Beecham conducts Favorite Overtures (LPO)

First off, my thanks to jsserraglio for fixing the picture above. The original post included an image with serious barrel distortion that he fixed and sent back to me. I appreciate it a lot.

I have had these two overtures ready for some time, but got stuck on the third of the fourth in the 78rpm set, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, which is in fairly poor shape. Having been absent from posting for so long, I have decided to put up the two that are done and to add the other two, including The Merry Wives of Windsor, at a later date, if and when I can bring them into decent sonic shape.

These pieces are all readily available in recordings with Beecham made with the Royal Philharmonic. I love his RPO recordings, but his London Philharmonic records have always had a very special place in my affections, and he is a conductor about whom I am a completest; I want every recording he ever made. He was my first "favorite", and although I no longer describe my response to artists in those limiting terms, my regard for his music-making has only grown through the years. The musical world is richer for his recordings of Sibelius, Mozart, Haydn, and for the few opera recordings that have come down to us. Would there were more. His recording of the Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony is still my favorite after all these years, his LPO recordings of Mozart are peerless, his Delius (a composer I like a lot) set the standard. His sometimes mordant wit, known in countless retellings, has sometimes made him more famous for what he said than for the sterling performances passed down to us in recordings.

He introduced Richard Strauss to England, and the live performance of his Elektra with Paul Schoeffler, Elisabeth Höngen, Ljuba Welitsch, and Erna Schlüter in the title role, is a chilling account of murder, and the psychological cost of vengeance. But despite his important achievements in music of great seriousness and profundity, he is best known to many for his "Lollipops" --- overtures and light fare, which, in fact, nobody did better. Listen to his recorded RPO performance of the "La Gazza Ladra" overture; it is pure genius.

So, while I will continue to work on the other two overtures of this set as time allows, I just did not want to wait any further to post the Mozart Don Giovanni and Berlioz's Roman Carnival. Enjoy!


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Margaret Whiting Remembered

I was saddened when I returned home from a trip, and had time on the internet, to learn of the death of Margaret Whiting. Buster, at Big 10-Inch Record (http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2011/01/margaret-whitings-first-album.html), posted one of her early albums, perhaps the first. All I can do here is post a photograph I was privileged to take of this fine singer in Albuquerque several years ago.

In my first years in Albuquerque a friend of a friend brought Whiting to New Mexico for several private concerts. During that time I was fortunate enough to meet her, go to dinner with her and her accompanist, Tex Arnold, and to sit in on rehearsals and performances in order to take photographs.

The above was taken during rehearsal; I believe she was singing "Misty" at my request. Forever after, for me at least, it has been a song that she owned.

She was a gracious lady, unfazed by the silly fawning we made around her, seemingly confident in her talent, but by no means impressed with herself. I have long liked the picture of her I am sharing. Others I took are technically better, but this one has always spoken to me, and fits the fond memories I have of those hours.

I got those sun ain't shinin', screwy soundcard blues

Ok. So the waning of the summer light and the end of daylight savings time effects my concentration, energy level, and general sense of well-being. I know there is a name for the syndrome, but I prefer simply to get what I need and do what I must to make it to Spring and let it go at that, without embracing a popular terminology of victimization. Cranky too? "Well, yes, since you asked.

More germane to the blog is the hell I experienced installing a new, 24 bit sound-card. Though my "new" M-audio 2496 is is not state-of-the-art, it is a significant improvement over the old Soundblaster I was using. Unfortunately, uninstalling my Creative hardware drivers also removed the multimedia audio controller from the computer. It took a couple of days (remember I'm not at my brightest!) to figure out that I could download new ones from Dell. Then it was another week before all the functions on the new card worked. I still don't know how I got the mixer finally to regulate recording volume, but I'll take that gift and be grateful for it.

The first order of business was to re-record and renovate the Op. 59 No. 2 of the Budapest set of Beethoven's middle quartets. That's done and posted and can be downloaded anew at the link on the original post. While only the last movement had a skip, patching in a movement recorded on a different card seems chancy, so I reupped the entire quartet, flac and mp3.

Future posts will be recorded in 24bit 96khz and sampled down to CD quality specs before posting. If anyone wants a 24 bit flac, please ask, as I will not be putting them up as a matter of course. Debate rages about whether or not 24bit masters make any difference. I think they do, although the benefit is not necessarily apparent -- more felt than heard I guess. I wanted to try it, anyway. I'd love to hear any feedback on the issue or on subsequent posts with the new card.

And, though Dylan Thomas had death, not winter in mind, "Rage against the dying of the light.

Revisions to Budapest Qt. Beethove Middle Quartets

I discovered listening to the CD I made of it that the last movement of Op. 59 No. 3 of the previous post had a pronounced skip at the beginning of the movement. I have uploaded a corrected FLAC and MP3 of the movement in question, for those who have already downloaded, and replaced it in new zip files of the entire quartet so that subsequent downloads will have the corrected version.

Thanks for your understanding.

Budapest Quartet Beethoven Middle Quartets 1951-52

Earlier today someone asked me if I were going to do a Halloween post. As I was already working on these Budapest early 50's recordings of the Beethoven middle quartets, I will simply say, as a nod to All Souls eve, that it is downright scary that these fine and famous recordings are not on CD.

Bridge records has a set of the group doing the middle quartets in live performances dating 1940-1960, but I have been unable to find this Columbia commercial set, performances which for many set the standard for the time. One link promised to bring me to a site that had these performances in digital format, but the link led to a German photographic site, so I plowed forward with my own restorations.

If I can find the early and late quartets from this early fifties essay, I will put those up too. At present I have only the later stereo version of those works by the Budapest.

Have a bewitching time listening to these justly famous recordings.

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Scherchen: Bach Cantatas 35 and 42

Recorded in Vienna in 1964, in stereo, this is one of the best in Scherchen's many notable Bach recordings. The recorded sound is better, Scherchen's approach to the music had developed a bit, but had not lost its sincerity ("Sincere" is the characterization of David Federman for the performances), the orchestra is secure and its playing stylish, without "authentic" affectations, and the performance was blessed with the best set of solists Scherchen was able to pull together for this project.

No. 35, "Geist und Seele wird verwirret", is a contralto cantata sung by the incomparable Maureen Forrester, the sensuous beauty of whose voice adds immeasurably to the spiritual import of the music, as odd as that may seem to certain manichean sensibilities. (I confess that the poems of St. John of the Cross, The Song of Songs, Bernini's Saint Sebastian speak more to me of the possibility of God than all the dry, questionable assertions of theologians and others who speak of what cannot be spoken through history. The creator of this universe, if there be one, is nothing if not transcendentally voluptuous.)

Number 42, "Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats", for the first Sunday after Easter, or Quasimodigenti, is an exquisite cantata, exquisitely sung here by the fine vocal quartet mentioned above -- Teresa Stich-Randall, Maureen Forrester, Alexander Young, and John Boyden. Listen in particular to the "Despair not" duet for Soprano and Tenor and try to imagine it sung more perfectly.

I believe that this record is the last of Scherchen's Bach Cantata recordings, the others having come much earlier. I have not seen a citation, nor to I own, any cantata recordings later than this. If it was, indeed, the last of the series, it was a stunning and fitting end to an important recording project. Scherchen died in 1966, mourned by many ever since.

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Petri: Westminster Hammerklavier

This record was very kindly provided to me by a visitor to the blog, Ray Pratt. He mailed me the LP, even sending a second, clearer copy when he found one.

The performance is what finally made sense of this sonata for me. The difficulty I had "getting it", even through performances by brilliant pianists, including my beloved Rudolph Serkin, undoubtedly speaks to a lack in my musical insights and abilities, but I am grateful to finally be enlightened. Petri recorded the work earlier, and that recording was issued on a Columbia Special Products LP which I have long owned. While it went some way in lifting the veil of my incomprehension, I had to wait for this Westminster recording to finally find my way fully into the work.

My difficulty with the Hammerklavier has been embarrassing, a little bit like one's initial struggling to understand the subjunctive voice -- elusive and not really felt in one's bones. To finally hear the piece as a whole is deeply gratifying.

I replaced the original cover art photo included with this post with a much improved version that a friend of the blog, Jan Henrik Amberg, very kindly sent to me. Many thanks. The visitors here are so often so helpful; my occasional misanthropy is humbled

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Scherchen Bach Cantata 198 "Trauer-Ode" and 84

Here is the next post in the series of Bach cantatas led by Hermann Scherchen. Unlike previous posts it was taken, not from the original early fifties release, but from a later reissue. Fortunately, though, it was a mono issue, not the subsequent phony stereo release in a Westminster multiple LP set.

Trauer-Ode, No. 198, was written to commemorate the death of Queen Cristiane Eberhardine of Poland, a faithful protestant who had adamantly refused to convert to Catholicism when her husband, the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August, had no pangs of conscience doing so in order to fulfill the prerequisites for the Polish monarchy, to which he had been elected. At her death, she was deeply mourned in Lutheran Saxony, part of the official mourning in Liepzig resulting in this cantata.

The Cantata No. 84 for soprano is to a text from the "be thankful for any crumbs God throws to you" school of Christian thinking, but, as usual, Bach transcends the orthodox line to give us music of transcendent worth that is greater than the belittling doctrinal minutiae that inspired it. Of the performance: I confess that I have never been able to develop a real fondness for Magda Lazlo and that this work, along with other soprano cantatas Scherchen recorded with her, are among those I listen to least. There is just something in her upper register that I find unpleasant.

While I am dealing with my feelings about Scherchen's soloists, I may as well lay my biases on the line. Of his frequently recurring artists in the early recordings, I feel that only Alfred Poell and Hilde Rössel-Magdan are fully up to the task. The various tenors he uses are fine -- Waldemar Kmentt being among the best, but almost all do their job satisfactorily, even those with voices dry as chalk, a sound that usually makes me shudder. The basses, on the other hand, other than Poell, can be sub-par. Richard Standen in No. 76 provides a nice, bass rumble, but his intonation is frequently approximate, at best, and his passage work is sloppy. Having said all that, I should add that I have fairly narrow vocal tolerances and that, as a former string bass player, poor bass intonation makes me physically uncomfortable. But I should add again that I find the over-all effect of these readings, vocal limitations and all, to be sublime. The choral singing is deeply felt, and the final chorus of Trauer-Ode performed here is as beautiful as any Bach singing I know.

As usual, the text and translations at Emmanuel Music (http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/nt_notes_transl_cantatas.htm#pab1_7) are recommended.

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Redo of Die Himmel Erzählen Die Ehre Gottes with Scherchen

I have just reposted the files for Bach Cantata No. 76 with Scherchen, removing the original restorations, which I thought produced a harsh treble. The new files are not THAT different, and the highs have plenty of room, but the unpleasant shrillness of the first post has been ameliorated.

Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause anyone wishing to download a better version.

Scherchen Bach Cantatas: No. 76 "Die Himmel Erzählen, No 106 "Gottes Zeit" (Actus Tragicus}

Two more great Bach cantatas in superlative performances. The Cantata No. 76 was recorded from an original pressing issued in 1953; the Gottes Zeit from a later pressing, but thankfully not one of the fake stereo ones. I have doctored the cover art to include both works on the original LP front from No. 76. The soloists on the 106, though, are Alfred Poell and Hilde Rössel-Madjan.

Bear in mind that the records used for most of this series are almost 60 years old (like me). I have filtered them lightly in DartPro 24, though, not really concerned about removing every barely audible surface flaw on them. Though they are significantly cleaned up, there is the occasional slight click that might remain; I manually remove those I feel are bothersome but do not chase down every last one of them.

More significantly, the original records delivered a muddy choral sound, where the inner voices often disappeared into a sonic grumble. That did bother me, especially in this music, so I have done some re-equalizing. I am always loathe to do so; one man's "opening up the top" is another's "treble screech", but the ability to hear the counterpoint suffered from the sonic fog of the originals. To fix it I gave the midtones a boost and did a very slight gain on the low bass, and high treble, which seemed cut off, even though I use a cartridge/stylus combination with an extended treble response. It did open up the choral opaqueness a bit and allow more separation of vocal lines, and I believe the overall balance remains reasonably good. I would be happy to hear what you think, though, as I am anything but a professional sound engineer, and the impression the files make on fresh ears would be valuable to know. I am aware from having printed custom photographs professionally for many years, that our senses, too tensely concentrated, can play tricks on us.

Once again the text and translation can be found at the website of Emmanuel Church in Boston, where the great Craig Smith led the music program for many years. John Harbison stepped up to the plate when Smith passed away. http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/nt_notes_transl_cantatas.htm#pab1_7


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