Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Debussy Iberia / Reiner, The Pittsburgh Symphony



I was looking for something to put on a CD with my last post, the Salzedo transcription of Children's Corner Suite, so I decided to give this 78 set a try. Despite the fact that Reiner later re-recorded with Chicago many works he had committed to disc with Pittsburgh, I've always found the recordings he made with the earlier orchestra deeply satisfying. The Pittsburgh ensemble may not reach the virtuosic heights that Chicago did, but they play with great precision and flair, and have nothing to apologize for. The tyrannical Reiner saw to that.

I feared that I had made the sound file too bright, but the CD I made from it sounded good on my main system. As always, especially with well-played 78s, I have chosen to leave in noise where I felt that removing it would be deleterious to the sonic integrity of the music.

The front and back CD inserts were made for a CD that includes the Children's Corner Suite and are included in that post.

Link to all files (corrected)

9 comments:

  1. The link you provide leads to the harp recording, not to Iberia. I'm chomping at the bit for that one!

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  2. no iberia just Children's Corner Suite

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  3. Wow!
    I never thought I would ever see this excellent recording again!
    A thousand thaks!

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  4. THE LINK IS FIXED. THANKS ALL FOR LETTING ME KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEMS.

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  5. Also one of Alex Steinweiss' better covers - at least it looks like Steinweiss!

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  6. It is a nice cover, isn't it? According to wikipedia, Steinweiss designed all of Columbia's covers from 1939 to 1945. If that's true, this would be one of his. I believe '41 is the date of this set.

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  7. Larry, I'm going to pair this with your earlier Reiner-Ormandy offering. Thanks my friend for this one. I too have a soft spot for these Pittsburgh issues. Although, I was listening last night to Reiner conducting the CSO in Symphonia Domestica and Le Bourgieous Gentilhomme...delightful stuff that he had absolutely no peer in!

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  8. Fred: I once had a 787 set of Reiner doing
    Bourgeois Gentilhomme with Pittsburgh; that was pretty nice too. I agree, though, and for me, his CSO recordings of Strauss are the gold standard.

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  9. OOPS! That would be a 78rpm set, not a Boeing aircraft.

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