Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.22 - Munch

CD1 [77.23]

Saint-Saëns: Overture 'La Princesse jaune'
Boston Symphony Orchestra; Symphony Hall, Boston; January 1951

Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125 'Choral'
Leontyne Price, Maureen Forrester, David Poleri & Giorgio Tozzi
New England Conservatory Chorus & Boston Symphony Orchestra;
Symphony Hall, Boston; December 1958

Berlioz: Overture 'Le Corsaire', Op.21
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; Maison de la Mutualité, Paris; May 1948)

CD2 [79.04]

Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat minor, Op.20 - Scherzo (orch. Mendelssohn)
Boston Symphony Orchestra; Symphony Hall, Boston; March 1960

Bizet: Symphony in C
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française; French Radio Studios, Paris; November 1966

Martin_: Symphony No.6 'Fantaisies symphoniques'; April 1956
Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet - Suites 1 & 2 - excerpts; February 1957
Boston Symphony Orchestra; Symphony Hall, Boston




THE BIOGRAPHY - CHARLES MUNCH (1891-1968)
For Charles Munch (1891-1968) music was music, whatever its country or century of origin. Though he was esteemed particularly as a conductor of French repertoire, his programmes – whether in his early conducting career in France, or in his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1949-62) – were wide-ranging. Besides many French works, his pre-Boston recordings – mainly with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, but a few also with the London Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and the New York Philharmonic – included music by Beethoven, Bloch, Borodin, Brahms, Haydn, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schumann, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. When he toured with the BSO, Beethoven's 'Eroica' and Brahms's Second Symphony ranked alongside Ravel and Honegger as his repertoire favourites.

THE RECORDINGS
Throughout his conducting career, Charles Munch eagerly promoted new music as one of the many rare recordings included here demonstrates. Martin_ wrote his Sixth Symphony for Munch and the Boston Symphony on the occasion of the Orchestra's 75th anniversary in 1955. This premiere recording, made in 1956, has not been available on CD before. The other recordings from Boston (where Munch was music director from 1949 to 1962) are also new to the CD catalogue, except the exciting 1958 account of Beethoven's Choral Symphony, which here receives its first fully international CD release and in a new remastering. Munch, who was Alsatian-born, became a French citizen in 1920 and, throughout his career, was closely associated with the music and musical institutions of his adopted country. The recording of the Berlioz overture was made in Paris in 1948 with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, which Munch conducted from 1938 to 1946 and which he transformed into the Orchestre de Paris at the end of his life. Collectors will be keen to have Munch's 1966 French Radio recording of Bizet's youthful and scintillating Symphony, in which the conductor restores the cuts that mar his live Boston broadcast of 1964. 


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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.21 - Monteux

CD1 [73.03]

Beethoven: Symphony No.2 in D, Op.36; October 1960

Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod ('Tristan und Isolde'); February 1964
Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks; Musikhalle, Hamburg

Hindemith: Symphony 'Mathis de Maler'
Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra; Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen;
October 1962 (Live)

CD2 [74.07]

Debussy: Trois Nocturnes
Women of the Berkshire Festival Chorus & Boston Symphony Orchestra;
Symphony Hall, Boston; August 1955

Tchaikovsky: 'The Sleeping Beauty', Op.66 - excerpts
London Symphony Orchestra; Kingsway Hall, London; June 1957

Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise
London Symphony Orchestra; Walthamstow Town Hall, London; June 1962 (Rehearsal)




THE BIOGRAPHY - PIERRE MONTEUX (1875-1964)
Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) was born in Paris, and it was there he first made his mark when he became principal conductor of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, with which he led the riot-torn premiere of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps in 1913. Other major premieres under his direction with the Ballets Russes were of Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911) and Le Rossignol (1914), Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (1912), and Debussy's Jeux (1913). His other principal positions were as conductor of the Boston Symphony (1919-24), co-conductor with Willem Mengelberg of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (1924-34), principal conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (1929-39), music director of the San Francisco Symphony (1936-52) and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1961-4). He was also universally beloved as a guest conductor the world over.

THE RECORDINGS
The 1962 Danish Radio broadcast of Hindemith's Mathis de Maler Symphony, one of Monteux's favourite 20th-century scores, is a rare example of this conductor caught live and is an important addition to his discography. The Hamburg studio recordings (of Beethoven and Wagner), also from the early 1960s, have not appeared on CD before. Monteux's close links with the world of dance (not least through his association with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes) are reflected here in a superb 1957 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra (of which he later became principal conductor) of substantial extracts from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. Finally, the compilation acknowledges Monteux's reputation as a superb interpreter of the music of his native France and does so with the classic 1955 Boston recording of Debussy's Trois Nocturnes and Rouget de Lisle's La Marsellaise, taken from a 1962 rehearsal with the LSO. 



http://www.filesonic.com/file/792981964/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 21 - Pierre Monteux.part1.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/792991044/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 21 - Pierre Monteux.part2.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/792990974/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 21 - Pierre Monteux.part3.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/792786734/Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol 21 - Pierre Monteux.part4.rar
 


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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.20 - Kletzki

CD1 [75.37]

Berlioz: Overture ‘Benvenuto Cellini’
Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall, London; September 1951

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Herkulessaal, Munich; May 1967 (Live)

Schubert: 'Rosamunde' - Entr'acte after Act 3
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; October 1958

Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, Op.46 Nos.6 & 7 & Op.72 No.7
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française; French Radio Studios, Paris; July 1961

CD2 [72.10]

Mendelssohn: Overture 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage', Op.27
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Tel Aviv; May 1954

Brahms: Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Rudolfinum, Prague; December 1965 (Live)

Wagner: Träume (Wesendonck-Lieder No.5) (orch. Wagner)
Hugh Bean & Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; August & September 1958

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio italien, Op.45
Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; September 1958




THE BIOGRAPHY - PAUL KLETZKI (1900-1973)
The Polish-Swiss conductor Paul Kletzki was born in Lódz on 21 March 1900 and was educated at the Warsaw Conservatory and University and at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Early influences were Emil Mlynarski, Arnold Schoenberg and Wilhelm Furtwängler. After successes as both composer and conductor, he left Berlin for Italy in 1934 and in 1939 settled in Switzerland. Concerts at the Lucerne Festival (1943-46) and La Scala (1946) laid the foundation for his post-war fame. He was among the first conductors of the Philharmonia in London and developed important links with the Israel, Warsaw and Czech Philharmonics. He held posts with the Liverpool Philharmonic (1954-5), the Dallas SO (1958-61), the Berne SO (1964-6) and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1967-70). He died in Liverpool on 5 March 1973.

THE RECORDINGS
Kletzki's outstanding live performance with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra of Brahms's Symphony No.4 (a work he did not record commercially) is an important addition to the conductor's discography. His live Munich performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony from 1967 gives the collector the opportunity to hear Kletzki's magnificent interpretation of a work he recorded commercially only once, in 1946 at the start of his recording career. The overtures by Berlioz and Mendelssohn are new to CD, as is Wagner's orchestration of the fifth of his Wesendock songs, a real rarity, dating from 1958 and featuring the Philharmonia's leader, Hugh Bean. Kletzki's 1961 selection of Dvo_ák's Slavonic Dances, long unavailable, also appears on CD for the first time. The compilation is completed by the stereo remake from 1958 of Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien, even more impressive than the excellent mono recording made in 1950.


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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.19 - Klemperer

CD1 [75.15]

Mozart: Symphony No.38 in D, K504 'Prague'
RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin-Dahlem; December 1950

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op.28
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester; Studio No.1, WDR, Cologne; October 1954

Stravinsky: Pulcinella - Suite (1947)
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Herkulessaal, Munich;
September 1957 (Live)

Weill: Kleine Dreigroschenmusik - excerpts
Orchester der Berliner Staatsoper; Berlin; 1931

CD2 [77.00]

Mozart: Symphony No.25 in G minor, K183
RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Jesus-Christus-Kirche; December 1950

Beethoven: Symphony No.2 in D, Op.36
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Hochschule für Musik, Berlin; March 1958 (Live)

Janárek: Sinfonietta
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester; Studio No.1, WDR; February 1956





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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.17 - Coates

CD1 [73.45]

Weber: Overture 'Oberon'; October 1926

Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1, S514; October 1930

Borodin: Symphony No. 2 in B minor; November 1929

Rimsky-Korsakov: Procession of the Nobles ('Mlada'); October 1930

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Op.32; October 1930

Mussorgsky: Gopak ('Sorochintsy Fair'); October 1929
London Symphony Orchestra; Kingsway Hall, London

Ravel: La Valse
London Symphony Orchestra; Queen's Hall, London; March 1926


CD2 [78.48]

Wagner: Overture 'Tannhäuser'; Kingsway Hall; September 1926

Wagner: Entry of the Gods ('Das Rheingold'); Queen's Hall; January 1926

Wagner: Magic Fire Music ('Die Walküre'); Queen's Hall; January 1926

Wagner: Siegfried's Rhine Journey ('Götterdämmerung'); Queen's Hall; January 1926
London Symphony Orchestra
Wagner: Love Duet ('Tristan und Isolde', Act 2)
Frida Leider & Lauritz Melchior
Orchester der Berliner Staatsoper; Berlin; September 1929
& London Symphony Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; May 1929
Humperdinck: Prelude ('Hänsel und Gretel'); Kingsway Hall; October 1926
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Op.24; Kingsway Hall; October 1928
London Symphony Orchestra



THE BIOGRAPHY - ALBERT COATES
Albert Coates was born in St Petersburg in April 1882. He learned the violin, cello and piano as a child, and, at the age of 12, went to England. After studying science at Liverpool University he returned to Russia, where he studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov. He was appointed répétiteur to Arthur Nikisch at the Leipzig Opera, making his debut in 1904 in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. He became conductor at the Elberfeld Opera in 1906, worked under Ernst von Schuch at Dresden in 1907-8, with Artur Bodanzky at Mannheim in 1909, and, from 1910, with Eduard Nápravník at the Imperial Opera in St Petersburg. Returning to the UK in 1919, he headed the London Symphony Orchestra (1919-21), the Eastman Rochester Symphony Orchestra (1923-5), and made regular appearances in many of the world's leading musical centres until 1939. Having spent most of the Second World War in the USA, he then went to live in South Africa, where he taught and made occasional appearances until his death in 1953.

THE RECORDINGS
All the recordings featured in this fascinating survey of the work of an almost forgotten but masterly British conductor have been remastered either from the original metal parts (where they have survived) or from high-quality 78 pressings made for the American Victor Company. These new remasterings, using the latest technology, far outclass previous attempts to reproduce Albert Coates's early electrical recordings on CD. The compilation centres on Coates's flair in Russian repertoire and also confirms his reputation as a great Wagner conductor. The Tristan and Isolde of the day, Lauritz Melchior and Frida Leider, join him in the opera's Act 2 love duet, the first section recorded in Berlin (a rare venture for Coates, whose recordings feature almost exclusively the London Symphony Orchestra) and the concluding part in London. Coates was also a pioneer of modern music, as this recording, made in 1926, of Ravel's La Valse (its composition completed only six years earlier) testifies.

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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.18 - Giulini

CD1 [76.44]

Rossini: Overture 'Tancredi'
Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall, London; April 1964

Beethoven: Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92
Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Medinah Temple, Chicago; March 1971

Ravel: Ma Mère l’oye – Suite
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Herkulessaal, Munich; January 1979 (Live)

Bizet: Jeux d'enfants – Suite
Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; October 1956

CD2 [75.20]

Beethoven: Overture 'Egmont', Op.84
Orchestra sinfonica di Torino della RAI; Auditorium di Torino della RAI, Turin;
January 1968 (Live)

Schumann: Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op.97 'Rhenish' (re-orch. Mahler)
Philharmonia Orchestra; Abbey Road Studios, London; June 1958

Stravinsky: The Firebird - Suite (1919)
Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall; October 1956

Johann Strauss: Kaiser-Walzer, Op.437
Wiener Symphoniker; ORF TV Studios, Vienna; April 1974 (Live)




THE BIOGRAPHY - CARLO MARIA GIULINI (born 1914)
Carlo Maria Giulini was born in the small southern Italian town of Barletta in 1914 but his family moved to Bolzano five years later. The Tyrolean town's mix of Austrian and Italian cultural influences had also been appreciated by Mahler – a precedent with which Giulini was familiar and which possibly helped to make him such a memorable, if selective, conductor of that composer. From 1930 he studied at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and made his conducting debut with the Augusteo Orchestra in 1944. He made some recordings with them for Cetra but his first one of note was Cherubini's C minor Requiem at Walter Legge's behest. Many recordings with the Philharmonia followed, even after Legge disbanded the orchestra. Having made his US debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1955, he became the orchestra's principal guest conductor in 1969. A contract to Deutsche Grammophon in 1977 prefaced by a year his move to Los Angeles, where he was conductor until his wife's ill health forced them to move back to Italy in 1984. His concert and recording activity declined correspondingly, though he almost completed a Beethoven symphony cycle, for Sony, in the early 1990s. He retired from conducting internationally later in the decade.

THE RECORDINGS
The great Italian maestro, now in his late eighties, lives in retirement in Milan, close to La Scala, the opera house where he was principal conductor in the early 1950s. This compilation features a number of other musical institutions with which Giulini is closely associated: the Philharmonia Orchestra, Italian Radio (where he was music director at the start of his career), and the Chicago and Vienna Symphony Orchestras (with which he held conducting posts between 1969 and 1976). Of the many recordings he made in London in the 1950s and 1960s with Walter Legge's Philharmonia, the Bizet, Schumann (Mahler's re-orchestration of the 'Rhenish' Symphony, much sought after by collectors) and Stravinsky are appearing here for the first time on CD. The three broadcasts are of Ravel's Ma Mère l'oye Suite, a Giulini favourite which he recorded three times in the studio, Beethoven's Egmont Overture in a fiery Italian Radio performance, and, as an addition to the conductor's discography, a 1974 Austrian Radio recording of the Emperor Waltz by Johann Strauss, whose music Giulini never recorded commercially.


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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.16 - Adrian Boult

CD1 [73.45]

Berlioz: Overture 'Rob Roy'
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Walthamstow Town Hall, London; August 1956

Franck: Symphony in D minor
London Orchestra Society; Watford Town Hall, London; June 1959

Tchaikovsky: Theme & Variations (Suite No.3 in G, Op.55); June 1974

Walton: Overture 'Portsmouth Point'; July 1967
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Abbey Road Studios, London1


CD2 [75.35]

Beethoven: Overture 'Coriolan', Op.62
New Philharmonia Orchestra; Kingsway Hall, London; September 1970

Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D minor, Op.120
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Walthamstow Town Hall; August 1956

Wolf: Italian Serenade
Philharmonia Orchestra; Walthamstow Town Hall; January 1957

Schubert: Symphony No.4 in C minor, D417 'Tragic'
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Wembley Town Hall, London; February 1959
Sibelius: Prelude ('The Tempest')
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Walthamstow Town Hall; September 1956



THE BIOGRAPHY - SIR ADRIAN BOULT (1889-1983)
'In musical and general education the conductor must be unusually well equipped. He must have a great deal of musical knowledge; and I don't just mean of orchestral scores. He must also have a working knowledge of all instruments with which he is to come in contact, including the human voice.' Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983) spoke these words in a broadcast talk in February 1947. As a performer he exemplified the supreme professional. With a baton technique second to none, Boult's greatest achievement was the formation of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930 and its subsequent development into a world-class ensemble by the end of that decade. The sheer range of music played during his time with the BBC remains extraordinary, including many world and British premieres. Unceremoniously dumped by the BBC at the mandatory retiring age of 60, Sir Adrian then worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1950s. For the last 30 years of his life he served as a guest conductor, except for a single year in Birmingham. Boult was knighted in 1937 and made a Companion of Honour in 1969. He retired in 1979.

THE RECORDINGS
Though Boult was renowned as an interpreter of British music, this compilation focuses on the breadth of his repertory and the mastery with which he interpreted such a wide range of music. With the sole exception of the Tchaikovsky, all the works reissued here are new to CD and most have become rarities. Collectors may remember the first appearance on LP, in the late 1950s, of the Berlioz, Sibelius, Franck, Hugo Wolf and Schubert, and will surely welcome them to the CD catalogue. Those who have not encountered them before, will find here a treasure-trove of great music-making, not least in the interpretations of Franck's D minor and Schubert's 'Tragic' Symphonies, Boult's only recordings of these two masterworks. The later recordings (from a gramophone career that lasted for nearly 60 years) are of overtures by Walton ('Portsmouth Point', of which Boult made the first ever recording in 1936) and Beethoven ('Coriolan', which was originally coupled with Josek Suk's account of the Violin Concerto).






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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.15 - Bruno Walter

CD1 [77:29]

Beethoven: Symphony No.6 'Pastoral'
Wiener Philharmoniker; Musikverein, Vienna; December 1936

Brahms: Symphony No.2
New York Philharmonic; 30th Street Studio, New York City; December 1953

CD2 [66:12]

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro: Overture
British Symphony Orchestra; Central Hall, Westminster, London; April 1932

Haydn: Symphony No.92 'Oxford'
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; Théâtre Pigalle, Paris; May 1938

Wagner: Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act 1
British Symphony Orchestra; Central Hall, Westminster, London; May 1930

Wagner: Die Walküre: Act 2, Scene 5
Lotte Lehmann (Sieglinde), Ella Flesch (Brünnhilde), Lauritz Melchior (Siegmund), Alfred Jerger (Wotan) & Emanuel List (Hunding)/Wiener Philharmoniker; Musikverein, Vienna; June 1935

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: 'Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n'
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)/Wiener Philharmoniker; Kingsway Hall, London; October 1949

Mahler: Symphony No.5: Adagietto
Wiener Philharmoniker; Musikverein, Vienna; January 1938

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus: Overture
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; Théâtre Pigalle, Paris; May 1938




THE BIOGRAPHY - BRUNO WALTER (1876-1962)
Born in Berlin in 1876, Bruno Walter entered the Stern Conservatory at the age of eight, intending to become a concert pianist, and made his conducting debut in Cologne at 17. Following appointments in Pressburg (now Bratislava), Riga and Berlin, he went to Vienna as assistant to Mahler, whose works he later championed, giving the premieres of Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony after the composer's death. Important positions in Munich and Berlin - as well as guest appearances in Salzburg, London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Moscow and elsewhere - brought him worldwide fame by the 1920s. After the Nazis drove him from Germany in 1933 and Austria in 1938, he settled in the United States, where he worked with several leading musical organisations, most notably the New York Philharmonic. He was, and through his many recordings still is, widely admired for his skilful use of rubato, sensitivity to structure and textural details, dramatic intensity and, perhaps most of all, the genial lyricism of his performances.
THE RECORDINGS
This compilation, made by Erik Ryding (who has just completed a major biography of Bruno Walter) shows the conductor at his best, before and immediately after World War II and before ill health forced him to slow down. So, the majority of these recordings come from 1930-1938, from 1949 and, finally, with Brahms's Second Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, from 1953. The recording of Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936, is a seminal performance and represents the VPO at the height of its powers before the war. The New York performance of the Brahms represents Walter's best work in the United States. The Mozart and Wagner (both from the early 1930s) and the Haydn and Johann Strauss (both from 1938) are quite rare and have all been carefully remastered for this reissue. The extract from Act 2 of Die Walküre comes from arguably one of the very greatest recorded performances of Wagner on record and the treasurable VPO recordings with Kathleen Ferrier, of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde, were amongst the conductor's own favourites.

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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.14 - Carl Schurich

 




CD1 [74:25]

Mendelssohn: 'The Hebrides' Overture
Wiener Philharmoniker; Musikverein, Vienna; April 1954

Schubert: Symphony No.8 'Unfinished'
Wiener Philharmoniker; Sofiensaal, Vienna; June 1956

Mozart: Symphony No.35 'Haffner'
Wiener Philharmoniker; Sofiensaal, Vienna; June 1956

Beethoven: Symphony No.1
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; Salle Wagram, Paris; September 1958


CD2 [71:23]

Bruckner: Symphony No.8
Wiener Philharmoniker; Musikverein, Vienna; December 1963



THE BIOGRAPHY - CARL SCHURICHT (1880-1967)
Carl Schuricht was born in 1880 in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). Already conducting by the age of 15, he studied piano and composition in Berlin with Rudorff and Humperdinck and composition in Leipzig with Reger. In 1901 he was appointed répétiteur at Mainz, in 1907 operetta conductor at Zwickau, and in 1909 he succeeded Siegfried Ochs as conductor of the Rühl Choral Union, Frankfurt. Schuricht became music director at Wiesbaden in 1912 and continued to hold that post until 1944. He made his British debut in London in 1914, his USA debut in St Louis in 1927, his Vienna Philharmonic debut in 1934, and from 1930 to 1939 conducted the Scheveningen summer concerts in Holland. Between 1937 and 1944 he was principal guest conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and in 1943 was appointed principal guest conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. However, in the autumn of 1944 he left Germany and settled in Switzerland. Henceforward he worked exclusively as a guest conductor across the Continent, and in 1956 shared the Vienna Philharmonic's American tour with André Cluytens. He made his first post-war British appearance in 1963 with the London Symphony Orchestra and in 1965 made his last appearance at the Salzburg Festival. Schuricht died in Switzerland in 1967.
THE RECORDINGS
This compilation represents Schuricht's best work in the recording studio. Mendelssohn's 'Hebrides' Overture (in mono from 1954), Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony and Mozart's 'Haffner' Symphony (both in stereo from 1956) have never appeared on CD, except in Japan. Though the recordings of Beethoven's First Symphony (from 1958) and Bruckner's Symphony No.8 (a renowned performance from 1963) are well-known, both have been improved for this reissue by careful remastering.


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Great conductors of the 20TH century EMI VOL.13 - Ormandy

 
CD1 [70:36]

Brahms: Symphony No.4
The Philadelphia Orchestra; Town Hall, Philadelphia; October 1967

R. Strauss: Don Juan
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Deutsches Museum, Munich (Live); June 1959

Webern: Im Sommerwind (World première recording)
The Philadelphia Orchestra; Town Hall, Philadelphia; February 1963

CD2 [67:35]

Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon: Overture
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Studio P1, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich (Live); November 1965

Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2
The Philadelphia Orchestra; Scottish Rite Cathedral, Philadelphia; December 1973

Sibelius: Lemminkaïnen's Return
The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Old Met, Philadelphia; February 1978




THE BIOGRAPHY - EUGENE ORMANDY (1899-1985)
Aged five, Eugene Ormandy (born Jeno Blau) became the youngest violin student at the Royal Academy of Music in his native Budapest, and was appointed professor of violin there when only 17. In 1921 he moved to America (changing his name in the process), where his charm and phenomenal memory established him as a noted violinist and conductor. His breakthrough came when an intermediary from the Minneapolis Symphony heard him deputise for Toscanini with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ormandy was immediately appointed director in Minneapolis, inaugurating a recording career that lasted some 60 years, principally with the Philadelphia Orchestra (which he joined in 1936, succeeding Leopold Stokowski). Ormandy led the Philadelphians until 1980, making more recordings with them than any other partnership between conductor and orchestra.
THE RECORDINGS
This disc is a handpicked selection of Ormandy specialities (Strauss, Rachmaninov and Sibelius) and some more unusual material not normally associated with him. The 1967 recording of the Fourth Symphony by Brahms (Ormandy's favourite composer) has not been issued on CD before. The compilation also includes two live performances: Strauss's Don Juan (from 1959) and Kabalevsky's Colas Breugnon Overture (from 1965), both with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Because there are few examples of this conductor live in concert, these two tracks will be important for all collectors. Ormandy made the world premiere recording of Webern's Im Sommerwind in 1963 and this is its first appearance on CD. Rachmaninov's symphonies were specialities of Ormandy and the Philadelphians, so this (his only) recording of the complete score of the Second Symphony (made in 1975) is an important reissue. Leminkaïnen's Return comes from the recording of Sibelius's complete set of Legends made in 1978, some of the last sessions of Ormandy's life. The critics raved about these performances, not only because the conductor brought tremendous excitement to one of his favourite composers, but also because the engineers had captured the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra at its very best.

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