Eugen Jochum conducting Haydn and Bruckner

[Guest]

Why I have three Haydn symphonies, "Surprise","London" and "Military" together with Bruckner's 7th, I have no idea but there they are on the shelves and all conducted by Eugen Jochum. The Haydns are with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bruckner with the Berliner Philharmoniker. As he is a conductor I have heard very little of for maybe decades, I thought it would be good to process these recordings and add them to my Classical LP page

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/vinyl.php

where you will find some superior Karajan also with the Berliners. Styles of playing Haydn vary with the years nevertheless I find a welcome lightness of touch in Jochum's conducting of these three symphonies and plenty of grandeur and satisfying ebb and flow with the Bruckner. The "Surprise" symphony has not yet been added to the page but will be soon.

[Dave2002]

Clive

Thanks for this.

I just tried one of the Jochum transfers and it seemed to crash the Flash plug in in my browser. Not to worry - probably a problem at my end.

I'm now trying Colin Davis's version of Mozart's Prague Symphony - which has worked and I'm enjoying that.

There is a bit of low frequency noise. I have had some success at removing similar noise using Audacity in the past, though it needs care, Overdo it, and the sound goes flat and thin, but carefully done it can work really well. I also did it on recordings from the BBC, and sometimes there is low frequency background noise there too (from the source - not introduced by me ...), so it's possible to clean them up a bit too.

I'm sure you probably know how to do this, so don't need me to tell you.

Best wishes, and keep up the good work.

[clive heath]

My thanks to Dave2002 for pointing out the lack of quality control on the Mozart which I hope I have compensated for with extra lowering of the noise floor. The closer I can get to CD quality, the pleasanter will be the listening which may persuade someone that the recording is one they would like to own on CD or download.

With the tapes however there are not to my knowledge any currently available versions of the Groves Turangalila, the Vesuvius Ensemble's Schoenberg Serenade or some of the other Proms.

By chance one of the LPs I uploaded earlier this week was the Abbado, Boston Symphony, "Trois Nocturnes" and "Daphnis and Chloé" Suite No.2 which was praised by verismissimo( #42 on the Abbado RIP thread).

[umslopogaas]

Bruckner would be the first composer to come to my mind when you mention Jochum, I have a great big DG box of LPs featuring nos. 1 - 9 (not 0 and 00). I would never have thought of him as a Haydn conductor, but in fact see that buried on my shelves are performances of The Creation and of symphonies nos 88, 91, 95, 98 and 103. I cant remember what they were like, but the Penguin Guide for 2010 recommends his set of nos. 93 - 104 as "exhilarating" and give it three stars and a rosette. It also recommends his Bruckner symphony set.

[Dave2002]

I have been enjoying some of the 78s, such as the Dvorak 8th Symphony. Surprisingly decent. Some are a challenge - such as Toscanini's Beethoven - 'twas ever thus I fear.

Re the LPs - they are a bit mixed. Something went wrong with the opening of Also sprach Zarathustra - there seems to be some form of interference. Ideally the sound off the LPs should have virtually no LF noise - though that's hard to achieve, then if there is still anything a bit of digital processing can tidy things further. Removing LF can be done digitally, but it's definitely easier if the need to do so is avoided in the first place.

[Barbirollians]

His LSO Beethoven and LPO Brahms records from the 1970s have reappeared with his Dresden Bruckner in an enormous ICON box - frankly as the Bruckner has been so commonly reissued I think it was unnecessary to put them in but a splendid box.

[Rolmill]

His LSO Beethoven and LPO Brahms records from the 1970s have reappeared with his Dresden Bruckner in an enormous ICON box - frankly as the Bruckner has been so commonly reissued I think it was unnecessary to put them in but a splendid box.

Well, as I only had his Dresden Bruckner 7 (and none of the Beethoven or Brahms), this icon box was one of my most successful purchases last year - still not listened to much of it, but have really enjoyed what I've heard so far. A splendid box indeed.

His Haydn London symphony set has been well reviewed in the past, though I haven't heard any of them - his combination of warmth and excitement should be very satisfying in Haydn, though.