Leinsdorf Special - Mozart, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and the Strausses

Erich Leinsdorf's early career is less remembered than his Boston Symphony tenure and his later spell as guest conductor at major orchestras. On this blog, I've looked at several of his neglected first recordings, all dating from 1946, near the end of his abbreviated Cleveland Orchestra residency. I also presented a Philadelphia disc where he accompanies pianist Ania Dorfmann.

In this post, I'll add a bit to the list of his Cleveland recordings available on this blog, while moving on to explore his 1952-54 discs with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

The appropriate links are at the end of each section. Note (July 2024): these have now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Music of the Strauss Family

Leinsdorf 's Cleveland recordings all were made from February 22-25, 1946, when his successor (George Szell) had already been appointed. Even so, those discs are full of interest, ranging from his own suite from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande to Schumann's First Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's Antar.

Today we take up some of the shorter works explored in that series of sessions. These include a selection of music from the Strauss family: Johann Strauss, Sr.'s "Radetzky March," Strauss, Jr.'s "Thunder and Lightning Polka" and "Perpetuum Mobile," Joseph Strauss' "Music of the Spheres" waltz and Eduard's "Bahn Frei!" The latter is here titled the "Race Track Polka," and is presented in an arrangement by Peter Bodge that I believe was written for the Boston Pops.

This music is well suited to Leinsdorf's skills and personality. While his readings will not remind you of the approach of the Austrian Willy Boskovsky, their spirit and precision are delightful.

The "Music of the Spheres" waltz has appeared on the blog before, but I also included it here to keep the set together. These transfers all come from a Cleveland Orchestra promotional LP issued in the 1970s.

LINK to music of the Strauss family

Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances

Leinsdorf was the principal conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1947 to 1955. His first recording with that ensemble was an excerpt from Wagner's Siegfried with Eileen Farrell and Set Svanholm. That came in 1949, but per A Classical Discography it wasn't until 1952 that there was a follow-up.

The second disc was one of unusual interest - the first recording of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. This late composition was written for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and premiered by that ensemble under Eugene Ormandy in 1941. Ormandy, however, reputedly did not care for the piece and didn't record it until 1960.

Responding to Leinsdorf's LP, critics were sharply divided about the work but not the performance. The New York Times found the composition to be "tired sounding, without any highlights to capture the mind" while The New Records said it "immediately gains the attention of the listener and holds it until the last measure." Today, many consider it one of Rachmaninoff's best works.

The reviews agreed that the Rochester performance was a fine one: well-played and tautly conducted, as was Leinsdorf's norm at this point in his career. It is an impressive achievement - Rochester had a very accomplished orchestra - and it still sounds well.

The LP came out on Columbia's full-price label, but all of Leinsdorf's subsequent Rochester recordings for the company were issued in budget lines.

LINK to Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances

Schubert - Symphony No. 8; Mozart - Symphony No. 40

Leinsdorf's next session in Rochester was in April 1953, where he taped three of the great works of the symphonic canon: Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, Mozart Symphony No. 40 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (the latter not included here).

The first two works were coupled on Columbia's relatively new Entré budget series. As with the Rachmaninoff recording above, Leinsdorf's reading was "alert, rhythmically alive, musically faithful [and] tonally satisfactory," per the American Record Guide, which added that "the Rochester Orchestra is just below the first rank and really far better than the most of the European orchestras we regularly encounter on LP recordings these days." It's hard to disagree. C.G. Burke in High Fidelity, while noting that Leinsdorf had been demoted to the low-price Entré label, added, "Nothing so exalted can be bought for so little as Columbia RL 3070."

This transfer comes from a circa 1957 budget reissue on Columbia's Harmony label. The label identifies the ensemble as the "Rochester Orchestra," but as far as I know it has always been called the Rochester Philharmonic.

LINK to Schubert Symphony No. 8 and Mozart Symphony No. 40

Mozart - Symphonies No. 41 and 35

Perhaps heartened by the response to the Schubert-Mozart pairing above, Leinsdorf programmed two additional Mozart symphonies for his March 1954 recording session in Rochester. Although the performances, to my ears, have the identical approach to the record above - forthright, emphatic and detailed - the critics were not as impressed.

Burke, while noting the conductor's "clear-eyed directness," insisted that, "Most of us prefer more perfume, and more deviations in this breeze" (whatever that may mean). To me, it is hard to not be impressed by Leinsdorf and the orchestra's passion and precision.

This is another recording issued initially on Entré, but transferred from a subsequent release on the Harmony label.

The Rochester recordings all were remastered from lossless needle-drops found on Internet Archive. The sound both from Rochester and Cleveland is quite good. The downloads include scans, photos and reviews.

LINK to Mozart Symphonies No. 41 and 35