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Pristine News: Friday 7th August, 2009
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Recordings by Artist - Recordings by Composer - Full printable Pristine Audio catalogue New release today: VERDI: Un Ballo in Maschera Pristine Audio PACO 032
Robert Shaw Chorale & Soloists (see below) conducted by Arturo Toscanini Recorded live at Carnegie Hall, 17th January 1954 (Act 1) and 24th January 1954 (Acts II and III) Transfer from Air Check discs "presented by the makers of MobilGas and MobilOil" No catalogue numbers, matrix numbers E4RP8241-6
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Toscanini's 1954 operatic farewell newly restored & remastered One of the finest recordings of this opera in a stunning XR makeover
Among Toscanini's final performances, this two-week operatic extravaganza has gone down as one of the finest recorded performances of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera ever made. As a young cellist, Toscanini had worked with Verdi first in 1887 - some 67 years later he turned to the music of his countryman for his final operatic concerts, presented over two radio programmes broadcast live from Carnegie Hall a week apart to a rapturous reception. This new transfer, taken from rare limited promotional LP pressings, has benefitted enormously from XR remastering and (optional) Ambient Stereo processing to breathe new life, body and clarity into this marvellous recording. A release not to be missed! Download listening sample: (Act I - Cavatina: Volta la terrea...Signori oggi d'Ulrica...Orni cura si doni al diletto - 224kbps ambient stereo)
Technical notes:
Toscanini's final opera performance took place over two concerts at Carnegie Hall, both broadcast live on radio in specially-extended programmes. The original cast included the tenor Jussi Björling, replaced at short notice by Jan Peerce. This performance uses the 'censored text' version of the opera (see below), which moves the setting from Sweden to Massachusetts. The source discs for this transfer were six LP sides issued as promotional gifts by "the makers of Mobilgas and Mobiloil", who had sponsored the broadcasts. Packaged in an album reminiscent more of typical US 78rpm sets than their LP equivalents, the set includes sleevenotes by NBC announcer Ben Grauer and a montage of press cuttings (see below) reviewing the concerts. Each of the disc labels includes the words "Air Check" on it, which does raise the outside possibility that the discs do not include retakes Toscanini recorded in June 1954 at his final recording sessions, also in Carnegie Hall, and which are present in RCA's commercial issue. However, this seems unlikely - there is no radio announcer or applause on the recording, and clearly some efforts would have been made to produce the finest quality discs. Without catalogue numbers or further details it is difficult to know exactly when these discs were pressed and to whom they were sent, or indeed how many sets were ever made. The sides themselves proved to be in excellent condition with the exception of the fifth, which was slightly scratched during the final four minutes or so, some remnants of which may still be apparent. Sound quality is excellent throughout - the close-up microphone technique, whilst holding back much of the ambience of Carnegie Hall, does allow for excellent clarity in both voices and orchestra. Furthermore, this new transfer has benefitted enormously from XR remastering, bringing fabulous new depth and clarity to the sound and opening it out tremendously, something further enhanced when listening to the Ambient Stereo version, which helps create the sense of space lacking in the original by drawing out ambience from the recording and spreading it subtly across the soundstage.
Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, 24-bit FLAC, Ambient Stereo FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA) From this week's issue of The New Yorker: New frontiers in digital sound by Alex Ross
Recordings featured in this article - click covers for details:
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Recent reviews: Audiophile Audition
Stokowski conducts PROKOFIEVSymphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100; Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor, Op. 111USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra /New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski - Pristine AudioOn tour in Moscow in 1958, Stokowski obviously decided to submit a symphonic thaw into the Cold War. Published on August 05, 2009
Stokowski conducts PROKOFIEV = Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100; Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor, Op. 111 - USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra (Op. 100)/New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
...Jim Fassett announces the American radio premier of the Sixth Symphony (1947) from Carnegie Hall (4 December 1949), the last of Stokowski‘s four on-air performances for 1949. Rather melancholic, the symphony drew from Prokofiev the epithet “the painful results from war” as its impetus. The sad theme from the English horn might allude to Sibelius’ Tuonela. We seem to passing at some remove over a battlefield after the carnage has wrought its ghosts upon the earthly floor. We can still hear the crackle of the acetates from which this richly detailed performance derives, but our musical attention remains fixated. A sense of persistent Will unfolds, almost a Thomas Hardy notion of Immanent Destiny, as the somber melody gains irony and triumphant force. Even more anguished, the A-flat Largo opens what becomes a dirge-like arch, by the central section a truly ravaged spirit. Clangor and noble reflection compete for primacy, only to yield to a nostalgia carried by celesta and harp. Given the purity of the French horns’ and strings’ lines in the midst of textural complexity, it remains a curiosity that the “modernist” Mitropoulos did not champion this work - though he did the First and Fifth Symphonies. This review can be read in full here:
Guido Cantelli — Just Eight Years of Fame GC Publishers, Casebound, 488pp Only available from GC Publishers, 21 Nunn Close, Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4UL, UK.
The only book previously published in English on the conductor Guido Cantelli (1920-1956) was Laurence Lewis's Guido Cantelli - Portrait of a Maestro (A S Barnes & Company Inc and The Tantivy Press,1981, 175pp). The following year an Italian version Guido Cantelli – Come una Meteors was published by SGP Edizioni in Cantelli's home town of Novara. Understandably, after over a quarter of a century, Keith Bennett has been able to accumulate a great deal of information which was not available to Lewis although there is little attempt to delve into biograpical issues. The content here concentrates on Cantelli's career in the concert hall and recording studio. The tragedy is that Cantelli was killed in an aircrash on 24 November 1956 when he was only 36 and while his professional career had spanned 13 years he was only known on the international stage for a mere eight. As Harris Goldsmith states in his Foreword `I gratefully welcome Keith Bennett's 'Guido Cantelli – Just Eight Years of Fame', and my fondest hope is that this survey will rekindle interest in this forgotten giant's dimly remembered celebrity'. And that's the rub. Conductors are known for their longevity, but Cantelli's recording career lasted a paltry eight years and only just touched the stereo era with the compact disc still 27 years in the future. Even with a career that was remarkably successful, its very brevity accounts to some degree why he is not thought of in the way that the names of Furtwangler, Kleiber (Erich), Klemperer, Monteux, Reiner, Szell, Toscanini and Walter are revered. The first of the fourteen chapters deals with the important dates of Cantelli's career, followed by Tables which show the countries in which Cantelli and the American and European orchestras which he conducted.The next two chapters are devoted to his concerts, split between 1942-1948 and 1949 (when Cantelli made his international debut) until his death in 1956. Those concerts which are known to have been broadcast are indicated but the unique feature in Chapter 3 is that the recording sessions (the first of which took place in 1949) are incorporated giving a more rounded picture of Cantelli's activities. For the first time three maps are published showing the tours which Cantelli undertook with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York and the Orchestra dells Scala.The next chapter documents his repertoire and the number of performances which Cantelli gave of each work, when and with which orchestras and – where appropriate –with which instrumentalists or vocalists and the author is careful to provide statistics which reveal that, although Cantelli performed 198 works by 83 composers (including one of his own), the reader's attention is drawn to the fact that over 50% of those composers were represented by one work and nearly 20% of those 198 compositions received just one performance. Again, the recording sessions are incorporated very clearly but the broadcast performances are also indicated (as they were in the concert register 1949-1956) and where there has been a CD issued of that performance that is also indicated both in the the chapter showing the repertoire and the Discography. The author was given access to the EMI Archive and over 40 pages are devoted to the production of the commercial recordings. From those files he also poses an interesting question regarding a possible missing recording and in the following chapter goes into considerable detail of the hiatus that Cantelli caused concerning his one recording with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. There is a most comprehensive discography to have been published to date which not only ranges over 78s, LPs (monaural and stereo), commercial tapes, cassettes and CDs, but also includes recordings of the broadcasts which have appeared both on LP and CD. The commercial issues are in five tables (UK, Italy, USA and two covering to a lesser degree nine other countries): a unique feature of the UK releases is that not only are the expected dates, orchestras and venues shown, but so are the producers and the dates of reviews appearing in the various periodicals together with the many re-issues on budget labels. The author comments on what he considers to be some of the vagaries of the marketing of Cantelli's recordings which is followed by 140 pages devoted to an appraisal of Cantelli's commercial recordings and recorded broadcast performances. Another unique feature is the profile of Cantelli's personality through an analysis of his signature by a graphologist.
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Recent reviews: Gramophone Magazine
Stokowski conducts PROKOFIEVSymphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100; Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor, Op. 111USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra /New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leopold StokowskiGramophone, September 2009 
Symphony 5: USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra Symphony 6: New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra "Stokowski fans are well served by Pristine Audio who have coupled two fascinating and rarely heard Prokofiev symphony recordings, a characterful, emphatically stated 1958 Fifth with the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra (the Scherzo a highly eventful box of tricks) and a very early New York broadcast recording (1949) of the Sixth where the first movement's tragic centre is taken at an unusually fast pace though the works visceral impact still registers..." - Rob Cowan
New MP3 transfers at PADA Exclusives
Download or stream this recording and many others from only One Euro a week! Hundreds of historic recordings are available for listening and free MP3 download Other subscription offers give you full access to our entire online catalogue
Recent review at MusicWeb International
AVAILABILITY Pristine Audio
(as CD or FLAC or mp3 download)
El Amor Brujo (1915) [22:08] Noches en los jardines de Espana (1916) [21:48]  Nan Merriman (mezzo); William Kapell (piano) New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski rec. live, Carnegie Hall, New York, 21 March 1948 (Amor); 13 November 1949 (Noches). Mono. ADD PRISTINE XR PASC 174 [44:44]  As far as I am aware this is the first time these live concert recordings have appeared on disc. There are times in this version of the full ballet El Amor Brujo when one is almost certain the furies have taken possession of the conductor. Listen to the initial Introduction and Scene. Stokowski's vehemence there and elsewhere verges on the splenetic. Other sections are more romantic and relaxed. The Ritual Fire Dance is taut and has a whiplash sting. Nan Merriman assumes the raw, harsh and smoky manner of the Iberian singing tradition and does so to good effect. Stokowski makes something special of this score even if the product sometimes seems rushed. In Pantomime the great cello melody - a tune with long and shapely legs - is spun with wonderfully lissom tonal weight. Nights in the Gardens of Spain is a luxury item with Kapell at the keyboard. However as a reading it strikes me as superficial overall with little of the poetry or depth to be experienced from say Haskil, Larrocha or Soriano. It's rather a contrast with the special El amor brujo not to mention the equally glorious Stokowski Tchaikovsky 5 (International Festival Youth Orchestra ) I have just heard on Cameo Classics. The latter is complete with a compulsive-listening extended rehearsal sequence. These are taken from second generation tapes of radio broadcasts complete with a Spanish announcement at the end of El Amor and in English for Noches. There are notes and a detailed track-list. The Pristine processing leaves in place a bristling low-key bed of analogue background. At the same time Andrew Rose's restorative work preserves what sounds like an essentially healthy signal. These are each in their way rather special performances and of great interest to both Stokowski collectors and de Falla enthusiasts. Rob Barnett
New MP3 transfers at PADA Exclusives
Download or stream this recording and many others from only One Euro a week! Hundreds of historic recordings are available for listening and free MP3 download Other subscription offers give you full access to our entire online catalogue
Recent review at Audiophile Audition
Obert-Thorn happily resurrects the 1928-1930 Tchaikovsky inscriptions this fastidious conductor made for Electrola. Published on August 25, 2009
Blech conducts TCHAIKOVSKY = Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64; Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48: Valse and Tema Russo; Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 (edited) - Berlin State Opera Orchestra/Leo Blech Pristine Audio PASC181, 57:25 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Producer and recording engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has delved in the archives of Leo Blech (1871-1958) and eschewed the usual Wagner inscription or one of the Fritz Kreisler concerto projects Blech led in Berlin prior to Kreisler’s later EMI sojourns. Instead, Obert-Thorn happily resurrects the 1928-1930 Tchaikovsky inscriptions this fastidious conductor made for Electrola; but I say “fastidious” in spite of the sometimes severe cuts that plagued Tchaikovsky shellacs in order to suit the time limits of the 78 rpm medium. From the opening “turn not unto sorrow” motif derived from Glinka, Blech delivers a thoughtful, resonant declaration of Fate in the Fifth Symphony (October 1930), moving attacca to the Allegro con anima where others might pause a moment. A grand procession ensues, even with a diminuendo or two thrown in so as to increase the drama. The tempo remains brisk but not without epic pathos, the BSOO string exquisitely poised between arco and plucked passages. While Blech applies tempo rubato, it is never so exaggerated as we find in Mengelberg, so the basic, steady pulse reaches an inexorable, logical conclusion. The large waltz tune moves in linear, driven fashion, picking up accents and resonance as it mounts to typical Tchaikovsky trumpet fanfare. The working-out emphasizes Tchaikovsky’s devotion to sonata-form, the pace at the recap decidedly fiery, even glib. The last chords rumble with grim resolve...
New MP3 transfers at PADA Exclusives
Download or stream this recording and many others from only One Euro a week! Hundreds of historic recordings are available for listening and free MP3 download Other subscription offers give you full access to our entire online catalogue
New review in Fanfare Magazine
Arturo Toscanini, cond; Rudolf Serkin (pn); New York P-SO;1 NBC SO2 PRISTINE 164, mono (47:34) Broadcast: New York 2/23/1936;1 9/3/1944.2 Available at www.pristineclassical.com Neither of these performances is new to CD, the Symphony having been issued in a now probably scarce Grammophono disc, the concerto in a two-CD Guild set (sold only outside the U.S.) that preserved the entire concert of February, 23, 1936, from which this Serkin performance was drawn. It marked his debut in the U.S. as soloist with symphony orchestra and also featured him in the Beethoven G-Major Concerto. This transfer of the Mozart derives from the same air-check used by Guild, and thus is missing part of the first movement—a loss that begins shortly before the tutti that precedes the cadenza and extends into part of the cadenza itself. The sound of this transfer, in its presence and impact, is slightly superior to Guild’s. But, though thoroughly listenable, it remains markedly inferior to the studio norm for the period. That said, the performance should prove fascinating for anyone interested in the artists, especially Toscanini. It is certainly unlike the conductor’s 1943 NBC performance of the work with Horszowski (once available from Naxos). Sometimes that later one even approaches glibness. By contrast, this 1936 collaboration with Serkin boasts greater breadth and flexibility from both conductor and soloist. But, unlike the 1943 performance, it does not contain an addition of seven measures in the opening tutti that Toscanini inferred to be missing in what was then the standard (but corrupt) edition. Ultimately, Serkin, who gained access to Mozart’s manuscript, confirmed what had been only a suspicion on Toscanini’s part. Today, these seven measures have become standard. Clearly, several limitations, sonic and textual, limit the appeal of this release. Nevertheless, it is a significant document of a memorable collaboration in a work that was Toscanini’s favorite Mozart concerto. The Symphony No. 29 is another matter. In his notes for this release, producer Andrew Rose cites my Arturo Toscanini: the NBC Years, where I noted that the performance is a “revelation for its time” when compared to the recorded accounts of the work made by Koussevitzky and Beecham. This is certainly true in terms of its lean sonority and freedom from overly broad tempos. But on hearing it again, it also sounds under rehearsed and graceless. It is certainly interesting as Toscanini’s only surviving account of the work (I suspect it may be his only performance of it), but it falls short in terms of projecting the music’s elegance, buoyancy, and charm. The sound, if certainly superior to that of the Concerto, is rather shrill and raucous. Reservations aside, for those who want a fascinating walk into history, this is a welcome release. A few of the CBS broadcast announcements frame the concerto. Mortimer H. Frank This article originally appeared in Issue 33:1 (Sept/Oct 2009) of Fanfare Magazine.
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