The king is dead; long live the king! Ever since I first heard it in the early 1980s, Columbia set 496, a performance by Adolf Busch and Rudolf Serkin from December 12, 1941, has for me set the standard for Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. Its strength is the first movement, a fierce traversal that has always made everybody else (well, except maybe for Heifetz and Moiseiwitsch) sound a bit tame. That said, I never felt the Busch/Serkin account of the second and third movements reached quite that same white-hot level. Now I've met performers who do. I think I mentioned a while back that I'd "discovered" violinist Max Rostal and was mightily impressed with his playing on one of those admirable Melo Classics reissues of European radio recordings. That set did include some Beethoven sonatas, but not the Kreutzer. For that work, the most readily available source is a CD reissue from English Decca masters on the Retrospective label, no. 8400 (ex-Decca LXT2732). Rostal recorded it in October 1951 with pianist Franz Osborn. The two of them are at least a match for Busch and Serkin in the first mvt.; if anything, Rostal is even more ferocious. Have you ever heard pizzicati sound positively angry? His do, and throughout he maintains a level of intensity that would have made Toscanini jealous. The good news is that he and Osborn do not let down in the remaining movements; the second, although it definitely sings, still has that intense edge, and the tarantella is full of--appropriately--bite, striking a good parallel with the opening mvt. As a nice bonus, if Rostal's tone isn't the last word in suavity or warmth, his intonation is noticeably cleaner than Busch's. I suppose this recording won't be to all tastes; those who like relaxation are advised to stay away. Those who want no-holds-barred drive, however, should find it in abundance here. Snatched from the Web, here's a picture of the album cover: Oh, one other piece of what should be good news: Rostal didn't make many commercial recordings, but a 10-CD box collecting most or all of them--including the Kreutzer sonata--is due out in the coming month or so and is available for pre-order. The best price I found was at MDT, although of course that can change from day to day. I don't know how the masterings will compare with earlier releases, but I've pre-ordered a copy and will report back in due course. Rostal Max Milestones Of A Violin Legend Documents 10Cds
The The Membran/Documents masterings I've heard all sounded awful, funny EQ and lots of noise reduction. It's been discussed elsewhere, in a few threads - this is one of them: Classical "Mega" CD Box Sets
Definitely not one of my more successful thrift store visits today. The at-first-blush excitement of spotting a mess of Japanese classical CDs quickly evaporated when I discovered that all but one were by Karajan... And the one that wasn't Karajan was Handel's "Water Music" And the big Orthophonic Victrola I spotted upon walking into the store turned out to be a gutted cabinet. On the other hand, just played for the first time a set I've had for years: Henry Holst (vln.), Anthony Pini (vlc.), and Louis Kentner (pno.) performing Dvorak's "Dumky" Trio. What a lovely performance, and beautifully recorded in 1941 by the good folks at English Columbia; the sound quality is far in advance of what you'd expect from its age, rich but detailed. 78 RPM playback at its best. All is back to right with the world.
Karajan was god of classical music to the Japanese, particularly for the older generation. Akio Morita, the founder of Sony was visiting Karajan when the latter suffered a fatal heart attack. Had it not happened, I have no doubt we would have seen many Karajan Sony recordings today.
Recorded 6/10-11/54, Riverside Plaza Hotel, NYC. Producer: Richard Jones. Engineer: Frank Abbey. Info from my 1999 EMI FDS reissue CD.
I suppose I will just hope for "Better than average." Some material in the box has not otherwise been released--or so the blurb claims, anyhow.
I have this recording in the following Steinberg EMI Icon box ... There are quite a few rare gems in this box.
No awards for an artistic cover (the original LP at least had a drawing!), but the playing and sound are fantastic. (This is the original 45 rpm LP--looks like a talented kid drew it, but at least it's "cute"!)
Enjoying this fabulous Don Giovanni by Fritz Busch & co. from the Glyndebourne Festival recorded in 1936: I was inspired by this, my current reading material: Mozart and his Operas, by David Cairns.
In case you're interested in how these operas appeared in their original format, Nozze was issued in three volumes, 17 records (34 sides); Cosi was in 3 volumes, 20 records; and Don G. was in 3 volumes, 23 records. Nozze was all scrambled up, not in sequence, as I'm remembering things; the good folks at HMV figured out that wasn't a good idea by the time they came to record the other two. I have excerpts from Idomeneo on an LHMV LP, but if it was on 78s first I've never seen a copy.
Thanks for that, looks very interesting. Not very familar with Rostal, but the first recording that does come to mind is Busoni's Sonata No.2 (op.36a) with Noel Mewton-Wood but it's missing from this set. Turns out I also have a Strauss - Don Quixote Fantastic Variations op.35 with Rudolf Kempe and a Brahms Sonata (op.78) with Maria Bergmann, both also missing. Also absent is a couple of Tartini recordings including the obligatory "Devil's Trill" that I haven't heard. I'm guessing that CD3 of this new set (Ravel/Mihalovici) is the fine recording with Monique Haas. Originally on DG of course, probably why they forgot to mention it I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on performances and sound from this set.
