This is one of a handful of records that Charles Munch made with the Boston Symphony that has never been re-released.
Recorded in 1951 in Symphony Hall, it was succeeded by a stereo recording of the same work, Schumann's first symphony - succeeded but not displaced as a great interpretation. This LP is characteristic of Munch in that it is by turns volatile, impassioned, and tender. And it is characteristic of the Bostonians in that it is beautifully played, with particularly gorgeous strings.
Schumann's symphonies are too little played for such great music. And this is a great recording.
22 comments:
There is an interesting discussion about your posting on:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.classical.recordings/browse_thread/thread/4e8144e1f5fa6cb4/c04f951ca005ac2a#c04f951ca005ac2a
It seems the record (not your fault!) is pitched a semitone high...
Greetings and thanks,
Rolf
This is an excellent performance. As Rolf points out, it stirred quite a lively discussion on the google group.
Many thanks for your time and effort in posting this and many other interesting classical items.
joeS
Joe and Rolf,
That's quite a group! Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll check this performance against another one and repitch it to match.
Munch's Schumann 1 and Schubert symphonies were reissued in Japan, in excellent-sounding CDs. They may still be available from Japanese online stores such as HMV Japan and CDJapan.
Hello, and thanks for this post. I agree about the Schumann symphonies, but there are some stinkers among the recordings that do exists. They seem to be hard works to bring off. Munch is one who does it well, as are, in later recordings, Paul Paray and Christoph von Dohnanyi, whose CD issues are exemplary.
As for 10" LPs. Glad to see you putting them up. I've only posted one so far on my blog, but you might be interested in it. http://vinylfatigue.blogspot.com/2010/01/im-posting-this-little-gem-masterworks.html
Thanks again and good luck.!--Larry
Hi Larry,
Thanks so much for the link. You really have a most interesting new blog and I wish you the very best luck with it!
Hi Buster,
I know how much you like the Schumann Symphonies and how skeptical you are of Ormandy, but I just posted a transfer from 78s of a recording he made with the Minneapolis Orchestra of Schumann's 4th. Take a gander, if you'd like, and let me know what you think. I included in the post a link to this page, since the Munch recording of the 1st makes a pretty nice coupling for CD. HOpe you don't mind.
Hi Lawrence,
Mind? I love the idea! I will get that post-haste. Also will be posting that Prokofiev as soon as I can. I have had very little leisure time lately and am out of town at the moment.
Buster,
This coöperation with Larry Austin is an excellent idea. I am glad that Larry includes links, to be sure that one can get safely and accurately to what he refers on your own blog. Keep up the great work and the coöperation!
Jerry Parker
Buster,
While converting old 10-in. LPs to digital form, I hope that you catch the many (Fricsay, Konwitschny, Leitner, and especially Lehmann) that in North America came out on the American Decca label, poorly pressed even as they were. It would be great to have all of those conductors' recordings which came out in that form.
Jerry Parker
Hello Jerry - A lot of the DG originals have been rereleased by that company. I do have some of the Decca pressings, and will look for a likely item to post at some future point. Thanks for your comments!
By the way, you can find quite a few Fritz Lehmann recordings at Neal's Historical Classical Recordings Corner - http://nealshistoricalcorner.blogspot.com/
I was delighted to discover your blog. Thanks for making all of these treasures available and for your careful transfers to digital format. This 1951 Munch Schumann "Spring Symphony" recording interests me greatly, since I have long enjoyed his stereo remake with the BSO, which has been for me a standard for judging other interpretations.
I have a large number of 10" classical LPs, transfered them using tube preamplification and uploaded a number of them to operashare and to the late belated melomaniacos group.
Question: Didn't Koussevitzky and Munch after him have the BSO tune to a non-standard A=444? Might that not account for the original LP issue being pitched a semitone sharp? If so, could one argue that re-pitching it (as Pristine's Andrew Rose has done) violates the integrity of the original recording? Any opinions?
Joe - I would have to check the original transfer of the Munch recording to see just how sharp it was. In my experience, it is not at all unusual for LP recordings to be sharp, although not usually by a semitone. This was often deliberate in pop recording, to make a performance brighter and livelier. Also, I am not sure how much Andrew Rose adjusted his transfer and to what pitch. I'll see if I can find the Munch files and check their pitch.
I will note, though, that if someone took the recording down to A=440 than would not be anywhere near to being a semitone lower than A=444.
I checked the pitch on the Pristine - it is set at A=442.
Check that - it appears to be the 1959 remake that's at 442. Not sure about the earlier one.
Thanks for the info. I know that Koussevitzky had the BSO tuned to A=444 to achieve a brighter and livelier sound. Munch followed suit.
Remastered version (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/#!TM8lmCLI!kzO8oxBbkI8l23uF_WmOR3pdI1RGT4FkxqR3JkhFR74
I do agree with your positive assessment of the Munch recordings, including German music. But, here's one of his French standards, recorded twice by Munch (once for Columbia in the 40s, and then in stereo for Victor in the early sixties: the latter considered by many to be virtually definitive.) The Saint-Saens Sym 3 - "Organ" - with the same assisting artists as in the Victor commercial stereo disk, but from a live April 1962 concert performance, heard here in an FM radio aircheck. Now, in 1962 the audio processing for radio was in a primitive state of the art, and I believe that the compression of the high frequencies, to avoid overmodulation, is way out of hand. As the developer of more than one type of audio processor for FM stereo, myself, I've also tried my hand at creating a "reverse engineering" process to try to undo some of the limiting effects: only *partly* successful here. The original broadcast was just too damaged and colored by the peak limiters. So the Victor LP or CD has more realistic dynamics, but this performance seems to me to be even a bit more ferocious and demonic: if that's even POSSIBLE!
I just know that the "Munch underground" probably has a dub right from the tape--not thru a 1962 radio transmission process--but I've never encountered one, darn it!
https://www116.zippyshare.com/v/xxZLxXmZ/file.html
44 MB, mp3: file available only for thirty days, after the upload date of 8/29/18.
Vive la France!
8H Haggis
IMPROVED broadcast line recording of Saint-Saens 3rd, Munch
Ignore the above upload that I did several weeks ago, based on an off-air copy of the 1962 live Munch/BSO concert of the Saint-Saens Symphony no. 3. Despite my efforts, there was still some 'congestion' and peak limiting that particularly affected the percussion and very loudest transients.
Wouldn't you know it--I have now turned up a LINE recording, ahead of the FM transmitter, of the same performance, minus MOST of the electronic limiting. The sound is still a might harsh (due to the nature of the mikes used, and the levels on the tape) but has vastly more vital transients and modulation-free bass response.
Hoorah! I've been looking for this for 20+ years.
{127 MB flac file, with LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY, since ZS will guarantee its presence only until about 12/17/18}
https://www21.zippyshare.com/d/bJBnybn5/28689/Saint-Sa%c3%abns%20Symphony%20No.3%20Organ%2c%20Charles%20Munch%201962%20live%20IMPROVED.flac
-or-
https://www21.zippyshare.com/v/bJBnybn5/file.html
8H Haggis
Post a Comment