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
George Szell conducting Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 circa 1947. Details and recording at: http://archive.org/details/MendelssohnSymphonyNo.4-szell
George Szell conducting Strauss’Till Eulenspiegel circa 1948. Details and recording at: http://archive.org/details/StraussTillEulenspiegel-szell
George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, Schumann Symphony No. 4, circa 1947. Details and links: http://archive.org/details/SchumannSymphonyNo.4
Berlioz’s ‘Harold In Italy’ by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, William Primrose on cello circa 1939.
There are a lot of places that you can get free classical music, so I am going to try and find a new recording every day for the month of May. Many of them are from archive.org, so they could be old 78’s or live performances, but to have the chance to hear some new works or a conductor that is unfamiliar is always a good thing. Leopold Stokowski conducts Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. From 1934, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. From archive.org:…
Mozart: 4 Horn Concertos / Maag – Tuckwell – London SO /1981 / London Jubilee JL 41015
Emmanuel Chabrier is best known for is work ‘Espana’ but there are even more charming works from this composer. Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony in their Mercury recording of various Chabrier works is a classic and still is a first choice. Add in the Suite by Roussel and you have a winner. For an alternate recording with almost identical Chabrier works, the Naxos release by Niquet is a close contender. I would say the only issue with the Paray…
Here is another ‘Really, it is only 2 bucks?!’ release. Mozart’s 4 famous operas: The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutti and Don Giovanni, all for under 3 dollars at Amazon MP3. And these are great performances, mono of course, from Fricsay, Kleiber, Krips and Bohm, featuring the RAIS SO and the Vienna Phil, so we are talking some classic performances and not some run of the mill recordings. Of course no librettos but those can be…
Walter’s NY Phil recording of Mahler’s ‘Symphony #2 – Resurrection’ was my first experience with Mahler. I found it on a double-length cassette on the CBS Odyssey label [which eventually wore out, replaced with a double-length DG cassette by Kubelik, another great recording]. Something about the work really grabbed me, and I always end up back at this 60’s era recording by Walter. Of course this release has been long out of print, but the same recording is on the…
Karl Bohm and the Vienna Philharmonic in a great 70’s era recording of Beethoven’s ‘Missa Solemnis’. Performances byMargaret Price and Christa Ludwig add to this excellent recording. http://youtu.be/fhm-b4sKCdw:
RIAS: Radio in the American sector in Berlin [after the war] Starting in 1947, RIAS broadcast Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic performing a variety of works until 1954. There were tapes made of these broadcasts, and Audite has made an arrangement to issue all of the available recordings, taken from the original tapes. This was released in 2009, and is by far the best sounding set of performances from Furtwangler from that era. Of course sound quality is relative,…
You can find a lot of surprises when you are browsing Amazon.com. I came upon a bargain set of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas by Artur Schnabel. These were recorded in the 1930’s and I believe may have been the first set of complete sonatas issued on 78s. Whether they were first or not, they have a history of being legendary performances, and I never got around to listening to them, until now. They set of 101 tracks is on sale…
I seem to be on a Mahler kick these days. After recently getting the Levine and Abravenel Mahler sets I stumbled across another one of those mystery download sets of Bruno Walter conducting Mahler. Many of the older 1940’s-50’s classical recordings have gone out of copyright in the UK, and there have been some MP3 releases on the cheap as of late with sketchy details other than the works and orchestra. These are Walter’s Mahler recordings from the 1940’s and…
A great compilation of interesting ballet music is on a 2CD Duo collection by Herbert von Karajan on DG. Featuring Gaite Parisienne, Sleeping Beauty, Faust Ballet Music, Coppelia and Les Sylphides, this collection performed by the Berliner Philharmonic is top notch. The set is no longer in print on CD, but the MP3 version is quite a good deal.