fractionally tighter in the first movement, takes exactly the same tempo in the Adagio; half a minute quicker in Cologne than in Berlin in the finale.
Rosbaud accents finely; the layering of the string choirs is frequently masterly, though he can’t have been that familiar with the work at the time. He certainly ensures shifting bow weights in the strings’ entries and attacks. Fournier makes a few finger slips in the Scherzo and seems to tire in the finale slightly where intonation occasionally suffers again. For those who prefer a lingering, long drawn out catharsis in this work French players are not your first port of call. I’ve always been more drawn to their way of thinking and to Anthony Pini’s – so, despite the blips, this is a treasurable reading.
Its companion sees Fournier teamed with a hero of the Dvořák discography – not least in this work – in the shape of George Szell. His talismanic recording with Casals in 1938 is irreplaceable but he and Fournier clearly enjoyed a sympathetic collaboration. Neither gave in to syrup. They recorded the work in Berlin in the early sixties; other Fournier performances have survived of course – there’s a fine broadcast disc in Prague with Georges Sebastian directing the Czech Philharmonic in 1959.
Fournier is on better technical form here. There’s no second subject wallowing, but nor is there the brutish stupidity of Toscanini’s account of this work – an abject disappointment – in which every subtlety and nuance is sacrificed to the dictates of speed. This conversely is a well structured, strongly argued, warmly expressive account all round. It’s certainly faster than the commercial recording made at around the same time but not worryingly so. The proportions of the piece are intact and the noble edifice of the slow movement and the culminatory reflections of the finale find noble interpreters in the two men. I must also note the very distinctive Cologne flautist. As a pendant there’s a witty performance of the Twelve Variations on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with pianist Franz Holetschek.
Both the concerto performances are worthy adjuncts to, though not replacements for, Fournier’s commercial recordings.
by Jonathan Woolf (
)