Rummaging through my collection a while back, I came across several interesting discs with the music of Felix Mendelssohn, and decided to transfer them for this post, and possibly one more to come.
Here are the details of today’s offering. The sound quality varies, but is never less than good.
Symphony No. 3 (Israel Philharmonic/Paul Kletzki). This particular record was among the first to be made by the orchestra, dating from April/May 1954. The download includes scans of an eight-page commemorative booklet included in the American Angel release. Kletzki leads a good performance, although the coda, marked Allegro maestoso assai, is more maestoso than allegro.
Symphony No. 4 (Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli) and Violin Concerto (Siegfried Borries; Berlin Philharmonic/Sergiu Celibidache). This coupling on RCA Victor’s Bluebird budget label combined Manchester and Berlin sessions that both transpired in February 1948. Barbirolli elicits a spruce performance from the resuscitated Hallé, which remained underpowered in the strings five years after the conductor revived its fortunes. Siegfried Borries, then the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, offers an assured reading of the concerto, with an excellent accompaniment led by Celibidache during his postwar years as the orchestra’s conductor.
Symphony No. 4 (Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell) and Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Philharmonic-Symphony of New York/Szell). The fine Cleveland performance is from November 1947 dates in Severance Hall; the terrific New York rendition of the Midsummer Night’s Dream music is from January 1951 and Columbia’s 30th Street studio. I don’t like making comparisons, but for me the New York band of this period was second to none. This particular coupling had two different covers, both of which are in the download along with images from a 78 set and 10-inch LP.
If there is interest, I will transfer Mendelssohn overtures from Adrian Boult and Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts from Sargent and Old Vic forces including Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Stanley Holloway.
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| George Szell blisses out to a 1951 recording session playback |
Links (Apple lossless):
ReplyDeleteMendelsson - Symphony No. 4; Midsummer Night's Dream (NY, Cleveland-Szell)
https://mega.nz/#!eJNWSI5T!7SVZ1RrdJIghsQHLH0_U82WkCcEMLLBYttO7k53cmtE
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2jrtcrt77c8a5tw/Mendelsson_-_Symphony_No._4%3B_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream_%28NY%2C_Cleveland-Szell%29.zip
Mendelssohn - VC (Borries, BPO Celibidache) Symphony 4 (Halle Barbirolli)
https://mega.nz/#!7NUTEb7C!EEQs9qEeEcfJ_pkkcYTBiBlJ-HhChh0a76scHjCQrt0
http://www.mediafire.com/download/d8ef3u8utdfg9pr/Mendelssohn_-_VC_%28Borries%2C_BPO_Celibidache%29_Symphony_4_%28Halle_Barbirolli%29.zip
Mendelssohn - Symphony No 3, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Israel-Kletzki)
https://mega.nz/#!aV9mkZYQ!qkNj0Zho7mmY2M3ky6A0xoqPK0STK3WLVW7r-3e2IWE
http://www.mediafire.com/download/445qxsidqhb92wy/Mendelssohn_-_Symphony_No_3%2C_Calm_Sea_and_Prosperous_Voyage_%28Israel-Kletzki%29.zip
Thanks for these gems.
DeleteI'd also like to draw everyone's attention to another superb Paul Kletzki/IPO recording from around the same time as this Scotch Symphony:
A magnificent and very well recorded EMI-Columbia mono recording of Mahler's First, a real sleeper, well transferred from a clean LP copy, at this blog page:
http://www.rene-gagnaux.ch/kletzki_paul/mahler_symph_1_israel_1954.html
Gagnaux does a fine job, in the same league as M. Buster, IMO.
8H Haggis
8H Haggis - I agree; great blog.
DeleteYour post was so intriguing I had to download it. I look forward to listening. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
ReplyDeleteInspiring and enjoyable.Essential listening.Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, everyone!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for these posts. I love Mendelssohn's refined and so well-shaped music,....also his chamber music, unfortunately less known than Schumann or Brahms'. Please share with us the Boult, sir Malcolm.........
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ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of both Felix Mendelssohn and George Szell since "we" were introduced during the 80's.
Thanks, Buster!
"If there is interest, I will transfer Mendelssohn overtures from Adrian Boult and Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts from Sargent and Old Vic forces including Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Stanley Holloway."
ReplyDeleteOh, interest, interest!
DeleteI have interest (but sadly, no principle)!
Thanks so much for the very rare Kletzki album; about the same time, he and the IPO recorded one of the earlier LP versions of Mahler's 9th (Bruno Walter's VPO 78s in the LCT reissue, and Horenstein's Vox, both preceded it, as did at least one Scherchen version (which may or may not have been released widely), but by the time Kletzki's Angel LP set was released, it was next to impossible to find any other Mahler 9th performance!)
ReplyDeleteBased on a number of reviews and several not well regarded LPs of more familiar works, I had the early (very wrong!) impression that Kletzki was *not* a very interesting interpreter: maybe even something of a routinier or 'kapellmeister' type. Well--the upload I'm supplying below surely disproves THAT! As soon as I listened more widely to his records, I learned that he combined the most *scrupulous* musicianship, with enormous energy and personality.
I am supplying the Jan. 1954 recording of PIT's "Manfred" Symphony, with the Philharmonia, for EMI (from an Angel pressing.) Pity that this just missed being in stereo, for -- if it were 2-channel -- I think most collectors might -- even today -- consider it the TOP choice. We now have a plethora of outstanding performances, but back in the mid-fifties, there was only Toscanini's early LP (sounding VERY compressed and weak on the Red Seal release, in 1949 technology) and the even dimmer Camden LP transfer of Fabien Sevitzky's old Victor 78s. So Kletzki's very hi-fi recording would have been the natural predominating top spot.
I am quite certain a commercial CD has finally been done but this copy I'm supplying is a transfer of the old original LP, though the Russian upload I found on a blog had *the worst gardarful turntable rumble I've EVER heard*. I spent two days just experimenting with various digital techniques to get rid of it, without losing all the body and impact. It's not perfect but has more depth than a lot of the LPs of the period, if one wasn't fortunate enough to find a version on, say, Mercury or Decca/London, with their typical dramatic solidity and presence.
The Philharmonia is at its absolute height of perfection here.
https://www102.zippyshare.com/v/lxV2junv/file.html
(112 MB, lossless FLACs, plus discographical info and cover pic: available ONLY until about 8/26/18.)
8H Haggis
I believe I have the Kletzki Manfred myself. I'll probabky get around to transferring it someday, but I have his Wagner LP in line first.
ReplyDeleteFYI, the Sevitzky has appeared on this blog:
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2009/10/manfred-in-indianapolis.html
Yes, Buster: I'm very familiar with these as I obtained them some years before your very useful uploads. Sevitzky's is a great Manfred in many respects. So too is his PIT First. Kindler's PIT 3rd, which you also provide, has a defect in the original 78s: the very first note is either missing altogether, or is buried in the shellac hissing as the engineer had not yet turned up the microphone to full gain. A friend of mine has the shellac set and sent me the raw transfer, because his copy of the 78s had a duplicated side through a pressing error, and about 4 minutes of the performance was missing. He also transferred the Camden and I had to mix the two together and try to make the LP insert sound as close to the 78s as possible (the LP had added echo, was thin, and had a shrill top end; the 78s were much more natural.) I got a fairly decent result that I still prefer listening to, compared to the Camden altogether.
DeleteCut to today: the Guild label has now finally issued the Kindler 3rd (coupled with Goossens' Victor 78 set of the Little Russian)...and the first note is STILL totally missing! It's also rather muddy sounding, IMO. Even the Camden sounds better.
Only the RCA Victor vaults in Indianapolis could help us solve this problem, if the metal matrices survive and are pristine.
What did YOU do about the first note of the Third, Buster?
I just rechecked my corrected version of the rumbly Kletzky Manfred, in my upload link, and it does seem to sound better than I'd remembered. The strong, loud parts are certainly not "thin" even though I had to do some extreme NR work to get out the TT rumble. Only one or two spots seem a bit thin (very ends of movements 2, 3) but if I don't think about the HORRENDOUS hums in the original files, I don't notice anything amiss. I believe the job as ended up being only very slightly inferior to Rene Gagnaux's excellent work on the Kletzki Mahler First--so please, Buster, do the Wagner LP first!
8H Haggis
I don't think I did anything with the missing note, not that I recall!
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