Reader’s Digest Favourites from the Classics Brahms

[Barbirollians]

Whilst searching in vain for a reasonably priced copy of the Brahms 1 from Horenstein on Chesky I found this 3CD set secondhand for £3.40 issued in the early 1990s reading down showed that it includes not only the Horenstein but the Reiner Fourth but annoyingly split over 2CDs .

Arrived this morning - it also includes Bachauer /Dorati in the Second Piano Concerto and forces playing the VC I have never heard of ! Will report back.

[jayne lee wilson]

Whilst searching in vain for a reasonably priced copy of the Brahms 1 from Horenstein on Chesky I found this 3CD set secondhand for £3.40 issued in the early 1990s reading down showed that it includes not only the Horenstein but the Reiner Fourth but annoyingly split over 2CDs .

Arrived this morning - it also includes Bachauer /Dorati in the Second Piano Concerto and forces playing the VC I have never heard of ! Will report back.

Which label is this on please? Those Cheskys sound great, so I hope the transfer (from what sources?) is faithful here...

[Barbirollians]

It is Reader’s Digest own label - so far the LSO/Horenstein Brahms 1 is sounding pretty marvellous.They were issued in 1994 but the otherwise quite lengthy booklet tells you nothing about the remastering.

[Barbirollians]

The Horenstein/Brahms 1 is excellent now listening to Vronsky/Babin in piano waltzes.

[richardfinegold]

Was the Bachauer/Dorati originally on Mercury?

[Barbirollians]

Not sure - I have a vague idea that was withe Skrowacewski .

The Violin Concerto is played very sweetly by Wilhelm Melcher who was the leader of the Melos Quartet but with an unremarkable accompaniment .

The RPO/Reiner Brahms 4 lives up to its reputation - a very exciting performance terrifically well played .

[richardfinegold]

Not sure - I have a vague idea that was withe Skrowacewski .

The Violin Concerto is played very sweetly by Wilhelm Melzer who was the leader of the Melos Quartet but with an unremarkable accompaniment .

The RPO/Reiner Brahms 4 lives up to its reputation - a very exciting performance terrifically well played .

I had that Reiner on lp. It was never issued in the States apparently until the late seventies

[Barbirollians]

I had that Reiner on lp. It was never issued in the States apparently until the late seventies

Yes I think RCA issued quite a few in the 1970s of the records originally made for Reader’s Digest.

[Barbirollians]

I wholeheartedly recommend this set . Not only does one get the Brahms recordings with Horenstein and Reiner but a terrific Brahms PC2 with Bachauer/Dorati an interesting Violin Concerto recording and Patricia Kern singing Wiegenlied very beautifully .

[seabright]

Those Readers Digest LPs were all produced by Charles Gerhardt in London with a Decca team headed by Kenneth Wilkinson. The performances and sonics were invariably first class and the list of conductors he engaged not only included Reiner and Horenstein but also Munch, Barbirolli, Sargent, Boult, Bliss, Wallenstein, Mackerras, Fistoulari, Downes, Gibson and others, as well as Gerhardt himself often on the podium. The four Rachmaninov Concertos and "Paganini" Rhapsody with Earl Wild, Horenstein and the RPO are up there with the finest recordings ever made of these works, as is the Beethoven cycle with Rene Leibowitz and the same orchestra. Gerhardt once gave an interview in which he said that he sat Leibowitz down and played him recordings made by many of the great Beethoven conductors of the past - Furtwangler, Toscanini, Weingartner, Erich Kleiber and so on. As a result the Leibowitz set became also one of the great Beethoven cycles. I don't think any of these Readers Digest LPs were ever reviewed or played on the radio at the time but when they did come out years later on CD many proved revelatory. Click this link for the Leibowitz Beethoven 5th as a sample and see what you think! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXoQ0w6rpQ8&t=116s

Another sample, Wild and Horenstein in the Rach PC2 ... superb ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvoFncOsKjk

And here is Boult in the only Mussorgsky recording he ever made, thanks to Charles Gerhardt, and evidently thoroughly relishing the experience ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhXiPdJ6Z-8

[cloughie]

Yes I think RCA issued quite a few in the 1970s of the records originally made for Reader’s Digest.

RCA Gold Seal label RD25XXX with blue and white covers - some of the series such as Gerhardt playing English Music has never reappeared on CD yhough some tracks are in Readers Digest compilations available cheaply in charity shops.
Has anyone here done A/B comparisons of the Bachaeur Brahms PC2 - are there 2 recordings or has one been mis-attributed to Dorati?

[Barbirollians]

RCA Gold Seal label RD25XXX with blue and white covers - some of the series such as Gerhardt playing English Music has never reappeared on CD yhough some tracks are in Readers Digest compilations available cheaply in charity shops.
Has anyone here done A/B comparisons of the Bachaeur Brahms PC2 - are there 2 recordings or has one been mis-attributed to Dorati?

No apparently there are two as vibratoforever explained on the Gina B thread. The 1966 one with Dorati in that box is excellent. I do not have those Mercury sets so have not heard the Skrowacewski- though I see it Is on the Profil reissue.

[cloughie]

No apparently there are two as vibratoforever explained on the Gina B thread. The 1966 one with Dorati in that box is excellent. I do not have those Mercury sets so have not heard the Skrowacewski- though I see it Is on the Profil reissue.

Interesting - googling finds:

Dorati
17.53
9.07
12.35
9.31

Skrowaczewski
16.26
8.29
10.09
8.53

Timings mean obviously different recordings and I suggest probably very different interpretations - I must get the Skrow recording - a sub 45 min version - that’s pdq!

…on a par with Horowitz/Toscanini and the third movt one minute faster.

[Barbirollians]

Interesting - googling finds:

Dorati
17.53
9.07
12.35
9.31

Skrowaczewski
16.26
8.29
10.09
8.53

Timings mean obviously different recordings and I suggest probably very different interpretations - I must get the Skrow recording - a sub 45 min version - that’s pdq!

…on a par with Horowitz/Toscanini and the third movt one minute faster.

Yes indeed - RO very much liked it on its Mercury CD reissue in the 1990s - not sure it went down so well on first release ...

[Barbirollians]

Found a box of these other Reader’s Digest CDs on eBay for a song.

All in good nick but some major disappointments. The Tchaikovsky boxes include an absolute cracker of a Tchaikovsky 1 from Wild/Fistoulari. An early and enjoyable Tchaikovsky VC from Perlman/Wallenstein. A rather scrappy Tchaikovsky 4 from Massimo Freccia, an impressive Francesca da Rimini from RPO/Munch .The real disappointments are that Horenstein/NPO symphony 5 and an Alexander Gibson Pathetique are represented only by one movement in each box ! I wonder if whoever compiled this now works on Essential Classics.