The name Carl Schuricht is most commonly associated, at least in this country, with the music of Anton Bruckner. Various of the symphonies have appeared both on ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ labels (EMI, DG and Preludio, for instance) but one easily forgets that Schuricht was also a keen advocate of – among other composers – Schumann, Debussy, Ravel, Delius, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. His association with the Dresden Philharmonic took on a particular significance in the early 1940s when, upon the resignation of Paul van Kempen (the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor at the time), he was earmarked to take up the reins. However, total war intervened and in 1944 Schuricht left Germany for Switzerland. A couple of months before he left, he conducted the last item on this particular disc – a characteristically rugged, fairly swift account of the Academic Festival Overture, somewhat short on detail but refreshingly enthusiastic. Thereafter, most of the orchestra’s members were either drafted into the army or sent to armament factories.
The remaining items all date from 1943 and show the orchestra to better advantage, the most substantial surprise being a broad, ecstatic Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune, sensual in the extreme (the ‘feel’ of the performance is decidedly Straussian, its colours predominantly dark) and with excellent flute playing from Willi Pretzsch. As to the Mozart symphonies, flexibility of tempo, expressive nuancing and high spirits rule the day, with the closing bars of No. 34’s Andante di molto proving particularly eloquent. The basic sound quality is way above average for the period and the transfers are excellent.'