Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

•This legendary 1958, live in London mono recording of Giuseppe Verdi's (1813-1901) Don Carlo makes a welcome return to the active catalogue in improved sound due to a new master tapetransfer. This performance is considered one of the best of the currently available versions. With a cast including Jon Vickers, Gre Brouwenstijn and Tito Gobbi, among others and featuring the conducting genius of Carlo Maria Giulini, it's easy to understand why.

This truly fantastic live set of the complete Beethoven symphonies plus select overtures as played by the Philharmonia Orchestra in Vienna in 1960 under the direction of the legendary conductor Otto Klemperer has now returned to the Andromeda catalog in completely re-mastered, superb 24bit/96kHz sound, taken directly from the original master tapes. It always a fascinating pastime to compare Klemperer’s live performances with his studio recordings of the identical works from the same period, as these come from around the time of his famous EMI late-‘50s recordings with the same orchestra.

Classical Music

Classical Music

MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde 1. Symphony No. 4 2. MOZART Symphony No. 38 3 • Bruno Walter, cond; 1 Kathleen Ferrier (alt); 1 Julius Patzak (ten); 2 Hilde Güden (sop); Vienna PO • ANDROMEDA 5041, mono (2 CDs: 139:50) Live: Vienna 1 05/17/1952, 2,3 11/06/1955


As I have previously provided fairly comprehensive discussions of Bruno Walter’s surviving performances of both Das Lied von der Erde (in 37:4) and the Symphony No. 4 (in 34:6), I can afford to be much briefer here. These discs are slightly remastered clones of releases originally issued by Andante ( Das Lied ) and DG (the two symphonies). The Mahler song cycle was part of a four-CD set devoted to Walter’s Mahler; it also featured the Mahler Fourth, but instead of the Mozart Symphony it included the three Mahler Lieder also sung by Güden on the same concert, whereas the DG single-disc release (as here) included the Mozart Symphony but omitted the songs. Except for the sound being remastered at a higher level and thus being more to the foreground—meaning simply that you can turn down the volume knob a notch here—the sound quality of the prior and present releases is identical. Unlike the elaborate Andante and DG issues, Andromeda provides no information other than the performers, track timings, and merely “1952–55” for the performance dates. However, both the Andante and DG releases are long out of print, and the rare used copy of either one that turns up on the Internet commands an exorbitant price, so one is grateful to Andromeda for making these performances available again, and at a very reasonable price to boot.


That is particularly the case because these are highly desirable items in the Walter discography. While this live Das Lied cannot match the concomitant Decca studio recording with the same forces for sheer sonic splendor, and has a flubbed entrance by Patzak at one point in the fifth song, the sound quality is still excellent and the performance has a sizzling electricity to it, with Patzak’s voice having noticeably more heft and amplitude. The Symphony No. 4 is one of Walter’s two greatest of his 12 surviving renditions of the work; it is rivaled only by the 1950 Vienna Philharmonic performance with Irmgard Seefried. While I very slightly prefer the 1950 performance as having a hair’s breadth more emotional intensity, and slightly prefer Seefried’s voice to Güden’s as a matter of subjective taste, this one has the superior recorded sound (again, very good for its time), and interpretively the two are virtually identical.


As for the Mozart, the “Prague” Symphony was long a Walter specialty, arguably the crown gem among his interpretations of the nine Mozart symphonies (Nos. 25, 28, 29, 35, 36, and 38–41) that the conductor kept in his active repertoire. Seven performances by him survive, four live and three studio:

12/18/1936	Vienna Philharmonic	(EMI/HMV, studio)
05/25/1954	Maggio Musicale Fiorentino	(Florence, live)
11/28/1954	New York Philharmonic	(New York, live)
12/06/1954	New York Philharmonic	(Columbia, studio)
05/05/1955	Orchestre National de la R. T. F.	(Paris, live)
11/06/1955	Vienna Philharmonic	(Vienna, live)
12/02/1959	Columbia Symphony Orchestra	(Columbia, studio)

For unknown reasons, the 1954 studio recording was not released until it appeared on CD in 1995 in Sony’s Bruno Walter Edition . (For anyone not aware of it, the entire 39-CD edition was reissued a year ago in a budget-priced LP-size boxed set; a far more convenient regular cube box edition, minus the new booklet essay in the LP-size version, can be had from Korea for about 50 percent more plus postage.) That was a crying shame, for it is a great performance, rivaled only by the live performances from New York in 1954 and this Vienna one from 1955. (The Vienna studio version and the live performances from Florence and Paris all suffer from inferior recorded sound and somewhat scrappy orchestral playing, while the 1959 stereo recording comes from Walter’s autumnal phase when his Mozart became somewhat ponderous.) If forced to live with only one version, I would go for the live 1954 New York version; its somewhat glassy and harsh (though vivid) recorded sound is more than compensated for by the absolutely electrifying energy of its first and third movements (the latter timing in at a blistering 3:48, including applause!) and exceptionally flowing middle movement. But that version is again long out of print and practically unobtainable; anyone who has either this Vienna outing or the New York studio version, both again in superior sound to that live New York performance, need not feel he is missing out on anything.


This set, then, features stellar performances of Mahler and Mozart masterpieces by the maestro who was during his lifetime arguably the greatest interpreter of both of those composers. As such, it commends itself to every serious collector of historic recordings; highest possible recommendation.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Classical Music

•Conductor Herbert von Karajan leads the Choir and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera in this New Year's Eve performance of Johann Strauss's (1825-1899) ever-popular Die Fledermaus. This unique live recording insplendid sound features a spectacular cast of singers including Hilde Güden, Walter Berry, Rita Streich and a special guest appearance by Giuseppe di Stefano.

This never-before-released-in-any-format, newly re-mastered, 1960 live performance of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman features the soprano Anja Silja (b. 1940) as Senta in her electrifying Bayreuth Festival debut. +Ms. Silja was a sensational presence on the Bayreuth stage throughout the 1960’s. + Conducted by the eminent Wolfgang Sawallisch, this recording also features tenors Franz Crass and Fritz Uhl, and bass Josef Greindl, noted Wagnerians all, in leading roles.

Pianist Giacomo Di Tollo's New CD, Released on Andromeda, Is a Paean to Both Italian Opera of the 19th C. And to the Glorious Romantic Tradition of Piano Transcription and Virtuosity That Grew Up Simultaneously with the Technological Advancements in Piano Construction Across the Century. Mr. Di Tollo's Choice of Repertoire, Obscure Works or Otherwise, Intrigues and Delights in It's Insistence on Broadening and Deepening Our Contemporary Knowledge and Listening Enjoyment of a Nearly Lost Yet Proud and Insightful Art Form.

2007 3 X CD 24 bit/ 96 khz remastered collection. Bruno Walter 1939-1954 recordings. Mozart Symphonies Nos. 35 & 40, Serenades KV 287 & 525, Piano Concertos Nos. 20, 22& 23.

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954),one of the greatest of 20th century conductors, leads four equally distinguished mid-century violinists and three eminent European orchestras in live performances of violin concertos by Beethoven (Röhn, Berlin), Mendelssohn (de Vito, Torino), Brahms (Menuhin, Lucerne) and Sibelius (Kulenkampff, Berlin). + Recorded during and after WWII, these performances have been newly re-mastered for this release.

Romanian classical pianist Clara Haskil (1895-1960) was particularly well known for her brilliant interpretations of classical and early romantic repertoire, especially that of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann. Haskil didn’t gain much acclaim until the late 1940s because of a series of physical ailments mixed with crippling stage fright. The songs on this release are all live recordings from Haskil’s concerts, taken between 1947 and 1956, during the peak of her career.

"•Wilhelm Mengelberg, the legendary and controversial conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra for fifty years (1895-1945), famed for his championing of both Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, is heard here conducting, among other Schubertian coimpositions,Schubert's final two symphonic masterpieces. • This set has received excellent reviews in the European music press."

Classical Music

"A commanding vocal and stage presence, bass-baritone George London, heard here in his only Elias recording, leads a noteworthy quartet of vocal soloists. Conductor Christopf von Dohnányi is best-known for his near twenty-year tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Completed in 1846 after extensive revising, Elias proved to be Mendelssohn's last completed work of this scale and scope. Newly remastered."