Mahler 5 - Maderna (Philadelphia, 1971)

Not everyone shows appreciation for Maderna's work as a Mahlerian conductor:
and certainly here, who expect that everything written by the composer
must be 100% respected, will find many questionable solutions.

But in some passages I don't find comparisons with anyone else
(apart from Scherchen, perhaps)
and they really leave you breathless.

(one for all - II mov, 6:48 - 7:15)

Judge yourself, of course,
but it's certain that this completely anti-routine reading
can't leave you indifferent.
As always, your comments and opinions are welcome.


MAHLER
Symphony no. 5

Philadelphia Orchestra
BRUNO MADERNA

Live in Philadelphia - november 4, 1971

FLAC - separated tracks

Fritz Reiner conducts Bartók and Kodály - Live 1960

On request,
here's another "definitive reupload" on Mediafire.


Fritz Reiner conducts Bartók and Kodály:
three masterworks non included in the "official" discography
of the great hungarian conductor.
No Chicago, no Pittsburgh, no NBC...  but the New York Philharmonic.

And excellent performances:
in particular The Miracolous Mandarin is lavish,
hot, brutal, almost "pornophonic".



Kodály
Peacock Variations
march 12, 1960

Bartók
The Miracolous Mandarin, suite
march 12, 1960

Piano Concerto n. 1
(Rudolf Serkin, piano)
march 19, 1960


New York Philharmonic Orchestra
FRITZ REINER

FLAC (scans included)

Beethoven Missa Solemnis NYPO Walter live 1948

All right, another Missa Solemnis.
Then I'll stop for a while, I swear...

("for a while", on the other hand, is a very vague concept...)

But it's not my fault if Toscanini, Szell and even Walter have made
such beautiful and important readings of this monumental score.

Maybe the soloists are not up to some previously uploaded recordings,
but NYPO and Walter are absolutely at their best.

Also, Beethoven's year is coming.

BEETHOVEN

Missa Solemnis, op. 123

Westminster Choir

New York Philharmonic

BRUNO WALTER

Live - April 18, 1948

FLAC (separated tracks)

complete scans included

Shostakovich Violin Concerto n. 2 Oistrakh (Ormandy and Martinon)

SHOSTAKOVICH
Violin Concerto n. 2, op. 129

DAVID OISTRAKH, violin

(two live performances)


London Symphony Orchestra
EUGENE ORMANDY (november 17, 1967)


Orchestre National de l'ORTF
JEAN MARTINON (october 10, 1971)


Two little known live performances starring "King David",
the first and the greatest performer of this Concerto.
Composed in spring 1967, it is also the last concert for soloist and orchestra written by Shostakovich, as 60th birthday gift for its dedicatee, David Oistrakh. Premiered unofficially in Bolshevo, near Moscow (13 September 1967) and officially on 26 September in Moscow, of course by Oistrakh himself (with the Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin).


FLAC

Stokowski live in Turin 1955

JACQUES IBERT
Féerique
   

MORTON GOULD
Latin-American Symphonette
     

MANUEL DE FALLA
El amor brujo (*)
(Oralia Dominguez, contralto)
         

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony no. 5



Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI

Live - 6 & 8 (*) may 1955


Stokowski conducted other works during the two evenings (details in the folder),
but the recordings apparently did not survive.




FLAC & details included

Shostakovich 11 - BBCSO Sargent 1958

SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No. 11 in G minor, op. 103 "The Year 1905"

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Malcolm Sargent

London, Royal Festival Hall
January 22, 1958


The Symphony was premiered on 30 October 1957,
by the USSR Symphony Orchestra (conductor Natan Rakhlin).
This is the 1st performance outside USSR: the US Premiere was given
by Stokowski and the Houston SO a few months later, on 7 April 1958.


FLAC
separated tracks

Bruno Walter plays and conducts Mozart - NBC Symphony (1939-1940)

On request, here's three rare NBC recordings by Bruno Walter.

Like in the previous Wagner post, we have the opportunity to listen Walter as a pianist
(as in the old EMI version of the same Concerto).

Nice sound quality for 1939 / 1940.


FLAC + complete scans

Beethoven - Missa Solemnis - Szell, live 1967

After Mozart's Requiem / Bruckner's Te Deum
and Verdi's Requiem
this Missa Solemnis concludes an ideal CD triptych
dedicated to great choral works
never recorded in studio by Szell.

As in the previous cases,
a very personal reading of absolute importance.
The fast tempos (tt 76 minutes) give the Gloria and the Credo
a bump and a momentum of great impact,
but also the Sanctus succeeds magnificently
(with a very good violin solo in the Benedictus).

Last but not least,
Robert Shaw's imprint on the choir is crystal clear.
Fortunately, the sound quality is also very good.




BEETHOVEN

Missa Solemnis in D major, op.123

Sara Mae Endich, sopran
Florence Kopleff, alto
Ernst Haefliger, tenor
Ezio Flagello, bass

Robert Shaw, Chorus Master
Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus
GEORGE SZELL


February 2-4, 1967
Severance Hall, Cleveland (live)


FLAC
(separated tracks)

Beethoven - Piano Concerto no. 1 - Gulda (Hindemith & Böhm)

BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No.1 in C, op.19

Friedrich Gulda, pf

Rias Sinfonie-Orchester
Paul Hindemith
(Live, 1957)

Wiener Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm
(Studio, 1951)

FLAC

Berlioz, Bernstein, Schumann - Bernstein (live 1967)

BERLIOZ
Le Carnaval romain, overture

BERNSTEIN
Chichester Psalms

SCHUMANN
Symphony no. 2 in C, op. 61

(chorus master Giulio Bertola)
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della Rai

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Roma - June 5, 1967


FLAC

Stokowski conducts Haydn

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN


Symphony no. 45 “Farewell”
American Symphony Orchestra

(NY Town Hall - March 1, 1972) §


Symphony no. 53 “L’Impériale”
Stokowski Symphony Orchestra
(NY Manhattan Center - May 25, 1949) *



Symphony no. 60 “Il distratto”
American Symphony Orchestra

(NY Carnegie Hall - January 19, 1970) §

LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI, conductor

Live (§) & Studio (*)

FLAC

Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin, suite - Boulez, Kértesz, Stokowski, Abbado

Bartók
The Miraculous Mandarin, suite


Orchester des Südwestfunks (Now SWR Baden-Baden und Freiburg)
PIERRE BOULEZ
(October 18, 1959)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
ISTVAN KERTESZ
(September 26 or 28, 1968)

American Symphony Orchestra
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI
(May 19, 1969)

Wiener Philharmoniker
CLAUDIO ABBADO
(Salzburg Festival, August 23, 1981)


FLAC

Schoenberg - Gurrelieder - Josef Krips (live 1969)

Arnold Schoenberg
GURRELIEDER

GUNDULA JANOWITZ (Tove), sp
CHRISTA LUDWIG (Waldtaube), ms
MURRAY DICKIE (Klaus-Narr), tn
ARTURO SERGI (Waldemar), tn
HERBERT LACKNER (Bauer), bs
EVA PILZ, Sprecher

WIener Schubertbund Männerchor
Chorus Viennensis
Gemischter Chor der Wiener Singakademie

Wiener Symphoniker
JOSEF KRIPS

Wiener Konzerthaus - June 10, 1969

FLAC

Bernstein and NYPO in Venice 1959

Bernstein and NYPO in Venice 1959, realized as not commercial LP

Recorded at Teatro La Fenice during the NYPO/Bernstein european tour (including two famous concerts in Moscow), finally in good sound.

MOZART

Figaro ouv (excerpts) & Piano Concerto n. 17 (II & III mov)

plus Bernstein speech about Mozart.

FLAC

RT 034 Toscanini in Den Haag 1938

CHERUBINI
Anacréon Overture

DEBUSSY
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

DUKAS
L'apprenti sorcier

HAYDN
Symphony No. 101 "The Clock"


Bonus: Debussy rehearsal


Het Residentie-Orkest Den Haag
ARTURO TOSCANINI
March 23, 1938

FLAC

Mozart, Beethoven - Oistrakh, Giulini live 1968 & 1974

MOZART
Violin Concerto n. 4 in D, KV 218

Orchestra Sinfonica
di Torino della Rai

DAVID OISTRAKH
violin & conductor

LIVE - October 25, 1968



BEETHOVEN
Violin Concerto in D, op. 61

DAVID OISTRAKH, violin

Wiener Symphoniker

CARLO MARIA GIULINI

LIVE - May 25, 1974


FLAC

Prokofiev, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky - Romeo - Celibidache

Another OOP CD, published in the '90s.


The chronology of the orchestra shows these
as the only pieces performed on April 4th,
although the overall duration is too short for a symphonic concert.

The presence of the public is not perceived in any way
(no noise and no applause).
Moreover the sound is extremely good,
much better than the standards of Italian radio broadcasts in the early '60s.


Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet, op. 64 (excerpts)
Berlioz: Romeo & Juliet, op. 17 (excerpts)
Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet, Fantasy-Overture


Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della Rai
SERGIU CELIBIDACHE

April 4, 1960


FLAC
Scans & Details included



NOTE: Shostakovich 5&9 Celibidache
New link: updated & available.

Stokowski - The first Wide range & Stereo recordings 1931-32

A CD published in the late '90s.
(I don't know if the content has been reprinted by other labels).


BERLIOZ
Le Carnaval romain

WEBER/BERLIOZ
Invitation to the Dance

MENDELSSOHN
Scherzo from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

WAGNER
Prelude & Liebestod
from "Tristan und Isolde"

SCRIABIN
Poeme de Feu, op. 60
(two excerpts in stereo)


MUSORGSKIJ
Pictures at an Exhibition
(two excerpts in stereo and two in mono)

Bell Telephone Laboritories, 1931-32


FLAC
(scans & tracklist included)

Bruno Walter conducts & plays Wagner

Although all these live recordings are quite rare
and certainly valuable,
the big reason of interest are the "Wesendonck Lieder".

In fact, Walter is not on the podium: he sits at the piano
accompanying one of the greatest Wagnerian singers
of the XX Century, Kirsten Flagstad.


WAGNER
Siegfried Idyll

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Prelude & Liebestod
Margaret Marshall, sp

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
BRUNO WALTER

July 14, 1953  (misdated on the booklet)



PARSIFAL
Prelude

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
BRUNO WALTER
March 23, 1952


Wesendonck-Lieder

Kirsten Flagstad, sp
BRUNO WALTER, pf

New York, Carnegie Hall
March 23, 1952


FLAC
(scans included)

Beethoven 9 NYPO Rodzinski, live 1946

BEETHOVEN
Symphony no. 9

Dorothy Kirsten
Nan Merriman
Donald Dame
Todd Duncan

Westminster Choir
(John Finley Williamson, chorus master)
New York Philharmonic
ARTUR RODZINSKI

Live - NY, Carnegie Hall
April 14, 1946


An important addition to Rodzinski's discography,
with particular reference to his "golden age" with the NYPO.

Here you can listen an extremely fast (60min)
and "clean" reading of the Ninth Symphony;
perhaps not particularly inspired,
although not "violent" like the last Toscanini performances.

In particular, sometimes it's refreshing to listen to the Adagio
in delicate and flowing versions like this
rather than in the more usual "very-slow-and-over-expressive" ones.

The sound is very good for a mid 40s live and the orchestra is at its best.

FLAC

Verdi - Requiem - Szell, Cleveland 1968

GIUSEPPE VERDI
Messa di Requiem

Gabriella Tucci, soprano
Janet Baker, alto
Pierre Duval, tenor
Martti Talvela, bass

Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus
GEORGE SZELL


Live, Severance Hall
Cleveland - february 5, 1968


Like Mozart's Requiem and Bruckner Te Deum,
another great choral work never "officially" recorded by Szell;
available for a short period in the 90s only on a Melodram CD (OOP, of course).

FLAC

Mitropoulos conducts Copland, Barber etc NYPO 1952-58

AARON COPLAND
Appalachian Spring, suite

ROBERT SHERWOOD
Introduction and Allegro

ALBERTO GINASTERA
Creole Dance

MOZART CAMARGO GUARNIERI
Prologo y Fuga

SAMUEL BARBER
Medea's Meditadion
and Dance of Vengeance, op. 23a

New York Philharmonic
DIMITRI MITROPOULOS



Some Mitropoulos rarities: live recordings 1952-1958


Flac & scans with details

Schoenberg, Webern, Hindemith NYPO Mitropoulos

SCHOENBERG
Erwartung, op. 17  (Dorothy Dow, soprano)


WEBERN
Passacaglia, op. 1


HINDEMITH
"Die Harmone der Welt", Symphony


New York Philharmonic
DIMITRI MITROPOULOS

nov 18, 1951
jan 1, 1960
oct 25, 1953

FLAC (complete scans & details included)

Mitropoulos, Rubinstein & NYPO

Another AS Disc, of course OOP.

Flac - Complete scans included.

Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem - Wiener Philharmoniker, Walter (1953)

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Tragic Overture, op. 81

Ein Deutsches Requiem, op. 54

Irmgard Seefried, sp
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, br


Edinburg Choral Union
Wiener Philharmoniker
BRUNO WALTER

Live - Edinburgh Festival
September 8, 1953



EDR is available on a CD Andromeda,
but here you can find also the Tragic Overture
performed during the same concert.

Brisk tempos as in the NYPO studio recording
realized by Walter the following year (20, 28 & 29 december 1954).
So, the overall duration is just over 79 minutes.

Flac

Karel Ancerl live in Köln 1970

Brahms
Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op. 56a

Dvorák
Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53
(Saschko Gawriloff, violin)

Janácek
Sinfonietta


Köln Radio Symphony Orchestra (WDR)
KAREL ANCERL

Live - Köln
February 20, 1970

 
A complete concert (72 min) in excellent stereo sound.

Flac


Note.
"Beecham in Helsinki" is available again: updated link (may 25).
See the comment list in the post.

Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde - NYPO Rodzinsky 1944

Considering also the previous posts dedicated to Rodzinsky in New York,
it seems natural to continue the series with this CD (of course OOP).

Preceded by Mengelberg (1929, 1930) and Walter (1934, 1941),
Rodzinski was the third to conduct this work
on the podium of the NYPO (16, 17, 19 november 1944).

In New York he also conducted the Symphonies nn. 1&2 and the Gesellenlieder,
but unfortunately no recordings of those concerts seems to survive.

The audience applauds at the end of each Movement / Lied.
What to say? I do not know.
Maybe that night the MET was closed and the opera fanatics,
wandering around, had reached Carnegie Hall.
One moment... no, a concert at 3 o'clock, saturday afternoon.
Well, everything explains itself.

It remains only to imagine
how a casual audience could have properly appreciated what was being proposed,
but perhaps is better to ignore it and concentrate on listening.

CD ripped in Flac, scans included

Wagner - Monteux

"Standard Hour"
complete broadcast
with announcements.

WAGNER

Tannhauser, overture
Lohengrin, prelude I
Lohengrin, "Elsa's dream"
Die Walküre, "Du bist der lenz"
Die Walküre, Magic fire music
Tristan und Isolde, Prelude & Liebestod


Helen Traubel, sp
San Francisco Symphony
PIERRE MONTEUX

Live - April 22, 1951
Richmond (California), New Memorial Auditorium

Let's stay on Wagner

a little bit more.

Flac

Wagner - Meistersinger - Toscanini 1937

 

WAGNER
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg


Hans Sachs  Hans Hermann Nissen
Eva  Maria Reining
Pogner  Herbert Alsen
Jago  Herbert Alsen
Beckmesser  Hermann Wiedemann
Stolzing  Henk Noor
David  Richard Sallaba
Magdalena  Kerstin Thorborg
Walther  Charles Kullmann
Kothner  Viktor Madin
Vogelgesang  Georg Maikl
Nachtigall  Rolf Telasko
Zorn  Anton Dermota
Eisslinger  Eduard Fritsch
Moser  Hermann Gallos
Ortel  Alfred Muzzarelli
Schwarz  Carl Bissuti
Foltz  Karl Ettl

Wiener Staatsoper Choir
Wiener Philharmoniker
ARTURO TOSCANINI

Salzburg, Festspielhaus
August 5, 1937

(Sometimes misdated August 23 or August 8; but the opera was performed on August 5, 12 & 20).


As you know, this is not a opera-oriented blog (with few exceptions).
However, this vol. 33 is a must, because it concludes a long sequence of Toscanini rarities.

In particular, all the BBC-NYPO-WP live material in my possession.

This volume is too big, so I split the archive into two files.
Considering that we're talking about
the only AT complete recording of a Wagnerian opera, it could not be missing.

Toscanini conducting is not as heavy as the download.
It is difficult for me to think about a more fresh, better, alive, fun  rendition of the second act.

I don't have the Andante box (I'm pretty sure it's an excellent restoration),
but I've listened to several attempts  to "improve" a recording that cannot be ideal.
So I prefer to present this source, more "honest" and less "interventionist".
All in all, perfectly listenable
(some things included in other volumes are certainly in worse condition).


Flac

Monteux in Copenhagen 1962

BERLIOZ
Benvenuto Cellini, overture

TCHAIKOVSKY
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Erling Bløndal Bengtsson, cello

BRAHMS
Symphony no. 3 in F, Op. 90

DR SymfoniOrkestret
PIERRE MONTEUX

Copenhagen, Radiohusets Koncertsal
Live recording - 7 october 1962

+ Bonus - Radio interview 1959

 Very good sound.

Flac