And to really get the Christmas season underway, old friend David Federman has prepared a new compilation of seasonal songs, promising that it is just the beginning of a series. Let's start with David's goodies.
A Homeland Security Christmas
David is calling his digital mix tape "A Homeland Security Christmas." I am going to let you read David's own thoughts for an explanation, but let me mention that his intention is to highlight great songs from previous generations. "Man, did our parents have standards!" he notes. "And not just as gauges of excellence and workmanship, but songs worthy of cherishing.
"This mix is meant to put you in a kind of ancestral state of mind as you imagine job- and war-worried people trying to spend time alone or together in hope and happiness."
Please go to the comments section of the All Saints' Day post to read David's comments and a link to his 31-song compilation. His own link only will be good for a few days, but I have added a more permanent link just below his comments.
Paul Whiteman, Parts 3 and 4
I know many of you were interested in the Paul Whiteman records posted here and on the blog of good friend Lee Hartsfeld. Just wanted to let you know that Lee has added two new groups of Whiteman songs - go here and here.
Reups and Remasters
As my own contribution to the festivities, I have prepared a pile of reuploads. Most of them are of recent vintage, so I have not revisited the sound. But a few date back many years, so I have remastered these, and they now have much better sound. A few words on these spiffed-up items, then a list of the other reups.
The other reups:
Leo Sowerby - Prairie, From the Northland (ARS Orchestra/Dean Dixon) - LINK
Robert Ward - Symphony No. 3, Leon Stein - Three Hassidic Dances (Cincinnati SO/Thor Johnson) - LINK
Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Elenor Steber, Dumbarton Oaks CO/William Strickland); Four Excursions (Rudolf Firkušný, p.) - LINK
Django Reinhardt - Le Jazz Hot (contribution from my pal flyingfinger) - LINK
Roy Harris - Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra (Johana Harris, p., M-G-M SO/Izler Solomon); Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (Nell Tangeman, ms.) - LINK
Americana for Solo Winds (works by Barlow, Rogers, Copland, Kennan, Keller, and Hanson, conducted by Hanson) - LINK
Arnold - English Dances (London PO/ Sir Adrian Boult) - LINK
Limited-Time Uploads from 8H Haggis
Now let me offer just a synopsis of what our man 8H has been up to in the comments section. As always, see the comments to the posts below for what 8H has for you. I suggest searching on the composer or artist to minimize scrolling.
In the Whiteman, Previn and a Profusion of Limited-Time Uploads comments
"The Virtuoso Harpsichord"/Anton Heiler
Barber - School for Scandal Overture/Werner Janssen
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique/Arvid Jansons
Boccherini-Gruetzmacher - Cello Concerto/Danil Shafran, Arvid Jansons
Cherubini - Symphony in D/Carlo Zecchi
Debussy - Martyrdom of St. Sebastien/Victor Alessandro (don't miss this one)
Grieg - Piano Concerto/Richard Farrell, George Weldon (Farrell is terrific)
Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 1/Richard Farrell, George Weldon
Liszt - Tasso/Arvid Jansons
Mozart - Lucio Silla Overture/Antal Dorati
Mozart - Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41/Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
Rimsky-Korsakov - Capriccio Espagnole, Le Coq d'Or suite/Ernest Ansermet
Schumann - Cello Concerto/Danil Shafran, Arvid Jansons
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker/Antal Dorati
Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty/Antal Dorati
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto/Ruben Aragonyan, Arvid Jansons
Tchaikovsy - Suite No. 1/Arvid Jansons
Thomson - "The Mother of Us All" Suite/Werner Janssen
Thomson - Cello Concerto/Luigi Silva, Werner Janssen
Weber - Symphony No. 2/Willem van Otterloo
Plus a "mystery download" (my hint: very interesting operatic recordings)
Plus an extravaganza devoted to the obscure but Haggis-approved conductor C. A. Bünte:
Barber - Symphony No. 1
Beethoven, Schubert - German Dances
Beethoven - Consecration of the House Overture
Beethoven - Early Piano Concerto in E-flat (Galling, p.)
Beethoven - Symphony No. 3
Brahms - Serenade No. 1
Busoni - Konzertstueck (Glazer, p.); Rondo Arlecchinesco (Moser, t.)
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (Bianca, p.)
Glinka - Ruslan und Ludmilla Overture
Harris - Symphony No. 3
In The First Recording of Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony comments
Vaughan Williams - English Folksong Suite, Greensleeves Fantasia, Norfolk Rhapsody, Tallis Fantasia/Sir Adrian Boult
In the Hanson Conducts MacDowell comments
Dvorak - Symphony No. 7/Sir John Barbirolli
Dvorak - Symphony No. 8, Scherzo Capriccioso/Sir John Barbirolli
Elgar - Enigma Variations; Purcell-Barbirolli - Suite/Sir John Barbirolli
Grieg - Peer Gynt music, Symphonic Dances/Sir John Barbirolli
Haydn Oboe Concerto (Evelyn Barbirolli); Dvorak Serenade in d/Sir John Barbirolli
Hovhaness - Prelude and Quadruple Fugue; Lo Presti- The Masks; Sessions - The Black Maskers/Howard Hanson
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 4, L'Enfant Prodigue suite/Georges Sebastian
Schumann - Symphony No. 3/Paul Paray
Suppe - Overtures/Sir John Barbirolli
Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 8, Bax, Butterworth/Sir John Barbirolli
In the Kostelanetz Conducts Grofé and Kern, Plus Many Bonus Items comments
Villa-Lobos - saxophone works/Vincent Abato, NY Woodwind Quintet
Saxophone concerti/Eugene Rousseau
In the More Limited-Time Uploads comments
Haydn - Organ Concerto in C and Sinfonia Concertante in Bb/soloists, Karl Ristenpart
Haydn - Symphonies Nos. 13, 19, 29, 31, 44, 45, 49, 64/Leslie Jones
Haydn - Symphonies Nos. 44 and 57/Szymon Goldberg
Haydn - Symphonies Nos. 55 and 85/Roberto Benzi
Haydn - Trumpet Concerto; Divertimento for Flute; Serenade; and "Das Echo"/soloists, Kurt Redel
Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 1/Fine Arts Quartet
Mozart - Quartets/Roth Quartet
Rosza - Overture to a Symphony Concert; Theme, Variations, and Finale/Miklos Rosza
Saint-Saens - Tone Poems/Louis Fourestier
Schubert - Quartets Nos. 13 & 14/Fine Arts Quartet
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7/William Steinberg (a rare one with the Buffalo PO)
Strauss-Dorati - Graduation Ball/Antal Dorati
And finally...
Another plug for my new Twitter feed. Links to all the posts here and on the singles blog when those posts appear. Links to other items of interest (to me, anyway) on the web. And a new benefit - periodic uploads for Twitter followers only. (Like I said, it's the start of the holiday season!)
Just click the link below.
Follow @BusterBig10Inch
44 comments:
More toil for Santa, from 8H Haggis: Mendelssohn Recital
Here's a gem: a very old c.1953 Westminster mono LP by pianist Reine Gianoli, playing ten solo pieces by Felix Mendelssohn (including the favorite concert works Rondo Capriccioso and Variations Serieuses.) This was being touted on the newsgroup RMCR by a gentleman who goes by the initials FF; he has uploaded a large quantity of his antique record collection in low-res files that have not only NOT been edited and repaired, but also are often a terrible jumble with every possible mistake one could commit.
This one was no different. I began editing it to do noise reduction but discovered that things were SERIOUSLY out of order; the famous works I mentioned above were NOT 'as advertised' but were other Mendelssohn pieces; and there was one extra track not documented in the jacket contents or label (which took me a long time to find on the net, as he failed to provide them with his upload.) I finally figured out what started messing things up: he split the opening work incorrectly into TWO tracks and thereby mislabeled the next piece -- Rondo Capriccioso -- putting it incorrectly into track 3...which should have been Variations Serieuses (again, misidentified!) Then, he thought that this long set of variations was TWO different pieces, and named the last several variations incorrectly with the NEXT work in the sequence. I nearly had to get out our Dover copy of Mendelssohn's scores before I discovered the nature of his blunders--and got it all (presumably) back into proper order. (I am anxious to get my wife's opinion of this version of the Rondo, as she's teaching it to one of her students after not touching it for about 40 years; whew, what a killer!)
Gianoli was a fine artist and I agree with FF that THIS is a splendid recital (but what bothers me is this: if you hold yourself forth as an 'expert enthusiast' for this repertoire, wouldn't you KNOW the difference between these two pieces? It's a rather sad state of affairs for a mere ENGINEER to have to figure out such blunders!)
I have not been able to make this sound pristine, but did reduce the detritus and generally improve the acoustical qualities. I very much doubt that there was EVER any reissue on either LP or CD. Gets MY seal of approval (for what that's worth.)
{167 MB, lossless FLACs, plus original cover and part of back. File MAY NOT be available in perpetuity on Zippyshare, after 12/5/18.}
https://www93.zippyshare.com/d/3XQ1u2Rk/30410/FMpfReineGianoliWL5329.zip
--or--
https://www93.zippyshare.com/v/3XQ1u2Rk/file.html
8H Haggis
You asked, a few days ago, if the Rodzinski NBC "Brahms-Schoenberg" Quartet recording exists. It is available as part of the Rodzinski series available from Canada from the St. Laurent Studio as Vol 15. of their Rodzinski series: http://www.78experience.com/welcome.php?mod=disque&disque_id=356
I think it'll be worthwhile to check out that series (Canadian dollars!). It's also available from Amazon as part of a two-cd set with other Rodzinski recordings. I'll be curious to hear a response if anyone has heard it. The playing of the NBC in the Brahms-Schoenberg may be as stunning as Bruno Walter's Mahler 1 with them from 1939.
With best regards from over here,
David Mendes
Christmas in November?!?! Well I never... ;)
Thanks, Buster. And Mr. Federman, thank you as well.
Thanks, David. You MAY have satisfied one of my long-time quests!
8HH
{Part 1 of 3 Parts}
Westminster Keyboard Kornucopia - 8H Haggis
Here are two folders comprising DAYS of work in which I strove to make more pleasing and less disturbing several blog offerings of great old Westminster LPs from the early 50s, featuring piano and harpsichord performances. The majority of these came from a now-defunct blog whose uploader had no proper idea of correct transfer and remastering of old vinyls; by his admission, most of his items were purchased for mere pennies per disk at thrift shops. This isn't by definition a guarantee of uselessness (as I've discovered occasionally over the years) but it means that greater care in reprocessing and editing than most amateurs are trained to do will be required.
Westminster recorded just about EVERYTHING. And when their output is re-evaluated a half-century later, we find that their artists -- often considered second- or third- rate, obscure, or past their prime, now seem to be remarkably solid, and often inspired. The company started out by largely inheriting the catalogue of the early LP-innovator Concert Hall; eventually they hired out an engineer in Europe (a man named Wolleitner, an early adopter of American Altec condenser mikes, using minimalist & natural pickup balances) who produced, for the time, some amazing sonic blockbusters (sadly often sabotaged by poor pressings and later reissues, squeezing too much music into 30+ minute LP sides.) Most of the stereo issues had significantly reduced bass response and seem "boxy"; but the remarkable remasterings of session tapes by Universal Group, in brand new CD issues, show them to be virtually the equal of the best recordings by Victor or Decca or DGG at the time.
Westminster, in its heyday, was not the equivalent of the later budget Vox/Turnabout, or today's Naxos, but really *almost* a competitor to the so-called "full priced labels", with records that were only generally a dollar less than Victor or Columbia (I remember this; my budget was SO tight at the time that I often had to *settle* for a Westminster, thinking I was an unfortunate. Today, I'm not so sure; their records HOLD VALUE for their high artistic standards!)
The records I'm providing are occasionally at a slightly lower technical achievement; but with correct EQ and occasional ambient enhancement, they now seem quite satisfyingly realistic. Artistically, I consider them first rate.
{End of Pt 1 by 8H Haggis}
{Part 2 of 3 parts}
Folder 1:
A. The first of two early-music albums is an unusual recital of keyboard works by Karl Philip Emanuel Bach, played by the Russian-born Nina Malkina (b.1919-d.2006), who was trained and pursued her career largely in Britain. See:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/dec/05/guardianobituaries.obituaries1
In addition, she studied composition with Alexander Glazunov in Paris; he died in 1936 so she was then barely out of childhood (during which she'd been considered a prodigy.) For thirty years she was a mainstay of BBC classical music programming and London concert life. I find her playing of KPE Bach cembalo pieces, on a modern grand, to be (while understandably somewhat unidiomatic by modern scholarly standards) nevertheless very graceful, clean, and, overall, *interesting*!
B. Cimarosa Complete Harpsichord Sonatas; Robert Veyron-Lacroix. This great French cembalist was probably in his early-thirties when this Westminster album was recorded; his big Parisian debut had been only in 1949 so by the time of thi release he was not the "household name" he became in the sixties and seventies (at the height of the mainstreaming of baroque music.) The pressing used by the uploader was one of those "cheapie" Westminster "Collectors Series" reissues, with orange boilerplate covers sans art; but those often had MUCH cleaner sound than the original full-priced Westminster issues, now revealing the audio quality of the original tapes. The blogger ONLY managed to mess with the EQ, grossly rolling off the top end; I've recovered the overtones and the result is *amazingly* lifelike and transparent (albeit monophonic.) Performances (and music, of course) are simply beyond criticism.
{End of Pt 2 of 3}
{Part 3 of 3, plus links}
Folder 2:
A. Albeniz: Iberia; Jose Echaniz. This Cuban pianist recorded Iberia in the early 50s for a 2-LP set. The pressing here was reissued some time around 1958; the upload contained only the tracks I've presented, with the incomplete Navarra (edited by De Severac) missing. I could not find a Discogs list for this album to confirm, but an only Echaniz article in PDF suggests that Navarra WAS included; I cannot corroborate this with another source.
B. Schumann Fantasy Pieces; Fantasy in C; Jorg Demus. This central European mainstay recorded a large part of his extensive repertoire, including chamber works, for Westminster in the pre-stereo era. This particular album was released c.1952, likely being recorded at least two years earlier, when he was at the absolute height of his powers. The sound is much more primitive than the other items and the particular old original pressing was grungy, requiring a LOT of denoising. I think the slight residual background 'junk' is tolerable, certainly lower level than most earlier 78 rpm era piano disks that still have many modern enthusiasts.
{Folder 1 (KPE Bach, Cimarosa: 330 MB, zipped. FLACs, covers, track info; LIMITED TIME OFFER: We cannot *guarantee* that Zippyshare will not delete this file after 12/5/18, if there are no further regular DL requests; NO planned re-ups.}
https://www91.zippyshare.com/d/cQetaC9k/28937/Keyboard%20Kornucopia%20Part1.zip
-or-
https://www91.zippyshare.com/v/cQetaC9k/file.html
{Folder 2 (Albeniz, Schumann: 385 MB, zipped. FLACs, covers, track info; LIMITED TIME OFFER: We cannot *guarantee* that Zippyshare will not delete this file after 12/5/18, if there are no further regular DL requests; NO planned re-ups.}
https://www91.zippyshare.com/d/Z5rLYhm5/38662/Keyboard%20Kornucopia%20Part2.zip
-or-
https://www91.zippyshare.com/v/Z5rLYhm5/file.html
8H Haggis
Well, the only thing I can say about this, at present, is that the album specifies the source of the 1938 broadcast as the "Melotone Recording Studio" of NY; this means it's NOT from in-house transcriptions made at Rockefeller Center, with wideband response up to at least 8 kHz (check out Winner's transfer of the 1938 Toscanini Salome's Dance: it sounds AMAZINGLY good!)
Some Toscanini enthusiasts, like Marcia Davenport, had this and other NY studios take down off-air AM radio broadcasts and made lacquer acetates, which the subsequent owners *played nearly to death*; so I dearly hope that this is NOT that type of artifact (for instance, Marcia's records of Toscanini's 1930s NY Phil concerts are like fingernails on a blackboard to me; I can't stand to listen to them.) Being the skeptic that I am, I do not intend to spend the amount requested for this item WITHOUT being provided with a sound-sample; but thanks so much David, for your research.
8HH
Hi Buster,
Thank you for all the efforts you have taken in annotating the plethora of recent uploads. All very interesting and a great "trip down memory lane".
BUT BUT BUT cannot find the C.A. Bunte recordings that you refer to? Some guidance as to where I can find them listed please in your blog. I grew up with this name omnipresent on Vox/Turnabout releases.
Thanks in anticipation.
Cheers,
Douglas (UK)
Hi Douglas - Thanks for letting me know. It was a latecomer and I ushered it into the wrong pew. I have corrected the post. You can find it here (I hope):
https://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2018/10/whiteman-previn-and-profusion-of.html
My wife, Regina Roper, traces her lineage (one removed) back to Dame Myra Hess, Egon Petri, and also was taught by Fernando Valenti. At the moment she's teaching one of her more advanced pupils the Rondo Capriccioso and has been working it up herself. I just played Gianoli for her and she said this:
To her, the tempo is too frenetic; she prefers Mendelssohn to be played in a lighter, more playful manner; Gianoli (she opines) over-dramatizes it. She also criticized certain agogics. And of course noted that the old record is distorted in the loudest parts (she is completely INTOLERANT of old, deficient, records in ANY way whatsoever.) So, there...
8HH
8H - I wonder what your wife would think of Ania Dorfmann's Mendelssohn. I have Dorfmann's complete Songs without Words and was about to transfer the set when Sony reissued the pianist's complete recordings.
Many thanks Buster for supplying the updated link - there are so many interesting and expansive messages from 8H Haggis that I feared that I missed the C A Bunte correspondence and links, especially that zippyshare files are time limited.
So many fascinating bits of information about recordings that I often pondered about, never thinking that I would get all this elucidation from 8H Haggis and yourself.
I'm heaven from all your beneficence in relaying this information from 8H Haggis - together with your own insights and links.
There is no-one else (locally) who seems to share my interests in these seminal recordings of the 1950s, 1960s and to some extent into the 1970s (mostly on bargain labels, which is all my budget would allow). Amplified with the recent releases of the excellent transcriptions that David Gideon (ReDiscovery), and to a lesser degree by Curt Timmons (Klassic Haus) have produced (which I have only encountered in recent years). Not really fully checked out Haydn House yet, but looks interesting.
I feel very isolated with my crazy/idiosyncratic interests.
This morning on my local railway station, this morning, I encountered a "fiddle player" who turned out to the leader of the Halle Orchestra - got talking to her, naturally, about my early days in the Liverpool Philharmonic and my association with Simon Rattle - didn't seem to want to engage in communicating. Have found this with many professional musicians, who apparently can communicate in music and with fellow musicians, but cannot engage with the general public - such a shame I want so desperately to talk with them - there is so much to learn from them.
So sorry for this rant.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So much interesting music that I can download into my music player - to be surprised, at some point when it comes up randomly in the playlist.
Cheers,
Douglas (UK)
{Part 1 of 3: Furtwaengler Fixes (??)}
I put in a question mark because some of you collectors do not have the tolerance I've developed for crusty, crumbly old recordings--and will listen to two of these, below, and wonder, "HOW can he consider these FIXES?" For the sound is still objectively bad--though the main *artistic* and production problems may have been ameliorated...to an extent.
1. Furtwaengler Lucerne Festival performance of Brahms "Double" Concerto; with Wolfgang Schneiderhan (v), Enrico Mainardi (cello); 24 August 1949. As far as I'm able to determine (using an old, critical Furt. discography that is now offline) this live recording was first issued on a Japanese LP, followed by an AS-Disc (Italian) CD release. The problem is this: parts of the recording have severe 'tape squeal' that defaces the sound for some minutes. The Cd reissue spliced in what seemed to me to be surely a NON-FURTWAENGLER substitute that has a completely different tempo (compared to the original, it's like a manic Scherchen brain-spasm) that wrecks the continuity and makes you practically jump out of your chair. I was given this recording by a Chicago-era musical authority and Furt Fan (who works for the great Symphony Orchestra of this city), perhaps in hopes that I might make something better out of this pastiche-work. I spent some YEARS diddling with it, changing equalization; trying to adjust the speed/pitch of the insert; and finally gave up on such wastes of time...and did the *sensible* thing: I substituted sections from Furt's 1952 recording of the same work, from an old out of print Lp. THAT is musically more justifiable. (And, I also tamed the "paint-peeling" high frequency peaks.)
I find the performance -- which is to some modern tastes a bit ponderous -- to be, nevertheless, a bit more propulsive and spontaneous than his later Vienna Philharmonic version. There is a wide musical dynamic range, but the tympani overload the equipment rather badly. THAT can't be fixed.
Now, a disclaimer: I continued to fuss with this for another year or two. I've looked through my library database and *believe* I've located the LAST version--when I just gave up on it, considering further work to be pointless. I do hope it's the one I describe above. There is a scientific possibility that it's an earlier iteration, but I hope not; I just played the last movement all through and it seems orderly--though one of the main inserts does have an accelerando (identical to the way Furt. conducts the same passage in 1952), it seems NOT to be the one that marred the first copy I received. At any rate: there's no squeal, nor any severe sonic discontinuities that were evident in the deleted AS-Disc.
{End of Pt 1 of 3 - 8H Haggis}
{Part 2 of 3}
2. Schumann: Piano Concerto Op. 54; Walter Gieseking, Piano; Berlin Philharmonic/Furtwaengler; March 1-3, 1943 (live RRG tape)
Years ago, Music & Arts released this in a HORRENDOUSLY AWFUL fake stereo CD issue; one of the two audio channels was HIDEOUSLY, GROTESQUELY, hard-clipped; and the other audio channel was only sort of 'saturated and mushy'; then a layer of stereo echo was added. I listened, horrified, on phones: realizing that the better of the two channels SHOULD have been used, as merely a mono recording. I posted my analysis, and questions about this, on RMCR; and poor old (now deceased) Fred Maroth of M&A was beside himself (he was upset about my criticism, and insisted that King Records of Japan was responsible, not himself: and I'm sure he was correct. It's significant that Fred and I had a GOOD relationship; earlier he'd offered me a job as the 'chief engineer' of his organization--but I reluctantly turned him down.)
Several other posters seemed VERY confused about this. The esteemed music critic Henry Fogel opined that it was "an amateur off air" recording made in Berlin during the war. I scoffed--no "amateur" was doing such work with a Magnetophon tape recorder, then considered by the Nazi government to be 'secret' war technology!
A colleague of Fogel, who felt he daren't contradict him in public, quietly sent me a tape he'd made of the SOURCE...a late fifties Russian LP issue, done from the USSR's cache of 'liberated' RRG tapes (released in the Soviet Union on vinyl, long before they returned the tapes to Germany -- allegedly. Actually, they returned COPIES.)
The LP was exactly what I heard on the better of the two channels of the CD release: 'saturated and mushy' but not HARD-CLIPPED, snappy, and nasty.
Years later, DG released its large collection of wartime German tapes--but used not THIS source, but a different (and VASTLY inferior) one: that sounded as if it trickled through the underwater telegraph cable from Vladivostok to Alaska.)
I checked even a later DG release, on CD: it was the same lousy one. The LP transfer my friend sent me -- which I tried to clean up a little bit -- is still BETTER; not world-class like the amazing Testament issue of Furt's Bruckner 5th, a mind-boggling 19*42* tape recording that sounds as good as something from 1957, if not later (mono, of course.)
So, here's my modest offering; I hope it seems a little better than certain later "official" releases.
{End of Part 2 of 3}
{Part 3 of 3, and links}
3. Glazunov: Stenka Razin; "Berlin Philharmonic cond. by Wilhelm Furtwaengler" (allegedly); also sometimes claimed to be by the Vienna Philharmonic (THAT they got right!)
This has been released on Melodiya LP and CD, Wing in Japan, Palladio, As-Disc, and other labels in the LP era -- and now, EVEN online such as in THIS appalling fakery:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/beethoven-symphony-no-3-eroica-glazunov-stenka-razin-mw0001371681
Repeat after ME: "This is NOT by Furtwaengler. This is NOT by Furtwaengler".
I did not have anything to do with debunking it but I offer it to collectors who may STILL be misled by incompetent shysters and exploiters in the record business. The performance is by Leo Borchard --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Borchard
-- a Germano-Russo artist who became the conductor of concerts in the "liberated" (occupied) Berlin, and MD of the BPO, following the defeat of the Nazi regime. Tragically (like the composer Webern) Borchard was shot dead, a soldier accidentally confusing him with some kind of saboteur. Sergiu Celibidache replaced Borchard as the music director of the Berlin Philharmonic after this tragic event.
The expert collector and retired broadcaster Don Tait of Chicago has written on RMCR:
"Borchard was put in charge of the BPO because Furtwangler was still in Switzerland when Germany surrendered and the Allies wouldn't permit him to resume conducting until the charges of possible Nazi collaboration were resolved, which of course they were -- he was
cleared. Borchard made a few 78s with the BPO, including a Nutcracker Suite for Ultraphon and Suppe's Banditenstreiche overture, Wotan's Farewell with Hans Reinmar, and Jean Francaix's Concertino with the composer as pianist for Telefunken. The Francaix is the best known because Capitol released it on 78, 45, and LP in the USA."
Another RMCR posted, with moniker "M Forever", adds this (I haven't bothered to corroborate it, but it's certainly fascinating):
"It may be interesting to know that Borchard had his debut with the BP in 1933, the year the NSDAP came into power, and conducted them quite often until he was banned from conducting by the regime because of "political unreliability". He was part of a resistance group code-named "Onkel Emil". I do not know why he, who was widely travelled and spoke several languages in addition to (obviously) German and his native Russian, did not emigrate. It might have been easier for him than for many others to start fresh somewhere else. Maybe he didn't want to, again - he already had to leave his home country after the Red revolution. What a tragic life: first he is exiled from his home country, then he gets banned by the Nazis, finally after the war his time comes when he gets appointed to conduct the BP concerts - then he gets shot by an American soldier.
I don't remember who first correctly identified this performance as being Borchard not WF; but it could likely have been Ernst Lumpe, who prized out the correct IDs of many old LPs:
http://www.soundfountain.com/allegro-royale/introduction.html
Borchard made the first postwar recording of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, with the BPO (!), a highly effective performance is quite surprisingly good sound via magnetic tape.
{67 MB; mp3s with fanciful cover images; LIMITED TIME FILE, which may not be maintained by Zippyshare after 12/6/18 unless there are sustained DL requests; no re-ups intended.}
https://www11.zippyshare.com/d/VXBaVDVQ/48492/Furtwaengler%20Fixes.zip
-or-
https://www11.zippyshare.com/v/VXBaVDVQ/file.html
8H Haggis
SPECIAL TO BIG 10-INCH RECORD: A PRE-CLIMATE CHANGE CHRISTMAS
Welcome to a concert of winter music comprised of recordings from a time when global warming wasn't the threat it is now. Except for a few straggler songs from the 1950s and even fewer from the 1960s, these selections all mostly date from the 1930s and 40s when winters were expected to be white and, in 1941, bitter enough to stop Hitler in Russia. I call this mix: A Pre-Climate Change Christmas. Since most of the listeners to this music were people like my parents with little or no money to afford records, they deal with the weather and seasonal sentiments. While some songs explicitly mention Christmas, the need of Americans for family and fellowship in those years allowed for easy adaptation of songs to December and superseded specificity of occasion (but not activities like sleigh rides, skiing and snowball fights). I treasure these records and I hope they give a new (or, should I say, old?) dimension to holiday listening. Some records are rarities that I had to accept in less-than-pristine condition. One is an MGM 78 by Leroy Holmes from 1951 that features singer Johnny Corvo crooning two great end-of-the-year songs: "This Is That Time of Year" and "I Still Keep Dreaming." Although not explicitly Christmas songs, they were released late in the year to aid and abet Yuletide longing.
Why, you may ask, am I sending you this gift on election day? After voting, I spent the day assembling this mix. I do not intend to listen to the news until results are in. My prayer is that America has recovered from its electoral temper tantrum of 2016 and will clean up some of the carnage. As I compiled these songs, I kept thinking how far into the past I had to go to find a true winter's music. If nothing else, the vintage of these records is meant to send a message to climate-change deniers that we need cold waves like those that prompted many of these songs.
Songs are up on WeTransfer for a week. So grab 'em while they're cold (it would be stupid to say "hot"). More mixes to come. I consider this a labor of love and a form of cultural patriotism.
https://we.tl/t-Bu2ipyLBs2
Douglas - The old records are why we're here! We love 'em, even if no one else does.
8H - Resuscitating old Furtwangler recordings is also an occasional hobby of mine, but I try to stick to ones that are in decent shape. You have tackled the most tattered specimens out there, which is noble of you.
That Leo Borchard record of Francaix has appeared on this blog, and probably has an active download link:
https://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2008/10/composers-at-mid-century-part-3.html#comment-form
David - Once again, this sounds delightful. I'll give it a more permanent link as soon as I can.
Danke, Buster. The denizens of RMCR fail to appreciate basic human psychology. When they lambaste poor Pierre Paquin when he offers a free download of some rare gem -- on the specious grounds that it's not perfect high fidelity; and then they compound this by ARGUING sophistries with him about it, I doubt that he'll feel motivated to keep up the Good Works.
I am even more thin-skinned than Pierre; but when I am told my efforts are um, noble (I blush) then what CAN I do but provide more efforts? Next post will reveal all.
8HH
Part 1 of 3: Historic Records of Edvard Grieg - 1920s to 1950s
I spent US-midterm election day preparing this compilation, one eye on Net coverage of the voting (won't even HINT at my point of view!); many times I had to shut off the prattling commentators to fine-adjust one aspect or another of some of these transfers.
I did not do most of them; and in some cases, I got them from links published on RMCR as long ago as before 2010. I can *guess* where a few of them came from; may I be forgiven for this lack of provenance. I'll name my potential candidates from vague memory, because I believe all of them do a good job of preserving the artistic quality of the performances (though the noise content varies due not only to the records, but also to varying tastes of individual restorers.)
The most elderly recording was a VERY early British electrical 78 set from 1925 (!) featuring HMV's house conductor at the time, Landon Ronald, in Grieg's Lyric Suite, one of my own favorite pieces. The volume is rather low and the sound is, of course, comparitively dim with respect to the Grieg disks of the forties and fifties in this collection, but Ronald is always musically interesting as an interpreter. I *believe* this may have been an old offering by the British gramophile Damian Rogan.
The second oldest: Grieg's lovely Violin Sonata, recorded in 1928 by Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The transfer was supplied to me from HMV original 78 rpm pressings owned and digitized by a knowledgeable collector friend in Chicago (his initials are AD; I did not ask his specific permission for the inclusion HERE, but I doubt that he'll mind.) I was attracted to this recording -- which stimulated me to put together this entire folder -- due to my wife's involvement as accompanist to a local violinist in the work; I heard her practicing and rehearsing it for several days (sans fiddle) until I felt *compelled* to get out this classic old performance to hear both parts!
Next, Grieg's noble Homage March from the incidental music suite Sigurd Jorsalfar; Constant Lambert waxed this one on July 30, 1941 according to a Net review of a commercial CD release. This however is an amateur transfer from British Columbia 78 disk DX.1037. I have always found English shellac pressings from this period to be much noisier than the best US disks (such as Columbia Viva-Tonals or Victor scrolls); this one is no surprise. There very well may have been a release from the matrices that avoids the shellac noise, but it's a brief work--AND a very good performance, as befits Lambert's skills.
{End of Part 1 by 8H Haggis}
{Part 2 of 3 parts--Grieg}
Boyd Neel conducts his Chamber Orchestra in the Holberg Suite for strings, a British Decca set that, according to official Decca discographical records, was part of a series of sessions from July to October 1938. I cannot for the life of me remember who uploaded either this, or the Lambert. With the advent of LPs, Neel re-did the performance for vinyl long play disks in 1950. This is the earlier 78 version; the vividness of the string overtones is so clear and sweet one could easily be fooled into thinking it was the version taken down a decade later. And the surfaces are so much better than the British Columbia or HMV shellac disks that then, as later, Decca was certainly the technical leader! (Furthermore, has any subsequent recording of the work been *really musically superior*?)
Probably around the time that the USA joined the Allied war efforts against the Axis, two Victor sets were recorded on 78 rpm waxes: the Grieg Peer Gynt incidental music suites, No. 1 with the Cincinnati Symphony under Eugene Goossens, and No. 2 with Fabien Sevitzky and the Indianapolis Symphony; the Big 10 Blog also has some other Sevitzky transfers available.) Again, I have NO idea where these accurate transfers came from; they are "purist" type with no denoising (though they've been declicked) so I might guess they were old efforts from "Neal's Historic Blog" that are no longer online. I found the original cover image for the early RCA Lp release of of Suite No. 1, and the midwar "boilerplate" Victor 78 cover art for No. 2. I'm very fond of Goossens' record set, as when I put together a special broadcast documentary about the conductor, featuring my own lengthy interview with his friend and collaborator Nicolas Slonimsky, and among the musical performances I included my personal transfer of MY copy of the shellac set--ah, gone with the wind! So it's good to have this copy.
We move now to 15 July 1945, for a live Hollywood Bowl appearance by Percy Grainger and Leopold Stokowski, featuring the pianist's celebrated interpretation of the Grieg Piano Concerto. There have been 2 CDs of this (both out of print, I believe): the VERY crackly, noisy Music & Arts; and a dull, boxy sounding one on Biddulph. Obviously the source for both is a good acetate line recording of what was probably a broadcast (I'm assuming that is is preserved by the Leopold Stokowski Society.) Well--I used the SAME identical source, and by means of MUCH better processing (if I do say so myself) than either Biddulph or M&A employed, I think it could almost pass for a record made *a decade later*. The piano itself sounds a little mediocre but the orchestra is full and powerful, and the dynamics were intelligently recorded without compromise.
{End of Part 2 of 3}
{Part 3 of 3, and links}
Finally: an LP that was released in 1958 in the USA, and the following year in the UK: Erik Tuxen and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Grieg's Norwegian Dances, and Symphonic Dances, part of Mercury's series of "The Music of the North" as licensed from Tono. Ergo, these were not amongst Mercury's C. Robert Fine's own brilliant recordings for the Living Presence series; they ARE a little dim for the era (but the performances are solid and enjoyable.) Some of the Tono masters around this date ARE indeed in stereo, but my research limitations have not turned up any confirmation of a 2-channel edition. The Mercury LP was used for the transfer, but I could not find its cover on the web, and so substituted the World Record Club artwork, via the Discogs website. The transfer from LP was made by a friend of mine on the east coast; I've done nothing to it whatsoever.
{224 MB, FLACs and mp3s; plus cover art. LIMITED AVAILABILITY time: Zippyshare may NOT guarantee availability after about 12/6/18, unless consistent DL requests are made. No re-ups planned.}
https://www114.zippyshare.com/d/00cO2n5k/24796/Historic%20Grieg%20Records%20-%20Goossens%2c%20Sevitzky%2c%20Lambert%2c%20Neel%2c%20Tuxen.zip
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https://www114.zippyshare.com/v/00cO2n5k/file.html
8H Haggis
8H - Thanks! I love Grieg's music. I have another Sevitzky transfer coming up one of these days. I think I have that Tuxen LP.
Buster, I've played the Dorfmann records you uploaded for her (or, shall we say, she OVERHEARD me playing them!) and not once, never one time, did she like any of them. She also does not like the Beethoven performances with Toscanini. Regina does not care for almost any of the pianists who were mainstays in the 30s and 40s. She tends to think, always, that their playing is arbitrarily mannered--or too intensely fast, making a point of speed and brilliance of playing at the expense of deeper values. She has a degree in piano performance, so I never argue with her about that.
8HH
Interesting - Dorfmann's playing does not strike me as being mannered, but then I am not a pianist!
Thanks for giving the second mix a more permanent berth. Like Ernie, I've got a year-round Christmas music bug. But thanks to Andy Senior, Lee Hartsfeld, Radio Dismuke and the many other great archivist-guardians of vintage music, I have found rich tailings in the American past. Our parents and grandparents practiced a kind of cultural ecology that is just now bearing fruit. If any superstar bothered to visit the aforementioned blogs (and yours, too), they'd discover seasonal music riches that would make their obligatory and uninspired Christmas albums more compelling and imaginative. I went to a Peggy King concert two years ago where she played a Christas song that she wrote years ago and never recorded. It was wonderful. But there's also the art of transposing and juxtaposing ostensibly non-seasonal songs into new, different seasonal contexts. I still cherish your use of Anne Shelton's beautiful recording of "It's That Time of Year" (availably 15 years ago on a Dutton CD but now now o.p.). If you can find that album (I can't), you could probably devote a blog-entry to her wonderful Christmas records alone. In any case, it IS that time of year and I'm pledged to having a time of a time in 2018--now that I have found an enabler like you who will put up with my, pardon the bad pun, shellac-igans. By the way, thank you for inspiring Lee Hartsfeld's recent outpourings. I hope he starts posting some vintage country gospel again. Plenty of that is mega-appropriate to Christmas. And I'm awaiting Ernie's Christmas postings for this year. He treats thrift shops like Fort Knox--and finds plenty of gold.
David,
You said, in part:
>>Welcome to a concert of winter music comprised of recordings...these selections all mostly date from the 1930s and 40s when winters were expected to be white and, in 1941, bitter enough to stop Hitler in Russia.<<
What a HOOK you've provided me! This was not only my impetus to finish the editing of the broadcast, but also to add it, here, after your post.
Here is Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony performance of 19 July 1942, the American broadcast premiere, of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad". This piece was wildly successful during WW2, but afterward, critics had second thoughts. However, for what it's worth, *I* loved it, from the first moment I heard a live broadcast by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, back in (I believe) 1962.
The usual crowd of Toscanini-critic suspects love to make fun of this piece, with Robert C. Marsh quoting an alleged dismissal of it by Toscanini, years later, scratching his head and wondering WHY he bothered to memorize all of it and conduct the premiere. I doubt that!
(Of course, Toscanini DID change his mind, from time to time. He had huge respect for Mahler when they were both conducting at the same time in New York, attending local premieres of his music -- with scores -- and raving about them. Thirty years later, Mitropoulos is said to have tried to convince Toscanini to do the Mahler Fourth. "Bah!" he is said to have spat in bitter reply, "Mahler's music is only fit for toilet paper!")
If that's true--then you know how to rate the Shostakovich 7th. I don't agree with the alleged "Toscanini position" on EITHER...and I adore both pieces. Toscanini is not as idiomatic and convincing in this work as Stokowski was, when HE did an NBC broadcast a few months later: that one is sui generis; this one is 'a view from another planet' as far as a real understanding of modern Slavic music is concerned.
But, it's thrilling (in its way); and I now have finally got the entire broadcast into a reasonable facsimile of the original. At least two other bloggers have tried to do it but their source material was flawed. The open and close are from the '5 kHz radio network line' and sound pinched and limited in bandwidth; that's unfixable. The applause is therefore coarse. But the MUSIC, here is primarily from the RCA Victor set LM-6711, released in 1967, with occasionally two other patches. I have endeavored to make the dynamically contrasting passages SEEM more like a modern recording than they've done in previous issues, by using my "patented 8H Haggis unlimiter". Purists may now stop short and not bother to download it; they WON'T like it. (A few others MIGHT, however.)
Get rid of the tensions you've experienced during this mid-term election with the WALLOP at the end!
{195 MB, zipped FLAC plus cover image; LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY, as Zippyshare will not guarantee files past thirty days after upload date (in this case, 11/7/18); though they may hang on for a while if regular DL requests continue.}
https://www40.zippyshare.com/d/1kSegF00/17802/1942-07-19%20Star%20Spangled%20Banner%3b%20DS%20Sym%20No.%207%3b%20AT.zip
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https://www40.zippyshare.com/v/1kSegF00/file.html
8H Haggis
Here's some material that is dramatically contrasting with Grieg --
{Part 1 of 2}
Three More Werner Janssen Records to complement my earlier post...I've spent most of a working day on this compilation of EXTREMELY fine performances!
1. Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 - Janssen cond. stellar cello ensemble, Capitol P8147 (perhaps recorded c.1952.)
This Capitol LP also included two V-L Choros, but transfers of those haven't been posted. I've never seen this rare album but more than a dozen years ago, somebody uploaded a very nice copy of Side 1 as a link on newsgroup RMCR. Discogs shows the following artists in the ensemble: "Alex Reisman, Eleonor Aller, George Neikrug, Joseph Coppin, Jose di Tullio, J. di Tullio, Kurt Reher, Olga Zundell"; Neikrug has recorded Schelomo with Stokowsky and Aller was a distinguished member of the Hollywood Quartet (and wife of Felix Slatkin.) I also remember seeming Reher's name in two Hollywood Q. albums; he was principal cellist of the LA PO. This particular monaural recording predated by at least a half-dozen years a "stereo remake" of the BB#1 with the "Concert Arts Orchestra" conducted by F. Slatkin (likely with Mrs. Slatkin, Aller, as cellist) in a marvelous stereo album for Capitol. Either performance is as good as -- if not better than -- the composer's own HMV mono recording.
2. Friedrich Witt: "Jena" Symphony (formerly attributed to Beethoven.)
The source of this very rich and robust amateur transfer of c.1942 Victor 78s is an acquaintance of mine, Bill Anderson of Chicago. It was once released on an LP I have never seen: according to a vague entry in Wikipedia, it an RCA Camden longplay by Janssen that also included *somebody's* Beethoven Sym. No. 1. This performance was recorded back in the day before modern musicology proved that this "Jena" Symphony was not Beethoven ephemera, but rather a composition by the German composer and Beethoven contemporary, Friedrich Witt (1770-1836.)
{End of Pt 1 - 8H Haggis}
{Part 2 of 2, and links}
3. Two tracks from an obscure LP of American works called "Four American Landscapes".
From "Artistic Records" (no. 100), a small Los Angeles company that also released a Janssen performance of selections from Berg's Wozzeck. These two tracks (obviously taken from the original, rather noisy, Artistic LP) were harvested by me from YouTube, and then declicked and re-EQ'd, and sound MUCH, much better than the horrible 1964 fake-stereo Everest Lp copy I used to own (indeed, the Ives and Copland tracks from this Everest CD-reissue, using the hideous faked stereo-effect sound, ARE on YT; but I won't employ them! The "hollow/delay" quality cannot be reversed or cancelled; it's tragic that the modern CD *still* uses this terrible 1964 reprocessed tape transfer.)
Of the tracks I provide from the original LP, the two pieces are "Dance in the Place Congo" (1908), the most celebrated work by Henry Gilbert (1868-1928), and Ancient Desert Drone (1939) by Henry Cowell. My guess is that this material was recorded possibly as early as c.1946-7 for its first 78-rpm incarnation on Artist 1401 & 1404 (WERM-1.) More info about this rare record may be found on the Discogs website:
https://www.discogs.com/Werner-Janssen-conducting-Symphony-of-Los-Angeles-The-Four-American-Landscapes/master/188432
I no longer seem to have Janssen's marvelous premiere recording of the Handel-Schoenberg Concerto For String Quartet And Orchestra (based On The Handel Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 7) which was on an early-50s Columbia LP. Does anybody know of an available [free] download--I won't pay for one, as I *already* bought that Lp, so Columbia GOT my $$. This is one item I missed saving when I disposed of my 13,000+ vinyls after my retirement from broadcasting. There are a few modern stereo versions of this work, but I still think Janssen's might be the best.
{110 MB, 320 kbs mono mp3s, covers & info; LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY: *might* be deleted by Zippyshare followed a thirty-day period after upload on 11/8/18.}
https://www60.zippyshare.com/d/pyPt90hx/5506/WernerJanssen-JanssenSymLosAngeles.zip
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https://www60.zippyshare.com/v/pyPt90hx/file.html
8H Haggis
I have that Villa-Lobos LP on Capitol.
And, now for something completely different...except that IT too is related to WW2. It's the 1976 Quintessence stereo LP of "Victory at Sea" with Charles Gerhardt, which I transferred in 1999. The rest of the information is located in the following post, the thread on the Big 10 blog attached to Buster's excellent transfer of the original 1953 NBC Symphony record of the same score:
https://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2011/09/victory-at-sea.html?showComment=1541739116162#c253624484008215163
8H Haggis
I am sure I'll come to my senses soon (if not through my own intentions, surely through the direction of my sensible wife); but while the mania continues unabated, here is yet another post. Please consult the thread for Buster's upload of a Crossroads LP of Prokofiev for the details, in the end of the remarks thread:
https://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2018/07/prokofiev-suites-for-children.html?showComment=1541741287910#c1725930053479198267
The item is another Crossroads Lp that I found *particularly* delightful; refer to the above link for the details.
8H Haggis
Dear 8H,
Is it true that Shostakovich himself hated Toscanini's performance of his 7th? There are so many urban legends about the Leningrad Symphony. In any case, I think I glorious seasonal mix of classical music could be made. I have salted away Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Prokofiev for this purpose. Maybe you could add some suggestions. Have you ever heard Morton Gould's orchestration of Tchaikovsky's "Seasons" recorded in 1951? Quite nice. So much else that could be added to such a melange. Just thinking aloud while its still early enough in November to save Christmas from iTunes.
{No. 1 of 2, by 8H Haggis -- "Rolf's Records"}
A very interesting Dutch fellow, by the name of Rolf den Otten (or "Otter", or "Otterhouse") is a lecturer in applied sciences at a Delft, Holland university; while a grad student he apparently worked for the European Archive as an "historic sound specialist". He had a website (now defunct) back in the 'early medieval period' of Internet history, in which he uploaded exactly ONE Lp transfer per week (when data costs were very high.) He also occasionally listed links to some personal transfers on various forums and newsgroups--and I began following his efforts. In those bygone days, mono records from the early fifties were anathema to the record companies--they were considered to be horrible old unmarketable junk.
With the loss of classical radio worldwide, things have changed. Downloads and streaming services have more or less replaced all-classical FM stations. And, capitalist entrepreneurs being true to their natures, they look FIRST for ancient, public domain stuff so that they can avoid paying high licensing fees. Now, 1950 classical tracks from Concert Hall are no longer such repellent, ghastly stuff!
But, when Rolf was one of the FEW enthusiasts uploading transfers, these things were missing from wide distribution. The artists were so obscure at that time (and, even in their former heyday not being particularly charismatic or having, as Bruno Walter put it, "box office") that, well, who knew? It was just such folks as Rolf, meandering down the shelves of the European Archive, who took note of them; listened to the scratchy platters, and found GOLD.
I was at first really quite put off by Rolf's transfers. He used a turntable that had HORRENDOUS rumble; and -- I suspected -- in reaction to that, simply cut ALL the bass. So there was very little energy below about 150 Hz, other than hum and rumble. Those old LPs were not well balanced and rich to begin with; now they sounded comparatively WORSE, against more modern performances. Since I too am basically an archivist, I *knew* what a lot of these really sounded like; and endeavored to see what I could put back IN, by means of judicious digital filtering and NR, without the rumble becoming predominant. I spent many an hour editing Rolf's uploads: more than they were probably worth. As I recall, he did not do any declicking, but at least chose disks that were in basically good shape. So it might not take me more than 2 to 3 hours to get ONE of them into listenable shape, by my standards (this is with an old PC having a 600 MHz cpu, and laughably small RAM; and a *dialup* Internet connection!)
I put them onto CDR (multiple copies for backup protection)...and then barely ever pulled them out to listen again. So, this gives me an opportunity to hear a few, and share the experience.
{End of Post 1 of 2 - 8H Haggis}
{Post 2 of 2, plus DL links}
To reiterate: Rolf's transfers, below (with help from my further editing) were done YEARS before any of these items were released on CD, largely as PD items by independent labels.
Folder 1:
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 12, 13; Cor de Groot, VSO, Otterloo (mid-50s.)
Mozart - Piano Concerti 17, 24; Menahem Pressler, VSO, Wilfried Boettcher - Concert Hall, mid-60s.
Mendelssohn - Piano Concerto No. 1 in g; Chopin PC #2; Pressler, VSOO, Swarowsky - CH, early 50s.
Handel Water Music - Concertgebouw Orchestra, Van Beinum (late fifties' Epic stereo--this is the only 2-channel classical item I believe Rolf ever uploaded--or that I ever saw.)
Folder 2:
Bruckner - Overture in G minor; Symphony No. 7; Hague Resedentsie & VSO - van Otterloo (Epic SC6006, probably transferred by Rolf from European pressings.)
Suppe - Four Famous Overtures; London Philharmonic, Georg Solti (1951.)
Schubert - Symphony No. 8; VSO, Scherchen; Rosamunde Excerpts; Czech PO, Meylan (Ultraphon, 1951.)
Nielsen - Symphony No. 1 in g-minor; Danish State Radio Symphony, Thomas Jensen (early 50s.)
Haydn - "Quinten" and "Joke" String Quartets; Pascal Quartet - MMS47 (late 40s.)
Saint-Saens - Violin Cto No. 3 etc. - Grumiaux, Lamoreux Orch, Fournet (mid-50s.)
{No. 1 - 213 MB; No. 2 - 214 MB: mp3s plus covers & info; LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY, as Zippyshare will not guarantee to make these available past 12/12/18 (though that might only be approximate, depending on demand for the files.)}
FOLDER ONE:
https://www82.zippyshare.com/d/2xPwURIa/32465/RolfsRecords-1.zip
-or-
https://www82.zippyshare.com/v/2xPwURIa/file.html
FOLDER TWO:
https://www82.zippyshare.com/d/3xrnybtS/10011/RolfsRecords-2.zip
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https://www82.zippyshare.com/v/3xrnybtS/file.html
8H Haggis
Solomon Volkov's "Testimony" allegedly quotes DS as believing that Toscanini's performances were ALL affected, having a 'kind of sauce applied' that consisted of the conductor's peculiarities of approach. He also objected to the American (Clyde Key) Toscanini Society appointing the composer DS as one of the board members. I tend to BELIEVE this totally; the remarks in this book (particularly the details about American issues) seem to me to be entirely convincing, and hard (maybe almost impossible) to find out by other means in the late USSR.
I *think* I asked Nicolas Slonimsky about this and -- if memory serves -- got his agreement with me. Volkov was ridiculed and belittled (allegedly "debunked") by the NY Times; but in those days, the unrepentant Stalinists and Trotskyites were not exactly without influence!
I do know Morton Gould's transcription of The Seasons. My CD database does NOT contain a digital transfer though I used to own the Columbia LP.
8H Haggis
YouTube, "the world's greatest copyright infringer", has the Morton Gould version for piano & orchestra of PIT's Seasons; but I only see 9 of the months present. The transfer is credited to Andre Rose's Pristine Audio--as such, and since it's currently being sold by that organization, I have no intention of copying it and putting it here. The transfer is in artificial stereo but frankly sounds better to me than the mono LP, which was rather hollow and mid-rangy.
8H Haggis
Suggestions for David for Xmas classical compendium--
Surely, Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve Suite!
RVW Hodie, and Christmas Carol Fantasia
Honegger Christmas Cantata
Hely-Hutchison Chrismas Carol Symphony
William Henry Fry: Santa Claus Symphony
8HH...
Thanks for the input. The Rimsky-Korsakov is unknown to me but the Honegger and Fry are in my library. Ives has much that lends itself to the season. And there is a Couperin piece called "Le Carillon de Cythere" that rings in the season.
I believe Dutton reissued the Gould on CD some years ago and I am trying to find my copy, now o.p., so, I assume, lendable for my purposes. As Christmas music steadily worsens, I feel duty-bound to resurrect (no pun intended) music which was splendidly suited to accompany the season. Am I alone in needing earnest nostalgia?
New link for Pre-Climate Change Christmas:
https://mega.nz/#!zRUhlKRa!rkVbhwU7SpgV1xF_MFmM26UVemMN4Abs6qqpiRSFfqM
That MEGA link is no longer valid. :-(
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