HERTZ Complete San Francisco Recordings, Volume 2 (1925-28) - PASC195

This album is included in the following sets:

HERTZ Complete San Francisco Recordings, Volume 2 (1925-28) - PASC195

Regular price €0.00 €9.00 Sale

CDs are produced to order and are normally shipped within 3-5 working days.

Regular price €0.00 €10.00 Sale

  • Sold Out! - CD with case & artwork (+MP3)

Overview

LISZT Les Préludes
WAGNER Parsifal: Prelude to Act I, Good Friday Spell
WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act I, Liebestod
BRAHMS Hungarian Dances Nos. 5 & 6

Recorded 1925-28
Total duration: 61:46

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Alfred Hertz

This set contains the following albums:

One of the most important conductors of the early C20

Second of four volumes comprising the complete San Francisco recordings


The present collection offers a good example of the rapid development of recording technology during the 1920s, as well as Hertz’s misfortune to have been at the tail-end of obsolescent methods. When the Victor Talking Machine Company’s mobile recording unit arrived in San Francisco in January, 1925, acoustic recording was just on the verge of being replaced. By March, Victor would begin using the new electrical method for all its sessions. Indeed, their first electrically recorded Red Seal release (Cortot performing Schubert and Chopin) was Victor 6502, just two catalog numbers after the final disc of Hertz’s Parsifal excerpts.

For their next visit (April, 1926), the Victor engineers brought electrical equipment, but continued to use a small studio and what appears to be acoustic-style tuba reinforcement of the bass line for Hertz’s Tristan recordings. Coupled with the fuzzy sound of the loud passages, the overall result is more comparable to the 1925 electric orchestrals Victor had been producing than the more open, natural sound afforded Stokowski the Philadelphia Orchestra in a session held two months later in the Academy of Music (two Strauss waltzes on Victor 6584). The brief passage linking the end of the Prelude with the beginning of the Liebestod is omitted in this version, probably due to timing issues related to Victor’s decision to issue them separately on one 12-inch and one 10-inch disc.

By the time of the April, 1927 San Francisco sessions, the recordings had been moved to a larger hall, and a warm, full acoustic was provided for the Hungarian Dances, which Hertz dispatches with tremendous vitality and élan. The recording of Les Préludes from the following February, however, is hobbled by an acoustically-compromised dubbing on the first side, (which was, unfortunately, the only way it was released). The performance itself rivals Mengelberg’s more famous Concertgebouw version from the following year.

The sources for the present transfers were the original arch-label discs for the Parsifal sides (their only form of issue); pre-war “Gold” label pressings for the Tristan and Hungarian Dances; and scroll-label “Z” pressings for Les Préludes. The severe pitch fluctuations in the original Tristan sides have been corrected in this transfer.

Mark Obert-Thorn

  • LISZT Les Préludes, Symphonic Poem No. 3 (15:37)
    Recorded 27th February 1928 at the Scottish Rite Temple, Oakland
    Matrix nos: PCVE 42014-4R, 42029-1, 42031-3 and 42032-2
    First issued on Victor 6863 and 6864

  • WAGNER Parsifal: Prelude to Act I (13:46)
  • WAGNER Parsifal: Good Friday Spell (Act III) (11:10)
    Recorded 24th, 26th and 31st January, 1925 (Prelude)
    and 31st January and 2nd February 1925 (Good Friday Spell) in Oakland
    Matrix nos: PC 61-2, 62-3, 63-2, 75-3, 76-3 and 78-2
    First issued on Victor 6489 through 6500

  • WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act I (9:06)
  • WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Liebestod (Act III) (6:09)
    Recorded 20th April 1926 (Prelude) and 22nd April 1926 (Liebestod) in Oakland
    Matrix nos: PCVE 169-3 and 170-3; PBVE 175-3 and 176-3
    First issued on Victor 6585 and 1169

  • BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor (orch. Parlow) (2:38)
  • BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D major (orch. Parlow) (3:20)
    Recorded 13th April 1927 in the Columbia Theatre, San Francisco
    Matrix nos: PBVE-248-2 and 249-1
    First issued on Victor 1296


San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Alfred Hertz


Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Alfred Hertz


Total duration: 61:46