Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.33 - Szell

CD1 (72.55)

Auber: Overture ‘Fra Diavolo’
Cleveland Orchestra; Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland, November 1957

Dvorák: Symphony No.8
Cleveland Orchestra; Severance Hall, Cleveland, April 1970

Debussy: La Mer
Live studio recording; WDR Symphonieorchester Köln;
Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal, WDR, Cologne, November 1962

Delius: Irmelin Prelude
Cleveland Orchestra; Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland, October 1956

CD2 (72.36)

Rossini: Overture ‘L’Italiana in Algeri’
Cleveland Orchestra; Severance Hall, Cleveland, May 1967

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5
Live studio recording; WDR Symphonieorchester Köln;
Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal, WDR, Cologne, June 1966

Wagner: Overture ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’
New York Philharmonic; Carnegie Hall, New York, January 1954

Josef Strauss: Delirien – Waltz
Cleveland Orchestra; Severance Hall, Cleveland, January 1962



THE BIOGRAPHY - George Szell (1897-1970)
Born in Budapest in 1897, George Szell showed a prodigious musical talent. He made his debut as a pianist at the age of 10 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and at 17 appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as both composer and pianist. He was then taken under the wing of Richard Strauss, working as his assistant at the Royal Opera in Berlin (1915-17). Subsequently, he worked in opera houses in Strasbourg, Prague, Darmstadt and Düsseldorf before being appointed first conductor at the Staatsoper in Berlin (1924-29). He returned to Prague as musical director of the Neues Deutsches Theater and as a regular guest conductor with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (1929-37). Just before the outbreak of World War II, he escaped the threat of Nazism by taking up appointments with the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow and with the Residentie-Orkest in The Hague. In 1939, after a short period in Australia, he settled in the USA, where he became a conductor at the New York Metropolitan Opera (1942-6) and then music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, a position he held until his death in 1970. He also enjoyed close relationships with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Under his leadership the Clevelanders became one of the greatest orchestras in the world and Szell himself established a reputation as one of the most remarkable conductors of his time.

THE RECORDINGS
This compilation is a mix of live performances and unusual commercial recordings, previously unissued on CD. The current catalogue covers Szell’s work in mainstream repertoire – Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mahler, Mozart and Schumann – so these two CDs focus on composers who are less well represented in the conductor’s discography. The Cologne radio recordings of La Mer (from 1962) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 (from 1966) are examples of Szell working live and with musicians back in Central Europe. The shorter pieces – Auber’s Fra Diavolo Overture, Delius’s Irmelin Prelude and Strauss’s Delirien Waltz – show Szell’s mastery of lighter musical fare. A real rarity is the 1954 recording of the overture to Wagner’s Meistersinger featuring Szell and the New York Philharmonic. Dvorák’s Symphony No.8, recorded by EMI in Cleveland in 1970, is Szell’s third and final recording of the work and boasts a sound superior to that of the earlier versions.

http://www.filesonic.com/file/871025874/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 33- George Szell.part1.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/871025904/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 33- George Szell.part2.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/871025964/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 33- George Szell.part3.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/871028534/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 33- George Szell.part4.rar
 

http://www.fileserve.com/file/EkpCfsD
http://www.fileserve.com/file/ynZH8mh
http://www.fileserve.com/file/xCKKZHB
http://www.fileserve.com/file/TXGfV3g