These are gorgeous pieces of music, and the performances, by a trio of players, each individually accomplished, who played and recorded a good deal together, are eloquent demonstration to the musicians' talents in chamber music. The record is a very beat up thrift store find, which I think you will find cleaned up very nicely in DartPro 24 (No, I don't own stock in the company; I just like the software and think it should be known as an alternative to some of the big brand name programs). Some barely perceptible noise here and there was still left after the filters run on the entire file, and they could have been addressed individually. They are so slight I did not think it was worth the effort, so left them. Those raised and addicted to DDD recordings are hereby forewarned. I have, however, posted the unprocessed wav files, resampled down to 44.1khz and encoded in lossless FLAC, for anyone who wants to take a crack a them.
I do not know Jean Pougnet other than by his work with the musicians presented here, but he was a highly respected British (yes British!) musician whose late career was marked by tragedy. Anthony Pini we have met previously on this blog, playing the cello part of the Brahms clarinet trio with Louis Kentner and Reginald Kell. He made a famous and still quite worthy recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Van Beinum, whose work I like a lot, and who will inevitably make an appearance on Vinyl Fatigue. Frederick Riddle made a terrific recording of Harold in Italy with Hermann Sherchen. If that record lacks an overall French sensibility, that is probably Scherchen's doing. I'm very fond of it, regardless, and Riddle is beyond reproach.
Link to all files
Alas...Trio no.1 mvt. 2 --- FLAC file corrupt...TWS
ReplyDeleteTWS: Thanks for letting me know. I'll fix the problem when I return to the house this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThe original zipped file unpacked OK before uploading it to MediaFire, so the problem must have occurred then. My download of it from there was also corrupt. I've delete it and uploaded it again. This time I've downloaded the re-uploaded file and successfully unpacked it, so all is well, hopefully. Please do keep informing me of any broken files. I usually test them before uploading, but they seem to break with disturbing frequency during that process. Whether it is my computer, Comcast, or MediaFire, I don't know, but I'll probably add Rapid Share to test at least one of those variables.
ReplyDeleteThis should be good Larry! many thanks....
ReplyDeleteHope you like them, Fred.
ReplyDeleteLarry, Hm-m-m, van Beinem and Scherchen recordings in the forecast! Bring 'em on! You are right about Scherchen's Berlioz, which I have valued highly ever since I first encountered it as a teen.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ormandy, I NEVER can get enough of his extraordinarily, consistently beautiful recordings and of his quiet but assured musicality, a quality that I admire more than flashy star power.
I do love that rhythmic verve of Leonard Bernstein that you single out for praise, though after his Columbia and London-Decca recordings, it seems to have ebbed away on those flabby DGG recordings that he made, probably (but I hope not) to the detriment of his reputation, late in life.
I revere Hindemith as a composer, theorist, and aesthetician of music. He influenced me early on only fifth in place to J.S. Bach, Bartók, Scriabin, and Cherubini (not necessarily in quite that order). I composed my own early music works heavily under Hindemith's influence and I think that they were better for that, and more original than works that I composed later when I had begun to come under the spell of differing influences. Hindemith's string music, solo or ensemble, is exceedingly beautiful and highly crafted.
Keep up the great work!
Pax, Jerry Parker
Thanks Jerry. We go back over 40 years, when I, a callow and ignorant 17 year old music student, depended on your greater experience and musical wisdom. In fact you introduced me to many of the artists featured on this blog. Thank you for that musical gift, if I have not thanked you before.
ReplyDeleteBut by and large I prefer Lenny's Columbia recordings, too. Listen, though, to Bernstein's last recording, made live at Tanglewood with the BSO. The Beethoven is quite interesting, even if a bit perverse here and there, but the Britten Sea Interludes is simply sublime. I cannot imagine a more beautiful way to end a long, musical life than with that performance.
Thank you very much for sharing your rarities with me.
ReplyDeleteWMS.Nemo: It's my pleasure
ReplyDeleteThank You,THANK YOU! I remember checking this out from my local library when I was a teen; listen especially for the mostly-pizzicato third mvt. of the 1st Trio.
ReplyDelete