Sir Adrian Boult was a supreme interpreter of Elgar’s music, winning accolades and awards for performances and recordings. Boult championed his music throughout his conducting life following the composer’s prophetic words in a letter to Boult in 1920: “I feel that my reputation in the future is safe in your hands.” This release represents the only existing film of Boult conducting The Dream of Gerontius filmed in Canterbury Cathedral in 1968. This performance features a stellar cast of soloists: Dame Janet Baker, a leading interpreter of The Angel in The Dream of Gerontius, who recorded the role twice, John Shirley Quirk who, with Boult, recorded a definitive interpretation of Peter in The Kingdom, and Peter Pears, who recorded the work in 1972 under the direction of his close friend Benjamin Britten. This film uses the original BBC master which is far superior to the poor copies which have been in circulation over the years. This was the first classical music production filmed in color, for which Brian Large had secured eight out of the nine color TV cameras existing in the UK at that time. The film also includes a one hour documentary on Sir Adrian Boult as a bonus. The film was originally produced in 1989 to celebrate Sir Adrian Boult’s 100th anniversary.

MOZART Symphony No. 39. TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4. DEBUSSY Trois Nocturnes: Fêtes • Georg Solti, cond; Chicago SO • ICA 5100 (DVD: 131:00) Live: London 2/2/1985

This concert was the last one presented by the Chicago Symphony under Georg Solti during its fifth European tour. If the orchestra’s first appearance in Britain (in Edinburgh in 1971) was something of a vindication for Solti following the stormy tenure he endured at Covent Garden, this one was now part of a well-practiced drill for both conductor and orchestra as conquering victors making a triumphal appearance to receive duly awaited laurels. By this time, only the orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, and the Concertgebouw could seriously presume to contest the claim of the CSO to be the world’s greatest orchestra. If the latter two could at least boast of having a more beautiful sheen of sound, none of them could match the CSO under Solti for sheer precision and brilliance of execution.

Given that, it is a bit of a surprise to encounter in Mozart’s 39th Symphony that opens this program some metrical imprecision in the downward cascading runs of the introduction to the first movement, which lack a clear sense of where the downbeat is. After that minor slip, the performance rights itself under Solti and moves forward with great efficiency. While Solti uses a reduced orchestra with a 12-10-8-6-4 string section deployment, the sound is still quite full compared to those from present-day period instrument ensembles. The interpretation is stylish and well proportioned, though a bit straightforward and lacking the extra lyricism and warmth that a Bruno Walter or Karl Böhm would have brought to it. In short, it is a good performance but not a great one.

The Tchaikovsky Fourth is another matter. In a previous review in 34:4 of a DVD featuring Kurt Sanderling, I complained of both the paucity and quality of available Tchaikovsky Fourths in the DVD medium. This performance corrects the problem in spades. Solti was a superb Tchaikovsky interpreter, one who brought a great tensile strength to the composer’s scores that minimized their structural lacunae and did not overindulge their heart-on-sleeve emotionalism. Here the first movement, with its “Sword of Damocles” motif of Fate, which in lesser hands can seem overly prolix or mawkish, is channeled with a propulsive fury that at the same time does not slight the contrasting interludes of almost balletic grace, the latter being rendered with a delicacy that belies critics who accuse Solti of insensitively running roughshod over every score. Even more surprisingly, the succeeding Andantino is taken at a quite leisurely tempo, with noticeably more rubato and ritards than Solti was wont to employ. The Scherzo likewise is taken at a pace a bit slower than I would have expected, with just a touch of rhythmic stiffness that is my only and minor criticism of this performance. The Allegro con fuoco Finale is indeed fiery, if not taken at quite the hell-for-leather pace of Yevgeny Svetlanov, my benchmark for this work, and the main section dovetails nicely into the coda with the return of the “Damocles” motif. The audience quite properly goes wild immediately after the closing chord, vociferously yelling its approval over tumultuous applause.

“Brilliant” and “sizzling” are not normally the first adjectives that come to mind for performances of Debussy’s music, but they certainly apply to this encore performance of “Fêtes” from the Trois Nocturnes. I for one would never have pegged Solti as a Debussy conductor of the first rank, but he is absolutely terrific here. This rendition positively crackles with drive and bounce; every note, every instrumental part is detailed with stunning clarity and gleaming color, with an unexpectedly witty close to boot. Once again, the audience roars its approval. What a shame not to have the complete Trois Nocturnes from Solti here!

The DVD opens with a three-minute spiel from ICA Classics touting its series of releases from British archives and the Boston Symphony archives. The camerawork is sensible, and the visual resolution is fine; the one drawback is that the recorded sound is very dry, which robs the Tchaikovsky Fourth in particular of some desirable tonal luster. Highly recommended, then, for the Tchaikovsky and Debussy items.

FANFARE: James A. Altena

The first official release of Mitropoulos’s mighty vision of Mahler’s Third.

This release is an extremely important one for admirers of Dimitri Mitropoulos. It contains, released officially for the first time, his only recording of the complete Mahler Third Symphony. There is another recording, made in New York in 1956 and that has just reappeared in a fascinating boxed set of Mahler performances by this conductor - reviewed by me recently. Unfortunately, that New York reading is compromised by cuts in the first and last movements and by some eccentrically fast speeds. As I said in commenting on that box, the New York performance shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand; however this Cologne performance surely gives us the best representation of Mitropoulos’s view of the symphony.

The Cologne performance is notable in several ways, one of which is the overall distinction of the interpretation. In addition it is the conductor’s very last performance: just two days later, while rehearsing the same symphony in Milan, Mitropoulos collapsed, felled by a massive heart attack, and died. But, it seems, we are even more fortunate to have this recording because, incredible though it seems, according to Michael Schwalb’s booklet note, the conductor actually suffered a heart attack during the performance of the first movement. There was a scheduled interval after that movement and Mitropoulos insisted on returning to the podium and completing the concert. This was news to me: in his authoritative biography, Priest of Music. The life of Dimitri Mitropoulos (1995) William R Trotter merely states that the conductor’s “physical state was so alarming” at the interval that he was begged to curtail the performance. If Mr Schwalb’s account is accurate it is truly amazing that a conductor could direct such a full-on performance of so taxing and lengthy a work under such circumstances.

No allowances need be made for Mitropoulos’s health when you listen to this performance for it carries all the hallmarks of his conducting, not least the intensity and energy that invariably marked his music making. William Trotter asserts that this Cologne performance is “much superior” to the New York reading. I’m not sure I entirely agree. There are flaws in the playing on both recordings – after all, these are both live readings – but it seems to me that the Cologne orchestra, though they give of their considerable best for Mitropoulos, can’t quite match the overall standard of the New Yorkers. That said, no one buying this set is going to feel seriously short changed by the quality of the playing, I think one can forgive fluffs and the inevitable technical shortcomings of a radio recording made over fifty years ago, when confronted by an interpretation of such intensity and one in which the conductor so evidently believes in the score.

One notices the greater sense of space in the Cologne performance right at the start where I calculate the beat in the great horn call at about 102 beats per minute – by contrast, the New York performance is at about 122 beats per minute. This sets the tone for a really gripping reading of the great first movement. One might quibble with the odd interpretative detail here and there but overall the vision that Mitropoulos has of the music is powerfully conveyed. I’d describe quite a lot of the music as sturdy in Mitropoulos’s hands – there’s never quite the hedonistic rush that one gets at times in Bernstein’s 1961 New York recording, still one of my favourites. But I found myself thoroughly convinced.

Though the many dramatic passages in the first movement make the full effect that you’d expect with this conductor he’s good too in the more delicate passages. In the second movement, where delicacy is called for to a much greater extent, I felt there were too many instances where the tempo either surges a little or is slowed momentarily. The effect is fussy and it rather marred my enjoyment. Much of III has a good, earthy feel but I was rather disappointed by the treatment of the nostalgic post horn passages, where I didn’t feel Mitropoulos gave the music sufficient space; these episodes sound rather perfunctory, almost as if the conductor found them embarrassing.

Lucretia West is a rich-toned, expressive soloist in IV. However, the exposed quiet passages for the brass find the players a little bit over-exposed. I felt that V was rather serious in tone, though the music is lively enough. I missed a touch of lightness but this may not be a problem for other listeners. ICA get something of a black mark for the layout of the discs, I’m afraid. The last three movements should follow each other seamlessly but, instead, you have to change discs for the finale. It would have been perfectly possible to have had La Mer and the first movement of the symphony on disc one with the remaining five movements of the symphony comfortably accommodated on disc two. The way the symphony is split by ICA is nothing short of crass.

Actually, the reading of the finale is the big disappointment for me. In the first place it starts off far too loud – mf, I’d guess. The start of the finale in the New York reading is much more subdued. The last time I heard this music was in a live performance at the Three Choirs Festival just a few days before auditioning this disc. There Susanna Mälkki and the Philharmonia achieved just the hushed intensity that this present performance lacks. In addition the tempo is too swift. I calculate that Mitropoulos takes the opening at about 56 beats per minute. Actually, that’s not much swifter than the pace in New York in 1956 – ca 51 bpm – but it feels fast. As the movement unfolds one feels there’s not quite the same gravity and mystery that one experiences in the very best accounts. And, for my money, the Cologne players, though they play well, aren’t in the same league as the New York Philharmonic or several other orchestras that have featured in recordings of this symphony. The booklet notes reveal that around this time Mitropoulos had agreed in principle to become chief conductor of this orchestra and one wonders how much he might have improved them, given time to work with them on an extended basis, if that appointment had ever come about.

So this account of the finale of the Third isn’t as spacious as I’d like. One might call the reading urgent – or, perhaps apply Tony Duggan’s description, elsewhere, of this conductor’s ‘edgy’ style.

This, then, is a flawed reading of Mahler’s Third but it’s still one that commands – nay, demands – attention for throughout the ninety-five minute span of the piece one constantly has the sense of a great conductor at work and nothing about this reading is routine.

The reading of La Mer is somewhat unconventional in that you will look in vain here for washes of impressionist colouring or for Mediterranean warmth. This is a taut, urgent and dramatic reading. Sometimes, as in the short, quicker passage in ‘De l’aube à midi sur la mer’ (from 4:22), the very urgency of Mitropoulos’s interpretation seems to have the orchestra audibly scrambling to keep up. At times, the end of this same movement being one example, the sound is rather fierce. In ‘Dialogue du vent et de la mer’ one feels that the wind blows rather fiercely and it’s something of a chill wind. Often, during the piece as a whole, one senses that the sea which Mitropoulos is depicting is pretty foam flecked. None of the foregoing should be interpreted as an implicit verdict that the interpretation is an unsatisfactory one. I find it bracing but it may startle some listeners used to the approach of other conductors.

At the end of the second disc we hear a few short remarks made by Mitropoulos during a rehearsal with this orchestra sometime in the 1950s. He speaks in German so I can’t tell you what he says but it’s evident from the orchestra’s reaction both before and after he speaks that he was highly regarded by them.

The recorded sound can be a bit boxy at times and the balances aren’t always ideal – the percussion is too prominent on several occasions. However, these are fifty-year-old recordings so one must make allowances. They’ve been transferred pretty well and there’s nothing to mar ones appreciation of the performances.

This is an important set and I’m thrilled in particular that ICA have brought about the first official release of Mitropoulos’s mighty vision of Mahler’s Third. This is an essential appendix to the Music & Arts box of New York performances and all admirers of this great conductor should snap it up as a matter of urgency.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

ICA Classics is proud to present Vladimir Jurowski's recording of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty. It was recorded live in December 2013 with the 'Svetlanov' orchestra. Jurowski has already accumulated a large catalogue of recordings all of which have received great critical acclaim. He is a proven seller. Jurowski's interpretation is based on his view that Acts 1 & 2 inhabit a Romantic sound world and then between Act 2 and 3, the sound changes completely becoming drier with much sharper outlines. He has said that if it were not for Tchaikovsky's untimely death, he would have developed a similar style of composition to Stravinsky between 1917 and 1928, around the time of Pulcinella. The Sleeping Beauty recorded here is performed complete. The State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia is one of Russia's oldest orchestras dating back to 1936. Over the past 80 years, it has been directed amongst others by Gauk, Rakhlin, Ivanov and the great Evgeny Svetlanov. In 1972, it was grated the honorary title 'academic' for it's exceptional creative achievements and in 2006 the State Academy Symphony Orchestra was officially named after Svetlanov. Jurowski was appointed Artistic Director in 2011.

MARGOT FONTEYN AND MICHAEL SOMES
Tchaikovsky Ballet Masterpieces

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky:
Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)
Swan Lake (excerpts)
The Nutcracker: Act II

Margot Fonteyn, dancer
Michael Somes, dancer

Sleeping Beauty
choreography after Marius Petipa
Royal Opera House Orchestra
John Lanchbery, conductor
Broadcast: 20 December 1959

Swan Lake
choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Robert Irving, conductor
Broadcast: 9 June 1954

The Nutcracker
choreography by Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Hugo Rignold, conductor
Broadcast: 21 December 1958

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: LPCM Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 72 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive of 'live' recordings. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been released before onto the market. Following the archive's launch in October 2017 with releases featuring Beecham, Bohm, Cantelli, Karajan, du Pre, Klemperer and Rostropovich, it has received universal praise from both the classical media and record collectors for the excellent sound and performances. Robert Casadesus was a renowned 20th century French pianist and composer who knew and worked with Ravel. He was especially known for his celebrated performances of the Mozart Concertos accompanied on record by George Szell- the Gramophone called it 'exquisite Mozart playing,' as well as his recordings of Ravel, Faure and Debussy. He recorded Beethoven's First, Fourth, and Fifth Concertos, the latter two multiple times, though these were all made in the studio. He also extensively recorded the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Zino Francescatti, who also appears in ICA Classics' Pierre Monteaux set.

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107
(1885 version, ed. L. Nowak)

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt, conductor

Recorded live from the Symphony Hall, Boston, 5 November 1977

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Enhanced Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 66 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

A top-quality performance of Bruckner’s Seventh under a great conductor.

The welcome expansion of Klaus Tennstedt’s recorded legacy through the issue of live performances continues with this reading of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony from Boston. This was a work that Tennstedt did not take into the recording studios though there is another live account, this time on CD, on the LPO Live label (LPO0030). That issue preserves a 1984 performance but I have not heard it.
 
It was with the Boston Symphony Orchestra that Tennstedt made his US debut in 1974, when one of the programmes he offered consisted of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. By all accounts that performance had the critics in raptures. It appears from the booklet note that when Tennstedt gave three performances of the Seventh three years later the critics, who attended the first of the performances, were a little less impressed, praising the conductor’s interpretation but finding fault with some of the playing; it was suggested that perhaps the performance was under-rehearsed. By the time the third performance came round – the one preserved here – it would seem that these little difficulties had been ironed out. There are one or two very minor slips but the overall standard of playing is extremely high and one has the definite impression that conductor and players are as one.
 
Oddly, the image on the cover of this CD is not taken from the performance we see. For this Boston concert Tennstedt eschewed a score and therefore had no need to wear spectacles. In fact the Tennstedt we see in this film is quite youthful-looking. The recording is presented in “Enhanced Mono” – I’m unsure what that means but the sound is perfectly satisfactory – so we don’t quite get the benefit of Tennstedt’s layout of the string section: the violins are massed on his left but the violas are to his right – where many conductors place the cellos – and the Boston cello section is seated to the right hand of the violas.
 
The reading is a very fine one. Tennstedt moulds the long, expansive cello melody at the start of the first movement with great care and evident feeling. As the movement unfolds he takes the second subject quite swiftly, though he’s not too hasty. This performance is one of those that remind us that Bruckner was a musical descendant of Schubert – and Tennstedt was a fine exponent of Schubert’s Ninth. The listener is left in no doubt that Tennstedt has the measure of the span and structure of this movement. That’s even more the case with his account of the solemn Adagio. This is a noble, burnished reading and though Tennstedt maintains a good objective stance there’s no doubt that he feels every phrase. He shapes the music splendidly and the Boston players respond to him with playing of distinction. The strings are wonderfully rich in tone, with just the right amount of weight, while the brass are sonorous. This is one of those performances where everything just feels right – and inevitable. The cymbal and triangle are included at the main climax.
 
Tennstedt ensures that the rhythms of the scherzo have real lift and spring while the lyrical trio is affectionately phrased. The finale is completely successful. Tennstedt mixes energy with expansive phrasing and the brass-dominated episodes are delivered with due majesty.
 
Tennstedt’s rendition of this symphony is deeply satisfying and it’s marvellous to have an example of him at work with one of the finest orchestras in the USA. We’re told that he worked regularly with the BSO until 1987 so I hope very much that ICA may be able to license more material, either audio or visual, from the orchestra’s archives. I found it fascinating to look at the BSO of thirty-five years ago and I noted with some surprise how few female musicians there were on the stage – possibly eight at most, including the orchestra’s celebrated principal flautist, Doriot Anthony Dwyer. Furthermore, at that time there don’t seem to have been too many young players in the BSO’s ranks. I bet things have changed quite a lot in the intervening period. The thing that really matters is that the Boston Symphony of 1977 vintage was a fine, seasoned ensemble and it’s a joy to hear them play under this great conductor.
 
The visual presentation is reliable and gives a good representation of the concert. One minor irritant, I found, was the director’s occasional propensity for split-screen shots, showing us, for example, the principal oboist in one half of the screen and the principal clarinettist in the other. Happily, this doesn’t occur too often and it may not bother other viewers. The key thing is that if you invest in this DVD you’ll acquire a top-quality performance of Bruckner’s Seventh under a great conductor.
 
-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

Walter Berry reflected in an interview in 1985, "we played in the Theater an der Wien (during the rebuilding of the Vienna State Opera) and we developed a certain style, a Mozart style which was connected very much to the singers of that time … this was an incredible ensemble." Harold Rosenthal, Editor of Opera magazine, described the staged performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall on 13 September 1954 as ‘a sheer delight’, highlighting the performances of Erich Kunz (Figaro) and Sena Jurinac (Cherubino), while Irmgard Seefried (Susanna) was ‘one of the joys of this recording’ (George Hall). These Richard Itter tapes of the live broadcast have never been released before, and the superb recording fully captures the atmosphere in this light-footed performance in a packed Royal Festival Hall to perfection.

RACHMANINOFF The Bells. 1 PROKOFIEV Alexander Nevsky 2 • Evgeny Svetlanov, cond; 1 Daniil Shtoda (ten); 1 Elena Prokina (sop); 1 Sergei Leiferkus (bs); 2 Alfreda Hodgson (mez); 1 BBC SO & Ch; 2 Philharmonia O & Ch • ICA ICAC 5069 (78:30) Live: London 1 4/19/2002, 2 1/30/1988


Sometimes, archive recordings have the air of, “Well, as long as we have access to it, let’s release it on CD.” Some of ICA Classics’s BBC discs have presented fairly unexceptional music-making, to say the least. Here, though, we have one absolutely fabulous performance ( The Bells ) and one very good one ( Alexander Nevsky ), and I would even give them preference over Svetlanov’s studio recordings of these same works.


With gorgeous live sound to boot, this version of The Bells really rings my chimes, so to speak. This is a work that stands or falls with the quality of the chorus. When I first auditioned this disc, I was unaware that I was not hearing a native Russian group; that’s how good the BBC Symphony Chorus is here. Furthermore, some recordings of this work content themselves with wimpy or emotionally anonymous soloists. Tenor Daniil Shtoda, on the other hand, displays brilliance of both sound and temperament, and the first movement, depicting the silver sleigh bells of youth, has great élan. Sergei Leiferkus is appropriately mournful in the funereal fourth movement; as with Shtoda, familiarity with the language and the style pays off. I am less impressed with soprano Elena Prokina, who is affected by what used to be called a “Slavic wobble,” but even she convinces this listener with the involvement of her singing. Svetlanov tended to get slower as he got older. Here, though, he never drags, and he points up the contrasts between the four movements with vivid color and attention to mood. The booklet note indicates that he looked frail on this occasion, and in fact, he died just a few weeks later. There’s nothing infirm about his conducting here, though.


The sound in Alexander Nevsky is more recessed and even a little muffled, although not fatally so. It doesn’t shoot the performance in the foot, but of course this is music that benefits from as much sonic realism as engineers, live or in the studio, can muster. Svetlanov is more introspective here. I get the feeling that he was trying to purge the score of its inherent vulgarity without cutting down on its excitement. If that was the case, he largely succeeded. The Philharmonia Chorus can’t hide its Englishness (for better or worse) and mezzo Alfreda Hodgson is rather maternal in her sixth-movement solo. Still, there is a lot to like here. In some ways, this is like André Previn’s EMI studio recording in its refusal to confuse weight with ponderousness, its avoidance of bombast, and its rather sensitive demeanor. (I recently discovered the Previn on an English EMI LP, and it immediately moved to the top of my list, so my comparing Svetlanov to Previn is meant as high praise.) It’s better than Svetlanov’s harshly recorded and only superficially exciting Soviet-era studio recording.


No sung texts are included, but do you really need them? The booklet note includes an interesting bit of trivia: As a child, Svetlanov appeared onstage in the role of Trouble in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly . He also made, according to annotator Colin Anderson’s reckoning, more than 3,000 recordings for Russian, Japanese, French, British, and Dutch companies. And you thought Neeme Järvi made a lot of CDs!


I’d get this if I were you.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive. After twelve years of negotiation, ICA Classics has signed an exclusive long term agreement with the Lyrita Recorded Edition who are responsible for Richard Itter Trust. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never before been released. Despite there being a large number of Otto Klemperer recordings on the market, these Richard Itter tapes of live broadcasts from the Royal Festival Hall and the BBC’s Studios in Maida Vale between 1955 and 1956 have never, as far as is known, been released before. Klemperer was always more exciting when caught live and had added urgency as compared to his studio accounts, particularly at this time before his health deteriorated in later years. His Philharmonia concerts were hugely successful in the mid 50s when Walter Legge was looking to replace Herbert von Karajan who was in the process of leaving for the Berlin Philharmonic. As Richard Osborne states in his notes: “The winter of 1955-56 marked a new dawn for Klemperer.”

-----

REVIEWS:

Klemperer’s Mozart may sound a bit heavy-handed and brusque. On the other hand, the performances are refreshingly direct, projecting exemplary clarity of texture with the wind instruments really cutting through the orchestral tuttis to impressive effect. Likewise, the performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 is really compelling, a good sense of structural cohesion working in tandem with great expressivity and rhythmic precision.

– BBC Music Magazine

Viewed overall, what we have here is the Klemperer we already know and love but granted wings and, trust me, you can tell the difference almost straight away.

– Gramophone

Recorded at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, on 1 December 1959 (Symphony No. 3), 4 February 1958 (Symphony No. 4) and 7 April 1959 (Mozart)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Ambient Mastering
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German
Running time: 70 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

There should be really a collective noun for the plethora of WGBH telecasts featuring Charles Munch now emerging on ICA Classics. The series, covering the years 1958-60 and largely taped at Harvard, has proved highly impressive, albeit sometimes interpretatively inconsistent – and occasionally unreliable in filmic terms.
 
This one focuses on two Mendelssohn Symphonies. The Scottish was taped in December 1959 and is of good quality. As is often the case in this series the camera panning shots are sometimes jerky – I wonder what kind of mount was used, as there is occasionally slippage during shots. Clearly editorial work went into the chosen shots but again things didn’t always go right on the night; it’s fine to concentrate on the hard working percussionist, but only if he’s actually playing – and then playing something of significance. As often in this series sectional shots are favoured, though sometimes they are apt to be cumbersome. But when one sees Munch one observes the rapt concentration that so often produced an extra quotient of excitement during these performances. The proximity of the audience must have helped spark something of that added level of adrenalin. It’s only late in the symphony that I noticed that, presumably because of space shortages at the hall, the piano is visible actually in the body of the orchestra. What was the concerto, one wonders, and who was the soloist? I commend retrospectively the director, David M Davis, for managing (almost) to obscure this detail.
 
The Italian Symphony suffers from a much grainier picture, though it was recorded only a couple of years or so earlier in February 1958. This is another feature of the series – varying quality of footage within discs. It results in some lines running across the screen. The sound is decent enough mono, but the visual element lacks the clarity of the Scottish. Shame though this is, it doesn’t obscure Munch’s vigorous take, almost Toscaninian in places. The director for this was Whitney Thompson and he preferred more static shots, bedding the image solidly, reluctant to keep things moving too much - he was less of a visual contrapuntalist than Davis. When there are panning shots, the image degrades somewhat. There are also a couple of poor edits. Personally, I find this doesn’t matter to me. These are artefacts of their time. I did wonder, though, if the ‘hair on the lens’ problem could have been mitigated in post-production and remastering. Maybe not. It doesn’t last too long, nor do the smudge marks on the print. I mention these things not to suggest that you are in for a disastrous viewing, but to make you aware of the imperfections inherent, or seemingly inherent, in the production.
 
We also have a ‘bonus’ of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music, from April 1959. It too is rather grainy. And yet again I wonder rhetorically how a DVD that lasts 73 minutes can include a ‘bonus’. Is anyone fooled?
 
That apart, and with the spirit of caveat emptor in the air for those unfamiliar with these telecasts, I ought to end by saying that these Mendelssohn performances are terrific.
 
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

This release has been sourced from the Richard Itter archive of 'live' recordings. The collection is very important for collectors because it has never been released before onto the market. Following the archive's launch in October 2017 with releases featuring Beecham, Bohm, Cantelli, Karajan, du Pre, Klemperer and Rostropovich, it has received universal praise from both the classical media and record collectors for the excellent sound and performances. Celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin was very familiar with the Mozart Concertos, and played all seven including the spurious No. 6. These 'live' performances reflect Menuhin's Mozart playing during a single month in 1956 where he performed all the composer's major works with orchestra. Menuhin brings great insight and experience to every concerto and his intonation which became a concern in later life is spot on with these performances.

Boult was very closely associated with Elgar's music throughout his career and recorded the Second Symphony five times. This live Proms performance recorded in stereo from 1977 'shows Boult in his late 80s working with the passion and energy of a much younger man' (Martin Cotton). His relatively fast tempi are closer to his first recording made in 1944 with the BBCSO. The Overture and Venusberg music from Wagner's Tannhauser are a new addition to the Boult discography and come from a live studio performance in stereo from the Maida Vale Studios in 1968. These are world premier recordings.

This authorized BBC tape has never been issued before. The recital is slightly unusual in that Gilels opens with Schumann's rarely heard Four Klavierstuckeop.32. Gilels only performed these pieces late in his career from 1977 to 1984. This is an exceptionally rare CD and presents the Russian pianist at his best in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. There is a beautifully played encore - Mozart's D minor Fantasy K397 - which is also featured on this well-filled 80+minute disc.