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hobbyists's views for hobbyists Willem Mengelberg, Bach's 'St. Matthew Passion' and The Philips Miller Sound Recording System

PRESS CONFERENCE On the afternoon of Saturday, January 24th, 1953, a special presentation was held for the Dutch press and important members of the musical and commercial scene in the Netherlands. They gathered in the so called 'Kleine Zaal' (small auditorium) of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The presentation was organized by 'Philips Phonographische Industrie' (PPI), the Dutch record company which was founded two and a half years earlier, in September 1950.  No instrumentalist, no singer was present on the stage to play or sing. What could be seen was a catafalque surrounded by flowers. And there was an artistic painting hanging in the background. It all looked as if a funeral was going to take place. So no live music was going to be performed. There was a cold and dull look on most faces. Until... Until the murmur of people in a large acoustic space was being heard through loudspeakers -the catafalque apparently hid a sound system- and shortly afterwards was followed by a firm, light ticking of a baton, the conductor's baton, not just calling all musicians to be attentive, but merely asking the audience to be quiet. And then the performance began, in fact the performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Matthaeus Passion' performed by soloists, choruses, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and conductor Willem Mengelberg, exactly as it had been recorded on Palm Sunday of 1939. THE ARTISTS Many a journalist reported afterwards, that from the first bar until the last, everyone present was captivated by the extraordinary performance of Bach's 'St. Matthew Passion', now issued by Philips on four Minigroove Long Playing records with a total playing time of three hours, notwithstanding the cuts Mengelberg had made. The headline of journalist Ruth Zimmerman's newspaper column read: 'One cannot describe happiness', thus indicating the impact the auditioning had on her and others present. She writes that for the first time she understands the full impact of the text "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden, so scheide nicht von mir." And Dutch music critic Ralph N. Degens wrote in his review: "Listening to the now released gramophone records again, one undergoes the spell of this perfect chorus sound, of the orchestra playing. One hears the unequaled Evangelist-performance of Karl Erb, the impressive part of Christ by Ravelli, one hears Jo Vincent, Ilona Durigo, Louis van Tulder and Herman Schey on the height of their artistic abilities and one realizes that this recording also in this respect is a historic document which will gain in value as our music life, by lack of truly great figures, will slip back to mediocrity." In 1939 Hungarian alto Ilona Durigo was 57 years of age. Tenor Karl Erb (1877-1958) was 62. He sang in Mengelberg's Matthaeus Passion every year from 1918 on (and would do so for the last time in 1943). Mengelberg himself was 68. Violinist Louis Zimmermann (born in 1873 in Groningen), who had been concert master of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1911, played the violin solos. He was 65 years of age. Violinist Ferdinand Helmann (1880-1954) who played in the orchestra from 1916 till 1948, was 59 years. The oboe players were George Blanchard (1883-1954), who was born in Brussels and played in the orchestra from 1904 until 1943, and W. Peddemors. The flute was played by 32 year old Hubert Barwahser (who later made recordings with Eduard van Beinum). Of the other singers Willem Ravelli (bass) at 46 was on the top of his career, as were soprano Jo Vincent (41), tenor Louis van Tulder (46) and bass Herman Schey (43). Their ripened insights and sublime artistry contributed immensely to the compelling performance. St. Matthew Passion conducted by Piet van Egmond. Oratorio singer Jo Vincent was a religious person. She made recordings in the 78 RPM era. On Columbia DHX 3 she sings with Louis van Tulder: Ihr Schönen aus der Stadt (Haydn). On an earlier Columbia Graphophone record (D9943) she sang "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht) and "Cradle Song of the Shepherds" (Wiegenlied) together with Theodora Versteegh (alt), Evert Miedema (tenor), and Willem Ravelli (bas), recorded in Christ Church, London. The youngest performer of importance was organist Piet van Egmond, aged 27. In the mid nineteen fifties Piet van Egmond himself conducted a complete performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion for the Opera Society (Concert Hall/Musical Masterpieces Society) with Corry Bijster (soprano), Annie Delorie (alto), Willy van Hese (tenor), Carel Willink (bass), and instrumentalists Koen van Slogteren and Leo van der Lek (oboe da caccia and oboe d'amore), Willy (Wilhelm) Busch (violin), Piet Lenz (viola da gamba), H. Sekrève (violoncello), Hans Philips (cembalo), Alex Schellevis (organ), the Amsterdam Oratorio Choir, the Vredescholen Boys Choir, and the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra. Recorded at the Old Church (Oude Kerk) in Amsterdam in 1955: The Opera Society / Concert Hall / Musical Masterpieces Society MMS 2037 3x 12" LPs. THE TRADITION It was Mengelberg (March 29, 1871, Utrecht, The Netherlands - March 22, 1951, Hof Zuort, Switzerland) who established the tradition of performing Bach's St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 every year, the first time on April 8, 1899. Like Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the discoverer of the original SMP score, Mengelberg made several cuts for whatever reason. Mengelberg's intense affinity to Bach's magistral work is well known and is well documented. Mengelberg was conductor in New York from 1921 till 1930. First of the National Symphony Orchestra and from 1922 on of the New York Philharmonic Society (after these two orchestras had merged). On December 26, 1925, Willem Mengelberg was honored during a Cover of the Menu Card of the dinner held on December 26, 1925, to honor Willem Mengelberg. (Picture taken from the Dutch monthly "Caecilia" of February 16th 1926 which also contained Rubin Goldmark's speech). dinner organized by "The Bohemians, New York Musicians Club". American composer Rubin Goldmark (1872-1936) said in his honoring speech: "M's tastes are catholic and his artistic sympathies are wide. His programs range from Bach to Strawinsky - and beyond. In his own country, particularly he does not hesitate to go behind the beyond - as Nietzsche would say. But let me tell you of the one occasion, when he joined a new insight and when to me the greatest Mengelberg of all was revealed and disclosed. This is purely personal, and I apologize beforehand to any of the distinguished critics here present, if I am trespassing on their prerogatives. But the time that M. loomed to me at his biggest - no it was not in a crashing (stirring) rendering of his famous Preludes, - it was not in the Mahler symphonies he loves so much, it was not even in a historic rendering of the Brahms C minor Symphony - of which I remember every detail - it was one night when I heard the still small voice, when I sat through a long performance, that was mostly quiet, serious, in dark tones - yet of ineffable beauty, with a reduced orchestra, that did not even contain horns or trombones (in fact it wasn't an orchestral work at all that he was rendering), it was when I heard him conduct, like a religious service, the immortal St. Matthew's Passion of Bach - that is where M. was at his biggest for me and when he said to me right after the performance, his voice still vibrant with emotion: "Diese ist die schönste Musik, die je geschrieben wurde" - This is the most beautiful music that was ever written -, I knew that there was a master who stood bowed in reverence before the greatest in our art, and who felt his greatest function in being his faithful interpreter." THE QUESTION OF AUTHENTICITY Rubin Goldmark surely used a different meaning of "faithful" than in the pure musicological sense. Jo Vincent writes in her interesting and amusing memoirs, published in 1960: "I do not know if in the early years historical, musicological or other objections to this execution were put forward Highlights from the complete recording conducted by Dr. Anton van der Horst were released on Telefunken BLE 14074. (...) but in the press the opposition to the interpretation gradually grew bigger; it became a burning question, in which the public also took part. One swore either by Amsterdam, or by Naarden where on Good Friday the attendance was as big." Dr. Anton van der Horst. Naarden being the town where from 1931 on the Dutch Bach Society under Dr. Anton van der Horst rendered a more authentic performance of Bach's masterpiece; of which a recording from the 1958 performance exists on Dutch Telefunken/CNR, with the Residency Orchestra (Hague Philharmonic) and Dutch singers - Tom Brand (tenor), Laurens Bogtman (bass), Guus Hoekman (bass), Erna Spoorenberg (soprano), Annie Hermes (alto), Arjan Blanken (tenor) - and many well known instrumentalists: violinists Herman Krebbers and Theo Olof, viola da gamba player Carel van Leeuwen Boomkamp, oboist Constant Stotijn, organist Albert de Klerk, and cellist Martin Zagwijn. When American Columbia had made the complete Mengelberg SMP recording available in the US, critic Warren Demotte characterized Mengelberg's performance as follows: "It is moving, romantic in conception, and grandiose in execution. It is Bach done in the shadow of Richard Strauss (...)." Jo Vincent recalled when the Minigroove 4 Lp record set was available: "Sometimes I listen to the performance of 1939 with emotion, so neat (with the little ticking!) recorded by Philips and released on record - a wonderful recollection. After Mengelberg had died I was given the baton as a souvenir."   EXTRAORDINARY RECORDING Apart from the wire recorder, the tape recorder and the direct-to-disc recording system (as it generally was used in the days of 78 RPM before the tape recorder made the Lp possible already in 1947, but launched in 1948), there is another medium for sound recording that has been widely used. That medium is celluloid film as it is used in the film industry. The sound track is a narrow strip on one side of the images on the 35 mm (and also on the 16 mm) celluloid film. The track is a photographic track, read by a photocell. For specific sound recording there was the Philips Miller Optical Recording System, invented by the American J.A. Miller and further developed in the research laboratory (Natuurkundig Laboratorium) of N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The dynamic range is determined by the relation between the angle of the chisel, the width of the black coated celluloid film and the displacement of the coils steering the chisel. The lower image shows a very high sound level. The Philips Miller audio recording system however had a different way of recording and had its own specifications. The system was in use by radio stations in the nineteen thirties through the beginning of the nineteen fifties. The sound carrier in is the special Philimil film which is a 7 mm wide transparent celluloid film, covered with a relatively thick, transparent layer of gelatin which is topped by a very thin, black layer. A sapphire chisel with a very wide angle of 176 degrees functions as a cutter. The musical signal is fed to the coil connected to this chisel which moves to the minute electrical variations of the signal. Since the shape (angle) of the chisel is just under 180 degrees, the indentations in the black top layer show a rather wide range of dynamics: 1 : 40. Since it is an optical system the signal to noise ratio is only further limited by the noise level of the electronic circuits using valves and transformers. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS The speed of the film is 32 cm/sec. (12.56 inch per second.). The reading of the track is done the same way as with the optical soundtrack of a movie. The Philimil film passes along a narrow slot with a lamp on one side of the film and the variations in the signal are read by a photocell on the other side and then translated into sound. The signal-to-noise ratio is said to have been better than the 40 dB mentioned for the soundtrack of 35 mm film used in the film industry. The frequency range was 50 to 7.000 Hz. within 2.5 dB and 30 to 8.000 Hz. +/- 6 dB. If measured with higher slopes of 12 dB the bottom end of the frequency curve could be close to 40 Hz. and the top could probably be 10.000 Hz., the limits being set by the limitations of the technique of those days: valve amplifiers, microphones, coils moving in a magnetic field. Despite the "restricted" bandwidth, the suggestion of a refined and relatively extended frequency characteristic is given. Editing of the recorded Philips-Miller film by means of splicing was possible and thus mistakes could be corrected by eliminating or replacing them by bits of other takes. Since the film did not need developing, the recording could be played back instantly on the spot. The system was also suitable for recording and reproducing two-channel stereo sound as is stated in "Radio-encyclopedie voor Nederland en België" from 1956. In the early thirties, right after its introduction, l'Union Internationale de Radiodiffusion (International Radio Broadcasting Union) announced that the Philips-Miller System was the best system available for sound recording.

The photograph shows two Philips-Miller recording/playback machines. The one on the left has a full reel (spool) and the one on the right is actually recording or playing. Flawless transition from one reel to the next was achieved by optical markings which gave a signal to the second machine to start the turning of the reel and gave a signal to the first machine to stop the recording or the playback, whatever function was active. Each reel could take up to 15 minutes of recording time. During recording as well as playback damage to the film was practically impossible because of the hollow shape of the guiding wheels which let the engraved part of the film be untouched. Only when handling the film damage was possible which would be translated by some noise or a plop. A non musical spot could of course be repaired. (Picture taken from "Radio Encyclopaedie", 1949.)

RADIO STUDIOS The Philips Miller sound recording system was used by various radio stations like the BBC and the Dutch Radio Broadcasting Union (Nederlandse Radio Unie) well into the nineteen forties and early fifties, and it was also used by the technicians of the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven. It is on this sound film that Willem Mengelberg's famous performance of 'St. Matthew Passion' (BWV 244) on Palm Sunday 1939 was recorded. The films were considered to be lost or even non existent until they were found in a damp cellar. The importance of these recordings was immediately recognized by Philips in Eindhoven. In 1952 the recordings were handed over to their subsidiary 'Philips Phonografische Industrie' to be transcribed to Lp. The restoration of the 8000 meter film and the transfer to tape were a painstaking operation. Attention had to be paid to keep the black top layer intact. Furthermore a constant playback speed should be maintained throughout. And dropouts caused by erosion or mishandling of the black top layer should be eliminated. This could be done of course after the transfer to magnetic tape had been made and the advantage of the tape recorder could come fully into service by copying, replacing and inserting bits of tape, in one word: splicing. Fortunately various Philips-Miller systems were still in use in the beginning of the nineteen fifties. The final magnetic tape became the master from which the matrixes were cut and the records were pressed on the Philips Minigroove label in 1953. 78 RPM SHELLAC Some sources on the Internet mentioned that Mengelberg's St. Matthew Passion was issued earlier on 78 RPM records before the release on Lp in 1953. And they maintained that the shellac discs had been the basis for the Philips Minigroove 4 Lp set. This of course is not the case. These recordings were not made in 1939 for immediate commercial release as "N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken" in Eindhoven did not have established a record label yet. Plans for a record division Recording technicians of 'The Dutch Decca Distribution' posing with the modern equipment of the late nineteen forties: cutting lathes, microphones, amplifiers and a big monitoring loudspeaker system. Picture taken from 'Radio Encyclopedie', Amsterdam 1949. were certainly in the pipeline but a commercial realization was obviously obstructed by the outbreak of World War Two. In 1942 Philips Eindhoven acquired "Dutch Decca Distribution" (Hollandsche Decca Distributie), a small factory located in Amsterdam. This production facility was later to be the basis for the Philips label. (Note: The acquisition also explains the collaboration between Philips and English Decca, and finally the acquisition of Decca by Phonogram.) Despite the purchase of 1942, a release of the Mengelberg recording could only be materialized many years later when the Long Playing record had become the medium and after 'Philips Phonographische Industrie' had been founded in 1950. THE SECOND WORLD WAR After the Germans had occupied the Netherlands in 1940, Mengelberg continued to conduct 'his' St. Matthew Passion on subsequent Palm Sundays except for the last two years of the war. And he continued perform for the Dutch radio and he continued recording for the Telefunken label, a/o. Symphony No. 3, Eroica (Beethoven), Ein Heldenleben (Richard Strauss), and Symphony No. 9 (5) "Aus der neuen Welt" (Dvorak). He received financial and organizational help from the occupier for these and other performances, concerts and travels. His last recording was made in November 1942 conducting Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A Little Night Music). During the war many performances by the Concertgebouw Orchestra continued to be recorded, but now with Eduard van Beinum, Paul van Kempen, Eugen Jochum, and Herbert von Karajan. Numerous artists, especially of the younger generation and those who had just started to make name, did not want to give up their careers. After the war many musicians like pianist Cor de Groot (Seyss-Inquart's favorite pianist), organist Piet van Egmond, conductor Willem van Otterloo, and also composer Henk Badings (managing director of the 'Rijksconservatorium' in The Hague from 1941-1944), who had been members of the Dutch 'Kulturkammer' (culture chamber), were forbidden to perform for one or more years, yet they were cleared (denazified). Also Mengelberg had chosen not to deprive himself of what he had accomplished as a conductor. In order to be able to continue to do what he loved most, namely conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, he worked together with and for the Germans. This despite his age. In 1940 Mengelberg was 69, an age when retirement under the given circumstances would have been logical, or at least would have been a possibility. Mengelberg, like Furtwängler and many others, did not go into exile. To go to America, where Toscanini was number one, was no option for him. He stayed in Amsterdam and secured his position. His art was so deeply rooted in Austro-German culture that he could not deny his own existence? However, the question is not of an artistic nature. The question is a moral one: How strong are you mentally. How much insight do you have in a given political situation. How far do you go in making use of the regulations and how far do you go in answering to the demands of the occupier. "How far can you go", seemed to be an individual matter with personal consequences. Many people believed that the Nazi's would soon be stopped and therefore did not work for and with the occupier. But the Nazi's were stopped only much later. And if Mengelberg would have helped a few Jewish musicians, it was for artistic reasons and not for a political or moral argument. PERSONAL CONSCIENCE Right from the beginning Mengelberg showed what his position was. At the time the Netherlands were invaded, Mengelberg was in Frankfurt in Germany and he did not see a possibility to return to Amsterdam. From Frankfurt he traveled to Austria and from there in early July to Berlin to participate in the festivities to commemorate Tchaikovsky's One Hundred's Birthday. And it was there that he recorded Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 with pianist Conrad Hansen, just two months after the Germans had invaded the Netherlands on May 10th and had bombed and burned the heart of the city of Rotterdam on May 14th 1940. In an interview in a Nazi newspaper he said that Europe was going "in a new direction". It is no wonder that sometime later he performed with his orchestra in front of Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart and other German officials. And there was no resistance from orchestra members when the orchestra was to be "arianized". This was all in contrast to Arturo Toscanini's attitude who did not want to conduct his orchestra playing "Giovanezza", the Fascist hymn, for dictator Mussolini, and he had left Italy for good in 1936 to live in the USA. Willem Mengelberg wrote letters addressed to the occupier, expressing his thanks for this or that arrangement or supply. Mengelberg was allowed to travel with his orchestra to Paris to be filmed in performance. He was even allowed to travel to Spain and Portugal, as Dutch journalist Dick Verkijk mentions in his extensive documentation "Radio Hilversum 1940-1945" (Amsterdam, 1974), while others had to follow difficult tracks, sometimes via Switzerland and through the Pyrenean Mountains, in order to reach Spain. For them this was the only way to avoid execution, to reach England to report to the government in exile, or to join the allied forces eventually. Yet there were many performers, composers and artists who did not want to become a member of the "Kulturkammer" (Reichsmusikkammer), the institution which set rules for performances and stipulated what material could be performed and what was "denatured art" (Entartete Kunst). Those who did not want to join were not allowed to perform and could hardly earn a living. Nevertheless the Germans were sabotaged time and time again and the "Kulturkammer" never had a firm grip on the artistic life in the Netherlands. PROMINENT POSITION Mengelberg should have known better. Because of his prominent position he was judged more severely than other artists after the German capitulation. How severely? After the liberation of the Netherlands by the allied forces in 1945, the name of Willem Mengelberg was hardly ever mentioned, except in private conversations, one would say. In 1947 a new dictionary of composers and compositions with the title 'Musical Roundup' (Muzikale Ommegang) was published. In the paragraph about Gustav Mahler there was no mention of Willem Mengelberg, despite the fact that he had been instrumental in promoting Mahler's music in the Netherlands, in Europe and America. Oddly enough composer Henk Badings gets extensive coverage, notwithstanding his reported inclination to support the ideas of the occupier. In "Radio Encyclopedie" of 1949 the only entry under Mengelberg is of Dr. Rudolf Mengelberg, nephew of the conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mengelberg's behavior however had not only become problematic for the Dutch music scene but for the entire nation. As of 1945 he had to give up his post of principal conductor of "his" orchestra and that verdict became definitive in 1947, the year in which bans on many prominent people were lifted. Not so for Mengelberg. He was to spend the remaining years of his life in exile in his chalet (Chasa Mengelberg) in Hof Zuort (Graubünden) in Switzerland were he died in 1951. MICROPHONE TECHNIQUE There is another noteworthy aspect of the Philips recording of St. Matthew's Passion. In those days the concerts given in the Concertgebouw were broadcast at regular intervals. This custom was ended in the early nineteen eighties. Before the war the performances were captured with justone microphone hanging slightly in front of and several feet above the orchestra. (So Bob Fine's Mercury-Living Presence mono-technique was not all that new.) A microphone with a cardioid characteristic is used. It captures very well the musicians in the orchestra, but is not sensitive in the direction of the audience. No phase shifting took place which occurs when various microphones are being used and placed near groups of instruments in the orchestra at various distances to highlight these instruments for clarity. But that practice can easily change the natural sound balance of the orchestra and the harmonious character of the instruments (as is already more or less the case in early Remington Musirama recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra). The microphone was placed above and in front of the orchestra, so it would capture the sound of the orchestra with its natural balance, while neglecting the audience. A different representation of the effect of the cardioid characteristic of the microphone. When listening to the "one microphone recording", the instruments, singers and choruses are placed in a natural perspective, exactly as they were positioned on the stage of the Concertgebouw's main hall with its beautiful acoustics. Us van der Meulen recorded Mengelberg's St. Matthew performance. He did join Philips Phonografische Industrie in 1950 when the Philips label started and the first recordings were made with conductors Willem van Otterloo, Paul van Kempen and Antal Dorati, with pianists Clara Haskil, Cor de Groot, Alexander Uninsky, Abbey Simon and Theo van der Pas, with violinists Herman Krebbers and Theo Olof, with singers Jo Vincent and Gré Brouwenstijn, and other artists who made the Philips classical label famous at home and abroad. A modern cutting lathe as was being used in the nineteen fifties. The technician follows the result of the cutting via a microscope. The vertical tube in the center of the turntable is connected to a vacuum pump in order to hold the lacquer tightly to the platter to insure a perfect cut. The white hose on the left is also connected to a vacuum pump and keeps the lacquer free from chips and curls. VARIOUS RELEASES Some 8 years after the first release on Lp this historic performance with Mengelberg was re-released in a new transfer when tape heads and amplifiers had gained in dynamic capability and when the filtering and the editing technique certainly had been improved, and when the cutting process and the production of matrixes had been improved significantly. But then the producers of 'Philips Phonographische Industrie' thought it appropriate to leave out the ticks of the baton at the beginning of the performance which were so characteristic of Willem Mengelberg. At the end of the nineteen fifties Philips also released two 10" records with highlights. One with Choruses and Chorales with reference number G 05301 R. And another with Arias and Recitatives: G 05388 R. DIGITAL FORMATS Because of the existence of CD, DVD and SACD, a significant aspect of optical signal reading is the obvious absence of the mechanical contact of tape and tape heads and of the stylus and the groove in the vinyl disc. If one compares the recording of 'St. Matthew Passion' to the recordings of other historic performances made with 78 RPM acetates, one can easily hear that the recording of 'St. Matthew Passion' was done using the Philips Miller audio recording system and thus does not show the "mechanical quality" of acetates. The Philips Miller Optical Sound Recording System became obsolete by the further development of the tape recorder which was winning in popularity. Tape was easy to work with whereas the optical system asked for a more careful handling. If the old Philips-Miller machines would still exist and could be restored, and if the technicians could transcribe the films once again, it would be possible to transfer the sound captured on the Philimil film directly to a high resolution digital format (DVD or double layer SACD) after which the restoration of the signal and the editing could take place in the digital domain. That would mean the complete elimination of the intermediate magnetic sound recording tape and its anomalies, and it would mean that the authenticity of the performance could be heightened further. This of course would only be true if the CD transfer of the magnetic tape on the current Philips CD edition showed that the result of the totally optical transfer was superior. The analogue long playing records do of course represent the original recording more truthfully because of the relatively high resolution which is not limited to 16 or 24 bit, but has far more and minute dynamic steps.