Today being Beethoven's "birthday observed" and all, here's an oddity for you: as we've discussed before, the Josef Krips complete Beethoven sym. cycle, originally issued on Everest LPs, is among the weakest on the market, in some places positively limp, although for the most part beautifully recorded. (That said, while I certainly don't count it as a top-drawer achievement, I've gone on, uh, record that it's not quite as bad as its reputation would have you believe.) From that, I suspect many of us have formed an impression that Krips was a good man for Mozart or Haydn but no Beethovenian. Well. Of late, I've been enjoying a set on Testament of Benno Moiseiwitsch broadcasts and concert recordings, and among the offerings is a strong, forceful account of the "Emperor" cto. from New York's Lewisohn Stadium in the early 1960s. The pianist really pounces on this work, and the orchestral accompaniment is ferocious to match. If the sound were better, it might well have become my "go to" recommendation for those wondering why all the shouting about this piece. The conductor? None other than our old pal, Josef Krips. He demonstrably was capable of Beethoven up there with the best of them. A shame that, for whatever reason, his Everest set falls so far short.
Such a darn shame that the Krips Beethoven cycle for Everest is perfectly preserved while the Steinberg one for Command (made on the same equipment as I understand it) is pretty much lost.
Deteriorated masters? Lost masters? Or just an orphan label with no adoptive parent willing to bother with reissues? Another such case: Friedrich Wuhrer's Schubert. The current corporate custodian is not interested in making these recordings, or any of his other extensive Vox catalogue, available to modern buyers. Tara reissued the Beethoven (or most of it--I discovered that he did an Appassionata that seems never to have had US release but that was issued on a 10" European LP), but those are not, in my opinion, his best, and I suspect this issue was dubbed, not from original masters.
I've heard rumors that the original 35mm tapes (with Robert Fine acting as engineer I believe) are lost. MCA owned the rights to Command, which means they've now passed to Universal. Who knows?
Wuhrer's late Schubert is available from Classical Recording Quarterly Editions CRQ Editions CRQ CD138/139 Friedrich Wührer plays the late Schubert Pianos Sonatas C major, D.840; A minor, D. 845; C minor, D.958; A major, D.959; B flat major, D.960. Friedrich Wührer plays the late Piano Sonatas of Schubert, Vol. II Schubert: Piano Sonatas in D major, D.850; G major, D. 894; C major, D. 840 (final two fragmentary movements completed by Ernst Krenek); A minor, D. 784; B major, D. 575; E flat major, D. 568. (Recorded by Vox in Vienna between 1952 and 1955) Classical Recordings Quarterly Editions CRQ CD197/198 (2 CDs) I'm new here I am looking forward, in joining the conversation.
This is presumably all based off of commercially released discs/reels though, no? The material is still in copyright in the USA and will be for many years. They're also on Amazon as MP3s, courtesy of the "Broken Audio" label. No clue who they are, although listening is painless since it's all included with a regular Amazon Prime subscription: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_sr...ich Wührer&index=digital-music&search-type=ss
This is seriously good: Shostakovich chamber symphonies (i.e. String Quartets arranged for chamber orchestra by Rudolf Barshai), played by The Dmitri Ensemble. Barshai’s own recordings were made in the late ‘80s, issued on DG, and those have a bit more bite soundwise. The sound on this Harmonia Mundi recording is warmer – the interpretations are both very good.
Hi, welcome, and thanks for the heads up! I'd guess these are dubs from LPs. At least, given that they're of English origin, there's a good chance they would be from English Vox issues, which in my limited experience seem to have better surfaces than their US counterparts (with both being better than French Vox). One of the CRQ discs has a French radio recital that was also on a CD from a little off-brand label called Mode (I have it in that form). I did buy one Wuhrer dubbing (Beethoven cello sonatas with Joseph Schuster) from Amazon on some little off-brand label that had uniform covers like that below for a number of such reissues; it was pretty dreadful sounding, if memory serves having pitch issues symptomatic of an off-center pressing. Another outfit that has released dubbed copies on CD is called Bearac Reissues, which appears to be a cottage industry type operation by a longtime collector overseas. I have no experience with his extensive catalogue personally and have never seen any independent discussion of how his work stacks up to the better known specialists like Marston and Obert-Thorn.
What do you think of the performances? I can't say I am thrilled with them. I had read that Toscanini was more moderate with the tempi in the 30s, I find the allegro and allegro ma non troppo for various symphonies too brisk, to be honest I don't find these interpretations that different from his ones in the 50s. He is wonderful when he slows down.
These 1939 Toscanini Beethoven broadcasts are hard-driven performances that can sound overwhelming and perhaps fatiguing. WWII had just broken out in Europe and Toscanini, who hated fascism and all that came with it, was extremely upset about it and you can hear it in the music. These are not performances one can or will listen to on a regular basis I guess - at least I won't. Which version were you listening to, the old Naxos series, one of the two Music & Arts sets or the Immortal Performances CD-Rs?
I do think they are interesting enough, they just won't be added to my reference list. I bought the Immortal Performance box set used on another classical forum and they are CD-R. The documentation that Mr. Caniell put into it is truly extraordinary. And the remastering/sources he used were exceptional, these sound detailed with lovely tone, and not boxed in. In my opinion just based off the one Naxos disc of Symphony 9 from the Great Conductors series the Immortal is a significant upgrade, and it does sound like someone else tampered with the Naxos transfer because it doesn't have much of the qualities of the Immortal Performances.
Every time I listen to Toscanini's Beethoven, I end up running back to my Szell set, which I find to be better performed and recorded.
Richard Caniell also did the transfers and masterings for the old Naxos series, but they (Naxos) allegedly tampered with the masterings; I understand that Caniell got very upset with the end results and terminated his cooperation with Naxos. If Immortal Performances hadn't used CD-Rs for their set I probably would have bought it, but I wasn't prepared to pay the price they were asking for the CD-Rs and the additional expense.
Every time I hear one of Toscanini's Beethoven sets, I run back to another of my Toscanini Beethoven sets. Shifting gears, I wrote to the CRQ folks to inquire about the source of their Wuhrer transfers. Had a prompt, brief but friendly note back as follows: "The Wuhrer transfers are from first generation Vox LPs, carefully engineered by our engineer Graham Silcock." Mystery--such as it was--solved.
But speaking of Beethoven, through the magic of "Buy it Now" I've latched onto something interesting: a 1924 Aeolian Vocalion issue, from DG/Polydor masters, of the first "complete" recording of Beethoven's 9th sym., recorded acoustically--i.e., by the horn-and-diaphragm method, not with microphones--about a year earlier. The conductor is Bruno Seidler-Winkler; soloists were Ethel Hansa, sop., Eleonor Schlosshauer, ctlto., Eugen Transky, ten., and Albert Fischer, bs. Still working out plans to retrieve the records, as there's a good chance I can meet up with the seller and avoid risking the PO for this rare set. More info about it here, on a collector friend's excellent blog: The Shellackophile: Beethoven's Ninth - The First Recording
What are people's favorite performances of Pastorale (Beethoven 6)? Bonus points for excellent mastering of course. Double bonus points for 5.1.
