Can Can Rias Orchestra Mp3 Download

[Jon Levatte]

The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra performs its concerts principally in the Philharmonie Berlin. The orchestra is administratively based at the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) Fernsehzentrum in Berlin.

The orchestra was founded in 1946 by American occupation forces as the RIAS Symphonie-Orchester (RIAS, Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor / "Radio In the American Sector"). It was also known as the American Sector Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra's first principal conductor was Ferenc Fricsay. In 1956 it was renamed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin), and in 1993 took on its present name.

The DSO-Berlin has recorded commercially for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical and Harmonia Mundi.[12][13][14][15] In 2011, the orchestra won a Grammy Award for its recording of Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin, conducted by Kent Nagano.

Johanna Martzy plays Violin Concerto of Antonin Dvorak on LPM 18152 Rossini 'Stabat Mater' and Kodaly 'Psalmus Hungaricus' on 2 LPs: 18 203/04 LPM A later release of Kodaly 'Psalmus Hungaricus' on a single disc coupled with Symphony of Psalms - LPM 19073
Ferenc Fricsay around 1952. Image taken from the back of the early LP 18012 - with blue linen spine - of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra. 'Zigeunerweisen' (Gypsy Airs) Op.20 (Pablo de Sarasate) and 'Hejre Kati' (Jen Hubay) on 45 RPM - 30 089 EPL and on 17 071 LPE (coupled with Polovetsian Dances from Prince Igor - Borodin) When in the September 1954 edition of High Fidelity Magazine the first Remington record with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra was reviewed, many a critical collector was surprised that an orchestra of this stature was recording for Don Gabor's Remington Records. The orchestra was conducted by Jonel Perlea and played La Bote joujoux (Claude Debussy) on R-199-159. Reviewer J.F. Indcox wrote: "Jonel Perlea directs a sensitive performance and we get some really excellent orchestral sound from Remington."

The RIAS Symphony (Symphonie-Orchester) had actually been Ferenc Fricsay's orchestra and, since 1948, had been molded and shaped by this great Hungarian conductor into an excellently sounding and performing group of musicians. By 1953 the orchestra had already made recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon label and was going to make many more.

In Stuttgart the new orchestra is the Symphony Orchestra of the Southwest Radio (Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR - Sdwestfunk). In Bavaria it is the Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) founded in 1949. Its first conductor is Professor Eugen Jochum.
Just to mention a few.

In Berlin the 'RIAS Symphonie Orchester' is founded on the 15th of November 1946. It is the radio orchestra which has its home in the American Sector of Berlin and it is financed by the Americans, in fact by the US governement. After nearly a year of selecting musicians and rehearsing, the first concert is given in the Titania Palast. The conductor is Walter Sieber, a known composer, especially of many film scores. Some time later Sergiu Celebidache conducts 'an all Gershwin program' which immediately puts the orchestra on the map.

Director of the classical music division of the radio station is Elsa Schiller, a pupil of Ern Dohnnyi. She was soon to become the famous recording producer for Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft and it is Schiller who persuades Ferenc Fricsay to come to Berlin. In 1948 he signs a contract with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra and practically at the same time a contract with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft.

Ferenc Fricsay not only has a taste for the works of a variety of classical composers - and especially Beethoven and Mozart - but he also is the man who establishes a modern repertory with compositions of Bla Bartk, Alban Berg, Boris Blacher, Paul Hindemith, Zoltn Kodly, Arnold Schnberg, Igor Stravinsky, Gottfried Von Einem, Werner Egk, Frank Martin and Alexander Tcherepnin.

Thus the RIAS Symphony Orchestra also becomes the exemplary institution to perform what was then regarded as "contemporary music". No wonder that works of most of these composers can be found on early recordings of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft label. Already in those days several recordings are taped in the Jesus Christus Kirche, not just because of its acoustics but also because that is most probably the only alternative to the Titania Palast which is also in use by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ferenc Fricsay performs with his RIAS orchestra in concert with pianists Gza Anda, Claudio Arrau, Walter Gieseking, Friedrich Gulda, Margit Weber, and Clara Haskil; with violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Tibor Varga; with violoncellist Pierre Fournier; and with singers like Maria Stader, Rita Streich, Josef Greindl, Ernst Haefliger and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

In 1947 Yehudi Menuhin performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Wilhelm Furtwngler. This performance by a Jewish violinist just two years after the war had ended and of all places in Berlin, the center of the former NAZI government, was regarded as very controversial and received severe criticism. 1947 is also the year that Wilhelm Furtwngler had been cleared from the allegation to have collaborated with the NAZIs.

But by performing in the destructed city of Berlin with the de-nazified Furtwngler, Yehudi Menuhin sent a strong message to the world: We have to look forward. Not only that, but he certainly indicated that many had suffered during the years of the Third Reich and were opposed to the fascist regime. In 1949 Yehudi Menuhin again performed in Berlin, but now with the RIAS Symphony on August 23, when he played the solo part in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Ferenc Fricsay conducting. This historical performance was a radio broadcast. It was later issued on LP No. 29 in the Italian series produced by Longanesi Periodici 'I grandi Concerti'.

His recordings for Electrola (EMI) of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Concerto recorded in May 1952 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, both conducted by Wilhelm Furtwaengler, were a natural consequence of his stance. Both performances were of a high caliber. The above photograph shows Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Furtwaengler listening to a playback. The photograph was taken by Alice Pashkus whose walking stick (that she used after she had been in a car accident) shows up in the photograph as a shadow on the wall. (Image courtesy Yorgos Manessis from Greece.) - R.A.B.

However, it appears that maintaining the RIAS Orchestra is a costly affair, even if the general economic situation is somewhat improving. The orchestra has an enormous financial deficit. On top of that the Americans do realize that their RIAS Symphony Orchestra is in fact the only orchestra which is subsidized by the American government. Subsidizing an orchestra is simply not done in the USA. In July 1953 it is decided that the budget should be cut. In fact the US is to stop financing the orchestra alltogether. That is why Ferenc Fricsay is forced to give up his post of principal conductor because the orchestra is simply no longer in the position to pay his salary. In early 1954 Fricsay takes up the post of conductor of the Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio (Sinfonieorchester / Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) which was founded by Eugen Jochum in 1949 in Munich. Now several musicians leave the RIAS orchestra and those who remain get paid by the hour for rehearsal time and performances. Rita Streich sings with the RIAS Children's Chorus (Kinderchor) and the RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kurt Goebel "Von Hirten und der Heiligen Nacht" on Deutsche Grammophon 45 RPM Variable Grade (Extended Play) 30062. Another recording of Rita Streich with the RIAS Symphony on a 7" Deutsche Grammophon 30 401 EPL is of "Schon ein Mdchen von fnfzehn Jahren" (Mozart, Cosi fan tutte - Herbert Sandberg conducting). "Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen" (Weber, Der Freischtz - Artur Rother, conductor), and "Gleitender Mond" (Dvorak, Russalka - Kurt Gaebel conducting). The only way to keep the RIAS Symphony Orchestra alive is by hiring guest conductors for singular concert performances and by earning extra money by way of making commercial recordings with record companies. One of these is the Hannover-based Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft who continues to make recordings with the orchestra, generally with Fricsay, but also a few with Herbert Sandberg, Artur Rother, Wolfgang Rennert, Ferdinand Leitner, Richard Kraus, Vilnus Komor and Kurt Goebel.

A rare recording is Deutsche Grammophon LPM 18 222 with Fritz Lehman and cellist Enrico Mainardi playing the Cello Concertos of Robert Schumann (with RIAS Symphony Orchestra) and Joseph Haydn (with Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). The Schumann recording is later attrubuted by some to Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, probably because this recording was issued in 1956 when the name of the orchestra had already been changed. The RIAS logo designed by Rolf Schloesser as it was printed on the cover of Kilenyi's recording of works by Franz Liszt.

Strange as it may seem, there is another record company who makes use of the RIAS Symphony and that is Don Gabor's Remington Records Inc., New York. Gabor was tipped by US government people, probably a Senator who represented a New York county, or the entire state, about the possibility to hire the orchestra by the hour and making quality recordings for relatively low fees. Every strong dollar is worth a lot in the destructed Germany. Fact is that Don Gabor does not buy ready tapes, and if he buys a tape, it is not of obscure and illegal origin, as so many music lovers, competing companies end critics suspected. In those early years of the long playing record, Gabor's Remington Records is one of the largest independent labels (if not the largest independent label) with a significant turnover. Gabor is well able to hire this genuine and well trained, virtuoso orchestra of professional musicians. Furthermore able conductors and soloists are hired by the new Recording Director Laszlo Halasz who knows most of them personally.

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