20 February 2024

Klemperer in Budapest - live 1948-50


 


Bach - Magnificat & Brandenburg Concerto no. 5

Wagner - Lohengrin Preludes I-III, Meistersinger Preludes I-III


Budapest Symphony Orchestra

Hungarian State Opera Orchestra

OTTO KLEMPERER

Budapest 1948-50


FLAC + Complete scans & Details

9 February 2024

Mahler 6 - Abbado, WS 1967




A little late (but the last few weeks have been very busy), 

a small tribute on the tenth anniversary of his death (20 January 2014). 

CD Hunt, of course OOP.


MAHLER

Symphony no. 6


Wiener Symphoniker

CLAUDIO ABBADO


Live - Wien. May 24, 1967




FLAC (separated tracks) + complete scans



28 January 2024

Rachmaninoff 3 & The Rock - Rozhdestvensky






And another one: 


RACHMANINOFF
 
The Rock, Symphonic Poem, Op. 7  
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44  

State Symphony Orchestra
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

Recording: 12 March 1991.


FLAC - Scans

 

16 January 2024

Rozhdestvensky conducts Rimski, Taneyev, Arensky

 



I continue with this series of CDs, this time "escaping" from the more usual repertoire. Even Rimski-Korsakov's Third is hardly ever performed, but at least there are some versions on record. I listened to the other two works here for the first time... but I admit that for me these were not great "revelations" :)


RIMSKI-KORSAKOV

Symphony no. 3, op. 32 (revised edition 1886)


TANEYEV

Overture to "Oresteya", op. 6


ARENSKY

March in memory of Suvorov


Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio and Television

GENNADI ROZHDESTVENSKY

recordings 1962-1973 (further details in the booklet)


FLAC + Scans







12 January 2024

Shostakovich 8 - Alexander Gauk (1959)

 



Returning to the Russia Revelations series to start this year posts, 

here you can find an important DSCH 8 recorded in 1959: 

plus the Festive Overture, composed only five years earlier.



SHOSTAKOVICH

Festive Overture

Symphony no. 8


Grand Symphony Orchestra of  State Radio

ALEXANDER GAUK

October 7, 1959 



FLAC & Scans

29 December 2023

Kodrashin conducts Prokofiev & Bartók



PROKOFIEV

Scythian Suite

BARTOK

Music for strings, percussion and celesta


Moscow Philharmonic

KIRILL KONDRASHIN

Melodiya, 1974


FLAC and scans







18 December 2023

Bruckner 9 - Lovro von Matačić





Among Matacić's many Brucknerian documents, I propose one of my favorites. 

A recording that did not have a great circulation, 

but a profoundly honest and thoughtful approach to Bruckner's symphonic last word.



Anton Bruckner - Symphony No.9

 

WIENER SYMPHONIKER

 Lovro von Matačić


 Recorded: 12 & 13 march 1983. - TT: 59'34''.


FLAC with Scans




10 December 2023

Rachmaninoff PC 2&3 Gieseking, Mengelberg (1940)


 



Two live recordings (1940) released several times, 

but I don't think currently available on CD. 

This is the 1997 Da Capo transfer.



RACHMANINOFF

Piano Concertos 2&3


Walter Gieseking

Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam

WILLEM MENGELBERG

Live October 31, 1940 (no. 2) and March 28, 1940 (no. 3)


FLAC




22 November 2023

Bruckner 4 - Solti & CSO live in Salzburg


 

Here you can find a remarkable Bruckner Fourth captured during the big CSO Europe Tour in 1981. As always is matter of taste: anyway, if you like Solti's style here you will find rush, compactness and energy but also breathing space, without that almost "brutal" and dismissive tone of some of his later Brucknerian recordings (impression I also had listening to him live in the Fourth and Eighth in the early 90s).


Bruckner

Symphony no. 4


Chicago Symphony Orchestra

SIR GEORG SOLTI


Live, 30 august 1981

Salzburg, Großes Festspielhaus



FLAC - 4 separated tracks






27 October 2023

Copland, Thompson & Sousa - BSO Koussevitzky


 


Another rare OOP Koussevitzky CD with an all-american program.

The narrator in "A Lincoln Portrait" is Melvyn Douglas (1901-1981).

works by Aaron Copland, Randall Thompson and John Philip Sousa


Boston Symphony Orchestra

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY


FLAC



9 October 2023

Haydn, Strauss, Mahler - Schwarzkopf, Cleveland Orchestra, Szell - live 1968

 




You may have already heard this Schwarzkopf-Szell 1968 Fourth live. Anyway, here you can also find the first part of that concert: surely no less interesting, speaking of one of Haydn's greatest interpreters and an equally renowned Straussian singer.



HAYDN - Symphony no. 93


STRAUSS  - 4 Orchesterlieder 

(Ruhe, meine Seele - Meinem Kinde - Morgen - Wiegenlied)


MAHLER - Symphony no. 4


Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano

The Cleveland Orchestra

GEORGE SZELL

July 26, 1968 - Blossom Festival


FLAC (6 files)








30 September 2023

Beethoven Triple Concerto in C, op. 56 - Trio di Trieste (2 performances)





Unfortunately the activity of the Trio di Trieste is not as widely documented on record as it deserves (considering a repertoire that included over 80 compositions), but what remains is very important. It is hoped that sooner or later the live recordings preserved in the radio archives will resurface, like the two proposed here.



BEETHOVEN

Triple Concerto op. 56 

(two recordings, 1954 and 1966)


TRIO DI TRIESTE

Dario De Rosa (1919-2013), pf

Renato Zanettovich (1921-2021), violin

Libero Lana (1921-1989), cello


In the 1966 recording the cellist is Amedeo Baldovino (1916-1998).



FLAC 








21 September 2023

Mahler 3 - Martinon (Live 1973)





The Martinon/Chicago live recording made a few years earlier is quite well known and appreciated; this Paris performance is less widespread, but not less important. It's not so easy to find real continuity conducting a such vast work, but the French master does it very well - there are no flat or boring moments - doing justice to both the most delicate or intimate passages and the grandest ones, without exaggerations and extremisms but with all the necessary intensity. The stereo recording is good, although the sound is a little congested in the fortissimo. 
All considered, a remarkable Third indeed.

(Of course thanks for all your interesting and kind comments, always appreciated!)


GUSTAV MAHLER 
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Hildegarde Ruetgers, mezzosoprano

Choeurs de I'ORTF, Maîtrise de I'ORTF
Orchestre National de I'ORTF (Radio France)
JEAN MARTINON 

Paris, Live - October 3, 1973
  



FLAC - 6 separated files











 

13 September 2023

Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem - Celibidache 1960


 



Brahms

Ein Deutches Requiem, op. 45


Agnes Giebel, sp - Hermann Prey, br


Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della Rai

SERGIU CELIBIDACHE

Milano - February 19, 1960


Listening to this EDR after several years, I appreciated it again (and more than I remembered!) for the extreme concentration of all the performers, as well as for a better sound quality than the average Rai recordings of the period. I therefore recommend it to those who don't know it.



FLAC - Separated tracks

6 September 2023

Saygun - Yunus Emre - Stokowski

 



Here 2 of the rarest Stoky recordings I have. 
A veeeeery old post reuploaded on request (and sorry for the delay).

Ahmed Adnan Saygun (7 September 1907 - 6 January 1991)  composer, musicologist and writer on music, is acknowledged as one of the most important composers in Turkish music history.

His works are rooted in Western musical practice; yet they incorporate traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. He usually adds this folk element by picking one note out of the scale and weaves a melody around it using a Turkish mode. His  output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works. The London Times called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Béla Bartók is to Hungary."

Sincerely I ignore if this tape contains the entire performance - no applause at the end - but according to wiki "is an hour-long work" (and here the duration is 58.35):

"Saygun's international acclaim flourished with his oratorio Yunus Emre in 1946. This is an hour-long work written for four vocal soloists, a full chorus and full orchestra that sets a number of poems by the 13th century Anatolian mystic poet Yunus Emre. This work captures Yunus Emre's legacy with the use of Turkish modes and folk melodies, although it is written in the post-romantic style. Since its premiere in Ankara in 1947, the oratorio has been translated into five languages and performed worldwide, including a performance in English at the United Nations led by conductor Leopold Stokowski with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1958. This same year he won the Stella della Solidarietà and the Jean Sibelius composition awards".


In theme of oddities, as fill-up for an hypotetical CD  I propose a coupling with the Concerto for Theremin & Orchestra by Anis Fuleihan (1900 - 1970), a Cypriot-born American composer, conductor and pianist.  The orchestra is not (as frequently indicated for this recording) the NYPO, but the NY City SO.

"In 1944, on the recommendation of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Stokowski helped form the New York City Symphony Orchestra, which they intended would make music accessible for middle-class workers. Ticket prices were set low, and performances took place at convenient, after-work hours. Many early concerts were standing room only; however, a year later in 1945, the board wanted to trim expenses even further and Stoky resigned. Stokowski made three 78pm sets with the New York City Symphony for RCA: Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration, and a selection of orchestral music from Georges Bizet's Carmen".



Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-1991)
"Yunus Emre" oratorio op.26

Janice Harsanyi
Carol Wolf
James Wainner
Scott Gibson

Crane Chorus of the Potsdam State University
Symphony of the Air
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI
Live - New York, United Nations - 25/11/58


ANIS FULEIHAN (1900-1970)
Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra
(1st world performance)

Clara Rockmore, theremin
New York City Symphony
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI
Live - February 1945
(with announcements)

 FLAC





4 September 2023

Furtwängler conducts Wagner (1952)





Furtwängler conducts Wagner


1) Der Fliegende Holländer, Overture

2) Siegfried-Idyll

3) Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt

Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della Rai

Live - Torino, 6 June 1952


4) Siegfrieds Trauermarsch

Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai

Live - Roma, 31 May 1952


5) Tristan und Isolde, Prelude & Liebestod

Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della Rai

Live - Torino, 11 March 1952


I "fished out" from my collection and ripped this CD which contains some of Furtwängler's lesser known Wagnerian postwar documents. Luckily it still works, so I can offer it to you. Of course the Trauermarsch is not part of the complete Ring cycle in Roma (performed in 1953): so this 1952 recording is quite rare. 


FLAC - 5 Separated tracks + Scans


15 July 2023

Bruckner 5 - Jochum, live 1982


 


I don't know if it's the same for you, but for me every new "live" discovery of Jochum is a reason for a great joy, never for disappointment. Especially from the 70s onwards... and especially if we are talking about Bruckner! I don't even try to describe. Just listen for it. So, like last summer, I greet you wishing you happy holidays with Jochum. Thanks for staying here, see you in September.


ANTON BRUCKNER

Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major (1878 Version Ed. Leopold Nowak)


Berliner Philharmoniker

EUGEN JOCHUM

Live - October 6, 1982 - Berlin, Philharmonie



FLAC - 4 separated tracks






8 July 2023

Richard Strauss - Giulini, Live

 



Still no Wagner-Giulini, at the moment... :)  Anyway, another "almost-avoided" great composer: during his entire activity, Giulini conducted only these two works by Richard Strauss (the Vier Letzte Lieder several times). Here they are gathered. An opportunity to meet again two other beloved artists. Lucia Popp - in the same period of the famous Emi recording with Tennstedt - and the great konzertmeister (or better "Concertgebouw-meister") Hermann Krebbers.




STRAUSS


Violin Concerto

Hermann Krebbers, violin

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

Carlo Maria Giulini

Live in Amsterdam - August 27, 1982


Vier Letzte Lieder

Lucia Popp

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

Carlo Maria Giulini 

Live in Los Angeles - November 6, 1981


FLAC - 7 separated tracks



30 June 2023

Enescu plays Bach and Beethoven (1949)



Also available on YT, but this is the complete concert in a better source 

(very good for a live recording of the late 40s).

Beethoven's Concerto, performed with extreme freedom and intensity, 

not only highlights the musicality but also the humanity and even the fragility 

of an immense musician perhaps still underestimated as a composer.

Maybe it helps us understand why Menuhin, despite his relationships 

with Elgar, Bartók (!), Furtwängler - and many others - considered Enescu 

to be the greatest musician he ever met.



BACH Violin concerto n. 2, BWV 1042

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto op.61 (cadenzas by Joseph Joachim)

BACH Fugue from Violin Sonata n. 1 BWV 1001


George Enescu, violin

University of Illinois Orchestra

John Kuypers

 

Live - Smith Music Hall, University of Illinois

February 16, 1949


FLAC - 7 Separated tracks


 

16 June 2023

Mengelberg - Strauss & Wagenaar

 



I've always appreciated this particular restoration 

of the famous Mengelberg 1928 recording: 

undoubtedly one of the best and most important of that period. 

I've been listening to it again these days 

and since this Pearl CD is now very difficut to find...

Well, here it is.


FLAC with complete scans & details






29 May 2023

Webern, Mahler, Brahms - Giulini, RCO


 

As in the previous Szell post, two works (Webern and Mahler, of course) absent from the conductor's "official" discography.


Anton Webern - Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 10 

Gustav Mahler - Adagio from Symphony no. 10

Johannes Brahms - Symphony no. 4, op.98  


Royal Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam

CARLO MARIA GIULINI


Live, 9 June 1979 - Amsterdam, Concertgebouw  


FLAC - 6 separated files






20 May 2023

Kubelik live in Amsterdam


 


A complete concert in great sound, 

with the best performance of this Martinu's Concerto that I have heard so far.



Bohuslav Martinu

Concerto for piano, timpani and string orchestra, H.271  

Hölzl, Hans (timpani), Kahl, Gernot (piano)


Leos Janácek

Taras Bulba  


Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1, Op. 68 in C minor  


Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

RAFAEL KUBELIK


Live recording - October 24, 1970

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam


FLAC



7 May 2023

Prokofiev, Mozart, Franck - Szell 1969


 


A concert of great interest to all admirers of Szell, as he has left us no studio recordings of Prokofiev's First and Franck's Symphony.

 


PROKOFIEV

Symphony no. 1 "Classical"


MOZART

Piano Concerto n. 27, KV. 595

Robert Casadesus, pf


FRANCK

Symphony in D minor



Blossom Summer Music Festival

August 14, 1969  



FLAC

21 April 2023

Dorati conducts Bartók - Live in Paris


 


Béla Bartók


Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114 

The Miraculous Mandarin


Orchestre National de France

ANTAL DORATI


(Live, Paris - Salle Pleyel, 29 november 1980) 


About The Miraculous Mandarin, I don't remember who said that listening to the suite one misses the excluded parts, listening to the complete work one misses the incandescent closure of the suite. 

Well, here The Mandarin is presented in a version (prepared by Dorati himself?) that I have never heard before. A sort of hybrid between the complete score and the suite, with the presence of the choir but the closure of the suite. All in very good sound.



FLAC


2 April 2023

Britten - War Requiem - Haitink 1964


 


The Dutch premiere of Britten’s War Requiem in 1964, 

with the composer himself conducting the additional chamber orchestra

and the three singers for whom this great work was conceived.



BENJAMIN BRITTEN

War Requiem, Op. 66


Galina Vishnevskaya, Soprano

Peter Pears, Tenor

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Baritone

Groot Omroepkoor

Jongenskoor van de St. Willibrorduskerk buiten de Veste

NCRV Vocaal Ensemble


Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Britten

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Bernard Haitink, conductor


Holland Festival 1964 - Friday, 3 July 1964

Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal - Amsterdam

 

FLAC - separated files






10 March 2023

Prokofiev 5 - David Oistrakh


 

Another recording by Oistrakh as conductor: never available on CD, as far as I know. It goes without saying that from Koussevitzky and Szell to Celibidache, Bernstein, Jansons etcetera there are sharper, virtuoso or monumental interpretations of it, but this remains a very well shaped and authoritative reading.

To complement it I have added one of his lesser known recordings of the Violin Concerto No. 1


Prokofiev

Symphony no. 5 

Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

DAVID OISTRAKH

Studio recording, 1967

 

Prokofiev

Violin concerto n°1 op.19

 

DAVID OISTRAKH, vl

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

RAFAEL KUBELIK 

Prague - May 15, 1947



FLAC


1 March 2023

Mahler 7 - Bernstein ODP 1981


 


Every Mahlerian recording by Bernstein is important, but in this case we add the interest of the unusual French timbre for a Mahlerian conductor that we know above all in American, Dutch and Viennese interpretations: the result is very particular and suggestive, especially in the three central movements.



GUSTAV MAHLER

Symphony no. 7


Orchestre de Paris

LEONARD BERNSTEIN


Live - Paris, Palais des congrès - 13 may 1981


FLAC - Separated tracks


22 February 2023

Mravinsky conducts Beethoven & Debussy - Live 1962


 


A really precious CD: it includes Mravinsky's only known recordings of La Mer and of the rarely performed Première Rhapsodie (soloist Vladimir Krasavin). Even the "Pastoral", truly excited in the III mov and rich of intensity in the very "sung" Andante, deserves careful listening. 

From 1962 concerts. Dates kindly provided by Panovnik (see in the comment section).


Beethoven 

Symphony no. 6 "Pastoral"


Debussy

Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra

La Mer


Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra

EVGENI MRAVINSKY

Live 1962



FLAC


10 February 2023

Bruckner 4 - Sawallisch - live 1975


 

Not always considered among the great Brucknerians, but his Orfeo recordings and some live documents say otherwise. 


BRUCKNER

Symphony n. 4 in E-flat major “Romantic” 


Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH


Live recording - Genève 

December 3, 1975


FLAC - Separated tracks



20 January 2023

Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem, op. 45 - BSO, Munch - Tanglewood 1958


 

BRAHMS

Ein Deutsches Requiem, op. 45


Hilde Gueden, sp

Donald Gramm, br


Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Boston Symphony Orchestra

CHARLES MUNCH


July 19, 1958

Live - Tanglewood 


FLAC - Separated tracks