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Category: RCA Victor

Tomita Planets

Tomita Planets

  Isao Tomita’s ‘Planets’ from 1976 takes Holst’s symphonic work and puts it into the electronic realm. Most of Tomita’s albums have been pretty much out of print for years, except a few on RCA released in the 1990’s that have stayed around. Fortunately ‘The Tomita Planets’ is still available, and also re-released and remade too! There are several releases of the Planets, and all are different in format or actual performance. Took a while, but figured out the versions…

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Saint-Saens Organ Symphony

Saint-Saens Organ Symphony

Saint-Saen composed 5 symphonies, but 2 were published posthumously, so the Symphony No. 3 is actually the last symphony he composed. Known as the ‘Organ’ symphony, it is the only one of the 5 symphonies that is really in the basic repertoire. However, there is quite a bit to like about the other 4, and worth a listen. The best classic performance is by Charles Munch and the Boston SO on an RCA Living Stereo issue, with a wonderful performance…

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Eugene Ormandy Conducts 20th Century Classics

Eugene Ormandy Conducts 20th Century Classics

I posted a review and some other info at Amazon: This release combines recordings from the RCA and CBS vaults. Ormandy re-recorded many works when the Philadelphia Orchestra moved to RCA in the 1970’s. While not all of these recordings matched the earlier versions, several were better but have been mostly out of circulation for a while. The Shostakovich 5 is a particular favorite of mine, much better than the CBS version. Since there seems to be no real info…

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Free Music May: The Grieg Piano Concerto

Free Music May: The Grieg Piano Concerto

Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor by Rubinstein with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orch. circa 1942 This is actually a quite nice performance of this almost too-famous work, Rubinstein in his younger days had a bit more edge in his playing than in later years. Details and recordings at: http://archive.org/details/GriegPianoConcertoInAMinorrubinstein-ormandy1942  

Bargain Box: Slatkin’s Tchaikovsky Ballets

Bargain Box: Slatkin’s Tchaikovsky Ballets

Leonard Slatkin conducts Tchaikovsky Ballets Leonard Slatkin recorded the three Tchaikovsky ballet music scores in the 1980’s-1990’s for RCA. The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake get a lush, great sounding recording from Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. These are treated like true symphonic works, not just ballet pieces, and are my favorite incarnations of complete music recordings. I think these recordings have been forgotten since their first release, and it is nice to get all of them…

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Vinyl Classics: Rimsky-Korsakov

Vinyl Classics: Rimsky-Korsakov

Every once in a while I go to the local thrift stores, and come across some great vinyl finds. I have always collected vinyl, even when I changed to all CDs for my classical music. Lately I have gotten back into listening to my records, and there are still some great LPs that are either not on CD or are in a budget release that has next to nothing as far as info or liner notes, which I really enjoy…

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