PRISTINE: Obert-Thorn double-bill - Strauss's Strauss & Cantelli's Four Seasons
Andrew Rose
- Richard Strauss conducts Richard Strauss and Cantelli conducts
Vivaldi's Four Seasons:
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Richard Strauss conducts Richard Strauss
Pristine Audio PASC 175
http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Orchestral/PASC175.php
The Complete British & American Recordings, 1922-26
"Symphony Orchestra"
London Symphony Orchestra
Augmented Tivoli Orchestra
conducted by Richard Strauss
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Total duration: 72:38
�2009 Pristine Audio
Strauss conducts Strauss - the UK and US recordings, 1922-26
Music from Der Rosenkavalier, Salome and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
* Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Suite, Op. 60
Minuet of Lully (3:21)
Prelude to Act II (Intermezzo) (3:24)
Symphony Orchestra
Recorded in New York City, December, 1921
Matrix nos.: 7005 and 7007. First issued on Brunswick 50017
* Salome - Dance of the Seven Veils (8:04)
Symphony Orchestra
Recorded in New York City, December, 1921
Matrix nos.: X7001 and X7004. First issued on Brunswick 50002
* Salome - Dance of the Seven Veils (8:18)
London Symphony Orchestra
Recorded 19th January, 1922 in the Columbia Petty France Studios,
London. Matrix nos.: 75040-2 and 75041-2.
First issued on Columbia L 1422
* Don Juan, Op. 20 (15:30)
London Symphony Orchestra
Recorded 18th January, 1922 in the Columbia Petty France Studios,
London. Matrix nos.: 75034-2, 75035-2, 75036-2 and 75037-2
First issued on Columbia L 1419 and L 1420
* Der Rosenkavalier - Waltzes (7:23)
London Symphony Orchestra
Recorded 19th January, 1922 in the Columbia Petty France Studios,
London. Matrix nos.: 75038-1 and 75039-1
First issued on Columbia L 1421
* Der Rosenkavalier - Suite
1. Introduction; Love Scene (Act I) (3:58)
2. Marschallin's Monologue (Act I) (2:26)
3. Waltz (Act III) (2:22)
4. Waltz (Act II Finale) (1:46)
5. Presentation of the Silver Rose (Act II) (4:51)
6. Octavian and Sophie Duet (Act II) (2:37)
7. Presentation March (1:39)
8. Trio and Final Duet (Act III) (6:59)
Augmented Tivoli Orchestra
Recorded 13th-14th April, 1926 in Queen�s Hall, London
Matrix nos.: CR 285-1, 286-1A, 280-2, 281-1, 282-1, 283-1 and 284-1A
First issued on HMV D 1094 through D 1096
Download listening sample:
http://tinyurl.com/PASC175
(Der Rosenkavalier - Suite: 1. Introduction; Love Scene (Act I), 224kbps
ambient stereo)
Notes on the recordings:
Richard Strauss�s only American recordings were made for the Brunswick
label during his concert tour in the winter of 1921-22. Because
Brunswick was headquartered in Chicago, it was long assumed that the
recordings were made there, perhaps with the Chicago Symphony appearing
under a nom de disque for contractual reasons. However, Ross Laird�s
Brunswick exhaustive Brunswick discography places the recording venue in
New York City. As Strauss�s appearances there in December, 1921 were
with Walter Damrosch�s New York Symphony, that may well have been the
anonymous ensemble heard here.
The noisier, more distant sound of the Brunswick Salome Dance is
indicative of a Pantographic dubbing, which may have been made to bring
the playback speed up to 78.3 rpm. (The Bourgeois Gentilhomme disc,
recorded at the same session, plays at a lower speed; it is not clear
why this, too, wasn�t dubbed.)
The following month saw Strauss in London, making his first British
recordings for Columbia with the LSO. A photograph taken during the
recording session shows that horn-amplified Stroh violins were not used,
which may account for the distant balance of the strings on these discs.
Columbia apparently enforced a four-minute limit on 12-inch sides at
this time, which required cuts in Don Juan (on Side 2) and in the Otto
Singer arrangement of Rosenkavalier Waltzes. The take of the second side
of the waltzes presented here appears to be different from the one
listed in the Peter Morse Strauss discography and the Ronald Taylor
Columbia discography, both of which show Take 2 published for this side.
Four years later, Strauss returned to London to conduct the Tivoli
cinema theatre orchestra for the first showing of a silent film
adaptation of Der Rosenkavalier. The following day, HMV began recording
excerpts from the orchestral arrangement (made by Singer and Karl Alwin)
in Queen�s Hall, with the ensemble augmented by additional players,
either free-lancers or members of other London orchestras. HMV had been
using the new electrical recording technology for a year, but had only
recently begun employing it in large halls, rather than in small
recording studios, and the results remain astonishingly vivid for this
early date.
The sequence of the originally-issued discs placed the side with the
Presentation March at the end of the suite, which made little dramatic
sense but allowed purchasers to buy the Trio and Finale side as a
separate single disc. In this transfer, the sides have been presented in
the order they were recorded, irrespective of their place in the opera,
except for the Introduction to Act I and Marschallin�s Monologue sides,
which were recorded last. (The Presentation March was an earlier
composition of Strauss�s which the composer interpolated into the film
music for a scene in which the Feldmarschall appears; it does not appear
in the original opera.)
The sources for the transfers were American Brunswicks and English
Columbias for the acoustics, and a mixture of the best portions of
British, German, French and American pressings for the Rosenkavalier Suite.
Mark Obert-Thorn
Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC or listen on demand with Pristine
Audio Direct Access (PADA)
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VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
Pristine Audio PASC 176
http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Orchestral/PASC176.php
John Corigliano, violin
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
conducted by Guido Cantelli
Recorded 29th March, 1955 in Carnegie Hall, New York City
First issued on (US) Columbia ML 5044
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Total duration: 44:26
�2009 Pristine Audio.
Cantelli's only commercial New York Phil recording
New Obert-Thorn transfer for its first ever CD issue
* Vivadli: The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) - FIRST CD ISSUE
with John Cariglioni, violin
Vivaldi's Four Seasons was, in the 1950's, a comparatively obscure work
from a largely forgotten Italian baroque composer. It had received its
first recording just a decade or so earlier, and a handful of newer
recordings had started to surface, indicating that it was quickly
finding an appreciative audience.
It's fascinating then that Cantelli chose this piece in what was
remarkably his only commercial recording with the New York Philharmonic
(more would surely have appeared had his life not been cut so tragically
short).
Even more so, we find that the recording has never appeared on CD -
until now, with this lovely new transfer prepared for Pristine by Mark
Obert-Thorn, available in both mono and Ambient Stereo versions.
Download listening sample:
http://tinyurl.com/PASC176
(Winter: 1. Allegro non molto, 224kbps ambient stereo)
Notes on the recording:
This was the only commercial recording that Guido Cantelli made with the
New York Philharmonic, an ensemble which he conducted frequently during
his brief international career. It was also the only recording he made
for American Columbia, and the original LP labels state that he appeared
�through the courtesy of H.M.V.� Despite its importance for these
reasons, it has never appeared in a CD reissue. The present transfer was
taken from original grey �six-eyes� label American LP pressings. - Mark
Obert-Thorn
Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, Ambient Stereo FLAC, CD or listen
on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)
--
Andrew Rose
Pristine Classical: "The destination for people interested in historic
recordings..." (Gramophone)
brachiopod
his considerable best, but it is good to have a professional transfer
of what remains his only studio recording not to be made available on
CD.
- J
Juan Rey
T get to apply them himself or is it done after he hands in his work?
Matthew�B.�Tepper
letters to be typed in news:a1c8d01e-5ba3-4e66-bc8b-
ceb74e...@k26g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:
> The commercial Columbia 'Four Seasons' may not represent Cantelli at his
> considerable best, but it is good to have a professional transfer of what
> remains his only studio recording not to be made available on CD.
Indeed. I've been assuming that Sony decided that nobody would be interested
in buying a recording of this obscure music.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers
Andrew Rose
> Do these use Pristine's patent artificial sweeteners? If so, does M O-
> T get to apply them himself or is it done after he hands in his work?
Each release is the work of the transfer/remastering engineer involved -
I do not apply any XR remastering to Mark's work.
For the Richard Strauss, what we offer are FLAC and 320kbps MP3s encoded
directly from Mark's master CD, which is posted to me.
In the case of the Cantelli, he did suggest to me that we also made an
'Ambient Stereo' version also available, alongside his mono master -
this involves the straightforward application of software which I happen
to own - as such it was simple for me to 'push the button' and apply the
effect to the recording. Mark's original 16-bit Cantelli mono master is
available as a 16-bit FLAC and a 320kbps MP3 alongside the 16-bit
Ambient Stereo FLAC I processed for him. Note that this processing is
transparent - if you hit the mono switch on your amplifier (if it still
has one!) you'll hear precisely the mono master as supplied by Mark.
If our releases ever involve greater collaboration than this then it is
always acknowledged in our notes - we've done a number of 'joint effort'
releases where I've carried out additional remastering of a transfer
supplied to Pristine, with the agreement of the engineer in question. My
agreement with both Mark Obert-Thorn and Ward Marston is that this does
not happen with their transfers.
Russ (not Martha)
> It's fascinating then that Cantelli chose this piece [Vivaldi the Seasons] in what was
> remarkably his only commercial recording with the New York Philharmonic
> (more would surely have appeared had his life not been cut so tragically
> short).
>
Not necessarily. Cantelli and the NYP reportedly did not get along at
all well. Cantelli was killed while flying back to fulfill an
engagement with the NYP that he had tried to get out of. Jerome
Toobin, in his book 'Agitato,' describes Cantelli desperately
telephoning NYP manager Bruno Zirato asking to be released from the
upcoming fall concerts and being turned down flat (pp. 90-91).
A large discography from a Cantelli surviving to a normal old age
would been a treasure indeed, but I don't think there would have been
much if anything more from the NYP.
Russ (not Martha)
Matthew�B.�Tepper
following letters to be typed in
What about the BSO, then?