American-born Guila Bustabo was an exceedingly passionate player and at least one of the recordings reissued here shows her at the height of her powers. The Bruch Concerto is crowned by Mengelberg’s superb conducting: the thrust of the first tutti is immediately commanding, while expressive highlighting of salient instrumental details later on (especially among the strings) is also fairly characteristic. As to the soloist, her tone is strong and vibrant whilst her handling of the Adagio has an emotive intensity that recalls the young Menuhin.
Archive Documents’ transfer is reasonably successful, save for the odd chipped bar (sample 2'29'' into the first movement), but the 1943 Beethoven Concerto is littered with glitches, extraneous noises and sudden shifts in playback level (there is also extended – and very loud – applause at the end of the first movement). Here Bustabo’s style seems rather less suited to the music, although the lyrical core of the first movement is affectionately cushioned (try at 10'56'' or 12'09''), as indeed is much of the slow movement. She cuts an impressive crescendo prior to the big central tutti (starting at 13'33'') and it was good news that she managed to sneak Kreisler’s cadenzas past the Nazi authorities, especially as she plays them so well. Still, I have to report that Mengelberg’s assortment of tempos seems to me structurally disruptive, although the Concertgebouw were on good form and the sound – when it’s unhampered by source damage – is pretty serviceable.
The Bruch performance is definitely one to hear, either in this context or as a part of Music & Arts’ four-disc set, “The Mengelberg Legacy” (7/94) where it sounds marginally more forward (both performances were previously coupled on a Japanese Seven Seas CD). The Beethoven Concerto is interesting primarily for Mengelberg’s idiosyncratic handling of the orchestral score, but – taken as a whole – doesn’t compete among a plethora of fine historic alternatives.'