Walter Trampler and Horszowski play Brahms Op. 102

 Walter Trample / Mieczyslaw Horszowski

Brahm's Op. 102  Viola Sonatas

Stravinksy Elégie

Trampler and Horszowski both are artists of towering stature, and for me these performances of the Brahms Op. 102 sonatas are definitive. I realize how personal that is,  so I only claim that they define the works for me. They are brilliant performances by any standard, though. That this recording is not on CD (at least I could not find it) is inexplicable, and shameful, really.

I retrieved this LP from my record shelves thinking of it as one of my "new" records, only to be faced with a handwritten dedication on the back of the jacket,   "To Larry from Jerry, Xmas 1974".   Time flies when you're having musical fun!  47 years later, both the music and the performances continue to excite me. Trampler still stands at the summit of viola art, Horzowski is still a pianist of consummate musicianship, and Brahms chamber music still provides unmatched musical satisfaction to me. Those artists have departed for that great concert hall in the sky, and long before another 47 years goes by, I'll have joined them.  Meanwhile, however, I have a lot of listening still to do. This is a special record for me, and being able to offer a digital version is very satisfying.

The Stravinsky is something I could not fit on another Trampler CD, so I am including it here.

All files will be found here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/pua5y655sts6a/Brahms_Trampler_Viola_Sonatas

                        

Alfred Gallodoro & The Stuyvesant Qt. play Brahms Quintet

Alfred Gallodoro, when he was playing with the NBC orchestra or in other classical venues, and "Al" when he was playing jazz, including alto sax for Paul Whitman, was a clarinetist of considerable refinement and tonal beauty. I am posting this record (an LP issue of a 78 set recorded in 1947/48) despite its sad condition, because the performance it contains is notably lovely, and for the historical importance of its players.

The inner grooves of the first side of the LP, comprising the last minutes of the beautiful and delicate second movement, look like they were played by a roofing nail, and my heart sank when I saw this damage to an LP in otherwise well used but OK condition. A conical stylus, tracking at a higher weight, though still by no means heavy (2.5gm) picked up less distortion than the fine line or elliptical stylus, so that is was I recorded it with. The last minute and a half of the second movement is the worst of it, but with some careful treatment of that section I was able to minimize the obvious effect of the abuse. There is some distortion, but it does not jump out and overwhelm the music, as it did on the first play I made of this disc.

The performance is well worth putting up with this small area of ameliorated sonic imperfection, though I urge anyone who might have a better copy of this recording to post it, or send me a sound file from it to post --with due acknowledgement, of course.

Oh! And the record is red vinyl. I can't help it; as many as I have seen, that still tickles me -- not red exactly, but pink.

Link to all files

Reginald Kell, Horszowski - Brahms Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120

My intention was to add these files to the last post of Kell's 1940 recording of the Brahms Clarinet Trio with Kentner and Pini. However I decided such a course would make it harder to find in web searches, so I'm doing an additional post. This post and the last one, though, combine to make a very nice and reasonably full CD. I got the RAW files for these on the European Archive and did a renovation, as they were fairly noisey. The first Sonata, in particular, had an inordinate amount of hiss, and both Sonatas were fairly dull as I downloaded them. A number of light filters and a substantial re-equalization later, they sounded pretty good. So here they are, performed by artists of deep musical integrity with total technical mastery of their instruments.

I am quite far behind in doing CD covers and inserts, so this and the previous post do not have them. If and when I catch up, I'll add them to the post, but it seemed more important not to wait and to get the music up. The tracks, as I created them are as follows:

1-4 Sonata in F minor Op 120. No. 1
5-7 Sonata in E flat Op. 120 No. 2

Link to all files

Reginald Kell, Louis Kentner, Anthony Pini play Brahms Trio

I admit that until yesterday afternoon, when I happened upon the 78s at a local thrift store, I did not know this 1941 recording -- of the Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 -- existed. If I ever knew I had forgotten, which seems unlikely, given that this is one of my favorite pieces of chamber music, played by some of my very favorite musicians. It is available on CD from the Testament label, but I thought I would try my hand at it from my newly acquired 78rpm discs.

There is no lingering self-pity or cloying sentimentality in this reading, which has something of the stiff upper lip about it. It startled me at first but quickly seemed entirely appropriate to the autumnal character of the score. The days do dwindle down to a precious few; love is sometimes unrequited; but that is, after all, the scheme of things, which goes beyond our personal remorse. A hint of regret is appropriate, maybe some sadness, but the world and life go on and one has to go with it.

The playing, needless to say, is lovely, sweet and nostalgic, and never gloomy. The players here are at the top of their form and the top of their class. The piano part, however, sounded like it was recorded with a microphone under the instrument; it was occasionally muddy, even opaque, but does not seriously distract from the performance in the renovated file. Until re-equalized, the bass of Kentner's lovely pianism was lost in a blurry bass grumble; notes literally disappeared into that sonic fog. About 25 seconds into the first movement the notes played by Kentner's left hand were nothing but a bass blur and could not be distinctly heard. That, at least, has been remedied, even if not to perfection. Perhaps the Testament CD has dealt with it better than I have been able to do -- I have not heard it and cannot say -- but overall the renovated file is quite acceptable even if still a bit bass heavy. I re-equalized as far as I thought was wise; further amelioration seemed to me to make matters worse and adjusting the bass on the player gave better results.

All that having been said, I still recommend this recording highly. The most offending of the sonic deficiencies have been corrected, and I believe the sound file now sounds rather good. Any comments or suggestions on the audio matters would be appreciated. As I said this is music I love by performers I love, so I would like to do the best possible renovation of the file.

I have extracted the zipped files before posting, as a safeguard against the frequent corrupt files showing up on Mediafire. There may still be problems associated with upload or download drops, though, so please let me know.

Link to Clarinet Trio

Szigeti, Myra Hess, Hamilton Harty, Schubert and Brahms

The cover art, above, was modified in Photoshop to include the Brahms concerto, performed by Szigeti in 1928 with Hamilton Harty and the Hallé Orchestra. The original 10" record is a performance from 1952 of the Schubert Sonata No. 5 (Duo), Op. 162 for Violin and Piano with Szigeti and Dame Myra Hess, with whom his musical association began as a young man. Both these performances have been issued on CD, though not by the original companies, the Schubert on Music and Arts, the Brahms on the Symposium label, coupled with his recording of the Bloch concerto made with Charles Munch.

Szigeti's playing is, as always, imaginative and colorful, indeed revelatory. He and Dame Myra are very much on the same page in this performance, which is sweet without being cloying, and which certainly does not lack power. The performance of the Brahms concerto with Hamilton Harty shows the violinist at his technical peak and has been considered his best studio recording of the work by many. For me the 1945 recording with Ormandy may have a slight, personal edge, and the very late recording with Menges, although Szigeti is there in full technical decline, still has some appeal for me for its musical insights, even though the technical accomplishment of them is by now seriously compromised by arthritis and bone disease, which had started to afflict the artist many years before.

Enjoy these fine performances by this great violinist. Violin playing has changed, and although there are many fine fiddlers today, with, probably, technical advantages on the greats of the past, they just don't make them like this any more. Thanks be to sound recordings!

Link to all files
The files are labeled track 1-4 for the Schubert, 5-7 for the Brahms, for the single CD I made of them. They can easily be renamed for different burning choices.

Albert Spalding Ernst von Dohnanyi play Brahms Sonata in G

This Remington LP, made late in the career of Albert Spalding, presents to us a still technically secure artist with deep insight into the piece in question. Both players engage completely with the score and command our attention -- and our assent -- by their passionate, if nonetheless oddly aristocratic reading of this beloved sonata.

The thrift store record used for the renovation was embarrassingly beat up, especially the first movement, but the options available in DartPro 24 allowed it to be cleaned up impressively. There are moments of slight residual noise, usually barely discernible, that I left in order to retain the full sonic impact of the information in the grooves. And this particular Don Gabor production delivered plenty of raw information for a quite usable renovation. There are undoubtedly better LP sources for a restoration than what I had, but I haven't been able to find one posted online. Pearl made a CD of the recording, but I have not heard it, so cannot comment on their restoration. For my purposes, and I imagine for those of many others, the present offering will do just fine.

The record contains Hungarian Dances 8, 9, and 17 as filler with Anthony Looiker at piano.

Link to FLAC and MP3 files of entire LP

Brahms Clarinet Trio and Horn Trio, BSO Chamber Players

This is my favorite recording of the Brahms Clarinet Trio and the record also contains a very lovely reading of the Horn Trio by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players in what, for me, were still its glory days. Harold Wright, Jules Eskin, and Gilbert Kalish strike just the right balance in the Clarinet Trio, and the engineers did not make the fatal mistake of overmiking the clarinet, which, despite the name of the piece, is no more important than the other parts. The "dialog" between the cello and clarinet in the slow movement is breathtakingly beautiful. There are many fine recordings of this work, but for me this old LP, unavailable on CD, contains a performance that gets everything right. I'll confess up front that Harold Wright has always been one of my favorite clarinetists.

The sound of the recording is natural, and I hope I've managed to keep that in renovating the file, which had a significant amount of noise from the source LP. It sounds good to me, but, I'd love to hear what you think.

Sorry, but the FLAC files to download are all archived in .rar format. It is a much more efficient way for me to post them and takes up considerably less space. The MP3 files are posted in a standard .zip archive. Also, the Jewel case front and back will have to be downloaded separately, since I foolishly forgot to put them in the zipped archive. I haven't quite got the routine for this down yet, but things should improve.

Clarinet Trio FLAC link Clarinet Trio MP3 link

Horn Trio FLAC link

Horn Trio MP3 link