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

Gubaidulina's Glorious Percussion, Berlin Phil under Dudamel. Live in-house/broadcast 2009

Absolutely well named. Drummers, strap it on.

Sofia Gubaidulina

Glorious Percussion

Berliner Philharmoniker

Glorious Percussion Ensemble (Anders Haag, Robyn Schulkowsky, Anders Loguin, Mika Takehara & Eirik Raude)

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Two independent sources of the same event

(1) in-house audience member's recording and (2) live broadcast recording of Musikfest Berlin 09

September 17, 2009

Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, DE

I prefer, as usual, the bootleg from the seat in the audience. I feel this music especially benefits from this perspective, which is near enough to make out a depth of soundstage that is more detailed than the broadcast version. Maybe the compression to the radio signal does me in, either way me dispiace.

What pleases me so is just the adventure this whole thing takes you on. It lets an unforced myriad of possibilities flow, all based on beating things to get them to make sound. Make no mistake, beat things the 5 soloists do. Sometimes you feel it was almost too hard, then letting the items ring if they can- the air is often rife with delicious overtones, enough to make the most fervent Arvo Part freak drool.

The music never even approaches roteland or unfocussedstan. I am not faint praise-damning, it's just that we are dealing with a new piece of music and there are no boring or obtuse parts! Despite all the recent compositions out there that also share these gifts, this one lets everything happen with an added feel of inevitability as opposed to being pushed forth. Some passages flit way past even the most cynical expectations, like the buildup and release at 23 minutes. It is joy.

And I will add this completely-unnecessary-but-oh-so-gratifying observation:

These visceral, accessible but unflinching sounds were composed this century, but a very much living composer, who is female and is kicking everyone's butt.

Thanks to Messrs. Anonymous for the in-house recording, Thank you Thank You.

Here's a great article chronicling the September 18th performance in Berlin

http://www.tokafi.com/newsitems/concert-review-gustavo-dudamel-berliner-philharmoniker-glorious-percussion-ensemble/

which includes this passage about the music:

"...There are allusions to Jazz, marching bands, classical development and all but unfiltered episodes of pure sound. Frictions between primitive, playful, primordial noises and equally refined and complex textures. Tensions between agitated sequences and almost static passages. Nuances between almost complete silence and furious climactic outbursts of condensed power. „Glorious Percussion“ is the result of a philosophic quest: Gubaidulina has gone back to the origins of music, virtually traveling in time to the point where it all began. To her, the drum is the seed. She is not interested in analysing its sonic potential, even though there is a naive exploratory zest behind some of the events and techniques (such as Loguin throwing a shaker in the air and catching it full-flight). ..."

As Ictus 75 points out, "You can watch the whole performance here:" http://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/248

and/or download the audio mp3's from the comments section below, as usual.

Enjoy!

Guillermo

Bruckner 6th, Horenstein/LSO 1963 broadcast

*This is arguably a better sounding recording than the one available elsewhere*

Bruckner, Anton

Symphony No.6

London Symphony Orchestra

Jascha Horenstein, conductor

live broadcast

November 21, 1963 [please see information below, concerning date]

This is a bit of housekeeping, as this recording was contributed by State Worker GP49 by being posted to the comments section- Thank you GP for this and so many other treasured performances! It lay there in comments limbo for far too long, and so it has it's own post now as it is much deserving of the attention. Again, I must disclose that this is a recording of a night which is available elsewhere but never in this fine a quality of sound.

I just listened to the adagio for the umpteenth time with my infant son, who is staring placidly off into the wild blue yonder. We both were, really. Then the scherzo arrives with it's swooping brass (hints of portamento?), with the satisfying mash of the strident sections. It all brings to mind Billie Holiday's intoning a few words about how, "... the tunes I request aren't always the best, but the ones where the trumpets blare!"

Interesting to note, this symphony was premiered by the Wiener Philharmoniker under Gustav Mahler's baton.

The contributor advises us that, "There is some issue about the orchestra and date, but it has been confirmed that the orchestra is the LSO, not the LPO as some have said; and that the 1964 date often attributed is the BBC broadcast date, not the performance date. The remaining dispute is whether this is from a concert on Nov. 21, 1963 or Nov. 21, 1961. Horenstein's assistant Joel Lazar could not help, but he was only with the conductor from 1970 on.

Included in this download is a bonus spoken-word track, by composer Robert Simpson in 1973 in honor of Jascha Horenstein after his death that year.

Good-sounding mono; four movements plus the Simpson track: five FLACs"

GP posted more about this recording (which certainly deserves a more prominent position in the public eye) :

"...[GP49's] friend ...generously provided the original, dubbed from cassette tape. It's been edited and "freshened"; most dropouts and extraneous noises, some of which sounded like the microphone got bumped, have been repaired or at least ameliorated. In addition, the original sounded like some kind of dynamic range expander had been switched ON during the first minutes of the first movement, then was shut off resulting in an abrupt change in volume. That had to be addressed, so that the "join" would not be audibly evident..."

Great fun for all.

Guillermo

Bruckner 3 Horenstein/BBC Northern SO, 1963 broadcast

Anton Bruckner

Symphony No 3 (1877)

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Jascha Horenstein, conductor

broadcast

Cheltenham July 3, 1963

Who knew? Until now the Bruckner Symphony 3 to me was a little like the Sibelius, Brian and Shostakovich 3rds: worthy of a polite listen, but I was really waiting for the next numbered one to get played.

This recording brings the symphony into focus for me. The B3 is now in my top five Bruckners for what Horenstein does with it here. He clears up the sonic arguments by making some key voicings come to the fore in a logical, progressive way. It simplifies the large scale connect-the-dots puzzle that most Bruckner symphonies can be made of.

I have a similar debt to Barbirolli, whose Mahler 7th BBC Legends recording (with some of the same forces!!) made the structure of that symphony clear in such a way that it has been my fave by that composer ever since.

It is Horenstein, after all, so expect impetuous surges. His work here and elsewhere frequently deserves the label 'volcanic', but with a firm lower register unity when needed- none of that overdone sfumato in the bass regions. Sometimes Bruckner's tonal world is well served by softer attacks, and those disappear into the fabric without undue attention, but overall this is a performance of the awake, tautly involved sort.

EDIT: My enthusiasm got the better of me here again. I listened a few times, got crazy and did not check the availability. Though my admiration for the BBC Legends series is boundless, lately I've not kept up on the releases.
This is available from BBC Legends, although the recording downloadable here is an alternate broadcast source (as evidenced by the partial announcements) and is in any case too good to miss. Please, anyone interested, use this one as an appetizer before getting the official release!

In any case, thanks to Iodekka for procuring this one and making it available.

Keep sharing, free.