HANSON 

American Music  

Recorded 1952/53/54     

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:  Andrew Rose

HANSON Symphony No. 4  'Requiem'

LOEFFLER  Memories of my Childhood  

*HANSON Songs from "Drum Taps"

*THOMPSON The Testament of Freedom 

*David Meyers baritone

*Eastman School of Music Chorus

Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra

Howard Hanson conductor

Libretti are available on our website:  

Short Notes  

"For connoisseurs of American music, this disc is an answer to a prayer; recording, interpretation, living presence (and the composer on the podium) all contribute to making it a triumph for all concerned."

- Gramophone review, 1955, of Hanson's 4th Symphony

These recordings, made by Mercury in the years 1952-54 for a short-lived series featuring American composers, have escaped digital reissue until now. They are just a handful of superb recordings made by Hanson for this series which have yet to see CD or download issue, and yet what delights we have been denied!

These new 32-bit XR remasters reveal each of these works in much improved sound quality - and the performances are impeccable.

Notes on the transfers:

These recordings were transcribed from both original 1950s Mercury LP pressings and 1970s Dutch reissue pressings. Although the latter offered much better overall disc quality, they suffered from a particularly unpleasant brand of fake electronic stereo, which attempted to create stereo spread by the simple expedient of putting the treble onto the left channel and the bass onto the right channel.

Unfortunately this very occasionally resulted in some phasing problems when the two channels were summed back to mono for XR remastering. In the three or four instances (of a second or less) that I detected of this I was able to either significantly reduce or entirely fix the problem.

More generally the sound quality of the older recordings was less than brilliant, and though I have managed to achieve significant improvements, there is a noticeable reduction of top-end treble towards the end of both recordings. In this respect the Hanson Symphony and the Loeffler are both much better, and all four recordings have greatly benefited from 32-bit XR remastering.
Andrew Rose

Review Symphony No. 4    

"Hanson ... is heard on the other side of the disc as conductor of his own Fourth Symphony, composed in 1943, and awarded the Pulitzer Prize on May 1st of the following year. Its four movements have headings taken from the Requiem Mass: Kyrie eleison; Requiescat; Dies Irae; Lux aeterna. The title of the last movement was used by Hanson twenty years before this Symphony was written, for a symphonic poem with viola obbligato. In broad outlines, the Symphony follows the normal plan of tempo-relationships, the first movement beginning with a slow introduction and moving on to a lively più mosso section, notable for some fine woodwind playing. The second movement is a broad and expressive Largo, standing in strong contrast to the short scherzo-like Dies Irae. A pastoral beginning to the last movement leads to a more animated middle section, the close being tranquil and at the same time impressive in the urgency of its musical message.

For connoisseurs of American music, this disc is an answer to a prayer; recording, interpretation, living presence (and the composer on the podium) all contribute to making it a triumph for all concerned."

Printed in The Gramophone, February 1955 (read full article here)   

MP3 Sample  Symphony No. 4, 1st movement      

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Recorded 1957

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:  Andrew Rose  

Wilma Lipp soprano

Elizabeth Hoengen alto

Julius Patzak tenor

Otto Wiener bass

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna

Pro Musica Symphony, Vienna

Conductor Jascha Horenstein

FLAC downloads include orchestral scores for each movement

Short Notes  

Jascha Horenstein's Beethoven 9th, recorded for the budget label Vox in 1956, was initially as much remarked upon for its fitting onto a single LP (thus cutting the price of it) as it was for its performance.

Yet in reviewing the UK issue, the Gramophone pinpointed the finale as defining its excellence: "For me, any performance that makes the last movement a thrilling climax to the whole work is indeed memorable...Here there is no doubt about it: this is the most telling Finale you will find on any record at present available".

Thanks to this new 32-bit XR remastering you'll hear the brilliance of Horenstein's vision as never before, with a clarity of sound which belies the recording's vintage and budget - it really is a stormer!

Recording Notes

Horenstein's Beethoven Nine is that rarest of things - a recording of the symphony which fitted onto a single LP, rather than the more common three sides. This was achieved both by having some quite lengthy sides - the label claims 33 minutes and 32 minutes duration, with a split partway through the third movement - and by Horenstein conducting the work at a fair old lick. I compared it to a later recording by Solti, which runs to a more leisurely 76 and three-quarter minutes. Whilst their 2nd and 4th movements are relatively similar, Horenstein's first movement is nearly 3 minutes quicker than Solti's, and his third is almost 33% faster and thus five minutes shorter.

In remastering I discovered a huge amount of detail which the rather veiled 1956 production had left hidden, and the XR remastering restores a sparkling vitality to the music which matches Horestein's pace and delivery well. I noted that the original LP production faded the master tape to silence between movements, and this has been done here as well - and I was able to take the opportunity to add some vital inter-movement breathing space.

On my near-mint pressing the second side presented a greater degree of surface swish than the first, which has been treated. I also excised an insect-like lathe whistle which was audible for much of the first side, warbling around 4.5kHz.

The end result is a particularly fine-sounding production of exceptional clarity.

Review (of original UK release)    

This record has already appeared in America and I hope our correspondent there won't mind my tilting at his view that it is a "good but not exactly memorable performance". For me, any performance that makes the last movement a thrilling climax to the whole work is indeed memorable, and how often does that happen, at a concert or on a record? (When it does happen at a concert I am unable to enjoy it, for I am constantly on tenterhooks, afraid that we shall be let down!) Here there is no doubt about it: this is the most telling Finale you will find on any record at present available. Toscanini's certainly wasn't a success: the singing was harddriven and not always adequate, and the recording of the voices was poor. The chorus in Furtwängler's deeply-felt Bayreuth performance is ineffectively recorded. The same fault is evident in the most recent issue, Karajan's on Columbia.

Horenstein has got his chorus to sing with magnificent conviction and Vox have recorded them very well. Their words are so vital and I can hear them so clearly that I want to know why they (and the bass soloist) sing "fresch" instead of "streng" in the sixth line of Schiller's poem. But there is no doubt about the effect of their singing. The jubilance of the word "Freude" at the start, the conviction of "Seid umschlungen, Millionen", making us feel that they really mean what they are singing about-that all men everywhere should embrace each other as brothers- the whole thing, in fact, has come to life for once.

The solo voices are not quite the equal of Furtwängler's quartet but they never let us down seriously and they very often lift us up. The orchestral playing through the whole work is in the first class.

True, the reading of the earlier movements is not so great as Toscanini's, not so "dedicated" as Furtwängler's, but it is not superficial. There are fine things, and one magnificent moment-at the second outburst for trumpets and horns in the slow movement, followed by deeply recorded basses in the quiet passage that ensues. The timpanist is always noticeably good but he is brilliant in the Scherzo. Horenstein's care for detail and balance is evident everywhere but it is in the Finale that he really comes into his own.

And all this is on one disc. In some of the heavier passages it does sound a little as if it had been a push to get it all in but when I balanced this with so many advantages I was not inclined to worry too much. And, something that had not occurred to me, the tiresomeness of having the flow of the slow movement interrupted by turning over the record in the middle was considerably off-set by not having to turn it over before the Finale-the great outburst almost breaks in upon the slow movement's end, as it should.

This brings an impressive performance within reach of a great many who might be unwilling to afford two discs and as such alone is to be welcomed. But I would recommend it to anybody's attention.

Printed in The Gramophone, April 1957  

MP3 Sample  Second Movement      

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