PASC268 - Alexander Kitschin conducts Tchaikovsky and Glazunov

	download price	Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Berlin State Opera Orchestra conducted by Alexander Kitschin Recorded 1928/9 Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Cover artwork: detail from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolay Kuznetsov, 1893 Special thanks to Nathan Brown and Charles Niss for providing source material Total duration: 72:21 ©2011 Pristine Audio Download ID: 1393703-4 Scroll down for PDF covers and cue-sheet download For FLAC playback and conversion support see our Help pages	Play Tchaikovsky 5th, 1st mvt

Fascinating, individualistic orchestral recordings by Kitschin

Obert-Thorn transfers of this almost-unknown conductor demand your attention!

• GLAZUNOV Stenka Razin, Symphonic Poem, Op. 13 [notes]
  Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
  Recorded 1928 in Berlin
  Matrix nos.: 968 ½ bm, 969 ½bm, 970 bm and 971 bm
  First issued on Grammophon/Polydor 95088 and 95089
  
  
  
• TCHAIKOVSKY Ouverture Solennelle '1812', Op. 49 [notes / score]
  Ural Cossacks Choir
  Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
  Recorded 1928 in Berlin
  Matrix nos.: 857 ½ bm, 859 bm, 860 ½ bm and 858 bm
  First issued on Grammophon/Polydor 95054 and 95055
  
  
  
• TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 [notes / score]
  Berlin State Opera Orchestra
  Recorded 1928 and 1929 in Berlin
  Matrix nos.: 687 Bi I, 688 Bi I, 689 Bi I, 690 Bi I, 843 bm, 844 bm, 845 bm, 616 bm, 617 bm, 621 bm, 622 bm
  First issued on Grammophon/Polydor 95056 through 95061
  

Alexander Kitschin, conductor

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:  Mark Obert-Thorn

Notes on the recording:

Virtually nothing is known about conductor Alexander Kitschin, save for the fact that he was married to soprano Xenia Belmas (1889 - 1981), emigrated with her from the Soviet Union to Germany in 1921, and moved to South Africa with her in 1938. He accompanied her on a number of opera aria recordings made for Grammophon/Polydor in the late 1920s – and these three lone orchestral recordings. Kitschin’s interpretations appear to be in the tradition of such other colorful, highly individualistic Russian-born interpreters as Coates and Golovanov; and from the evidence presented here, he was clearly in their league.

The sources for the transfers presented here were German Polydor pressings. The cuts in the finale of the Tchaikovsky Fifth were not dictated by 78 rpm side lengths; indeed, the symphony ran to eleven sides, and a violin solo was added to fill out the album. The original discs were credited to “The Opera-Orchestra, Berlin”. WERM claims this is the Berlin-Charlottenburg Opera Orchestra, but the horn player in the second movement appears to be the same one featured in Leo Blech’s Berlin State Opera Orchestra recording of two years later (Pristine Audio PASC 181), albeit without the cracked note that mars his solo there.

Mark Obert-Thorn, reissue producer

Find out more:   Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 3rd mvt.: Presto CD covers to print: (NB. Disable Page Scaling before printing) CD-writing cuesheet (save as .cue): (Use this to split MP3 files - see here) Download our Full Discography Printable text listings of all Pristine Audio historic releases Restoration by Mark Obert-Thorn: