Available to subscribers to PADA Premium or PADA Exclusives, our direct-streamed audio service:
Ansermet's 1952 Highlights
Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969)
Debussy - Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faue
Stravinsky - Circus Polka
Ravel - Alborado del gracioso
Prokofiev - March from "The Love of 3 Oranges"
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
conducted by Ernest Ansermet
Recorded in 1952
Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians.
Originally he was a mathematics professor, teaching at the University of Lausanne. He began conducting at the Casino in Montreux in 1912, and from 1915 to 1923 was the conductor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Traveling in France for this, he met both Debussy and Ravel, and consulted them on the performance of their works.
During World War I, he met Stravinsky, who was exiled in Switzerland, and from this meeting began the conductor's lifelong association with Russian music.
In 1918, Ansermet founded his own orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR). He toured widely in Europe and America and became famous for accurate performances of difficult modern music, making first recordings of works such as Stravinsky's Capriccio with the composer as soloist.
Also, Ansermet was one of the first in the field of classical music to take jazz seriously, and in 1919, he wrote an article praising Sidney Bechet.
After World War II, Ansermet and his orchestra rose to international prominence through a long-term contract with Decca Records. From that time until his death, he recorded most of his repertoire, often two or three times. His interpretations were widely regarded as admirably clear and authoritative, though the orchestral playing did not always reach the highest international standards, and they differed notably from those of other famous 20th-century specialists, notably Pierre Monteux and Stravinsky himself.
Dr. John Duffy has transferred this 1952 London (Decca) LP of highlights from variuos composers in Ansermet's repoertoire, and restored them in Ambient Stereo for PADA subscribers.
PADA Exclusives are available for high-quality streamed listening and free MP3 download to all subscribers.
Remastered by
Dr John Duffy
In Ambient Stereo
only €1/week
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