Koussevitsky Foundation Recordings

[Greg Hlatky]

The Cincinnati Public Library has a set of some 100 CDs of 20th Century
orchestral and concerto music commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation. The
recordings are from the mid 1950's to the early 1970's. The ones I got out
today seem to be from live performances and are in mono. There are no liner
notes - just the works, the orchestra, and occasionally the conductor and date
of recording.

Some of the performances are of pieces already recorded commercially (William
Schuman's 8th Symphony, Piston's Toccata), but I doubt many of the others have
been available otherwise; for example one disc has Henry Cowell's Hymn and
Fuguing Tune No. 3 (very impressive!) and the Symphony No. 13, and Paul
Creston's Violin Concerto No. 2.

Has anyone else heard these recordings? Naturally, the performances aren't of
the highest standards, but considering that commercial enterprises like Sony
"Classical" are sparing no effort to destroy their reputation and heritage, we
shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

-----------------
Greg Hlatky
http://www.borzoi.net/soyara

[J. K. Stevenson]

> Has anyone else heard these recordings? Naturally, the performances aren't of
> the highest standards, but considering that commercial enterprises like Sony
> "Classical" are sparing no effort to destroy their reputation and heritage, we
> shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
>

A more accurate analysis might be not that the performances are
substandard but that the quality of re-recording of well over 25% of the
items leaves much to be desired. The Cincinnati Library, one of just a few
libraries nationwide who have been repositories of this incredible and
amazing Koussevitzky collection, for years unavailable to the
recording-borrowing public, has made a bold and wonderful gesture in
making these recording available to their card-holding members.

They turned the CD project over to a local Cincinnati recording
company, however, which proceeded to slaughter some of what were
originally most likely already less-than-perfect recordings. It appears
that some individual who made the dubbings, in many cases, seems to have
started the tape and CDr burner and walked away.

Having burned my fair share of CDr's in the past couple of years, I can
say it takes very little effort to avert overmodulating, sloppy numbering,
and in one case, INCOMPLETE recording of media onto CD. The library wasted
much of its money in this venture as the recording company turned out such
a shoddy and un-inspected lot that they should probably refund the money
entirely. CPL would have been better off to ask some of its sincere and
technically apt music-loving patrons to do the dubbing. I can guarantee I
would have done a better job!

At least at this juncture, the library ought to demand a re-dubbing in the
cases of the worst of the lot.

Don't musunderstand me, I am happy that this music is available to the
public even though some if it is in poor quality sound, and I credit the
people in the library administration with making these 105 CDr's available
despite the problems. It certainly is more than other libraries with this
came collection have done.

As a footnote, sadly, a considerable number of the original Koussevitzky
Foundation recordings are missing from the master list. Is this an error
on the recording company's part? Are they lost? Did the CPL possibly never
have these recordings? Or did the funds run out? I have asked, but nobody
seems to know that answer.

JS