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NB. Due to temporary sickness this is a much reduced newsletter - I hope normal service will be resumed shortly... New
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A Beginner's Guide to Downloading - Five ways to find recordings at Pristine Classical - Full printable Pristine Audio catalogue New release today: Beecham in Seattle Pristine Audio PASC 212 XR
remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, January-February 2010 Total
duration: 67:00 Beecham in Seattle - the unheard live recordings "I was informed there was an emergency, so I emerged..."
Sir Thomas Beecham was without a doubt one of the
most influential and charismatic conductors of the 20th century. He
made numerous recordings throughout his career - but there was a gap: "Beecham left Britain in the spring of 1940, later
explaining, "I
was informed there was an emergency, so I emerged." Beecham went
to Australia and then to North America. He became music director of the
Seattle Symphony Orchestra in 1941..." Beecham's time in Seattle coincided with a recording ban
in the US imposed by the unions. Thus until now there have been no
recordings released from this collaboration. Pristine Classical is delighted therefore to offer this,
the first of three volumes of Beecham in Seattle - and it's a corker,
centred around a splendid Enigma
Variations with further
works by Wagner and Delius.
Notes
on the recordings: We
are lucky to have any recordings whatsoever of Beecham in Seattle -
union disputes precluded any commerical recordings during Beecham's
time with the orchestra. To the best of our knowledge there remain
three CDs-worth of live material, captured at the start of the 1943
season and preserved first on acetate discs (since melted down), then
open-reel tape (since lost), backed up onto more open reel tape (now
almost unplayable) and cassette tape. Thus the humble cassette proves
the best remaining source of these historic recordings, and it is from
excellent transfers of these, supplied by a collector who wishes to
remain anonymous, that I have worked. However
it was not the cassette medium which has caused most trouble here -
although some of the acetates survived well prior to transfer, others
were worn and damaged, and some of that will be audible in places. I
also had to merge in approximately 4 seconds of a suitably "digitally
aged" modern recording into the Meistersinger Overture to patch a skipped
record groove. The result, hopefully undetectable, starts at about
3'12". Further
Background on the Source Recordings We
have the following information on the tapes: Sir
Thomas Beecham was the music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
for the 1941-42, 1942-43 and part of the 1943-44 seasons. His final
concert was on Monday, November 1, 1943. Some
of the music on the September and October Subscription and Sunday
Matinee Concerts from the 1943-44 season was recorded and broadcast on
the Standard Symphony Hour on KOL Radio and the Mutual-Don Lee
Broadcasting System. Years later, these recordings were transferred
from the radio station's 16-inch 78 rpm broadcast masters before they
were thrown out or, rather, destroyed as per the agreement that usually
used to exist with such recordings, i.e., the station could use the
recordings for a while but then they had to be destroyed. The
recordings were first dubbed to reel-to-reel: one 7" reel of 1800 feet
of Maxell UD 35-90 tape recorded in single, quarter-track mono at 3 3/4
ips ("reel master"). This
reel master tape was subsequently dubbed onto three Sony UX-S 90 minute
cassette tapes making additional cassette safety dubs onto TDK SA 90
minute cassettes. The reel master was also dubbed onto three 1800 foot
reels of Ampex 407 Mastering Audio Tape in dual, quarter-track mono at
7 1/2 ips as a "safety master." Unfortunately
the Ampex tape referred to here eventually suffered from the notorious
'sticky shed' syndrome. While it is possible to recover tapes in this
condition, the fact that this was not understood prior to the tapes
themselves being played has caused irreperable damage to them, leaving
us with the Sony cassettes as the only remaining viable source for a
best -quality restoration. We are fortunate therefore that the
cassettes were well-made on quality equipment which has also been used
for replay in the final digitisation dubs. In
all there is sufficient surviving material to produce three CDs of
recordings. Volume 2 should comprise Beethoven's 8th Symphony,
Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony andf an overture by Bizet, whilst Volume 3
will centre around Dvorák's Cello Concerto (with Mischel Cherniavsky,
cello) and shorter works by Massenet, Saint-Saëns and Sibelius. The
concerts covered by the collection: Sunday,
September 26, 1943. 2:30 PM. Moore Theater Monday,
September 27, 1943. 8:30 PM. Music Hall Theater Sunday,
October 10, 1943. 2:30 PM. Moore Theater Monday,
October 11, 1943. 8:30 PM. Music Hall Theater Monday,
October 18, 1943. 8:30 PM. Music Hall Theater
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