CLASSIC REVIEW
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MusicWeb International
on all downloads of this album until
14 February 2014
Orchestre Symphonique de Paris
Pierre Monteux, conductor
Recorded in 1929 and 1930
Stravinsky, Ravel, Coppola, Chabrier
Classic review:
MusicWeb, 2010
This CD contains some very important audio documents. It was Pierre Monteux who conducted the notoriously disrupted first performance of Le Sacre du Printemps in Paris on 29 May 1913. A few months short of sixteen years later he made this recording of the work in the same city. I'm not sure if this was the first recording of the work for I believe that the composer himself made a recording in that same year and I don't know which one was set down first. However, what is important about this recording is that perhaps, with the work's first interpreter on the podium, it allows us to get as close as we're ever likely to get to experiencing what the première of Le Sacre may have sounded like - without the first night audience commotion. Indeed, it's perfectly possible that some of the players involved in this recording may have taken part in that infamous première.
Nowadays, when youth orchestras will give a performance of Le Sacre with panache and even insouciance and when the work has become a calling card for most professional orchestras it almost sounds too easy. Not here. In this imperfectly played and imperfectly recorded account we get more than a sense of the demands that this score, which must have seemed outlandish at the time, made on its early players. There's one other thing to throw into the equation. The Orchestre Symphonique de Paris had been formed as recently as 1928 and, in his biography of the conductor, Pierre Monteux, Maître (2003), John Canarina says that Monteux became the orchestra's principal conductor in the spring of 1929 - so possibly just after this recording was made. Incidentally, Canarina - himself a conductor who directed some Havergal Brian symphonies for the BBC in the 1970s - states that the Salle Pleyel, the intended venue for the orchestra's concerts, had been damaged by a fire and as a result the orchestra was unable to perform in it until December 1929. So I wonder if the recording of Le Sacre was indeed made there, as stated by Pristine. Until December 1929, Canarina says, the orchestra gave its concerts in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. It's possible, therefore, that this recording of the work was made in the very building where it had first been heard in public. If so, that would be a very neat symmetry.
Monteux leads a vital, energetic performance. There is no doubt that the orchestra, which had not then been honed into a fully proficient ensemble, is frequently taxed by the music. There are several instances where the players are audibly hanging on for dear life: 'Danse de la terre' (track 7) and 'Glorification de l'Élue' (track 10) are among the most obvious examples and the concluding 'Danse sacrale' is very scrappy at times. However there's a raw energy to the performance and the primitive feel that's imparted by hearing the music played by a fallible band, reproduced in early sound, lends its own fascination and excitement.
Unsurprisingly, given that the recording was made eighty-one years ago, the engineers were as challenged by the score as were the players. The strings are too forwardly balanced, as in 'Cercles mystérieux des adolescentes' (track 9). On the other hand, the horns sound as if they were in the room next door at the start of 'Jeux des cités rivals' (track 5) and, in general, both this section of the orchestra and the crucial percussion section are far too distantly balanced. There's also significant hiss at times, especially at the very start. But, those sonic imperfections notwithstanding, it's quite remarkable what the engineers of the day were able to pick up - one wonders if they'd ever had to contend with such a large orchestra - and it's just as remarkable how much detail Mark Obert-Thorn has been able to salvage, not least when one reads in his notes how variable were the source discs available to him.
A year later and Monteux had audibly improved the standards of the orchestra and the engineers were better able to record them. The recordings of the two Ravel pieces are particularly successful. The excerpt from Ma mère l'oye, which is certainly lightly and transparently scored by comparison with Le Sacre is much more accurately reported by the recording and Monteux obtains more cultivated playing. La valse offers the best performance of all on the disc. Monteux is vital and energetic in his direction and the orchestra plays very well for him - listen to the way the strings swoon in the passage beginning at 1:43. Again, it's important to remember that these Ravel pieces were pretty new music at the time these recordings were made. Indeed, I wonder if either or both were the very first recordings of these pieces.
The Chabrier piece is the sort of music that was meat and drink to Monteux and he doesn't disappoint here with a reading that's full of verve. The Interlude dramatique by Piero Coppola, best remembered as a conductor, was new to me. I doubt I'll be returning to what struck me as a pretty empty piece that's somewhat long on rhetoric but short on real musical substance.
Clearly this is a disc that's going to be of interest mainly to specialist collectors. Despite the sonic limitations all admirers of Le Maître and anyone interested in Le Sacre and its performing history will want to hear it. According to the discography in John Canarina's biography all these recordings have been available before. All five pieces were issued on Dante Lys-2374 and Pearl let us have the Stravinsky, Coppola and Chabrier items. However, the convenience of having all five of these recordings together will be attractive to many listeners and though I haven't heard the other transfers I doubt anyone will have surpassed Mark Obert-Thorn's skill in effecting these present transfers.
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NEW REVIEW
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New review, 4 Feb 2014, by Gary Lemco
SCHUMANN
Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat, "Spring"
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor
Charles Munch Boston Symphony Orchestra
For those who continue to admire the French maestro Charles Munch (1891-1968), this new release from restoration master Mark Obert-Thorn must come as a long-awaited delicacy of high order. Obert-Thorn has resurrected two fine musical examples Munch inscribed with the Boston Symphony, the Schumann First (25 April 1951, on RCA LM 1190) and the Brahms Fourth (10-11 April 1950, on RCA LM 1086), both of which suffered pitch and distortion errors, here beautifully corrected. Munch had made his BSO debut on 27 December 1946, after having led a number of concerts and recordings in New York. Munch assumed the post of Music Director in 1949, succeeding the relatively "tyrannical" regime of Serge Koussevitzky, but at the same time having inherited an outstanding, responsive orchestral instrument well-trained in the French taste. The results would prove energetic, passionate, and often reliable, although Munch had his detractors in Joseph Silverstein and Erich Leinsdorf, the latter of whom labeled Munch "a musician who found the work too much and who spent thirteen years doing too many concerts and too few rehearsals."
The two performances inscribed on Pristine tell a different story, one that confirms first trumpet Roger Voisin's impression: "When [the Munch magic] worked, that was a magnificent era of the orchestra. . . .It was poetic and it was always different. You were never bored. For an extended period in the love-scene of the Berlioz Romeo and Juliet, I had a tacet part. I brought a book or magazine so I could read for the twenty-five minutes. But for twenty-eight days [of this tour] I never opened the book. I was completely mesmerized by that man." Coincidentally, both the Schumann Spring Symphony and the Brahms Fourth have their Koussevitzky renditions on records. But the "new" sound Obert-Thorn has coaxed from these early LPs demands every consideration: the third movement Allegro giocoso from the Brahms would warrant anyone's audition and purchase by itself! Rarely has a conductor imbued this aggressive movement with a true scherzo's character, stunning in its impact.
The berries, however, may fall upon the Schumann Spring Symphony, a rendition whose éclat and pungent vivacity rival those qualities in my preferred version by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. The warmth of sonic resonance, the alert interplay between strings, triangle, tympani and winds in the Allegro molto portion of the first movement, its finely graduated crescendos, compel repeated hearings. Recall the Schumann himself claimed the symphony had been "born in a fiery hour." The last bars of the first movement, bearing a chorale motif followed by a pageant, become imbued with the BSO grandeur. The second movement Larghetto combines nocturne and devotional prayer, whether pantheistic or as homage to Schumann's beloved Clara. Played at a relaxed tempo, we always feel that within the procession we can hear the opening motif from the Brahms Third Symphony. The good, hearty cheer of the Scherzo - with its patented two trio sections - leads to the final movement, intended by the composer to represent "Spring's Farewell," and so - in abeyance to Schumann's demand - Munch does not play otherwise frolicking or "giddy" figures with too much frivolity. Suavely buoyant, the performance imparts an elastic grace into this "longing for spring" which Schumann conceived as eternal "summons" to the spirit of youth.
A recording of special merit, this restoration.
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| PS EXCLUSIVES |  |
New This Week:
Serkin et al
BRAHMSLiebeslieder Waltzes Wayne Conner (Tenor), Martial Singher (Bass), Rudolf Serkin (Piano), Leon Fleisher (Piano), Benita Valente (Soprano), Marlena Kleinman (Alto)
Recorded August 19 and 22, 1960
Marlboro Music Festival
Marlboro School of Music, Marlboro, VT
Issued as ML 5636
Transfer by Dr John Duffy
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CONTENTS
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This Week Welcome to Pristine, Mr. Richter!
IRR Review feature, Part 1
Richter Six Russian Piano Concertos
PSXclusive 1960: Brahms Liebeslieder from Marlboro
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New names for Pristine: Richter, Kondrashin, Sanderling
Plus: Feature article from International Record Review, Part 1
 | Sviatoslav Richter
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It gets harder and harder to remember life before the Internet, e-mail, easy global communication, social networks and the like. Just this week I've been using Facebook to track down old colleagues and friends from university, some of whom I've not heard from (or heard of) for nearly a quarter of a century. I even managed to track down my old music technology lecturer, of whom, only two weeks ago in my column here, I asked "where are you now?". Travelling around the Far East would appear to be the answer!  | | Kirill Kondrashin |
Elsewhere a man I've probably not seen since he came to our wedding in 1995 is now running the media department at the Royal Opera House in London. Another has become a senior arts director, running prestigious international music and arts festivals, as well as having a stint as programme director at the Barbican in London. Once upon a time people drifted easily apart, especially in their early twenties when careers, marriage, house-buying and starting a family seemed more important than someone you once shared a lecture hall with. But today, the fact that one former student friend is running a recording studio in Australia is no barrier to contact nor communication, any more than a forthcoming music project I'm working on for Pristine is particularly stymied by being organised from Singapore, in conjunction with archives and editing in Melbourne.  | | Kurt Sanderling |
"What relevance has this to today's new release, and will he ever get to the point?" I hear you ask. Well just consider the barriers to communication and dissemination of information across the world in the 1950s. Then add to the logistical problems of simply getting around, or communicating with any urgency or speed, the global divide of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall might not physically have existed when today's recordings were made, but the Iron Curtain was a potent force in keeping the likes of Sviatoslav Richter from an international audience. With his records often hard to obtain in the West, word of mouth and the occasional mention in the music press was all you'd know of him outside the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Take this opening paragraph from what is the first mention of Richter in The Gramophone in August 1958 - where his name was incorrectly written as Stanislav rather than Sviatoslav: " It was this performance of the Rachmaninov, which the B.B.C. broadcast two years or so ago as a tape-recording from the Soviet radio, which first brought Richter to the notice of the musical public in this country, and which immediately awakened wide interest to hear more of an obviously major artistic talent. Since then we have learnt something of the pre-eminence he enjoys in Russia, have learnt with regret that he does not travel outside the Iron Curtain, and have had two or three discs by him which have been greeted in terms of the highest enthusiasm by most critics. A rehearing of the Rachmaninov confirms that we were absolutely right in going overboard about that performance: this is superb playing, by any standards..." Thus begins Richter's first Gramophone review, of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1, a work he recorded only once. It continues in the same enthusiastic manner (though with regrets about pitch flutter) until the reviewer reaches the Bach which was coupled on Parlophone's LP issue, of which he's less complimentary.  | | Yevgeny Mravinsky |
By the next time Richter's name crops up in the magazine (outside of commercial advertising) the recordings we're releasing today had all been made and issued in Russia. Russian recordings were not considered to be very good, technically speaking, and if you need to ask why, look only to the beginning of this review from Fanfare in 1996: "The Old Story: Soviet recordings were never much good. The Russians recorded on inferior equipment, even using 78-rpm masters long after the West had given them up. There are some recordings by great artists or of unusual repertoire in the old Melodiya catalog, but otherwise there is no reason to put up with the poor sound of these badly engineered relics. And if you do want to listen to any of these recordings, hold on to your old pressings; the Melodiya tape archive has been poorly preserved and the tapes are generally in a bad state.
The New Story: At the end of World War II, retreating Soviet armies brought with them several early tape recorders and other state-of-the-art recording equipment stolen from Germany. Talented Russian recording engineers quickly learned to use that equipment, and from about 1946 on most Soviet recordings were recorded on tape, then dubbed onto 78s or LPs. Soviet LP pressings were generally poor, and the reissues available in the West were pirated from Soviet pressings or licensed and dubbed from tapes several generations removed from the original master. Like sleeping beauties, these Soviet tapes were carefully preserved in controlled conditions, awaiting the magic touch of a Prince Charming to show their beauty in its full splendor."
Whatever the "story", the tragedy of these recordings is that they're still, today, being represented in our record stores and online by some dreadful releases. You don't have to search very hard to find some of the performances we've issued today online, sounding like they've been recorded over a telephone line.
Yet despite the divide, despite historic technological - and political - differences, these recordings have survived to tell a story of musicianship, of brilliant performances, of superb artistry, and of increasing technological aptitude in their capture and preservation.
Of course Richter did make it to the west, as did Kondrashin (political asylum in Holland, 1978), Mravinsky (extensive touring) and Sanderling, who was (much later) asked to be permanent conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Three of these four names are new to our catalogue this week. No doubt more will be added as we continue to explore the Melodiya catalogue of the forties and fifties that was hidden away for so many people at the time. And greetings to you, wherever you are in the world reading this today, from a small French village that feels as connected as anywhere in the world.
Andrew Rose
7 February 2014
International Record Review, February 2014"Pristine restorations on Pristine Audio" by Nigel Simeone Part 1 of 2, reproduced by permission of the publisher
 One of the regular delights of reviewing historical material is the arrival of new discs from Pristine Audio, all of which are also available as high-quality downloads. This article discusses some of the label's most interesting recent releases that demonstrate Pristine's characteristic mixture of rarities - starting with a major British discovery - along with restorations of celebrated old recordings. The television opera Tobias and the Angel by Arthur Bliss has never been available on disc before - after one broadcast in May 1960 it vanished. Now thanks to Pristine Audio this performance can be heard again, in sound that is remarkably good given the source (an audio tape taken from the television relay). It's wonderful to hear this piece at last - especially in this very assured account, conducted by Norman Del Mar with the LSO and a cast led by Trevor Anthony (probably best remembered as the original Voice of God in Britten's Noye's Fludde),Jon Ford and Jess Walters. Tobias and the Angel is an immediately attractive piece, with many passages of vintage Bliss. This release is an important rediscovery and it should be heard by anyone with a serious interest in British music. The coupling is fascinating: the chamber opera Hands Across the Sky by Antony Hopkins, composed for Intimate Opera, first performed in Cheltenham in 1959 and broadcast the following year. The cast is led by Eric Shilling, a very familiar face and voice at English National Opera, as Professor Neutron, with Ann Dowdall as his Assistant, Stephen Manton as Squeg and narrator Richard Baker. The chamber ensemble is conducted by the composer. This comic space opera is absolutely charming, and it's crafted with Hopkins's customary skill. Altogether this is a major release - and a hugely welcome one for connoisseurs of English rarities (Pristine Audio PACO096, two discs, 2 hours 10 minutes). Orchestral music by Richard Rodgers is celebrated on another Pristine release. Most of the disc consists of a reissue of the record Rodgers made for Columbia with the New York Philharmonic in December 1954. This included Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, a 'symphonic scenario' by Robert Russell Bennett from Rodgers's Victory at Sea, a suite of waltzes, the 'March of the Siamese Children', from The King and I, and the Carousel waltz. It's delightful to hear Rodgers conducting some of his best-known music, but this release is made even more attractive thanks to the bonus material: Andre Kostelanetz conducting the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra in a different orchestration of Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, an orchestral suite from South Pacific, and a rare 1946 recording of the Carousel waltz with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Fritz Reiner. This never appeared on LP, let alone CD, so it's terrific to have it here - Reiner turns out to be a stylish conductor of Carousel, though he's considerably swifter than the composer himself, especially at the start, but he gets the most alluring swing into the waltz tune ( PASC394, 1 hour 3 minutes). Stravinsky's earliest recording of The Rite of Spring, made with the Orchestre Straram on May 7th-10th, 1929 in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees - the scene of the fabled 1913 premiere - has always been problematic in terms of sound, but Mark Obert-Thorn's new transfer for Pristine is a vast improvement on earlier incarnations that I've heard, making this an important document: Monteux had made the first complete recording a few months earlier (also available in an excellent Pristine transfer, on PASC219 - on offer this week - AR), but it is fascinating to have the composer's view of the work when it was still considered shockingly novel. The coupling is the Firebird (the 1911 Suite, with the Berceuse and Finale added), recorded with the same Parisian orchestra in 1928. Again this was Stravinsky's first attempt at recording a work he went on to conduct on many occasions. Occasionally the conducting feels a little tentative, but it makes an apt coupling for the earthier, fiercer account of The Rite ( PASC387, 1 hour 1 minute). Oskar Fried recorded Stravinsky's Firebird (1919 Suite) with the Berlin Philharmonic the same year (1928), along with Liszt's Les Preludes and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. All three are revealed in new Obert-Thorn transfers to be in rich and sonorous early electrical sound. The combination of Fried's inspirational conducting and the vintage playing of the inter-war Berlin Philharmonic makes for an exciting combination in all three pieces. Fried's Firebird is more assured than Stravinsky's own (and in much better sound than Fried's earlier 1924 acoustic version) and he brings a thrilling sweep to Scheherazade that soon caused me to forget the more elderly aspects of the sound. This is a terrific performance: opulent, fluid and intensely dramatic, with some magnificent playing from the Berlin principals of the time (a liquid first clarinet, dazzling piccolo playing and lovely violin solos, probably played by Henry Holst). Any collector wanting to discover why Fried's records are so highly prized should try to hear this disc, not least because the transfers are so good. These are exceptional records that defy their years ( PASC392, 1 hour 16 minutes). A collection of Walter Damrosch's recordings of music by Gluck, Saint- Saens, Faure, Ravel and others was a real discovery: I'd never heard his flamboyant 1930 record of the ballet from Saint-Saens's Henry VIII with the National Symphony Orchestra, or a 1927 New York Symphony Orchestra set of Ravel's Mother Goose. This is a beautiful account - spacious and tender - and it comes in sound that emerges well in Obert-Thorn's scrupulous new transfers. The other works on this intriguing disc are the suite of 'Airs de Ballet' by Gluck arranged by Gaevert, a Bach arrangement by Damrosch's father Leopold, Faure's Pavane, Moszkowski's 'Perpetual motion' from his Suite No. 1, Pierne's 'Entrance of the Little Fauns' from Cydalise et le Chevre-Pied and a talk on Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony illustrated by Damrosch at the piano. To be honest, I'd no idea Damrosch was as imaginative a conductor as his Ravel suggests, and this record should interest anyone wanting to discover more about music-making in New York between the wars, conducted by the scion of a great musical family ( PASC395, 1 hour 12 minutes). One of the first complete recordings of the Elgar Cello Concerto was made by W. H. Squire with the Halle Orchestra under Hamilton Harty in the Free Trade Hall. Squire (1871-1963) was at the height of his powers when this was recorded in November 1928 and it is an interesting performance - flexible and expressive but less histrionic than some. Squire plays with a nobility and a kind of melancholy restraint that seems entirely right for the work, while Harty conducts with passionate conviction. The sound of this particular recording has a presence that may well surprise, and the Obert-Thorn transfer is warm and rich. The other major work on this disc is Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto No. 1 - a work Squire had played at the Crystal Palace Concerts in 1895. Harty is again the ideally alert partner. Eight short transcriptions for cello with piano or organ accompaniment complete the programme - Squire is particularly impressive in Popper's Tarantella ( PASC393, 1 hour 17 minutes). This article continues next week. You can now subscribe to a digital edition of International Record Review with considerable savings to be made for non-UK residents over regular subscription prices. To find our more, visit http://recordreview.co.uk.You can see a complete sample November 2013 copy of International Record Review at http://tinyurl.com/pa8u36z
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Six brilliant Russian concertos - Richter at his best in the studios of Soviet Russia
"Richter's playing is magnificent ... I wouldn't want to be without this recording" - Fanfare, 1990
RICHTER
Six Russian Piano Concertos
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
Rimsky-Korsakoff Piano Concerto
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1
Glazunov Piano Concerto No. 1
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow Youth Orchestra
USSR Radio & TV Large Symphony Orchestra
Yevgeny Mravinsky - Kirill Kondrashin - Kurt Sanderling, conductors
Sviatoslav Richter piano
Studio Recordings · 1950-59
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:
Andrew Rose
Website page: pasc405
Producer's note These recordings were all made by Melodiya for LP (and, presumeably in the case of the earliest, 78rpm) issue in the USSR in the 1950s, at a time when Richter was just about unknown in the West. They include a number of works for which these are his sole recordings - perhaps most notably the first Rachmaninov concerto - as well as in the case of the Tchaikovsky, possibly his finest recorded interpretation of this major work.
The sources for these transfers were all near-mint German reissues made in collaboration between Ariola-Eurodisc and Melodiya some years later, and benefit from far superior vinyl pressings than were available in the original Soviet issues. Even so, the original recordings were not perfect, and I've had to deal with a certain amount of peak distortion and wow and flutter throughout most of the series.
What I have also been able to recover in these XR remasters has been far superior overall sound quality than was apparent in any of the original recordings. Whilst this is especially true in the later issues, even the very earliest, 1950 recordings have also shown significant improvements.
Andrew Rose
MP3 Sample
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 - 1st movement:
Download and listen Historic review: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto (Urania CD issue, 1990)
Mravinsky now belongs to the ages, and after Richter's open heart surgery this past summer even his limited career of recent years may also have ended. I have long remembered this as the great Richter performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto, greatly superior to the relatively bloated version with Karajan and the Vienna Symphony (now on Deutsche Grammophon 419 068-2) and more powerful than the otherwise entertaining performance with Ančerl and the Czech Philharmonic recorded for Supraphon (once available here on LP as Parliament PLP-120). Its drawback is, not surprisingly, the recorded sound quality. Urania has done a fine mastering job here, and I prefer the results to my previous choice for this recording, a Eurodisc LP set (89 831 XGK). But while Richter's playing is magnificent, Mravinsky and the great orchestra second him superbly, and the sound is as good as one could hope to hear in this recording, it is still limited in fidelity and has some traces of distortion.
I wouldn't want to be without this recording. Richter's interpretation of this concerto, somewhat different from the present-day norm, has interesting features in common with the acoustical 78 set by Vassily Sapellnikov, who had earlier played the concerto under the composer's direction. Note in particular the leisurely tempo of the first movement, and the extreme contrast between the sweet outer sections of the second movement and the very fiery scherzo inner section. But I'm not going to urge this as a purchase on you, with all the fine competition currently available, unless you are willing to put up with limited sound to savor this superlative performance.
Review by Leslie Gerber
This article originally appeared in Issue 13:4 (Mar/Apr 1990) of Fanfare Magazine.
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