Mahler - Symphony No. 9

Sir John Barbirolli - Berliner Philharmoniker

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 378 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 110 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 12 mb

Total playing time: 78:26

Recorded:
10, 11, 14, 18 January 1964, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin-Dahlem

Released 2002

EMI Classics 7243 5 67925 2 4

Track listing:
1. I. Andante comodo
2. II. Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers (Etwas täppisch und sehr derb)
3. III. Rondo-Burleske. (Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig)
4. IV. Adagio (Sehr langsam, molto adagio)

Reviews:
Gramophone
It is 25 years (January 1964) since Barbirolli recorded Mahler's Ninth in Berlin. This remastered transfer to CD eloquently supports the views of those who regard it as one of the classic interpretations of this symphony, worthy to be ranked with Walter's (CBS) and Karajan's (DG). There is an almost imperceptible tape hiss to remind us of the recording's age; otherwise the late Kinloch Anderson's sensitive production wears very well. The rapport between Sir John and the Berliners is obvious in the warmth, flexibility and richness of the playing, with the principal horn in particular playing with moving expressiveness.

Barbirolli's shaping of the great first movement, like a broad arch, has all the intensity that one so much admired in his conducting and also a sense of architectural structure for which he did not always receive full credit. The savagery of the Rondo Burleske is a feature of this performance, with Mahler's scoring sounding years ahead of its time. Barbirolli takes fewer than 23 minutes over the adagio-finale, with the result that the melodic pulse never falters. The string playing here is wonderfully heartfelt.

Full Gramophone review (1964):


Classicstoday
Certainly not one of the Great Recordings of the Century, Barbirolli's Mahler 9 offers nothing that isn't bettered by any number of performances new and old, including those by Bernstein, Karajan, Pesek, Klemperer, Ancerl, Levine, Ozawa, Tennstedt, and Masur. It is neither particularly well played nor insightfully interpreted. Tentative ensemble and characterless results from winds and brass produce denatured textures and limited dynamic range. Such moments as the great first-movement climax, with wimpy brass and percussion, or the polyphonic string interlude at the movement's center (based on its second subject), offer clear evidence of an orchestra either unfamiliar with the music or unprepared to meet its demands. But Barbirolli deserves just as much of the blame for this particular non-happening. To cite just one example where the problems come straight from the podium: the funeral march passage leading to the recapitulation severely lacks tension and any sense of onward progress.

The same dearth of vividness afflicts the two inner movements: in the second, the first Ländler lacks cloddishness, while the waltz fails to capture any sense of frenzy. Barbirolli leads one of the least nasty and exciting versions of the Rondo:Burleske on disc, with a particularly flat-footed account of the closing pages. The finale, at 23 minutes a bit swift by today's standards (and none the worse for that) comes off best, as might be expected, but it still fails to generate much intensity at its climaxes. Cavernous recorded sound places trumpets and trombones too far back in the mix, perhaps a kindness given their sub-par performance; but the remastering has marginally improved clarity and dynamic range, as if that matters when the musical results are so thoroughly second-rate and lacking in conviction.

Musicweb
In 1963 Sir John Barbirolli gave a concert in Berlin with the Philharmonic that went into legend. He conducted them in Mahler's Ninth Symphony and virtually re-introduced a composer not greatly liked by the orchestra. Straight away they asked if they could record the piece with him and even though under contract to Deutsche Grammophon were released to EMI for sessions in 1964.

This is the second CD release of the recording but I’m surprised it has taken EMI as long as it has to release it in their "Great Recordings of the Century" series. If any EMI recording by Sir John deserves inclusion this is it. In my opinion it is the best Mahler recording he left us. I've always felt his view of the first movement’s overall tempo and pacing to be as near definitive as you can get. There is deep yearning in the opening passage and yet all is carried along in an Andante comodo at the walking pace Mahler surely meant and which so suits the music. Note the unfashionable portamenti in the strings too. Not too much but enough for this surely to have been what reminded many in the orchestra of Furtwängler. Barbirolli is more passionate than many of his colleagues and yet he tempers this with a striking clarity in the in the contrapuntal lines that's a living example of a quotation of Bertrand Russell that Michael Kennedy found in Sir John's papers. "Nothing great is achieved without passion, but underneath the passion there should always be that large impersonal survey which sets limits to actions that our passions inspire." Passion with clear limits is what you get here and an even better illustration of this would be the long Development section, remarkable for how naturally expressive it sounds even at a tempo that seems quicker than many. The "collapse climax" at 201-203 arrives with a fearsome inevitability too, and then the "Leidenschaftlich" passage that follows it really is "passionate". Notice too the superb balancing of the magnificent Berlin strings, as much a tribute to the conductor as the engineers, I think. Listen also to the really depressed quality to the remarkable passage that follows where the muted trombones usher in a return of the "Lebwohl" motive prior to the final climax which is itself then driven home by the blackest of trombones, roaring out the fatal arrhythmia motive. As if all this wasn't enough, listen to how Barbirolli then takes the passage marked "Like a solemn funeral procession" and how he holds back his tempo for each step to make its best effect. Finally, in a crucial passage in the Recapitulation where flute and horn form alliance, Barbirolli recalls for me some of the innocence of the First Symphony. This is a touch of genius I have never heard under other conductors and this could not be more appropriate as Mahler sprinkled his sketches with references to "vanished days and scattered loves". Barbirolli was fifty-six before he touched a Mahler symphony. An example to the young blades who seem to want to record an entire cycle before they are thirty. I maintain that only passionate men who have seen life can conduct the Ninth like Barbirolli and that the first movement in his recording is so good because it seems complete: a cross section of everything the music contains. Others may scale heights and depths with more reach but no one holds everything in such near-perfect balance as Sir John

The second movement scherzo is as trenchant as you could want. There is forward movement allied to superb playing and notice the relish Barbirolli brings to the Tempo II waltz music. When the Ländler material gains the ascendancy later on you also cannot miss the swagger in the playing. Again I'm reminded how much the conductors of Barbirolli's generation had to tell us about music which under some of today's maestri can sound colourless by comparison. Only Bruno Walter "live" in 1938 gets to the black heart of the Rondo-Burlesque third movement but Barbirolli is closer than most to the frenzy we hear there. We are light years away from the passion and nostalgia of the first movement, of course. Under Barbirolli the third movement is full of pain and sharpness with again superb string playing from this great orchestra. True to his concern for that "impersonal survey" Barbirolli doesn't give in to the "Music from far away" interlude that is at the heart of the movement. In fact there's even a bright-eyed, optimistic quality to it. But then, as you listen further, you realise a world of great feeling in the string phrasing that only a Barbirolli could bring. When the main material finally bursts back he shows it's been changed profoundly by what we have just heard. It is almost as if the music is now commenting upon itself. A remarkable feeling to convey and something Barbirolli does in passages of his great recording of Elgar’s Falstaff. Here in Mahler the Burleske unseats the Rondo and "goes for broke", as it should.

At the sessions Barbirolli insisted on recording the last movement at night because "such music should not be played in daylight". If he had been holding back until now in the fourth movement he lets all the emotion come out at last. However, such is his sure touch that even here it never gets the better of him. It never becomes tasteless which under a lesser man it might have done. There's a rare nobility in the first presentation of the great Adagio theme and listen to how the strings dig into their bows and their traditions. The passage beginning at bar 49, in effect the second presentation of the main adagio material, ushers in a long passage which under Barbirolli is of such overwhelming intensity that even after over thirty years of living with this great recording it always leaves me quite shattered. The final climax to the movement (and the entire work) has a desperate, questing quality. It just remains to say that the coda - that long dying away - contains phrasing by Barbirolli that will linger in your mind for hours afterwards. Others play the closing pages slower. Others stretch them on the rack. Barbirolli chooses, like Walter, to let his eloquence of phrasing, his feeling for the breathing of a singer, to carry the day.

I place this recording of the Ninth Symphony among the very best ever issued along with Haitink on Philips (50 464 714). [...] It just remains to say that this new issue of the Barbirolli preserves what was an excellent recorded balance for home listening. Quite close in, accentuating the odd error of playing caused, no doubt, by the long takes, but endlessly illuminating for the details of the counterpoint that it exposes. I have compared this newly remastered release with the previous version (EMI 72435679252) and can find no appreciable difference. Maybe on the very highest end of equipment there would be but to these ears there is little to distinguish them apart from a slight gain in clarity of detail in the quiet passages favouring the new version. If you already have the first release I don’t think there is any need to replace it. This new issue simply restores the recording to the catalogue where it belongs and at medium price on a single disc it represents excellent value.

If you don’t already own this great recording, one of the five or six best of this work ever taped, buy it immediately. It should be on every Mahlerite’s shelf.

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Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral'; Overtures

Otto Klemperer - Philharmonia Orchestra

Birgit Nilsson: soprano [Incidental Music: Egmont Op. 84]

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 392 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 114 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 13 mb

Total playing time: 77:20

Recording:
Symphony No 6 in F major Op. 68 ‘Pastoral’
Recorded 7-8 October 1957

Overture: Prometheus Op. 43
Recorded 25 November 1957

Overture: Coriolan Op. 62
Recorded 21 October 1957

Incidental Music: Egmont Op. 84
Recorded 21 and 25 October and 25 November 1957

All recordings made in the Kingsway Hall, London

Released 2003

EMI Classics 7243 5 67965 2 2

Track listing:
1. Overture "Prometheus", Op.43
2. Overture "Coriolan", Op.62
3. "Egmont" - Incidental music, Op.84 - I. Overture
4. "Egmont" - Incidental music, Op.84 - II. Die Trommel gerühret
5. "Egmont" - Incidental music, Op.84 - III. Freudvoll und leidvoll
6. "Egmont" - Incidental music, Op.84 - IV. Klärchens Tod bezeichnend
7. Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral" - I. Allegro ma non troppo
8. Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral" - II. Andante molto mosso
9. Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral" - III. Allegro
10. Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral" - IV. Allegro
11. Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral" - V. Allegretto

Reviews:
Musicweb
Yet more illustrious recordings emerge, proudly refurbished from EMI’s vaults. In this case just a cursory look at the recording details gives many indications of excellence. The performances date from 1957, perhaps the high noon of the relationship between Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia. The recording was engineered by one of EMI’s best balance engineers, Robert Gooch and was produced by the eagle-eyed (or should it be "eagle-eared"?) Walter Legge. As if this were not enough the marvellous acoustics of the Kingsway Hall, allied to the skills of conductor, engineer and producer ensure that we hear a beautifully natural, musical sound.

It must be said straight away that Klemperer’s ‘Pastoral’ may not be to all tastes. Geniality was not one of the attributes with which one first associates him and, of course, geniality is at the heart of much of this music. That said, the performance has many insights and is characteristically thoughtful and trenchantly argued. In the first movement, Klemperer’s walk in the country is that of a sturdy hiker. The reading may lack something of a sense of wide-eyed wonder but there are abundant compensations. Klemperer is attentive to all the subtle nuances of the score, observing Beethoven’s accents and dynamic markings conscientiously but never pedantically. Here and, indeed, throughout the disc, the playing of the Philharmonia has a wonderful depth of tone, securely founded on a firm and sonorous bass line. The string playing is polished and we can also hear some top drawer wind playing.

In the second movement Klemperer lays before us not a "babbling brook" but one which runs slowly and deeply. The currents move with an imposing inevitability. There is much dignity here and, once again, every detail is keenly observed and allotted just its rightful place, no more, no less, in Beethoven’s musical landscape. This is a deeply satisfying traversal of one of Beethoven’s most lyrical inspirations.

However, I’m afraid I’m in danger of parting company with Klemperer in the third movement where the peasants’ dance is stolid almost to the point of being earthbound. It was of this movement that a member of the Philharmonia allegedly had the temerity to voice a reservation about the maestro’s tempo to his face to which Klemperer retorted that the player shouldn’t worry; he’d get used to it! Well, I’m afraid I’ve tried and I find great difficulty in getting used to it. To be sure, the performance does have an undoubted rustic feel and I do like the sturdy "clog dance" when both Beethoven and Klemperer pick up the tempo (track 9 from 2’05"). At random I got down from my shelves versions by three very different conductors. Toscanini’s 1952 NBC performance is surely too mercurial (he takes a mere 5’01" for the whole movement against Klemperer’s 6’33"). However, Willem Mengelberg (Concertgebouw, 1937) and Klaus Tennstedt (LPO, 1986) seem to be pretty much of the same mind as regards tempi; they weigh in at 5’34" and 5’38" respectively. I must say I feel much more comfortable with their pacing.

I’m much more at ease with Klemperer’s pacing for the remainder of the work. In his hands the storm is urgent and thrilling but, rightly, he keeps the speed on a tight rein; there is no rushing in the heat of the moment. In fact he exhibits a masterly control both of tempo and of dynamic contrast. One small typographical point. EMI’s track listing indicates that the storm movement lasts 8’43" whereas the actual timing is exactly five minutes shorter. However the overall timing given for the symphony is correct.

The skies clear magically in one of Beethoven’s most masterly transitions. Klemperer handles the join to the final movement with effortless mastery. He and the Philharmonia do the serene Shepherds’ Hymn of Thanksgiving superbly. Michael Steinberg has pointed out that in his sketchbooks Beethoven wrote the words "gratias agimus tibi" from the ‘Gloria’ of the Mass next to the theme of this movement, making quite clear to whom the hymn was addressed. It is beatific music and here it receives a devoted, majestic performance.

Despite my reservations over the third movement, and who am I to argue with a conductor who has so self-evidently thought through every note of the score in great detail, I am in no doubt that this is a masterly reading of the ‘Pastoral’. It is the product of Klemperer’s extensive performing experience of the score and of his deep reflection about it.

The remaining items are equally distinguished. The Prometheus overture is grand and splendidly articulated while the performance of its companion, Coriolan is patrician and magisterial.

In a recent review of a CD by Nicolai Malko and the Danish State Broadcasting Orchestra my colleague Jonathan Woolf fascinatingly suggested that Malko’s account of the Egmont overture was "Mendelssohnian rather than Wagnerian". Faced with such a choice I’d have to put this Klemperer reading firmly in the Wagnerian camp. It sounds as if it has been hewn from granite and I mean that as a compliment. I do wonder if the pace of the main allegro isn’t just a touch too deliberate but the blazing conviction and white-hot intensity of the performance sweep aside any such minor reservations. In his excellent and discerning liner note Richard Osborne comments: "No conductor in the present writer’s experience has shown a more precise sense of the balance between the overture’s symphonic and theatrical elements." I would also concur with his judgement that Klemperer’s way with the coda is "no vulgar grandstand finale … but a beautifully paced dénouement in which a sense of aspiration … is nobly maintained."

As well as this splendid account of the familiar overture Klemperer adds three of the other eight movements from the incidental music to Goethe’s tragedy which Beethoven wrote for the play’s Vienna premiere in 1809. Two are short vocal items, both sung by Klärchen, Egmont’s mistress. These are performed here by Birgit Nilsson, luxury casting indeed, who invests these two short items with all her great theatrical skill and presence. The extracts are completed by a brief oboe-led lament which is heard following the suicide of Klärchen. It’s a very moving piece, especially when played with the stoic dignity on display here. These pieces may not be top drawer Beethoven but their inclusion is much to be welcomed.

As I’ve said, the notes by Richard Osborne are of the high standard you’d expect from such a source. EMI’s recording wears its forty-six years lightly and has come up here as if new-minted. The sound is very full and truthful.

In summary, this is a highly distinguished release. Not every listener will agree with every interpretative decision. However, the performances are thoughtful and thought-provoking. These are Beethoven recordings of the highest distinction which have the power both to humble and exalt the listener. They fully merit their inclusion as Great Recordings of the [Twentieth] Century and I highly recommend them.

Classicstoday
Yes, it's mostly slow and sober, but the sheer concentration, textural clarity (notably in the forward-balanced woodwind writing), and spiritual integrity of Otto Klemperer's 1957 Beethoven Pastoral stand the test of time. So does Birgit Nilsson's statuesque, laser-like soprano that graces the Egmont selections. This is the Pastorale's fourth CD remastering, and it sounds virtually identical to EMI's previous 1998 version. In fact, A/B comparisons yielded so little difference that I found myself blocking out the music to focus on sonic issues. As it happens, this Great Recordings of the Century edition boasts marginally less tape hiss and a bit more presence--but don't replace the 1998 transfer if you already own it. The present option's your best bet, however, if you've yet to acquire Klemperer's Pastoral.

Gramophone
This is a tremendous performance, measured, controlled and completely confident ; and in the result wonderfully convincing. It is at least as convincing as Toscanini's though utterly different. Toscanini pushes the music serenely on. He is very close to Beethoven's metronome marks, but, except in the first movement, a little quicker. Klemperer at first sounds almost plodding by comparison. Except in the finale (where he is "dead-on ") he is much slower than the metronome marks, a purist might say too slow. Yet it works. He has all the time in the world as he unfolds this pleasantly long-winded music, and moulds it into transcendental shape. The orchestra clearly sense his high purpose and they have responded with playing that must surely have gratified him.

I found it fascinating to compare this performance, presumably made in 1957, with Klemperer's previous recording for Vox, made about 1952. Both playing and recording are much better ; perhaps of more interest, the interpretation has changed. Rhythms are more rock-like. With more years, he takes more time. The first and last movements, and also the "Storm ", are all much slower. He no longer has any desire to push the players along, and he now eschews such tricks as going a shade faster at bar 53 of the scherzo. He varies his tempi astonishingly little and yet nothing could be less boring. He has acquired a few new tricks : in the development of the first movement each chain of four tied minims starts by dropping to pianissimo and then grows to a climax ; in bars 479-487 he treats all the forte marks as comparatively mild accents (which I now see is what Beethoven meant ; otherwise why put so many ?), dropping the tone immediately after each so that for once the clarinet can be heard ; in bars 133-9 of the finale he emphasises the horn phrases (which I never remember noticing before they are inaudible on most records) to match up with the violin figures a few bars earlier, and he plays the first subject of this movement much quieter and much slower with mesmeric effect. The whole performance is a bit mesmeric ; it persuades you for the moment that this is as good a symphony as Beethoven ever wrote. Which it isn't, not that it matters.

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Brahms - Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 3

George Szell - Cleveland Orchestra

David Oistrakh: violin
Vladimir Yampolsky: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 318 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 78 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 12 mb

Total playing time: 65:05

Recorded:
13, 16 May 1969 Severance Hall, Cleveland, stereo (concerto)
19 May 1955, Salle Colonialle, Brussels, mono (sonata)

Released 2003

EMI Classics 7243 5 67973 2 1

Track listing:
1. Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 - I. Allegro non troppo (Cadenza by Joachim)
2. Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 - II. Adagio
3. Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 - III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
4. Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 - I. Allegro
5. Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 - II. Adagio
6. Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 - III. Un poco presto e con sentimento
7. Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 - IV. Presto agitato

Reviews:
Classicstoday
Believe it or not, this reissue marks the first time David Oistrakh's 1969 Brahms Concerto with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra appears on CD (not counting a hard-to-find Japanese edition). The violinist's interpretation does not markedly differ from his earlier EMI account with Klemperer at the helm; in fact, the tempos vary by mere seconds. Oistrakh's passionate phrasing and warm tone are all you could wish for in the first movement, with no shortage of delicacy and repose in response to Brahms' tranquillo indications. His broad and rustic approach to the finale remains intact, if slightly heavier-gaited (the quicksilver arpeggios aren't so effortlessly dispatched). Szell's customary discipline and chamber-like balances handsomely pay off. Note, for instance, the unusual clarity of the repeated 16th-note figures prior to the violinist's dramatic entrance in the first movement, or the Adagio's exquisitely balanced woodwind chording. The elemental power of Klemperer's darker-hued orchestral framework, however, holds special allure in its own right. And though the Oistrakh/Szell boasts leaner, more updated sonics, I prefer the earlier recording's more egalitarian soloist/orchestra balances.

Oistrakh's only studio version of the same composer's D minor Op. 108 sonata fills out the disc: a 1958 mono recording that easily holds its own as a performance alongside the violinist's better-known live reading with Sviatoslav Richter. Here Oistrakh is miked too close for realism, while Vladimir Yampolsky's virile, dynamic support sounds as if the piano was positioned at least 10 feet from the violinist. These considerations, however, don't detract in the least from Oistrakh's timeless artistry.

Gramophone
"There is now scarcely any need to write about Oistrakh's performance of the Brahms Concerto, combining as it does such complete command of technique with deep maturity of interpretation, nor of Szell's particular gift as an accompanist, so that one need only say that both are in the finest form here."

Musicweb
Only a few things to say about this entirely apt, not to say indispensable, addition to the GROC series. The concerto is well known to long-standing collectors and can without hesitation be selected the sole version in your library if you need to ration yourself. The tonal range of David Oistrakh (30 September 1908 - 23 October 1974) is wide indeed and splendid in its radiance, accentuated virtuosity and glowering power. He conspires with Szell in a performance about which not once do you have cause to feel that this is in sleep-mode. The performance is of astounding orchestral unanimity (listen to the end of the first movement) as you would expect from the ferocious Szell. Ferocity, yes, but listen also to the plaintive vulnerable oboe at the start of the slow movement. Be reassured that Szell could cozen poetry from his furnace-drilled orchestra when required.

Vladimir (Volodya) Yampolsky (1905-1965) accompanies Oistrakh in the Brahms Op. 108 sonata. Yampolsky worked with Oistrakh from 1946 until 1961. If you know the name Yampolsky it is probably because his son Victor, the conductor, has made several recordings for Naxos. Oistrakh scales everything down for the sonata which proceeds briskly and temperately by comparison with the furies that grip the Oistrakh version on the Concerto.

Oistrakh was born David Kolker in Odessa and took the name 'Oistrakh' from his musician stepfather. In the 1930s he made his debuts outside the USSR - Budapest, Vienna and Prague. The war and political conditions restricted his and our chances to hear him but the early 1950s liberated him to travel to the USA and UK. His reputation preceded him as did that of Rostropovich and to a lesser extent Daniil Shafran. Soon he was making many recordings both sides of what was, in those days, known as the 'Iron Curtain'.

Rewarding, freshly produced notes by Tully Potter in which he has taken real trouble to make this a true marriage of information on Oistrakh and Brahms.

This is Oistrakh in full flow and caught in the splendour of his long-sustained high noon.


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Beethoven - Missa solemnis, Op. 123

Otto Klemperer - New Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra

Elisabeth Söderström: Soprano
Marga Höffgen: Contralto
Waldemar Kmentt: Tenor
Martti Talvela: Bass

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 417 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 116 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 17 mb

Total playing time: 79:31

Recorded 30.IX & 1, 4-8, 11-13.X.1965, Kingsay Hall, London.

Released 2001

EMI Classics 7243 5 67546 2 1

Track listing:
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria - Gloria in excelsis Deo
3. Gloria - Qui tollis
4. Gloria - Quoniam tu solus sanctus
5. Credo - Credo in unum Deum
6. Credo - Et incarnatus est
7. Credo - Et resurrexit
8. Sanctus - Sanctus
9. Sanctus - Benedictus
10. Agnus Dei - Agnus Dei
11. Agnus Dei - Dona nobis pacem

Reviews:
Classicstoday
I've owned Otto Klemperer's classic 1965 recording of Beethoven's Missa solemnis in many guises, from LP and reel-to-reel tape to cassette and compact disc. Yet it's never sounded so good as it does via EMI's latest CD incarnation. Compared with the previous CD transfer, there's more bloom in the higher frequencies, with slightly greater definition in the bass, and the massed voices register with increased heft and presence. Best of all, EMI now gets the whole work on one midpriced disc, as opposed to its two-CD outlay coupled with Beethoven's Choral Fantasy. Klemperer secures stark, weighty textures from the New Philharmonia, whose forceful playing never loses linear clarity. Moreover, Klemperer's inexorable inner rhythm and carefully worked out tempo relationships (try the second half of the Gloria) provide gripping continuity in a work that can easily sprawl in the wrong hands. Wilhelm Pitz's expertly trained chorus is beyond cavil, as are the well-matched and radiant soloists. Not only is this reissue fully worthy of EMI's Great Recordings of the Century sobriquet, it's also quite a bargain. Don't let your collection be without it.

Gramophone
"I must end on a note of heartfelt gratitude to all concerned: conductor, orchestra, soloists, chorus, engineers, for a recording that must take its place on the heights among the greatest recordings of our time. As Riezler so truly says in his book on the composer, before mentioned, "having pictured in music, in the Kyrie and especially in the Benedictus, the self-existent majesty of God and the eternal peace of heaven, Beethoven was concerned in the prayer of mankind for peace, with something quite different. . . the unrest of human existence". This is why "he dared to allow the confusion of the outside world to invade the sacred domain of church music". (Haydn, however, had anticipated him in the Agnus Dei of his C major Mass" in tempore belli".) Beethoven, like Haydn, does not seek to preach, it is not his aim to rebuke directly the vulgarities, trivialities, or worse, and the lack of faith of his age; or, prophetically, of ours. This irascible, contradictory, ailing man, realizing his highest potential, the best in him, warns that man is not selfsufficient. Warfare, inward or outward— and he styles the movement "a prayer for outward and inward peace"—is timeless and elemental. "All a poet can do is to warn", Wilfred Owen wrote in the preface to a planned edition of his poems, and it is all a musician can do. This Britten has shown us in his War Requiem and Beethoven. in this last movement. But that is far from the whole of Beethoven's message to us. Even more important is his blazing confession of faith in God from which our small torches, often barely alight, can renew themselves. This, however we may interpret the message, is the true value of this great recording: we can study the unique work, contemplate it and reflect on it, with wonder and awe, in our homes in a manner naturally impossible in the concert hail. It is after we hear great music that it becomes creative in us."

Full review (click to enlarge):




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Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 21 & 22

Wolfgang Sawallisch - Philharmonia Orchestra

Annie Fischer: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 291 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 91 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 10 mb

Total playing time: 64:31

Recorded 28th February and 1st, 2nd and 10th March 1958, No. 1 Studio, Abbey Rd., London.

Released 2004

EMI Classics 7243 5 62750 2 7

Track listing:
1. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C: I Allegro maestoso
2. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C: II Andante
3. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C: III Allegro vivace assai
4. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat: I Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat:II Andante
6. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat:III Rondo (Allegro)

Reviews:
Gramophone
There is a snag about loving a piece of music especially dearly—you practically never hear a performance that is all you desire. I mention this because this E flat Mozart Piano Concerto is my own favourite of them all—yet everybody concerned with this record, bless them, has given me just the performance I want to hear; one, indeed, that even surpasses the ideal one of my imagination. I can find no praise too high for Annie Fischer's playing, for she makes every phrase a delight. Even plain scale passages become more than neatly played runs of notes, they become music. There is no end to the subtlety of her phrase shaping, of minute casings of tempo and, indeed, of everything that goes to make outstanding Mozart- piano playing. If both slow movements sound rather more adagio than andante, certainly the superb music of the E flat will stand it, especially when it is played as it is here.

The C major sounds rather less wonderful after the E flat, but that is probably only because it is a less wonderful concerto, for I am sure that the same remarkable artistry is brought to it. Cadenzas are by Hummel in the C major, by Busoni in the E flat.

Not less of a delight is that Sawallisch partners his soloist to perfection. These performances have clearly not been made on a run-through rehearsal before the first "take". (If they have, then Sawallisch is a genius at the job!) It sounds as if an appropriately small string body was used, with consequently good balance—indeed, here and there I wondered if the strings were not being unnecessarily held back a bit.

But everybody — soloist, conductor, orchestra and recording experts — has here combined to produce something really outstanding among recordings of Mozart concertos.

Classicstoday
These famous and rightly acclaimed performances need little recommendation from me. Annie Fischer's small discography for EMI has not been as well treated as it deserves, and so the release of this disc redresses a disservice to a very special artist. Fischer's characteristic intensity suits these concertos particularly well, and she turns the solo part into a true dialog with the orchestra. Especially in the slow movements it's wonderful to hear how she reacts to what is happening around her, while the use of Busoni's cadenzas in Piano Concerto No. 21 gives the reading unusual interest. Wolfgang Sawallisch admirably leads what clearly is Klemperer's Philharmonia, with woodwinds well to the fore; this makes Concerto No. 22 (with clarinets replacing the oboes) a particular feast for the ears and a marvel of textural interplay between Fischer and her colleagues. EMI's remastered sound is a bit bright, but it's vivid and clear nevertheless. A "great performance of the century" indeed!

Musicweb
Annie Fischer, the great Hungarian pianist, who died in 1995, was in her mid-forties when these superlative performances were committed to disc. She was at the height of her powers, and had as her collaborators in Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philharmonia. In Sawallisch she had a conductor who could respond whole-heartedly to her aesthetic and as for the Philharmonia this was certainly one of the best orchestras in the world at that time.

The trick with Mozart’s concertos is to be subtle without ever being twee, and Fischer knew exactly how to do that. As the liner-notes point out, her first entry in the C major concerto is masterly, sidling in almost apologetically amidst the woodwind conversation. The middle movement of each concerto is probably quite a bit slower than we have come to expect of a Mozart Andante these days. But that’s no bad thing, for Fischer and Sawallisch are able to give the music space and time without undue indulgence. This performance of the ‘dream Andante’ of the C major, long before Elvira Madigan was thought of, is perfection; the dreaminess is there, captured with ineffable beauty, but so are the uncomfortable twinges of realism that keep intruding. The finale of K.467 is again on the slow side of Mozart’s prescribed Allegro assai vivace, but has everything you would want in terms of wit and élan.

K.482 is one of the very finest of the Mozart keyboard concertos, with its majestic opening Allegro, its surprisingly dour Andante, and the serenade-like episode that interrupts the jolly finale. Fischer is devastating in the profoundly emotional solo passages of the Andante, and Sawallisch and the orchestra, particularly the fine woodwind soloists, respond magnificently.

The recording was in the absolute top class for its day, and this excellent transfer job by EMI means that it has come up sounding fresh as a daisy, and completely natural. An issue for which the word ‘great’ is in no way misplaced.

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Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du Temps; Chronochromie

Antal Dorati - BBC Symphony Orchestra

Michel Béroff: piano
Erich Gruenberg: violin
Gervase de Peyer: clarinet
William Pleeth: cello

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 341 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 99 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 11 mb

Total playing time: 67:16
Released 2008

Recording:
Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps: 14-16.10.1968, No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London
Chronochromie: 27.09.1964, No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London

EMI Classics 2 12688 2


Track listing:

Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps
I. Liturgie De Cristal
II. Vocalise, Pour L'Ange Qui Annonce La Fin Du Temps
III. Abîme Des Oiseaux
IV. Intermède
V. Louange À L'Éternité De Jésus
VI. Danse De La Fureur, Pour Les Sept Trompettes
VII. Fouillis D'Arcs-en-ciel, Pour L'Ange Qui Annonce la fin du Temps
VIII. Louange À L'Immortalité De Jésus

Chronochromie
I. Introduction
II. Strophe I
III. Antistrophe I
IV. Strophe II
V. Antistrophe II
VI. Épode
VII. Coda

Reviews:
Gramophone Critics' Choice 1969:
"As we leave the 1960s, let us reflect what a poor decade it has been for composition and hope for better things. I have no doubt that in the 1970s the stature of Messiaen will continue to increase. After a quarter of a century his Quatuor pour la fin du temps achieves its first recording by a major company and this has certainly been one of my records of the year, particularly for the piano playing of Michel Béroff (his colleagues are Gervase de Peyer, Erich Gruenberg and William Pleeth)."

Gramophone (full 1969 review):



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Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring; Fireworks; Petrouchka

Seiji Ozawa - Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Boston Symphony Orchestra

Michael Tilson Thomas: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 344 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 103 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 20 mb

Total playing time: 69:27
Recorded 1968-69 | Released 1999

Recording:
Petrouchka - November 24, 1969, Symphony Hall, Boston
The Rite of Spring - July 1, 1968, Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Fireworks - July 8, 1968, Orchestra Hall, Chicago

BMG/RCA 09026 63311 2


Track listing:

Petrushka, ballet (burlesque) in 4 scenes for orchestra (1947 version)
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), ballet in 2 parts for orchestra
Fireworks (Feu D'artifice), fantasy for orchestra, Op. 4

1. Petrouchka: Scene I, The Shrovetide Fair: Vivace
2. Petrouchka: Scene I, The Shrovetide Fair: The Magic Truck
3. Petrouchka: Scene I, The Shrovetide Fair: Russian Dance
4. Petrouchka: Scene II, Petrouchka's Cell
5. Petrouchka: Scene III, The Moor's Cell: L'istesso Tempo
6. Petrouchka: Scene III, The Moor's Cell: Dance of the Ballerina
7. Petrouchka: Scene III, The Moor's Cell: Waltz
8. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Tempo Giusto
9. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Wet Nurses' Dance
10. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Peasant With Bear
11. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Gypsies And A Rake
12. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Dance of the Coachmen
13. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Masqueraders
14. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): The Scuffle (Moor and Petrouchka)
15. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Death Of Petrouchka
16. Petrouchka: Scene IV, The Fair (Toward Evening): Appearance Of Petrouchka's Ghost
17. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Intro
18. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Harbingers Of Spring (Dances of the Young Girls)
19. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Mock Abduction
20. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Spring Khorovod (Round Dances)
21. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Games of the Rival Tribes
22. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Procession of the Wise Elder
23. The Rite Of Spring: Part I, The Adoration of the Earth: Adoration of the Earth (Wise Elder); Dance of the Earth
24. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Intro
25. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Mystic Circles of the Young Girls
26. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Glorification of the Chosen Victim
27. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Summoning of the Ancestors
28. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Ritual of the Ancestors
29. The Rite Of Spring: Part II, The Sacrifice: Sacrificial Dance (Chosen One)
30. Fireworks, Op.4

Reviews:
Classicalcdreview.com:
By the end of the 1960s, less than 10 years after he'd won the Charles Munch competition at Besancon, Seiji Ozawa was the hottest young conductor in the world. Bernstein and Karajan became his mentors (sadly, the latter's influence was dominant by the early 1980s, and the result has been to weep over). In 1963 he was appointed music director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony after 1936. For the next five years he sustained morale and preserved the performance standard of Fritz Reiner (1953-62), while downtown Jean Martinon's tenure (1963-68) went from ecstasy to agony within the first season, and became increasingly embattled—but that's a story for another time and place. Concurrently, Ozawa was music director in Toronto, switching to San Francisco in 1970 for six euphoric seasons onstage and off. In 1970 he also became music director of the Tanglewood Festival, and in 1973 music director of the Boston Symphony—a post he will relinquish in 2002, to the relief of many players in the orchestra and not a few subscribers.

There were personal reasons for Ozawa going soft at the center that border on tragic; he was not, however, a Klemperer who suffered yet surmounted even worse private travail, nor even a Karajan, whose old age was a medical horror, complicated by the erosion of his three-decade dominance world-wide. However, until Ozawa became mealy he was a charismatic conductor and a brilliant interpreter of 20th-century music in particular. Stravinsky was a specialty early on, as these performances testify. The only unsubtle one is the brief Fireworks of 1908, despite the staggering virtuosity of Chicago's orchestra, equaled stateside at the time only by Eugene Ormandy's Philadelphians. This glitters, but doesn't sound as digested as the two ballet scores.

To protect the copyright, but also to trim his lavish 1911 instrumentation down to manageable size for performances by average-size orchestras, Stravinsky revised Petroushka in 1947. This reflected his allegiance to Neo-Classicism (which he claimed to have created after Sacre) until the ballet Agon 40 years later, and the subsequent embrace of Anton Webern's distillate of serialism. The piano part, for example, mainly for the second of the original Petroushka's four scenes, was greatly expanded in 1947. Of late, where orchestral budgets can afford extra players, we've heard a return to the 1911 original, altogether more colorful and in its way more subtle. Ideally one would have a copy of both, and I don't know a better version of 1947 than this one. The Boston Symphony played with a discipline Erich Leinsdorf restored after Charles Munch's dionysian reign. It has the bonuses of a November 1969 Symphony Hall recording without the usual reverberating hangover (credit the original producer Peter Dellheim and his engineer, Bernard Keville), and Michael Tilson Thomas as pianist, when he was the BSO's associate conductor.

The prize, though, is the blistering Chicago Sacre recorded downtown on July 1, 1968—Ozawa's final summer as music director at Ravinia. Although Orchestra Hall had been "renovated" in 1965 with appalling consequences acoustically, there'd been adjustments by 1968, and RCA knew where to place the orchestra for maximum effect without resorting to phony reverb. The sound, in BMG's 24 bit-rate/96 sampling-rate, leaps out at one—as if we shared the podium with Ozawa. It is the most persuasive, viscerally exciting demonstration of 24/96 remastering I've heard so far on any label. As for the interpretation, there are Sacres and there are Sacres (Stravinsky by the way favored "The Coronation of Spring" as an English translation of his full title), and several are staggeringly fine. But Ozawa's kinetic reading of 1968 holds its own, and the orchestra's breathtaking translation into sound nudges any super-digi-fi disc you care to name. As I listen, it tops the Oue/Minnesota Sacre on Reference Recordings, which I bought a few years ago at full price out of curiosity.

When persons speak of the Good Old Days, mine—in the wake of Reiner's semi-retirement and death—include the Ozawa summers at Ravinia, where he returned as a guest through 1971. And Sacre is surely the prize disc of that regime. In closing, BMG has all but obliterated RCA from its "High Performance" insert brochure; the only mention is "digitally remastered in BMG/RCA Studios, New York City." Does anyone else remember the Anschluss of 1938?

(Anent the spelling Petroushka—rather than Petrouchka—in the headnote and review, it was Stravinsky's own phonetic English spelling in those several books co-Crafted (by Robert, that is) in the late '50s. Petrouchka, still to be found in publicity releases, program books and CD literature, is the phonetic French spelling of Stravinsky's original Cryllic. The British have gone further yet. Gramophone spells it Petrushka, which is really too far. There's no "uh" in Petroushka, but neither is there an "ouch." It's allowable to think of the title as "Petrooshka," but how that would look? No, Stravinsky the painstaking multi-linguist, knew best— even though my insistence on Petroushka led to a recent divorce from the Seattle Symphony, where the p-r tail now wags the artistic dog, at least in matters of "promotion" and program book—the one place where it is possible to get things right, if anyone gives a damn. A few of us—who fell in love with semantics before there were computers with, God forbid, spell-checks—still do. We are, however, plainly a dying breed, destined to join the dodo and various sauri on the extinct list.)


Amazon.com editorial review:
The Boston Symphony was at the peak of its powers when it engaged the 34-year-old Seiji Ozawa for this 1969 recording of Petrushka, in which the orchestra's then 24-year-old assistant conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, played the extensive solo piano part. Ozawa, in those years, was capable of striking sparks with any orchestra he faced, and there is a palpable sense of excitement to the Petrushka he uncorks here. The accounts of The Rite of Spring and Fireworks, recorded in 1968 with the Chicago Symphony, are equally dynamic and colorful. BMG's long-awaited 24/96 remastering unleashes the breathtakingly open sound of the original tapes for the first time on CD, and may require a volume cut to preserve peace with the neighbors.

Amazon.com customer review:
Ozawa's account of Stravinsky's most famous ballet is nothing short of astounding. The conductor has the Chicago Symphony playing with total attention. What is so amazing about this recording is that the orchestra is completely controlled and balanced. Although one may prefer a more spontaneous sounding Rite, one would be hard pressed to find a recording with more energy, polish, and power.

Ozawa's Petrouchka (with Michael Tilson Thomas at the piano) is equally amazing. The beauty of phrasing and emotion Ozawa instills into the players of the Boston Symphony orchestra is chilling. Indeed, when this recording was made, Ozawa had just taken the reigns or the orchestra (however, over the years, his energy and intensity has lessened) and they play for their new music director with total conviction.

Fireworks, a short symphonic sketch by the young Stravinsky, shows the influences of his teachers, especially Paul Dukas in the orchestration.

Although not a seminal work, the opus 4 is delightful.

The recording quality is of equal quality. Highly recommended.

Gramophone (partial review, 1969):



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