September 2009 - The Wholenote Magazine

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES – Fine old recordings re-releasedBy Bruce Surteesfrom Daphnis and Chloë, another Markevitchshow-piece, and the newly written Fifth Symphonyof Honegger make this a CD worthowning. These were recorded by DeutschlandRadio who made their master tapes availablefor the first time. The sound is state of theart for the time, far ahead of what was beingachieved in North America... dynamic, transparentand finely detailed, leaving nothing tothe listener’s imagination.Even though Tony Palmer’s film about TheSalzburg Festival runs for 195 minutes thereis not one uninteresting moment (TP DVD032, 1 DVD). Personalities and related eventsfrom the first Festivalin 1920 through to thepost-war era when theAmerican OccupationForces aided and encouragedthe return toits former eminence asa destination for musiclovers is well documented.The Karajanyears are well coveredwith interviews, mostlypositive, with some footage of the buildingof the Festspielhaus. The post-Karajan era isalso covered in this absorbing, entertainingand informative document.Long before Fritz Reiner became “famous”in the middle to late 1950s he was not unknownto record collectors and music loversvia his all too few recordings for Columbiawith the Pittsburgh Symphony. It was notuntil 1953 and his tenure with the ChicagoSymphony and their recordings with RCA,starting in 1954, that Reiner was elevated tothe hierarchy of Munch, Walter, Karajan,Klemperer, and the rest. Until that timeReiner was guest conducting, including fiveseasons at theMET, without havingan orchestra ofhis own. RCA senttheir best producerand engineer toChicago to makethose fabulousrecordings whichare still, 50 yearslater, in demand. West Hill Radio Archiveshas issued volume 1 of a collectionof Reiner performances pre-dating the Chicagoera (WHRA-6024, 6 CDs priced as4) culled from performances with the NBCSymphony, The Philharmonic SymphonyOrchestra of New York, and The ClevelandOrchestra. An early entry is from 23July 1944 in which Alexander Kipnis joinsthe Philharmonic in three scenes from BorisGodunov. Kipnis’s Boris was peerless andthe three scenes sung here include the Deathof Boris. Wisely, these end the CD becauseany next track would be an intrusion. A brilliantDon Quixote with the NBC featuresthe orchestra’s three first desk men, MischaMischakoff, Carlton Cooley, and FrankMiller. Reiner was to meet up again withMiller in Chicago after 1954. The Clevelandentry is from pre-Szell days in 1945 playingLieutenant Kije and the Shostakovich Sixth.There are 22 performances here, includingthe Brahms Fourth, Till Eulenspiegel, Mathisder Mahler and arias with Bidu Sayão. Aswe have come to expect from West Hill, thesound is exemplary, full bodied, very cleanand devoid of any distracting artefacts. Nocaveats here. The enclosed 19 page bookletcontains a longish appreciation of Reiner byChicago music critic, Roger Dettmer. Forcopyright reasons, this set is not for sale inthe United States and is distributed in Canadaby SRI in Peterborough.MarketPlace: Recording ServicesReady, set, ... online Met!by Phil EhrensaftThe Met Opera’s Newest Hi-Tech VentureOpera has pushed hi-tech envelopes fromthe birth of this modern art form in 1600.Seventeenth century Italian opera utilized allthe early capitalist technology it could lay itshands on to create a multimedia experience.It was a total art form two centuries beforeWagner bragged about inventing the practice.The marriage of opera and hi-tech marchesahead in our own time, and the MetropolitanOpera leads the parade, and has been doingso for over a century. In 1901, the Metpulled off the first recordings of live operaperformances via the new medium of waxcylinders. In 1931, its live Saturday afternooninternational radio broadcasts kicked off andbecame a staple for music lovers across theglobe. The Met became the pioneer in livestereo radio broadcasting in 1973.On the visual front, the Met organized itsfirst live TV broadcasts in 1948 and thenmoved to the 1952 precursor of today’s HDsatellite transmissions, a live cine-cast to 27theatres. The live HD broadcasts kicked offin the autumn of 2006, and now reach 900packed movie theatres across the globe.The Met’s newest hi-tech venture is streaminghigh definition video and audio over theInternet. Its Met Player subscription servicewill ultimately include all the HD Live performanceswithin several months of playingin theatres; all the Met performances thatappeared on PBS television since 1977; andthe radio broadcasts from 1937 onwards.continues to page 62Quality Audio Recording Servicesfor Classical and Acoustic Music647 349 6467lockwood.frank@gmail.comwww.LockwoodARS.comWholenote MarketPlace adsare now also online!ContactADART@thewholenote.com60 WWW.THEWHOLENOTE.COM September 1 - October 7, 2009