{"title":"Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eb. 1881. orchestra.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"beethoven-symphonies-nos-4-5-live","title":"Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 \u0026 5 (Live)","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Stradivarius","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44722294391018,"sku":"8011570100016","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3345443.jpg?v=1778382339"},{"product_id":"charles-munch-in-concert","title":"Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius: Charles Munch in Concert \/ Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOne of the most legendary conductors of the twentieth century, Charles Munch was, with Pierre Monteux, certainly the greatest French conductor. After a long activity in France, Munch then moved to the United States, becoming an American citizen and reaching the apex with the conduction of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he recorded a large number of performances, especially symphonies, published by RCA. These 2 albums represent an important document of some live concert versions of his American activity and are completely unpublished. The sound quality is excellent!\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Urania Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012480159978,"sku":"8051773573972","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4038109-2783226.jpg?v=1778241129"},{"product_id":"serge-koussevitzky-conducts-the-london-philharmonic-orchestra-live-748871501720","title":"Tchaikovsky \u0026 Sibelius: Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic (Live)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings announces a major new release: the first appearance on album of live performances of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and Sibelius’ Second Symphonies by the iconic conductor Serge Koussevitzky and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This historic, two-album set includes an exclusive, specially-commissioned documentary about Koussevitzky’s Boston Symphony Orchestra tenure and his LPO guest appearances, featuring interviews with four key players from both orchestras by Jon Tolansky. Tolansky’s revealing hour-long documentary includes wide-ranging musical excerpts and contributions from former BSO players Harry Ellis Dickson (violin), Everett ‘Vic’ Firth (timpani), and Harry Shapiro (sub-principal horn), and erstwhile LPO sub-principal horn Patrick Strevens. The symphonies are heard in performances Koussevitzky conducted with the LPO in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1950. Both have been expertly restored by Lani Spahr. Noted authority on historical recordings Rob Cowan provides detailed booklet notes on the “individual, flexible, flammable, emotionally candid and utterly spontaneous” Koussevitzky’s stewardship of both orchestras. He describes the Tchaikovsky as “especially unique [in] its unsparing volatility.... The explosive climaxes leave the audience stunned”. Of the Sibelius, he says: “Koussevitzky’s London Second is as comprehensive an overview of the work as we have”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLani Spahr’s previous restorations for SOMM include the four-disc Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4) featuring recordings from the composer’s own collection, hailed by Audiophilia as “a fascinating achievement which will have you wishing for more”. George Szell: The Forgotten Recordings was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and awarded a Diapason d’Or as “a major discovery”. Jon Tolansky is the founder of the Music Performance Research Centre (now Music Preserved) and a widely admired producer of audio documentaries on classical musicians. For Spahr’s restorations on Beecham Conducts Sibelius, he produced a 30-minute audio documentary. MusicWeb International declared it “an unmissable disc [that] walks straight into a position of eminence in the catalogue”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012535931114,"sku":"748871501720","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4115388-2872256.jpg?v=1778229516"},{"product_id":"vaughan-williams-live-vol-2-748871501829","title":"Vaughan Williams Live, Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings’ celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth continues with Volume 2 of Vaughan Williams Live, featuring historic performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult in new, signature remasterings by Lani Spahr with authoritative booklet notes by Vaughan Williams’ biographer Simon Heffer. Two works featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus include a 1945 BBC radio broadcast of the first performance of the wartime masterpiece Thanksgiving for Victory – with soprano Elsie Suddaby, organist George Thalben-Ball and Valentine Dyall as the speaker – and the rapturous Serenade to Music from the opening night of the BBC’s Third Programme (now Radio 3) in 1946. First performed in 1938 in celebration of Henry Wood’s jubilee as a conductor and originally composed for 16 solo singers, it appears here in its version for orchestra, chorus and four soloists – Isobel Baillie (soprano), Astra Desmond (contralto), Beveridge White (tenor), and Harold Williams (baritone). Its dedicatee, Boult, conducts a performance of Job: A Masque for Dancing in 1946 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra before he made his four studio recordings of the work. Volume 1 of Vaughan Williams Live (SOMM Ariadne 5016) was hailed by All About the Arts as “beautifully remastered [and] sounding like pure gold” and was The Symphonist’s Record of the Week. SOMM’s other Vaughan Williams recordings include the Gramophone Award-winning Symphony No.5 and Dona Nobis Pacem with the LPO\/BBCSO (SOMMCD 071), and The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Mark Bebbington and Rebecca Omordia (SOMMCD 0164), described by International Piano as “compelling”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012536717546,"sku":"748871501829","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4136191-2921034.jpg?v=1778229422"},{"product_id":"rudolf-serkin-live-vol-2","title":"Rudolf Serkin Live, Vol. 2 \/ Serkin, Rudolf, Boston Symphony","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA New Yorker review about Rudolf Serkin from 2017 states: “his performances… reflect his sense of titanic struggle to realize the ideas and emotions that he found in the words that he played. He bypassed the surface sheen of ingratiating sounds to render the beauty of that struggle; his piano tone is itself the sound of struggle filled with the meeting of metal and wood and evoking spiritual exaltation through physical and intellectual exertion.” Rudolf Serkin was born in 1903 Bohemia. His musical gifts emerged early, and he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at 12. His European career extended throughout the 20s and 30s. He first played in the United States in 1933, and three years later appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, eventually performing with them over 100 times. Rudolf Serkin became one of the most admired pianists of the 20th century. He performed and recorded extensively with the top international orchestras and conductors. This is the second volume in our Rudolf Serkin Live series.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Doremi","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012700066026,"sku":"061297816576","price":62.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4080081-2831866_4f5a6b39-737e-4fc8-a09c-64aba151e1aa.jpg?v=1778226545"},{"product_id":"the-complete-rca-victor-recordings-william-steinberg-boston-symphony-orchestra","title":"William Steinberg \u0026 The BSO - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen William Steinberg was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony in 1969 as successor to Erich Leinsdorf, he attained the pinnacle of his career. No previous conductor had headed two top-ten US orchestras simultaneously. It was a condition of his Boston position that he could continue to work in Pittsburgh with the orchestra that he had headed since 1952.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBorn as Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne on 1 August 1899, he studied at the local conservatory with the conductor Hermann Abendroth and the pianist Lazzaro Uzielli, a Clara Schumann pupil. On graduating in 1920 he became Otto Klemperer’s assistant at the Cologne opera house. In 1929 he was appointed music director in Frankfurt. Relieved of his post by the Nazis in 1933, he conducted concerts in Frankfurt and Berlin under the auspices of the Jewish Cultural League before emigrating to Palestine in 1936 to take over the Palestine Orchestra (now Israel Philharmonic Orchestra). At Toscanini’s invitation he went to the United States in 1938 to assist in forming and training the new NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1945, he assumed the music directorship of the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he liked to refer to himself as “Buffalo Bill”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Steinberg\/Boston collaboration with RCA was unfortunately ill-fated and short-lived. Not because of the repertoire, but plummeting sales and spiraling costs plaguing the American recording industry in general persuaded RCA to let its contract with the Boston Symphony lapse after 52 years’ association. Gramophone magazine’s Peter Quantrill claimed in 2018 that Steinberg was “the most under-recorded of great conductors in the second half of the last century.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2004, the critic Richard Freed wrote of the Schubert Ninth (CD 1) and Bruckner Sixth (CD 2) Symphonies: “Both [are] vital and inspiring performances, free of the monumentalizing all too often inflicted on such music: they are among the best entries in his discography and among the finest recordings of the works.” According to John L. Holmes in Conductors on Record, they were also Steinberg’s favorites among his own recordings. Mendelssohn’s own orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet and Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique and Scherzo à la russe, coupled on CD 3 with formidable virtuoso renderings of orchestral showpieces by Dukas, Richard Strauss and Saint-Saëns, were originally prepared for release on LP LSC-3155 but remained unpublished – until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis survey of RCA Boston Symphony recordings during the Steinberg era is rounded off with 1970 tapings of Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony and Carnival Overture (CD 4) from the same recording period by Arthur Fiedler, former BSO violinist and longstanding conductor of the Boston Pops. His recordings of mainly light repertoire for RCA generated total sales of well over 50 million. Nevertheless, it was his ambition to record a major symphony, and here RCA belatedly granted his wish, placing the full Boston Symphony Orchestra at his disposal for the first and only time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAll recordings in the set have been newly transferred and remastered from the 3-track (CD 1), 4-track (CDs 2, 3 [1-6], 4) and 2-track (CD 3 [7-9]) analog tapes using 24 bit \/ 192 kHz technology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sony Masterworks","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012707799274,"sku":"196588298820","price":19.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4302794-3148020.jpg?v=1778264295"},{"product_id":"christian-ferras-live-vol-2","title":"Christian Ferras Live, Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Christian Ferras died at age 49. his friend and colleague Yehudi Menuhin wrote that Ferras was\"possessed by music, immensely talented, and of both a generous and intense temperament.\"  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChristian Ferras was one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Born in 1933, he was a guest soloist of the Nice Symphony orchestra in1942. In 1948 he won the First Prize at the International Scheveningen (Holland) Violin Competition and in 1949 won the top prize at the International Long-Thibaud Competition. Thereafter, he pursued a successful career as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and in recitals with his long time accompanist, pianist Pierre Barbizet. He recorded for EMI and from 1964 for DG where he recorded the four main repertoire violin concertos, Brahms, Sibelius, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.\n\u003cbr\u003eFortunately, Christian Ferras left behind a rich recorded legacy, that enable us to continue to enjoy his great artistry.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Doremi","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012714189034,"sku":"061297822348","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4281633-3125456.jpg?v=1778238866"},{"product_id":"joio-oceans-apart-090404958328","title":"Joio: \"Oceans Apart\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe featured work on this album of compositions by Justin Dello Joio is the American composer's new piano concerto; \"Oceans Apart\"; composed for keyboard titan; Garrick Ohlsson. Ohlsson is joined by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; conducted by Alan Gilbert; the artists who premiered the concerto in 2023. The program also includes chamber works performed by the New York Philharmonic's principal cellist; Carter Brey; with pianist Christopher O'Riley; and the American Brass Quintet; and organist Colin Fowler. For more information see www.justindellojoio.net\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bridge Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012740534506,"sku":"090404958328","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4411250-3335239.jpg?v=1778195712"},{"product_id":"early-recordings-5029365918923","title":"Early Recordings \/ Christoph Eschenbach","description":"EARLY RECORDINGS","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012868428010,"sku":"5029365918923","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1867216.jpg?v=1778328622"},{"product_id":"haydn-symphony-no-55-beethoven-symphonies-nos-7-8","title":"Haydn: Symphony No. 55 - Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7 \u0026 8","description":"William Steinberg conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This rare material, filmed in color, represents some of the earliest televised concerts with of Steinberg with the BSO, restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques.","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012869247210,"sku":"5060244550674","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1957428.jpg?v=1778332671"},{"product_id":"the-great-live-concerts","title":"The Great Live Concerts","description":"The Great Live Concerts","brand":"Urania Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012939632874,"sku":"8051776572705","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2137823.jpg?v=1778281100"},{"product_id":"beethoven-symphony-no-3-eroica-leinsdorf-boston-172571","title":"Beethoven: Symphony No 3 \"eroica\" \/ Leinsdorf, Boston So","description":"BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO 3  LEIN","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012950118634,"sku":"090266078622","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3892907_0a4e72ee-d526-43b6-a6a6-7994068bc799.jpg?v=1778253199"},{"product_id":"handel-water-music-mozart-symphonies-36-38-200547","title":"Handel: Water Music; Mozart: Symphonies 36 \u0026 38 \/ Munch, Boston Symphony","description":"CHARLES MUNCH CONDUCTS HANDEL AND MOZART \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  George Frideric Handel: Water Music Suite (arr. H. Harty) \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:\u003cbr\u003e  Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425, “Linz”\u003cbr\u003e  Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, “Prague”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Boston Symphony Orchestra\u003cbr\u003e  Charles Munch, conductor\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Recorded live from Sanders Theatre, Harvard University on 12 April 1960 (Water Music), 8 April 1958 (Linz Symphony), and 3 November 1959 (Prague Symphony) \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: NTSC 4:3\u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: Enhanced Mono\u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide)\u003cbr\u003e  Menu language: English\u003cbr\u003e  Booklet notes: English, French, German\u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 62 mins\u003cbr\u003e  No. of DVDs: 1\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cb\u003ePrecious, unrecorded symphonies served up in vital, energising readings. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  It sometimes seems as if WGBH-TV Boston had its camera crew surgically attached to the Sanders Theatre at Harvard. Maybe the crew emerged blinking from a surfeit of lectures, keen to get reacquainted with Charles Munch. The torrent of TV material now emerging on ICA Classics is both very welcome and very difficult to sift. What, usefully, should the critic do to suggest why you may or may not wish to buy this DVD, especially if the critic is me, one who suffers from a dual impulse; firstly to buy DVDs like this and then to despair of ever finding or making the time to watch them. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  So, what’s in it for you when you consider this latest Munch DVD? I’m not saying ICA is being naughty but there’s no indication that this is black and white footage; most people will know this, but not everyone will, even if there’s a still of Munch (in black and white) on the box cover. So it’s black and white and in mono. The dates of the concerts are 1958, 1959 and 1960. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  The first thing that’s in it for you is that Munch never recorded the two Mozart symphonies in the studio. This makes this AV representation especially valuable. Another thing in it for you, should you be interested in such things (I am), is to see the Boston Symphony in action - the players, the faces, their responses, maybe to try to put names to the faces. To this extent I wish ICA and other companies (almost no one does this, so I’m not singling out ICA) would provide a personnel listing of the orchestra at the time. I appreciate it may not be wholly accurate but I think it would be a nice touch. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  Things start with the Handel-Harty  \u003ci\u003eWater Music\u003c\/i\u003e suite, a performance of Beechamesque brio and bravado. If you miss the days of such arrangements then Munch and the Boston won’t let you down. The basses are positioned behind the French horns, and the top to bottom sonority, despite the mono sound, is highly enjoyable. Even though Adolf Busch, Boyd Neel and countless others had trail-blazed in this repertoire, Munch makes no concessions, and nor should he have done. Munch is at his most animated in the  \u003ci\u003eAllegro\u003c\/i\u003e finale, smiling very slightly, his baton swishing about fly-fisherman style in his exuberance. One notices that the director decided that a good idea would be a camera shot ‘stepping down’ the orchestral sections, reasonable in theory, but dodgy in practice, not least when the camera slips, as it does once. One also notices that the Boston was an almost all-male orchestra at the time, and that the average age of the strings, at least, must have been quite high. There are some especially patrician looking gentlemen in the first violin section. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  The  \u003ci\u003eLinz\u003c\/i\u003e Symphony is from 1958 and has by far the most degraded film of the three. Grainy and rather unclear, a critic should counsel gently on this point. It’s hardly unwatchable, but you will most certainly notice the difference. The performance is in Munch’s best, taut and linear style; I would suggest George Szell as a reasonable point of comparison in terms of expression. Though sometimes tense, it’s never driven and the wind phrasing throughout is a delight. The  \u003ci\u003ePrague\u003c\/i\u003e was taped in November 1959, with footage comparable in quality to the April 1960 Handel. I sense, unless it’s the increased clarity of the film that alerts me to the upturned eyes directed toward Munch’s beat, that the orchestra follows him that bit more circumspectly in this symphony. He makes the briefest of pauses between the first and second movements, ensuring a kind of symphonic continuity to occur. The band is ready for him, and the unindulged  \u003ci\u003eAndante\u003c\/i\u003e is all the better for his unsentimental approach. The only demerit is not musical but filmic; some mildly chaotic camera panning shots that disrupt things briefly. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  Despite such imperfections, I enjoyed the DVD. It enshrines those precious, unrecorded symphonies, grants visual immortality to the Boston denizens, and serves up vital, energising readings. How often you will play it, however, is a question that only you can answer. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  -- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012952019178,"sku":"5060244550575","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1948566.jpg?v=1778320163"},{"product_id":"bruckner-symphony-no-32","title":"Bruckner: Symphony No. 8","description":"This series of DVDs will make the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era available for the first time since they were broadcast. This rare material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and William Steinberg, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historic value. The BSO's Music Director for just three seasons, Steinberg spent a great deal of time in the USA, having left Europe following Music Director positions in Cologne, Prague and Frankfurt. He also co-founded the Palestine Orchestra, later the Israel Philharmonic. His time with the BSO came at the end of his career following his position as the Music Director of Pittsburgh Symphony, which he held for over 20 years. Steinberg recorded a great deal of material with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim, but only a small selection of recordings with the BSO for DG. a live recording of Bruckner 8 with Steinberg and the BSO, from 1972, was issued as part of the orchestra's Centennial Celebration set, and has been described as a 'good, well paced and powerful reading, well played by the Bostonians'. Steinberg leads this Bruckner 8 performance from memory and with great subtlety and distinction in a sympathetic interpretation that provoked a rapturous response from the Boston audience.","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012992946410,"sku":"5060244550711","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1987222.jpg?v=1778311284"},{"product_id":"beethoven-l-van-symphony-no-7-gershwin-g-an-america","title":"BEETHOVEN, L. van: Symphony No. 7 \/ GERSHWIN, G.: An America","description":"Classical Music","brand":"IDIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013249749226,"sku":"8021945001909","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2818286.jpg?v=1778296918"},{"product_id":"schubert-f-symphony-no-9-ravel-m-piano-concerto-in","title":"SCHUBERT, F.: Symphony No. 9 \/ RAVEL, M.: Piano Concerto in","description":"Classical Music","brand":"IDIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013345857770,"sku":"8021945001787","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2818277.jpg?v=1778305348"},{"product_id":"bernstein-at-100-a-centennial-celebration-at-59305","title":"Bernstein at 100: A Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood","description":"\u003ca class=\"links\" href=\"album.jsp?album_id=2275778\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlso available on Blu-ray\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood spotlights Bernstein's wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert features a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein's heart-selections includes from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the finale of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and music by Aaron Copland, plus a new work by John Williams.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"C Major Entertainment","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":46013412114666,"sku":"814337014773","price":22.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46025378496746,"sku":"814337014766","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3835587.jpg?v=1779818551"},{"product_id":"tchaikovsky-symphony-no-5-beethoven-leinsdorf-110824","title":"Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5; Beethoven \/ Leinsdorf","description":"\u003cb\u003eLeinsdorf belatedly enters the select list of the greatest Tchaikovsky performances on record.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The previous Leinsdorf offering in this series had a very good-to-fine Schubert 9, an even finer Schumann 4 and a wonderful Wagner “Good Friday Music”. However much you enjoyed it, I should think that only those present in the Boston Symphony Hall on 15 April 1969 could be fully prepared for the impact of the present resuscitation.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  The first pleasant surprise that the material is in colour, even if definition is not up to modern standards. The second is that Leinsdorf, who was usually seen – before and after 1969 – without a baton and said in a late interview that he felt freer to mould the music expressively with just his hands – marches on with a longish baton and seems accustomed to wielding it. Richard Dyer, whose eye-witness notes continue to be such a valuable feature of this series, makes no mention of this. It would be interesting to know more about Leinsdorf’s use and non-use of the baton.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  But all this pales before the fact that this sometimes austere and pedantic conductor is on truly inspired and inspiring form, conducting with total involvement. This doesn’t mean that it’s all fast and loud: the Beethoven goes at a good but not excessive pace and there is plenty of expressive weight to the introduction. The wind phrases in the allegro are beautifully turned and the coda truly blazes.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  Leinsdorf’s Beethoven is a known factor. If it wasn’t always this good, I suppose it doesn’t need a lot of imagination to see that, on the right day, it could be. But his Tchaikovsky?\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  Leinsdorf only recorded one Tchaikovsky Symphony commercially, the Sixth with the Los Angeles Philharmonic some years before his Boston appointment. I’ve never heard this, nor have I ever seen it spoken of with bated breath. Whereas the internet grapevine has been shouting excitedly about this Fifth ever since somebody posted an incomplete sound-only version, as Richard Dyer relates. I can well understand those internet commentators who say they’ll never listen to their other discs of the work now this is available, or one who actually heard it at the time and has been unable to find a performance to match it – not even Mravinsky – ever since.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  On the face of it, Leinsdorf doesn’t “do” anything particular with the music. The introduction is brooding but also purposeful – he notes that it is “andante” not “adagio” and one senses a great latent power behind waiting to be unleashed. His “Allegro con anima” does not sidle in slowly, gaining speed later, he sets an up-front tempo straight away. It will sound very fast to some listeners. But this  \u003cem\u003eis\u003c\/em\u003e his tempo, so the first crescendo is not accompanied by an accelerando and the hammering passages go at about the “normal” speed. Nor does he deviate from this tempo, except where Tchaikovsky actually requests a slower pace for the second subject. Leinsdorf plays this with great tenderness and free rubato, even risking some less precise ensemble. On paper, this might sound like one of Leinsdorf’s dogmatic demonstrations, and if he had subsequently taken the performance into the studio I fear it might have turned into just that. I must emphasize that here everything is white-hot and convinces as a free expression of emotions.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  So, too, does the slow movement. The tempo is pretty steady but there is a sense of free-soaring passion which completely effaces any sense of the four-square. The waltz has an elegance which does not prevent exploitation of its darker moments while the finale carries all before it. The coda has an air of crude triumph presaging Mahler. Audience reaction is rightly rapturous and even Leinsdorf manages some smiles. It looks as though the Bostonians learnt to love Leinsdorf just as he was on his way out.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  I haven’t ventured to compare this with other favourites. Once the initial impact has worn off I cannot believe that performance by such as Mravinsky or Markevich, which have provided inspiration to generations (and to me) can be wholly and eternally eclipsed. The case still remains for a cooler, more brooding approach, notably provided – in very primitive sound – by Landon Ronald. At the opposite extreme, the capacity of late Celibidache to bend your internal clock and suspend disbelief at his time-dilations is not to be dismissed either. What I am quite sure of is that Leinsdorf has belatedly entered the select list of the greatest Tchaikovsky performances on record.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  Back to batonless Leinsdorf in black and white for the Mozart bonus. He puts on an incredibly autocratic face with black looks all round. Those used to modern Mozart will gasp at the fullness of the first attack, yet there is lilt as well as majesty, and delicacy later on, Leinsdorf shaping the music with crisp finger-movements.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  An interesting filler, perhaps. But don’t miss the Tchaikovsky on any account.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  -- Christopher Howell, MusicWeb International\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  LEINSDORF CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN AND TCHAIKOVSKY \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84: Overture\u003cbr\u003e  Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Boston Symphony Orchestra\u003cbr\u003e  Erich Leinsdorf, conductor\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Recorded at Symphony Hall, Boston, 15 April 1969 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Bonus:\u003cbr\u003e  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No. 9 in D major, K. 320, \"Posthorn\": II. Menuetto: Allegretto \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Recorded at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 15 January 1963 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: NTSC 4:3\u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: Enhanced Mono\u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide)\u003cbr\u003e  Menu language: English\u003cbr\u003e  Booklet notes: English, French, German\u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 57 mins\u003cbr\u003e  No. of DVDs: 1\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46013430202602,"sku":"5060244550599","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1948565.jpg?v=1778325760"},{"product_id":"isaac-stern-live-vol-1","title":"Isaac Stern Live, Vol. 1","description":"Isaac Stern's career as a solo artist, chamber musician, and much else (he led the movement to save Carnegie hall) was remarkable. This album of his live performances is an eloquent testament to his musical insights, technical command and his gorgeous, luminous tone. Isaac Stern was born in 1920, in Krimieniecz, now in Ukraine. A year later his parents came to San Francisco. Violin lessons began at eight, with Naoum Blinder. Two years later he made his debut, playing Bach double concerto with his teacher. His Town Hall debut in 1937 was followed by a Carnegie Hall debut in 1943. He was the first American artist to tour the former Soviet Union-and as a result became a deeply respected figure there. The campaign to save Carnegie Hall began in 1960. The Six-Day War of 1967 saw his iconic performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Leonard Bernstein on Mount Scopus. His involvement with Hollywood, which began in 1948 with his performance in the film Humoresque, was followed up in 1971, when he played on the soundtrack of \"Fiddler on the Roof\". His travel to China in 1979 led to a resurgence of classical music in that country, documented in \"From Mao to Mozart\". He recorded prolifically and received countless honors and tributes. Isaac Stern passed away at the age of 81 in 2001.","brand":"Doremi","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013438656746,"sku":"061297811670","price":40.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3867566-3139396.jpg?v=1778248308"},{"product_id":"poulenc-gloria-debussy-la-damoiselle-elue-le-72409","title":"Poulenc: Gloria; Debussy: La Damoiselle Elue; Le Martyre De Saint Sebastien; Honegger, Vaughan Williams, Barber","description":"The two discs in this new release contain authentic rare recordings, including two world premiere performances. Featuring works by Debussy, Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Honegger, and Barber, this is truly a diverse programme of live performances. All of the recordings were recorded live between the years 1942 and 1961. These recordings of the Poulenc works were made under the guidance of the composer.","brand":"Urania Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46025515237610,"sku":"8051773572623","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3388822.jpg?v=1778292304"},{"product_id":"brahms-j-violin-concerto-op-77-double-concerto-for-vi","title":"BRAHMS, J.: Violin Concerto, Op. 77 \/ Double Concerto for Vi","description":"Classical Music","brand":"IDIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46025565044970,"sku":"8021945000827","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2818188.jpg?v=1778288512"},{"product_id":"boston-symphony-commissions-nelsons-boston-symphony-orchestra-284222","title":"Boston Symphony Commissions \/ Nelsons, Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"The Boston Symphony Orchestra has a long tradition of commissioning and performing important new music, and the four works on this album were commissioned and premiered by the orchestra and it's conductor Andris Nelsons during the first years of his tenure. Eric Nathan takes us on a journey through a series of interconnected worlds whereas George Tsontakis marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in a series of Sonnets for English horn and orchestra. Timo Andres carries on 'conversations' with composers of the past while Sean Shepherd has been inspired by five giants of artistic modernism.","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46025934962922,"sku":"636943987421","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3731024-2512737.jpg?v=1778226471"},{"product_id":"beethoven-symphonies-1-3-munch-bso-259712","title":"Beethoven: Symphonies 1 \u0026 3 \/ Munch, BSO","description":"\u003cb\u003e*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026307961066,"sku":"4988017645529","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3891784.jpg?v=1778252929"},{"product_id":"leonard-shure-live","title":"Leonard Shure Live","description":"Leonard Shure (1910-1995), an Artur Schnabel student, was one of the most respected American pianist and pedagogs of the 20th century. This new release presents live performances, including his 1960 collaboration with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic on the Brahms' first piano concerto. \"Shure played with a thrilling blend of insight, breadth, authority and daring,” wrote The New York Times. Also included is his Carnegie Hall Recital from February 1956, which features his Encores, and his Symphony Hall Boston concert from February 1936. This is the first release of each of these recordings.","brand":"Doremi","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026656415978,"sku":"061297580170","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2254436.jpg?v=1778312476"},{"product_id":"munch-in-boston-the-early-years","title":"Munch in Boston: The Early Years","description":"Classical Music","brand":"West Hill Radio Archives","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027377737962,"sku":"4015023160156","price":80.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3815695.jpg?v=1778246110"},{"product_id":"mahler-symphony-no-5-leinsdorf-boston-symphony-259813","title":"Mahler: Symphony No 5 \/ Leinsdorf, Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis performance is also available on RCA Victor 68365.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027574837482,"sku":"090266048229","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/0209852_a081a551-2da7-487e-9f44-ae155bb2c2ef.jpg?v=1778207275"},{"product_id":"sviatoslav-richters-boston-debut","title":"Sviatoslav Richter's Boston Debut","description":"Classical Music","brand":"West Hill Radio Archives","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027620843754,"sku":"5425008377810","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3845438.jpg?v=1778281421"},{"product_id":"beethoven-symphonies-nos-4-5-creatures-of-128808","title":"Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 \u0026 5; Creatures Of Prometheus: Excerpts \/ Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cb\u003eAvailable for the first time since original broadcast!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  R E V I E W:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  All of a sudden, Charles Munch's star seems to be once again in the ascendant. Sony has recently reissued a swathe of his RCA back catalogue on its new Sony Originals label, including his Debussy orchestral works and his recordings of the Dvorák and Walton cello concertos with Piatigorsky. Coming soon in April is an eight disc box set on RCA Classical Masters that brings together recordings of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies and other orchestral works … and at a ridiculously low price. Meanwhile, the new independent label, ICA Classics, has brought to market three DVDs of Munch in concert with his Boston Symphony Orchestra. This Beethoven DVD and its companions (a DVD of Debussy and Ravel, and a DVD of Franck, Faure and Wagner) capture live broadcasts that have not been seen since they first went to air in the late 1950s and early 1960s. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  I have always been in two minds about Munch's Beethoven. His Boston Beethoven 9 for RCA - one of those new Sony Originals reissues - 88697702992 - is one of my favourite recordings of the work. It is unsubtle, oddly up close and spotlit and never plumbs the depths of  \u003ci\u003epiano\u003c\/i\u003e let alone  \u003ci\u003epianissimo\u003c\/i\u003e, but it is absolutely thrilling from first note to last and very moving. His Beethoven 5, however, is one of the most enduring disappointments of my CD collection. I pull it out every year or so to see if this time I will find something magical in the performance, and each year I hear scrappy and dynamically flat orchestral playing and an interpretation lacking in nuance. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  What a delight it was, then, to listen to and watch the performance of the 5  \u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e that closes this DVD. Here is the Munch reading I had been listening for in vain: a dramatic and rhetorical performance; a performance that builds inexorably towards the final peroration; a performance of contrast held together by flexible but fundamentally solid tempi; a performance abounding in spontaneous touches, like the extra space and freedom he affords his oboist, Ralph Gomberg, for his solo in the first movement. It is wonderful to hear, and also great fun to watch Munch's facial expressions and the way his baton drops when the dynamics do so that he seems to be conducting with shoulder movements rather than the invisible stick that is beating time around his knees. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  As good as the 5  \u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e is, it is the 4  \u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e that for me is the highlight here. Munch cuts an unexpectedly dour figure in the adagio introduction to the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. If it weren't for the expansive baton strokes and the white hair, you could almost believe you were watching Fritz Reiner. The allegro ignites, and Munch seems himself once more. Is it a trick of the lens, or is his baton bent a little towards its tip? My goodness, he does shake it about a bit in the allegros! Beethoven's games with rhythm in this symphony are right up Munch's street. His knack of pushing a performance forward and building momentum suits this symphony beautifully. There is a bounce and swagger to the third movement that you just won't hear elsewhere and the finale fizzes. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  The music from Beethoven's  \u003ci\u003ePrometheus\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003ci\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e ballet is an interesting inclusion. The liner-notes make much of the fact that Munch hardly ever played this music, so the conductor's most ardent admirers will no doubt need to acquire this DVD to round out their collected discographies. The Overture receives a scintillating performance, right from the whip-crack of the opening staccato chords. I was less impressed by the other two selections from the ballet, though the adagio shows off the orchestra's flute, bassoon, cello and harp. The mono sound does their magnificent playing full justice. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  The picture quality of the monochrome source tapes is variable. The  \u003ci\u003ePrometheus\u003c\/i\u003e footage has a tendency to fog and fish bowl curvature. The opening of the Fourth Symphony is disfigured by static lines. The camera work itself is conventional, but the editing strikes a fair balance between footage of the orchestra and the man on the podium. Fortunately the mono sound is clear and carries fair detail. Only at the close of the 5  \u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e does the music sound a little cramped in its single channel. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  Anyone with an interest in Munch and his magnificent Boston band will find this DVD fascinating. \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e  -- Tim Perry, MusicWeb International\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46027679203562,"sku":"5060244550162","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1806884.jpg?v=1778333192"},{"product_id":"the-age-of-living-stereo-a-tribute-260073","title":"The Age Of Living Stereo - A Tribute To John Pfeiffer","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe second disc of this release includes interviews.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027732582634,"sku":"090266852420","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/0244253.jpg?v=1778202408"},{"product_id":"serge-koussevitzky-conducts-tc","title":"SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY CONDUCTS TC","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Music and Arts Programs of America","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027735073002,"sku":"017685113826","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3813861.jpg?v=1778282958"},{"product_id":"mozart-symphonies-no-36-linzer-no-39-110914","title":"Mozart: Symphonies No 36 \"linzer,\" No 39, Eine Kleine","description":"MOZART: SYMPHONIES NO 36 \u0026amp; 39","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027813519594,"sku":"090266090723","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3894948_95311b95-0db8-42ee-b917-355c07b36ece.jpg?v=1778281165"},{"product_id":"brahms-symphony-no-2-tragic-overture-munch-164020","title":"Brahms: Symphony No 2, Tragic Overture \/ Munch, Boston So","description":"BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO 2, TRAGIC","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027846844650,"sku":"090266068227","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3892904.jpg?v=1778281108"},{"product_id":"franck-symphony-in-d-minor-faure-wagner-156632","title":"Franck: Symphony in D Minor; Faure, Wagner \/ Munch","description":"Charles Munch conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1959-1961 in works by Wagner, Franck, and Faure.","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46027847958762,"sku":"5060244550155","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1806883.jpg?v=1778316832"},{"product_id":"mendelssohn-symphonies-3-4-munch-boston-symphony-252393","title":"Mendelssohn: Symphonies 3 \u0026 4 \/ Munch, Boston Symphony","description":"Recorded at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, on 1 December 1959 (Symphony No. 3), 4 February 1958 (Symphony No. 4) and 7 April 1959 (Mozart)\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: NTSC 16:9\u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: Ambient Mastering\u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide)\u003cbr\u003e  Menu language: English\u003cbr\u003e  Subtitles: English, French, German\u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 70 mins\u003cbr\u003e  No. of DVDs: 1\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  This one focuses on two Mendelssohn Symphonies. The  \u003cem\u003eScottish\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  The  \u003cem\u003eItalian\u003c\/em\u003e 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  \u003cem\u003eScottish\u003c\/em\u003e. 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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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?\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  -- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46027852841194,"sku":"5060244550391","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1900747.jpg?v=1778379013"},{"product_id":"legendary-performers-koussevitzky-prokofiev-symphonies-259909","title":"Legendary Performers - Koussevitzky - Prokofiev: Symphonies","description":"Although there have been many fine and some thrilling performances of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony since it first appeared on record, there are only two that really count—and this is one of them. The other is the perfectly proportioned and beautifully played Karajan (DG, 1\/93). Of course, there are many more modern and better recorded versions that can be recommended but (to put an unwelcome scenario) were the bomb about to drop, and one had only time to play one version of the Fifth, for me it would be this one. Unaccountably it was never released in this country on 78s after the war, although numbers in HMV's DB series were allotted to it. In those days duplication was the exception rather than the rule and this symphony had not established the popular following it now enjoys. Perhaps it was felt that its release would impair the success of the now deleted rival set with Artur Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic (Columbia, 2\/49). \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e When the work was first issued on LP, I wrote: ''Not even the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan can match the strings of the Boston Symphony in sheer power and eloquence under the baton of Koussevitzky. They possess a lyrical intensity matched by few others. Above the stave they sing with unerring purity of intonation: the sound is marvellously clean and their tone can only be called luminous.'' (Writing in another context Harris Goldsmith declared, ''the voluminous warmth of the Boston string section under Koussevitzky was one of the hedonistic delights of Western civilization''.) The wind and brass are of comparable excellence. This account dates from February 6th and 7th, 1946, yet the musicians sound as if they have known this music all their lives. As they do in an earlier performance I have on AS Disc (not available in the UK) from November 17th,1945, which must have been made very near the work's premiere.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e To the Fifth Symphony and the four Romeo and Juliet excerpts (which were coupled on the LP) RCA have added two performances recorded during the orchestra's visit to New York in November 1947: the Classical Symphony and the ''Danse finale'' from Chout. I don't think the Classical is superior to the marvellous account on 78s recorded by Koussevitzky in the early 1930s (HMV, 10\/31) which I hope will reappear in due course, but it is still both vivacious and enchanting. As I wrote of the Fifth and the four Romeo and Juliet excerpts first time round, these interpretations are totally unmannered yet of outsize personality, their virtuosity worn lightly. Superb performances, then, in a class of their own, which produce even better results now than they did on vinyl.'\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Robert Layton, The Gramophone\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027853070570,"sku":"090266165728","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3895010.jpg?v=1778276968"},{"product_id":"bruckner-symphony-no-7-tennstedt-boston-symphony-92174","title":"Bruckner: Symphony No 7 \/ Tennstedt, Boston Symphony Orchestra","description":"Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107 \u003cbr\u003e  (1885 version, ed. L. Nowak)\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Boston Symphony Orchestra\u003cbr\u003e  Klaus Tennstedt, conductor \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Recorded live from the Symphony Hall, Boston, 5 November 1977 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: NTSC 4:3\u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: Enhanced Mono\u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide)\u003cbr\u003e  Menu language: English\u003cbr\u003e  Booklet notes: English, French, German\u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 66 mins\u003cbr\u003e  No. of DVDs: 1\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  R E V I E W:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cb\u003eA top-quality performance of Bruckner’s Seventh under a great conductor.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  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.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e  -- John Quinn, MusicWeb International\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46027879874794,"sku":"5060244550667","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1957388.jpg?v=1778311230"},{"product_id":"brahms-symphony-no-1-etc-munch-boston-259836","title":"Brahms: Symphony No 1, Etc \/ Munch, Boston Symphony Orch","description":"BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO 1, ETC  MU","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027880956138,"sku":"090266078820","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/0135048.jpg?v=1778202426"},{"product_id":"berlioz-brahms-chausson-others-works-for-orchestra-58319","title":"Berlioz, Brahms, Chausson \u0026 Others: Works For Orchestra \/ Monteux, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bbc Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe great French conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) was naturally considered a specialist of his native country’s music, though he would never allow this to restrict him. This new set of previously unpublished recordings seeks to set the record straight, with a strong representation of German repertoire, notably Brahms’ Symphony No.3 with the Boston Symphony, which he never recorded commercially, in a rare ‘live’ performance from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival. More Brahms featuring two celebrated virtuosos –the Violin Concerto with the French violinist Zino Francescatti, and the Double Concerto where he is joined by his compatriot Pierre Fournier, both ‘live’ recordings from the Royal Festival Hall in 1955. Both selections featured here are previously unpublished.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ICA Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027907662058,"sku":"5060244551503","price":44.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3825469.jpg?v=1778280858"},{"product_id":"pierre-monteux-edition-vol-13-stravinsky-boston-177750","title":"Pierre Monteux Edition Vol 13 - Stravinsky \/ Boston So","description":"PIERRE MONTEUX EDITION VOL 13","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027909005546,"sku":"090266189823","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3895039.jpg?v=1778277092"},{"product_id":"chausson-symphony-poeme-saint-saens-munch-oistrakh-259822","title":"Chausson: Symphony, Poeme;  Saint-saëns \/ Munch, Oistrakh","description":"Tracks:\u003cbr\u003e1. OISTRAKH\/MUNCH\/BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA -  (1-3)   SYMPHONIE EN SI BEMOL MAJEUR\/ B FLAT MAJOR \/ B-DUR, OP.20\u003cbr\u003e2. OISTRAKH\/MUNCH\/BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA -  (4)  POEME\u003cbr\u003e3. OISTRAKH\/MUNCH\/BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA -  (5-7)  INTRODUCTION ET RONDO CAPRICCIOSO\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46028052758762,"sku":"090266068326","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/0231389.jpg?v=1778379192"},{"product_id":"great-moments-at-carnegie-hall-selected-highlights-58181","title":"Great Moments at Carnegie Hall (Selected Highlights)","description":"Also available:  \u003ca class=\"links\" href=\"album.jsp?album_id=2178621\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eGreat Moments at Carnegie Hall\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  A 2-CD set of highlights of legendary live recordings from the RCA and Columbia Archives.","brand":"Sony Masterworks","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46030662533354,"sku":"889853042029","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4316451-3272057.jpg?v=1778219096"},{"product_id":"beethoven-symphonies-no-7-8-munch-bso-259713","title":"Beethoven: Symphonies no 7 \u0026 8 \/ Munch, BSO","description":"BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NO 7 \u0026amp; 8","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039830659306,"sku":"4988017645543","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3893092.jpg?v=1778817757"},{"product_id":"mozart-jupiter-symphony-eine-kleine-nachtmusik-leinsdorf-259711","title":"Mozart: Jupiter Symphony, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik \/ Leinsdorf","description":"\u003cb\u003e*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039830888682,"sku":"4988017644850","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"ravel-daphnis-et-chloe-piano-concerto-munch-225391","title":"Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Piano Concerto \/ Munch, BSO","description":"\u003cb\u003e*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039830986986,"sku":"4988017645857","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3894924.jpg?v=1778817793"},{"product_id":"pierre-monteux-edition-vol-14-tchaikovsky-symphonies-99213","title":"Pierre Monteux Edition Vol 14 - Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4-6","description":"PIERRE MONTEUX EDITION VOL 14","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039863951594,"sku":"090266190126","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3891817.jpg?v=1778819588"},{"product_id":"debussy-le-martyr-de-saint-sebastien-iberia-259823","title":"Debussy: Le Martyr De Saint-sebastien, Iberia\/ Charles Munch","description":"DEBUSSY: LE MARTYR DE SAINT-SE","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039871783146,"sku":"090266068425","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3894805.jpg?v=1778820612"},{"product_id":"pierre-monteux-edition-vol-6-debussy-liszt-259930","title":"Pierre Monteux Edition Vol 6 - Debussy, Liszt, Scriabin","description":"PIERRE MONTEUX EDITION VOL 6 -","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039885611242,"sku":"090266189021","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"mendelssohn-scottish-italian-symphonies-munch-bso-259814","title":"Mendelssohn: Scottish \u0026 Italian Symphonies \/ Munch, Bso","description":"MENDELSSOHN: SCOTTISH \u0026amp; ITALIA","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46039887184106,"sku":"090266048328","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3894788.jpg?v=1778821472"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/collections\/960px-BSO_Tanglewood_2023.jpg?v=1777638716","url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/boston-symphony-orchestra.oembed?page=2","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}