In this week's newsletter:

• Blech conducts Tchaikovsky - one of the finest 5th Symphony recordings you'll ever hear
  
• Mark Obert-Thorn -  more gems from Mark's personal selections for Pristine Classical
  
• PADA Exclusives - Vronsky and Babin's excellent Russian Music for Two Pianos
  
• Gramophone Review -  Rob Cowan on Stokowski's Prokofiev symphony recordings

Editorial - Choices, choices...

Each week Pristine Classical aims to release two or three 'new' recordings from the so-called 'golden age' of historic recordings. Normally this will include one or two releases that I've remastered, a PADA Exclusives recording from Dr. John Duffy that subscribers can stream or download, and every three or four weeks a gem from the extensive collection of Mark Obert-Thorn. We also hope to continue our series of transfers by Ward Marston, though alas health issues mean we probably won't be hearing any more of Peter Harrison's exemplary work, at least for the time being.

One of the joys of the way we work here is that our releases are largely chosen by each restoration engineer, based on whatever merits he thinks the recording or performance can bring. Mark Obert-Thorn, who takes centre-stage this week, has an extensive collection of discs at his disposal, many of which might be considered too obscure for many record labels, reliant on significant CD sales to recoup their investments. Thus Mark's choice this week -  Leo Blech's excellent Tchaikovsky - is a set which we believe has never seen any reissue, neither LP nor CD. Yet these forgotten masterpieces contain some of the greatest Tchaikovsky recordings you'll ever hear.

Likewise his Alfred Hertz series, volume two of which is now imminent, has been a real wake-up call for so many who simply did not know the recordings of this superb conductor - as Robert Matthew-Walker writes in the current issue of International Record Review: "...I was astonished. I cannot, having thought about it for some time, recall a greater performance, on or off a record...".

We may think we know the great conductors and musicians of the first half of the Twentieth Century well, through endless reissues and long-standing reputation, but these two releases alone suggest there remains far more to be discovered, especially where an online company such as Pristine Audio is able to take chances on largely unknown or forgotten material. It's wonderful to have someone of Mark's deep knowledge and expertise on board to help track down these fabulous recordings.

Meanwhile I can only marvel at the productivity of Dr. John Duffy, a retired medical doctor from Iowa, who would appear to devote all day and night to listening to and the transfer and restoration of the thousands of historic discs in his collection. Every few weeks a box arrives here in France stuffed full of dozens of CDs for me to pick and choose from - already the collection, largely of Dr. Duffy's work, that constitutes our PADA Exclusives collection, numbers over 400 recordings. His work is invaluable in preserving so much of our recorded heritage - I only wish I could keep up with him!

For myself the challenge of choosing recordings for release is one I take on with relish - and not without a great deal of advice, suggestions and help! Some of the recordings I feel are simply too good not to have in our catalogue. I like to believe that, even with a well-known and much-loved recording, there's usually a good chance that I can bring something extra to it, thanks to the way I approach my remastering. Right now I'm completing work on one of Toscanini's finest opera recordings, as with last week's issue it's by Verdi - his marvellous 1947 broadcasts of Otello, a recording that may already be in your collection courtesy of RCA, Guild, Naxos et al. In this instance I was urged very strongly indeed by collector Christope Pizzutti, the source of so many recent rare Toscanini issues, to apply the XR remastering process to this recording, in the belief that it had so much more to offer sonically than had yet been heard. I think you may come to agree with Christophe when the opera is re-re-re-reissued here, probably next Friday.

Sometimes it's the musical work itself that gets me going - I'm a great fan of the British composer E J Moeran for example, and have striven to get as many of his older recordings back into circulation not only because I think they're often exceptionally good performances, but because I want to give the music itself wider recognition. Sometimes it's a technical challenge, or the ability to make something sound so much better than it started out, that fires me up, having come into this line of work first and foremost as a professional sound engineer at the BBC.

Whatever the motive, whatever the music, my only regret is that there simply aren't enough hours in the day to produce as much as I would like to - not to mention get it all online, design the artwork, answer as many of the hundreds of e-mails I get as I possibly can, and so forth. If anyone knows of a way to slow the passing of time, please let me know!

Andrew Rose, Pristine Audio

Also of interest today:

• Archive Classics - excellent weekly online radio programme dedicated to historic recordings:
  
  Archive Classics tx 14/08/2009

  Elgar again dominates this week, with his fabulous Cello Concerto in E minor as our Featured Recording. Stephen Johnson, a great Elgar enthusiast, has chosen a 1945 recording of this famous work by the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the inspired baton of Adrian Boult. 
  
  Non-subscribers can hear the first movement only; subscribers can download the complete symphony.
  
  Stephen’s selection this week includes two great piano works. Mendelssohn’s Capriccio Brillant in B minor, Op.22, appears here in a 1954 recording with the British pianist Peter Katin as soloist accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean Martinon. And the Russian-born American pianist Alexander Brailovsky (1896 – 1976), famous as a Chopin specialist, plays Beethoven’s delightful rondo known as `Rage Over a Lost Penny’, Op.129, in a 1938 recording. That Beethoven taster will whet your appetite for a more substantial chunk of Beethoven – his String Quartet in B flat, Op.18 No.6, recorded in 1954 by The Italian String Quartet. 
  
  Bonus Tracks for Subscribers only 
  
  •    The complete Elgar Concerto
  •    `An die Hoffnung’ (To Hope), by Max Reger, recorded in 1955 by mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig with the NDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carl Schuricht.

First issued on Electrola 78rpm discs
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn 
Special thanks to Don Tait for the loan of source material 
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Leo Blech

Total duration: 57:25 
©2009 Pristine Audio.

For more download and CD options, see our website

The downloads:

Fabulous Tchaikovsky in astonishing sound quality

Mark Obert-Thorn resurrects a truly outstanding 5th Symphony

• TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
  Recorded October, 1930 in the Beethoven-Saal, Berlin 
  Matrices: CD 9138-1, 9139-2, 9140-1, 9141-2, 9142-2, 9167-2, 9168-2, 9169-2, 9170-1, 9171-2 
  First issued on Electrola EH 718 through 722
  
  
• TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48
  Recorded March, 1929 in the Beethoven-Saal, Berlin 
  Matrices: CLR 5132-2 and 5133-2 
  First issued on Electrola EH 351
  
  
• TCHAIKOVSKY: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45
  Recorded 23rd March, 1928 in the Beethoven-Saal, Berlin 
  Matrices: CLR 3991-2 and 3992-1 
  First issued on Electrola EJ 294

Leo Blech is perhaps little celebrated, but on the evidence of this stunning collection of 78rpm recordings from the years 1928-1930, released here for the first time since the shellac era, this is an oversight long due for correction.

Transferred in a sound quality which is incredible for their age, Mark Obert-Thorn has compiled three truly astonishing recordings to present Blech's entire recorded Tchaikovsky output.

First and foremost, his 1930 Symphony No 5 deserves to be heard as one of the all-time great recordings of this work. Obert-Thorn offers his opinion thus: "...one of the great statements of this score from the 78 rpm era, ranking in the company of such other worthy performances as those of Mengelberg, Koussevitzky and Stock. Its combination of lyricism and inexorable momentum is unique..."

Download listening sample: (1st mvt excerpt: Allegro con anima - 224kbps ambient stereo)

Notes on this recording:

Despite his being one of the most prolific recording artists of the 1920s and ‘30s, it is remarkable that Leo Blech set down so few extended symphonic works. Most of his discography is taken up with overtures, preludes and operatic accompaniments (largely Wagnerian). Of longer works, there are three concerto recordings, all with Fritz Kreisler; Strauss’ Tod und Verklärung; and seven symphonies, nearly all of them Viennese Classical or Early Romantic: Haydn 88 and 94 (the latter, three times); Mozart 34; Schubert 5, 8 (twice) and 9; and the odd man out, the present Tchaikovsky.

But although it is an anomaly amongst his symphonic recordings, Blech’s Tchaikovsky Fifth is, in my opinion, one of the great statements of this score from the 78 rpm era, ranking in the company of such other worthy performances as those of Mengelberg, Koussevitzky and Stock. Its combination of lyricism and inexorable momentum is unique, and it deserves to be more widely known.

A word is in order regarding cuts. Unlike earlier recordings of the symphony, Blech opens up the then-traditional big cut in the fourth movement development section. However, in order to bring the work in on the ten sides Electrola allotted, he was forced to make a number of small cuts on the final side. Regrettable though they are, the cuts are nonetheless done with intelligence, and work with the flow of the music well enough that the casual listener may not be aware of them.

In the Serenade for Strings finale, Blech cuts the introduction and the restatement of the work’s opening theme before the coda in order to fit the work on one side. Played out of context as it is, it makes perfect sense. Less sensible is the idea of recording the Capriccio Italien on two sides with brutal cuts; yet, this seems to have been a tradition among German conductors, as there are also single-disc versions by Kleiber, Böhm and Schuricht during the electric 78 rpm era.

The sources for the transfers were the best portions of two German Electrola copies for the Fifth Symphony; an Australian HMV for the Serenade movements; and a British HMV for the Capriccio. A couple instances of blasting on the second side of this last work were present on all copies I could find and may be unavoidable. None of these performances (which comprise Blech’s complete recorded Tchaikovsky repertoire) have ever been available on CD or even LP, and I am grateful for the opportunity to present them before a wider public now.

- Mark Obert-Thorn

 

Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

More selections by Mark Obert-Thorn at Pristine Classical:

Mark Obert-Thorn's reputation as a transfer engineer is legendary - Pristine has given him free rein to select the finest recordings for release on this site. Here is a selection of the critical acclaim these issues have received:

PASC163 - Alfred Hertz Complete Recordings Vol. 1

"Quite frankly, with this account of Leonore No. 3, I was astonished. I cannot, having thought about it for some time, recall a greater performance, on or off a record. It is simply magnificent, so intensely musical and profoundly understanding of the music throughout...." - International Record Review

PASC175 - Strauss conducts Strauss

"...The Act III Waltz purrs a fin-de-siecle song of haunted elegance, the strings and harp all but dripping Viennese schlag through the speakers. Luminous and radiant chords surround the Presentation of the Silver Rose. Once more, we feel as though a noble aristocratic way of life were passing into irretrievable history..." - Audiophile Audition

PASC168 - Feuermann in Philadelphia

"...Mark Obert-Thorn has used vinyl test pressings for the transfer of Schelomo, and the lack of shellac noise and the sound quality are amazingly good. This is a quite superb release!." - Audiophile Audition

PASC138 - Talich conducts Tchaikovsky

"Among the rarest of the surviving documents from distinguished Czech conductor Vaclav Talich (1883-1961), these restorations owe their resurgence to producer and audio engineer Mark Obert-Thorn. The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, in particular, recorded 1 April 1940 at the National Theater, Prague for Electrola, makes its first appearance in any form since its shellac origins...." - Audiophile Audition

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