In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Willem Mengelberg (28 March 1871), Pristine is pleased to present the first in a series of releases surveying the conductor’s recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Telefunken, the label for which he made the bulk of his commercial discs. They will be presented in roughly chronological order, with the present volume featuring all the recordings Mengelberg made in 1937, along with the first he did the following year.
There are four major works here: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and 'Pastoral' Symphony No. 6, and Tchaikovsky's Sixth "Pathétique" Symphony and Serenade for Strings, together with shorter works by Berlioz and Franck. These superb new transfers for Pristine by Mark Obert-Thorn promise to grow into a fabulous set of superlative recordings and performances.