All Dvorak Concert - Szell, Rostropovich

 

Well, this is really something! Conductor and soloist are at their best and the sound recording is quite vivid. One of the best - if not the best - Szell concert with the NYPO I've heard so far. Although I personally love more relaxed, rich in chiaroscuro (like Giulini & Concertgebouw on Sony) or "idiomatic" versions of the Seventh Symphony (Kubelik, Neumann and so on), Szell's imperiousness and fire are enthralling, also because the intensity of singing is certainly not sacrificed to rhythmic impetus.

In addition to the presence of Rostropovich, it is difficult to imagine a more qualified conductor for the Concerto, considering the very long attendance with this page also documented by the historic recording with Casals and the Czech Philharmonic (1937) and of course with Fournier and the Berliner Philarmoniker in 1962, both splendid and indispensable.

Antonín Dvořák 

 

Carnival Overture, Op. 92

Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70

Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104

MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH, cello

New York Philharmonic

GEORGE SZELL 

New York - November 20, 1965

FLAC

 

Note: There is a new working mediafire link for the Mahler 2 Bernstein/Cleveland 1970 (posted in the comments section).

Mozart, Martin, Strauss - Fournier & Szell live in Cleveland, 1967

 

Pierre Fournier also performed the World Premiere of Frank Martin's Concerto in Basel on January 26, 1967. Here is the American premiere, a few months later. With variable sound quality the Concerto and the Don Quixote can be found around (I don't know if it's the same for the two Mozart Marches), anyway here you can listen for the complete program and the source is very good. Final announcement included. 

MOZART

Two Marches KV. 335 n.1 & KV. 408 n.3

FRANK MARTIN

Cello Concerto

(First American Performance)

STRAUSS

Don Quixote

Pierre Fournier (cello)

Abraham Skernick (viola)

Cleveland Orchestra

GEORGE SZELL 

Live - Cleveland, Severance Hall

October 25, 1967

FLAC

Piero Coppola - The Debussy Recordings

 

DEBUSSY 

Trois Nocturnes (May 1938)

La Damoiselle élue (Nov. 1934)

2 Danses (March 1929)

La Mer (Oct. 1932)

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune (Jan. 1930)

Iberia (March 1935)

Rhapsodie pour clarinette (Feb. 1931)

Rhapsodie pour saxophone (March 1929)

Le Martyre de St-Sebastien (Nov. 1931)

Printemps (Oct. 1935)

Petite Suite (Jan. 1930)

Deux Arabesques (Sept. 1924)

Tarantelle Styrienne (April 1932)

L'Isle joyeuse (Sept. 1929)

La Soirée dans Grenade (March 1935)

Cloches à travers les feuilles (March 1935)

Children's Corner (Oct. 1934)

Ballades de François Villon (Nov. 1931)

Orchestre du Gramophone

Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire

PIERO COPPOLA

3 CD - Flac & Scans

Rodzinski conducts Prokofiev (1957-58)

 

Two documents that testify the high level of this orchestra in the 50s: after all, they usually worked with Walter, Furtwängler, Karajan, Barbirolli, Celibidache etcetera... and of course Rodzinski himself. The sound quality is more than good for the period and it's remarkable that Alexander Nevsky is sung in Russian (a few years earlier even the German Requiem had been performed by Walter in Italian!); the reading of the Fifth is perhaps more discontinuous but still remarkable, with beautiful moments and an exciting Finale.

PROKOFIEV

Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78

Irene Companeez, alto

Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della RAI

ARTUR RODZINSKI

May 22, 1958

Symphony No. 5

Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai

ARTUR RODZINSKI

May 11, 1957

 

FLAC 

Oskar Fried & Berliner Philharmoniker (the 1928 recordings)

 

LISZT

Les Préludes

RIMSKI-KORSAKOV

Shéhérazade, Symphonic Suite op. 35

STRAVINSKY

L'Oiseau de feu, suite

Berliner Philharmoniker

OSKAR FRIED

Polydor studio recordings 1928

FLAC + Scans with details

Brahms PC2 Pollini-Ormandy live 1971

 

Here we are again! And here's something interesting, in really good sound. In addition, the first mov. performed during the Geneva Competition in 1958, when Pollini (16 year old) won the second prize.

BRAHMS

Piano Concerto no. 2

Maurizio Pollini, pf

Philadelphia Orchestra

Eugene Ormandy

Philadelphia, October 1971 *

Piano Concerto no. 2 (I. Mov)

Maurizio Pollini, pf

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Edmond Appia

Genève, 1958

* The Philadelphia Orchestra chronology gives the following dates: 22, 23 & 25 October 1971

FLAC separated + cover/back

Weber, Brahms - Mravinsky

 

An interesting Mravinsky rarity: mainly because we can listen here some of his early recordings (not much remains of him until the mid-50s) and above all because he's not on the podium, as usual, of the Leningrad Philharmonic.

WEBER

Oberon, Overture

Invitation to the Dance, op. 65

Der Freischütz, Overture

BRAHMS

Symphony no. 4

USSR Symphony Orchestra

EVGENI MRAVINSKY

Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory - December 29, 1954

FLAC + complete scans

Ancerl conducts Beethoven 6 & Martinu 5

Another rare Ancerl live. A delightful Beethoven 6, in search of simplicity rather than the timbral ecstasy (in opposite ways) of Karajan and Celibidache, or Scherchen's analysis, or the "cosmic" solemnity of Bernstein, Giulini, Furtwängler, Klemperer... And it really works, perhaps because of the "Bohemian sweetness" of the conductor. It just flows so naturally... Wow. 

I don't particularly like Martinu's 5 (maybe you could suggest a very "catching" version), but even here Ancerl is excellent. Really good stereo sound, by the way.

FLAC & Complete scans with details

Schumann - Piano Concerto op. 54 - Pollini, Karajan live 1974

 

Well, these two audio documents are full of questions that I turn to you, if you have any opinions  or if you know anything about it.

It is quite well known that Pollini was a rather shy man and apart from Abbado, Böhm (his favorite conductors: I know he also appreciated Jochum very much), followed by Boulez, Muti and a few others, he never established large and continuous collaborations... Perhaps some of you have news about the meeting with Karajan. Very interesting document, anyway: it is a nervous and sensitive reading by Pollini (particularly in the Finale) that I have not always found in his other live/studio recordings of the Concerto.

There are also doubts about the authenticity of this Beethoven 4 by Michelangeli... Perhaps someone better informed can clarify.

SCHUMANN

Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54

 

Maurizio Pollini, pf

Wiener Philharmoniker

Herbert von Karajan 

Salzburg, 15 August 1974 

BEETHOVEN 

Piano Concerto N. 4, Op. 58

 

(Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, pf - wrong attribution)

MARIA TIPO, pf

Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra

Zivojin Zdravkovic

Belgrade, 7 October 1973  

FLAC + Scans

Mahler 5 - Ancerl - Toronto, live

MAHLER

Symphony No. 5

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

KAREL ANCERL

Live - November 4, 1969

FLAC + Scans

 

Mitropoulos rarities

 

I fished out this CD bought several years ago, I don't remember where (maybe in a used record store?) I take the opportunity to "save" it by making a digital copy and here it is!

A group of little-known recordings by Mitropoulos, in good sound for the period. 

The most interesting are the Spanish Rhapsody (with Egon Petri) and the Bach-Casella Ciaccona from the Partita II. The "Orchestra of Radio Italiana" is the Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI (2 June 1950)

Complete booklet with details included.

FLAC

Enescu - Complete Columbia recordings 1924-29

The previous post dedicated to Enescu was very well received, so I'll add this. 

A very rare OOP CD.

Enescu - Complete Columbia Recordings (EMI/Shellman, Japan, 1995)

FLAC - Scans, tracklist & infos included

Beethoven 2 and Brahms 4 - Knappertsbusch 1952

 

A long time OOP CD which contains a 1952 concert 

(with extremely good sound for the period).

Kna's severe and "massive" style is perfectly recognizable even on the podium of an orchestra that is certainly not among the most famous; indeed, these are more energetic and "focused" interpretations than many others left by the german conductor. So I would recommend the listening even if this repertoire offers hundreds (if not thousands, by now) of alternatives: in particular for the powerful overhang given to the Passacaglia that closes Brahms' Fourth.

Beethoven 2 and Brahms 4

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen

HANS KNAPPERTSBUSCH

Live -  12 XII 1952 - Grosser Glockensaal

FLAC

 

Bruckner 2 - Giulini, BSO Live 1974

 

The studio recording of the Second with Giulini on the podium 

of the Wiener Symphoniker is generally considered one of the best in the catalogue: 

very interesting, therefore, also listening to a live version in good sound like this one.

Bruckner Symphony no. 2

Boston Symphony Orchestra

CARLO MARIA GIULINI

Live recording - Boston, 29 march 1974

FLAC

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

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

Kodrashin conducts Prokofiev & Bartók

PROKOFIEV

Scythian Suite

BARTOK

Music for strings, percussion and celesta

Moscow Philharmonic

KIRILL KONDRASHIN

Melodiya, 1974

FLAC and scans

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

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

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

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

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)

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 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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