Live Recordings from the Past

[oliver sudden]

That’s very interesting. I don’t much care for JB Mahler as it seems arthritic to me but I might seek these out

The Mahler 5 is here:

https://youtu.be/uap6zbHTZB8?feature=shared

The sound’s not much but I find the interpretation enthralling, and compared with the EMI recording (which I also love!) it fairly zips by.

[seabright]

Is there anything from ICA Classics of interest? ...

https://icaclassics.com/category/cds

[pastoralguy]

https://www.discogs.com/release/2420...olin-Concertos

Thank you for that. Yes, it’s a well known recording. Igor can hardly be accused of being inside Elgar’s idiom but, boy, does he knock the virtuoso elements into the middle of next week!

[HighlandDougie]

Thank you for that. Yes, it’s a well known recording. Igor can hardly be accused of being inside Elgar’s idiom but, boy, does he knock the virtuoso elements into the middle of next week!

Yay! I've just spent the princely sum of £1.10 on a Melodiya issue of the Elgar plus a Haydn Violin/Piano concerto (new to me).

[bluestateprommer]

I’ve mentioned the label 78 experience, French Canadian source for concert broadcasts primarily culled from radio performance tapes....

I’m wondering about other prominent contemporaneous conductors who don’t seem to have a presence in live recordings. Ormandy, Bernstein, Solti for starters....

Live Solti and Ormandy would get my interest

I can't speak to Solti, but about Ormandy, I can speculate, but in the meta-sense of "proving a negative", which might make more sense down the line. With Ormandy, obviously the prime orchestra for possible live recordings would be The Philadelphia Orchestra. The main Philly radio station from 1949 to its selloff in 1997 was WFLN, 95.7 FM. I started listening in the 1980's as a comparative young-un, so that was after Ormandy's tenure with the Fabulous Philadelphians. When WFLN got sold off in 1997, I didn't know what would have happened to any old WFLN radio tapes of Ormandy (not to mention Muti, Sawallisch, and other guest conductors).

It turns out that a partial answer resides in the University of Pennsylvania's library collection. I used this search string:

WFLN radio broadcast Philadelphia Orchestra Eugene Ormandy

301 hits come up, for what look to be audio recordings from WFLN of Philadelphia Orchestra/Ormandy concert broadcasts.

Separately, the orchestra issued a box set from the turn of the century, "The Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Collection" (reviewed in Gramophone here), with a few of the CDs dedicated to Ormandy, in live performances. I didn't cross-check the details, but at a guess, perhaps the recordings in that box set from Ormandy are also part of the U. Penn collection.

[richardfinegold]

I can't speak to Solti, but about Ormandy, I can speculate, but in the meta-sense of "proving a negative", which might make more sense down the line. With Ormandy, obviously the prime orchestra for possible live recordings would be The Philadelphia Orchestra. The main Philly radio station from 1949 to its selloff in 1997 was WFLN, 95.7 FM. I started listening in the 1980's as a comparative young-un, so that was after Ormandy's tenure with the Fabulous Philadelphians. When WFLN got sold off in 1997, I didn't know what would have happened to any old WFLN radio tapes of Ormandy (not to mention Muti, Sawallisch, and other guest conductors).

It turns out that a partial answer resides in the University of Pennsylvania's library collection. I used this search string:

WFLN radio broadcast Philadelphia Orchestra Eugene Ormandy

301 hits come up, for what look to be audio recordings from WFLN of Philadelphia Orchestra/Ormandy concert broadcasts.

Separately, the orchestra issued a box set from the turn of the century, "The Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Collection" (reviewed in Gramophone here), with a few of the CDs dedicated to Ormandy, in live performances. I didn't cross-check the details, but at a guess, perhaps the recordings in that box set from Ormandy are also part of the U. Penn collection.

That is incredibly helpful, although the way they have indexed the files is maddening. What I would really like is for a label such as 78experience or a competitor to collate the gems and do their best restoration work. To that end I was wondering why Ormandy doesn’t seem to be on their radar.
Since as a retiree I have abundant time, I might peruse some of these.

[richardfinegold]

Is there anything from ICA Classics of interest? ...

https://icaclassics.com/category/cds

Very interesting. I already own a few ICA discs but I never realized that there catalog went this deep

[gurnemanz]

Is there anything from ICA Classics of interest? ...

https://icaclassics.com/category/cds

I have all four of of the BBC Legends Volumes. Each 20CDs! and a real treasure trove of live recordings. I also have the Rudolf Barshai Tribute box with valuable contributions from him both as conductor and violist.

ica have a number of items from the archive of home tape recordings of live broadcasts made by Richard Itter (the found of the Lyrita label). From the Richard Itter Collection I have the Pierre Monteux selection.

[richardfinegold]

I have all four of of the BBC Legends Volumes. Each 20CDs! and a real treasure trove of live recordings. I also have the Rudolf Barshai Tribute box with valuable contributions from him both as conductor and violist.

ica have a number of items from the archive of home tape recordings of live broadcasts made by Richard Itter (the found of the Lyrita label). From the Richard Itter Collection I have the Pierre Monteux selection.

Wow! Any particular favorites in there? And what is the Monteux selection?

I should add that I have the Pristine Audio streaming service, which has many radio broadcasts from the pre WWII era, and in Monteux case some very good early stereo Boston Symphony concerts from Tanglewood

[smittims]

The ICA Monteux set, all I think from Itter tapes and discs, includes a concert from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival with the Boston Symphony: Haydn 102, Brahms 3 and the Franck Variations woth Robert Casadesus. The other three discs are from the Festival Hall and Maida Vale, with the BBC , London S.O. and RPO. The two Brahms concertos with Francescatti and Fournier, D'Indy's Symphony on French Mountain air with Valerie Tryon, Part 3 of Berlioz' Romeo et Juliette, Debussy's Images and the Chaisson Symphony. All in good mono sound.

The 1956 Edinburgh Festival must have been quite an occasion,as it featured several star performances by Sir Thomas Beecham and the RPO, some of which have been issued on CDs. The Monteu Haydn 102 is valuable as it is apparently his only recording of the work, though there is a lovely 94 and 101 with the Vienna Philharmonic.