GALININ, Herman: Suite for Strings. w/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [No notes, no dates, no lightnig-strike Big Tunes, but amiable Glazunovian lyricism played with feeling and sympathy. You could do a LOT worse…]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 (Original version). w/ Tokyo Metropolitan Philharmonic. [Some Brucknerites (Don Vroon of American Record Guide is one) don’t care for Asahima’s interpretations; I can’t understand what they object to – other than that they don’t especially sound "Viennese" – and I find them fervent, intensely realized, and deeply moving.]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Mozart: Bassoon Concerto, B Flat Major, K. 191. Karel Bidlo, bassoon; Czech Philharmonic

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". w/ BBC Symphony Orchestra [54:22] [For my money, one of Sir John’s greatest recordings. Usually, the interpretive polarity runs from Furtwangler’s mourning-for-a-fallen-titan monumentality to Toscanini’s "For me it is only allegro con brio" whip-crack objectivity. But Sir John views the Eroica as the musical equivalent of the Parthenon: an Olympian expression of all that is noblest in Western music and culture in general; and conducting it, he views as a holy and sacrosanct ritual. He casts his reading in the broadest, most spacious temporal arch, to make sure that every detail of the work is not only rendered with the utmost tonal beauty but that Beethoven’s genius has a framework as vast as possible, without fracturing the work’s structure. The timing tells you it’s SLOW, but it doesn’t sound that way. Instead, it sounds luxuriant, touched with supernal grace, a thing of wonder and inexhaustible glory. Frankly, it’s SO extreme, I seldom get in the mood for it, bnt when I do, I am reminded all over again what a titanic creation this symphony is. If, finally, this interpretation is just Too Much, it also defines a gloriously extreme view of the work, and everyone who loves the Eroica should at least hear how drop-dead gorgeous it can be made to sound!]

Berlioz: Le Corsair Overture, Op. 21. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [7:50]

Berlioz: Te Deum, Op. 22. w/ Alexander Young, tenor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & London Philharmonic Chorus; live, 1953. [45:51]

Brahms: Symphony No. 2, D Major, Op. 73. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 3/ 24/ 1936

Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 3/ 22/ 1937

Debussy: "L’enfant Prodigue" – Cortege & Air de danse. w/ Royal Philharmonic [4:20]

Delibes: "Le Roi S’amuse" Ballet Suite. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [14:15]

Faure: Dolly Suite (orch. Rabaud). w/ French ORTF Symphony Orchestra [17:55]

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Gounod: "Romeo & Juliette" – "Le sommiel de Juliette". w/ Royal Phioharmonic Orchestra [3:25]

Schubert: Symphony No. 5, B Flat Major, D. 485. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1/ 11/ 1939

Schubert: Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1‘1/ 1/ 1937

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, E Minor, Op. 64. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. January, 1940

Sallinen: Mauermusik. w/ Finnish Radio Symphony [8:44]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. w/ Finnish Radio Symphony [34:49]

Strauss, Josef: "Music of the Spheres" Waltz, Op. 235. Vienna Philharmonic (rec. 3/ 17/ 1949) [8:40]

Boulez: Improvisations sur Mallarme. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Debussy: Jeux. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Stravinsky: Song of the Nightengale. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Holst: Japanese Suite. w/ London Symphony Orchestra [10:58] [See comments under "Composers"]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, A Major, Op. 92. w/ Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live broadcast, 10/ 15/ 1950.

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. w/ Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live, 10/ 15/ 1950 [American collectors have never had much access to the distinguished conducting of Fritz Busch, so these sturdy, energized, loving interpretations offer an excellent chance to become acquainted with his work. The music is energized, honest, and compelling, while relatively free of rhetorical indulgences or "personal" touches. The off-the-air tapes offer remarkably clean, if a trifle thin, sound, and the Vienna Symphony – not always a first-rate outfit in those days – plays with total conviction and obviously deep respect for their guest conductor. The individuality of Busch’s readings stems from their rock-solid integrity; he reminds me, in that regard, of another under-represented conductor, Carl Schuricht. Even the "second tier" maestri of this time manifested more personality than any half-dozen cookie-cutter conductors you’ll encounter today. If a musician of Busch’s talent’s were practicing today, he would be accounted a giant among pigmies. Both symphonies fit handily on a single CD. Briefly available on the small "Relief" label, these recordings are today almost impossible to find.]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". w/ Gieseking; New York Philharmonic; live (3/ 25/ 1956) [36:36]

Milhaud: L’Apotheose di Moliere – Suite on Themes by Baptiste Anet. w/ Chamber Orchestra of Radio di Rlive (7/ 9/ 1949) [11:33]

Mussorgsky-Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. New York Philharmonic; live (3/ 20/1953) [29:50]

Smetana: "The Bartered Bride", complete. w/ Prague National Theater Orchestra & Chorus. [See details under "Opera, Choral and Vocal"]

Debussy: Iberia. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris. [17:33]

Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris. [14:52]

Ravel: Alborado del Grazioso. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris [7:03] [Bright, idiomatic readings, very nicely played and recorded]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4, B-Flat Major, Op. 60. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Beethoven: King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Anderson, LeRoy: The Irish Suite. w/ Boston Pops Orchestra. [See comments under "Composers"]

Luigini, Joseph: Ballet Egyptien. w/ Boston Pops. [OK, here’s the poop on this guy: Joseph Luigini lived from 1850 to 1906. He was – not surprisingly, when you hear this score – a favorite pupil of Massenet; he was also principal conductor of the Orchestra of Lyon, and one of the enlightened men responsible for the founding of the fabled "Concerts du Conservatoire". Among the pupils who studied under him there were Pierne, Charpentier, Wieniawski and Pablo de Sarasate. Not a bad resume for an "unknown" composer, eh? Luigini had no profound aspirations as a composer (and damned little free time to indulge them!) but if he was a "dabbler", he was a gifted one and his short, buoyant orchestra pieces (I’d love to hear the one entitled "March of the Emir"!) were popular and widely performed. But mostly he wrote ballet scores; this suite, Fiedler drew from his most popular ballet, which probably hasn’t been performed since 1887. Let me add that this early RCA (LM-1084) is one of the rarest and most collectable Fiedler recordings and my copy is in VG + condition; the flip side is the more familiar, though hardly overplayed, suite from "El Cid", which I happen to find hugely entertaining, as I do most of Massenet’s purely orchestral music (though God deliver me from an uncut opera!).]

Massenet: "El Cid", Suite from. Boston Pops Orchestra [Best recorded version since Toscanini’s, and incomparably better-sounding]

Nystedt: The Seven Seals, Op.46. w/ Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [28:30]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ [As usual, Massimo goes his own way, going slower where other conductors speed up, spotlighting the odd secondary line, and making two-wheeled turns around some hairpin curves of rubbato. I like it; the sound is excellent; commercial recordings beyond his gigs for Readers Digest are few and hard to find.]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, C Major, Op. 21. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 7/ 13/ 1950 [25:03]

Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77. w/ Giaconda De Vito, violinist; RAI Orchestra of Turin; live; 1/ 7/ 1953. [Neither the soloist nor the orchestra is as bad as you probably expect them to be, but still, this one is for Furtwangler completists only!]

Hindemith: Symphonic Mteamorphosis on a Theme of von Weber. w/ Berlin Philharmonic. Live, 9/ 16/ 1947 [The initial attack has a lumbering, ursine quality that makes you fear for the worst, but once orchestra and conductor settle in, it’s a special reading: monumental. What? It’s NOT "monumental" music? It is in this reading, buster.]

Strauss: Metamorphosen. w/ Berlin Philharmonic; live, 10/ 27/ 1947. [Given the ambiguities of their own relationships with the Nazi regime, it’s no mystery why two of the finest realizations of this elusive score should be early post-war recordings by Furtwangler AND von Karajan…]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, Op.54. w/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [It’s a fine reading, of course; how could it not be, given the close relationship between Gauk and Dimitri? But the recorded sound is dullish and gutless – the crucial timpani part is barely audible. Had Stalin issued an edict against "loud drums" that season or some such nonsense? Whether Gauk was terrified of the Gulag or just old and tired, the energy level here is uneccaptably low. Too bad.]

Bach: Brandenberg Concertos, complete. w/ Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. [Highly distinguished but wonderfully old-fashioned. Goldberg isn’t hesitant about bending a line or pointing an unwritten accent in the name of simple expressiveness. Definitely not Period Performance Police approved!]

Harris: Folksong Symphony (Symphony No. 4). w/ Symphony of the Air & Chorus. [See dyspeptic and nasty screed under "Composers"]

Von Suppe: "Pique Dame" Overture. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 1/ 23/ 1929 [7:50]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, Op. 13, "Winter Dreams". USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [40:44] [Swirling, idiomatic, indeed "day-dreamlike; Ivanov was yet another under-appreciated Russian maestro (at least over here)]

Lockwood: Concerto for Brass & Organ. w/ Marilyn Mason, organ; Cincinnati Brass Ensemble

Stein, Leon: Three Hassidic Dances for Orchestra. w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Ward: Symphony No. 3. w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Strauss, Johann: "Du und Du" from "Die Fledermaus", Op. 397. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 2/ 3/ 1929) [6:53]

Schumann: "Manfred" Overture, Op. 115. w/ Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. [Kletzki’s earliest major-repertoire recordings were often made, for Angel, with the Israel Phil, which was not yet ten years old at that time. Cream of the crop was an intense Mahler Ninth that may have been the first LP recording ever of that blockbuster; I have a copy but it’s too banged-up to list and finding a playable one is going to be a matter of blind luck. Anyway, this and the "Manfred" listed above are excellent readings, full of snap and vitality; recorded sound is a trifle dry, but otherwise quite good Angel mono, and Source copy is in immaculate shape. Collectors interested in this under-rated conductor’s work take note!]

Schumann: Symphony No. 3, E-flat Major, Op. 97 ("Rhenish"). w/ Israel Philharmonic [See comments above, under "Manfred" Overture.]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8. w/ Vienna Philharmonic; live and in stereo; October, 1961

Debussy: Rhapsody for Clarinet & Orchestra. George Pieterson, clarinet; Concergebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies

Hovhaness: The Floating World – "Ukiyo". w/ New York Philharmonic. [11;47]

Mussorgsky: "Khovantchina" – Dawn Over the Muskva River. w/ New York Philharmonic. [4:50]

Rachmaninoff: "Aleko" – Suite from the opera. w/ New York Philharmonic. [18:14]

Strauss: Johann: "Thousand and One Nights" Waltz, Op. 346. Vienna Philharmonic; (rec. 10/ 9/ 1930) [8:00]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7, C Major, Op. 60, ("Leningrad"). w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 2/ 9/ 1950 [71:51]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". w/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [Every one of his Mercury "Living Presence" recordings with the CSO was critically hailed, sold very robustly, and has since been enshrined as a milestone in the art and science of classical music recording; Yet at the same time he was making classic recordings – like this dark, turbulent, virile treading of The Pat, Kubelik’s standing was being gnawed to death by the carping, impossible-t-please Witch of the Mid-West, critic Claudia Cassiday (she had already caused the mercurial but still-brilliant Rodzinski to be sacked, and this taste of despotic power must have gone to her head!) One listens to this absolutely first-rate recording and cannot believe the old hag heard anything to find fault with: the interpretation is outstanding, the orchestra plays superbly – what the hell was WRONG with her?? As someone who’s written music and record criticism for 30-odd years, believe me when I tell you that NO music critic should have that kind of despotic clout! Ever! Hey, listen and judge for yourself!]

Beethoven: King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. w/ Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [6:48]

Beethoven: Eleven Viennese Dances. w/ Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. [15:59]

Beethoven: Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91. w/ Pariis Philharmonic Orchestra. [15:40] [What’s the very Modernist Leibowitz doing conducting lightweight fare like this? Very stylishl;y, thank you. Date and provenence of this very obscure LP, issued over here, for all of one week, by the "Olympic" lebel, which gathered many a murky European release into its porous corporate nets, the perfprmances are full of snap and vigor and the sonics are bright to the point of edginess. Very off-beat fare not just for this conductor, but for any.]

Mozart: Symphony No. 40, G Minor, K. 550. w/ Rochester Philharmonic

Schubert: Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". w/ Rochester Philharmonic [As far as his LPs are concerned, there were three different Erich Leinsdorfs. I’ll talk about the second and third incarnations when it’s appropriate. But Leinsdorf Number One was the brisk but often exciting conductor of the not-quite-first-rate Rochester Philharmonic, with which he made some outstanding and now very obscure recordings, known today almost exclusively through their often very crapulous LP "budget" editions on Columbia’s "Harmony" label. There’s where I acquired what may be his greatest recording of any basic rep. piece, his electric reading of the "Eroica", very much in the Toscanini veins but with a touch more human warmth and rubato. This Schubert/Mozart combo is also very fine, if you like these pieces done in a brisk, punchy, no-nonsense manner; The Mozart is especially bubbly. I don’t care for the "Unfinished" personally – give me gobs of sentiment and dark brooding tone in this piece! But if you like it played fairly straight but with lots of energy, this version will please. Basically the sound is good, circa 1949-1950, but the pressings are sometimes atrocious; don’t blame me; when I bought ‘em they looked pristine and still do, but there’s some kind of horrid in-the-grooves schmutz that disfigures the first 7-8 minutes of the Schubert (not enough to utterly ruin the performance, I hasten to add), but YOU CAN’T SEE IT! I tried running the disc through the Groove-Sucker; hell, I tried everything but steel wool. No good. Not only is the defect invisible, it’s uncleanable. I have no idea what caused it or why someone at Columbia didn’t catch it, but I’m sworn to being honest and up-front you guys about defects and here’s one of the oddest I’ve ever come up against. I’d love to dub this for you, but you’ve been warned in advance, so don’t complain. The Mozart, aside from being just plain old noisy – as though it were pressed on thrice-recycled-vinyl – is not so afflicted.]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1983. [As I’ve said before, Leinsdorf was almost a schizophrenic conductor; normally he was a dry, detached, almost Boulezian objectivist (his recording of the "Pathetique" is so perversely dry-eyed and uninvolved that it’s more of an embalming than a performance!) but when he was "on", he could blow you away. One of the all-time greatest Barber First Symphony’s I’ve ever heard is a live reading he did with the Chicago Symphony some 32 years ago – just blisteringly intense and propelled by a sense of sensuous, epic sweep! I taped this Sibelius out of ghoulish curiosity, certain it would also be clueless, antiseptic, and detached from the inward agony suffusing the score. Again, Leinsdorf amazed me by probing deep into the soul of this recondite masterpiece and bringing out details no other conductor has high-lighted so tellingly. He adopts "standard" tempos for movements I and IV, but the two spooky, lonely inner movements, well he takes them very broadly, and he applies more extreme rubato than any conductor I’ve heard since Stokowski, in his pioneering first recording with Philadelphia, cica 1934! It’s really, as they say, "X-treme", and by God it works. This is a great 4^th, from a totally unexpected source!]

Andriesson: Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Kuhlau. w/ Hague Philharmonic Orchestra; live, c. 1984 [If you like Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, I think you’ll enjoy this richly atmospheric suite.]

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, A Major, K. 622. Gervaise De Peyer, clarinet; London Symphony

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 1, D Major, K. 412. Barry Tuckwell, horn; London Symphony

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3, E Flat Major, K. 447. Barry Tuckwell, horn; London Symphony.

Haydn: Symphony No. 18, G Major. w/ Members of the London Symphony [15:06]

Schmitt: Psalm 47, Op. 58, w/ Orchestra & Choir of the ORTF. [27:05] [First recording of this glorious, heaven-storming, sonically spectacular, epic-scale extravaganza – I’ll be a live concert performance would induce angel-visions and transcendental seizures among the Godly. Reaches a majestic, sonorous, radiance-flooded climax, one that explodes in supernal light. I can’t imagine a more fervent or persuasive reading!]

Schmitt: La Tragedie de Salome, Op. 50. w/ ORTF Symphony Orchestra [27:42] [Schmitt’s aesthetic was very different from Richard Strauss’s, but in their two equally exciting but very different treatments of the same story, they both pull out all the stops. Why this huge, lush, palpably erotic wallow hasn’t been played much in the U.S. since the days of Mitropoulos seems unfathomable to me.. Not that you can’t make a case for Paray’s taut-silk approach on Mercury, but this score is a splurgey decadent wallow and it’s a mistake, I think, to try and tighten the structural screws too much. What a grand, almost ceremonial tsunami of sound!]

Balakirev: Overture on Russian Themes. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Strauss: "Arabella", The Great Scenes. w/ Elisabeth Schwarzkopf; Nicolai Gedda; Josef Metternich; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet, Op. 67-A. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Overture "The Storm", Op. 76. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Cor de Groot, piano. Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 5/ 9/ 1942 [39:18]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2, F Minor, Op. 21. w/ Theo van der Pas, piano. Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 4/ 9/ 1943 [28:59]

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 3/ 1940 [35:05]

Puccini: "Madama Butterfly" – "Un bel di…" Grace Moore, soprano; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 6/ 23/ 1936 [4:27]

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30. w/ Cologne Radio Symphony; live, Sept. 7, 1959 [33:23]

Strauss: "Elektra" – Electra’s Monologue. Astrid Varnay, sop.; Cologne Radio Symphony; live; Sept. 7, 1959 [10:16]

Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35. Alwin Bauer, cello; Cologne Radio Symphony; live; Sept. 7, 1959 [43:35] [The above three works comprises a memorial concert on the tenth anniversary of Richard Strauss’s death. The program note writer speaks of the "spasmodic tension" of the readings, and he’s right – they’re like sticking your finger into a light socket (although Dimitri DOES let the more relaxed sections of Don Quixote breathe and grow expansive. Good mono sound; the excellent Cologne orchestra, which wanted Dimitri to become its permanent conductor, plays like demons for him.]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2, C Minor, Op. 17. w/ Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. [Hard-driven, in the usual somewhat dry acoustic endemic to the Minneapolis sessions, this rendition nevertheless kicks ass big time!]

Berlioz: Overture to "Benvenuto Cellini", Op. 32. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 12/ 1939 [11:20]

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6, E Flat Major, Op. 111. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra [One of Mravinsky’s greatest recordings, in excellent mono sound. He captures the biting irony, the sarcasm and despair, yet doesn’t slight the work’s bittersweet lyricism. The Leningrad brass (Gawd, those trombones!) covers itself with glory. Personally, I think THIS is Prokofiev’s greatest symphony, although I do dearly love the 5^th. There are some top-notch stereo versions out there (Slatkin, Walter Weller, even the old Leinsdorf/ Boston on RCA), but this is uniquely insightful and potent.]

As July, 2008 draws to a close, we present not just one, but TWO "Mystery Maestri"! And one, or possibly even both of them, were actually real living musicians. Maybe. On the legendarily abysmal "Plymouth" label ( legendary for it5s unplayable surfaces and for the pressing compound, a semi-rigid substance I call "not-vinyl" that usually turned gray and wore into noisy smoothness after 10-15 spins, even if you otherwise took great care of your Plymouth pressings! The basic sound, under the grunge of groove wear, was originally not bad; the performance has spunk and personality:

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, C Minor, Op. 18. w/ "Felicitas Karrer", piano; the

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra; again, with no conductopr named inside or out; too dab, because this is a crisp, dramatic, no-nonsense reading in awfully good sound and with virtually no groove-wear.]

Prokofiev: Sinfonietta. w/ Philadelphia Orchestra; live, c. 1984

Corelli: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, complete. Moscow Philharmonic Soloists’ Ensemble. [Despite the steady popularity of Baroque music (although one gives thanks to God that the so-called "Vivaldi Boom" died out finally!), this monumental and often very beautiful cycle of string-music symphonies still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Oistrakh’s ensemble isn’t dainty; neither is it coarse, and he conducts each concerto grosso with maximum care to extract, even show-off, its vivid coloristic plumage. Tempi are often broad – so both conductor and players can caress a phrase here, put a special sheen on the harmonic texture there, and in general milk these puppies for all their worth…without ever bearing down on them with more Romantic emphasis than one suspects Corelli would have appreciated. But, boy, would he have loved the rich, coruscating tone of these splendid Russian string players! If you’ve never really sat down and listened to the cycle all the way through, DO make the effort. Corelli’s powers of invention were extraordinary and the individual concerti do not blur into one another when you really listen to them, instead of using them for Musak while you do the ironing. A great set, but one that never got wide distribution in America and that is, today, very rare. My Source copy is immaculate and unblemished. Wonderfully immediate in-the-room sonics, too.]

Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14. w/ Philadelphia Orchestra [His first recording, c. 1952; a thick, navy-blue-label Columbia, without "Groove-guard" rims; it’s very. very hard to find these LPs in playable condition, precisely because they rubbed against each other on the record "changers" [Read: "mutilators"] so many consumers used in the early 50s. And I got this as a Randolph County Public Library discard for 50 cents. Damn thing must have been checked out no more than twice! Sometimes you get lucky. Oh, yeah, Ormandy’s interpretation is juicy with rubato, retards, luftpausen, speedy little accelerandos, taffy-pull slow-downs, the whole bag of 19^th-Century tricks; his later RCA stereo version is straight as an arrow by comparison (but is still awesomely recorded and very energized, one of my all-time favorite Ormandy readings of anything]

Franck: "Psyche", Four Orchestral Episodes. w/ American Symphony, live, 1/ 28/ 1968

Mozart: Symphony No. 38, "Prague". w/ American Symphony Orchestra; live, 1/ 28/ 1968

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". w/ National Philharmonic of London. [Like most of Paita’s tragically short discography – he died under mysterious circumstances, drowning I think, just as his career was going nova – this is a white-hot, all-stops-out performance by a fiery young Argentine maestro who had more than a touch of kinship with Guido Cantelli, including, alas, the early death. Spectacular, almost vulgarly vivid, sonics. I’ve tried to collect all of his commercial discs, but still haven’t located any live concert tapes. Anyone out there able to help me out?]

Wagner: "Lohengrin" – Preludes Acts I & III. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Die Meistersinger" – "Prelude". Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Tannhauser" – Overture. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Die Walkure" – Ride of the Valkyries. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra [Very scarce early "Living Presence" monaural; library discard has some dismaying but rather light scratches. Paray, as expected, takes a dry-eyed non-monumental approach to this music: crisp, no nonsense, and emphasizing clarity above emotion. It works superbly in the "Ride of the Valkyries", but the rather thin, dry string tone of the orchestra undercuts his efforts in the lusher selections. The wear and tear isn’t so great as to obscure the generally excellent sound, though, and for Paray collectors, this is still a highly desirable LP.]

Kay, Ulysses: Concerto for Orchestra. w/ Teatro la Fenice Symphony Orchestra. [17:15] [Please see intemperate, typically over-long but wholly favorable rave under "Composers"]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act II – "Ah Manon, mi tradisce." w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954; [3:58]

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonrasro!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Fedora Barbieri; Boris Christoff; Rome Opera House Orchestra [2:32]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act I – "Questa o quella". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Romer O[era House Orchestra [2:08]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act III – "Bella figlia dell’amore". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Rome Opera House Orchestra [5:54]

Mahler: "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" & "Ruckert Lieder", Excerpts from. w/ Alfred Poell, tenor; Anny Felbermayer, soprano; Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Prokofiev: War & Peace, complete & sung in Italian. Maggio Musicale, Florence; live, 1953 [See details under "Opera, Choral & Vocal Soloists"]

Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 125. w/ Rostropovich & Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Berlin Symphony Orchestra. [Trust Sanderling to give us a Tchaik Fifth unlike anyone else’s. No cheap thrills. It’s sober, dignified, dark and weighty and to my tastes, just a little bit dull – until the last two movements, when he suddenly starts hurling thunderbolts. Is he following a triumph-through-struggle program here? Darkness – into – light? Or did he just find the work’s inherent vulgarity alien to him? Who knows? For what it’s worth, though, both playing and recorded sound are of the very highest quality. I might grow to like this version after a while – the "dignity" thing isn’t entirely wrong-headed and the sonics sure are voluptuous.]

SCHERCHEN:

Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5. w/ Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris & ORTF Chorus. [98:21] [See comments under "Composer"]

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprano Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Haydn: Symphony No. 92. G Major, Hob. 1:92 ("Oxford"). w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [23:56]

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. w/ NWDR Orchestra of Hamburg. [In addition to making a small but choice number of records for Capitol, HS-I also recorded a few in stereo for Vox; this is one. The usually crisp, incisive, no-nonsense conductor (whose icy, craggy Sibelius IInd is one of the jewels of these catalogues!) here seems to have contracted a bad case of Furtwangleritis. If you like this reading, you’ll describe it as "broad and monumental"; if you don’t, you’d probably call it "slow, draggy, and Teutonic". I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. However, it’s very rare, my source copy is near-mint, and I know there ARE some H S-I collectors, ‘cause I’ve met a couple. Uncharacteristically, alas, HS-I here fails to deliver the kind of crunchy power Furtwangler or Knappertsbusch could even at funereal tempos; I don’t recommend it for your first exposure to this usually excellent maestro.]

Ovchinnikov: Symphony No. 1, E Flat Minor. w/ USSR Large Radio Symphony Orchestra [See comments under "Composers"]

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Paris Conservatoire Orchestra (1958) [9:56]

Hindemith: Mathis der Maler. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra [28:11] [One of the very best!]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34. w/ Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra [15:44]

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45. w/ Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [16:48]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"). w/ Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra.

Mozart: Serenade for 13 Winds, E Flat Major, K. 361. [41:11] [Sometimes Stokie could blow you away by NOT giving a "personalized" reading! Here, he plays this beguiling score perfectly straight, just imbuing it with tons of charm and personality and proving how great the wind section of the ASO had become. Superb sonics, too.]

Ravel: Alborado del Gracioso. w/ Frenbch ORTF Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, B Minor, "Pathetique". w/ Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, c. 1944 [See comments under "Composers"]

SWAROWSKY: [This month, we feature a varied "pops" program by Elusive Hans, taken from a very early "Music Treasures" LP in remarkably fine condition. I still wonder about this dude. He evidently taught about half the famous conductors of the 20^th century, and I’ve seldom heard a performance by him that wasn’t vital and interesting – yet he never was Music Director of a major symphonic ensemble, and his recording activities were almost exclusively with second-rate, budget or subscription labels (such as Music Treasures) and the best outfit he normally got to conduct was either the Vienna Symphony or the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (one of those two is almost certainly the band you hear on this ancient LP, under the nom-du-disque of the "Music Treasures Symphony Orchestra". Well, really, who gives a rat’s ass? He was a fine and unpredictable maestro, and these warhorses lather up just fine for him. Sound and surfaces, too, are unusually good for this sometimes-cruddy label. Not a major addition to his discography, but it does prove he could to the Arthur Fiedler bit quite engagingly when he felt like it.]

Wagner: "Gotterdammerung", complete. w/ South German Philharmonic; Vienna State Opera Chorus & various soloists.

Strauss, Johann:"On the Beautiful Blue Danube", Op. 314. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 6/ 23/ 1934. [9:05]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 8, G Major, Op. 88. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, c. 1952-1953. [What a rotten shame Talich did not live into the stereo age! The bright, rather edgy monaural sonics on this Supraphon classic are still surprisingly listenable – that sweet, golden-hued reverb in the Prague Hall of Artists!) and the CPO plays for him like Bohemian angels. And this performance has it all, in perfect proportion: earthy folk-tunes’ swinging with perfect rhythm; golden laser-beam brass (dig the solo trumpet when he announces the finale! Always gives me goosebumps… and lastly, my Source copy is in very clean shape with narry a pop or crackle. This is the way God meant for Dvorak to sound, people: both ineffably sweet and crushingly powerful! A great Number Eight (or as we used to call it in 1956, "Number Four" (just to screw with everybody’s head one last time!]

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4, D Major, K. 218. Jiri Novak, violin; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Blacher: Paganini Variations. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984

Mahler: Symphony No. 9. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra; live, c. 1983

Beethoven: "Creatures of Prometheus", Adagio & Allegretto only. w/ NBC Symphony; live; 11/ 25/ 1939]

Beethoven: Septet, E Flat Major, Op. 20, in uncredited ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENT!. w/ NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 18/ 1939 [35:17] [Gadzooks! What weirdness is this!!?? So much for Toscanini’s legendary integrity: "never tamper with the score"! But it would be churlish to remind you that he was, after all, a human being and therefore almost by definition was a walking seething mass of contradictions. I have no idea who did this orchestration, but it’s tasteful and thoroughly respectful of the original – however, and this is kind of cool, it DOES make this early (and to my ears rather vapid) Beethoven tidbit sound an awful lot like middle-aged Brahms! Toscanini conducts both this and the two movements listed below with exquisite poise and elegance…if only the NBC orchestra could have swapped string sections with the Philadelphia for this concert!]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 – Lento & Vivace movements only. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live; 11/ 23/ 1939 [10:50] [More than one conductor has tried orchestrating this especially big-boned quartet. Mitropoulos did a lush, steamy arrangement, which was eventually recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic under Bernstein; Felix Weingartner orchestrated it, too, although I’ve never heard that one; and here’s Toscanini’s (if in fact it IS his work) I think the music easily survives translation to a big body of strings, but to work like that it has to be conducted very forcefully, even showily, and Toscanini is very restrained and elegant here. Valid up to a point, but you really have to strain to hear the quieter moments.]

Schubert: "Gastein" Symphony. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live, 1940 [41:26] [Whether or not you think this odd-man-out deserves a permanent place in the Schubert canon, you’ll surely never hear a finer realization of it than this one, recorded while Toscanini and the NBC players were still a fresh, potent combination and before the conductor’s style had become stiff, inflexible and dogmatic. In fact, the notable thing about this reading is its warmth and relaxed lyricism, combined with a graceful application of power when the score calls for it (which isn’t often, but the last movement does pack plenty of drama, and you’ll never hear it done with more ferocious energy; the coda just explodes with long-held-back excitement. For all its eloquence, the reading survives only on mediocre-sounding air-checks, so you may have to strain a little to hear all the marvelous, glowing details that Toscanini brought out; this was, alas, the only time he programmed this symphony, so it’s "mediocre air-checks" or nothing.]

Stravinsky: Petrouchka – Tableaux 1 & 2 only. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live, 1941. [17:37] [As you might suspect, Toscanini detested the music of Stravinsky. He was "induced" (brow-beaten, really] into performing these two extracts from Petrouchka because the executives at NBC were already catching flak with regard to Toscanini’s "reactionary" programming and wanted their prize conductor to throw an occasional bone in the direction of the Twentieth Century. It’s too bad really that he never took on Le Sacre – can you imagine the percussion sound?? – but these 18 minutes of the earlier ballet would end up being the ONE AND ONLY time Toscanini crossed batons with Stravinsky. Whether he hated this score or not, there’s no gainsaying the ferocity and galvanic sizzle of this reading, especially the sheer nastiness from the brass! Maybe it would have been a good idea to have him program MORE pieces that he hated!]

Verdi: Requiem. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; Westminster Choir; Zinka Milanov; Bruna Castania; Jussi Bjoerling; Nicola Mascagna; recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Jan. 1940. [Each Toscainin recording of this totanic work is tremenoud and eachj is different, often significantly so, from the others. I suppose the most theatrically potent one is the 1939 BBC breoadcast (clouds of looming wear and all that!), but the slightly woolly and definiately "old" sounding sonics compromise the power of the reading; the studio recording RAC made in 1951 ain’t got no flies on it, either – packs a whallop. But this 1940 version is graced bt a quartet of the best singeres Toscanini was ever graced with, and they in turn are backed up by the Westminster Choir in its glory days! RCA captured the live electricity handsomely, no gain-riding in the ballsiest climaxes; the solo quartet’s individual voices blend superbly and their solo lines soar like Icarus – this demonstrates why Carnegie Hall was such a beloved recording venue and, by contrast, why Avery Fisher Hall, despite several major re-builds and the spending of more money than the Gross National Product of most Third World countries, still has the acoustics of a pay-toilet.]

Verdi: Te Deum. w/ NBC Symphony & Robert Shaw Chorale; live, Carnegie Hall, 1954. [Just colossal!]

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, Op. 90 ("Italian"), This has long been one of my favorite Van Beinum records – light as a feather, graceful as a swallow yet that glorious brass section plays with a hint of real swagger. Fine sonics, too, for 1952!]

Rosselini, Renzo: "Stampe, della vecchia Roma". w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 12/ 17/ 1942 [13:09]

>>>>SPECIAL LISTING: SIEGFRIED CONDUCTS RICHARD<<<<<<

Unavailable in any format since 1975, here are the collected recordings of Richard Wagner’s music as conducted by his son, Siegfried Wagner. Is there any reason besides genetics to regard them as "special"? You bet! Siegfried was not only a prolific and pretty-damn-good composer, he was an excellent conductor. George Bernard Shaw regarded him as being equal in his talent to Hans Richter and Felix Mottl; of course he conducted a lot at Bayreuth, but he was also extensively engaged in London, Paris, Vienna, Prague and other major centers of music; he was famously easy-going and patient with orchestras and his generally broad tempos were the means of achieving unusually detailed articulation and poetic phrasing. I won’t pretend these are "high fidelity" recordings, but for early electrics, they contain an unusual sense of presence and plenty of detail. If you’re a Wagnerian, you must at least hear these rarities, which to the best of my knowledge have never been transferred to CD. N.B.: the entire set takes up 1.5 CDs, so you might want to fill ‘er up with Siegfried’s symphony or a couple of his tone poems!]

Richard Wagner: "Das Reingold" – "Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla" Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January 26, 1927.

"Die Walkure" – " Ride of the Valkyries". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded December 8, 1926

"Die Walkure" – "Wotan’s Farewell & Magic Fire Music". Recorded January 26, 1927

"Lohengrin" – "Prelude to Act I". London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

Siegfried Idyll. London Symphony Orchestra; recorded Apreil, 1927

"Tannhauser" – "Entrance of the Guests". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January, 1927

"Tristan und Isolde" – "Prelude & Liebestod". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded October, 1926

The "Huldigungsmarsch". London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

"Parsifal" – "Prelude to Act III". Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded August 18, 1927

"Parsifal" – "Good Friday Spell, Act III" Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded December 8, 1926

Siegfried Wagner: "Der Barenhauter" Overture ("Lazybones". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded February, 1925

Mahler: Symphony No. 9. w/ Vienna Philharmonic, live, 1/ 18/ 1938 [69:54] [Walter’s post-war Mahler interpretations tended to soft-pedal the angst and bleakness and pain (in a misguided attempt, I guess, to "popularize" a composer he loved and should have understood better; Mitropoulos and Bernstein didn’t compromise the bruitality, the darkness, and the vulgar excess – indeed, they reveled in it – but Walter just didn’t have that in him any more. Here, in what proved to be his last concert in Vienna before fleeing to America, he wasn’t pulling any punches. As a Viennese Jew, he knew what was coming, and in this almost savage reading, he was sending a Jeremiah-like warning. Compared to the mellow, autumnal version he recorded in stereo (fine in its own way), this reading is lacerating and charged with terror. The whip-lash frenzy with which he batters-home the ending of III, the sarcasm and racial self-pardoy in II, the surging momentum in IV (a man hurrying toward his own doom?)…these are traits not found in any other Bruno Walter Mahler recording, and even today, they scare the hell out of me. The recorded sound is almost unbelievably vivid and fine; the orchestral playing is magnificent. Here’s an interpretation born, red-faced and screaming, from the fevered womb of the Zeitgeist. If you love Mahler’s music and have never heard this historic landmark, you must. And it fits on one CD!]

Strauss, Johann: Kaiserwaltzer, Op. 437. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 10/ 18/ 1937 [9:06] [Wonderful and scarce example of Walter performing the lighter Viennese repertoire. Utterly charming]

Alfven: Gustavus Adolphus Suite, Op. 49. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [36:35]

Atterberg: Symphony No. 1, Op. 3. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [40:15]

De Frumerie: Pastoral Suite for Flute, Harp, & String Orchestra. w/ Borje Malerius, flute; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [11:54]

Lindberg: "Florez & Blanzeflor" Symphonic Poem, Op. 12. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. [13:25]

Wiren: Sinfonietta. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [17:09]

"BATTLE MUSIC" W/ Newell Jenkins; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan. [well, I presume we ALL know about the "1812 Overture" and "Wellington’s Victory" both of which really deserve more credit AS music than they usually get. So here are some of the same-genre works that inspired those two war horses. Jenkins turns in stylish and energetic readings (indeed, this may be the ONLY recording of two out of the four!) and the sonics are spiffy. More detailed remarks follow…]

Battaglia. [9:18]

Contretanz, K. 587 ("The Victory of the Hero Coburg"). [1:34]

"Les Caracteres de la Guerre. [11:18]

"La Bataille", Sinfonie Op. 11. [25:04] [OK, here’s a brief blurb about this charming collection.

MUSIC IN QUARTER-TONES [A quick-and-dirty explanation: this is what music would sound like if, centuries ago, almost everybody, who wasn’t tone-deaf, hadn’t decided that it just sounded better if it was written with "sharps" and "flats" instead of according to strict mathematical values. If you need a further explanation, you probably won’t like what this stuff sounds like. I probably shouldn’t either, but in short doses, I kind of do like it, although it’s even more of a technical dead-end than strict serialism. A couple of these guys seem to be having fun with the challenge (Ives, Macero – who states that he wrote his piece at the instigation of our old friend Oliver Daniel, when Oliver was President of B.M.I.!!), and this unique anthology didn’t remain in print for very long. One imagines its sales were…um…micro-tonal]

Catch-Up, for Tape and Two Pianos. George Pappastavrou & Stuart Lanning, pianos. [3:12]

Triple-Play, for Ondes Martinot & Two Pianos. Papastavrou & Manning; Helen McGill, Ondes Martinot [7:22]

Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for Two Pianos. Pappastavrou & Manning. [10:40]

Lines for the Fallen, for Soprano & Two Pianos. Phyllis Bryn-Julsen, soprano; Pappastavrou & Manning, pianos [7:53]

One-Three Quarters. Composer; Chamber Ensemble of Syracus University. [5:43]

BY LAST NAME:

"Gustavus Adolphus" Suite, Op. 49. Stig Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [36:45] [Well, this piece cinches it: Hugo Alfven, as good a symphonist as he was, would have been a simply incredible film-music composer; a Baltic version of Miklos Rosza! Nobody today remembers anything about the ponderous and unimaginative stage pageant for which Alfven composed this gorgeous music; it had a brief run in Stockholm and Gothenberg back in 1932 – the 300^th anniversary of Gustavus’s accidental death from a stray bullet near sun-down on the day of the Battle of Lutzen, a milestone event in the Thirty-Years’ War. Alfven DOES use the Protestant anthem "A Mighty Fortress" in a few spots, but mostly he achieves a "period" flavor by coming up with original chorale-like themes that suggest the somberness of great deeds performed against heavy odds – even, dare one say it, the sadness of Sweden’s lost glory, that relatively brief epoch when this small, civilized Scandinavian nation was the pivotal power that decided who would control the entire Baltic region; a time when Sweden was among the countries that mattered, when a succession of enlightened monarchs (who were also superb diplomats and inspired battlefield strategists) created both a military and a diplomatic apparatus capable of trouble the sleep of the Tsars! Alfven’s score captures the long, be-flagged sweep of history, the ceremonial grandeur of royal courts, and the stirring imagery of great armies wheeling for advantage on the field, cold Baltic sunlight flickering of the steel of their helmets and lances. Truly, this is stirring and evocative music and works as such all by itself, even if you know nothing about Swedish history in the 17^th Century. This is a whole new side to Alfven’s personality: the public composer of pomp and pageantry! Westerberg, who never made a bad record, leads his doughty band in a positively heroic performance, and the engineering on this near-mint 1967 Swedish Discofil album is spectacularly good.]

ALKAN:

Concerto da Camera No. 2, C-sharp Minor. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [6:35]

The Irish Suite. Fiedler; Boston Pops. [C’mon, get that broomstick out of your backside and smile! This is irresistible and Fiedler conducts the hell out of it. If Coates had been born an American, he might have written this toe-tapping and rowdy suite. Excellent Symphony Hall sound, too.]

Variations & Fugue for String Orchestra on a Theme by Kuhlau. Leitner; Hagues Philharmonic Orchestra; live, 1983. [A lovely, atmospheric, antique-flavored work by a too-little-known Dutch composer of great skill and facility]

Aria Appassionata. Herbert Blomstedt; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [6:01]

Suite No. 3, for Violin, Viola & String Orchestra, Op. 19. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony [12:53]

Symphony No. 1, G Minor, Op. 3. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; [40:16] [Atterberg was only 24 when he composed this, the first of his eventual 9 symphonies, but you can already hear, in nascent form, his genius for melody and harmonic transformation; it’s turbulent music, of course, and in the adagio, very passionate – even wild, and one can certainly hear traces of the masterly composer Atterberg would soon become. It almost goes without saying that Stig Westerberg conducts the hell out of the piece, unleashing its climaxes to soar and roar. Why haven’t conductors beyond Sweden discovered this music?]

Concerto for Flute, Strings & Basso Continuo. Roelof Krol; Radio Netherlands Chamber Ensemble; live, mid-Seventies; [27:32] [This is a startling piece – you can hear the Romantic afflatus trying to break through the late Baroque tent like a kudzu vine. It’s a big, expressive piece, too, with a wide emotional range and moments of extreme beauty. It dates from 1772, but sound like it was composed maybe 30 years later. Ol’ CPE was no slouch! None o’ them Bach Boys wuz!]

Magnificat. w/ Felicity Palmer, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Robert Tear, tenor; Stephen Roberts, bass; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Field; Philip Ledger). [I think this is a truly stirring and masterful work, almost on par with J. S. B.’s Magnificat. Everyone involved in this performance seems to be giving 110 % and it does make a difference!]

Brandenberg Concertos, complete. Szymon Goldberg; Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. [Highly distinguished but wonderfully old-fashioned. Goldberg isn’t hesitant about bending a line or pointing an unwritten accent in the name of simple expressiveness. Definitely not Period Performance Police approved!]

Cello Suite No. 2. Janos Starker. Cello. [Date and venue uncertain; from the mid-Sixties and, of course, gorgeous.]

Cello Suite No. 5. Janos Starker. Cello. [See comments under "Suite No. 2"]

The "Little" Organ Book, Complete. Robert Neohren, organ; w/ organ of the First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, N.Y. [69:11]

Mass in B Minor. Karl Richter; Munich Bach Choir & Orchestra; Maria Stader, soprano; Herthat Toepper, contralto; Ernst Haefliger, tenor; Kieth Engen and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, basses. [As I recall, this was the first stereo recording of this towering masterpiece and I bought a copy not long after it came ou, in either late 1961 or early 1962. I played it quite a bit until 1966, when a paragidmatic Sixties’ incident caused two sides of the set to become unplayable due to…well, let me start at the beginning. My step-brother Pete, of whom I was and am inordinately fond (he’s now an Alzheimer’s research fellow at Duke, so you can bet your ass that I keep abreast of that subject as I near my own dotage!), and is seven years younger than I. He had the good sense to join the Army long before the Gulf of Tonkin shoot-out; scored so high on his aptitude tests that the Green Machine gave him virtual carte blanche to pick his speciality (which was NOT being a rifleman in Vietnam), and he showed immense raw talent for intelligence work, which he soon found fascinating. He "majored" in cryptography, which guaranteed him a NATO post; he learned to speak and read German fluently; he got a kick out of the whole James Bond aspect of his duties (although most of what he translated were routine Warsaw Pack messages and reports, there WAS a tinge of excitement to the job because more than one high-strategist thought it possible that the Warsaw Pact, taking advantage of so much US military power being sucked into the tar pits of SE Asia and finding itself becoming both economically and technologically behind more and more, might adopt a "use it or lose it" option and launch an all-out invasion of West Germany. Die-hard ideologues on BOTH sides rather hoped it would happen, just to settle the East-West competition issue once and for all. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed and although Pete was "Sharpshooter" qualified with an M-14, he never heard or fired an angry shot.

Piano Concerto, F Minor. Jan Wijn, piano; Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies [Never heard of the pianist? He won the Prix-de-Something in Holland and I’d stack this version against almost any other (Glenn Gould always excepted).]

Violin Concerto, A Minor. Yehudi Menuhin; Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 1964 [Gorgeously romantic reading, with no sign of Menuhin’s intonation / fingering problems – just sweet pure lyricism and ripe phrasing. As lovely a reading as you’ll ever hear!]

Homage to Sarasate. Mester; Louisville Orchestra [7:09] [Witty, sophisticated, and good fun]

Overture on Russian Themes. Von Matacic; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Symphony No. 7. Raymond Leppard; London Philharmonic. [45:09] [Sourced from the long out-of-copyright "HNH" pressing (that label went out of business almost 30 years ago), NOT the Lyrita, which hasn’t even come out yet and maybe won’t; so I think it’s legal – if, admittedly, a little slippery—for me to list it. If Lyrita sees this and objects, just email me and I’ll delete it; I would not do anything, however minor, to spoil the current come-back of that noble trademark! But, honest to God, folks, how many orders am I likely to get for the longest and one of the least immediately-appealing Arnold Bax symphonies? Two per year? And all the drum-beating I do for 20^th-Century English Romantics could reasonably be construed as free advertising FOR the re-issued Lyritas, which I do NOT offer for dubbing, unless it’s entirely by mistake (Lyritas were sold in the U.S. under several licensing agreements, including Musical Heritage Society and HNH and…mmmm, I forget; it’s hardly a cut-and-dried situation. And if anyone thinks I’m in this FOR THE MONEY, they should check in to the nearest psychiatric clinic for a quick evaluation; on my BEST months, I’ve made enough of a "profit" to pay for the ink, blank CDs, and postage for the next month’s orders. I keep hoping this web site will reach "critical mass" and word-of-mouth will spread: "This crazy old fart has MORE desirable stuff than ANY web site I’ve ever seen!" And if that’s not literally true today (June, 2008), it surely WILL be by New Years day!]

"Coriolanus" Overture. Slatkin; New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984. [N.B. This is the Gustav Mahler re-orchestration, which to my knowledge hasn’t been commercially recorded. The "re-touchen" are subtle, but the effect is, at the very least, fascinating!]

"Creatures of Prometheus", Adagio & Allegro only. Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 25/ 1939 [6:54]

Eleven Viennese Dances. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [15:59]

Grosse Fugue. Pascal String Quartet

King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. Janos Ferencsik; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [See comments under "Conductors"]

Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Cor de Groot, piano; Willem Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 5/ 9/ 1942 [39:18]

Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Istvan Antal, piano; Gyula Nemeth; Hungarian State Philharmonic [38:37]

Sonata for Violin & Piano, F Major, Op. 29, "Spring". David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano; live, 1962 [26:09]

Quartet No. 16, Lento & Vivace only. (arranged for full orchestra) Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 25/ 1939 [10:30]

Septet (Arranged for full orchestra). Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live; 11/ 18/ 1939 [27:50] [See comments under "Conductors"

Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 21. Pablo Casals, cello; Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano [16:09]

Sonata for Violin & Piano, C Minor, Op. 30/ No. 2. David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano [24:31]

Song: "Ich Liebe Dich". Lotte Lehmann. soprano

Symphony No. 1, C Major, Op. 21. Furtwangler; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 7/ 13/ 1950 [25:03]

Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". Sir John Barbirolli; BBC Symphony Orchestra [54:22] [See rave under "Conductors".]

Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". Kubelik; New York Philharmonic, live mid-80s. [Stunning! May be the finest Beethoven by Kubelik I’ve ever heard. Timpani like rifle shots!]

Symphony No. 4, B-Flat Major, Op. 60. Janos Ferencsik; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"). Stokowski; Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, c. 1944

Symphony No. 7, A Major, Op. 92. Fritz Busch; Vienna Symphony; live, 10/ 15/ 1950

Trio for Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 1, No. 3. Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano; Sandor Vegh, violin; Pablo Casals, Cello [31:33] [For what it’s worth, this was recorded live in the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, and all three of these great musicians declared the event "special". Poltergeists, perhaps?]

Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. [15: 40]

String Quartet, Op. 3. Julliard String Quartet

"Benvenuto Cellini" Overture, Op. 32. Pierre Monteux; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 12/ 1939 [11:20]

"Le Corsair" Overture, Op. 21. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [7:50]

Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14. Ormandy; Philadelphia Orch. [The very early mono version: thick heavy platter with navy blue label, but in remarkably fine condition. Ormandy’s RCA stereo remark has long been one of my favorites (and is still very much in copyright, alas), but this one packs quite a ;punch and is almost impossible to find in good condition.]

Requiem (Grande Mess des Morts), Op. 5. Scherchen; Jean Giraudeux, tenor; Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris; ORTF Chorus. [A landmark recording. The first in stereo, and for all the problems of performing it in the original location, the engineers managed to capture a surprising amount of the vastness, if not quite the last measure of apocalyptic thunder. Scherchen’s reading is, of course, both brilliant and eccentric, but always forward moving, even in the most devotional passages. Munch and Bernstein have better sound, of course, and are equally fervent, but this is in no way a stop-gap recording; it is still thrilling and majestic.] [98:21]

Symphony Funereal and Triumphal, Op. 15. Ernest Graf; Vienna State Opera Orchestra. [It’s hard to believe that the composer who wrote the sleek, magical "Symphonie Fantastique" is the same composer who churned out this bloated, vulgar, formulaic bit of musical up-chuck. If you’re in the mood for exalted hollow bombast, this’ll do it almost better than anything else I could suggest. This performance, sourced from an ancient Urania disc just barely in real stereo, is about as good as it ever gets and the sound isn’t bad at all. It’s just horrid music, though, disfigured by this stentorian trombone obbligato that goes on…and on…and on…]

Roman Carnival Overture. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Te Deum, Op. 22. Sir Thomas Beecham; Royal Philharmonic & London Philharmonic Choir; Alexander Young, tenor; live, 1953. [45:51]

Piano Concerto in D Major. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [17:58]

Battalia. Jenkens; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan [9:18]

"The Pearl Fishers", Act I – "Au fond du temple saint…" Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; Robert Merrilkl; RCA Victor Symphony under Renato Cellini [4:35] (Rec. 1/ 3/ 1951)

Orchestral Fantasy. Whitney; Louisville Orchestra. [Like most Americans, I used to think of Blacher as being vaguely encamped in the Stockhausen wing of European music, but he’s far more interesting than that. He even wrote a satirical opera parodying the "Punkt-Contra-Punkt" school and its pretensions, and when the predictable ideological snarling began, he characterized the avant-garde as "juvenile delinquents". Way to go, Boris! His "Paganini Variations" are almost as brilliant and playful as Rachmaninoff’s. This piece is a little more sinewy, and, yes, it opens with a tone row, but it’s moody and perfectly accessible music, in an abstract-expressionist kind of way.]

Paganini Variations. Klaus Tennstedt; New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984

"Adam Zero", Suite from the ballet. Vernon Handley; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. [31;02]

"Checkmate", Suite from the Ballet. Handley; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic [28:51]

Melee Fantasque. Composer; London Symphony Orchestra [13:04] [A zany, exhuberent warm-up for Bliss’s major ballet scores to come. Hard to describe except that it’s a bit wild and surreal, and a whole lot of fun.]

Sonata for Viola & Piano. Emanuel Vardi, viola; Frank Weinstock, piano. [21:47] [This is a very fine piece, though little-known. Its bittersweetness, deeply expressive but never sentimental, sort of puts me in mind of Brahms (not normally the first composer who comes to mind as an influence on Sir Arthur). Or maybe it’s the wild, gypsy-like "furiant" of the third movement – most UN-Blissian but terribly exciting! You think the piece is over, then a dark andante maestoso coda suddenly appears, as a kind of post-orgasmic meditation. It’s a striking piece and Vardi plays it with tremendous gusto.]

String Quartet No. 1. Griller String Quartet. [A good dubbing from an ancient London set (LLA-23), and the first complete cycle of these works ever recorded; still unsurpassed for intensity, undetrstanding, and conviction. A few small pops & blemishes (this used to be a library copy, but hardly anyone was curious enough to check it out!), but nothing that really distracts or compromises the basically very fine mono sound]

Improvisations sur Mallarme. Composer; New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80. Jan Koetsier; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 3/ 5/ 1944 [11:08]

Song: "Botschaft", Op. 47, Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Song: "Das Madchen hat einen Rosenmund". Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Song: "Das Madchen Spricht", Op. 107/ No. 3. Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Symphony No. 2, D Major, Op. 73. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. Hans Schmidt-Isserstadt; NWDR Synphony of Hamburg

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. Fritz Busch; Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live, 10/ 15/ 1950 [See comments under "Conductors"]

Tragic Overture, Op. 81. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 3/ 22/ 1937

Violin Concerto Op. 77. Gioconda De Vito, violin; Wilhelm Furtwangler; RAI Orchestra of Turin, live; 1/ 7/ 1953 The sound of this broadcast air-check is abysmally bad, too, awash with wow and distortion and the music seemingly held at arm’s length. DeVito actually acquits himself pretty well, despite his wiry, less-than-luxurious tone, but the dynamic range ands frequency-response on this acetate actually sound WORSE than the 78s still being manufacturedf as late as 1955, What a pity, because this performance is of more value than a mere curiosity.]

On the Nature of Things. Mester; Louisville Orchestra. [12:17] [An engaging, meditative, appropriately "philosophical" piece by one of Canada’s finest composers. Excellent sound and performance.]

NOTE: AS I WAS TYPING THIS LIST, WORD CAME THAT COMPOSER HARRY BRANT HAD DIED, AT HIS HOME IN MONTREAL. HE WILL BE MOURNED BY MANY – FOR BY ALL ACCOUNTS HE WAS A TRUE FRIEND, A FINE TEACHER, AND AN HONORABLE COLLEAGUE. I SHALL CONTINUE TO LIST SUCH OF HIS WORKS AS I HAVE ACQUIRED – NOT, ALAS, A GREAT NUMBER, BUT THERE ARE AT LEAST 5-6 LIVE TAPED PERFORMANCES OF WORKS NEVER COMMERCIALLY RECORDED – AND I URGE YOU TO MAKE THEIR ACQUAINTANCE. HE WAS THE REAL DEAL, PEOPLE.

BRIAN, Havergal: [Sooner or later, I’m going to list ALL of his bloody symphonies; sooner or later he WILL be recognized as THE great maverick composer of 20^th Century English music (and frankly, he makes Charles Ives look like a nasty, crabby old screwball!)! Watch it happen, folks! Meanwhile, here are new copies that MAY duplicate a few of those whackily-named Aries pirate discs, but even if they do, they warrant a separate listing because they derive from first-generation off-the-air tapes of the BBC concerts, so they’re as good as you can get until Leopold Mengelwangler or whoever the next Superstar Conductor turns out to be (probably brillo-head, Gustavo Dudamel! Jesus, I can SEE the kid’s got charisma running out of his pours, but let’s give him a few years to season before handing him a major orchestra! I eagerly reviewed for American Record Guide, his first Beethoven album on DG, expected to hear the hottest thing since Lenny Bernstein "spontaneously" substituted for Bruno Walter (the whole stunt was, of course, carefully orchestrated and about as "spontaneous" as the plans for D-Day!), and boy did it really, really bite!) takes up the cause. Yeah, I know – cold day in Hell, right? That’s what I’m here for – a Voice Haranguing in the Wilderness!]

Symphony No. 13. Stanley Pope; Royal Philharmonic; live date ? [17:51]

Symphony No. 17. Stanley Pope; Royal Philharmonic [13:30] [That was a typo, but it looks cool, so I’ll leave it…]

Scottish Ballad for 2 Pianos & Orchestra, Op. 26. Joshua Pierce & Dorothy Jonas, pianists; Ettore Stratta; Radio Luxembourg Symphony [13:06] [Not every great composer is always in the groove to write something marvelous and memorable. It’s an early piece; rather bland, and I frankly don’t hear a damn thing "Scottish" about it. The performers do their best, but in this case there are good reasons for its obscurity. The flip-side Martinu is another story]

Les Illuminations, Op. 18. Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano. Nicolas Harsanyi; Piedmont Chamber Orchestra [27:50]

Spheres in Orbit. Composer; Greater Symphony Orchestra of Soviet Radio & Television; live, 1962 [14:30] [One of Canada’s most versatile and respected composer/conductors does his thing on a good-will visit to the Soviet Union, circa 1961-62. His piece is dramatic and colorful, if lacking in thematic distinction; the recorded sound is so-so, and typically Russian for its era. However, the flip side holds a blazing account of the Pines of Rome! Talk about an "odd couple"… Anyway, this piece is supposed to be about space ships and exploding galaxies and such; the Russians, having just scooped everybody with Sputnik, were in a receptive mood! It now sounds awfully dated, but it’s good fun.]

String Quartet (1965). La Salle String Quartet. [9:28]

Mass No. 3, F Minor, ("The Great"). Ferdinand Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus; Soloists: Dorothea Siebert, soprano; Dagmar Herrmann, alto; Erich Majkut, tenor; Otto Wiener, bass. [The first recording of this glorious work, on an ancient Vox release, in gratifyingly good sound and fervent work both by the under-rated Grossmann and his vocal forces. Jochum’s much-later stereo version is still the one to beat (at least until someone offers Celibidache’s titanic account in decent sound – I HAVE a CD, but it was obviously pirated from microphones sneaked into the hall inside somebody’s coat sleeves (true! You can hear this wretch clearing his throat and it sounds like some hideous beast growling right into the tape!). But for a pioneering stab-at-it, Grossmann and his musicians really do justice to the manifold glories of this huge work. My Source copy is virtually unblemished AND correctly pitched!]

Symphony No. 5 (original version") Asahana; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony No. 8. Knappesrtsbusch; Vienna Philharmonic Orch., live, October, 1961. [A tremendous, monolithic reading, in decent if a trifle shrill sonics, but withal one of the very few Knappertsbusch performances that survives in authentic stereo. Great Bruckner conducting in the Old School manner; Kna directed any and all versions of these scores, depending on what mood he was in; he just didn’t give a damn about fustian musicological scholarship, describing succinctly as "Scheisse".

Ballade No. 3, A Flat Major, Op. 47. Sviatoslav Richter, piano; live; London, Wigmore Hall, 1964 or 1965.

Piano Concerto No. 2, F Minor, Op. 21. w/ Theo van der Pas, piano; Willem Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 4/ 9/ 1943 [28:59]

"Core ‘ngrato". Enrico Caruso (Rec. 11/ 19/ 1911)

Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, complete. Igor Oistrakh; Moscow Philharmonic Soloists’ Ensemble. [As some of you no doubt recall, in late middle age, Oistrakh was increasingly drawn to the podium rather than the chamber music recital stage, with very felicitous results, to judge from the handful of Soviet live recordings that trickled into the export market. His live "Pathetique" is one of the darkest, wildest, most thunderous accounts I know of (the timpani crash heralding the coda of Movement I sounds like the Red Army’s opening barrage at the Battle of Kursk!). Now, surprisingly, there came into my hot little hands this 3-LP set of Corelli’s exquisite string symphonies – for that’s what they were in all but name – played with both ripeness of color and phrasing and keen stylistic discipline. The music itself is clearly pre-Romantic in temperament and in its startling emotional range, but Oistrakh never permits any overlay of vibrato or anachronistic phrasing. His readings may be imprudently rich in calories, but they are also among the most sheerly beautiful accounts of these wonderful works ever committed to disc. I’m told that less than 700 sets of the LPs were exported to the U.S., which means that collectors who lived in New York, or Chicago, snapped ‘em up and haven’t let go of them. IF you saw the 3-disc set on E Bay…the bidding would start at $150, no matter what the condition. My LPs are near-mint; and by the mid-Seventies, Melodiya’s engineers had the "stereo thing" down – the sonics are as vivid and bathed in red-blooded ambience as the string playing itself!]

Symphony No. 2 in One Movement. Mester; Louisville Orchestra. [24:21] [Busy, busy, busy! Lots of dramatic gestures; tightly argued – you might like it. I haven’t yet been able to warm up to it.]

"Carillon des morts." Herreweghe; Musica Antiqua, Cologne [4:38]

Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 3 " " " " [OUTRAGEOUS AND UNINFORMED OPINION WARNING: I acknowledge that Charles Ives was " a genius", but if he hadn’t had hymnals and popular music of his time to ransack and permutate, how much of his music would we have? I almost never get in "an Ives mood"; on the other hand, I’m never NOT in a "Henry Cowell" mood. I think he’s hugely undervalued and underplayed and my God was he prolific! The "Hymns & Fuguing Tunes" are all beautiful, in the rugged, simple manner of a good shaped-note sing. And his range was huge – you can’t say that about Ives, either. So I defiantly express my preference: Cowell rules!]

Symphony No. 16. (??!!) [This one, I’m pretty sure, is a guy. Prolific, poly-stylistic. Maybe the East European answer to Havergal Brian (just what Czech music needs, right?). Same friend burned this for me but included absolutely no information other than the last name and identification of the symphony. Again, more than one listen is needed, but my initial reaction was: More, please!]

Divertissement de Concert, Op. 204. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [14:34]

Les Caracteres de la Guerre. Jenkens; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan. [25:04]

Symphony No. 4. Performers, venue & date unknown. [OK, hot off the presses! A colleague taped this for me in Prague not long ago; no details yet forthcoming. The composer – whose sex I don’t even know! – seems to be highly regarded, and the music rivets your attention; more listenings will ne needed to offer more descriptive comments, but I wanted to list this because some of you might indeed know who he/she is and want this (very good-sounding) CD. Hey, dudes and dudettes, we stay AHEAD of the curve on this web site!]

"L’enfants Prodigue" – Cortege Air de Danse. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [4:20]

Preludes, Book I, No’s 2, 3, & 5. Sviatoslav Richter, piano.

Preludes Book II, (Orchestrated by Hans Henkemans). Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 1973 [Loving and idiomatic, these 1970 arrangements have an interesting post-modern edge to the sound. If you, like me, are one of those people who – while they love great piano playing – think 75 % of the works written for solo piano would sound better as orchestral pieces, this is for you!]

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Silvestri; Paris Conservatoire Orchestra (1958) [9:56]

Rhapsody No. 1 for Clarinet & Orchestra. George Pieterson, clarinet; Kondrashin; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, c. mid-Seventies [See comments under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Sacred & Profane Dances. Emily Heyens, harp; Atherton; Radio Nederlands Chamber Orchestra; live, mid-Seventies. [See comment under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

"Le Roi S’amuse" Ballet Suite. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [14:15]

Concerto Grosso in F Minor, for Strings & Continuo. I Musici

Quintet A Major, Piano & Strings, Op. 81. Sir Clifford Curzon, piano; Budapest String Quartet. [If this isn’t the most sheerly gorgeous chamber work Dvorak composed, it’s up there with the best. I’ve got 6-7 versions, but none quite manifests the élan and swagger of this one. I must warn you that there’s an inch-long rather brutal scratch in Movement I – beyond my ability to correct – but once you listen past that, it’s smooth sailing. Both Curzon and the Budapest were at their absolute peak when this 1956 recording was taped; it don’t get no better than this]

Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Slavonic Dances, Op. 73. Sejna; Czech Philharmonic

Symphony No. 6, D Major, Op. 60. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 7, D Minor, Op. 70. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 8, G Major, Op. 88. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 9, E Minor, Op. 95 ("New World"). Karel Ancerl; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

"Evocations" for Orchestra. Composer; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Concerto, D Major, for Trumpet, Oboes & Strings. Maruioce Andre, trumpet; Paillard; Paillard Chamber Orchestra [7:12]

Sinfonia, G Major, for Strings & Continuo. Pailliard; Paillard Chamber Orchestra. [9:25]

Sinfonia, A Major, Strings & Continuo. Pailliard; Pailliard Chamber Orchestra. [10:06]

Dolly Suite (orch. by Rabaud). Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [17:55]

Trio No. 2. The Williams Trio. [Another discovery! Just beautiful!]

"I Dream of Jeannie w/ the Light Brown Hair" (Arr. Elgar Howarth). Howarth; Grimethorpse Colliery Band. [2:42]

"Psyche", Four Orchestral Episodes. Van Otterloo; American Symphony Orchestra; livce, 1/ 28. 1968

Symphony in D Minor. Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 3/ 1940 [35:05]

" " " . No conductor identified; Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra on a "Plymouth" rarity. (*)

Symphony in D Minor. Beecham; London Philharmonic; rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Pastoral Suite for Flute, Harp & String Orchestra. Borje Marelius, flute; Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [11:54] [Delightful, basically cheerful, folk-music-flavored work.]

Canzonas for Single & Double Brass Choirs. Samuel Baron; New York Brass Ensemble. [This is legend. When it came out, in the period 1953-1954, it was, I believe, the first record devoted exclusively to Gabrielli’s noble and brilliant Canzonas. By the innocent standards of the time, it was soon being discussed as a "landmark in high fidelity", due to the tonal splendor and gusto of the players, all of them distinguished well-known musicians either moonlighting from the Philharmonic or drawn from the cream of Manhattan’s vast pool of excellent freelancer musicians. The first generation of audiophiles snapped it up; a surprise hit—almost certainly the only one in the murky history of the "Counterpoint/Esoteric" label. The reviewers’ descriptions made this Gabby-Hazz…Gabba-gabba-alli, whatever his name was, sound like someone who composed the sort of novle, sonorous, even cveremonial music that was one of my first passions.The problem was: living in Charlotte, North Carolina, where all the record stores DID have scatter-shot classical sections, but nobody at any of them had ever heard of "Counterpoint/Esoteric"’ they would "try" to "special order it" for me but couldn’t guarantee finding it and if they could, it would probably take eight – ten weeks to get it. Same ol’ "Special Order" scam record stores continued to use until LPs were replaced by CDs. What that meant for the clerk, was "Yeah, I can probably get it, but it’ll be a pain in the ass and required lots of phoning and letter writing, and when it finally comes in, my commission from selling it to this kid will be, maybe, a buck and a half. So screw him and screw this Garibaldi clown!" I know this scam because, to my shame, I sometimes used it, too, if the customer wanted something low-rent, or couldn’t pronounce a composer’s name, or just blew smoke from his Chesterfields into my face.

"La Daphne" (1608), complete opera. Paul Vorwerk; Musica Pacifica [See details under "Opera, Choral & Solo Vocalists"].

Suite for Strings. Nikolai Anosov; USSR State Symphony Orchestra

Messe des Morts (Requiem). Phillipe Herreweghe; Musica Antqua, Cologne; Collegium Vocale, Gent. [What a lovely and curious work this is! The (mostly) introspective dialogue between the instruments – note the tender passage for massed viols that opens the work and how the human voices softly and almost a quality of diffidence, slowly join in. There is much tenderness and, yes, consolation. Much as I dig his spectacular ceremonial numbers, Lully is a PUBLIC composer, and Gilles seems to seems to speak to us one-on-one. There’s an almost dream-like quality to the best sections, and when the music finally does gather force, volume, and intensity, the effect is startling and deeply satisfying.]

Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 36. Aurora Ginastera, cello; Yoel Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983.

Glosses on the Music of Pablo Casals. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983

"Jubulum", Symphonic Celebration. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983

Variaziones Concertante. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983 [Levi isn’t a conductor whose work usually turns me on, but on this occasion he was energized and doiwnright messianic. Gloriously vital, colorful music; two of the works programmed here were receicing their United States’ premieres. Outstanding off-beat repertoire and compelling performances.]

"Andrea Chenier" – "Un di all’azzuro spazio". Enrico Caruso; (rec. 3/ 17/ 1907)

Cortege Solennel, Op. 89/ No. 2. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic [3:347]

Finnish Sketches ("From the Kalevala"), Op. 89/ No. 1. Kenneth Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra [4:34]

Overture on Greek Themes, Op. 3. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic. [13:16]

Poeme Epique, Op. Posthumous. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic. [13:09] [Ken Schermerhorn had a positive genius for finding, programming, and splendidly interpreting obscure but accessible works nobody in the world has ever heard live. I have bunches of radio tapes yet-to-be-listed, and alas only saw him live a single time (on tour with the Milwaukie Symphony), when he surprised a whole auditorium full of vaguely uneasy listeners with a searingly brilliant rendition of Prokofiev’s Seventh that caused many exiting patrons to mutter to one another: "How come we don’t get to hear that piece more often?" And so it is here with these almost totally unknown small works, which he infuses with such tonal richness, humanistic warmth and drama (from an orchestra that was palpably second-rate 30 years ago!) that each piece sounds like a miniature masterwork. Admittedly, there IS no "competition" – conductors continue to willfully ignore 99 % of Glazunov’s oeuvre just as they always have – but that shouldn’t diminish Schermerhorn’s extraordinary achievement in vivifying so much "minor" music by a supposedly "second-rate" composer. He wasn’t and they aren’t, so Russian-music fans, dig into this quarter-pounder and revel in all the calories!]

"Don Juan", complete ballet. Gardiner; English Baroque Soloists

"Romeo & Juliette" – "Le sommiel de Juliette". Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. [3:25]

Lyric Suite, Op. 54. Erik Tuxen; Danish State Radio Orchestra [14:50]

"Il Guarany" – "Sento una Forza indomita". Enrico Caruso; {Rec. 4/ 20/ 1914)

Symphony for 8 Celli & Piano. Composer, piano & conductor; San Francisco Cello Ensemble. [Unfortunately, this work is on the flip side of the Verrall string quartet listed below – the one and only LP I’ve ever seen on the "Belvedere" label! – and the notes don’t even tell you Mr. Griller’s birth date! IN fact, there’s not one word of information about him. That’s a pity, for this is a damn fine work, richly melodic, dramatic, and instantly impressive. I hear distinct hints of Blcoh and maybe…Howard Hansen?? Well, yes, and that’s just fine, because this work makes the same strong, listener-friendly impression as Hanson’s better works! I would love to hear more by this guy. Any info, dear readers? The performance has real snap and energy; the recording is at least workmanlike. Highly endorsed!]

Catch-Up, for Tape and Two Pianos. George Pappastavrou & Stuart Lanning, pianos. [3:12]

Triple-Play, for Ondes Martinot & Two Pianos. Papastavrou & Manning; Helen McGill, Ondes Martinot [7:22]

Folksong Symphony (Symphony No.. 4). Golschmann; Symphony of the Air & Chorus. [I can usually find a lot to like in any Roy Harris symphony, even in the so-called "weak" later ones – actually, there’s quite a lot of Good Stuff in 6 and 7 – so let me state right up front that this symphony is NOT as bad as you might expect from its mawkish title.

The Seven Last Words of Christ. Hermann Scherchen; w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprabol Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Sonata for Piano No. 44, G Minor. Sviatoslav Richter, piano

Symphony No. 16, B-flat Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:02]

Symphony No. 17, F Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:44]

Symphony No. 18, G Major. Sir Charles Mackerras; London Symphony [15:06]

Symphony No. 19, D Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [10:49]

Symphony No. 20, C Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [16:38]

Symphony No. 92. G Major, Hob. 1:92 ("Oxford"). Scherchen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [23:56]

Symphony No. 5, B-flat Major. Farberman; Bournemouth Symphony [17:17]

Symphony No. 14,D Major. Farberman; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [26:44]

Yesterthoughts. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

Mathis der Maler. Silvestri; w/ Philharmonia Orchestra [28:11] [One of the very best!]

Symphonic Metamorphosis on a Theme by von Weber. Furtwangler; Berlin Philharmonic; live; 9/ 16/ 1947

Concert B Major, Clariney & Orchestra. Dieter Klocker, clarinet; Jaap Schroder; Concerto Amsterdam [20:03]

A Japanese Suite. Boult; London Symphony. [10:58] [A rarely heard and rather impressive bit of Far Eastern flavored impressionist, with lovely tunes, atmospheric orchestration. Sounds more like youthful Hovhaness than Holst, but that only means it still sounds very nice.]

The Floating World – "Ukiyo". Kostelanetz; New York Philharmonic [11:47]

Symphony No. 19, Op. 217, "Vishnu". Composer; "Sevan" (???) Philharmonic. [29:14]

Cornet Concerto. Composer, cornet & conducting; Grimethorpe Colliery Band. [6:23]

Country Band March. Richard Bales; National Gallery Orchestra, Washington D.C.; live, c. 1983

Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for Two Pianos. Pappastavrou & Manning. [10:40]

"The Cunning Little Visen" Suite. Andrew Davis; Toronto Symphony. [19:18]

"Taras Bulba", Rhapsody for Orchestra. Davis; Toronto Symphony. [22:41]

Song: "Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang", Op, 1/ No. 1. Lotte Lehmann, soprano [See tasteless but irresistible play-on-words down at Ms. Lehmann’s entry under "Vocalists"]

Concerto for Orchestra. Jonel Perlea; The Symphony Orchestra of Teatro la Fenice [17:15] [Here’s a real "sleeper" that I only heard for the first time about six months ago, and instantly feel in love with. It’s as "American" sounding as anything by Copland, Hanson or Roy Harris, yet Kay’s style is essentially non-national and cosmopolitan. It’s a tightly argued, very disciplined work that also fairly explodes with color and good, hearty, instantly communicative themes. By far, it’s the best work by Kay I’ve ever heard and fortunately, this unspeakably rare 1953 "Remington" LP really has some of the finest and cleanest audio qualities of any LP I know of from 55 years ago! (For what it’s worth, the advertising people at this tiny label called their microphoning technique "MUSICRAMA", a trademark as meaningless and nonsensical as the results it produced were exceptional. Listen up, conductors (and I know for a fact that at least four of you regularly read these new listings (either for the giggles you derive from my dreadful punts and interminable sidebar rants OR, just possibly, to find out about moldern but audience-friendly works you might one day wish to program, so don’t force my hand! Order a dub of THIS piece and see if it doesn’t fill the bill most handsomely, both in terms of length, technical requirements, and strong emotional/intellectual appeal to those hearing it for the first and propably only time!). Coincidentally, it also happens to be one of the finest recordings Perlea ever made for any label – makes you wish he’d been turned loose on more novel and unjustly neglectyed scores, instead of all those so-so readings of basic rep. chestnuts Vox made him conduct. Oh, sure, there are a handful of winners amongst them, but overwhelmingly Perlea is now regarded as the very paradigm of podium meciocrity. In this challenging and then-exotic piece, he seems to be a wholly different conductor: energized, brilliantly gifted at handling orchestrasl colors and complex balances, filled with vigor and urgency. Who knew?]

"Der Schall), for Five Players and 45 Instruments. Composer; Cologne Ensemble for New Music. [37:20] [I happen to think this is one of the wildest, funniest (perhaps unintentionally – guys like Kegel tended to take this stuff VERY seriously, even if nobody else did). I cannot describe it better than the composer, so let me quote from his own deadpan description (you’ll know instantly whether you can stand this or not)]:

In a Chinese Temple Garden. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

In a Monastery Garden. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

In a Persian Market. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra [Right – if this wasn’t one of Mortie’s earliest and rarest LPs, I wouldn’t bother listing this schlock (actually, the Victor Herbert pieces aren’t bad!). But this was maybe his second or third LP AS a conductor, and he soon became one of our best. Neither the second-rate orchestra nor Gould could bring most of this crap to life the way Fiedler might have, but the performances ARE decently colorful, peppy, and nicely recorded, circa 1951.]

Symphonic Epos, Op. 21. Herbert Blomstedt; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [17:24] [Surging, two-fisted, rather in the same vein as "En Saga", this is an instant "grabber" that would knock the sox off almost any audience, and at 17 minutes-plus, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Another one of those "contemporary-but-lovable" pieces that program-builders in-the-know, bloody well SHOULD KNOW ABOUT!]

String Quartet, 1967. La Salle String Quartet [20:48]

Symphony No. 1, B Minor, Op. 12. Svetlanov; USSR Acadewmic S ymphony Orchestra [35:37] [Like Rachmaninoff? Gliere? Miaskovsky? In other words, the whole Late Romantic Russian Thing? If so, you must give this inexplicably neglected symphony a try! It has all the Right Stuff: bold heroic brass themese, a slow movement to die for, and an exciting, sonorous climax. Svetlanov really "sells" the piece, too, in a reading full of soul but also pleasantly vigorous and forward-pressing. Orchestra’s playing is a touch raw, but it’s full of heart; recorded sound (early Melodiya stereo) is quite good]

Lines for the Fallen, for Soprano & Two Pianos. Phyllis Bryn-Julsen, soprano; Pappastavrou & Manning, pianos [7:53]

Concerto for Four Groups of Instruments. Composer; Speculum Musicae. [8:15]

Piano Fantasy. Ursula Oppens, piano [10:20]

Symphony No. 2. Ashley Heelan; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra [A virile, windswept, neo-Sibelian work by New Zealand’s best-known composer; stern romanticism is far from extinct down in Kiwi Land. Good piece!]

"Florez and Blanzeflor, Symphonic Poem, Op.12. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, [13:25] [Lindberg used actual folk tunes, adapting them skillfully to the full orchestra. Again, Westerberg catches the idiom dead-on and conducts a reading of great sweep and intensity.]

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Malediction, Piano & Orchestra. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [14:00]

Comes Autumn Time. Nebraska Sinfonia; world premiere, 1984. [Locklear is an outstanding composer and teacher long associated with the music departemt of Wake Forest University. He’s written in a wide variety of styles, with an especially strong array of works for organ, usually in combination with other inrtsuments and/or voices. Dan’s a terrific teacher and a very interesting, charming man. This relatively brief p[rize-winning piece has been recorded a couyple of times (and I wish I could list the conductor’s name, but that didn’t survive on my air-check tape), full of pungent moods and riveting orehcestratrion. If you’re interested in worthy contemporary American composers who write in an accessible medium, you should really give his music a try. Tell him I recommended it! He was cordial even when I was a music critic and had the honor of reviewing two or three premieres of new compositions, back during that now-utopian era when the Greensbor Daily News actually made a serious effort to cover all the significant concerts at Wake Forest, Reynolda House, SECA, the EMF and the NC Schoo