In memoriam Ivan Moravec

Beethoven Pastoral, Bohm, VPO 1977 live broadcast? Japan? Great take.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Opus 68, Symphony No.6 "Pastoral"

Abby took this pic on one of her traversals of the Storm King 

Mountain area. Thanks, Abs.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Böhm, conductor


Tokyo, Japan 
March 2 1977


It's raining, and the woods are thinking of coming back. Once they break from the waning dark, ice, and thick snow, the birdsongs may return as well. May we all get to walk through the forest more often this year.



Thanks John, great find.

All Thanks to ya1955hiro who
Published this on YouTube on Jan 29, 2014
on-air recorded reel to reel tape
TEAC A-6100 mk2 reel to reel tape recorder
SONY VAIO H on board computer DSD recording.
44kHz 16bit converted





play it loud

Claudio Abbado, Orchestra Mozart play Bach in 2012. L'Aquila's inauguratory concert after disaster.

In memoriam, maestro.

Claudio Abbado

June 26, 1933 - January 20, 2014

Simple, beautiful readings of Bach,

played by the Orchestra Mozart Bologna and an all-star soloist roster. 

I would wish to be remembered for having participated in soundmaking like this, for its feeling of positivity and camaraderie.

Johannes Sebastian Bach

Sunday October 7, 2012 at 15h30

Auditorium del Parco
L'Aquila, Italy

ORCHESTRA MOZART BOLOGNA
CLAUDIO ABBADO, conductor

ISABELLE FAUST violin
RAPHAEL CHRIST violin
FRANCESCO SENESE violin
WOLFRAM CHRIST viola
BEATRICE MUTHELET viola
CHAIM STELLER viola
GABRIELE GEMINIANI violoncello
ISEUT CHUAT violoncello
LUCA FRANZETTI violoncello
ALOIS POSCH contrabass
JACQUES ZOON flute
KAI FROEMBGEN oboe
REINHOLD FRIEDRICH trombone
ENRICO CACCIARI harpsichord

Bach:Concerto per violino,oboe,archi e continuo in Do minore BWV 1060
(Isabelle Faust violin, Kai Froembgen oboe)

Bach:Concerto per viola, archi e continuo in Re maggiore,
from BWV 169, BWV 49, BWV 1053 (Wolfram Christ viola)

Bach:Suite-Ouverture n. 2 in Si minore BWV 1067(Jacques Zoon flute)

BachConcerto Brandeburghese n. 3 in Sol maggiore BWV 1048

Bach:Concerto per violino, archi e continuo n. 2 in Mi maggiore BWV 1042
(Isabelle Faust violin)

Bach:Concerto Brandeburghese n. 2 in Fa maggiore BWV 1047
(Gregory Ahss violin, Jacques Zoon flute, Kai Froembgen oboe,
Reinhold Friedrich trombone)

Radio3 stream 128 Kbps

Orchestra Mozart conducted by Claudio Abbado officially inaugurated the new
temporary Auditorium in L'Aquila with a special concert in the presence of
the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.



All thanks to Alessandro from concertarchive. I straightup repackaged his broadcast recording, retagged and made up some dubious art for it.

Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade, Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra, February 6, 1962 broadcast

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Scheherazade 

Philadelphia Orchestra, 

Leopold Stokowski, Conducit 

February 6, 1962 broadcast recording

Reel-to-reel tape* source

Radio announcer starts the party, applause and ending whoops included. The crucial second movement solo violin parts are given to us, I assume, by Anshel Brusilow. They are everything I wish for in this work. Also,  you may know that when you need a satisfying spectacle, a pint of Stoki is your only man. I have had a Scheherazade orgy this past 3 weeks, and so finally just decided to post a particularly fetching version. As always, this is not available commercially by any official sources.    

The contributor remarks, "*Many thanks to Jack (JackG) for his help in restoring the portion of the second movement missing from my tape."




thanks:

Jeffrey Catherine Jones (1944-2011) for making the art in 1970. Obviously I stole it.

Ray, JackG and the other symphonyshare folks who worked on this, then put it up. Obviously I stole it.


Guillermo

Sibelius Sym 4, Colin Davis, SO Bayerischen Rundfunks, 2006

If we are remembered by what beauty we leave behind, Sir Colin Davis, you are unforgettable.

Thank you, Maestro.

Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 4

Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Runfunks
Sir Colin Davis

?? ?? 2006 performance


My favorite Sibelius Symphony. To repurpose a Billy Collins joint, the sound here “...starts out like a lone traveler heading into a blizzard at midnight, tilting into the wind, one arm shielding his face, the tails of his thin coat flapping behind him.” The late Sir Colin Davis' LSO performances of Sibelius
always took me to places utterly and completely. Here you are: my new top pick for
that work (previously given to the Berliner Philharmoniker under Karajan in their early 80s take).  As Darkling Angel confides, it is an,

"[e]pic, monumental and utterly bleak performance of Sibelius' Fourth from the late Sir Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (no one else could really have got away with a performance like this apart from Davis). I absolutely love it. I didn't write the full date down but remember it to be from 2006. "

It runs minutes longer than his contemporary LSO live official CD performances. As with
these cases, you do not feel the passage of time on way or the other.

Turn it up loud and get all Hafiz on the world:

...God wants to manhandle us,

Lock us inside of a tiny room with

Himself

And practice His dropkick.

The Beloved sometimes wants

To do us a great favor:

Hold us upside down

And shake all the nonsense out...

Guillermo

A core Beethoven broadcast symphony cycle for my son

So.

Without much fanfare, here it is. Maybe more yammering will appear later in this post, but for now:

When my son was born almost 3 years ago I made a core Beethoven cycle (no Symphonies 1 or 2, or any other form) of broadcast material. He has enjoyed it ever since, as have I. It's not perfect, in fact far from it; it does however have a lot of fun performances. May it serve as sturdy accompaniment for the years ahead.

Here it is:

A Core Beethoven Broadcast Cycle for Beary : Symphonies 3 through 9

(meant to fit on one mp3 cd)

Beethoven Op. 55 Sinf 3

Gilbert/NYP 2011 05 24  Prague broadcast
Recorded May 24, 2011 in the Smetana Hall, Prague
Prague Spring International Music Festival 2011
"...I think it's fairly telling to listen to the rapturous audience response at this
program vs. the response to the San Francisco Symphony a few days ago. There's
certainly a case for the adventuresome programming the Tilson Thomas is known
for, however nothing can replace well-played concerts and technical ability.
Although not evidenced here, Alan Gilbert is also no slouch when it comes to
good programming."-thanks to earbox



Beethoven Op. 60 Sinf 4

Gatti/ONF 2010 05 27 broadcast
Recorded 5/27/10 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris



Beethoven Op. 67 Sinf 5

Jarvi/DKP 2009 07 30 broadcast
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Aufzeichnung vom 30. Juli in der Laeiszhalle
Hamburg



Beethoven Op. 68 Sinf 6

Szell/Cleveland 1968 04 11-13 broadcast
Concert from 11 & 13 April 1968 at Severance Hall



Beethoven Op. 92 Sinf 7

Jarvi/DKP 2009 08 27 broadcast Salzburg
Mozarteum, Salzburg
27 August 2009
Beethoven 6 & 7
DKP Bremen
Paavo Järvi, conductor



Beethoven Op. 93 Sinf 8

Masur/ONF 2008 11 08 live broadcast
FA2008-118 Orchestre National de France & Choeur de Radio France,
Kurt Masur - conductor



Beethoven Op.125 Sinf 9
 
Ormandy/CSO 1982 broadcast
6/3/1982
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Valente, Benita; soprano
Ciesinski, Katherine; mezzo-soprano
Shirley-Quirk, John; bass-baritone
West, Jon Frederic; tenor



Thanks to the original contributors of the radio broadcast recordings;
you help to make the world sound better.

Enjoy! Play it LOUD and often.

Guillermo

Schumann Cycle 2012, Nézet Séguin, COE live @ Cité de la Musique, Paris

Robert Schumann

Symphonies and Concertos Live 2012, Cité de la Musique, Paris

Sterling Forest State Park, Tuxedo, NY

2 November 2012

Symphony No.4 in D minor Op.120
Cello Concert in A minor Op.129
Symphony No.1 in B Flat Major Op.38 'Spring'


3 November 2012

Manfred Overture Op 115
Violin Concerto in D minor WoO 23
Symphony No.3 in E Flat Major Op.97 'Rhenish'


4 November 2012

Overture Genoveva Op 81
Piano Concerto in A minor Op.54
Symphony No.2 in C Major Op.61




Gautier Capuçon, cello
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Nicholas Angelich, piano

Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Yannick Nézet Séguin, conductor

statework
broadcast recordings
Cité de la Musique, Paris

All thanks to Atze, MP3s, 320 kbps

Allright. The pic is weird, and seemingly non sequitur. It's my current workplace, and the shot just seems to express the invitation to beauty inherent in these broadcast recordings. Maestro Nézet-Séguin is doing a real number on these works, most of them varnishable warhorses. I find he is great with bringing out rhythmic power without the protracted mashing of the 'thermonuclear' button felt in, say, Solti. (To be fair, Sir Georg also had nights where his mood was more forgiving, an example of which is somewhere in the posting cue). The Chamber Orchestra Of Europe's own blog has a wonderful piece giving some nice details and ruminations about Schumann. Here http://chamberorcheurope.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/schumann-gossip/ . 

Enjoy!
Guillermo

The ground from which to resume

from a New York Philharmonic post

Richter 1994 10 03 Montalto Dora: Beethoven recital, inhouse recording

Sviatoslav Richter

Anfiteatro di Montalto Dora

Montalto, Italia

October [3?], 1994

Beethoven Sonatas recital

There is always enough room for more Richter, be it Gerhard or Sviatoslav. The latter is recorded non-professionally here in very good sound, despite having some significant dropouts and occasional alien communication sounds. It is a recital from his later years, and so some finger slips may be present. It also contains the power which those late performances had at their best; Richter allows the humor and depth of his years living with these Sonatas to roll forth.
Forgive the indulgence. Please listen and you'll have a wonderful moment.

Guillermo
statework


All Thanks to osmin46, who supplied some wonderful details :

"Is an homemade recording, with 2 big troubles in the final movement of op 14.2 and in the first movement of op 22. But I think this concert [is] very great, [so] I post it [anyway].

Montalto Dora is a little village near Ivrea, in north of Italy no so far from Torino. The theatre where [the 

concert] took place is a very poor cinema, [as opposed to in Ivrea Teatro Giacosa which was under

maintenance, so the concert had been moved 10 km. away to the 'awful' cinema of Montalto Dora.]

but the Richter's performance was extremely better then 2 days later in the luxury concert hall Lingotto in Torino.

The program:

1 sonata n8  op12  patetica
2 sonata n9  op 14.1
3 sonata n10 op 14.2
4 sonata n11 op 22
5 sonata n 13 op 26  funeral march
"


While D. in Italy had offered this at a point in other e-print sources:

"Sorry to say those performances from the Italian tours in 1994 weren't officially recorded [!!] ...I attended the " five Beethoven' sonatas " concerts in Florence ( where the Maestro had a collapse due to the very hot temperature in the theatre but , after a long intermission , played also the second part of the recital ) , in Montalto Dora and Turin . Well , the Patéthique was not at the level of those we know from earlier recordings : the Maestro had to " warm-up " ( I noticed almost all the pianists of a certain age have difficulties at the beginning of a concert , probably because phisiologic decline ) and played the Sonatas op. 14 / 1 and 14 / 2 much better . The same thing happened also in Montalto Dora and Turin .


I would like to add a little anecdote : after Florence , Richter had to take a rest and consequently to cancel the recital in Chioggia with the same programme. Chioggia is a rather small town near Venice ( it is called " the little Venice " ) that the Maestro loved ( there is a shot on the film " the Enigma " that shows Richter wearing blue-jeans sitting astride his chair with the sea at the back window . That shot was taken in his hotel room in Chioggia ) .

[]
There was a very little concert society there : three persons in all , young and not rich people. They had spent a lot for the advertisements , the playbills and so on . When the Richter's assistant phoned them to announce the cancellation , they felt in despair . But Richter had promised to play there and when he was back to Italy next December he re-phoned them : " I would like to play there " . The three fellows felt very embarassed : " Maestro , we have no money , very sorry , we must renounce " . " Money is not a problem , I want to play in Chioggia : I will play for free " . And the recital took place ."


This is one from that series.
Enjoy!

Signs of life

This blog continues. I just got a newfangled smartphone, so just a soon as my australopithecus fingers get used to it I will resume posting!

Kurtag .concertante. Maestro Saraste, BBC SO live 2011 with dedicatees Kikuchi & Hakii

a Kurtag double concerto for large orchestra, violin, viola, and more than a few surprises

Béla Bartok

Dance Suite

Gyorgi Kurtág

Op. 42 .concertante. (dedicated to Hiromi Kikuchi & Ken Hakii)

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No.6
Symphony No.7

Hiromi Kikuchi, violin
Ken Hakii, viola
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

16 December 2011

Live BBC broadcast from The Barbican Centre, London UK

Radio announcements by Martin Handley

If you like the Kurtag work (if?? Did I write IF?) buy it.

earbox brought this to ca, and I couldn't help it. I had to share.

Here is a whole broadcast of a BBC concert including .concertante.. It comes complete with the 26-some minute radio interval and all, nicely tracked by a concertarchive uploader so as not to overly tax your repeated-listening possibilities.

In the announcer's comments, they tell of an affectionate bond between Gyorgy Kurtag and the violinist Hiromi Kikuchi. Kurtag is said to hold her and her spouse as the artists he "trusts most in the world". Indeed, Senor Kurtag has written other things for her such as "Hipartita", and in this piece the dedication is to both her and her husband, Ken Haikii. The two played .concertante. on this evening's recording, performing on their customary violin and viola as well as on 'silent violin and silent viola' which look like "skeletal, half" instruments. These come to bear in the fading last pages of the vast, intimate work.

I really love the two Sibelius symphonies given here, almost regardless of performance, and Bartok is just a constant love but really this is for the greatest love of them all, for Kurtag. I just keep coming back to György and his work keeps revealing more. So, although the whole concert is here, it is for a sense of completion. Besides (as Mesopotamian-era religion points out), hell, why not?

Christopher Gunning has given it a different framing altogether:

"...The [BBC's] programme note waffled about Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and references to Wagner and Magyar music, but if I was supposed to recognise any of these, I’m afraid I failed miserably. In fact I found this work altogether perplexing; the soloists are not soloists in the conventional sense, and their contributions often seemed inconsequential or inaudible. The music is also extremely discontinuous; at worst it felt like a random series of sounds and gestures, which although frequently interesting in themselves, were largely disconnected. There are welcome periods of greater energy, and some violent outbursts too, but overall this doesn’t make for coherent, let alone pleasant, listening. You may say there’s absolutely nothing wrong in that in itself, of course, but there’s a point at which incomprehension gets the better of me and I must admit to being pretty relieved when it was all over..."

I have to admit, this is exactly one of the central reasons as to why I love Kurtag. Not everybody will like it. And that is OK. I personally find the composer's work to be unflinching and with that, more beautiful. Also (hey, it's a blog, so if it turns into a quotefest just strap in), here I present Tia DeNora's quoting of John Cage most fittingly:

New music:new listening. Not an attempt to understand something that is being said, for, if something were being said, the sounds would be given the shapes of words. Just an attention to the activity of sounds."

Musicweb's Philip Borg-Steely has written something about this work which gets Kurtag in general:

"...Spare, elliptical, austere, Kurtág’s aphoristic pieces or movements, in which no note is wasted or insignificant, create an impact and resonance out of all proportion to their brevity. After listening to one of his typically concentrated works, one may well find much other contemporary music long-winded and self-indulgent..."

Allright then.

Guillermo

Shostakovich 10th, von Karajan & Staatskapelle Dresden, 1976

Sounds to weather the storm with.

Dmitry Shostakovich

Symphony No. 10 Op. 93

I. Moderato

II. Allegro

III. Allegretto

IV. Andante-Allegro

Staatskapelle Dresden

Herbert von Karajan

broadcast recording of ??-??-1976

Thanks to Progress Hornsby. Check out his blog- it's on the list.

I've been sitting on this one for a loooong time, but I think it's still a 'new' addition to the stuff out there. P.Hornsby and the MetroGnomes sent me this before their own blog was made, and I hope it wasn't put up there in the lee. If so, so much the better; these performances need wider attention.

This performance may or may not be the same as one referenced around the web, from August 15th, 1976 in Salzburg. Maybe someone will comment on that. What is certain is that it suffers from the same thing almost all Shostakovich symphonies have, the way I hear them. The affliction is known in clinical circles as "It's Shostakovich as conducted by not-Mravinsky-or-Kondrashin".

It's just that every time I listen to a Shosta 10th, I have to abolish the 1973 Kondrashin recording where he heads the State Symphony Orchestra, or the furious 1976 Mravinsky take with the Leningraders. Once past these, then I can allow the present recording to take its own personna, but its tough to abolish the impression those two leave.

Call me dogmatic. I do listen to each and allow them thier due, however, and Karajan's conduct here is worth several deep listens. The first movement is especially blessed with some passages of slow burn surprise. Herbie almost makes you forget there are spikes in the emotional arc, so when they are triggered it is unsettling, as seems appropriate. It's a display of mastery of podium skill, no doubt.

Anyway, there are really good sounds here, just the thing to accompany the Internet Inquisition currently underway, with file hosting companies on the rack and such.

Enjoy!

Guillermo

Britten War Requiem 2002 Rostropovich/NDR SO broadcast

Britten, Benjamin

War Requiem, Op. 66

live broadcast

Turbinenhalle, Peenemünde

28 September 2002

Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor

Andreas Sebastian Weiser, assistant conductor

NDR Symphony Orchestra

NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover

Elina Prokina, soprano

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor

Andreas Schmidt, baritone

Coventry Cathedral Boys' Choir

Boys Choir of St. Nikolai, Hamburg

Philharmonia Chorus

NDR Choir

BBC Singers

Regardless of the earnest policy-oriented appeal below, this performance is chosen for it's quality. It is not the most impeccably recorded thing sound-wise, but what is here rises beyond the myriad War Requiems I've heard over the years. Uncompromisingly bled by Mstislav Rostropovich, it has none of that furioso impulse of Pappano's take in 2005, nor the scrappiness of a Ringborg broadcast.

What Rostropovich brings to this is a searing, nuanced construction which does justice to the subject.

When Britten composed this War Requiem, heads of state would send their nation's kids to kill another nation's youth.

That procedure has been proving less and less useful. Maybe now we can have fewer large-scale actions; instead of vast amounts of people, machinery going from here to there ( -and the arms manufacturers and suppliers reaping a disproportionate sum of the monetary benefits), there will be more targeted murders of deserving humans. This should be done with concomitant transparency of motives. Fewer deaths, higher "return on investment"?

"...

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori."1

My friend Kelly (who also has a horse in this race, having become a mom recently, congrats!) found a great summation:

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."~Martin Luther King, Jr.

May the recent news allow more of our troops to be brought safely home; if they must remain I want to see their rifles slung on their backs because their hands are full of water-treatment infrastructure, fertile seeds, and some grateful local's donation of a home-cooked meal.

Guillermo

1 Owen, Wilfred (8 October 1917 - March, 1918). "DULCE ET DECORUM EST"

In lieu of actual post (which is forthcoming)

Statework will continue shortly.

In the interim, and as a valid excuse for not actually posting (!!), I offer the most wicked recommendation in recent music blog memory:

http://panovnik.blogspot.com/

This guy's putting out the most incendiary "I've never seen that performance date before" Mravinsky and Richter recordings ever. I've been in bliss for weeks and weeks.

Brahms 4 Prêtre/Accademia Sta Cecilia 2010 broadcast

[and more art, soon ...?)

Johannes Brahms

Symphony no. 4 in E minor op. 98

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Georges Pretre, conductor

1 June 2010

Parco della Musica in Roma

This is the second part of the June 1 2010 Brahms concert broadcast.

Thanks again to Andrea for this. Please see previous post for more info.

Aah, listen to it. It will change your Brahms world.

Brahms 3 Prêtre/Accademia Sta Cecilia 2010 broadcast

[art, soon ...?)

Johannes Brahms

Symphony no. 3 in F op. 90

[in next post: Symphony no. 4 in E minor op. 98]

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Georges Pretre, conductor

1 June 2010

Parco della Musica in Roma

Thank you, Andrea for having posted this. A fellow listener, henryflower found them

"...outstanding. I think it's instantly become my performance of choice for those works. So much energy and drive, such great woodwind detail..."

What am I supposed to write? There are only so many ways to express the rapt satisfaction and untrammeled serotonin production that some of these recordings cause. It's the raison d'étre for this blog.

Here Georges Prêtre, who came into this world in 1924, leads what wiki calls "one of the oldest musical institutions in the world" and together they bring the smackdown in such a way as to shame all comers.

Our contributor laments, "..[u]nfortunately the quality of sound is not excellent only 128 kbs but it is worthwhile to have it !!"

Yes, yes yes.

Mahler 5 Horenstein 1961 Berliner Phil, repaired/completed version

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 5

Edinburgh Festival

August 31, 1961

Berlin Philharmonic

Jascha Horenstein, conductor

I'm a Furtwängler fan, and so I think I hear something of his approach in Horenstein performances, by dint of Jascha Horenstein having been the older conductor's assistant. Something ineffable, the organic feel in the musicmaking makes me imagine that a Furtwangler Mahler 5th joint would be something like what we hear here. I mean no disrespect to Jascha Horenstein by this. Horenstein is another of the sound shapers who consistently make deeply satisfying performances appear out of nowhere! Without much more epicycling, I say this is a very engrossing recording. It just sounded several kinds of terrible from having been poorly sourced.

Now, this is the same recording but with work done to remedy some of that. This Mahler 5th was offered by "a collector who first posted the original, unrestored files on his blog...", MetroGnome Music http://metrognomemusic.blogspot.com/ , which then were taken by GP 49, who worked to improve their problematic sonic profile.

That MetroGnome blog is a treasure trove, and has since posted another expert transfer of this recording: MAHLER: Symphony No. 5Jascha Horenstein and the Berlin Philharmonic

I can't resist pointing you to a 3rd by Horenstein, which lives in that blog as well:

Mahler: Symphony No. 3Jascha Horenstein and the London Symphony - Live, 1961.

For this version of the 5th, GP49 describes the process of making the recording sound better:

"

There were several items which needed to be addressed:

Several bars were missing from the end of the Finale. [the uploader] had already done a repair to missing bars in the Scherzo,

but he had material to work with within the existing file; in the

finale, there wasn't anything that could be used. Fortunately, for

many years now, I have had a cassette with the only last ten minutes

of the same performance; it sounded just as bad but it had the missing

bars.

A patch job could be done!

The entry of the Scherzo was noisy and abrupt, distorted and

truncated. Some careful and exacting digital editing was needed to

extract enough clean signal to reconstruct just that one first note.

Generally, noise and hum was reduced though not eliminated.

Transitions from silence to movement entries were refined.

There were some loud, bass-heavy THUMPS which sounded like somebody

bumped the microphone during the recording, which Jascha Horenstein's

cousin alleges was made using a microphone in front of a radio

loudspeaker. These THUMPS couldn't be made inaudible; all that could

be done was to filter out the heavy bass.

Gross digital clipping in the loudest segments of all movements had

to be addressed. The overall level was dropped to provide some

headroom, and software was applied to attempt a restoration of the

clipped portions. The results of this procedure are seldom 100%

effective, but they are audible here. Unfortunately some of the

distortion from the digital clipping remains; and there was nothing

that could be done for distortion from analog tape overload, without

severely filtering the treble unacceptably.

If one carefully listens to the original, it sounds like Horenstein

played the fourth movement and the Finale without a pause. But I

couldn't tell if this was a poor edit, long ago, on a previous

generation of the tape. I know someone who was there in Edinburgh at

the concert and he says that there was a definite pause, but a short

one. However, Jascha Horenstein's cousin says that his notes from

other Horenstein performances of Mahler 5 say that the conductor

played through the IV-V transition without a pause. I've retained

the split of the two movements onto separate tracks but have put a

minimal amount of silence after the hall echo at the end of IV, and a

minimal amount before the entry of V. If played consecutively, this

makes the pause very short. For those who prefer a longer silence

between the movements, there is always the PAUSE control.

When played, the original was pitched quite too high: a semitone.

That error is a lot, even for a cheap cassette deck; but I have seen

some that had that degree of speed error. Under the assumption that

the pitch error occurred in the analog domain, this means that the

original also was playing too fast! The semitone down-transposition

and accompanying 5.6% slowdown altered the portrayal of the entire

symphony; compared to known, good-sounding Horenstein performances of

the Mahler Sixth Symphony, this Fifth originally sounded too

"lightweight."

After the pitch/speed correction, the gentleman who actually heard

the concert in Edinburgh said, "it does darken the performance and is

much closer to what I remember at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh."

The result is not perfect; it's no silk purse but it is no longer a

sow's ear, either. Some distorted patches remain, and there are

pitch bobbles that sound like irregularity in reel-to-reel tape feed.

I still hope a better copy turns up that will allow this performance

to shine for all it's worth. Jascha Horenstein's cousin is still

trying to search one out, and we should all hope that he is

successful; but for now, this is what we have.

The downloadable files include an excerpt from the introductory

comments on the 1961 broadcast. The audience's applause with

broadcast exit comments follow the Finale, as in the original

broadcast.

"

This is a mono recording of an important historic performance.

Enjoy!

Guillermo