Reissues you would like to see

[Thomas Roth]

Shostakovich 6 with Berglund

Karl-Birger Blomdahl Game for Eight (Spel för åtta) Björlin conducting.

[Nick Armstrong]

The 1966 recording of Shostakovich's 10th by Svetlanov and the USSR Symphony Orchestra (LP, Melodiya SR-40025)

[Tapiola]

Sticking with Shostakovich:

Symphony No. 14 (Moscow CO/Barshai)
Symphony No. 15 (USSR SO/Maxim S.)

Both premiere studio recordings and both, inexplicably, never released on CD, and the finest versions of both works I have ever heard.

(Incidentally Caliban, I picked up very cheaply in a sale the Dresden/Kondrashin live recording of 15 recently. This concert pre-dates by a few months Kondrashin's studio version with the Moscow PO. It's a brilliant, compelling account, and IMO rivals the Moscow version).

I would also love to see a cd issue of Joel Cohen's "The World of Adam de la Halle" with The Cambridge Consort (a Vox Turnabout LP). Beautifully simple, haunting, otherworldy singing.

[Petrushka]

The 1966 recording of Shostakovich's 10th by Svetlanov and the USSR Symphony Orchestra (LP, Melodiya SR-40025)

Yes please! I bought this (and the Karajan DSCH 10) in the week that Shostakovich died. Incidentally, Caliban, I believe that the left/right channels are reversed in the second movement though I am no longer able to check this. Melodiya are clearly sitting on a treasure trove. Does anyone have any knowledge of why these great recordings languish unissued in Moscow vaults? Quite inexplicable!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I know that Vinteuil was highly enthusiastic about Vermeulen's previous Schubert releases....I wonder if he has had a chance to hear this new Schumann one and if so would he recommend it?

I'd like to see Warner reissue the late Schubert Sonatas from Andreas Staier, especially D960, which never made it onto their budget label.

[Nick Armstrong]

(Incidentally Caliban, I picked up very cheaply in a sale the Dresden/Kondrashin live recording of 15 recently. This concert pre-dates by a few months Kondrashin's studio version with the Moscow PO. It's a brilliant, compelling account, and IMO rivals the Moscow version).

[MickyD]

I'd like to see Warner reissue the late Schubert Sonatas from Andreas Staier, especially D960, which never made it onto their budget label.

Yes, indeed - I was lucky enough to snap up a copy of this before it was too late. My regret it that Staier only committed two of the Field concertos to disc, but he once said in an interview that he wasn't much one for doing "complete" works of anyone, so I guess that's that!

[Tapiola]

Yes please! I bought this (and the Karajan DSCH 10) in the week that Shostakovich died. Incidentally, Caliban, I believe that the left/right channels are reversed in the second movement though I am no longer able to check this. Melodiya are clearly sitting on a treasure trove. Does anyone have any knowledge of why these great recordings languish unissued in Moscow vaults? Quite inexplicable!

Yes. this 10th really blows me away, especially that second movement with the biting strings and the wild abandon of the drums.

This reminds me of another reissue long overdue, that of the early 80s Melodiya double LP studio recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet - Bolshoi/Zuraitis - which briefly appeared on a Music for Pleasure CD release and is now only available as highlights. Intense, on-the-edge playing and brass outbursts worthy of an ASBO or two.

[Roehre]

An LP which hasn't AFAIK been released on CD is Da Camera Magna SM92112, Klaviertrios von Blacher, Westerman und Tcherepnin.

Though I don't really care about the (Alexander) Tcherepnin piece, I do appreciate especially the Gerhart von Westerman Pianotrio opus 18 highly. The one-mvt-structure with tempo indications Langsam und Schwer - Scherzo und Trio - Langsam und Schwer (Slow and heavy - s & t - slow and heavy) are mirroring the atmosphere and mood of the weeks in which it was composed: Berlin November and December 1944, especially in the immediate aftermath of the July plot against Hitler (20th July 1944), in which a couple of colleagues and friends of Westerman's were arrested by the Gestapo and SS [It is rather weird that this trio recalls much of the Bridge 2nd Pianotrio, btw]. Von Westerman was not a Nazi, but nevertheless the Intendant (=director) of the Berlin Philharmonic. He regained his post almost immediately as the BPO started to perform again (not under Furtwängler [who had got to be deNazified], but under Celibidache that is, a personal choice of Westerman's).

An unduly neglected work.

[Chris Newman]

An LP which hasn't AFAIK been released on CD is Da Camera Magna SM92112, Klaviertrios von Blacher, Westerman und Tcherepnin.

Though I don't really care about the (Alexander) Tcherepnin piece, I do appreciate especially the Gerhart von Westerman Pianotrio opus 18 highly. The one-mvt-structure with tempo indications Langsam und Schwer - Scherzo und Trio - Langsam und Schwer (Slow and heavy - s & t - slow and heavy) are mirroring the atmosphere and mood of the weeks in which it was composed: Berlin November and December 1944, especially in the immediate aftermath of the July plot against Hitler (20th July 1944), in which a couple of colleagues and friends of Westerman's were arrested by the Gestapo and SS [It is rather weird that this trio recalls much of the Bridge 2nd Pianotrio, btw]. Von Westerman was not a Nazi, but nevertheless the Intendant (=director) of the Berlin Philharmonic. He regained his post almost immediately as the BPO started to perform again (not under Furtwängler [who had got to be deNazified], but under Celibidache that is, a personal choice of Westerman's).

An unduly neglected work.

Hi Roehre,

I had not realised that Gustav von Westerman was a composer. I had taken it for granted that he was a writer as for over forty years I relied upon a paperback copy of his 600 page OPERA GUIDE whenever I wanted to find an opera's storyline or to find a brief life history of a composer. It was very thorough including early Britten, Henze and Tippett. Of course, it fell apart a few years ago and now I use the ROUGH GUIDE TO OPERA. I must search for some of his music though there is nothing on YouTube,

bws
Chris.

[Roehre]

Hi Roehre,

I had not realised that Gustav von Westerman was a composer. I had taken it for granted that he was a writer as for over forty years I relied upon a paperback copy of his 600 page OPERA GUIDE whenever I wanted to find an opera's storyline or to find a brief life history of a composer. It was very thorough including early Britten, Henze and Tippett. Of course, it fell apart a few years ago and now I use the ROUGH GUIDE TO OPERA. I must search for some of his music though there is nothing on YouTube,

bws
Chris.

Chris, not only the Opera Guide, but the 488p Concert Guide is his too (published in English in 1963, the German original [as Knaurs Konzertführer] from 1951).

Bws,
R.

[mikealdren]

As a lover of violin music there's a surprising number of very fine recordings that I've never found on silver disk. A few spring to mind immediately:

Campoli's later Bruch no 1 (with Kirch) and his Saint Saens that were coupled on a hugely popular Ace of Clubs LP. (they are available on a download)
Some of Campoli's encores that were on 10" disks in the 1950s (decca)
Tibor Varga's Nielsen violin concerto, still probably the best ever. (DG)
Bronislaw Gimpel's Lalo Symphonie Espagnole (DG) and his superb Wieniawski pieces (Muza)
Ricci's version of the Sarasate Spanish dances with Brooks Smith, so much better than his earlier version.

Mike

[rauschwerk]

Roberto Gerhard's astrological pieces, recorded by London Sinfonietta/Atherton on Decca Headline around 30 years ago. I reckon someone's lost the tape.

Same composer's Don Quixote suite - BBCSO/Dorati on EMI.

I shall probably end up paying for high quality CD transfers as I have done with the treasured Swingle II collection of English and French partsongs (1977).

[Roehre]

Roberto Gerhard's astrological pieces, recorded by London Sinfonietta/Atherton on Decca Headline around 30 years ago. I reckon someone's lost the tape.

Some of the records of the Headline series have been released the last couple of years, such as Maxwell Davies' [1st] Symphony and -IIRC- Birtwistle's Verses. But indeed, I haven't seen this Gerhard HEAD either.

[reinerfan]

Roberto Gerhard's astrological pieces, recorded by London Sinfonietta/Atherton on Decca Headline around 30 years ago. I reckon someone's lost the tape.

Same composer's Don Quixote suite - BBCSO/Dorati on EMI.

I shall probably end up paying for high quality CD transfers as I have done with the treasured Swingle II collection of English and French partsongs (1977).

The Dorati Don Quixote is included in the EMI "A Festival of Ballet" 50CD box, but it's a high price to pay if you don't want the other items!