It is hard to remember back to a time when this cover photograph -- three geezers in ties and dark suits, two of them bald and one with thick, horn-rimmed glasses -- could have been considered hip. But, even then, of course, the last thing Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft wanted in a recording of Brahms' Double Concerto was hip. What DGG wanted was the big-boned tone of cellist
Janos Starker, the hard-muscled technique of violinist
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and, most of all, the clear-eyed modernism of the RSO Berlin under
Ferenc Fricsay. And that's exactly what it got: a Brahms' Double that had plenty of power and precision but that was cold-blooded in its execution. But, even coupled with
Fricsay's recording of Beethoven's Triple Concerto again with
Schneiderhan, but partnered this time with
Pierre Fournier and
Géza Anda, it's hard to imagine anyone in these digital times will find these performances hip.
Fricsay was a cool and clear conductor with a lean and sinewy approach to tempo and form and, while his Beethoven Triple is lyrical, it is more objective than subjective, more steel than silk. While back in the early '60s, these recordings along with the three geezers on the cover might have been hip, one wonders if digital listeners will be able to dig it, daddy-o. DG's original early stereo sound was warmer and deeper than many of its original early digital recordings.