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Ruggiero
Ricci, London
Philharmonic Orchestra,
Sir Adrian Boult Released
in 1953
Originally as Decca ffrr LXT 2750
Download ID: 131308/432798
Duration
41'34"
Play
sample movement:
A
fine job, offering plenty of body but also nice detail...
James Jolly, The Gramophone, Awards Issue 2005
Take
one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century. Add one of the
world's top orchestras and a truly great conductor, give them the score
of the violin concerto of one of the greatest composers who ever lived
and put them all into the safe hands of the Decca engineers of the 1950's
- one of the best teams around. It surely has to be a recipe for success,
doesn't it? Well, yes and no. The music went just fine, but I think it
might have been a bit of a bad day at the office for the sound engineering
team...
This
restoration was, for me, one of my toughest assignments yet, involving
the use of several copies of the LP and a lot of hair-pulling! They say
you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, but that's exactly what
I've attempted to do here. There's certainly nothing wrong with this fine
performance - that's precisely why I was so keen to remaster it and let
it be heard again.
But
there were a myriad of difficulties with the recording as the engineers
grappled to come to terms with the earliest tape recorders and nascent
vinyl technology. The biggest howler came roughly midway through the second
movement, where a five-minute retake section had clearly been cut into
the original take, but at the wrong speed. I assume it was recorded on
a different tape machine, running about two and a third percent slower
than the original, and having the effect of raising the pitch by that
same ratio.
How
this was missed by the Decca engineers escapes me - it sounds like Ricci,
Boult and the Orchestra had all taken a light whiff of helium, or perhaps
engaged the services of Mickey Mouse! Happily this has been easily corrected
here, and I've polished up many other rough edges in the audio - as always
- so that they won't stop the listener from enjoying the excellent performance
you'd expect from these musicians and this work.
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A
fine job, offering plenty of body but also nice detail...
