Mini-haul from Record Surplus
Matthew B. Tepper
figured I'd spend a little more time on the Westside before heading back to
the Valley for the usual dinner with friends. I was torn between paying a
visit to the Museum of Television & Radio, perhaps to hear again that
Toscanini Bruckner 7th, and just going to Record Surplus as I always do. I
went to Record Surplus. I'm glad I did.
I whittled my grab down to four items, each of which succeeds an "old
friend" from my LP collection. I haven't actually listened to any of them
yet (right now I've got Szigeti and Flesch in BWV. 1043), but for fun and
maybe discussion here's a listing:
Szigeti and Schnabel, Frick Collection recital -- Beethoven Opp. 24 & 96,
and Mozart K. 481. I get closer and closer to having the entire contents
of that big Columbia Masterworks box replaced with CDs. Strange to think
I've had that set since 1972, when I bought it at Aron's, at their old
location. (They moved, and have since closed down.) This is one of the
older Pearl transfers, but at least it's from Seth Winner's transcription
discs, so there should be much to enjoy. I think all I need now will be
the three concerti Szigeti recorded with Beecham....
Purcell, Birthday Odes for Queen Mary, Funeral Music for Queen Mary (well,
she's covered coming and going), on a 2-CD French EMI slimline. This gives
me the Birthday Odes with David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of
London, one of my biggest collecting challenges, as Munrow seems to have
made billyunz and billyunz of recordings before he hanged himself. The
Funeral Music is with Philip Ledger and ASMF, and there are shorter Purcell
works on each disc.
And now for the weird stuff:
Max Reger and Frieda Kwast-Hodapp playing Reger's music via Welte-Mignon
Vorsetzers, volume five of a series of Welte rolls on Tacet. Every now and
then somebody comes up with some new method of recording piano rolls (often
Welte, sometimes Ampico, sometimes Duo-Art), and most of the printed matter
is given over to rapper-like proclamations of superiority over ever other
previous attempt. If the idea of Reger decked out in hip-hop attire
strikes you as silly, be assured that I feel the same way.
Anyway, Frieda hyphen-hyphen apparently gave the premiere of the Telemann
Variations (which she registered for Welte in 1920, and which is included
here) and of the Piano Concerto, so this is close to the source. Reger
himself only registered a few of his shorter trifles, and these I already
had in one of Walter Heebner's LPs (now I'll need to find a CD issue of
Fauré's rolls). I've listened to the theme and a few of the variations in
the Telemann, and they are played VERY freely with regard to tempo changes,
and shorn of repeats at that, giving a timing of 22:38 for the work!
Kurt Leimer plays piano concerti for the left hand. For years I've held on
to an obscure East German LP on the Colosseum label, because it was the
first recording of Richard Strauss' Panathenäenzug, a gigantic passacaglia
which is the second of his two piano-left-hand-and-orchestra works. The
pianist was Leimer, of whom I was aware only from having seen two Electrola
LPs of him playing his own concerti in the "new release" bins at Vogue
Records in Westwood in 1971 or so. (Yes, this stuff I remember, but I
can't recall where I left my copy of Hindemith's own recording of "When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.") On one of the LPs the conductor was
Stokowski, on the other Karajan, leading me to think that if Leimer was as
mediocre a composer as has some people have claimed here, he must have had
tons of money to throw around.
So here is a CD reissue of that Strauss work, and one of the two concerti
from that LP with Karajan (apparently licensed from EMI), forming a disc
with two left-hand concerti on it. I imagine it will be a must for Fluffy
collectors (are there any such?), but that's not why I bought it. Now if
we could have a reissue of Hilde Somer's Mercury LP of Strauss' "Parergon"
(with the premiere of John Corigliano's PC), that would be something.
As to Leimer's own music, that I cannot yet judge. I suppose Kurt Leimer
Stiftung, which apparently sponsored this CD, might have planned a future
issue of the concerti conducted by Stoky and Fluffy, which in itself would
be even more bizarre. Or maybe Cala would like to bring out the former?
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
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Steve de Mena
> Kurt Leimer plays piano concerti for the left hand. For years I've held on
> to an obscure East German LP on the Colosseum label, because it was the
> first recording of Richard Strauss' Panathenäenzug, a gigantic passacaglia
> which is the second of his two piano-left-hand-and-orchestra works. The
> pianist was Leimer, of whom I was aware only from having seen two Electrola
> LPs of him playing his own concerti in the "new release" bins at Vogue
> Records in Westwood in 1971 or so. (Yes, this stuff I remember, but I
> can't recall where I left my copy of Hindemith's own recording of "When
> Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.") On one of the LPs the conductor was
> Stokowski, on the other Karajan, leading me to think that if Leimer was as
> mediocre a composer as has some people have claimed here, he must have had
> tons of money to throw around.
>
> So here is a CD reissue of that Strauss work, and one of the two concerti
> from that LP with Karajan (apparently licensed from EMI), forming a disc
> with two left-hand concerti on it. I imagine it will be a must for Fluffy
> collectors (are there any such?),
Yes. What was the work with Karajan? Orchestra
and recording date?
Thanks.
Steve
Matthew B. Tepper
following letters to be typed in
news:J6N7h.28225$si3....@tornado.socal.rr.com:
Listed here simply as Konzert für Klavier (linke Hand) und Orchester;
Philharmonia Orchestra London, Herbert von Karajan (Leitung), © Electrola,
EMI F 65 348 (1954). The Leimer discography online not much more helpful,
giving the catalogue number as EMI-Electrola SME 91 753, and indicating
that the coupled work was another Leimer concerto, in C Minor.
http://www.kurtleimer.ch/315_e_biography_records.htm
Steve de Mena
Thanks. Very interesting!
Steve
Miguel Montfort
> Now if we could have a reissue of
> Hilde Somer's > Mercury LP of Strauss'
> "Parergon" (with the premiere of John
> Corigliano's PC), that would be something.
| You don't need a personal Jumbo Jet to
| enjoy airline music, just an MP3 player
| will bring you genuine AstroStereo sound
| as originally heard on American Airlines.
| Great travelling music for car, semi-truck,
| speed boat or power walking.
Program no. 70 includes Somer's Mercury
recording I'm sure you'll greatly enjoy
while speed boating ... ;-)
Miguel Montfort
Matthew B. Tepper
to be typed in news:45602bf2$0$30318$9b4e...@newsspool1.arcor-online.net:
Interesting. But I think I'll just transfer my own LP.
Dontait...@aol.com
On Nov 18, 2:15 pm, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote:
An interesting group of recordings! Now after some snipping, on to
Kurt Leimer...
> of whom I was aware only from having seen two Electrola
> LPs of him playing his own concerti in the "new release" bins at Vogue
> Records in Westwood in 1971 or so. (Yes, this stuff I remember, but I
> can't recall where I left my copy of Hindemith's own recording of "When
> Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.") On one of the LPs the conductor was
> Stokowski, on the other Karajan, leading me to think that if Leimer was as
> mediocre a composer as has some people have claimed here, he must have had
> tons of money to throw around. [another edit....]
> As to Leimer's own music, that I cannot yet judge. I suppose Kurt Leimer
> Stiftung, which apparently sponsored this CD, might have planned a future
> issue of the concerti conducted by Stoky and Fluffy, which in itself would
> be even more bizarre. Or maybe Cala would like to bring out the former?
As a Stokowski collector, I managed to get a copy of the Electrola LP
of the Leimer concerto with him in the seventies. I confess that I only
played it once (to tape it for my radio series devoted to Stokowski
that contained all of his commercial recordings) because I thought it
was musically dreadful -- undistinguished pseudo-Rachmaninoff and so
on. I suppose I should play it again out of curiosity. It would be nice
if Cala or someone did reissue it because I'm almost certain that it's
one of Stokowski's scarcest commercial records.
Don Tait
Matthew B. Tepper
typed in news:1163960597....@j44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Yesterday I listened to Leimer's Left Hand Concerto, conducted by von
Karajan, and decided a good description for it is Addinsell-and-water.