Harold Samuel (1879–1937) was the first pianist to specialize in the performance of Bach’s original keyboard works in the concert hall and achieved worldwide acclaim in doing so. His pioneering HMV and Columbia recordings of the composer (all the Bach works included here, except for the first Prelude & Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, were premiers on disc) sound as fresh and inspiring today as they did when new and reveal that great Bach playing is timeless. A unique live 5th Brandenburg Concerto from New York and a studio E major Violin Sonata with Isolde Menges round out his Bach and this landmark release also includes his remaining solo discs, notably some rare repertoire by Clementi and two of Bach’s sons which was recorded for the ambitious Columbia History of Music educational project. These new 2021 transfers by Seth Winner were made using the latest technology and present these historic documents in the best possible sound, revealing more detail of Samuel’s playing than has ever previously been captured.
Elgar from America, Vol. 1 / New York Philharmonic Symphony, NBC Symphony
SOMM Recordings
CD · 1 disc
$20.99May 17, 2019
SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the release of Elgar from America, Volume I featuring historic recordings by a legendary cellist, two American orchestras and a trio of the 20th century’s greatest conductors. The results offer a fascinating transatlantic perspective on a titan of British music and includes two masterpieces and a symphonic study which Elgar considered his best orchestral piece.
Elgar visited America annually from 1905-07 and again in 1911 where his music found articulate champions and a place in the country’s affections, the trio of his Pomp and Circumstance March in D an essential, long-established part of ceremonies accompanying America’s graduation tradition. The featured recordings date from the 1940s and have been restored and remastered by the multi-award-winning audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr, who also provides informative booklet notes.
The Enigma Variations were, by far, America’s favourite Elgar work in the first decade of the last century. The “fleet, error-free performance” by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini in New York’s Radio City Studio on November 5, 1949 appears here on album for the first time. New in any form is Artur Rodzin´ski’s never-before released October 10, 1943 Carnegie Hall account of Falstaff Symphonic Study in C minor with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra.
Cellist Gregor Piatigorsky joined the NYP-SO under John Barbirolli for a November 10, 1940 Carnegie Hall performance of the Cello Concerto. Piatigorsky never recorded the work commercially and this is the only known existing recording of him playing the piece. Lani Spahr’s previous restorations of historic Elgar recordings for SOMM Recordings include Elgar Rediscovered and the four-disc set Elgar Remastered which featured recordings from the composer’s own collection and was hailed by Audiophilia as “a fascinating achievement which will have you wishing for more”.
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REVIEW:
Elgar enthusiasts will find it intriguing, not least because it offers performances by some performers who one does not normally associate with Elgar’s music. This particular Toscanini performance of ‘Enigma’ is new to CD and Rodzinski’s Falstaff has never been issued commercially in any format. It’s also healthy and stimulating to hear performances from outside the English performing tradition. There is some surface noise at times but in general Lani Spahr’s transfers seem to me to have been extremely successful. There is applause after each work but otherwise the audiences are commendably quiet.
Toscanini Collection Vol 30 - Richard Strauss: Don Quixote
RCA
CD · 1 disc
$17.99Sep 05, 2007
LS had almost unqualified praise for the live 1953 Carnegie Hall recording of Don Quixote. "Nothing," he wrote "more clearly demonstrates Toscanini's true quality than the fact that it is possible to take one of his ordinary (one cannot use the word 'routine', for obvious reasons) broadcast performances and issue it in permanent form on record to complete satisfaction". He noted a momentary slip in the first variation; equally, one might like the two concluding chords of the work to have been re-made. But what a tour de force this is of orchestral wizardry and musical characterization in one of the repertory's most difficult works. What's more, Toscanini honours Strauss's original plan by having the orchestra's own front-desk cellist and viola player as the soloists. (Only a week later Carbon Cooley would distinguish himself as viola soloist in Toscanini's broadcast from Carnegie Hall of Berlioz's Harold in Italy—RCA 0 RD85755, 2/88.) I think it is reasonable to prefer this performance musically and sonically to Toscanini's 1938 NBC recording (Toscanini Society—nla) and to Strauss's own version with Mainardi recently reissued by DG (11/90), where the playing of the Staatskapelle Berlin is frankly not in the same league as that of the NBC musicians.
SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce Elgar from America, Volume II: the first commercial release of three historic performances from 1940s’ New York featuring legendary Elgarian interpreters including violinist Yehudi Menuhin and conductors Malcolm Sargent and Arturo Toscanini at the helm of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The results offer a fascinating transatlantic perspective on a titan of British music while revealing his musical legacy in a country he visited annually from 1905-07 and again in 1911. The featured recordings date from the first half of the 1940s and have been restored and remastered by the multi-award-winning audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr, who also provides informative booklet notes. Menuhin, long associated with Elgar since his 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto, is heard here in a 1945 performance of the work, abbreviated to fit radio constraints of time. It is conducted by Sargent who also leads an account of Cockaigne (In London Town) Concert-Overture from the same year. Toscanini’s 1940 performance of the Introduction and Allegro for Strings marks the only time he conducted it with the NBC SO, joined here by Mischa Mischakoff and Edwin Bachmann violins, Carlton Cooley viola, Frank Miller cello. Elgar from America, Volume I (ARIADNE 5005) was hailed by Classical Music Daily as “a fine start to this historic cycle” while MusicWeb International called it “a model of one of the things the album should be doing: filling the medium to capacity with engaging and/or controversial interpretations that one cannot simply over-hear... Essential listening.”
Holst: Savitri; The Planets; The Perfect Fool Ballet Suite
SOMM Recordings
CD · 2 discs
$29.99Aug 16, 2024
SOMM Recordings is pleased to release this set of delightful never-before-released recordings of the music of Gustav Holst in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Here are works of grand and intimate scale, for orchestral and chamber forces, with and without singers, offering a vivid sampling of his oeuvre in meticulous restorations of recorded live performances given in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Chronologically, the earliest recordings are those on Disc 2, curated by Producer Lani Spahr. The live performances of The Perfect Fool suite and The Planets were recorded from New York's Radio City Studio in 1945 and Boston's Symphony Hall in 1946, respectively, with British conductors leading orchestras from "across the pond", where Holst had devoted much time in his later years conducting, lecturing and teaching. The recordings on Disc 1 are in various ways the result of Imogen Holst's championing of her father's music. A composer in her own right, arranger, conductor, teacher, musicologist and festival administrator, it was in the last capacity, especially, that she came to work at Benjamin Britten's side on his annual Aldeburgh Festival, becoming co-artistic director in the season of 1956. This recording of Gustav Holst's chamber opera Savitri dates from that summer and comes from the collection of Music Preserved. Nearly a decade later Imogen Holst, who by then was acclaimed for her founding and leadership of the Purcell Singers, a choir whose performances became a regular fixture at Aldeburgh, curated a series of broadcasts on BBC's Third Programme to feature works by her father and other composers. Some of the Gustav Holst pieces, like the Third Group of Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda and Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo for orchestra, were broadcast live from public performances at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July of 1965, Cheltenham incidentally being Gustav's birthplace. Others, like the 4 Songs for soprano and violin and The Evening-Watch for mixed chorus, must have been pre-recorded in closed sessions that summer for use later in Imogen's series of programmes. These two recordings were aired on 31 October 1965. All of the Cheltenham '65 recordings come from the collection of Stephen Crane of ARS Recorded Editions. Disc 1 has been fastidiously polished by Restoration Engineer Paul Baily. His restoration of the recent Sir Adrian Boult Conducts (ARIADNE 5024-2) was honoured with the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Records Critics' Award) in the Historical Recordings category. Restoration Engineer for Disc 2, Lani Spahr's previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018-20) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as two Gramophone Editor's Choice picks: Elgar from America Vol.3 (ARIADNE 5015-2) for "superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life" and Bruckner from the Archives Vol.1 (ARIADNE 5025-2) for the "high standards achieved here, where expert audio restoration and remastering is by Lani Spahr".
Toscanini Conducts Two Choral Masterpieces By Beethoven
Music and Arts Programs of America
CD · 2 discs
$32.99Oct 01, 2003
When this two CD set was originally issued in 1986, here is what William H. Youngren said about it in The Christian Science Monitor: "...I can think of no better introduction to Toscanini for a listener who is curious to know why so many considered him the greatest conductor of his time." If that does not say it all, I do not know what does.
Harris Goldsmith writes in his note: "This 1948 version is almost completely without mishap. Indeed, there is ample reason to consider it the finest of the Maestro's achievements with this monumental Masterpiece [the Requiem]. The pacing resembles that of the November 23rd, 1940 performance in it's nobility and unhurried breadth.
MAHLER Symphony No. 1. WAGNER Faust Overture. Siegfried Idyll • Bruno Walter, cond; NBC SO • MUSIC & ARTS 1241, mono (77:25) Live: New York 4/8/1939
This important release brings together Walter’s complete final concert from the series of five he did at NBC in 1939. The Faust Overture appeared in a previous Music & Arts Walter collection; otherwise I’m not aware of any previous CD release of the material. The sound is excellent: full-bodied with great clarity and immediacy (capturing many of Walter’s exhortations and strenuous vocalizations)—interestingly, Walter seemed to hold a minority (high) opinion of the notorious Studio 8H.
The Mahler is Walter’s earliest preserved performance of the work (indeed, the earliest by any conductor I’m aware of; Mitropoulos’s Minneapolis premiere recording dates from 1940). It is a reading of thrilling spontaneity, a combustible meeting of Walter’s totally idiomatic Mahler style with the distinctively bright, tightly focused expressive intensity of the NBC orchestra, which responds with total commitment. The first movement is lithe, supple, with a very flexible pulse; hear his impulsive pressing ahead in response to the music’s having modulated one key too far in the sharpward direction (E Major, Rehearsal 6 + 8). The beginning of the slow movement brings a real surprise: what sounds like Mahler’s original conception of solo cello doubling the customary bass in unison—an experiment Walter seems not to have repeated in any of his later extant performances. The finale is intensely dramatic, working to a dénouement of overwhelming emotional force and, ultimately, saturated splendor.
Other available Walter performances give a fascinating picture of the gradual transformation of his interpretation over the years: A live 1947 version with the LPO (Testament) is similar in conception to NBC: swift, light-toned, characterful, and spontaneous, but preserved in problematic sound. A Concertgebouw performance from the same year (Tahra r RCO Live) is sharp and pungent, with a memorably old-world string style. A 1950 performance with the Bavarian State Orchestra (Orfeo) is darker, smoother, less pointed; the 1954 NYPO studio recording weightier, straighter, more severe. By comparison, the final Columbia Symphony version (1961) represents very much an old man’s view—mellow, deliberate, soft-focused, and comparatively uninflected.
Walter conducts a memorable performance of Wagner’s Faust Overture, of seething intensity and swashbuckling drama, on a looser rein than Toscanini’s with the same orchestra two years later (Naxos). Siegfried Idyll was a great Walter specialty, and the NBC version is distinguished by its swift pacing, expressive freedom, and highly nuanced execution, with a pp conclusion of truly heart-stopping beauty. Again, comparisons are instructive: the 1935 studio recording with the VPO (Opus Kura) transparent, lean, surprisingly ascetic with very little string vibrato. A live Los Angeles PO performance from 1949 (Music & Arts) is similar in conception to NBC, but less refined, heavier in expression. Two NYP versions—the 1953 studio recording (United Archives) and a live one from 1957 (Music & Arts)—are more symphonically imposing, less intimate; the final Columbia Symphony recording (1959) slower, less flexible, of muted shades and a decidedly autumnal feeling.
All in all, a major new addition to the Walter discography, one that shows the conductor at his formidable best, and preserved in lifelike, vivid sound. Riches indeed!
SHOSTAKOVICH, D.: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 and 7, "Leningrad" (P
Music and Arts Programs of America
CD · 2 discs
$32.99Nov 01, 2009
2009 two CD release. The recordings contained in this set of Shostakovich's Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies were all made soon after the first performances of each work, and have an authenticity as well as a musical immediacy that later recordings inevitably have lacked, good as they may be. These recordings stand as unique sound documents in the history of the interpretation of Shostakovich's music. In addition they testify to Stokowski's own personal style as an interpreter of this composer's works. Shostakovich held Stokowski in high esteem as an exponent of his music.
Superlative Wagnerian singing - Toscanini keeps the music swiftly and taut, while giving the soloists plenty of room for the most telling, eloquent turns of phrase.
The Walküre Act I excerpt was not published until several years after Toscanini's death, when it was partnered by Götterdämmerung excerpts taken from the same 1941 concert. It would have made this disc still more attractive if both had been included, but as it is we have here a glorious example of superlative Wagnerian singing. Melchior was 51 years old at the time of the broadcast, although you would never guess this from his marvellously youthful, ardent tones, and Traubel was in superb form, too. Toscanini moves the music on quite swiftly and the orchestral phrasing is fairly taut, but neither soloist seems under the slightest pressure, and each has plenty of room for the most telling, eloquent turns of phrase. The balance favours the singers, and I rather fancy that background noise has been suppressed a little too much, but the sound is not at all bad for its date.
I liked the Siegfried Idyll performance very much, for it has an attractive sense of repose and gentle affection, with some very poetic contributions from the solo woodwind. The sound here is pretty good, as it is in the Tristan Prelude and Liebestod, which are played in a lean, clean fashion, beautifully balanced, but rather lacking in passion and atmosphere. There is a slightly cramped sound in the Ride of the Valkyries, but better that it should be here than in the most important items. A most desirable disc, which offers many rewards.
Erich Kleiber At NBC - Four Complete Concerts From 1947-48
Music and Arts Programs of America
CD · 4 discs
$48.99Nov 01, 2002
Connoisseurs of historical performances will certainly know the famous photograph taken at a reception in Berlin in 1929, showing conductors Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, and Wilhelm Furtwangler. Kleiber was the youngest of these esteemed maestros, and today remains perhaps the least known of them. This situation is doubtless due in part to the fact that of the five, he by far had the smallest recorded legacy and certainly the fewest appearances in the US. These circumstances should not however, lead us to underestimate Kleiber, who in 1923, became the youngest Generalmusikdirector in Germany, at that country's premiere opera house, the Berlin Staatsoper. He had a falling out with Nazi leaders and left Berlin in 1935, becoming a wanderer and guesting at various European venues. He settled with his family in Chile in 1940, conducting mainly at the Teatro Colon during the war, as well as in Havana. When hostilities ended, he did not immediately return to Europe as might be expected. He did however, accept an invitation to lead the NBC Symphony in four concerts in February-March 1946. Toscanini appreciated his music making and Kleiber was invited back for another quartet of concerts presented in this CD set, which contains a broad cross-section of his symphonic repertory favorites.
The main question here is how BMG's new 20-bit remasterings compare to those in their 1990 Toscanini Complete Edition. Both ends of the dynamic spectrum are considerbly opened up, which intensify the Maestro's stinging accents and point up the carefully sculpted cantabile phrasings to an unprecedented degree. I also detect smidgens of artificial reverberation: tastefully applied, but frankly superfluous. The Schubert symphonies boast relentless forward momentum, which pushes the NBC Orchestra to the edge of its collective virtuosity. I prefer Toscanini's weightier 1940 Schubert "Great", featuring the more tonally alluring Philadelphia Orchestra. By contrast, the Mendelssohn works benefit from Toscanini's slightly looser-limbed expansiveness in the slow movements, and the solo work is more relaxed. The performances, incidentally, date from between Toscanini's 83rd and 87th years, and reveal the Maestro's unflagging energy and fervent committment in each and every bar.
