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Pristine
News:
Friday 25th
June,
2010
New release today: BERNARD HERRMANN A Concert of American Music Pristine Audio PASC 232 Transfers
by Andrew Rose from Edward Johnson's private
collection ©2010
Pristine Audio. For
more
download
and
CD
options,
see
our
website
Three
excellent radio recordings newly transferred and
remastered "A quite superb historic
discovery... get it now, you won't regret it"
Notes on the recordings: This collection of radio broadcast recordings, brought together as a kind of concert-on-CD, if you like, brings together several aspects of the work of Bernard Herrmann, a composer and conductor who still commands a committed following today, some 35 years after his death. Having grown up in New York City, schooling first in Brooklyn, later at New York University and Jullliard, it seems only appropriate that this most American of musicians should introduce the British public to the Second Symphony of Charles Ives. Remarkably, it's a work which, somewhat like its composer, was rejected for half a century – Ives began work on it in 1897 and completed it in the first years of the new century, but had to wait until 1951 for its rapturously-received première under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. Five years later it was Herrmann, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for a studio broadcast concert, who premièred the work in the UK. The copy here was taken from an open-reel tape from what would appear to be a rebroadcast or disc transcription from the occasional clicks I had to deal with. The FM-quality broadcast sound quality is more than acceptable if prone to occasional peak distortion and a little tape flutter-dropout at the very beginning, the performance a credit both to orchestra and conductor. Our second work is the Violin Concerto in A by Robert Russell Bennett, and presents another interesting connection. Bennett straddled the worlds of classical music and Broadway musicals in a similar manner to Herrmann and his film music; in both cases the 'other' work has remained longer in the memories of music lovers than what some might consider the composers' more “serious” output, but that should not distract from this most fascinating and delightful piece. The soloist here the concerto's dedicatee and Bennett's friend, the violinist Louis Kaufmann. It's a very accessible piece (subtitled “in the popular style”) and would surely stand reviving, and includes an astonishing if very short virtuoso display in the third movement. An alternative release of this piece on CD is currently available – but the sound quality on it is particularly grim and the piece about a semitone out of tune! This new transfer came from a mid-70s 'pirate' LP release which found its way into Edward Johnson's collection. I've endeavoured to remove the unfortunate fake stereo effect applied to the LP release – on which I also noted a bizarre and unpleasant change in equalisation for the finale which amplified mid-range frequencies to the great detriment of the listener; this, too, has been ameliorated. Overall sound is generally very good, perhaps a slight improvement on the Ives thanks to clearer top-end extension, though there is still a slight tendency to peak distortion in some sections, which I've tried to control as much as possible. The finale of this Concert of American Music is an orchestral suite of Herrmann's own music. Entitled "Welles Raises Kane", its five movements are drawn from the film scores Herrmann wrote for Orson Welles' first two feature films, his early-1940s screen masterpieces Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, both regarded by critics as among the two best American films ever made. As with the Bennett, this is the only recording of this piece I've been able to trace (though I'm reliably informed it was recorded again by Hermann in 1967 and issued on CD in 1994), and as with the Bennett it has also been issued elsewhere, in poorer sound, and again badly pitched. The Bennett was relatively straightforward to check for pitching – we know from the title that the piece is in A, and there are a number of obvious A's at the beginning of the first movement which lend themselves to frequency analysis. The Herrmann was slightly harder to judge – again the alternative release I found was a good semitone out of tune by comparison to the present recording. Without a score, a modern reference or a named key it took a little more ingenuity to check pitching here – I obtained a copy of the film Citizen Kane, extracted from it the audio soundtrack, and scanned through this until I found the music which Herrmann used for his Overture. It was immediately clear to the ear that this was both in the same key as the present performance and in tune. I rest my case! Sonically this 1949 radio broadcast is a little more constricted than the previous two recordings, though in still very clean and listenable AM broadcast sound. It was originally recorded onto 78rpm acetates, and I've endeavoured to iron out the clear differences in surface noise between the sides to allow a greater continuity of sound. As with the other recordings, I've retained all the broadcast announcements available to me. Andrew Rose
Pristine
Audio
PASC
233
 San Francisco Symphony
Orchestraconducted by Alfred Hertz Detroil Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch Recorded by Victor between 1926 and 1928 Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Cover artwork based on a photograph of Alfred Hertz Total duration: 65:06
©2010
Pristine Audio. For
more
download
and
CD
options,
see
our
website
Plus
the complete recordings of
Gabrilowitsch and the
Detroit Symphony "...these
1925-1928 Hertz
inscriptions testify to a
fierce orchestral
discipline and vivid
sonority in each of the
selections..." 1 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV:
Capriccio Espagnole, Op.
34 (13:50) 2 KREISLER: Caprice
Viennois, Op.
2 (4:46) 3 KREISLER (orch. Hertz):
Liebesleid (3:37) 4 MOSZKOWSKI (orch.
Rehfeld): Serenata, Op.
15, No.
1 (2:06) 6 GLAZUNOV: Valse de
Concert, Op.
47 (7:36) San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra 7 BRAHMS: Academic Festival
Overture, Op.
80 (8:16) 8 BRAHMS: Menuetto I &
II (from Serenade No. 1 in
D Major, Op.
11) (4:02) 9 GLUCK (arr. Mottl): Dance
of the Blessed Spirits
(from Orfeo
ed Euridice) (4:15) 10 ALTSCHULER: Russian
Sailor’s
Song (1:09) 12 TCHAIKOVSKY: Waltz (from
Serenade for Strings in C
Major Op. 48)
(4:19) 13 CHABRIER: España –
Rapsodie (6:13) Detroit Symphony Orchestra Producer
and Audio Restoration
Engineer: Mark
Obert-Thorn
HERTZ in San Francisco - GABRILOWITSCH in Detroit "These
1925-1928 Hertz
inscriptions
testify to a
fierce orchestral
discipline and
vivid sonority in
each of the
selections..."
- this is a typical
response to the
discovery by a new
generation of music
lovers of the
recordings made by
Alfred Hertz and the
SFSO in the 1920s. This
fourth volume in the
series concludes the
set of complete
recordings in good
time for the San
Francisco
orchestra's
centenary next year
in excellent style,
with the added bonus
of the complete
recordings of the
Detroit Symphony
Orchestra under
Ossip Gabrilowitsch,
made in a single
Victor session
series in 1928. As
always, Mark
Obert-Thorn's
transfers are
superlative!
Notes
on
the recordings: This
final volume of Alfred
Hertz’s San Francisco
recordings features
sides taken down in
each of the three
years they were
recorded using the
electrical process.
The 1926 sides were
made using the same
kind of setup as the
ensemble’s acoustic
recordings of the
prior year – a reduced
orchestra in a small
studio, probably with
tuba reinforcement of
the bass line. The
following year saw a
move into larger
halls, resulting in a
more natural concert
sound. Even though he
was to live for
another 14 years, the
Glazunov waltz was the
final recording Hertz
made. During
the 1920s, the Victor
Talking Machine
Company cast its nets
far and wide to sign
up American ensembles
to record. In
addition to the San
Francisco Symphony,
the label recorded the
Hollywood Bowl
Orchestra under Eugene
Goossens and the St.
Louis Symphony under
Rudolf Ganz. To those
were added, for one
group of sessions
only, the Detroit
Symphony under its
music director, Ossip
Gabrilowitsch. The
Russian-born pianist,
who had settled in
America and married
Mark Twain’s daughter,
led the Detroit
orchestra from 1918
until his death in
1936. Due to the
relatively short
running time of the
Hertz recordings, I
have added the
complete
Gabrilowitsch/Detroit
recordings to this
program. They display
the same kind of
dynamic energy,
interpretational flair
and solid ensemble
that distinguished the
Hertz/San Francisco
sides. The
sources for the
transfers were prewar
Victor “Z” or “Gold”
label pressings for
all items except the
Rimsky-Korsakov work,
which I was only able
to locate in an
Orthophonic edition.
Nearly all of the
recordings presented
here were plagued by
severe pitch problems
which I have
endeavored to correct
in these transfers. Mark
Obert-Thorn
Download or stream this recording and many others from only One Euro a week! Hundreds
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 BEETHOVEN:
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68
“Pastoral”Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 SCHUMANN: Manfred Overture Alpenkuhreigen and Zwischennaktmusik, Op. 115 WEBER: Overture to Euryanthe Overture to Abu Hassan Berlin State Opera Orchestra/Max von Schillings New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski rec. live 2 April 1950 Carnegie Hall, New York Pristine Audio PASC 228, 77:59 [Four Stars]
Max von Schillings
(1868-1933) has several claims to fame:
first, as a composer, Schillings’ opera
Mona Lisa (1915) enjoyed enough success to
have been performed at the MET. Secondly,
as a conductor and pedagogue, Schillings
worked in Bayreuth and Stuttgart,
succeeding Richard Strauss as intendant at
the Berlin State Opera. His influence on
Wilhelm Furtwaengler’s orchestral
technique has been noted in that
conductor’s various biographies.
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