Hot on the heels of the recent additions/deletions to the Jazz LP page, here is an intro to the latest LP selections on the Classical page.
One of our members was so taken with the excerpt he heard of Walter Weller's Prokofiev's 6th Symphony on Jonathan Swain's BaL that he bought the boxed set. I found I have a compilation LP of this conductor with three orchestras and three lovely performances. You won't find many readings of the "Classical Symphony" with the precision, pace and charm that the LSO offer. Equally the 9th Symphony of Shostakovich with l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has just the right blend of sarcasm and wit, (excepting the slow movement, of course!) and the symphony has that false ending, "a clap trap?". A suite from the ballet "The Love of Three Oranges" featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra completes the programme.
Ernest Ansermet conducts the same Swiss orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade". I cannot do more than quote from the sleeve, itself quoting a "Gramophone" review: "Never before in my experience has the illusion of instruments in my presence been so vivid." Recording techniques have moved on but there is still a wonderful sonority to the swell of the sea.
Claudio Abbado conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Chorus with their wordless melodic curtain of sound giving an otherworldliness to "Sirènes" from Debussy's "Images" and to Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloé". Both works start very quietly so "do not adjust your set".
The two-fer of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is a compilation from RCA on a German re-issue and cost me £27 in Harold Moores Records. I found the sound somewhat imprecise in "Also sprach Zarathustra" not helped by a very resonant acoustic, so I have tweaked it a little. Anyone with a CD or original LP version might like to compare. The acoustic on "Don Juan" is different again and doesn't really do the recording justice. "Ein Heldenleben" is for later.
One of our members was so taken with the excerpt he heard of Walter Weller's Prokofiev's 6th Symphony on Jonathan Swain's BaL that he bought the boxed set. I found I have a compilation LP of this conductor with three orchestras and three lovely performances. You won't find many readings of the "Classical Symphony" with the precision, pace and charm that the LSO offer. Equally the 9th Symphony of Shostakovich with l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has just the right blend of sarcasm and wit, (excepting the slow movement, of course!) and the symphony has that false ending, "a clap trap?". A suite from the ballet "The Love of Three Oranges" featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra completes the programme.
Ernest Ansermet conducts the same Swiss orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade". I cannot do more than quote from the sleeve, itself quoting a "Gramophone" review: "Never before in my experience has the illusion of instruments in my presence been so vivid." Recording techniques have moved on but there is still a wonderful sonority to the swell of the sea.
Claudio Abbado conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Chorus with their wordless melodic curtain of sound giving an otherworldliness to "Sirènes" from Debussy's "Images" and to Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloé". Both works start very quietly so "do not adjust your set".
The two-fer of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is a compilation from RCA on a German re-issue and cost me £27 in Harold Moores Records. I found the sound somewhat imprecise in "Also sprach Zarathustra" not helped by a very resonant acoustic, so I have tweaked it a little. Anyone with a CD or original LP version might like to compare. The acoustic on "Don Juan" is different again and doesn't really do the recording justice. "Ein Heldenleben" is for later.
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