GALININ, Herman: Suite for Strings. w/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [No notes, no dates, no lightnig-strike Big Tunes, but amiable Glazunovian lyricism played with feeling and sympathy. You could do a LOT worse…]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 (Original version). w/ Tokyo Metropolitan Philharmonic. [Some Brucknerites (Don Vroon of American Record Guide is one) don’t care for Asahima’s interpretations; I can’t understand what they object to – other than that they don’t especially sound "Viennese" – and I find them fervent, intensely realized, and deeply moving.]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Mozart: Bassoon Concerto, B Flat Major, K. 191. Karel Bidlo, bassoon; Czech Philharmonic

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". w/ BBC Symphony Orchestra [54:22] [For my money, one of Sir John’s greatest recordings. Usually, the interpretive polarity runs from Furtwangler’s mourning-for-a-fallen-titan monumentality to Toscanini’s "For me it is only allegro con brio" whip-crack objectivity. But Sir John views the Eroica as the musical equivalent of the Parthenon: an Olympian expression of all that is noblest in Western music and culture in general; and conducting it, he views as a holy and sacrosanct ritual. He casts his reading in the broadest, most spacious temporal arch, to make sure that every detail of the work is not only rendered with the utmost tonal beauty but that Beethoven’s genius has a framework as vast as possible, without fracturing the work’s structure. The timing tells you it’s SLOW, but it doesn’t sound that way. Instead, it sounds luxuriant, touched with supernal grace, a thing of wonder and inexhaustible glory. Frankly, it’s SO extreme, I seldom get in the mood for it, bnt when I do, I am reminded all over again what a titanic creation this symphony is. If, finally, this interpretation is just Too Much, it also defines a gloriously extreme view of the work, and everyone who loves the Eroica should at least hear how drop-dead gorgeous it can be made to sound!]

Berlioz: Le Corsair Overture, Op. 21. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [7:50]

Berlioz: Te Deum, Op. 22. w/ Alexander Young, tenor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & London Philharmonic Chorus; live, 1953. [45:51]

Brahms: Symphony No. 2, D Major, Op. 73. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 3/ 24/ 1936

Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 3/ 22/ 1937

Debussy: "L’enfant Prodigue" – Cortege & Air de danse. w/ Royal Philharmonic [4:20]

Delibes: "Le Roi S’amuse" Ballet Suite. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [14:15]

Faure: Dolly Suite (orch. Rabaud). w/ French ORTF Symphony Orchestra [17:55]

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Gounod: "Romeo & Juliette" – "Le sommiel de Juliette". w/ Royal Phioharmonic Orchestra [3:25]

Schubert: Symphony No. 5, B Flat Major, D. 485. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1/ 11/ 1939

Schubert: Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. 1‘1/ 1/ 1937

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, E Minor, Op. 64. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra, rec. January, 1940

Sallinen: Mauermusik. w/ Finnish Radio Symphony [8:44]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. w/ Finnish Radio Symphony [34:49]

Strauss, Josef: "Music of the Spheres" Waltz, Op. 235. Vienna Philharmonic (rec. 3/ 17/ 1949) [8:40]

Boulez: Improvisations sur Mallarme. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Debussy: Jeux. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Stravinsky: Song of the Nightengale. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Holst: Japanese Suite. w/ London Symphony Orchestra [10:58] [See comments under "Composers"]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, A Major, Op. 92. w/ Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live broadcast, 10/ 15/ 1950.

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. w/ Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live, 10/ 15/ 1950 [American collectors have never had much access to the distinguished conducting of Fritz Busch, so these sturdy, energized, loving interpretations offer an excellent chance to become acquainted with his work. The music is energized, honest, and compelling, while relatively free of rhetorical indulgences or "personal" touches. The off-the-air tapes offer remarkably clean, if a trifle thin, sound, and the Vienna Symphony – not always a first-rate outfit in those days – plays with total conviction and obviously deep respect for their guest conductor. The individuality of Busch’s readings stems from their rock-solid integrity; he reminds me, in that regard, of another under-represented conductor, Carl Schuricht. Even the "second tier" maestri of this time manifested more personality than any half-dozen cookie-cutter conductors you’ll encounter today. If a musician of Busch’s talent’s were practicing today, he would be accounted a giant among pigmies. Both symphonies fit handily on a single CD. Briefly available on the small "Relief" label, these recordings are today almost impossible to find.]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". w/ Gieseking; New York Philharmonic; live (3/ 25/ 1956) [36:36]

Milhaud: L’Apotheose di Moliere – Suite on Themes by Baptiste Anet. w/ Chamber Orchestra of Radio di Rlive (7/ 9/ 1949) [11:33]

Mussorgsky-Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. New York Philharmonic; live (3/ 20/1953) [29:50]

Smetana: "The Bartered Bride", complete. w/ Prague National Theater Orchestra & Chorus. [See details under "Opera, Choral and Vocal"]

Debussy: Iberia. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris. [17:33]

Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris. [14:52]

Ravel: Alborado del Grazioso. w/ Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris [7:03] [Bright, idiomatic readings, very nicely played and recorded]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4, B-Flat Major, Op. 60. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Beethoven: King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Anderson, LeRoy: The Irish Suite. w/ Boston Pops Orchestra. [See comments under "Composers"]

Luigini, Joseph: Ballet Egyptien. w/ Boston Pops. [OK, here’s the poop on this guy: Joseph Luigini lived from 1850 to 1906. He was – not surprisingly, when you hear this score – a favorite pupil of Massenet; he was also principal conductor of the Orchestra of Lyon, and one of the enlightened men responsible for the founding of the fabled "Concerts du Conservatoire". Among the pupils who studied under him there were Pierne, Charpentier, Wieniawski and Pablo de Sarasate. Not a bad resume for an "unknown" composer, eh? Luigini had no profound aspirations as a composer (and damned little free time to indulge them!) but if he was a "dabbler", he was a gifted one and his short, buoyant orchestra pieces (I’d love to hear the one entitled "March of the Emir"!) were popular and widely performed. But mostly he wrote ballet scores; this suite, Fiedler drew from his most popular ballet, which probably hasn’t been performed since 1887. Let me add that this early RCA (LM-1084) is one of the rarest and most collectable Fiedler recordings and my copy is in VG + condition; the flip side is the more familiar, though hardly overplayed, suite from "El Cid", which I happen to find hugely entertaining, as I do most of Massenet’s purely orchestral music (though God deliver me from an uncut opera!).]

Massenet: "El Cid", Suite from. Boston Pops Orchestra [Best recorded version since Toscanini’s, and incomparably better-sounding]

Nystedt: The Seven Seals, Op.46. w/ Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [28:30]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5. w/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ [As usual, Massimo goes his own way, going slower where other conductors speed up, spotlighting the odd secondary line, and making two-wheeled turns around some hairpin curves of rubbato. I like it; the sound is excellent; commercial recordings beyond his gigs for Readers Digest are few and hard to find.]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, C Major, Op. 21. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 7/ 13/ 1950 [25:03]

Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77. w/ Giaconda De Vito, violinist; RAI Orchestra of Turin; live; 1/ 7/ 1953. [Neither the soloist nor the orchestra is as bad as you probably expect them to be, but still, this one is for Furtwangler completists only!]

Hindemith: Symphonic Mteamorphosis on a Theme of von Weber. w/ Berlin Philharmonic. Live, 9/ 16/ 1947 [The initial attack has a lumbering, ursine quality that makes you fear for the worst, but once orchestra and conductor settle in, it’s a special reading: monumental. What? It’s NOT "monumental" music? It is in this reading, buster.]

Strauss: Metamorphosen. w/ Berlin Philharmonic; live, 10/ 27/ 1947. [Given the ambiguities of their own relationships with the Nazi regime, it’s no mystery why two of the finest realizations of this elusive score should be early post-war recordings by Furtwangler AND von Karajan…]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, Op.54. w/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [It’s a fine reading, of course; how could it not be, given the close relationship between Gauk and Dimitri? But the recorded sound is dullish and gutless – the crucial timpani part is barely audible. Had Stalin issued an edict against "loud drums" that season or some such nonsense? Whether Gauk was terrified of the Gulag or just old and tired, the energy level here is uneccaptably low. Too bad.]

Bach: Brandenberg Concertos, complete. w/ Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. [Highly distinguished but wonderfully old-fashioned. Goldberg isn’t hesitant about bending a line or pointing an unwritten accent in the name of simple expressiveness. Definitely not Period Performance Police approved!]

Harris: Folksong Symphony (Symphony No. 4). w/ Symphony of the Air & Chorus. [See dyspeptic and nasty screed under "Composers"]

Von Suppe: "Pique Dame" Overture. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 1/ 23/ 1929 [7:50]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, Op. 13, "Winter Dreams". USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [40:44] [Swirling, idiomatic, indeed "day-dreamlike; Ivanov was yet another under-appreciated Russian maestro (at least over here)]

Lockwood: Concerto for Brass & Organ. w/ Marilyn Mason, organ; Cincinnati Brass Ensemble

Stein, Leon: Three Hassidic Dances for Orchestra. w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Ward: Symphony No. 3. w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Strauss, Johann: "Du und Du" from "Die Fledermaus", Op. 397. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 2/ 3/ 1929) [6:53]

Schumann: "Manfred" Overture, Op. 115. w/ Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. [Kletzki’s earliest major-repertoire recordings were often made, for Angel, with the Israel Phil, which was not yet ten years old at that time. Cream of the crop was an intense Mahler Ninth that may have been the first LP recording ever of that blockbuster; I have a copy but it’s too banged-up to list and finding a playable one is going to be a matter of blind luck. Anyway, this and the "Manfred" listed above are excellent readings, full of snap and vitality; recorded sound is a trifle dry, but otherwise quite good Angel mono, and Source copy is in immaculate shape. Collectors interested in this under-rated conductor’s work take note!]

Schumann: Symphony No. 3, E-flat Major, Op. 97 ("Rhenish"). w/ Israel Philharmonic [See comments above, under "Manfred" Overture.]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8. w/ Vienna Philharmonic; live and in stereo; October, 1961

Debussy: Rhapsody for Clarinet & Orchestra. George Pieterson, clarinet; Concergebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies

Hovhaness: The Floating World – "Ukiyo". w/ New York Philharmonic. [11;47]

Mussorgsky: "Khovantchina" – Dawn Over the Muskva River. w/ New York Philharmonic. [4:50]

Rachmaninoff: "Aleko" – Suite from the opera. w/ New York Philharmonic. [18:14]

Strauss: Johann: "Thousand and One Nights" Waltz, Op. 346. Vienna Philharmonic; (rec. 10/ 9/ 1930) [8:00]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7, C Major, Op. 60, ("Leningrad"). w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 2/ 9/ 1950 [71:51]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". w/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [Every one of his Mercury "Living Presence" recordings with the CSO was critically hailed, sold very robustly, and has since been enshrined as a milestone in the art and science of classical music recording; Yet at the same time he was making classic recordings – like this dark, turbulent, virile treading of The Pat, Kubelik’s standing was being gnawed to death by the carping, impossible-t-please Witch of the Mid-West, critic Claudia Cassiday (she had already caused the mercurial but still-brilliant Rodzinski to be sacked, and this taste of despotic power must have gone to her head!) One listens to this absolutely first-rate recording and cannot believe the old hag heard anything to find fault with: the interpretation is outstanding, the orchestra plays superbly – what the hell was WRONG with her?? As someone who’s written music and record criticism for 30-odd years, believe me when I tell you that NO music critic should have that kind of despotic clout! Ever! Hey, listen and judge for yourself!]

Beethoven: King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. w/ Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [6:48]

Beethoven: Eleven Viennese Dances. w/ Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. [15:59]

Beethoven: Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91. w/ Pariis Philharmonic Orchestra. [15:40] [What’s the very Modernist Leibowitz doing conducting lightweight fare like this? Very stylishl;y, thank you. Date and provenence of this very obscure LP, issued over here, for all of one week, by the "Olympic" lebel, which gathered many a murky European release into its porous corporate nets, the perfprmances are full of snap and vigor and the sonics are bright to the point of edginess. Very off-beat fare not just for this conductor, but for any.]

Mozart: Symphony No. 40, G Minor, K. 550. w/ Rochester Philharmonic

Schubert: Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". w/ Rochester Philharmonic [As far as his LPs are concerned, there were three different Erich Leinsdorfs. I’ll talk about the second and third incarnations when it’s appropriate. But Leinsdorf Number One was the brisk but often exciting conductor of the not-quite-first-rate Rochester Philharmonic, with which he made some outstanding and now very obscure recordings, known today almost exclusively through their often very crapulous LP "budget" editions on Columbia’s "Harmony" label. There’s where I acquired what may be his greatest recording of any basic rep. piece, his electric reading of the "Eroica", very much in the Toscanini veins but with a touch more human warmth and rubato. This Schubert/Mozart combo is also very fine, if you like these pieces done in a brisk, punchy, no-nonsense manner; The Mozart is especially bubbly. I don’t care for the "Unfinished" personally – give me gobs of sentiment and dark brooding tone in this piece! But if you like it played fairly straight but with lots of energy, this version will please. Basically the sound is good, circa 1949-1950, but the pressings are sometimes atrocious; don’t blame me; when I bought ‘em they looked pristine and still do, but there’s some kind of horrid in-the-grooves schmutz that disfigures the first 7-8 minutes of the Schubert (not enough to utterly ruin the performance, I hasten to add), but YOU CAN’T SEE IT! I tried running the disc through the Groove-Sucker; hell, I tried everything but steel wool. No good. Not only is the defect invisible, it’s uncleanable. I have no idea what caused it or why someone at Columbia didn’t catch it, but I’m sworn to being honest and up-front you guys about defects and here’s one of the oddest I’ve ever come up against. I’d love to dub this for you, but you’ve been warned in advance, so don’t complain. The Mozart, aside from being just plain old noisy – as though it were pressed on thrice-recycled-vinyl – is not so afflicted.]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1983. [As I’ve said before, Leinsdorf was almost a schizophrenic conductor; normally he was a dry, detached, almost Boulezian objectivist (his recording of the "Pathetique" is so perversely dry-eyed and uninvolved that it’s more of an embalming than a performance!) but when he was "on", he could blow you away. One of the all-time greatest Barber First Symphony’s I’ve ever heard is a live reading he did with the Chicago Symphony some 32 years ago – just blisteringly intense and propelled by a sense of sensuous, epic sweep! I taped this Sibelius out of ghoulish curiosity, certain it would also be clueless, antiseptic, and detached from the inward agony suffusing the score. Again, Leinsdorf amazed me by probing deep into the soul of this recondite masterpiece and bringing out details no other conductor has high-lighted so tellingly. He adopts "standard" tempos for movements I and IV, but the two spooky, lonely inner movements, well he takes them very broadly, and he applies more extreme rubato than any conductor I’ve heard since Stokowski, in his pioneering first recording with Philadelphia, cica 1934! It’s really, as they say, "X-treme", and by God it works. This is a great 4^th, from a totally unexpected source!]

Andriesson: Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Kuhlau. w/ Hague Philharmonic Orchestra; live, c. 1984 [If you like Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, I think you’ll enjoy this richly atmospheric suite.]

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, A Major, K. 622. Gervaise De Peyer, clarinet; London Symphony

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 1, D Major, K. 412. Barry Tuckwell, horn; London Symphony

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3, E Flat Major, K. 447. Barry Tuckwell, horn; London Symphony.

Haydn: Symphony No. 18, G Major. w/ Members of the London Symphony [15:06]

Schmitt: Psalm 47, Op. 58, w/ Orchestra & Choir of the ORTF. [27:05] [First recording of this glorious, heaven-storming, sonically spectacular, epic-scale extravaganza – I’ll be a live concert performance would induce angel-visions and transcendental seizures among the Godly. Reaches a majestic, sonorous, radiance-flooded climax, one that explodes in supernal light. I can’t imagine a more fervent or persuasive reading!]

Schmitt: La Tragedie de Salome, Op. 50. w/ ORTF Symphony Orchestra [27:42] [Schmitt’s aesthetic was very different from Richard Strauss’s, but in their two equally exciting but very different treatments of the same story, they both pull out all the stops. Why this huge, lush, palpably erotic wallow hasn’t been played much in the U.S. since the days of Mitropoulos seems unfathomable to me.. Not that you can’t make a case for Paray’s taut-silk approach on Mercury, but this score is a splurgey decadent wallow and it’s a mistake, I think, to try and tighten the structural screws too much. What a grand, almost ceremonial tsunami of sound!]

Balakirev: Overture on Russian Themes. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Strauss: "Arabella", The Great Scenes. w/ Elisabeth Schwarzkopf; Nicolai Gedda; Josef Metternich; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet, Op. 67-A. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Overture "The Storm", Op. 76. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Cor de Groot, piano. Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 5/ 9/ 1942 [39:18]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2, F Minor, Op. 21. w/ Theo van der Pas, piano. Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 4/ 9/ 1943 [28:59]

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 3/ 1940 [35:05]

Puccini: "Madama Butterfly" – "Un bel di…" Grace Moore, soprano; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 6/ 23/ 1936 [4:27]

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30. w/ Cologne Radio Symphony; live, Sept. 7, 1959 [33:23]

Strauss: "Elektra" – Electra’s Monologue. Astrid Varnay, sop.; Cologne Radio Symphony; live; Sept. 7, 1959 [10:16]

Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35. Alwin Bauer, cello; Cologne Radio Symphony; live; Sept. 7, 1959 [43:35] [The above three works comprises a memorial concert on the tenth anniversary of Richard Strauss’s death. The program note writer speaks of the "spasmodic tension" of the readings, and he’s right – they’re like sticking your finger into a light socket (although Dimitri DOES let the more relaxed sections of Don Quixote breathe and grow expansive. Good mono sound; the excellent Cologne orchestra, which wanted Dimitri to become its permanent conductor, plays like demons for him.]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2, C Minor, Op. 17. w/ Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. [Hard-driven, in the usual somewhat dry acoustic endemic to the Minneapolis sessions, this rendition nevertheless kicks ass big time!]

Berlioz: Overture to "Benvenuto Cellini", Op. 32. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 12/ 1939 [11:20]

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6, E Flat Major, Op. 111. Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra [One of Mravinsky’s greatest recordings, in excellent mono sound. He captures the biting irony, the sarcasm and despair, yet doesn’t slight the work’s bittersweet lyricism. The Leningrad brass (Gawd, those trombones!) covers itself with glory. Personally, I think THIS is Prokofiev’s greatest symphony, although I do dearly love the 5^th. There are some top-notch stereo versions out there (Slatkin, Walter Weller, even the old Leinsdorf/ Boston on RCA), but this is uniquely insightful and potent.]

As July, 2008 draws to a close, we present not just one, but TWO "Mystery Maestri"! And one, or possibly even both of them, were actually real living musicians. Maybe. On the legendarily abysmal "Plymouth" label ( legendary for it5s unplayable surfaces and for the pressing compound, a semi-rigid substance I call "not-vinyl" that usually turned gray and wore into noisy smoothness after 10-15 spins, even if you otherwise took great care of your Plymouth pressings! The basic sound, under the grunge of groove wear, was originally not bad; the performance has spunk and personality:

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, C Minor, Op. 18. w/ "Felicitas Karrer", piano; the

Franck: Symphony in D Minor. Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra; again, with no conductopr named inside or out; too dab, because this is a crisp, dramatic, no-nonsense reading in awfully good sound and with virtually no groove-wear.]

Prokofiev: Sinfonietta. w/ Philadelphia Orchestra; live, c. 1984

Corelli: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, complete. Moscow Philharmonic Soloists’ Ensemble. [Despite the steady popularity of Baroque music (although one gives thanks to God that the so-called "Vivaldi Boom" died out finally!), this monumental and often very beautiful cycle of string-music symphonies still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Oistrakh’s ensemble isn’t dainty; neither is it coarse, and he conducts each concerto grosso with maximum care to extract, even show-off, its vivid coloristic plumage. Tempi are often broad – so both conductor and players can caress a phrase here, put a special sheen on the harmonic texture there, and in general milk these puppies for all their worth…without ever bearing down on them with more Romantic emphasis than one suspects Corelli would have appreciated. But, boy, would he have loved the rich, coruscating tone of these splendid Russian string players! If you’ve never really sat down and listened to the cycle all the way through, DO make the effort. Corelli’s powers of invention were extraordinary and the individual concerti do not blur into one another when you really listen to them, instead of using them for Musak while you do the ironing. A great set, but one that never got wide distribution in America and that is, today, very rare. My Source copy is immaculate and unblemished. Wonderfully immediate in-the-room sonics, too.]

Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14. w/ Philadelphia Orchestra [His first recording, c. 1952; a thick, navy-blue-label Columbia, without "Groove-guard" rims; it’s very. very hard to find these LPs in playable condition, precisely because they rubbed against each other on the record "changers" [Read: "mutilators"] so many consumers used in the early 50s. And I got this as a Randolph County Public Library discard for 50 cents. Damn thing must have been checked out no more than twice! Sometimes you get lucky. Oh, yeah, Ormandy’s interpretation is juicy with rubato, retards, luftpausen, speedy little accelerandos, taffy-pull slow-downs, the whole bag of 19^th-Century tricks; his later RCA stereo version is straight as an arrow by comparison (but is still awesomely recorded and very energized, one of my all-time favorite Ormandy readings of anything]

Franck: "Psyche", Four Orchestral Episodes. w/ American Symphony, live, 1/ 28/ 1968

Mozart: Symphony No. 38, "Prague". w/ American Symphony Orchestra; live, 1/ 28/ 1968

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". w/ National Philharmonic of London. [Like most of Paita’s tragically short discography – he died under mysterious circumstances, drowning I think, just as his career was going nova – this is a white-hot, all-stops-out performance by a fiery young Argentine maestro who had more than a touch of kinship with Guido Cantelli, including, alas, the early death. Spectacular, almost vulgarly vivid, sonics. I’ve tried to collect all of his commercial discs, but still haven’t located any live concert tapes. Anyone out there able to help me out?]

Wagner: "Lohengrin" – Preludes Acts I & III. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Die Meistersinger" – "Prelude". Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Tannhauser" – Overture. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Wagner: "Die Walkure" – Ride of the Valkyries. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra [Very scarce early "Living Presence" monaural; library discard has some dismaying but rather light scratches. Paray, as expected, takes a dry-eyed non-monumental approach to this music: crisp, no nonsense, and emphasizing clarity above emotion. It works superbly in the "Ride of the Valkyries", but the rather thin, dry string tone of the orchestra undercuts his efforts in the lusher selections. The wear and tear isn’t so great as to obscure the generally excellent sound, though, and for Paray collectors, this is still a highly desirable LP.]

Kay, Ulysses: Concerto for Orchestra. w/ Teatro la Fenice Symphony Orchestra. [17:15] [Please see intemperate, typically over-long but wholly favorable rave under "Composers"]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act II – "Ah Manon, mi tradisce." w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954; [3:58]

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonrasro!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Fedora Barbieri; Boris Christoff; Rome Opera House Orchestra [2:32]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act I – "Questa o quella". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Romer O[era House Orchestra [2:08]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act III – "Bella figlia dell’amore". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Rome Opera House Orchestra [5:54]

Mahler: "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" & "Ruckert Lieder", Excerpts from. w/ Alfred Poell, tenor; Anny Felbermayer, soprano; Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Prokofiev: War & Peace, complete & sung in Italian. Maggio Musicale, Florence; live, 1953 [See details under "Opera, Choral & Vocal Soloists"]

Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 125. w/ Rostropovich & Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Berlin Symphony Orchestra. [Trust Sanderling to give us a Tchaik Fifth unlike anyone else’s. No cheap thrills. It’s sober, dignified, dark and weighty and to my tastes, just a little bit dull – until the last two movements, when he suddenly starts hurling thunderbolts. Is he following a triumph-through-struggle program here? Darkness – into – light? Or did he just find the work’s inherent vulgarity alien to him? Who knows? For what it’s worth, though, both playing and recorded sound are of the very highest quality. I might grow to like this version after a while – the "dignity" thing isn’t entirely wrong-headed and the sonics sure are voluptuous.]

SCHERCHEN:

Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5. w/ Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris & ORTF Chorus. [98:21] [See comments under "Composer"]

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprano Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Haydn: Symphony No. 92. G Major, Hob. 1:92 ("Oxford"). w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [23:56]

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. w/ NWDR Orchestra of Hamburg. [In addition to making a small but choice number of records for Capitol, HS-I also recorded a few in stereo for Vox; this is one. The usually crisp, incisive, no-nonsense conductor (whose icy, craggy Sibelius IInd is one of the jewels of these catalogues!) here seems to have contracted a bad case of Furtwangleritis. If you like this reading, you’ll describe it as "broad and monumental"; if you don’t, you’d probably call it "slow, draggy, and Teutonic". I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. However, it’s very rare, my source copy is near-mint, and I know there ARE some H S-I collectors, ‘cause I’ve met a couple. Uncharacteristically, alas, HS-I here fails to deliver the kind of crunchy power Furtwangler or Knappertsbusch could even at funereal tempos; I don’t recommend it for your first exposure to this usually excellent maestro.]

Ovchinnikov: Symphony No. 1, E Flat Minor. w/ USSR Large Radio Symphony Orchestra [See comments under "Composers"]

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Paris Conservatoire Orchestra (1958) [9:56]

Hindemith: Mathis der Maler. w/ Philharmonia Orchestra [28:11] [One of the very best!]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34. w/ Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra [15:44]

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45. w/ Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [16:48]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"). w/ Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra.

Mozart: Serenade for 13 Winds, E Flat Major, K. 361. [41:11] [Sometimes Stokie could blow you away by NOT giving a "personalized" reading! Here, he plays this beguiling score perfectly straight, just imbuing it with tons of charm and personality and proving how great the wind section of the ASO had become. Superb sonics, too.]

Ravel: Alborado del Gracioso. w/ Frenbch ORTF Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, B Minor, "Pathetique". w/ Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, c. 1944 [See comments under "Composers"]

SWAROWSKY: [This month, we feature a varied "pops" program by Elusive Hans, taken from a very early "Music Treasures" LP in remarkably fine condition. I still wonder about this dude. He evidently taught about half the famous conductors of the 20^th century, and I’ve seldom heard a performance by him that wasn’t vital and interesting – yet he never was Music Director of a major symphonic ensemble, and his recording activities were almost exclusively with second-rate, budget or subscription labels (such as Music Treasures) and the best outfit he normally got to conduct was either the Vienna Symphony or the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (one of those two is almost certainly the band you hear on this ancient LP, under the nom-du-disque of the "Music Treasures Symphony Orchestra". Well, really, who gives a rat’s ass? He was a fine and unpredictable maestro, and these warhorses lather up just fine for him. Sound and surfaces, too, are unusually good for this sometimes-cruddy label. Not a major addition to his discography, but it does prove he could to the Arthur Fiedler bit quite engagingly when he felt like it.]

Wagner: "Gotterdammerung", complete. w/ South German Philharmonic; Vienna State Opera Chorus & various soloists.

Strauss, Johann:"On the Beautiful Blue Danube", Op. 314. Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 6/ 23/ 1934. [9:05]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 8, G Major, Op. 88. w/ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, c. 1952-1953. [What a rotten shame Talich did not live into the stereo age! The bright, rather edgy monaural sonics on this Supraphon classic are still surprisingly listenable – that sweet, golden-hued reverb in the Prague Hall of Artists!) and the CPO plays for him like Bohemian angels. And this performance has it all, in perfect proportion: earthy folk-tunes’ swinging with perfect rhythm; golden laser-beam brass (dig the solo trumpet when he announces the finale! Always gives me goosebumps… and lastly, my Source copy is in very clean shape with narry a pop or crackle. This is the way God meant for Dvorak to sound, people: both ineffably sweet and crushingly powerful! A great Number Eight (or as we used to call it in 1956, "Number Four" (just to screw with everybody’s head one last time!]

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4, D Major, K. 218. Jiri Novak, violin; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Blacher: Paganini Variations. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984

Mahler: Symphony No. 9. w/ London Philharmonic Orchestra; live, c. 1983

Beethoven: "Creatures of Prometheus", Adagio & Allegretto only. w/ NBC Symphony; live; 11/ 25/ 1939]

Beethoven: Septet, E Flat Major, Op. 20, in uncredited ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENT!. w/ NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 18/ 1939 [35:17] [Gadzooks! What weirdness is this!!?? So much for Toscanini’s legendary integrity: "never tamper with the score"! But it would be churlish to remind you that he was, after all, a human being and therefore almost by definition was a walking seething mass of contradictions. I have no idea who did this orchestration, but it’s tasteful and thoroughly respectful of the original – however, and this is kind of cool, it DOES make this early (and to my ears rather vapid) Beethoven tidbit sound an awful lot like middle-aged Brahms! Toscanini conducts both this and the two movements listed below with exquisite poise and elegance…if only the NBC orchestra could have swapped string sections with the Philadelphia for this concert!]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 – Lento & Vivace movements only. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live; 11/ 23/ 1939 [10:50] [More than one conductor has tried orchestrating this especially big-boned quartet. Mitropoulos did a lush, steamy arrangement, which was eventually recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic under Bernstein; Felix Weingartner orchestrated it, too, although I’ve never heard that one; and here’s Toscanini’s (if in fact it IS his work) I think the music easily survives translation to a big body of strings, but to work like that it has to be conducted very forcefully, even showily, and Toscanini is very restrained and elegant here. Valid up to a point, but you really have to strain to hear the quieter moments.]

Schubert: "Gastein" Symphony. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live, 1940 [41:26] [Whether or not you think this odd-man-out deserves a permanent place in the Schubert canon, you’ll surely never hear a finer realization of it than this one, recorded while Toscanini and the NBC players were still a fresh, potent combination and before the conductor’s style had become stiff, inflexible and dogmatic. In fact, the notable thing about this reading is its warmth and relaxed lyricism, combined with a graceful application of power when the score calls for it (which isn’t often, but the last movement does pack plenty of drama, and you’ll never hear it done with more ferocious energy; the coda just explodes with long-held-back excitement. For all its eloquence, the reading survives only on mediocre-sounding air-checks, so you may have to strain a little to hear all the marvelous, glowing details that Toscanini brought out; this was, alas, the only time he programmed this symphony, so it’s "mediocre air-checks" or nothing.]

Stravinsky: Petrouchka – Tableaux 1 & 2 only. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live, 1941. [17:37] [As you might suspect, Toscanini detested the music of Stravinsky. He was "induced" (brow-beaten, really] into performing these two extracts from Petrouchka because the executives at NBC were already catching flak with regard to Toscanini’s "reactionary" programming and wanted their prize conductor to throw an occasional bone in the direction of the Twentieth Century. It’s too bad really that he never took on Le Sacre – can you imagine the percussion sound?? – but these 18 minutes of the earlier ballet would end up being the ONE AND ONLY time Toscanini crossed batons with Stravinsky. Whether he hated this score or not, there’s no gainsaying the ferocity and galvanic sizzle of this reading, especially the sheer nastiness from the brass! Maybe it would have been a good idea to have him program MORE pieces that he hated!]

Verdi: Requiem. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; Westminster Choir; Zinka Milanov; Bruna Castania; Jussi Bjoerling; Nicola Mascagna; recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Jan. 1940. [Each Toscainin recording of this totanic work is tremenoud and eachj is different, often significantly so, from the others. I suppose the most theatrically potent one is the 1939 BBC breoadcast (clouds of looming wear and all that!), but the slightly woolly and definiately "old" sounding sonics compromise the power of the reading; the studio recording RAC made in 1951 ain’t got no flies on it, either – packs a whallop. But this 1940 version is graced bt a quartet of the best singeres Toscanini was ever graced with, and they in turn are backed up by the Westminster Choir in its glory days! RCA captured the live electricity handsomely, no gain-riding in the ballsiest climaxes; the solo quartet’s individual voices blend superbly and their solo lines soar like Icarus – this demonstrates why Carnegie Hall was such a beloved recording venue and, by contrast, why Avery Fisher Hall, despite several major re-builds and the spending of more money than the Gross National Product of most Third World countries, still has the acoustics of a pay-toilet.]

Verdi: Te Deum. w/ NBC Symphony & Robert Shaw Chorale; live, Carnegie Hall, 1954. [Just colossal!]

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, Op. 90 ("Italian"), This has long been one of my favorite Van Beinum records – light as a feather, graceful as a swallow yet that glorious brass section plays with a hint of real swagger. Fine sonics, too, for 1952!]

Rosselini, Renzo: "Stampe, della vecchia Roma". w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 12/ 17/ 1942 [13:09]

>>>>SPECIAL LISTING: SIEGFRIED CONDUCTS RICHARD<<<<<<

Unavailable in any format since 1975, here are the collected recordings of Richard Wagner’s music as conducted by his son, Siegfried Wagner. Is there any reason besides genetics to regard them as "special"? You bet! Siegfried was not only a prolific and pretty-damn-good composer, he was an excellent conductor. George Bernard Shaw regarded him as being equal in his talent to Hans Richter and Felix Mottl; of course he conducted a lot at Bayreuth, but he was also extensively engaged in London, Paris, Vienna, Prague and other major centers of music; he was famously easy-going and patient with orchestras and his generally broad tempos were the means of achieving unusually detailed articulation and poetic phrasing. I won’t pretend these are "high fidelity" recordings, but for early electrics, they contain an unusual sense of presence and plenty of detail. If you’re a Wagnerian, you must at least hear these rarities, which to the best of my knowledge have never been transferred to CD. N.B.: the entire set takes up 1.5 CDs, so you might want to fill ‘er up with Siegfried’s symphony or a couple of his tone poems!]

Richard Wagner: "Das Reingold" – "Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla" Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January 26, 1927.

"Die Walkure" – " Ride of the Valkyries". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded December 8, 1926

"Die Walkure" – "Wotan’s Farewell & Magic Fire Music". Recorded January 26, 1927

"Lohengrin" – "Prelude to Act I". London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

Siegfried Idyll. London Symphony Orchestra; recorded Apreil, 1927

"Tannhauser" – "Entrance of the Guests". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January, 1927

"Tristan und Isolde" – "Prelude & Liebestod". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded October, 1926

The "Huldigungsmarsch". London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

"Parsifal" – "Prelude to Act III". Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded August 18, 1927

"Parsifal" – "Good Friday Spell, Act III" Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded December 8, 1926

Siegfried Wagner: "Der Barenhauter" Overture ("Lazybones". Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded February, 1925

Mahler: Symphony No. 9. w/ Vienna Philharmonic, live, 1/ 18/ 1938 [69:54] [Walter’s post-war Mahler interpretations tended to soft-pedal the angst and bleakness and pain (in a misguided attempt, I guess, to "popularize" a composer he loved and should have understood better; Mitropoulos and Bernstein didn’t compromise the bruitality, the darkness, and the vulgar excess – indeed, they reveled in it – but Walter just didn’t have that in him any more. Here, in what proved to be his last concert in Vienna before fleeing to America, he wasn’t pulling any punches. As a Viennese Jew, he knew what was coming, and in this almost savage reading, he was sending a Jeremiah-like warning. Compared to the mellow, autumnal version he recorded in stereo (fine in its own way), this reading is lacerating and charged with terror. The whip-lash frenzy with which he batters-home the ending of III, the sarcasm and racial self-pardoy in II, the surging momentum in IV (a man hurrying toward his own doom?)…these are traits not found in any other Bruno Walter Mahler recording, and even today, they scare the hell out of me. The recorded sound is almost unbelievably vivid and fine; the orchestral playing is magnificent. Here’s an interpretation born, red-faced and screaming, from the fevered womb of the Zeitgeist. If you love Mahler’s music and have never heard this historic landmark, you must. And it fits on one CD!]

Strauss, Johann: Kaiserwaltzer, Op. 437. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 10/ 18/ 1937 [9:06] [Wonderful and scarce example of Walter performing the lighter Viennese repertoire. Utterly charming]

Alfven: Gustavus Adolphus Suite, Op. 49. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [36:35]

Atterberg: Symphony No. 1, Op. 3. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [40:15]

De Frumerie: Pastoral Suite for Flute, Harp, & String Orchestra. w/ Borje Malerius, flute; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [11:54]

Lindberg: "Florez & Blanzeflor" Symphonic Poem, Op. 12. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. [13:25]

Wiren: Sinfonietta. w/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [17:09]

"BATTLE MUSIC" W/ Newell Jenkins; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan. [well, I presume we ALL know about the "1812 Overture" and "Wellington’s Victory" both of which really deserve more credit AS music than they usually get. So here are some of the same-genre works that inspired those two war horses. Jenkins turns in stylish and energetic readings (indeed, this may be the ONLY recording of two out of the four!) and the sonics are spiffy. More detailed remarks follow…]

Battaglia. [9:18]

Contretanz, K. 587 ("The Victory of the Hero Coburg"). [1:34]

"Les Caracteres de la Guerre. [11:18]

"La Bataille", Sinfonie Op. 11. [25:04] [OK, here’s a brief blurb about this charming collection.

MUSIC IN QUARTER-TONES [A quick-and-dirty explanation: this is what music would sound like if, centuries ago, almost everybody, who wasn’t tone-deaf, hadn’t decided that it just sounded better if it was written with "sharps" and "flats" instead of according to strict mathematical values. If you need a further explanation, you probably won’t like what this stuff sounds like. I probably shouldn’t either, but in short doses, I kind of do like it, although it’s even more of a technical dead-end than strict serialism. A couple of these guys seem to be having fun with the challenge (Ives, Macero – who states that he wrote his piece at the instigation of our old friend Oliver Daniel, when Oliver was President of B.M.I.!!), and this unique anthology didn’t remain in print for very long. One imagines its sales were…um…micro-tonal]

Catch-Up, for Tape and Two Pianos. George Pappastavrou & Stuart Lanning, pianos. [3:12]

Triple-Play, for Ondes Martinot & Two Pianos. Papastavrou & Manning; Helen McGill, Ondes Martinot [7:22]

Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for Two Pianos. Pappastavrou & Manning. [10:40]

Lines for the Fallen, for Soprano & Two Pianos. Phyllis Bryn-Julsen, soprano; Pappastavrou & Manning, pianos [7:53]

One-Three Quarters. Composer; Chamber Ensemble of Syracus University. [5:43]

BY LAST NAME:

"Gustavus Adolphus" Suite, Op. 49. Stig Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [36:45] [Well, this piece cinches it: Hugo Alfven, as good a symphonist as he was, would have been a simply incredible film-music composer; a Baltic version of Miklos Rosza! Nobody today remembers anything about the ponderous and unimaginative stage pageant for which Alfven composed this gorgeous music; it had a brief run in Stockholm and Gothenberg back in 1932 – the 300^th anniversary of Gustavus’s accidental death from a stray bullet near sun-down on the day of the Battle of Lutzen, a milestone event in the Thirty-Years’ War. Alfven DOES use the Protestant anthem "A Mighty Fortress" in a few spots, but mostly he achieves a "period" flavor by coming up with original chorale-like themes that suggest the somberness of great deeds performed against heavy odds – even, dare one say it, the sadness of Sweden’s lost glory, that relatively brief epoch when this small, civilized Scandinavian nation was the pivotal power that decided who would control the entire Baltic region; a time when Sweden was among the countries that mattered, when a succession of enlightened monarchs (who were also superb diplomats and inspired battlefield strategists) created both a military and a diplomatic apparatus capable of trouble the sleep of the Tsars! Alfven’s score captures the long, be-flagged sweep of history, the ceremonial grandeur of royal courts, and the stirring imagery of great armies wheeling for advantage on the field, cold Baltic sunlight flickering of the steel of their helmets and lances. Truly, this is stirring and evocative music and works as such all by itself, even if you know nothing about Swedish history in the 17^th Century. This is a whole new side to Alfven’s personality: the public composer of pomp and pageantry! Westerberg, who never made a bad record, leads his doughty band in a positively heroic performance, and the engineering on this near-mint 1967 Swedish Discofil album is spectacularly good.]

ALKAN:

Concerto da Camera No. 2, C-sharp Minor. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [6:35]

The Irish Suite. Fiedler; Boston Pops. [C’mon, get that broomstick out of your backside and smile! This is irresistible and Fiedler conducts the hell out of it. If Coates had been born an American, he might have written this toe-tapping and rowdy suite. Excellent Symphony Hall sound, too.]

Variations & Fugue for String Orchestra on a Theme by Kuhlau. Leitner; Hagues Philharmonic Orchestra; live, 1983. [A lovely, atmospheric, antique-flavored work by a too-little-known Dutch composer of great skill and facility]

Aria Appassionata. Herbert Blomstedt; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [6:01]

Suite No. 3, for Violin, Viola & String Orchestra, Op. 19. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony [12:53]

Symphony No. 1, G Minor, Op. 3. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; [40:16] [Atterberg was only 24 when he composed this, the first of his eventual 9 symphonies, but you can already hear, in nascent form, his genius for melody and harmonic transformation; it’s turbulent music, of course, and in the adagio, very passionate – even wild, and one can certainly hear traces of the masterly composer Atterberg would soon become. It almost goes without saying that Stig Westerberg conducts the hell out of the piece, unleashing its climaxes to soar and roar. Why haven’t conductors beyond Sweden discovered this music?]

Concerto for Flute, Strings & Basso Continuo. Roelof Krol; Radio Netherlands Chamber Ensemble; live, mid-Seventies; [27:32] [This is a startling piece – you can hear the Romantic afflatus trying to break through the late Baroque tent like a kudzu vine. It’s a big, expressive piece, too, with a wide emotional range and moments of extreme beauty. It dates from 1772, but sound like it was composed maybe 30 years later. Ol’ CPE was no slouch! None o’ them Bach Boys wuz!]

Magnificat. w/ Felicity Palmer, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Robert Tear, tenor; Stephen Roberts, bass; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Field; Philip Ledger). [I think this is a truly stirring and masterful work, almost on par with J. S. B.’s Magnificat. Everyone involved in this performance seems to be giving 110 % and it does make a difference!]

Brandenberg Concertos, complete. Szymon Goldberg; Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. [Highly distinguished but wonderfully old-fashioned. Goldberg isn’t hesitant about bending a line or pointing an unwritten accent in the name of simple expressiveness. Definitely not Period Performance Police approved!]

Cello Suite No. 2. Janos Starker. Cello. [Date and venue uncertain; from the mid-Sixties and, of course, gorgeous.]

Cello Suite No. 5. Janos Starker. Cello. [See comments under "Suite No. 2"]

The "Little" Organ Book, Complete. Robert Neohren, organ; w/ organ of the First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, N.Y. [69:11]

Mass in B Minor. Karl Richter; Munich Bach Choir & Orchestra; Maria Stader, soprano; Herthat Toepper, contralto; Ernst Haefliger, tenor; Kieth Engen and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, basses. [As I recall, this was the first stereo recording of this towering masterpiece and I bought a copy not long after it came ou, in either late 1961 or early 1962. I played it quite a bit until 1966, when a paragidmatic Sixties’ incident caused two sides of the set to become unplayable due to…well, let me start at the beginning. My step-brother Pete, of whom I was and am inordinately fond (he’s now an Alzheimer’s research fellow at Duke, so you can bet your ass that I keep abreast of that subject as I near my own dotage!), and is seven years younger than I. He had the good sense to join the Army long before the Gulf of Tonkin shoot-out; scored so high on his aptitude tests that the Green Machine gave him virtual carte blanche to pick his speciality (which was NOT being a rifleman in Vietnam), and he showed immense raw talent for intelligence work, which he soon found fascinating. He "majored" in cryptography, which guaranteed him a NATO post; he learned to speak and read German fluently; he got a kick out of the whole James Bond aspect of his duties (although most of what he translated were routine Warsaw Pack messages and reports, there WAS a tinge of excitement to the job because more than one high-strategist thought it possible that the Warsaw Pact, taking advantage of so much US military power being sucked into the tar pits of SE Asia and finding itself becoming both economically and technologically behind more and more, might adopt a "use it or lose it" option and launch an all-out invasion of West Germany. Die-hard ideologues on BOTH sides rather hoped it would happen, just to settle the East-West competition issue once and for all. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed and although Pete was "Sharpshooter" qualified with an M-14, he never heard or fired an angry shot.

Piano Concerto, F Minor. Jan Wijn, piano; Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies [Never heard of the pianist? He won the Prix-de-Something in Holland and I’d stack this version against almost any other (Glenn Gould always excepted).]

Violin Concerto, A Minor. Yehudi Menuhin; Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 1964 [Gorgeously romantic reading, with no sign of Menuhin’s intonation / fingering problems – just sweet pure lyricism and ripe phrasing. As lovely a reading as you’ll ever hear!]

Homage to Sarasate. Mester; Louisville Orchestra [7:09] [Witty, sophisticated, and good fun]

Overture on Russian Themes. Von Matacic; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Symphony No. 7. Raymond Leppard; London Philharmonic. [45:09] [Sourced from the long out-of-copyright "HNH" pressing (that label went out of business almost 30 years ago), NOT the Lyrita, which hasn’t even come out yet and maybe won’t; so I think it’s legal – if, admittedly, a little slippery—for me to list it. If Lyrita sees this and objects, just email me and I’ll delete it; I would not do anything, however minor, to spoil the current come-back of that noble trademark! But, honest to God, folks, how many orders am I likely to get for the longest and one of the least immediately-appealing Arnold Bax symphonies? Two per year? And all the drum-beating I do for 20^th-Century English Romantics could reasonably be construed as free advertising FOR the re-issued Lyritas, which I do NOT offer for dubbing, unless it’s entirely by mistake (Lyritas were sold in the U.S. under several licensing agreements, including Musical Heritage Society and HNH and…mmmm, I forget; it’s hardly a cut-and-dried situation. And if anyone thinks I’m in this FOR THE MONEY, they should check in to the nearest psychiatric clinic for a quick evaluation; on my BEST months, I’ve made enough of a "profit" to pay for the ink, blank CDs, and postage for the next month’s orders. I keep hoping this web site will reach "critical mass" and word-of-mouth will spread: "This crazy old fart has MORE desirable stuff than ANY web site I’ve ever seen!" And if that’s not literally true today (June, 2008), it surely WILL be by New Years day!]

"Coriolanus" Overture. Slatkin; New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984. [N.B. This is the Gustav Mahler re-orchestration, which to my knowledge hasn’t been commercially recorded. The "re-touchen" are subtle, but the effect is, at the very least, fascinating!]

"Creatures of Prometheus", Adagio & Allegro only. Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 25/ 1939 [6:54]

Eleven Viennese Dances. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [15:59]

Grosse Fugue. Pascal String Quartet

King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. Janos Ferencsik; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

King Stephan Overture, Op. 117. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra [See comments under "Conductors"]

Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Cor de Groot, piano; Willem Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 5/ 9/ 1942 [39:18]

Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73, "Emperor". Istvan Antal, piano; Gyula Nemeth; Hungarian State Philharmonic [38:37]

Sonata for Violin & Piano, F Major, Op. 29, "Spring". David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano; live, 1962 [26:09]

Quartet No. 16, Lento & Vivace only. (arranged for full orchestra) Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 11/ 25/ 1939 [10:30]

Septet (Arranged for full orchestra). Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live; 11/ 18/ 1939 [27:50] [See comments under "Conductors"

Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 21. Pablo Casals, cello; Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano [16:09]

Sonata for Violin & Piano, C Minor, Op. 30/ No. 2. David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano [24:31]

Song: "Ich Liebe Dich". Lotte Lehmann. soprano

Symphony No. 1, C Major, Op. 21. Furtwangler; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 7/ 13/ 1950 [25:03]

Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". Sir John Barbirolli; BBC Symphony Orchestra [54:22] [See rave under "Conductors".]

Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". Kubelik; New York Philharmonic, live mid-80s. [Stunning! May be the finest Beethoven by Kubelik I’ve ever heard. Timpani like rifle shots!]

Symphony No. 4, B-Flat Major, Op. 60. Janos Ferencsik; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"). Stokowski; Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, c. 1944

Symphony No. 7, A Major, Op. 92. Fritz Busch; Vienna Symphony; live, 10/ 15/ 1950

Trio for Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 1, No. 3. Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano; Sandor Vegh, violin; Pablo Casals, Cello [31:33] [For what it’s worth, this was recorded live in the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, and all three of these great musicians declared the event "special". Poltergeists, perhaps?]

Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91. Rene Leibowitz; Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. [15: 40]

String Quartet, Op. 3. Julliard String Quartet

"Benvenuto Cellini" Overture, Op. 32. Pierre Monteux; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 12/ 1939 [11:20]

"Le Corsair" Overture, Op. 21. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [7:50]

Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14. Ormandy; Philadelphia Orch. [The very early mono version: thick heavy platter with navy blue label, but in remarkably fine condition. Ormandy’s RCA stereo remark has long been one of my favorites (and is still very much in copyright, alas), but this one packs quite a ;punch and is almost impossible to find in good condition.]

Requiem (Grande Mess des Morts), Op. 5. Scherchen; Jean Giraudeux, tenor; Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris; ORTF Chorus. [A landmark recording. The first in stereo, and for all the problems of performing it in the original location, the engineers managed to capture a surprising amount of the vastness, if not quite the last measure of apocalyptic thunder. Scherchen’s reading is, of course, both brilliant and eccentric, but always forward moving, even in the most devotional passages. Munch and Bernstein have better sound, of course, and are equally fervent, but this is in no way a stop-gap recording; it is still thrilling and majestic.] [98:21]

Symphony Funereal and Triumphal, Op. 15. Ernest Graf; Vienna State Opera Orchestra. [It’s hard to believe that the composer who wrote the sleek, magical "Symphonie Fantastique" is the same composer who churned out this bloated, vulgar, formulaic bit of musical up-chuck. If you’re in the mood for exalted hollow bombast, this’ll do it almost better than anything else I could suggest. This performance, sourced from an ancient Urania disc just barely in real stereo, is about as good as it ever gets and the sound isn’t bad at all. It’s just horrid music, though, disfigured by this stentorian trombone obbligato that goes on…and on…and on…]

Roman Carnival Overture. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Te Deum, Op. 22. Sir Thomas Beecham; Royal Philharmonic & London Philharmonic Choir; Alexander Young, tenor; live, 1953. [45:51]

Piano Concerto in D Major. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [17:58]

Battalia. Jenkens; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan [9:18]

"The Pearl Fishers", Act I – "Au fond du temple saint…" Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; Robert Merrilkl; RCA Victor Symphony under Renato Cellini [4:35] (Rec. 1/ 3/ 1951)

Orchestral Fantasy. Whitney; Louisville Orchestra. [Like most Americans, I used to think of Blacher as being vaguely encamped in the Stockhausen wing of European music, but he’s far more interesting than that. He even wrote a satirical opera parodying the "Punkt-Contra-Punkt" school and its pretensions, and when the predictable ideological snarling began, he characterized the avant-garde as "juvenile delinquents". Way to go, Boris! His "Paganini Variations" are almost as brilliant and playful as Rachmaninoff’s. This piece is a little more sinewy, and, yes, it opens with a tone row, but it’s moody and perfectly accessible music, in an abstract-expressionist kind of way.]

Paganini Variations. Klaus Tennstedt; New York Philharmonic; live, c. 1984

"Adam Zero", Suite from the ballet. Vernon Handley; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. [31;02]

"Checkmate", Suite from the Ballet. Handley; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic [28:51]

Melee Fantasque. Composer; London Symphony Orchestra [13:04] [A zany, exhuberent warm-up for Bliss’s major ballet scores to come. Hard to describe except that it’s a bit wild and surreal, and a whole lot of fun.]

Sonata for Viola & Piano. Emanuel Vardi, viola; Frank Weinstock, piano. [21:47] [This is a very fine piece, though little-known. Its bittersweetness, deeply expressive but never sentimental, sort of puts me in mind of Brahms (not normally the first composer who comes to mind as an influence on Sir Arthur). Or maybe it’s the wild, gypsy-like "furiant" of the third movement – most UN-Blissian but terribly exciting! You think the piece is over, then a dark andante maestoso coda suddenly appears, as a kind of post-orgasmic meditation. It’s a striking piece and Vardi plays it with tremendous gusto.]

String Quartet No. 1. Griller String Quartet. [A good dubbing from an ancient London set (LLA-23), and the first complete cycle of these works ever recorded; still unsurpassed for intensity, undetrstanding, and conviction. A few small pops & blemishes (this used to be a library copy, but hardly anyone was curious enough to check it out!), but nothing that really distracts or compromises the basically very fine mono sound]

Improvisations sur Mallarme. Composer; New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80. Jan Koetsier; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 3/ 5/ 1944 [11:08]

Song: "Botschaft", Op. 47, Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Song: "Das Madchen hat einen Rosenmund". Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Song: "Das Madchen Spricht", Op. 107/ No. 3. Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Symphony No. 2, D Major, Op. 73. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. Hans Schmidt-Isserstadt; NWDR Synphony of Hamburg

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. Fritz Busch; Vienna Symphony Orchestra; live, 10/ 15/ 1950 [See comments under "Conductors"]

Tragic Overture, Op. 81. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 3/ 22/ 1937

Violin Concerto Op. 77. Gioconda De Vito, violin; Wilhelm Furtwangler; RAI Orchestra of Turin, live; 1/ 7/ 1953 The sound of this broadcast air-check is abysmally bad, too, awash with wow and distortion and the music seemingly held at arm’s length. DeVito actually acquits himself pretty well, despite his wiry, less-than-luxurious tone, but the dynamic range ands frequency-response on this acetate actually sound WORSE than the 78s still being manufacturedf as late as 1955, What a pity, because this performance is of more value than a mere curiosity.]

On the Nature of Things. Mester; Louisville Orchestra. [12:17] [An engaging, meditative, appropriately "philosophical" piece by one of Canada’s finest composers. Excellent sound and performance.]

NOTE: AS I WAS TYPING THIS LIST, WORD CAME THAT COMPOSER HARRY BRANT HAD DIED, AT HIS HOME IN MONTREAL. HE WILL BE MOURNED BY MANY – FOR BY ALL ACCOUNTS HE WAS A TRUE FRIEND, A FINE TEACHER, AND AN HONORABLE COLLEAGUE. I SHALL CONTINUE TO LIST SUCH OF HIS WORKS AS I HAVE ACQUIRED – NOT, ALAS, A GREAT NUMBER, BUT THERE ARE AT LEAST 5-6 LIVE TAPED PERFORMANCES OF WORKS NEVER COMMERCIALLY RECORDED – AND I URGE YOU TO MAKE THEIR ACQUAINTANCE. HE WAS THE REAL DEAL, PEOPLE.

BRIAN, Havergal: [Sooner or later, I’m going to list ALL of his bloody symphonies; sooner or later he WILL be recognized as THE great maverick composer of 20^th Century English music (and frankly, he makes Charles Ives look like a nasty, crabby old screwball!)! Watch it happen, folks! Meanwhile, here are new copies that MAY duplicate a few of those whackily-named Aries pirate discs, but even if they do, they warrant a separate listing because they derive from first-generation off-the-air tapes of the BBC concerts, so they’re as good as you can get until Leopold Mengelwangler or whoever the next Superstar Conductor turns out to be (probably brillo-head, Gustavo Dudamel! Jesus, I can SEE the kid’s got charisma running out of his pours, but let’s give him a few years to season before handing him a major orchestra! I eagerly reviewed for American Record Guide, his first Beethoven album on DG, expected to hear the hottest thing since Lenny Bernstein "spontaneously" substituted for Bruno Walter (the whole stunt was, of course, carefully orchestrated and about as "spontaneous" as the plans for D-Day!), and boy did it really, really bite!) takes up the cause. Yeah, I know – cold day in Hell, right? That’s what I’m here for – a Voice Haranguing in the Wilderness!]

Symphony No. 13. Stanley Pope; Royal Philharmonic; live date ? [17:51]

Symphony No. 17. Stanley Pope; Royal Philharmonic [13:30] [That was a typo, but it looks cool, so I’ll leave it…]

Scottish Ballad for 2 Pianos & Orchestra, Op. 26. Joshua Pierce & Dorothy Jonas, pianists; Ettore Stratta; Radio Luxembourg Symphony [13:06] [Not every great composer is always in the groove to write something marvelous and memorable. It’s an early piece; rather bland, and I frankly don’t hear a damn thing "Scottish" about it. The performers do their best, but in this case there are good reasons for its obscurity. The flip-side Martinu is another story]

Les Illuminations, Op. 18. Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano. Nicolas Harsanyi; Piedmont Chamber Orchestra [27:50]

Spheres in Orbit. Composer; Greater Symphony Orchestra of Soviet Radio & Television; live, 1962 [14:30] [One of Canada’s most versatile and respected composer/conductors does his thing on a good-will visit to the Soviet Union, circa 1961-62. His piece is dramatic and colorful, if lacking in thematic distinction; the recorded sound is so-so, and typically Russian for its era. However, the flip side holds a blazing account of the Pines of Rome! Talk about an "odd couple"… Anyway, this piece is supposed to be about space ships and exploding galaxies and such; the Russians, having just scooped everybody with Sputnik, were in a receptive mood! It now sounds awfully dated, but it’s good fun.]

String Quartet (1965). La Salle String Quartet. [9:28]

Mass No. 3, F Minor, ("The Great"). Ferdinand Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus; Soloists: Dorothea Siebert, soprano; Dagmar Herrmann, alto; Erich Majkut, tenor; Otto Wiener, bass. [The first recording of this glorious work, on an ancient Vox release, in gratifyingly good sound and fervent work both by the under-rated Grossmann and his vocal forces. Jochum’s much-later stereo version is still the one to beat (at least until someone offers Celibidache’s titanic account in decent sound – I HAVE a CD, but it was obviously pirated from microphones sneaked into the hall inside somebody’s coat sleeves (true! You can hear this wretch clearing his throat and it sounds like some hideous beast growling right into the tape!). But for a pioneering stab-at-it, Grossmann and his musicians really do justice to the manifold glories of this huge work. My Source copy is virtually unblemished AND correctly pitched!]

Symphony No. 5 (original version") Asahana; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony No. 8. Knappesrtsbusch; Vienna Philharmonic Orch., live, October, 1961. [A tremendous, monolithic reading, in decent if a trifle shrill sonics, but withal one of the very few Knappertsbusch performances that survives in authentic stereo. Great Bruckner conducting in the Old School manner; Kna directed any and all versions of these scores, depending on what mood he was in; he just didn’t give a damn about fustian musicological scholarship, describing succinctly as "Scheisse".

Ballade No. 3, A Flat Major, Op. 47. Sviatoslav Richter, piano; live; London, Wigmore Hall, 1964 or 1965.

Piano Concerto No. 2, F Minor, Op. 21. w/ Theo van der Pas, piano; Willem Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 4/ 9/ 1943 [28:59]

"Core ‘ngrato". Enrico Caruso (Rec. 11/ 19/ 1911)

Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, complete. Igor Oistrakh; Moscow Philharmonic Soloists’ Ensemble. [As some of you no doubt recall, in late middle age, Oistrakh was increasingly drawn to the podium rather than the chamber music recital stage, with very felicitous results, to judge from the handful of Soviet live recordings that trickled into the export market. His live "Pathetique" is one of the darkest, wildest, most thunderous accounts I know of (the timpani crash heralding the coda of Movement I sounds like the Red Army’s opening barrage at the Battle of Kursk!). Now, surprisingly, there came into my hot little hands this 3-LP set of Corelli’s exquisite string symphonies – for that’s what they were in all but name – played with both ripeness of color and phrasing and keen stylistic discipline. The music itself is clearly pre-Romantic in temperament and in its startling emotional range, but Oistrakh never permits any overlay of vibrato or anachronistic phrasing. His readings may be imprudently rich in calories, but they are also among the most sheerly beautiful accounts of these wonderful works ever committed to disc. I’m told that less than 700 sets of the LPs were exported to the U.S., which means that collectors who lived in New York, or Chicago, snapped ‘em up and haven’t let go of them. IF you saw the 3-disc set on E Bay…the bidding would start at $150, no matter what the condition. My LPs are near-mint; and by the mid-Seventies, Melodiya’s engineers had the "stereo thing" down – the sonics are as vivid and bathed in red-blooded ambience as the string playing itself!]

Symphony No. 2 in One Movement. Mester; Louisville Orchestra. [24:21] [Busy, busy, busy! Lots of dramatic gestures; tightly argued – you might like it. I haven’t yet been able to warm up to it.]

"Carillon des morts." Herreweghe; Musica Antiqua, Cologne [4:38]

Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 3 " " " " [OUTRAGEOUS AND UNINFORMED OPINION WARNING: I acknowledge that Charles Ives was " a genius", but if he hadn’t had hymnals and popular music of his time to ransack and permutate, how much of his music would we have? I almost never get in "an Ives mood"; on the other hand, I’m never NOT in a "Henry Cowell" mood. I think he’s hugely undervalued and underplayed and my God was he prolific! The "Hymns & Fuguing Tunes" are all beautiful, in the rugged, simple manner of a good shaped-note sing. And his range was huge – you can’t say that about Ives, either. So I defiantly express my preference: Cowell rules!]

Symphony No. 16. (??!!) [This one, I’m pretty sure, is a guy. Prolific, poly-stylistic. Maybe the East European answer to Havergal Brian (just what Czech music needs, right?). Same friend burned this for me but included absolutely no information other than the last name and identification of the symphony. Again, more than one listen is needed, but my initial reaction was: More, please!]

Divertissement de Concert, Op. 204. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [14:34]

Les Caracteres de la Guerre. Jenkens; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan. [25:04]

Symphony No. 4. Performers, venue & date unknown. [OK, hot off the presses! A colleague taped this for me in Prague not long ago; no details yet forthcoming. The composer – whose sex I don’t even know! – seems to be highly regarded, and the music rivets your attention; more listenings will ne needed to offer more descriptive comments, but I wanted to list this because some of you might indeed know who he/she is and want this (very good-sounding) CD. Hey, dudes and dudettes, we stay AHEAD of the curve on this web site!]

"L’enfants Prodigue" – Cortege Air de Danse. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [4:20]

Preludes, Book I, No’s 2, 3, & 5. Sviatoslav Richter, piano.

Preludes Book II, (Orchestrated by Hans Henkemans). Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 1973 [Loving and idiomatic, these 1970 arrangements have an interesting post-modern edge to the sound. If you, like me, are one of those people who – while they love great piano playing – think 75 % of the works written for solo piano would sound better as orchestral pieces, this is for you!]

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Silvestri; Paris Conservatoire Orchestra (1958) [9:56]

Rhapsody No. 1 for Clarinet & Orchestra. George Pieterson, clarinet; Kondrashin; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, c. mid-Seventies [See comments under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Sacred & Profane Dances. Emily Heyens, harp; Atherton; Radio Nederlands Chamber Orchestra; live, mid-Seventies. [See comment under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

"Le Roi S’amuse" Ballet Suite. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [14:15]

Concerto Grosso in F Minor, for Strings & Continuo. I Musici

Quintet A Major, Piano & Strings, Op. 81. Sir Clifford Curzon, piano; Budapest String Quartet. [If this isn’t the most sheerly gorgeous chamber work Dvorak composed, it’s up there with the best. I’ve got 6-7 versions, but none quite manifests the élan and swagger of this one. I must warn you that there’s an inch-long rather brutal scratch in Movement I – beyond my ability to correct – but once you listen past that, it’s smooth sailing. Both Curzon and the Budapest were at their absolute peak when this 1956 recording was taped; it don’t get no better than this]

Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Slavonic Dances, Op. 73. Sejna; Czech Philharmonic

Symphony No. 6, D Major, Op. 60. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 7, D Minor, Op. 70. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 8, G Major, Op. 88. Karel Sejna; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 9, E Minor, Op. 95 ("New World"). Karel Ancerl; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

"Evocations" for Orchestra. Composer; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Concerto, D Major, for Trumpet, Oboes & Strings. Maruioce Andre, trumpet; Paillard; Paillard Chamber Orchestra [7:12]

Sinfonia, G Major, for Strings & Continuo. Pailliard; Paillard Chamber Orchestra. [9:25]

Sinfonia, A Major, Strings & Continuo. Pailliard; Pailliard Chamber Orchestra. [10:06]

Dolly Suite (orch. by Rabaud). Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [17:55]

Trio No. 2. The Williams Trio. [Another discovery! Just beautiful!]

"I Dream of Jeannie w/ the Light Brown Hair" (Arr. Elgar Howarth). Howarth; Grimethorpse Colliery Band. [2:42]

"Psyche", Four Orchestral Episodes. Van Otterloo; American Symphony Orchestra; livce, 1/ 28. 1968

Symphony in D Minor. Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 10/ 3/ 1940 [35:05]

" " " . No conductor identified; Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra on a "Plymouth" rarity. (*)

Symphony in D Minor. Beecham; London Philharmonic; rec. 1/ 4/ 1940

Pastoral Suite for Flute, Harp & String Orchestra. Borje Marelius, flute; Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [11:54] [Delightful, basically cheerful, folk-music-flavored work.]

Canzonas for Single & Double Brass Choirs. Samuel Baron; New York Brass Ensemble. [This is legend. When it came out, in the period 1953-1954, it was, I believe, the first record devoted exclusively to Gabrielli’s noble and brilliant Canzonas. By the innocent standards of the time, it was soon being discussed as a "landmark in high fidelity", due to the tonal splendor and gusto of the players, all of them distinguished well-known musicians either moonlighting from the Philharmonic or drawn from the cream of Manhattan’s vast pool of excellent freelancer musicians. The first generation of audiophiles snapped it up; a surprise hit—almost certainly the only one in the murky history of the "Counterpoint/Esoteric" label. The reviewers’ descriptions made this Gabby-Hazz…Gabba-gabba-alli, whatever his name was, sound like someone who composed the sort of novle, sonorous, even cveremonial music that was one of my first passions.The problem was: living in Charlotte, North Carolina, where all the record stores DID have scatter-shot classical sections, but nobody at any of them had ever heard of "Counterpoint/Esoteric"’ they would "try" to "special order it" for me but couldn’t guarantee finding it and if they could, it would probably take eight – ten weeks to get it. Same ol’ "Special Order" scam record stores continued to use until LPs were replaced by CDs. What that meant for the clerk, was "Yeah, I can probably get it, but it’ll be a pain in the ass and required lots of phoning and letter writing, and when it finally comes in, my commission from selling it to this kid will be, maybe, a buck and a half. So screw him and screw this Garibaldi clown!" I know this scam because, to my shame, I sometimes used it, too, if the customer wanted something low-rent, or couldn’t pronounce a composer’s name, or just blew smoke from his Chesterfields into my face.

"La Daphne" (1608), complete opera. Paul Vorwerk; Musica Pacifica [See details under "Opera, Choral & Solo Vocalists"].

Suite for Strings. Nikolai Anosov; USSR State Symphony Orchestra

Messe des Morts (Requiem). Phillipe Herreweghe; Musica Antqua, Cologne; Collegium Vocale, Gent. [What a lovely and curious work this is! The (mostly) introspective dialogue between the instruments – note the tender passage for massed viols that opens the work and how the human voices softly and almost a quality of diffidence, slowly join in. There is much tenderness and, yes, consolation. Much as I dig his spectacular ceremonial numbers, Lully is a PUBLIC composer, and Gilles seems to seems to speak to us one-on-one. There’s an almost dream-like quality to the best sections, and when the music finally does gather force, volume, and intensity, the effect is startling and deeply satisfying.]

Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 36. Aurora Ginastera, cello; Yoel Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983.

Glosses on the Music of Pablo Casals. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983

"Jubulum", Symphonic Celebration. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983

Variaziones Concertante. Levi; Cleveland Orchestra; live, c. 1983 [Levi isn’t a conductor whose work usually turns me on, but on this occasion he was energized and doiwnright messianic. Gloriously vital, colorful music; two of the works programmed here were receicing their United States’ premieres. Outstanding off-beat repertoire and compelling performances.]

"Andrea Chenier" – "Un di all’azzuro spazio". Enrico Caruso; (rec. 3/ 17/ 1907)

Cortege Solennel, Op. 89/ No. 2. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic [3:347]

Finnish Sketches ("From the Kalevala"), Op. 89/ No. 1. Kenneth Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra [4:34]

Overture on Greek Themes, Op. 3. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic. [13:16]

Poeme Epique, Op. Posthumous. Schermerhorn; Hong Kong Philharmonic. [13:09] [Ken Schermerhorn had a positive genius for finding, programming, and splendidly interpreting obscure but accessible works nobody in the world has ever heard live. I have bunches of radio tapes yet-to-be-listed, and alas only saw him live a single time (on tour with the Milwaukie Symphony), when he surprised a whole auditorium full of vaguely uneasy listeners with a searingly brilliant rendition of Prokofiev’s Seventh that caused many exiting patrons to mutter to one another: "How come we don’t get to hear that piece more often?" And so it is here with these almost totally unknown small works, which he infuses with such tonal richness, humanistic warmth and drama (from an orchestra that was palpably second-rate 30 years ago!) that each piece sounds like a miniature masterwork. Admittedly, there IS no "competition" – conductors continue to willfully ignore 99 % of Glazunov’s oeuvre just as they always have – but that shouldn’t diminish Schermerhorn’s extraordinary achievement in vivifying so much "minor" music by a supposedly "second-rate" composer. He wasn’t and they aren’t, so Russian-music fans, dig into this quarter-pounder and revel in all the calories!]

"Don Juan", complete ballet. Gardiner; English Baroque Soloists

"Romeo & Juliette" – "Le sommiel de Juliette". Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. [3:25]

Lyric Suite, Op. 54. Erik Tuxen; Danish State Radio Orchestra [14:50]

"Il Guarany" – "Sento una Forza indomita". Enrico Caruso; {Rec. 4/ 20/ 1914)

Symphony for 8 Celli & Piano. Composer, piano & conductor; San Francisco Cello Ensemble. [Unfortunately, this work is on the flip side of the Verrall string quartet listed below – the one and only LP I’ve ever seen on the "Belvedere" label! – and the notes don’t even tell you Mr. Griller’s birth date! IN fact, there’s not one word of information about him. That’s a pity, for this is a damn fine work, richly melodic, dramatic, and instantly impressive. I hear distinct hints of Blcoh and maybe…Howard Hansen?? Well, yes, and that’s just fine, because this work makes the same strong, listener-friendly impression as Hanson’s better works! I would love to hear more by this guy. Any info, dear readers? The performance has real snap and energy; the recording is at least workmanlike. Highly endorsed!]

Catch-Up, for Tape and Two Pianos. George Pappastavrou & Stuart Lanning, pianos. [3:12]

Triple-Play, for Ondes Martinot & Two Pianos. Papastavrou & Manning; Helen McGill, Ondes Martinot [7:22]

Folksong Symphony (Symphony No.. 4). Golschmann; Symphony of the Air & Chorus. [I can usually find a lot to like in any Roy Harris symphony, even in the so-called "weak" later ones – actually, there’s quite a lot of Good Stuff in 6 and 7 – so let me state right up front that this symphony is NOT as bad as you might expect from its mawkish title.

The Seven Last Words of Christ. Hermann Scherchen; w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprabol Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Sonata for Piano No. 44, G Minor. Sviatoslav Richter, piano

Symphony No. 16, B-flat Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:02]

Symphony No. 17, F Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:44]

Symphony No. 18, G Major. Sir Charles Mackerras; London Symphony [15:06]

Symphony No. 19, D Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [10:49]

Symphony No. 20, C Major. Goberman; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [16:38]

Symphony No. 92. G Major, Hob. 1:92 ("Oxford"). Scherchen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra [23:56]

Symphony No. 5, B-flat Major. Farberman; Bournemouth Symphony [17:17]

Symphony No. 14,D Major. Farberman; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [26:44]

Yesterthoughts. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

Mathis der Maler. Silvestri; w/ Philharmonia Orchestra [28:11] [One of the very best!]

Symphonic Metamorphosis on a Theme by von Weber. Furtwangler; Berlin Philharmonic; live; 9/ 16/ 1947

Concert B Major, Clariney & Orchestra. Dieter Klocker, clarinet; Jaap Schroder; Concerto Amsterdam [20:03]

A Japanese Suite. Boult; London Symphony. [10:58] [A rarely heard and rather impressive bit of Far Eastern flavored impressionist, with lovely tunes, atmospheric orchestration. Sounds more like youthful Hovhaness than Holst, but that only means it still sounds very nice.]

The Floating World – "Ukiyo". Kostelanetz; New York Philharmonic [11:47]

Symphony No. 19, Op. 217, "Vishnu". Composer; "Sevan" (???) Philharmonic. [29:14]

Cornet Concerto. Composer, cornet & conducting; Grimethorpe Colliery Band. [6:23]

Country Band March. Richard Bales; National Gallery Orchestra, Washington D.C.; live, c. 1983

Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for Two Pianos. Pappastavrou & Manning. [10:40]

"The Cunning Little Visen" Suite. Andrew Davis; Toronto Symphony. [19:18]

"Taras Bulba", Rhapsody for Orchestra. Davis; Toronto Symphony. [22:41]

Song: "Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang", Op, 1/ No. 1. Lotte Lehmann, soprano [See tasteless but irresistible play-on-words down at Ms. Lehmann’s entry under "Vocalists"]

Concerto for Orchestra. Jonel Perlea; The Symphony Orchestra of Teatro la Fenice [17:15] [Here’s a real "sleeper" that I only heard for the first time about six months ago, and instantly feel in love with. It’s as "American" sounding as anything by Copland, Hanson or Roy Harris, yet Kay’s style is essentially non-national and cosmopolitan. It’s a tightly argued, very disciplined work that also fairly explodes with color and good, hearty, instantly communicative themes. By far, it’s the best work by Kay I’ve ever heard and fortunately, this unspeakably rare 1953 "Remington" LP really has some of the finest and cleanest audio qualities of any LP I know of from 55 years ago! (For what it’s worth, the advertising people at this tiny label called their microphoning technique "MUSICRAMA", a trademark as meaningless and nonsensical as the results it produced were exceptional. Listen up, conductors (and I know for a fact that at least four of you regularly read these new listings (either for the giggles you derive from my dreadful punts and interminable sidebar rants OR, just possibly, to find out about moldern but audience-friendly works you might one day wish to program, so don’t force my hand! Order a dub of THIS piece and see if it doesn’t fill the bill most handsomely, both in terms of length, technical requirements, and strong emotional/intellectual appeal to those hearing it for the first and propably only time!). Coincidentally, it also happens to be one of the finest recordings Perlea ever made for any label – makes you wish he’d been turned loose on more novel and unjustly neglectyed scores, instead of all those so-so readings of basic rep. chestnuts Vox made him conduct. Oh, sure, there are a handful of winners amongst them, but overwhelmingly Perlea is now regarded as the very paradigm of podium meciocrity. In this challenging and then-exotic piece, he seems to be a wholly different conductor: energized, brilliantly gifted at handling orchestrasl colors and complex balances, filled with vigor and urgency. Who knew?]

"Der Schall), for Five Players and 45 Instruments. Composer; Cologne Ensemble for New Music. [37:20] [I happen to think this is one of the wildest, funniest (perhaps unintentionally – guys like Kegel tended to take this stuff VERY seriously, even if nobody else did). I cannot describe it better than the composer, so let me quote from his own deadpan description (you’ll know instantly whether you can stand this or not)]:

In a Chinese Temple Garden. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

In a Monastery Garden. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra

In a Persian Market. Morton Gould; Rochester Pops Orchestra [Right – if this wasn’t one of Mortie’s earliest and rarest LPs, I wouldn’t bother listing this schlock (actually, the Victor Herbert pieces aren’t bad!). But this was maybe his second or third LP AS a conductor, and he soon became one of our best. Neither the second-rate orchestra nor Gould could bring most of this crap to life the way Fiedler might have, but the performances ARE decently colorful, peppy, and nicely recorded, circa 1951.]

Symphonic Epos, Op. 21. Herbert Blomstedt; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [17:24] [Surging, two-fisted, rather in the same vein as "En Saga", this is an instant "grabber" that would knock the sox off almost any audience, and at 17 minutes-plus, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Another one of those "contemporary-but-lovable" pieces that program-builders in-the-know, bloody well SHOULD KNOW ABOUT!]

String Quartet, 1967. La Salle String Quartet [20:48]

Symphony No. 1, B Minor, Op. 12. Svetlanov; USSR Acadewmic S ymphony Orchestra [35:37] [Like Rachmaninoff? Gliere? Miaskovsky? In other words, the whole Late Romantic Russian Thing? If so, you must give this inexplicably neglected symphony a try! It has all the Right Stuff: bold heroic brass themese, a slow movement to die for, and an exciting, sonorous climax. Svetlanov really "sells" the piece, too, in a reading full of soul but also pleasantly vigorous and forward-pressing. Orchestra’s playing is a touch raw, but it’s full of heart; recorded sound (early Melodiya stereo) is quite good]

Lines for the Fallen, for Soprano & Two Pianos. Phyllis Bryn-Julsen, soprano; Pappastavrou & Manning, pianos [7:53]

Concerto for Four Groups of Instruments. Composer; Speculum Musicae. [8:15]

Piano Fantasy. Ursula Oppens, piano [10:20]

Symphony No. 2. Ashley Heelan; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra [A virile, windswept, neo-Sibelian work by New Zealand’s best-known composer; stern romanticism is far from extinct down in Kiwi Land. Good piece!]

"Florez and Blanzeflor, Symphonic Poem, Op.12. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, [13:25] [Lindberg used actual folk tunes, adapting them skillfully to the full orchestra. Again, Westerberg catches the idiom dead-on and conducts a reading of great sweep and intensity.]

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Malediction, Piano & Orchestra. Ponti; Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [14:00]

Comes Autumn Time. Nebraska Sinfonia; world premiere, 1984. [Locklear is an outstanding composer and teacher long associated with the music departemt of Wake Forest University. He’s written in a wide variety of styles, with an especially strong array of works for organ, usually in combination with other inrtsuments and/or voices. Dan’s a terrific teacher and a very interesting, charming man. This relatively brief p[rize-winning piece has been recorded a couyple of times (and I wish I could list the conductor’s name, but that didn’t survive on my air-check tape), full of pungent moods and riveting orehcestratrion. If you’re interested in worthy contemporary American composers who write in an accessible medium, you should really give his music a try. Tell him I recommended it! He was cordial even when I was a music critic and had the honor of reviewing two or three premieres of new compositions, back during that now-utopian era when the Greensbor Daily News actually made a serious effort to cover all the significant concerts at Wake Forest, Reynolda House, SECA, the EMF and the NC School of the Arts. THAT commitment died 12 years ago and these days they grudgingly run superficial little reviews of the Greensboro Symphony and pretend nothing else is happening in the whole Triad region. Anyway, this is good, strong, individual music, performed with verve by the ensemble that commissioned it. I give it a strong reccommendation, as I do for any of Dan’s compositions. Time, abouit 15 minutes.]

Concerto for Organ & Brass. Thor Johnson; Cincinnati Brass Ensemble’ Marilyn Mason, organ

Quiet Design, for Organ Solo. Marilyn Mason, organ

Ballet Egyptien. Fiedler; Boston Pops [See essay-length comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 4. Composer; Los Angeles Philharmonic; live, 1992 (world premiere)

One-Three Quarters. Composer; Chamber Ensemble of Syracus University. [5:43]

Des Knaben Wunderhorn – Excerpts from. Felix Prohaska; Vienna State Opera Orchestra; Anny Felbermayer, soprano; Alfred Poell, baritone

Ruckert Lieder – Excerpts from. Felix Prohaska; Anny Felbermayer, soprano; Alfred Poell, baritone; Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Symphony No. 9. Bruno Walter; Vienna Philharmonic; live, 1/ 16/ 1938 [69:54] [See comments under "Conductors]

Symphony No. 9. Tennstedt; London Philharmonic Orchestra, c. 1984

Concerto for Two Pianos & Orchestra. Joshua Pierce & Dorothy Jonas, pianists; Ettore Stratta; Radio Luxembroug Symphony Orchestra [22:54]

Song: "Selige Nacht". Lotte Lehmann, soprano

"Cavallaeria Rusticana" – Siciliana. Enrico Caruso; (rec. 12/ 28/ 1910);

"El Cid", Suite from. Fiedler; Boston Pops. [Flip side of Luigini’s unutterably rare Ballet Egyptien suite and one of the best damn records Fiedler ever made. Only Toscanini could bring ths Massenet suite to life with comparable zest and conviction, even devotion! And then only copy of HIS rendition I have is in wretchedly dry sopund, while Fiedler gets luxurious sonics (by the mono standards of 1952…). As I said above, a very scarce and hugely collectable Fiedler item; Source copy is VG + condition. Get it here or disappear.]

MENDELSSOHN:

Songs Without Words. Walter Gieseking, piano. [See details under "Chamber & Solo Virtuosi", because I’ll be shipped in dit if I’m gonna type out the titles of all seventeen selections more than once!]

Symphony No. 4, Op. 90 ("Italien"), Van Beinum; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. [See comments under "Conductors"]

"L’Africain" –"Deh’, ch’io ritormi". Enrico Caruso; (Rec.9/ 16/ 1920)

Symphony No. 3, A Minor, Op. 15. Svetlanov; USSR State Symphony Orchestra. [N.B. This is a different and in some ways more effective reading than Svetlanov’s more polished, better-recorded final versin, included in his monumental integral set of ALL the Miaskovsky symphonies. (yeah, I have it; only 500 sets were exported to the U.S. and I had to sign-up six months in advance to reserve a copy. It was worth the wait!) and it’s NOT one of the composer’s more immediately appealing works. Very low-ley, brooding, introspective, often rather "gray" sounding…hmmm, would "Mahlerian" be out-of-place here? No, actually, it’s VERY Mahlerian. And only after several istening, when the architectonics become apparent, can you see how advanced and bold a work it really is – not one gratuitous gesture for the audience! It’s as grim and tight-lipped as that other great A-Minor ode to despair, Sibelius’s Fourth. The raw, wailing vibrato in the brass actually works here better than the more "professional" sound of the later recording – I suspect Miaskovsky had this sort of Slavic crudity in mind when he scored the piece! As an introduction to the Wonderful World of Miaskovsky, this is one of the last pieces I would recommend – until you give it some time and patience, it’s downright depressing – but it DOES illustrate one polarity of this prolific composer’s stupendous range, his willingness to compose-against-type, his refusal, even now, to be confined within the "Late Romantic" box the unsympathetic musicologists – none of whom have obviously taken the time to explore his music in depth – have stashed him in. Not for the timid or reactionary, although God knows there are numerous (often very beautiful) Miaskovsky works that a lover of Rachmaninoff could snuggle into in total comfort.]

Symphony No. 21 (Fantasy in F-Sharp Minor), Op. 51. David Measham; New Philharmonia Orchestra. [The first time I heard this symphony, about 25 years ago, (the splendid old mono Ormandy recording), it seized me by the throat and has never let go. It is a single movement, 19 minutes long, growing out of, soaring spectacularly beyond, and then returning home to, a single incredibly Russian-soundingf lyric motif in F-sharp minor. The amount of disciplined passion Miaskovsky packs into this one-movement masterpiece is fantastic (could THIS be the inspiration for the sublime Sibelius Seventh?), and he generates a harrowing climax by the simplest and most elementary means: a simple suspension of key-return that becomes, eventually, so fraught with cosmic tension you can almost see a nebula giving birth to a new star…]"all" that happens is that the key returns safely and incisively to its home tonality, but in context it has all the power of the finale of Beethoven’s Fifth, or a machete wielded by a maniac. I once mused in these pages about how hard it is to advise people with regard to WHICH Miaskovsky symphony (he composed almost fifty of them!) is the best "starting point." Now I’m unshakably convinced: THIS one is it. The melodic content is ravishingly beautiful, the development both masterly and easily followed, and the climax just kicks ass. Measham may have launched his conducting career with a couple of "vanity" releases, but there’s no gainsaying the immense raw power and sympathy of his conducting here (and also in the second-rate but tuneful Kabalevsky Second on the flip side) and the sonics are vivid. An absolutely essential disc for neo-Romantics!!]

Bassoon Concerto, B Flat Major, K. 191. Karel Bidlo, bassoon; Ancerl; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Clarinet Concerto, A Major, K. 622. w/ Gervaise de Peyer, clarinet; Peter Maag; London Symphony

Contratanz, K. 587 ("The Victory of the Hero Coburg"). Jenkins; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan [25:04] [As you might expect, Mozart’s idea of a "triumphal salute" to the Duke (or was he a prince? One forgets…) Coburg, who was, if memory serves, the umpteenth European general to repulse the Turks from a fairly feeble advance on Vienna, is somewhat endearingly eccentric – a "contratanz" lasting 94 seconds?? Charming and dainty, rather than militant; not even any Janissary drums! Pretty small beer! It’s a charming little trifle, probably composed while Wolfgang was sitting on the jakes after breakfast, and if I were Coburg, I’d have been insulted. But in context it makes a delightful filler!]

Horn Concerto No.1 w/ Barry Tuckwell, horn; Peter Maag; London Symphony.

Horn Concerto No. 3, E Flat Major, K. 447. Barry Tuckwell, horn; Peter Maag; London Symphony

"The Marriage of Figaro" Overture. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Serenade for 13 Winds, B flat, K. 361. Stokowski; Winds of the American Symphony [41:11]

Symphony No. 38, "Prague". Van Otterloo; American Symphony Orchestra; live, 1/ 28/ 1968

Symphony No. 40, G Minor, K. 550. Leinsdorf; Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Violin Concerto No. 4, D Major, K. 218. Jiri Novak, violin; Talich; Czech Philharmonic

Dawn Over the Muskva River – "Khovantchina". Kostelanetz; New York Philharmonic. [4:50]

Sinfonie "La Bataille"", Op. 11. Jenkins; Angelicum Orchestra of Milan. [25:04] [I know you’ve been furiously e-mailing me and demanding to know "When you gonna list more Neubauer??" Well, both of you should be glad that today I AM! See more comments under "Anthology" And as I promised up above, here in its entirety is conductor Jenkens wonderful little eassy on this obscure but obviously very gifted composer. And about one thing Maestro Jenkins is right-on: I’ll bet dollars to donuts that Berlioz heard, enjoyed, and was influenced by this work. Fpr its day, it might well have been the cleverest and most imaginative "program symphony" anybody’d ever composed. Maestro Jenkins, the keyboar is now under your control!

"Maskarade" – Complete Opera. John Frandsen; Soloists; Chorus; Orchestra of the Danish State Opera [2:34; requires two CDs] [If you know and love the Overture to thi8s utterly beguiling work…what? You DON’T? What kind of "music lover" are you? Go on – order a dub right this minute! I’ll wait. (At least until your check clears…) Seriously, though, we tend to regard Nielsen as a sober-sided composer of Serious Stuff but, well, so was Mozart, until he got into one of his antic moods. Nielsen had a grinning, smiley-face facet, too – I mean, just listen to that incomparably frothy woodwind quintet! And the Overture to "Maskarade"! As anyone written a jollier opera overture since the heyday of Rossini? Thing is, the entire opera’s like that – one sparkling, toe-tapping number after the other! Honestly, if this work had been composed in Italian instead of Danish, it would hold the boards at La Scala and the Met just as regularly as "The Barber of Sevielle"! Frandsen as his merry lads and lassies present the work with a light hand, an infectious rhythmic spring, and total conviction, rendering the more seriously lyrical numbers with melting warmth. The sonics are splendid. I’ll even copy the libretto for you, if for some reason you don’t regard Danish as a "proper" operatic tongue (well, all those glottal-stops don’t help its case any, I admit…). Every scene is a gem, I promise you, even if it were being sung in Assyrian.]

"Magma" Symphony. Junichi Hirokami (SP?); Oslo Philharmonic Orch; live, 1984; world premiere. [Well, I guess it’s a musical depiction of an erupting volcano; sure sounds like it. Lots of percussion and "molten"-sounding effects. Being in thrall to the "Nordic Thing" as I am, I can’t help but love it, although I’m not sure how well it’ll wear over the long haul. Still, it’s got plenty of cheap thrills and lives up to its subtitle.]

The Seven Seals, Op. 48. Oivin Fjeldstad; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [28:30]

"Can-Can" from "Gaite Parissiene". Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

For You Alone. Enrico Caruso. (Rec. 12/ 28/ 1910)

Carmina Burana. Herbert Kegel; Leipzig Radio Symphony & Chorus; Jutta Vulpius, soprano; Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, tenor; Kurt Rehm, baritone; Kurt Heubenthal, bass. [Kegel’s Orff cycle, on the East Germany "Aeterna" label, is definitely a Contender; good sound, exceptional singers, sensible tempos), and white it doesn’t generate the maga-tonnage of sheer excitement that you get from Stokowski, Tilson-Thomas, et. al, it does emphasize the MUSICAL qualities in the trilogy. (Yeah, wise-guy, it DOES have some!) and it wears very well on repeated hearing. Assuming you get in an "Orff-al" mood that often…]

Symphony No. 1, E Flat Minor. Maxim Shostakovich; USSR Large Radio Symphony Orchestra. {This is a terrific piece, especially considering the composer wrote it when he was 19! There’s a brooding echt-Slavic mood throughout, but its enlivened by strong melodic content, skillfully developed. In one organic movement, lasting about 20 minutes, the symphony has plenty to say and says it with steamroller power. Outstanding reading by Maxim; very good sound, if a little thick in the tuttis. Collectors of Soviet-era music: this belongs in your collection!]

Orchestral Suite No. 6. Composer; USSR Large Radio Symphony Orchestra. [Much brighter and more lively, although several of its seven movements are on the somber side. Again, very strong and arresting music. I keep searching for more discs by this composer, but haven’t yet found any. This is one of those Buried Treasure discs that I try to sprinkle though my updates (not wishing to reveal ALL my true gems too soon), and one I am proud to offer, since your chances of locating a mint-condition copy are slim-to-none.]

PACHELBEL, Johann (1653-1706): [All right, already! You want to know if he ever wrote anything else as…whatever it was that made the "Taco Bell Cannon" THE most insanely overplayed baroque piece after the Four Reasons. If the works I’ve heard be truly indicative, the answer is no. A lot of sewing-machine, boringly Protestant church music for organ and a batch of cookie-cutter, pleasant-enough, but hardly inspired stuff like the two items listed before. Yes, the "Canon" IS beautiful (the first 89 times you hear it; and if you MUST have a version, get Karajan’s absolutely shameless ultra-romantic wallow with the ENTIRE string section of the Berlin Philharmonic; the effect is to dress this pretty little trifle in ermine robes and by God I LIKE it that way. Most other versions sound too righteous and frigid to me – Von K. turns it into as slow-motion hootchie-kooch seduction, tarts it up, does everything but dress it in spike heels, black stockings, and a leather garter belt. It’s stylistiocally monstrous, bloated, neigh-on-to tumescent, but that’s the only version I can stand to listen to any more. Anyway, here’s two plesant if faceless examples of the OTHER stuff Pachelbel composed. Satisfied now?]

Partia VI in B-flat Major. Paillard; Jean-Francois Palliard Chamber Orchestra. [7:17]

Partia in G, for Strings and…(yawn) Continuo. [7:09]

The Caprices, Op. 1. Michael Rabin, violin. [57:17] [Another luminous young giant struck down at an absurdly young age. These gleaming, personality-filled performances testify to just how much of a loss we suffered]

Symphony No. 1, Bales; National Gallery OPrchestra; live, 1983 [Alas, tape ran out with perhaps two minutes to go in the lasr movement. The performancew, but a most dedicated and under-appreciated conductor, has such a special glow that I deemed it worth not only preserving but even listing, missinf finale part and all!]

Rhapsody for Orchestra. Whitney; Louisville Orchestra. [It begins on a quiet, contemplative note, with a single flute; gradually adds density and energy, evolving into a kind of concerto for orchestra, with brilliant passages for brass, strings, winds, even timpani, becoming very energized indeed before slowly fading back to the same pianissimo (this time in the lower strings) with which it began. Like all Panufnik’s music, its has fibre and substance and is brilliantly orchestrated.]

La Danza. Enrico Caruso (Rec. 2/ 2/ 1912)

Concerto in G Major, for Flute, Strings & Basso Continuo. I Musici

"Gretel", Op. 11/ No. 9. Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Trio No 1. The Williams Trio; live, 1984

Concerto Dell ‘ Estate. Lamberto Gardelli; L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande [28:50]

Incidental Music to d’Annunzio’s Play "La Pisanella". Lamberto Gardelli; L’Orchestra de la Suisse Romande. (14:00) [Respighil wasn’t the only Italian composer who focused on orchestral rather than operatic music – although he WAS the best of the lot. Pizzetti was a close second, in my opinion. Very little of his catalogue has been recorded, but if these two samples are typical, we’re missing something. The incidental music to d’Annunzio’s play is sunny, crisply orchestrated, and irresistible, even if you don’t know the first thing about the drama it’s based on. The companion work is a loving pastoral "postcard" commemorating an obviously joyful holiday in the countryside around Milan. It’s lyrical, relaxed, brim-full of laid-back, nostalgic melodies and swaths of tonal water-color textures and timbres. You don’t have to be Italian, or even know Milan fromDaytona Beach to enjoy this lovely music. As I hinted before, both Gardelli’s conducting and the engineering are beyond criticism. A real "sleeper" and if I may immodestly say so myself, on of the finest "buried treasure" discs in my whole archive.]

Dances from "Terpsichore". Collegium Terpsichore. [Well, here’s an oldfriend! The fussy and pedantic-looking "Archive" recording of these effervescent 16^th-Century gems, which probably did more to turn people on to the secular music of the High Renaissance than the Four Seasons did to attract Vivaldi freaks back in the early 70s. (I know it’s not literally true that he composed the same concerto grosso 560 times, but there are times and works that make me wonder…). Anyway, this has always been a favorite of mine (and thousands of others), for its infectious rhythmic vitality, its delightful, even rambunctious, sense of FUN – one imagines ol’ Mike Praetorius would have been a fun guy to go out partying with. Dub comes with nice samples of comparably vital dances by Johan Schein and the too-little-known Erasmus Widmann. Of course, I can substitute whatever you like, but I’d suggest just ordering a straight-on dub of the original LP; excellent sound and really funky playing…in a 16^th-Century Thuringian sort of way.]

Piano Sonata No. 8, B-flat Major, Op. 84. Richter, piano

Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 125. Rostropovich, cello; Sanderling; Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra

Sinfonietta. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; live, c. 1983.

Symphony No. 6, E Flat Major, Op. 111. Mravinsky; Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra [See rave under "Conductors"]

"War and Peace", complete. Rodzinski; Orchestra & Chous of the Maggio Musicale, Florence; live, 1953. [See details under "Opera, Choral & Solo Vocalists"]

"La Boheme", Act IV – "O Mimi, tu piu non torni…" Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra [4:07]

"Madama Butterfly" – "Un bel di…" Grace Moore, soprano; Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 6/ 23/ 1936 [4:27]

"Madama Butterfly" – Amore e grillo" Enrico Caruso; (Rec. 3/ 14/ 1910)

"Manon Lescaut", Act II – "Ah, Manon, mi tradisce…" Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus, w/ Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; rec. July, 1954. [2:35]

"Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". Jonel Perlea; Orchestra & Chorus of Rome Opera, with Licia Albenese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi [3:58] Rec. July, 1954

"Aleko" – Suite from the Opera. Kostelanetz; New York Philharmonic. [18:14] [Kostelanetz devised this suite; it works very well, and if you’re into early Rachmaninoff, you should hear it. This is its only recording.]

Piano Concerto No. 2, C Minor, Op. 18. w/ "Felicitas Karrer"; no conductor identified; see comments under "Mysterious Maestri"]

Piano Concerto No. 3, D Minor, Op. 30. Jean Philippe Collard, piano; Michel Plasson; Orchestra of Toulousse [42:39]

Symphony No. 2. James Loughran; Halle Orchestra. [Well, you can tell he isn’t Russian, but this broad, ripely romantic reading, from 1972, is otherwise better than I expected and shows this otherwise not-quite-front-rank conductor in a very sympathetic light. No timing, but if you know the work, all I have to tell you is that it’s an UNCUT performance.]

Alborado del Gracioso. Dervaux; Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris. [7:03]

Rapsodie Espagnole. Dervaux; Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris [14:52]

Suite for Solo Cello, No. 1, G Major, Op. 131. Emmanuel Feuermann, cello. Rec. 1939 [14:41] [I’ve already made it rudely clear that I find 80% of Max Reger’s music to be stuffy, pedantic, and the musical equivalent of a slightly "off" bratwurst. This piece belongs in the other 20%, though, at least as Feuermann plays it, which is ravishingly and with more personality than the composer had even when he was alive…if that makes any sense. My Source tape is…well, not quite as old as the original recording, but damn close to it. The chap who dubbed it for me from his own rare set of 78s, however, knew what he was doing and the recording is quite listenable.]

Horn Trios, Op. 82 – Seventeen Selections from. Bedrich Tylsar; Emanuel Hrdina; Zdenek Tyslar, hornists. [What Bach’s "Art of the Fugue" is to keyboard players, Reicha’s Opus 82 book of horn trios is to hornists – the summit of techniques and formal devices, arrayed as discrete miniature compositions, often of the greatest charm and expressivity. These three Czech virtuosi achieve a wonderfully smooth blend of tone and the technical challenges are met with consummate ease. Throw in Supraphon’s exquisite, velvety sonics and you have an extraordinary treat for players or connoisseurs of fine horn playing. The seventeen selections and their timings are as follows:]

The Pines of Rome. Boris Brott; "Greater Symphony Orchestra of Soviet Radio & Television" ((Was there a "Lesser" one?)); live, 1962 [19:50] [Dynamite reading, undercut by fairly crude sound; the audience goes nuts at the end; I guess this p[ieces wasn’t the warhorse in Moscow it was in New York. See comments under "Brott" in "Composers", too. An interesting and multi-talented guy, even if this record is schizophrenic…]

Sensemaya. Lucas Foss; Milwaukee Symphony; live, 1983*

Trio No. 1. The Williams Trio; live, 1984 [More proof, as far as I’m concerned, that Wallingford Rieggers may be the greatest UNPLAYED American composer. Each new work I find adds to the impression of a huge. But almost subterranean, range of styles and masteries. Like warm, juicy melodies? Here are some doozies. Like spikey rhythmic excitement and coiled, spare, 20^th-Century textures? Ditto. Like music that sounds vaguely reminiscent of a half-forgotten Irish harp ballad, but that doesn’t really seem anything like Celtic in its sound-world? Welcome to the wide wonderful tone-world of Riegger! A breathtaking performance, too, by the admirable Williams Trio.]

At the Appointed Time. Brian Priestman; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34. Silvestri; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra [15:44]

Flight of the Bumblebee. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

"Pan Voyevoda" – Suite from the Opera. Bystrik Rezucha; Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; 26:16] [If the rest of the opera is as generic-sounding as these excerpts, no wonder it isn’t performed! Pleasant, mildly "Russian" sounding, it’s kind of attractive but never attains the individuality of Rimsky’s best works – sort of like warmed-over Glazunov…]

Trio in C Minor. Sviatislav Knushevitsky, cello; David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano. [37:13] [Rimsky was and IS not known for his chamber music, and this composition was almost certainly motivated by academic requirements/needs associated with his new job on the faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory…which puts the earliest sketches sometime during or just after 1871. In point of fact, however, the trio as a whole wasn’t "finished" until a definitive score was published in the "official" Collected Works edition of 1970. At which time many were pleasantly surprised to see, for the first time, how adroitly Rimsky both "follow the rules" of formal chamber music and still managed to put his own personality into the music. While not a fire-breathing paean to Nationalism, the Trio is Good Stuff and holds your attention with its sturdy, malleable themes and cumulative energy. A "major" addition to the Rimsky catalogue it isn’t, but it certainly deserves an occasional hearing. For this first-ever recording, Melodiya booked a Dream Team: three of the USSR’s most celebrated musicians, virtuosi who enjoyed playing together enough to coin a separate name for those rare times when their mutuasl schedules permitted them a chance fo rehearse anmd perform toheyjer. So if the novelty of a Rimsky-Korsakov TRIO turns you on, I guarantee you’ll never hear a better rendition than these three virtuosi turned-in for this 1972 Melodiya recording.]

Duo Concertante. Members of the Williams Trio; live, 1984

String Quartet (1960). La Salle String Quartet. [10:46]

"Stampe, della vecchia Roma". Paul Van Kempen; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 12/ 17/ 1942 [13:09]

"Barber of Seville" Overture. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Bacchanale from "Samson & Delilah". Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

"Samson & Delilah" – "Vois ma misere". Enrico Caruso. (Rec. 12/ 16/ 1912)

Mauermusik. Berglund; Finnish Radio Symphony [8:44]

Sinfonia III. Okko Kamu; Finnish Radio Symphony [23:02] [This is the first piece that convinced me Aulis Sallinen might be a composer of genius. While no one would call it "melodic", its sinuous thematic curves are not hard to follow, and it evokes the same ivy desolation of Sibelius Fourth, until the music warms up in Movement III and becomes almost companionable. Sensational performance & recording.]

Messe des Pauvres (Mass for the Poor). Marilyn Mason, organ; Unidentified chorus conducted by David Randolph. [This is not the wry, sardonic, wise-cracking Eric Satie we all know and love from his inspired but often loony piano pieces. Perhaps this is Jekyll to that Hyde. It’s really what the title says it is: a simple, even humble work of liturigal music completely stripped to the bare bones, yet so direct and sincere that one cannot help being moved by it. One also can scarcely believe it was written by the same Eric Satie as the inspired musical screwball who composed "Pieces in the Shape of a Pear", et. al.! Both Ms. Mason and the unidentified choir capture perfectly the elusive idiom Satie was striving for, and the half-century-old recorded sound is thoroughly honest and acceptable.

Piano Concerto, G Minor, Op. 15. Jorge Bolet, piano; Ainslee Cox; Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. [38:: ] [Oh my, where to start? First, you need to remember that in all of Italy, from about 1830 until, well, in some locales it aint over yet, virtually everyone who got.

Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra. Dieter Klocker, clarinet; Jaap Schroeder; Concerto Amsterdam [24:13]

"The Banchetto Musicale", Three Dance Suites from. Collegium Terpsichore.

String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37. Julliard String Quartet.

Variations on a Recitative. Marilyn Mason, organ. [What a curious piece! In this somber, reflective and often beautiful solo work, Schoenberg reverted to a simple, firmly tonal style, basically linear and almost wholly without fussy counterpoint; it wasn’t even published until quite a while after his death (in 1947) and is almost never heard or even known about! Was this a deathbed act of contrition for having unleashed the 12-tone system on mankind, or something more primal – a great composer seeking to communicate emotions/thoughts deeply important to him in his final days, but almost by its very nature "expressive" of something too personal and ineffable to admit of glib analysis? Whatever, it’s a remarkable and deeply affecting piece, which the versatile and very gifted Ms. Mason performs in a state of calm rapture. Although the Source LP is almost antediluvian (an "Esoteric" disc issued in 1953, never widely circulated, and today almost impossible to find in playable condition, it’s still quite satisfying and loaded with atmosphere. Very clean Source copy!]

"Gastein" Symphony. Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 1940. [Not just Toscanini’s ONLY performancew of this delightful work, but incomparably the finest realization of it you’ll ever hear. Whether it’s the warm and tender lyricism of the first two movements or the fiery drama that erupts in Movement IV, Toscanini nails it all perfectly. Unfortunately, you have to make some effort to hear how great the interpretation is, due to the somewhat cloudy air-check sonics.]

Moments Musicaux, Op. 94. Sviatislav Richter, piano [22:28]

String Quartet No. 14, D Major, ("Death and the Maiden") – Orchestral arrangement by Gustav Mahler. [42:03] [Wish I could tell you who the performers are; it came to me from my music-loving friend in Bochum Germany who taped everything under the sun, but who was NOT an archivist obsessed with dates, performers’ names, venues, etc. He thought that pedantic micro-research took some of the fun out of collecting and several times described my obsession with minutiae as "anal retentive" So that’s why I can only surmise that this broad, intense reading by what sounds like a full-strength orchestral string choir, probably originated off a German broadcast c. 1883-84. Does this quartet "work" when so inflated? Damn straight it does – the darks are darker, the fitful and often ambiguous rays of light are tremulous; a curiously appropriate "Gothic quality" shimmers around the sonorities. Yet Mahler being the honest professional he was, he never really violates the proportions or tone0colors of Schubert’s original; he just makes all its wonderful and haunting qualities…more so. "It goes to eleven"!]

Sonata "Arpeggione", A Minor, D. 821. Emmanuel Feuermann, cello; Gerald Moore, piano. Rec. 1937 [29:10] [Except for the age of the recording – and the sound is really quite listenable even if the side-joins on my Source aren’t always flawless – this is surely the definitive reading of this beautiful piece.]

Song: "Die Manner Sind merchanti!", Op. 95/ No. 3. Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Symphony No. 5, B Flat Major, D. 485. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 1/ 11/ 1936

Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. 11/ 1/ 1937

Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished". Leinsdorf; Rochester Philharmonic. [See comments under "Conductors"]

"Voyages" for Solo Piano. Beveridge Webster, piano [A major American piano piece – rugged and tough-fibered as Ives, but a lot more listenable – given a definitive reading. I think this was and is the only recording, a landmark from the enlightened days of Goddard Lieberson, when Columbia had a commitment to contemporrary music unequaled by any other major label. Even after LPs like this officially went "out of print", you could still order them on a "collector’s label", cheap, in a plain black album with no graphics or notes, but the same good sound as the original. Very hard to find any nowadays, at least that are in playable condition; my Source copy is near-mint – still in old yellowed shrinkwrap when I bought it at a thrift shop for two bucks!

"Manfred" Overture, Op. 115. Paul Kletzki; Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Nachtstucke, Op. 23. Sviatislav Richter, piano. [19:08] [If this and the Schubert Moments Musicaux on the flip side were ever issued in the U.S., it must have been a brief and obscure appearance; my Source is the original Melodiya pressings, a bit grungy in the surfaces, but the performances are sheer magic!]

Symphony No. 3, E-flat Major, Op. 97 ("Rhenish"). Paul Kletzki; Israel Philharmonic Orch. [See comments under "Conductors’]

Traumerei. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Concertino for Two Pianos, Op. 94. Composer and Maxim Shostakovich at pianos.

Symphony No. 5 Massimo Freccia; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ ] [See comment under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 6, Op. 54. Alexander Gauk; USSR State Symphony Orchestra [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No.7, C Major, Op. 60 ("Leningrad"). Kubelik; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 2/ 9/ 1950 [71:53]

"The Bartered Bride" – Complete opera. Zdenek Chalabala; Prague National Theater Orchestra & Chorus w/ Soloists. [See details under "Opera, Choral and Vocal"]

Medley (arranged for the 1976 U.K. band competition): "Washington Post" – "The Liberty Bell" – "Stars & Stripes Forever". Elgar Howarth; Grimethorpe Colliery Band [9:54]

Nonette in F, Op. 31. Fine Arts Quartet & New York Woodwind Ensemble. [Ample demonstration of why Spohr was once so admired and respected; no clue whatever as to why nobody ever plays his music today. It’s a big-boned, generous, delightful piece.]

Finlandia, Op. 26. Erik Tuxen; Danish State Radio Orchestra. [7:40]

Karelia Suite, Op. 11. Okko Kamu; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra [15:31]

Lemminkainen Suite, Op. 22. Okko Kamu; Finnish National Radio Symphony [45:48]

Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. Berglund; Finnish Radio Symphony [34:49]

Symphony No. 4, A Minor, Op. 63. Leinsdorf; New York Philharmonic; live, 1983 [Surprisingly fine interpretation. See comments under "Conductors"]

Three Hassidic Dances for Orchestra. Thor Johnson; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

"Pieta, Signore". Enrico Caruso. (Rec. 9/ 26/ 1918)

"Du und Du" from Die Fledermaus". Erich Kleiber; Vienna Philharmonic; rec. 2/ 3/ 1929 [6:53]

"Kaiserwaltzer", Op. 437. Bruno Walter; Vienna Philharmonic. (10/ 18/ 1937) [9:06]

"On the Beautiful Blue Danube", Op. 314. George Szell; Vienna Philharmonic. (c. 6/ 23/ 1934} [9:05]

"Thousand and One Nights" Waltz, Op. 346. Clemens Krauss; Vienna Philharmonic (rec. 10/ 9/ 1930) [8:00]

"Music of the Spheres" Waltz, Op. 235. Karl Bohm; Vienna Philharmonic (rec. 3/ 17/ 1949) [8:40]

Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30. Mitropoulos; Cologne Radio Symphony; live, Sept. 7, 1959 [33:23]

"Arabella" – "The Great Scenes". Von Matacic; Schwarzkopf; Gedda; Metternich; Philharmonia Orchestra [Given the luster of cast and conductor, it seems odd that EMI ever let this go out of print, but they did, 20-odd years ago. If you enjoy this odd-ball opera, and I’m finally beginning to, you must hear this recording; in fact, as far as I’m concerned, this really IS the "great scenes" and you can skip the rest of the piece without missing anything more than clever note-spinning. Better grab your dub from me, now, before those highwaymen at "Testament" re-issue it and charge you twenty bucks for it (at which time, of course, I’ll have to drop it from these catalogues until it gets cut again, so I’m not just kidding around d when I say that!). If you want a marginally better sounding remastered CD for $20.00, be my guest; OR you can have MY very acceptable dubbing for $13.50. Your choice, bro’.]

Don Quixote, Op. 35. Alwin Bauer, cello; Mitropoulos; Cologne Radio Symphony; live, Sept. 7, 1959 [42:35]

"Elektra" – Electra’s Monologue. Astrid Varnay; Mitropoulos; Cologne Radio Symphony; live; Sept. 7, 1959. [10:16]

Metamorphosen. Furtwangler; Berlin Philharmonic; live, 10/ 27/ 1947

Petrouchka – Tableaux 1 & 2. Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, 1941. [Not just the only time he programmed Petrouchka, but the ONLY time Toscanini ever deigned to conduct ANYTHING by Stravinsky. Imagine Petrouchka as a bomb-throwing anarchist and you’ll have some idea of what this clueless but ghoulishly fascinating reading sounds like!]

Song of the Nightengale. Boulez; New York Philharmonic; live, 1984

Concerto (Voyage de nuit, a’pre Baudelaire. Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano; Nicolas Harsanyi; Piedmont Orchestra [23:35] [Bob Suderberg’s first piano concerto, issued on Columbia, was a big, lusty neo-romantic work with juicy melodies and some authentic virtuoso fireworks. Most reviewers sneered at is "imitation Rachmaninoff". I’ll go on record as stating that they were full of shit. It’s a sincere, superbly-crafted work with genuinely strong emotions and themes. Audiences would love it. If they ever got to hear it. This shorter work is essentially a voice concerto, which Elizabeth sings magnificently. It’s more colored by Ravel than Rachmaninoff, but it’s sensitive to Baudlaire’s lyrics and it has both langorous atmosphere and chips-of-colored-glass brittleness, just like the poet himself. It’s a strong, thoroughly accessible piece. When last I had the pleasure of chatting and drinking wine with them, Bob was sketching out an ambitious symphony even as he was winding up his tenure as Chancellor of the School of the Arts. I was sad when they left: two charming, witty, smart, civilized people. If any of you know where they are now, please let me know!]

"Pique Dame" Overture. Robert Heger; Vienna Philharmonic; rec.

Capriccio Italien, Op. 45. Silvestri; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [16:48]

Hamlet, Op. 67-A. Von Matacic; Philharmonia Orchestra [This was the best recording – indeed, it may well have been the ONLY recording! – until the legendary Stokowski/ N.Y. Stadium Symphony thunderbolt detonated c. 1958. When Von Matacic was "on", he was hard to beat!]

The Storm, Op. 76. Von Matacic; Philharmonia Orchestra; [The Croat conductor gets DOWN with this puppy and whips up a tempest indeed!]

Symphony No. 1, Op. 13, "Winter Dreams". Konstantin Ivanov; USSR State Symphony [40:44]

Symphony no. 2, C Minor, Op. 17. Mitropoulos; Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No. 4, F Minor, Op. 36. Barenboim; New York Philharmonic. [Barenboim’s first recording with the NY Phil, and key element of the strategy intended to make people take him seriously as a Big League conductor. Well, of course, he soon proved that he WAS, but not from this misconceived effort. Why sign him to conduct one of the most hackneyed warhorses in the stable (thus insuring comparisons with such giants as Mengelberg, Koussevitzky, and Stokowski) and pitting him against the toughest, least compassionate orchestra probably in the world – an outfit that had often reduced earnest young neophyte conductors to blobs of trembling jelly. In the event, it wasn’t a total fiasco (although the performance is too intimidated to be the wild and wooly romantic avalanche the ads promised it would be. You’ve heard better; you’ve heard worse. On balance, this cinical stuny probably didn’t help or hinder Barenboim at all; he moved on, proved himself all over the world, and ended up Music Director of the Chicago Symphony. What a curious business…]

Symphony No. 5, E Minor, Op.64. Kurt Sanderling; Berlin Symmphony Orchestra. [Dubbed from an imported Japanese Denon pressing in mint condition; the sonics are ravishing – the performance is, well, very personal and to my ears just a mite too restrained and "straight". This isn’t Bruckner, folks. But if you find over-wrought Tchaikovsky a bit much, you might really like this treatment. To my way of thinking, over-wroughtness is the bloody essence of this composer, at least in his wilder modes, and you almost CAN’T get TOO vulgar conducting this symphony. Give me Mengelberg, Stokowski, or Koussevitzky or don’t even bother. Sex and drugs and rock and roll!! Sanderling conducts it like a gentleman who finds the scent of the music slightly reminiscent of a dog turd he once stepped in…]

Symphony No. 5, E Minor, Op. 64. Beecham; London Philharmonic Orchestra; rec. January, 1940 [As expected, Beecham goes his own way, emphasizing the lyricism and unfolding Movement One with more delicacy and finesse than any other conductor in my experience. He doesn’t slight the drama, he just sort of rearranges the priorities. It works, and it casts a spell unlike any other recording. Speaking of which, Beecham never re-made this piece during the LP era, so let’s be grateful for the excellent wartrime sound EMI’s engineers captured. Think you’ve heard every possible "take" on this symphony? Not until you’ve heard what the Baronet wrought in this miraculous, almost gossamer reading!]

Symphony No. 6, B Minor, "Pathetique". Kubelik; Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 6, B Minor, "Pathetique". Stokowski; Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, c. 1944. [Not his best recording, definitely not his least, either. Much rubato. Sound is relatively good and shows how much improvement he had wrought in this orchestra. Two or three annoying Skippies in Movement I; I couldn’t correct them without doing more damage; otherwise Source LP is in pretty good shape.]

Symphony No. 7 ("Du Printemps"). Dimitri Kitaenko; Moscow Philharmonic; Soloists and Choir of the Choral Academy, Kauna, Lithuania; world premiere performance, Moscow, 1984. [55:18] [Yeah, I know – his whole cocktail-party Marxist stance has become a boring, dated, threadbare schtick by now, but my God the man writes such gut-pounding, electrifying music that there’s always SOME passages in all his big-scale works that would make a Texas Republican want to wave a red flag, grab a rifle from the nearest murdered peasant, and shoot at somebody from behind a barricade! Until I heard this scorching choral symphony, my favorite of his works was the many-faceted but often savage cantata The Canto Generale (based on poems of Pablo Naruda, who was nobody’s fool and never a fellow-traveler Party hack!), but this whole symphony early reaches and sustains such a white-hot blaze of intensity that it’s physically draining to listen to all 55-plus minutes without a break. So suffer, baby, suffer! If the rabble ain’t roused in your soul, you’re not just a Wall Street tool, you’re medically dead. Kitaenko and the musicians sing, play, and conduct as though their lives depend on it. I can’t imagine what it was like to be in the hall when this detonation was going on! Of course, the musically snobbish think Theodorakis is an over-rated movie music hack masquerading as a symphonic version of Rasputin, but screw them. Ninety per cent of the composers and critics who sneer at his "left-wing populism" would sell their souls to write fifteen minutes of music so stirring. If only this side of his art had emerged in the late Sixties (instead of the over-played "Zorba the Greek" soundtrack, although it IS awfully catchy!), this guy would have a rabid American following of ageing but still utopian hippies, just like the burning-eyed gray heads that throng to his live concerts in Europe; but the timing was wrong and he’s never had a major U.S. conductor to champion his stuff and cram it down the audiences’ throats until they start to "get it"! For my money, he is THE great anarchist musical icon to emerge from Europe in the past half-century. He makes pointy-headed mountebanks like Stockhausen look like the pussies and frauds they were/still are. C’mon, people, let’s all link arms and sing "Bandera Rosa!" …Just nudge me first if you see the Cossacks approaching.]

String Quartet No. 2. Julliard String Quartet.

String Quartet, Op. 70. Zurich String Quartet;[33:42] [Toch remains a rather vague figure in 20^th Century Music, for all that his style isn’t at all nebulous. It reminds me mostly of Hindemith in a jovial mood – neo-classical in structure and scope, but genuinely warm-hearted and nicely decked-out in good, sturdy melodies. I’d never heard either of these chamber piecews until it came tome to dub the Master CD; I found them both to be engaging, elegant in proportion, and of sufficient originality to re-kindle my faded interest in hearing more of Toch’s orchestral scores. So here’s yet another modern composer who got a bum rap because his music was relatively easy to like! Defies logic, don’t it folks?]

String Trio, Op. 63. Members of t he Zurich String Quartet [23:40]

Variations for Orchestra. Von Dohnanyi; Cleveland Orchestra (U.S. premiere, c. 1983). [I’ve only heard two works by this contemporary German composer, but both are impressive. He has a strong, personal, accessible style, orchestrates with a sure hand, and is audience-friendly. Von Dohnanyi, who usually impresses me (in the words of Don Vroon) as "a stuffy German pedant") gives a robust and persuasive reading. Good stuff.]

Suite for Viola & Piano. Emanuel Vardi, viola; Frank Weinstock, piano. [21:36] [By turns rambunctious, jaunty, pastoral, and gently meditative, this is V-W’s only extended piece for this combination of instruments. I’m pretty sure this is both its first and its ONLY recording – other violists saw Vardi was playing and decided not to compete with the best, Fans of V-W’s music need not wait for a "better" recording – there probably isn’t a violist alive who could equal Vardi’s achievement here (his partner is also terrific) and the sonics are potent.]

Symphony No. 2, "London". Sir John Barbirolli; Halle Orchestra. [Since the EMI/Angel re-make, issued only 7 or 8 years later, is still very much in copyright, this slightly rowdier and somewhat rougher-edged interpretation, issued on the "PYE" label and one of that company’s first stereo releases, will stand in its stead. Actually, though, the "London" symphony has been well-served by the gramophone. Even Mitropoulos, during a guest gig with the NBC Symphony, did a bang-up job on this symphony (in a bizarrely "Modernist", rather steely-eyed reading that shouldn’t work but does!), and even the very first recording, made in THIS country by RCA Victor and featuring Eugene Goosens’ impassioned conducting of the Cincinnati Symphony, well – every conductor who’s had a bash at it was basically in sympathy with its style and prismatic moods. For the lushest possible treatment, get Previn on Telarc! Barbirolli is more "cinematic" than Boult and is more apt to caress the odd detail because it’s just so beautiful he can’t bear to move away from it. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad recording of this one, folks, and this one rates near the very top.]

"Aida" – Triumphal March. Swarowsky; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

"Aida" – "La fatal Pietra". Enrico Caruso; (rec.11/ 07/ 1909) + O Terra, addio. Enrico Caruso; (rec. 11/ 06/ 1909);

"Aida", Act III –"Tu! Amonasro!" Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; with Zinka Milanov; Leonard Warren; Fedora Barbiewri; Boris Christoff; rec. July, 1955 [2:32]

"Don Carlo", Act I – ""Io l’ho perduta! Qual Pallor!" Enrico Caruso; recorded 11/ 30/ 1950 [10:24]

"La Forza del Destino", Act III – "Solenne in quest’ora". Enrico Caruso; recorded 1/ 3/ 1951 [4:06]

"A Masked Ball" – "La rivedra nell’estasi". Enrico Caruso; (w/ Met Orchestra & Chorus. w/ Frieda Hempel; Leon Rothier; Andres de Segurola; rec. April 3, 1914)

"Othello", Act II – "Si, pel ciel…" Enrico Caruso [4:23]

"Othello" – Ora e per sempre addio". Enrico Caruso; (Rec. 12/ 28/ 1910)

Verdi: Requiem. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; Westminster Choir; Zinka Milanov; Bruna Castania; Jussi Bjoerling; Nicola Mascagna; recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Jan. 1940.

"Rigoletto", Act I – "Questo o quella." Jussi Bjoerling; Perlea; Orchestra & Chorus of the Rome Opera, w/ Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; recorded June, 1956 [2:08]

"Rigoletto", Act III – "Bella figlia dell’ amore." w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Jonel Perlea; Orchestra & Chorus of the Rome Opera, w/ Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; recorded June, 1956 [5:54]

"Il Trovatore", Act I – "Deserto sulla terra." Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; The Robert Shaw Chorale; Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; rec. March, 1952 [1:55]

"Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di qual tetra luce; Ah si, ben mio…" Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA VBictor Symphony Orchestra; rec. March, 1952 [4:03]

"Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di quella-pira". Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA Victor Symphony; Renato Cellini; rec. March, 1952 [2:02]

Te Deum. Toscanini; NBC Symphony & Robert Shaw Chorale; Carnegie Hall; live, 1954

String Quartet No. 4, U. of Washington String Quartet. [If I hadn’t written "Priest of Music", I wouldn’t be able to tell you squat about J. V., but as it happens he’s a major supporting player in that book. Verrall studied in London with Reginald Owen Morris, and spent a year with Zoltan Kodaly. Advanced studies included a season at Tanglewood in Aaron Copland’s master class, and a more extended period with Roy Harris, at the U. of Colorado. None of these influences is audible in this very agreeable and skillfully-wrought quartet. Verrall ended up teaching for almost 20 years at Minneapolis’s Hamline University, which was at that time the highly productive refuge of Ernst Kreneck; thereby he became a good friend of both that expatriot modernist and Dimitri Mitropoulos, both of whom had a high regard for Verrall’s music. Altogether, a very distinguished pedigree. This is the only work by him, apparently, that was commercial recorded (if that’s what a "Belvedere" LP can be called; this is the only specimen I’ve ever seen, never mind collected!). The sound is decent; the performance is a bit tentative, but seems well-rehearsed and committed. Highly interesting novelty.]

Choros No. 10. Lucas Foss; Milwaukee Symphony & Chorus; live, c. 1983 [Rich, exotic, steamy, lush and very seldom performed; Foss sinks his teeth into it until the red juices flow. He was, I think, very healthy for Milwaukeein the same way as Boulez was "good" for trhe NY Philharmonic, even though nobody in his right mind wanted to hear old Stone-Face conduct much of anything from the Romantic period, he could certainly tear down the house with 20^th Century music, and a surprisingfly wide range of it, too. Like I said, this work is hardly ever heard, much less recorded, so I’m always glad I happened to tape the Milwaukee broadcast when it came on in this area.]

"Huldigungsmarsch". Siegfried Wagner; London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

"Lohengrin" – Prelude to Act I. Siegfried Wagner; London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927

"Lohengrin" – Preludes Acts I & III. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

"Die Meistersinger" – "Prelude". Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

"Polonia" Overture. Guhl; Symphony Orchestra of Radio Berlin. [Don’t you just LOVE this comnductor’s NAME?? "GHOUL"?? Adolph Fritz GHOUL???? It’s too wonderful! (Yum, yum, gobble-gobble!) And this virtually forgotten student exercise – cobbled together from a snippet of Rossini and a swatch of von Weber – is really a bucket of noisy trash, but what an exciting load it is!! Really, this wild, almost reckless student work ought to be heard now and again, if only because of what it reveals about the mature master.]

"Parsifal" – Prelude to Act III. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded August, 1927

"Parsifal" – Good Friday Spell. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival; recorded December 8, 1926

"Das Reingold" – Entrance of the Gods Into Valhalla. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January 29, 1927

Siegfried Idyll. Siegfried Wagner; London Symphony Orchestra; recorded April, 1927 [As you might expect of the dedicatee, this is a very special performance of this work; tender and dramatic, too, in a way you seldom hear today. Perhaps Siegfried subconsciously remembers how his father directed the chamber orchestra on the stairs at Wahnfried, when both son and music were making their debut…]

Symphony in C Major. Gerhard Pfluger; Symphony Orchestra of Radio Leipzig. [Yes, it’s a good symphony! Yes, he knew how to compose one! Yes, the slow movement sounds like Bruckner at his most gorgeous! ]

"Tannhauser" – Overture. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

"Tannhauser" – "Entrance of the Guests". Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January, 1927

"Tristan und Isolde" – Prelude & Liebestod. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded August, 1927

"Die Walkure" – Ride of the Valkyries. Paray; Detroit Symphony Orchestra

"Die Walkure" – Ride of the Valkyries. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded December 8, 1926

"Die Walkure" – Wotan’s Farewell & Magic Fire Music. Siegfried Wagner; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded January 29, 1927

"Der Barenhauter" Overture. Composer; Orchestra of the Berlin Staatsoper; recorded February 24, 1925

"Gotterdammerung", Complete. Hans Swaraowsky; South German Philharmonic & Vienna State Opera Chorus [See details under "Opera, Choral & Vocal Soloists]

"The Bear", One-Act Opera, adapted from Checkov. Monica Sinclair, mezzo; John Shaw, baritone; Norman Lundsen, bass; James Lockhart; English Chamber Orchestra; live, Aldeburgh Festival, 1967.

Music for Children. Composer; London Philharmonic.[13:12]

Symphony No. 3. Thor Johnson; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. [Bob Ward is a really wise, civil, and likeable guy; an excellent teacher; and in his best works, at least an occasionally major American composer. But 70 % of his music (that I’ve heard) is decidedly middle-weight. Never less than pleasant, tuneful (even though none of the themes instantly sear new grooves in your brain) and composed to the level of High Competence with only occasional (but very gratifying when they arrive) elevated moments of greatness-just-missed-by-a-hair. "Piedmont Romanticism", perhaps, has inherently smaller musical cajones than "Praire" Romanticism. Too often Ward sounds like "Howard Hanson Lite". But I like and admire the man and believe a handful of superior works will keep him in the Pantheon (Appalachian annex, not Parnassian)…it’s just that I have yet to hear a moment in a Bob Ward piece like that Ragnarogian entry of the funeral drums at the climax of Hanson’s "Nordic" symphony. Even though I KNOW it’s coming, that crack-of-Thor’s-Hammer moment always lifts me out of my seat and makes my hair stand up. I believe this VERY rare Remington LP is not only the first but the ONLY recording. Dear ol’ Thor Johnson and his Cincinnati band give the most sympathetic possible reading in bright early stereo, so mostly it makes for very agreeable listening.]

Prelude & Allegro for Strings. Priestman; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5. Julliard String Quartet.

Daentze und Galliarden. Collegium Terpsichore

Sinfonietta, in C, Op. 7-A. Westerberg; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. [17:09] [Dag Wiren’s String Serenade is one of the few neo-Romantic Swedish works to gain a toe-hold in the international repertoire, I guess by virtue of its simply irresistible melodies and pure sunny charm. The same holds true for this piece, which is packed with excellent musical ideas and radiates the same basic optimism. There’s enough good material here for most composers to stretch out into a full symphony, but Wiren keeps things tight (not "crowded", mind you) and none of his themes and transformations out-stays its welcome. A splendid piece that – dare I say it once again? – deserves to be much more widely known. As usual with "Stigie" and his orchestra, both the performance and the sonics are first-rate.]

Song: "Auch Kleine Dance" from the "Italienische Liederbuch". Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Song: "Peregrina No. 1." Lotte Lehmann, soprano

Hot Rats.[I’m listing this puppy here, under "Jazz", under "rock" and maybe under "Mundo Bizarro". It’s the album that demonstrated, hey, maybe Zappa’s a LOT more than just one of the most laceratingly satirical rock musicians on the scene; maybe this guy’s a REAL composer. Well, hell, Pierre Boulez thought so. Eventually so did I. Check out the personnel: Captain Beefheart; Jean-Luc Ponty; Shuggy Otis…not to mention the length, radicalism, and complexity of the tracks! A seminal album!]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, E-flat Major, Op. 73 ("Emperor"). w/ Gyula Nemeth; Budapest Radio & TV Orchestra

Strauss: Don Quixote. w/ Mitropoulos; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; live, Sept. 7, 1959

Mozart: Bassoon Concerto B Flat Major; w/ Ancerl; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Dvorak: Piano Quintet, A Major, K. 218. w/ Sir Clifford Curzon, piano

Beethoven: Sonata for Ceelo & Piano, Op. 17. w/ Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano. [16:09]

Beethoven: Trio for Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 1. No. 3. w/ Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano; Sandor Vegh, violin [31:33]

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3, D Minor, Op. 30. w/ Michel Plasson; Orchestre du Toulousse [42:39]

Dvorak: Piano Quintet, A Major, Op. 81. w/ Budapest String Quartet [See rave under "Composers"]

Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77. w/ Furtwangler; RAI Orchestra of Turin; live; 1/7/ 1953

Reger: Cello Sonata No. 1, G Major, Op. 131. Rec. 1939. [14:41]

Schubert: "Arpeggione" Sonata, A Minor, D. 821. w/ Gerald Moore, piano. (Rec. 1937) [29:10]

Spohr: Nonette in F, Op. 31. w. N. Y. Woodwind Ensemble

GIESEKING, Walter (Piano): [Never mind that he was an unrepentant old Nazi, everything he played became touched with magic. He evoked tone-colors and nuances almost of fragrance from the keyboard that no subsequent pianist has quite been able to equal. The Mendelssohn collection listed below appeared briefly on one of those "burlap cover" Angels, and hasn’t been spotted since about 30 years ago. He turns each of these graceful trifles into a genuine poem, finding more emotion in them than, I suspect, even Mendelssohn realized he’d put into them. Source copy is in fine condition. No timing, of course, but who cares, right?]

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words:

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, E Flat Major, Op. 73 ("Emperor"). w/ Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 5/ 9/ 1942 [39:18]

Debussy: Sacred and Profane Dances. w/ David Atherton; Radio Nederlands Chamber Orchestra, live; 1975 [A very gentle, rippling, consoling version. God, I adore this music!]

Beethoven: Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 17. w/ Pablo Casala, cello [16:09]

Beethoven: Trio for Piano, Violin, & Cello, Op. 1, No. 3. w/ Casals, cello, and Sandor Vegh, violin [31:33]

Durante: Concerto in F Minor, for Strings & Basso Continuo

Pergolesi: Concerto in G Major for Flute, Strings & Basso Continuo.

Hoffmeister: Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra. w/ Jaap Shroeder; Concerto Amsterdam [20:03]

Von Schacht, Theodor Baron von: Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra. w/ Jaap Schroeder; Concerto Amsterdam [20:03]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Trio in C Minor. [37:17] [First and finest recording, excellent sonics; unbeatable interpretation!]

Lockwood: Concerto for Organ & Brass. w/ Thor Johnson & brass players of the Cincinnati Symphony

Bach: Violin Concerto, A Minor. w/ Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies

Schubert: Sonata "Arpeggione", A Minor, D. 821. w/ Emmanuel Feuermann, cello. Rec. 1937 [29:10]

Bach: The Little Organ Book, Complete. w/ organ of the First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, N.Y. [69:11]

Gabrielli: Canzonas for Single & Double Brass Choirs. Conducted by Samuel Baron. [The original, now legendary, "Counterpoint/Esoteric" LP that was a "hi-fi" landmark in the early days. Very scarce now, at least in the near-mint shape I’ve kept mine in since 1960 (I have this H-Bomb –proof vault in Zurich…) See more "Old Codger Blabs" comments under "Composers"]

Spohr: Nonette in F, Op. 31. w/ Fine Arts S tring Quartet

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4, D Major, K. 218. w/ Vaclav Talich; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Lieberson: Piano Fantasy [10:20]

Pachelbel: Partia IV, B-flat Major, for (what else?) Strings & Continuo. [See cynical and unfairly rude comments under "Composer")

Pachelbel: Partia in G Major, for Strings & Continu…tinu…oooozzzzz. [7:17] [Don’t say I didn’t warn you…]

PASCAL STRING QUARTET: [With these entries, I finish my listings for the entire now-legendary Pascal Beethoven cycle, issued in a deluxe boxed set by the Book of the Month Club’s Music division in 1957, and still regarded as one of the finest integral traversals of the Beethoven string quartets ever recorded. Their playing had everything: passion and technique, elegance and unvarnished roughness, too, when called for; and they adopted a varied interpretive approach that clearly evolved AS the quartets deepened into something cosmic, music such as no one had ever envisioned for this medium. I hesitate to call their interpretations "middle of the road", but they do eschew excess in favor of subtlety, while never holding back when sheer power is called for. Their sound was big but exquisitely balanced and precise, with every harmonic and melodic turn polished and utterly clean, their ensemble sound was patrician and burnished – a Ferrari of string quartets, as it were. No quartet gets them ALL right, not in one cycle, but the Pascal came as close to perfection as any quartet before or since. The sonics were marvelous, too, even if they were late-mono only. I was very fortunate to acquire a set that was in near-mint condition, with maybe a half-dozen minor pops or ticks on all ten LPs! If you chanced to find a copy of the complete boxed set on E Bay, the bidding would start at one hundred dollars and probably keep going to $500 or more, depending on condition. I’ll dub the whole cycle for you for $50.00, and from superb original copies, too. I repeat: simply magnificent Beethoven from first to last!]

Debussy: Rhapsody for Clarinet & Orchestra. w/ Kondrashin; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, mid-Seventies [Pieterson was/is first-desk clarinet for the Concertebouw; is playing here is to die for…]

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, A Major, K. 622. w/ Peter Maag; London Symphony

Alkan: Concerto da Camera No. 2, C-sharp Minor. Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [6:35]

Berwald: Piano Concerto No. 1, D Major. Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [17:58]

Czerny: Divertissement de Concert, Op. 204. w/ Angerer; SW German Chamber Orch. [14:34]

Liszt: Malediction for Piano & Orchestra. w/ Angerer; SW German Chamber Orchestra [14:00]

Paganini: The Caprices, Op. 1, Complete. [57:17] [See comments under "Paganini" above]

Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 125. w/ Sanderling; Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra

Griller: Symphony for 8 Celli & Piano. w/ composer conducting and as pianist. [See comments under "Composers"]

Bach: Cello Suite No. 2. [Exact date and venue unknown; recorded off the air in 1964]

Bach: Cello Suite No. 5. " " " " " " " " " " " ]

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 1, D Major, K. 412. w/ Peter Maag; London Symphony

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3, E Flat Major, K. 447. w/ Peter Maag; London Symphony.

Verral: String Quartet No. 4 [See comments under "Composers"]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2, F Minor, Op. 21. w/ Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 4/ 9/ 1943 [28:59]

Bliss: Sonata for Viola & Piano. w/ Frank Weinstock, piano

Vaughan-Williams: Suite for Viola & Piano. w/ Frank Weinstock, piano

Beethoven: Trio for Piano, Violin & Cello, Opus 1, No. 3. w/ Pablo Casals, cello & Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano [31:33]

Bach, C.P.E.: Concerto for Flute, Strings & Basso Continuo. w/ Roelef Krol; Radio Nederlands Chamber Orchestra [27:32] [Must be their first-desk flutist; he’s quite wonderful!]

Schuman, William: "Voyages" for Solo Piano.

Bliss: Sonata for Viola & Piano. w/ Emanuel Vardi, viola

Vaughan-Williams: Suite for Viola & Piano. w/ Emanuel Vardi, viola

Bach: Concerto in F Minor. w/ Haitink; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; mid-Seventies, live

"La Dafne" (1608). Complete Opera. Paul Vorwerk; Musica Pacifica Ensemble; Robert White, tenor (Apollo); Maurita Thornburgh, soprano (Venus); Su Harmon, soprano (Cupid); Mary Rawcliffe, soprano (Dafne); Dale Terbeek, counter-tenor (Thyris); Hayden Blanchard, tenor (1^st Shepherd); Jonothan Mack, tenor (2^nd Shepherd); Myron Meyers, bass (3^rd Shepherd); Susan Judy, Mary Rawcliffe, and Anne Turner, sopranos( trio of nymphs); Myron Meyers, bass (Ovid). [52:38] [This isn’t the earliest opera score to survive in its entirety, but thanks to the diligence of its composer, it IS the only opera of such age that we have complete production notes for, as well as numerous marginal admonitions and memos penned by the composer during rehearsals or when readying the score for publication.

"Maskarade" – Complete Opera. John Frandsen; Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra of the Danish State Radio. [See comments under "Composers"]

"War and Peace", complete and in Italian. Rodzinski; Orchestra & Chorus, Maggio Musicale, Florence; live, 1953. Franco Corelli (Bezukov); Rosanna Carteri (Natasha); Ettore Bastianini (Andre Bolkonski); Italio Tajo (Kutusov & Rostov). [Requires two CDs)

"The Bartered Bride", Complete Opera. Zdenek Chalabala; Prague National Theater Orchestra & Chorus; Vaclav Bednar, baritone; Jaroslava Dobra, soprano; Drahomiria Tikalova, soprano; Jaroslav Horacek, bass; Stepanka Stepanova, mezzo; Oldrich Kovar, tenor; Ivo Zidek, tenor; Eduard Haken, bass; Rudolf Vonasek, tenor; Jarmila Pechova, soprano; Jiri Joran, bass. Requires 2 CDs. [One of the funniest (of many) stories about Sir Thomas Beecham, concerns an orchestral concert he was slated to lead at the Albert Hall. Just before going on-stage, he happened to glance at the program notes and observed the following misprint, according to which his opening selection would be the "Overture to the Buttered Bride". He convulsed with such laughter that he required several extra minutes before marching out to mount the podium and he continued to chortle throughout the performance. Anyhow, if you want to hear the whole rousing opera in a brilliant and idiomatic rendering, this is the one. The set may be 40-odd years old and mono only, but the sound is excellent and the singing/conducting/ choral work have never been surpassed. Except maybe by Sir Charles Mackerras, and his version’s still very much in copyright.]

"Gotterdammerung", complete. Hans Swarowsky; South German Philharmonic Orchestra; Vienna State Opera Chorus; Ingrid Goeritz, soprano; Margit Kobeck, mezzo; Nadezda Knipolva, soprano; Gerald McKee, tenor; Rudolf Knoll, baritone; Otto von Rohr, bass.

"The Bear", One-Act Opera, adapted from Checkov. Monica Sinclair, mezzo; John Shaw, baritone; Norman Lundsen, bass; James Lockhart; English Chamber Orchestra; live, Aldeburgh Festival, 1967.

Mass in B Minor. Karl Richter; Munich Bach Chorus & Orchestra. Maria Stader, soprano; Hertha Topper, contralto; Ernst Haefliger, tenor; Kieth Engen & Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, bass-baritones.

Magnificat. Philip Ledger; Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields; Choir of King’s College Cambridge; Felicity Palmer, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Robert Tear, tenor; Stephen Robert, bass

Requiem, Op. 5. w/ Scherchen; Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris & ORTF Chorus [98:21]

Te Deum, Op. 22. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic & London Philharmonic Choir; Alexander Young, tenor; live, 1953 [45:51]

Mass No. 3, F Minor ("The Great"). Ferdinand Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus; Dorothea Siebert, soprano; Dagmar Herrmann, alto; Erich Majkut, tenor; Otto Wiener. bass

Messe des Morts (Requiem). Herreweghe; Musica Antiqua, Cologne. [See comments under "Composers"]

The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virginia Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprano; Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Mass for the Poor ("Messe des pauvres"). Marilyn Mason, organ; Unidentified Chorus conducted by David Randolph. [See description under "Composers"]

Verdi: Requiem. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; Westminster Choir; Zinka Milanov; Bruna Castania; Jussi Bjoerling; Nicola Mascagna; recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Jan. 1940.

Te Deum. Toscanini; NBC Symphony; Robert Shaw Chorale; live, Carnegie Hall, 1954,

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act II – "Ah! Manon, mi tradisce." w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [3:58]

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprabol Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Scherchen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprano; Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonasro!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Boris Christoff; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; July, 1955 [2:32]

[See Prokofiev: "War and Peace" above]

Bizet: "The Pearl Fishers", Act I – "Au fond du temple saint". w/ Robert Merrill; Renato Cellini; RCA Victory Symphony Orchestra; recorded 1/ 3/ 1951 [4:35]

Puccini: "La Boheme", Act IV – "O Mimi, tu piu non torni". [4:07]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut" – Act II – "Ah! Manono, mi tradisce". w/ Licia Albenese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [3:58]

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonasro!" w/ Zinka Milanov; Leonard Warren; Fedora Barbieri; Boris Christoff; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1952 [2:32]

Verdi: "Don Carlo", Act I – "Io, l’ho perduta! Qual pallor." Recorded 11/ 30/ 1950. [10:24]

Verdi: "La Forza del Destino", Act III – "Solenne in quest’ora" Recorded 1/ 3/ 1951. [4:06]

Verdi: "Othello", Act II – "Si, pel ciel". Recorded ? [4:23]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act I – "Questa o quella." w/ Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Operas House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 1956 [2:08]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act III – "Bella figlia dell’ amore". w/ Robert Merrill; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 1956 [5:54]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act I – "Deserto sulla terra". w/ Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; The Robert Shaw Chorale; Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March,m 1952 [1:25]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di qual tetra luce; Ah si, ben mio". w/ Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; The Robert Shaw Chorale; Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; rec. March, 1952 [4:03]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di quella-pira." w/ Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; The Robert Shaw Chorale; Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [2:02]

Lybbert, Donald: Lines for the Fallen. w/ George Pappastavrous & Stuart Mannig, pianos. [7:53] [See comments under "Anthologies: "Quarter-tone Music"]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act II – "Ah! Manon, mi tradesci". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus’ recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Enrico Campi; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [3:58]

Puccini: Manon Lesc aut", Act II – "Ah! Manon, mi tradisce"; w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Licia Albanese; Franco Calabrese; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [2:35]

Puccini: "Manon Lescaut", Act III – "Presto in fila; No! Pazzo son!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Franco Calabrese; Licia Albanese; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1954 [3:58]

Giordando: "Andrea Chenier" – "Un di all’azzuro spazio". (rec. 3/ 17/ 1907);

Mascagni: "Cavallaeria Rusticana" – Siciliana. (rec. 12/ 28/ 1910);

Verdi: "Aida" – "La fatal Pietra" Enrico Caruso; (rec.11/ 07/ 1909) + O Terra, addio. Enrico Caruso; (rec. 11/ 06/ 1909);

Verdi: "A Masked Ball" – "La rivedra nell’estasi". (w/ Met Orchestra & Chorus. w/ Frieda Hempel; Leon Rothier; Andres de Segurola; rec. April 3, 1914)

Verdi: "Othello" – Ora e per sempre addio". (Rec. 12/ 28/ 1910)

Gomez: "Il Guarany" – "Sento una Forza indomita". (Rec. 4/ 20/ 1914)

[See Propkofiev: "War and Peace" above]

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonasro!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Fedora Barbieri; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1955 [2:32]

[See Prokofiev: "War and Peace" above]

The Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Hermann Scherchen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprabol Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

See under BACH: B Minor Mass.

Mahler: "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" & "Ruckert Lieder", Excerpts. w/ Alfred Poell, tenor; Felix Prohaska; Vienna State Opera Orchestra

See under BACH: B Minor Mass.

Strauss: "Arabella" – Greatest Scenes from. w/ Metternich; Schwearzkopf; Von Matacic; Philharmonia Orchestra

See under: Bach – B Minor Mass.

Bruckner: Mass No. 3, "The Great". w/ Grossmann; Vienna State Opera forces

HUEBENTHAL, Kurt (baritone):

Orff: Carmina Burana. w/ Kegel; Radio Leipzig forces

Wagner" "Gotterdammerung". Swarowsky; she plays "Brunnhilde"

See Wagner: "Gotterdammerung" w/ Swarowsky

Jensen, Adolf: "Lehn Deine Wang’ an Meine Wang" [I swear I’m not making that up! That’s the actual title of the song in German. I’ve forgotten what the word "Wang" means, but obviously it does NOT have the, um, ribald connotations in Deutsch as it does in colloquial English…] [Oh, come ON! You didn’t think I could possibly type that out without making a comment, did you?]

Walton: The Bear. w/ Norm,a Sinclair, John Shaw; James Lockhart; English Chamber Orchestra; live, 1967

Bruckner: Mass No. 3, F Minor, ("The Great"). Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Chorus, & Soloists: Siebert, Wiener, Herrmann

Wagner: "Gotterdammerung" w/ Swarowsky; plays "Siegfried"

Bizet: "The Pearl Fishers", Act I – "Au fond du temple saint". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; ictor Symphony Orchestra; recorded January 3, 1951 [4:35]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act I – "Questa o quella". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 195[2:08]

Verdi: "Rigoletto" Act III – "Bella figlia dell’amore". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Roberta Peters; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 1956 [5:54]

Strauss: "Aarabella" – Best Scenes from. w/ Von Matacic; Schwarzkopf; Gedda; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act I – "Deserto sulla terra". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Renato Cellini; The Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [1:25]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di qual tetra luce; Ah si, ben mio". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Renato Cellini; The Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [4:03]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di quella pira". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Renato Cellini; The Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [2:02]

Puccini: "Madama Butterfly" – "Un bel di…" Grace Moore, soprano; Willem Mengelberg; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live; 6/ 23/ 1936 [4:27]

Bach, C.P.E.: Magnificat. w/ Philip Ledger; Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields; Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Helen Watts, contralto; Stephen Roberts, bass

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act I – "Questa o quella". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Robert Merrill; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 1958 [2:08]

Verdi: "Rigoletto", Act III – "Bella figlia dell’amore". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Robert Merrill; Anna Maria Rota; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded June, 1956 [5:54]

Mahler: "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" & "Ruckert Lieder", Excerpts from. w/ Felix Prohaska; Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Orff: Carmina Burana. ( w/ Kegel; Radio Leipzig forces)

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act I – "Deserto sulla terra". w/ Jussi Bjhoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Robert Shaw Chorale; Renato Cellini; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [1:25]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di qual tetra luce! Ah si, ben mio". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Renato Cellini; RCA Vicor Symphony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [4:03]

Verdi: "Il Trovatore", Act III – "Di quella pira". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Zinka Milanov; Roberto Cellini; RCA Victor Sympjhony Orchestra; recorded March, 1952 [2:02]

Verdi: Te Deum. w/ Toscanini; NBC Symphony; live, Carnegie Hall, 1954. [Stupendous!]

Bach, C.P.E.: Magnificat. w/ Felicity Palmer, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Robert Tear, tenor; Philip Ledger; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Choir of King’s College Cambridge

See Wagner: "Gotterdammerung", w/ Swarowsky

Verdi: "Aida", Act III – "Tu! Amonasro!". w/ Jussi Bjoerling; Leonard Warren; Fedora Barbieri; Zinka Milanov; Boris Christoff; Jonel Perlea; Rome Opera House Orchestra & Chorus; recorded July, 1955 [2:32]

Orff: Carmina Burana. w/ Kegel & Radio Leipzig forces

Strauss: "Arabella" – Greatest Scenes from. w/ Von Matacic; Nicolai Gedda; Josef Metternich; Philharmonia Orchestra

Walton: The Bear. w/ Monica Sinclair; Norman Lundsden; James Lockhart; English Chamber Orchestra; live, 1967

Bruckner; Mass N o. 3, F Minor, ("The Great"). Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus; other Soloists: Dagmar Herrmann; Erich Majkut; Otto Wiener

Walton: The Bear. w/ John Shaw; Norman Lumsden; John Lockhart; English Chamber Orchestra; live, 1962

See under BACH: B Minor Mass.

See Prokofiev: "War & Peace" above]

Bach, C.P.E.: Magnificat. w/ Felicity Palmer, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Stephen Roberts, bass; Philip Ledger conducting; Academy of St. Martinb in-the-Fields; Choir of King’s College Cambridge

See under BACH: B Minor Mass.

Haydn: Seven Last Words of Christ. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprano; Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Strauss: "Elektra" – Electra’s Monologue. w/ Mitropoulos; Cologne Radio Symphony; live, Sept. 7, 1959. [White-hot.]

See "Orff; Carmina Burana")

Bach, C.P.E. Magnificat. w/ Philip Ledger; Academy St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Felicity Palmer, soprano; Robert Tear, tenor; Robrty Stephens, bass.

Bruckner: Mass No. 3, F Minor, ("The Great"). Grossmann; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus; other Soloists: Dorothea Siebert; Dagmar Herrmann; Erich Majkut

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ. Scherschen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus, recorded January 1962; Virgina Babikian, soprano; Eunice Alberts, alto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Ina Dressel, soprabol Otto Wiener, bass. [54:55]

Berlioz: Te Deum. w/ Beecham; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & London Philharmonic Choir; live, 1953

THE HEART SPEAKS – LYRIC POEMS OF LOVE. Arnold Moss & Raymond Edward Johnson, recitations. [Sourced from American Decca’s short-lived "Parnassus" series of spoken word LPs – apparently intended to give Columbia and Caedmon a run for their money – which had a pretty impressive catalogue. This anthology was selected by – who else? – Louis Untermeyer and the speakers, although barely remembered today, were prominent and highly listenable radio-voice personalities. My only quibble is that the focus is almost entirely on the Elizabethans and the predictable Byron-Wordsworth-Browning bunch (where the hell is Ezra Pound, or e.e. cummings?) Well, you can’t have everything I reckon and what’s here is unquestionably apt and nicely read.]

Carew, Thomas: "The True Beauty";

"Waiting for Godot". w/ Bert Lahr; E.G. Marshall. [Beyond question, one of the most important "spoken word" albums of the LP era. Despite the bleak, life-is-pointless existential despair underlying Beckett’s spare, brilliant dialogue, "Godot" is also, at heart, a comedy, and these two veteran actors manage to make it into swift-moving, absurdist comedy while always keeping the audience aware of the grim nihilism underlying the author’s world-view. I remember when this album came out (I’d already read the play in the Grove Press edition), and being amazed at how briskly it sold and the level of discussion it provoke in the popular press. By today’s standards, an astonishing percentage of the American people were still literate enough to CARE about … a PLAY! Of course, a lot of people just didn’t "get it" and never will, but this brilliantly performed and recorded album – one of the finest things Goddard Lieberson did as head of Columbia Records A & R department, not only sold very well, it actually turned on thousands of "average" Americans to, dare I say it, "existential theater"! No minor achievement, and probably impossible today, with the vast and depressing Great Dumb-Down that’s swallowing our culture live. An essential disc! My dub is from a clean copy and the Lahr/Marshall performance hasn’t been available, in any format, for a quarter-century. So when you sit down to renew your subscription to "Evergreen Review", order a CD of this, too!]

"Pericles". w/ Felix Aylmer; Paul Scofield; Dame Judi Dench; Daniel Thornedyke, et. al. Directed by Howard Sackler. [What? Have I READ this one? Are you kidding? Nor seen it performed. But with a cast this fine, I’d surely be happy to listen to it, on the 2.5 CDs it requires. From ancient Caedmon LPs in startlingly pristine condition.]

" " : Chinese Take-Out. [4:23]

" " : Hogarth’s Hoe-Down. [2:25]

" " : Parade. [4:40]

" " : Paris Le Soir. [3:56]

Sousa: Medley – "Washington Post" – "The Liberty Bell" – "Stars & Stripes Forever". [9:54] [I’m listing this splashy, sensationally recorded alnum here under "ethnic" because, well, who else but the Brits have organized band competitions each year for coal miners, steel workers, longshoremen and other brawny working-class types? It’s a wonderful institution; in some regions the competition is taken as seriously as the soccer ratings, and the hard-working men of the Grimethorpe Collier have several times been champions. You can hear why in this virile, blow-off-the-roof collection. Since Sousa, Foster, Hogarth Lear, and most assuredly Elgar Howarth are also "serious" composers, I’m listing all their works under "Composers", too. But due to the cultural context, I think it fits here under "Ethnic" too, since it’s a peculiarly U.K. tradition and quite an endearing one, too!

Tibetan Buddhist Chants & Rituals. [Great for reading H. P. Lovecraft by – you can pretend it’s verses from the Necronomicon. Actually, the featured cut is a long rather eerie chant for EXORCISM "performed" by some exalted dude who has the word "Adept" ritualistically added to his otherwise unpronounceable name. The sound would be good if it were not for the intolerable squalling of the Yetis (the females were in season when this was taped), but that only adds to the general merriment!]

VULICSICS ENSEMBLE: [No, I can’t tell you how it’s pronounced; don’t be a smart-ass!]

Folk Music of the Southern Slavs. [Keening vocals plus hot clarinets, okrana flutes, tamburs; double-bass; several kinds of drums and stringed thingies that sound like slightly sharp mandolins. Think: "Zorba the Bulgarian" Recorded sound is superb; the playing is terrific; a little goes a long, long way for my taste, but I love bagpipes, too, so what the hell? And, no, I am NOT going to type out the anglicized Slav spelling of all fourteen cuts. Would you really buy this one if it contained "Petrusevo kolo" but not buy it if it didn’t also have "Kalaski svatovac"?] [42:54]

"Now and Forever". [Everything except the composer/conductor’s name is in Greek. But I can almost guarantee that if you love the works of Theodorakis, you’ll enjoy these ten songs, supported by an orchestra of both conventional and folk instruments. They’re vital, intensely melodic and emotional – hell, what more do you need to know? Superlative sonics on this Odeon import, too. My keyboard doesn’t have a Greek typeface (well, it probably does…somewhere…but life’s too short to give you guys everything). Bottom line: great stuff, in that half-classical/half folk idiom the Greeks are so good at. Highly recommended!]

"Rise Up Like the Sun". [Not just the finest LP this band ever released, but one of the greatest folk-rock, Celtic-get-down albums EVER. Their spirits were so high when they taped this one that the LP all but does a Morris Dance on your turntable. Just an all-fired jewel of a record! Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s a partial list of the personnel on this record: Pete Bullock; Ashely Hutchins; Dave Mattocks;

Phil Pickett (Yes, classical mavens; it’s THAT "Phillip Pickett", the Early Music specialist and conductor!); Graeme Taylor; Kate McGarrigle; Linda and Richard Thompson; Martin Carthey; Andy Fairweather-Low… that list good enough for ya?]

Before Landing. [I’ll let Alan tell you about this unusual album before I chime in with my two-cents’ worth: ‘After having contributed to a public interest in Celtic Music, I think that without getting too far away from the music, I should give you more information about the my country – Brittany. In this album, I want to direct your attention to Brittany’s history, as well as Brittany’s present…] [OK, far be it from me to question the supreme artist’s deep patriotism and knowledge of his historical rootsd, but while the music interludes are indeed as stirring and entrancing as ever, the telegraphic historical summaries that bridge them make the album as a whole feel a bit…"cramped", and at times the two elements do rub fractiously against each other, when the intent, I’m sure, was a harmonious blend and/ or counterpoint. Still, as I have often said, Alan Stivel never made a less-than-gorgeous record and this one succeeds more often than it limps. The accompanying orchestra is huge, near-symphonic, with every folk instrument known to the region and several (sitars, krummhorns and a fine, lyrical tenor sax, that the ancient Celts might well have appreciated, but I doubt they ever heard! PS: I’m only going to list the English alternative titles as written Breton is damn near as hard to type as written Welsh, its first cousin…]

Eponymous first album. w/ Malcolm Dalgish & Grey Larsen

Songs of Love and Parting. [Up to his usual high standards; not too emotionally drippy, but subtly and tastefully sung AND played. Excellent Celtric balladry.]

JAZZ & BLUES

Ain’t Got Nobody to Grind My Coffee

Mama’s Losin’ a Mighty Good Chance. (Rec. New York City, May 1, 1926)

"SCANDINAVIANS IN NEW ORLEANS". [Dig it: this is a DANISH import, featuring Scandinavian jazz musicians who’ve become established parts of the New Orealsn jazz scene (pre-Katrina, that is; God knows how that "scene" is today), and some of them look astonishingly like…Negroes! The playing is hot and idiomatic; the recorded sound is excellent; the record is in near-pristine condition; God knows you’re not likely to find another one…]

A THIRD, ALSO TERRIFIC, ANTHOLOGY

KID THOMAS and the Original Algiers Stompers, featuring Raymond Burke, clarinet. [A reunion album recorded in 1960 at Tulane U., for archival purposes (no audience invited, though the small one that showed up wasn’t turned away). Personnel included Kid Thomas Valentine, trumpet; Louis Nelson. Trombone; Raymond Burke, clarinet; Emanuel Paul; tenor sax; Joe James, piano; Creoloe George Guesnon, banjo; Slow Drag Pavaheau, bass; Sammy Penn. Drums.]

Ralph TOWNER & Gary BURTON: "MATCHBOOK" [Very laid-back ECM-style minimalist chamber-music jazz duets, with 12-string guitar and vibraharp; shimmering elegance and exquisite recorded sound]

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat". [4:22] [A veritable paradigm of the whole ECM jazz-as-chamber-music-style: spare, elegant insrrumentals recorded against a backdrop of velvety silence. It’s all very minimalist, yet always in exquisite taste and always richly expressive. I DO understand why so many listeners feel this kind of music really isn’t "jazz" at all, but in the final analysis, what difference does THAT actually make? It spreads a genuine serenity throughout the listening area and ECM gloriously spare, luminous,, recorded sound is as close to perfection itself as anyhuman enterprise should be allowed to get! ]

MUSICAL COMDEY, 1906 – 1935: [A well-chosen anthology, alternating fasmiliar classics with fascinating rarities, all nicely remastered. I HAVE the notes for all these and will include a copy with any order]

"I’ve Got Rings on My Fingers" from "The Midnight Sons", 1909, Blanche Ring; rec. 6/ 24/ 1909

"Mister Moon-Man, Turn Off the Light" from "Little Miss Fix-It", 1911. Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth; rec. 4/ 24/ 1911

"That Haunting Melody" from "Vera Violetta", 1911. Al Jolson; rec. 2/ 22/ 1911

"Alice Blue Gown" from "Irene", 19119. Edith Day; Orchestra conducted by Rosario Bourdon; rec. 2/ 20/ 19220

"Second Hand Rose" from "Ziegfield Follies, 1921". Fannie Brice; rec. 11/ 8/ 1921

"Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean" from "Ziegfield Follies, 1922". Ed Gallagher & Al Shean; rec. 8/ 18/ 1922

"Manda" from "Chocolate Dandies" 1924. Noble Sussie, vocals; Eubie Blake, piano; rec. 10/ 22/ 1924

"Like He Loves Me" from "Oh, Please!" 1926. Beatrice Lillie, vocals; Vincent Youmans, piano; rec. 11/ 27/ 1926

"The Rangers’ Song" from "Rio Rita" 1927. J. Howard Murray; rec. 2/ 21/ 1927

"Sometimes I’m Happy" from "Hit the Deck" 1927. Louise Groody & Charles King; rec. 4/ 12/ 1927

"Hungry Woman" from "Whoopee" 1928. Eddie Cantor; rec. 12/ 18/ 1928

"Why Was I Born?" from "Sweet Adeline" 1929. Helen Morgan; rec. 10/ 16/ 1929

"You’re the Top" from "Anything Goes" 1934. Cole Porter; rec. 10/ 26/ 1934

"You and the Night and the Music" from "Revenge with Music" 1934; Libby Holman, vocals; Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Orchestra; rec. 12/ 19/ 1934

"What a Wonderful World" from "At Home Abroad" 1935. Eleanor Powell; Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra; Rec. 10/ 14/ 1935

"Summer and Smoke". [More lust-in-the-dust, Tennessee Williams style, or, as the advertising blurb tells us: "…"is about love, the flesh, the soul, and eternity, set in a small southern town named Glorious Hill". Right. Been there, screwed around with the chicks, got the tee shirt. The leads were Laurence Harvey (too faggy), Geraldine Page (too Junior League) amd Rita Moreno (NOW you’re talking!) and Bernstein’s music is about as suggestively steamy as he could get away with in 1962 (compare this too-genteel-by-half treatment to the shambling-beast ethos Brando got away with as the Snakeshin-Jacket man in, oh, crap, I can’t remember; the next Tennessee Williams Southern Gothic picture that came along, with Victor Jorie and Sylvanno Magnananan whatever. The lust between them seemed scorching; she later claimed his breath almost made her puke; who knows? They were actors, FOLKS! Anyway, this may not be Elmer Bernstein’s greatest triumph, but he’s never less than competent and it’s a very rare album. Source copy has some annoying minor scratches, about a C-plus altogether, but try finding one in better shape.]

"A Boy Named Charlie Brown". Lyrics by Rod McKuen; Music by Vince Guaraldi and John Scott Trotter; conductor & Musical Director, John Scott Trotter. [Yep, this my uncle John Scott; a gentleman and a splendid musician; band-leader for and good friend of Bing Crosby; AND of Sir Georg Solti! Great guy. Last time I was able to hang out with him was when he came to New York to conduct this musical (normally he lived in L.A. and we usually communicated only through letters. McKuen’s lyrics aren’t noxiously cute and the music is peppy and clever. "Peanuts" now seems like a relic from a vastly more innocent age; some times one misses that very keenly…]

"Barabbas" --. Produced by De Laurentis; Based on the Nobel Prize Winning novel by Par Lagerqvist; Directed by Richard Fleischer; Screenplay by Christopher Fry. Starring Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance, Vittorio Gassman, Sylvano Mangano. [Thanks to the grim, dark, sullen ambience of the picture, and the spare eloquence of Fry’s dialogue, this picture ended up being known as "the thinking man’s Biblical epic", which was of course the kiss of death at the box office. But the sound track is an absolute killer: the main theme – after a series of portentious tutti crashes – is announced slowly and humbly by a single flute; Moorish-sounding drums suck the rhythm out of that them and sharpen it into a swirling, haunting "Bolero" – like crescendo that works up intensity and dynamics for ten minutes until resolved with more violent chords, reinforced by electronic thunder and hysterical screams from the unseen mob (gathered to watch the Crucifixion, I presume). And the score gets darker and moodier from them on. I think it’s brilliant work and compliments superbly the edgy, slightly oblique tone of the production. Sourced from a very scarce Colpix LP, my dub has very clean and powerful sound.]

"Me and Juliet". Directed by George Abbott; cast: Isabel Bigley; Bill Hayes; Joan McKracken; Ray Walston; Mark Dawson; Jackie Kelston. [This may not be one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classics, but even off the top of their form, they couldn’t fail to be entertaining. Memory of this "tribute-to-the-theater" production (the tried and true play-within-a-play format) has all but vanished since the show opened in 1953. But it’s catchy and warm-hearted and better than its current obscurity would indicate. One interesting note: there’s a gorgeous lyrical theme here that soundtrack-lovers will instantly recognize as the haunting main tune for "No Other Love", from Rodgers’ solo masterpiece, the score for "Victory At Sea", which if I remember correctly, came out maybe two years later and is STILL the best damn war movie score ever wuz. That music IS the Forties and World War Two, as seen through civilian eyes anyhow.]

"Two by Two. [Moderately popular Broadway hit starring Danny Kaye; Based on "The Flowering Peach" by Clifford Odets. Cast also included Madeline Kahn, Michael Karm, Joan Copeland and Tricia O’Neil. Music by Rodgers; lyrics by Martin Charnin. Fairly hard to find these days. Source copy in B + condition]

"Lust for Life" Suite. Composer conducting the Frankenland Symphony. (That’s Saxony, I think…) Appropriately melodramatic pastiche that serves well to heighten the contrived moods of turgid novelist Irving Stone’s hyperthyroid novel about Van Gogh. For Rosza, this must have been the musical equivalent of slumming. Still, it’s never less than craftman-like.]

"Background to Violence" Suite. Composer conducting the Frankenland Symphony, a Grade B orchestra he enjoyed a special rapport with. The idea here is to stitch a "violence" themed suite by joining segments of the soundtracks to the most violent films Rosza had ever composed for. It’s a bit whacko as an idea and he would need a much better orchestra than this to realize the suite’s full concert-hall potential.The films ransacked to make this strange and edgey (for its time) pastiche were: "Brute Force", "The Killers", "The Naked City" (Yeah, he wrote the snappy main title for that, too!]

"Zita". Directed by Roberrt Enrico; with Joanna Shimkus; Katina Paxinou; Bernard Fresson; Suzanne Flon. [Don’t remember this cult fave? Well, it’s in the same sub-sub genre as "David and Lisa" and "A Man and a Woman", both high on my list of Once-Was-More-Than-Enough sappy pop-psych erstwhile "social commentary" soap operas from the nadir of the Seventies…at least we all THOUGH it was the nadir, until Disco suddenly appeared, tilting Pop Culture into the long, slow, increasingly pathetic decline it’s been in ever since. The score IS catchy in a Frenchified-lounge-lizard way, but not catchy enough so that I’d ever want to hear it again. If you feel otherwise (nostalgia-creep can do odd things to your logic circuits!), here it is, and you’re not likely to find it listed many other places!]

"The Abyss". [James Cameron’s epic evocation of the ultimate depths and the amazing "polymer-based" life forms that have built an advanced and remarkably UN-paranoid civilization right under our, um, feet veers toward the improbably New Age saccharine near the end, but there’s no denying the power of his imagination or the chilling sequences that suggest the sheer screaming alienness of the true abyssal depths. I still get a huge kick of out this movie, although there are certain longish sequences I don’t normally watch with full attention. No small part of the film’s effect derives from Silvestri’s dark, brooding, suitably eerie score, which heightens moods and generates ambience thick enough to cut with a harpoon. I’m assuming the composer conducts here (as the son of Konstantin Silvestri, he should have a flair for the baton!), but the sound is vivid and deep and the performance sharp and subtle, both. One of the best sci-fi soundtracks to come along since the death of Bernie Herrmann!]

"The Abyss" [See "Silvestri" above]

"Background to Violence" Suite

"Barrabas".

"A Boy Named Charlie Brown".

"Lust for Life" [See Rosza, above"]

"Me and Juliet"

"Summer and Smoke" [See "Elmer Bernstein", above]

"Two by Two". [See Richard Rodgers, above]

"Zita"

POP & ROCK

"JEM Records Sampler, 1977" [Tracks by the Sex Pistols, The Jam, Elvis Costello, et. al., before they became pop icons! Also includes highly interesting tracks by groups that never quite made it ("Thunder Train", John Otway, etc.) Great Collectors’ item!]

ANDERSON, Laurie: [While it’s generally true that nothing ages faster or more gracelessly than yesterday’s "avant garde", Ms. Andersen had/has so much talent and imagination that she surpassed Cage, Warhol and maybe even Marcel Duchamp, all rolled into one. AND she never took herself deadly seriously, either, which enlivened her "happenings" or "concerts" and made her genuinely entertaining. As well as provocative. This boxed set listed below represents a genuine "Records in the Attic" gem: difficult to find and larcenously expensive, even if it’s listed in "used" condition. I’m offering this specimen in near-mint condition (through a stroke of sheer good luck and a phone call from an "inside source" at one of the local thrift shops, with whom I’ve cultivated an occasionally VERY valuable relationship – he tells me when stuff like this shows up on the loading dock and in return I burn CDs for him of his enormous collection of 50-60s 45 rpm Oldies. Otherwise, this set wouldn’t have lasted long in the open stock!)

These are the legendary "BAM Concerts" ("Brooklyn Academy of Music", recorded, in VERY "live" and vivid sound, on the nights they happened, 27 years ago. As I said, 6 out of the 8 side are pristine and the other two have itty-bitty pops; no major Skippies or distortions. It looks as though the original owner never even bothered to play them! Here’s the contents (almost 3 CD’s worth of material, but I’ll cut you a break if you order the entire set: $25.00 for five LPs, postage & handling included; may as well be giving ‘em away, since my "profit" on this transaction is about $3.89. Why such a bargain? I LIKE this stuff and I want to make sure as many Laurie Anderson fans as possible get a copy, so I’m dubbing the thing virtually at cost. But don’t tell anybody else (unless you think he or she would be interested), because my dear and artistically brilliant wife Elizabeth already thinks this whole quixotic record archive project is nothing but a lunatic crusade that’s slowly draining all my money and time and so far, after doing it for five years, I can’t say she’s wrong! C’mon, eclectic music-lovers! All I need are 5-7 more steady clients per month to prove her wrong (or at least break even – the price of ink cartridges just went up by $1.04 a pop at my local Stables!). A few more multi-disc orders per month and I can justify doing this for the rest of my life!)

"Memories". w/guest shots by Peter Schikele, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Langhorne, John Hammond, and a slew of other pop celebs from the mid-Sixties. They were the two Beautiful People of the early Flower Power era; she was Joan Baez’s sister and just as beautiful in her winsome blue-eyed way as Joan was in her pre-Raphaelite darkness. Farina had more talent in his little toe than Dylan had in his whole bogus, arrogant persona (I really lost faith in Joan when she took up with that plagiarizing little toad, but eventually she saw through jim too, and paid him back but good in her lacerating, grown-up ballad "Diamonds and Rust", quite possibly the greatest original song she ever created. Personally, I can’t listen to this album any more; it just rips open the scars I still carry from the disillusionment that embittered me only a few years after it was produced. As most of you already know, Richard was riding the crest of a wave, not only writing damn good songs, but enjoying the success of his first, and as Fate would have it, only novel, Been Down So Long it it Looks Like Up to Me (which is still essential reading for anyone infatuated with the Sixties). And then one day in 1964, he hopped on his motorcycle, waved goodbye to his adored wife, and never came back. One of the earliest and most achingly missed casualties of the decade. It’s an uneven album, of course, as any memorial collection made up on bits and patches would have to be, but it can still make you smile at its idealism and élan, and make you cry at the realization of how fragile those qualities turned out to be. Anyway, my Source copy is in good shape (as I say, I can’t bring myself to play it any more and a stylus hasn’t touched these grooves since about 1972). Here are the titles of the cuts… Peace, love, and spare change!]

THE INK SPOTS: [Talk about mellow! This group was a long-respected avatar of both Beach Music and R & B in its first, most musically vital phase. Great musaic to play in the background for…whatever. From happy copulation to washing the dishes to actually dancing. Sound on this anthology is about as good as it can be, give the age and relative obscurity of the original labels, and it ALL fits on one CD (just barely), which makes it one helluvva bargain (the Source package comprises FOUR LP’s!]

"Makin’ Bacon". [See comments under "Mundo Bizarro". Not for the easily offended!]

"More Songs About Buildings and Food." [When the store promos for this, their first Brian-Eno-produced LP, arrived at Peaches # 36, everybody on the staff agreed it was something special. That was rare enough; that we were all correct was even rarer. Of course, the group never became a monster hit – but in those days (1977) a profitable cult band was rare enough – but how many intellectually witty albums were there that you could also dance to?? Disco was an out-of-control juggernaut and any imbecile could see it would self-destruct in 4-5 years (it did), but we were grateful for any album like this that acted as a speed bump to slow down the monster’s progress. Pop culture never recovered; no one could have imaginbed, of course, how much worse it would GET, but that’s not a rant for today…]

"God Bless Tiny Tim". [I’m not going to list the songs; if you remember him and his schtick, and have a soft spot for the hook-nosed idiot-savant who served as much-needed comic relief during the days when Sixties’ musicians took themselves as seriously as League of Nations diplomats, you too will occasionally want to spin a side of this, his quintessential LP, and grin and tap your feet and ask yourself for the ten-thousandth time: "What were we THINKING???" For whatever difference it makes, my copy is VG + condition.]

"Renaissance". [Honestly, I never knew whether or not to take these clowns seriously, Half the time I don’t think THEY knew, either! At least, Carmine Appice’s cover version of "Season of the Witch" is groovier than Donovan’s own, Even by the standards of the Sixties, the obscurity and pretentiousness of both their lyrics and their neo-baroque style of playing (complete with a lead singer who sounded like a counter-tenor!) was something special. That’s why I still find them kind of endearing. It can be fun, this album, if you’ve ingested the right combination of chemicals…]

Trotter contributes an asymmetrical "Haiku" about the Sixties:

"The 12-Year-Old Genius". This HAS to be one of the first, if not THE first, of his many commercial records. It’s on Tamla; produced my proto-Motown Uber-producer Berry Gordy; and is in simply fantastic condition (it’s E Bay for YOU, my saucy lad!), so in case any of YOU want to make an offer for the actual LP, better do so FAST.

Hot Rats.[I’m listing this puppy here, under "Jazz", under "rock" and maybe under "Mundo Bizarro". It’s the album that demonstrated, hey, maybe Zappa’s a LOT more than just one of the most laceratingly satirical rock musicians on the scene; maybe this guy’s a REAL composer. Well, hell, Pierre Boulez thought so. Eventually so did I. Check out the personnel: Captain Beefheart; Jean-Luc Ponty; Shuggy Otis…not to mention the length, radicalism, and complexity of the tracks! A seminal album!]

Laurie ANDERSON:

The Complete B.A.M. Concerts, 1986. [See complete listings under "Pop & Rock]

"Makin’ Bacon" & "Tight Pussy". [If these swine ever had a "hit", this 12-inch single is it. It’s a beauty, too, with a truly repulsive S & M-themed cover, depicting several of the band members – drawn as giant, hairy, human pigs wearing Hell’s Angels regalia—preparing to defile a chained-up biker slut with whips and branding irons, etc. The lyrics, while every bit as vile as you might hope, are actually rather clever. Whilst dubbing this, I accidentally recorded the title track at 33.3 instead of 45 r.p.m, and the grotesque, troglodyte voices struck me as being so cool I left that alternate take in, along with the correct-speed dubs. Thanks and keep the change! BTW, hardcore collectors, the disc itself is pressed on piss-yellow vinyl with a sort of loathsome puce-colored label, and considering both its rarity and its inherent tackiness, is probably worth a small fortune. If you OFFER me a small fortune, I might be induced to sell you the original disc itself, but I’ve already turned down two offers for, respectively, $25 and $40, so don’t expect me to cut you a break on this one… The value of it can only go up as the years pass and it appreciates faster than a first edition of Moby Dick.]

"God Bless Tiny Tim" [See comments under "Pop and Rock"]

Hot Rats.[I’m listing this puppy here, as well as under "Jazz" and "Composers". It’s the album that demonstrated, hey, maybe Zappa’s a LOT more than just one of the most laceratingly satirical rock musicians on the scene; maybe this guy’s a REAL composer. Well, hell, Pierre Boulez thought so. Eventually so did I. Check out the personnel: Captain Beefheart; Jean-Luc Ponty; Shuggy Otis…not to mention the length, radicalism, and complexity of the tracks! A seminal album!]