For Download: Otakar Jeremias Smetana Ma Vlast (1943)
vhorowitz
Here is the 1943 recording of Ma Vlast conducted by Otakar Jeremias
and the Prague Radio Symphony. I dubbed this from a nice 78 copy
owned by collector Michael Gartz. I can't seem to locate the catalog
information on this right now. Was it on Esta or Ultraphon (or
both?). Perhaps someone could provide that information. There was a
LYS cd of this, but the sound on this responded so well to the tools I
have to work with, that I thought I would go ahead with my own
transfer. I think it sounds very good sonically, considering the war-
time conditions, and it's amazing what the few whiskers of crackle had
obscured, probably because the recording level is a bit low on the
original discs. It's really a beautiful reading, stressing the
nobility and long lines....not as volatile as the various Talich
versions, but a valid point of view, and, as far as I'm concerned one
can't have too many vintage Czech readings of the work!
Please enjoy, everyone!
Neal
http://rapidshare.com/files/84050847/Otakar_Jeremias_Ma_Vlast.rar
jrs...@aol.com
I just bought this on lp a couple of months ago, but I think your
transfer will be handy anyway. Thanks! I agree that it's a beautiful
performance.
--Jeff
Jan Winter
Thanks for this. I have Jeremias' very fine Slavonic Dances on Lys. If
anyone is interested I'll upload them. Btw, Lys gives Ultraphon as the
source.
-----
Jan Winter, Amsterdam
email: name = j.winter; provider = xs4all; com = nl
"History of jazz can be summed up in four words:
Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker" [Miles Davis]
EM
(PST):
> Here is the 1943 recording of Ma Vlast conducted by Otakar Jeremias
> and the Prague Radio Symphony. I dubbed this from a nice 78 copy
> owned by collector Michael Gartz. I can't seem to locate the catalog
> information on this right now. Was it on Esta or Ultraphon (or
> both?). Perhaps someone could provide that information.
My correspondent Czech affairs reports:
"See: ‘Smetana on 3000 records’, by John R. Bennett, Oakwood Press
1974. In that book the orchestra is called Czech Radio Orchestra. The
recordings were released on Ultraphon G 12535-44 and later on H
22082-91. After WW II it was reissued by Supraphon, first on 310-V -
319-V and later on LP Csm CRLPX 009/10."
It's quite remarkable that the nazi occupiers allowed the performance
and recording of this patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, or perhaps
it escaped their attention. It has appeared on Lys 137, liked by Peter
Gutmann: "Strikingly emphatic dynamic accents in a 1943 set by Otakar
Jeremias and the Prague Radio Symphony (Lys 137), possibly kindled by
wartime patriotic fervor, heralded a more proactive, yet probably
(...) authentic, model that may have inspired my two favorite
readings, both by Rafael Kubelík."
( http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/vlast.html )
EM
vhorowitz
> vhorowitz <vladhorow...@hotmail.com> - Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:37:43 -0800
Thanks for that. I had completely forgotten that I just picked up a
copy myself of "Smetana on 3000" records within the last month!
Neal
thoren...@yahoo.com
Who put out the Lp if I may ask ?
Roger
jrs...@aol.com
wrote:
>
> Who put out the Lp if I may ask ?
Mercury. It was a two-disc set.
--Jeff
vhorowitz
I've found those Mercury Ultraphon transfers a pretty bad
lot.....taken from noisy commercial pressings and with crude side
joins. At least if it's spread to 2 lps I hope it's less nasty than
the Krombholc Martinu Sinfonietta Giocoso, which is about 30 minutes
on one side, and it sounds it. The Jan Herman/Ondricek Quartet
version of the Dvorak Piano Quintet sounds like they played the
records with a thorn. Sure makes you appreciate a good early Columbia
LP!
Neal
francis
> On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:44:24 -0800 (PST), "jrsn...@aol.com"
>
>
>
>
>
> <jrsn...@aol.com> wrote:
> >On Jan 15, 10:37 am, vhorowitz <vladhorow...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> Here is the 1943 recording of Ma Vlast conducted by Otakar Jeremias
> >> and the Prague Radio Symphony. �I dubbed this from a nice 78 copy
> >> owned by collector Michael Gartz. �I can't seem to locate the catalog
> >> information on this right now. �Was it on Esta or Ultraphon (or
> >> both?). �Perhaps someone could provide that information. �There was a
> >> LYS cd of this, but the sound on this responded so well to the tools I
> >> have to work with, that I thought I would go ahead with my own
> >> transfer. �I think it sounds very good sonically, considering the war-
> >> time conditions, and it's amazing what the few whiskers of crackle had
> >> obscured, probably because the recording level is a bit low on the
> >> original discs. � It's really a beautiful reading, stressing the
> >> nobility and long lines....not as volatile as the various Talich
> >> versions, but a valid point of view, and, as far as I'm concerned one
> >> can't have too many vintage Czech readings of the work!
>
> >> Please enjoy, everyone!
>
> >> Neal
>
> >>http://rapidshare.com/files/84050847/Otakar_Jeremias_Ma_Vlast.rar
>
> >I just bought this on lp a couple of months ago, but I think your
> >transfer will be handy anyway. Thanks! I agree that it's a beautiful
> >performance.
>
> anyone is interested I'll upload them. Btw, Lys gives Ultraphon as the
> source.
>
> -----
> Jan Winter, Amsterdam
> email: name = j.winter; provider = xs4all; com = nl
>
> "History of jazz can be summed up in four words:
>
> - Show quoted text -
I'd be very grateful to have the Jeremias Slavonic Dances. Someone
offered over at Opera Share, but the rapidshare link didn't work.
Would someone also be willing to scan and upload any biographical
information on Jeremias. Many thanks, FC
jrs...@aol.com
I was expecting the worst with the sound, so I was pleasantly
surprised. It was distant, probably muffled by a fair amount of
surface noise, lacking much dynamic range, but the tones of an
orchestra were discernible. I guess you can say that's damning with
faint praise, but not a surprise. I don't think I have any other
Ultraphon transfers on Mercury.
--Jeff
Dontait...@aol.com
Hi --
The Mercury LP set of Ma Vlast was the recording with the National
Orchestra, Prague (so identified) conducted by Karel B. Jirak. Two LPs
in Mercury set MGL 3. I have one here. The two-LP Mercury set of
Dvorak Slavonic Dances was also conducted by Jirak.
According to volume 3 of WERM, the Jeremias recording of Ma Vlast
was issued on LP in the USA not on Mercury but on Colosseum CRLPX
009/010. WERM does not say from what transfer that might have been
pirated, but I might have missed something. Colosseum was exclusively
a pirate label with the worst sound in the business. Might you have
meant that set, Neal? AND....
Hats off to you for your work on rmcr for historical recordings and
your knowledge.
Don Tait
P.S. I was told the story about Colosseum Records, and its successor
Bruno, in the 1970s. I'll post what I remember here if anyone is
interested. Also, I think that David Hall, who started Mercury's
classical recordings in the late 1940s and went on to produce so many
historic Mercury LPs in Chicago and elsewhere, is still living in
Maine. I'm sure he'd love to talk about these things if he's able to.
If you'd like to explore it, ping me off-line.
makropulos
> It's quite remarkable that the nazi occupiers allowed the performance
> and recording of this patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, or perhaps
> it escaped their attention.
Ma Vlast is certainly an extreme case, but the Nazis tended to adopt a
cynically hands-off approach to "local" culture - during the Nazi
occupation of Paris, the French recorded Pelléas et Mélisande and the
Berlioz Requiem (the latter with the orchestra of the German-run Radio
Paris), and in Brussels the Belgians recorded Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc
au bûcher.
Dontait...@aol.com
> > It's quite remarkable that the nazi occupiers allowed the performance
> > and recording of this patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, or perhaps
> > it escaped their attention.
>
> Ma Vlast is certainly an extreme case, but the Nazis tended to adopt a
> cynically hands-off approach to "local" culture - during the Nazi
> Berlioz Requiem (the latter with the orchestra of the German-run Radio
> Paris), and in Brussels the Belgians recorded Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc
And in Paris during the occupation, Munch recorded Honegger's
Symphony no. 2 and it was issued on French HMV. The thought behind the
music (although never stated in print or elsewhere), one would think,
would have been clear to anyone listening to it during the time that
it was new. Not to the Nazi thugs, apparently. But thugs is what they
were.
Charles Munch -- I feel a separate post coming on. Some day soon....
Don Tait
EM
(PST):
> > It's quite remarkable that the nazi occupiers allowed the performance
> > and recording of this patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, or perhaps
> > it escaped their attention.
> Ma Vlast is certainly an extreme case,
That's what I mean.
> but the Nazis tended to adopt a
> cynically hands-off approach to "local" culture - during the Nazi
> occupation of Paris, the French recorded Pelléas et Mélisande
Why not? No one understood what that opera is about.
EM
Sacqueboutier
I would be forever grateful.
Don