This week we complete the Mengelberg Concertgebouw Columbia Recordings series with this second volume of to add to Volume One and our previous issue of his Columbia Tchaikovsky recordings, which merited their own double-CD issue.
Once again Mark Obert-Thorn has produced miracles in his new transfers. We've particularly enjoyed the Wagner and Brahms which make up the first CD, and is worth the price of admission alone. The second disc doesn't disappoint either - fancy having Mengelberg on your books and only recording a single movement of Mahler's Fifth! And as Mark points out in his notes, splitting Ravel's Boléro into four chunks must make it particularly tricky to maintain the necessary continuity, though Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw make a stylish effort at it.
Add in shorter words from Suppé, Johann Strauss, Bizet and Grieg and a couple of bonuses, with an early 1926 recording of the Tannhäuser Overture that Mengelberg re-recorded six years later, and an alternate take of the Waltz from the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings, and it's a real cornucopia of musical delight. Strongly recommended!