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Review

FREDERICK STOCK - CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

MENDELSSOHN: Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream. WAGNER: Ride of the Valkyries. Procession of the Knights from Parsifal. Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin. SUPPE: Poet and Peasant Overture. GRIEG: The Last Spring. SAINT-SAËNS: Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah.TCHAIKOVSKY: Waltz fromThe Sleeping Beauty. JARNFELT: Preludium. FRANCOIS SCHUBERT: The Bee. BIZET: Prelude to Act 4 of Carmen. Faarandole from L'Arlesienne. J. STRAUSS: A Thousand and One Nights. Voices of Spring. WOLF-FERRARI: Intermezzo from Jewels of the Maadonna. SIMONETTI: Madrigal. SCHUBERT: Moment Musicale. GLAZUNOV: Waltz. SMITH: The Star-Spangled Banner. CAREY: America. MEACHAM: AmericanPatrol.DVORAK:Carnival Overture. GOLDMARK: In Springtime Overture. MacDOWELL: Woodland Sketches. SIBELIUS: Valse triste. VOLKMANNL: Waltz, Op, 63. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Flight of the Bumblebee. WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger. J. STRAUSS JR: Wine, Women and Song. Roses from the South. THONAS: Mignon Overture. BRAHMS: Five Hungarian Dances. HANDEL: Largo from Serses. ELGAR: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC657 (two disks) TT: 2 hours 30:36
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FRITZ BUSCH IN COPENHAGEN

WEBER: Der Freischütz Overture. MOZART: Excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 211 in C. Deutsche Tanze, K 571. Three Kontretanze, K. 609. Symphony No. 36 in C major, K425 'Linz'. Serenade No. 13 in G, K. 525. BACH: Excerpt from Violin Concerto in E, K. 1042. DVORAK: Karneval Overture.
Rudolf Serkin, piano. Adolph Busch, violin. Radio-Symfoniorkesster / Fritz Busch, cond
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 656 TT: 74:46
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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1)

Isobel Baillie soprano. John Cameron, baritone. London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult, cond.
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 658 TT: 67:20
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ALFRED BRENDEL EARLY CONCERTO RECORDINGS

SCHOENBERG: Piano Concerto (Southwestern Radio Orchestra Baden-Badebn, Michael Gielen, cond. PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 5 in G,Op. 55 (Wiener Staatsoper Orchester / Jonathan Sternberg, cond. MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K 595. (Volksoper Wien Orchester / Paul Angerer, cond.  
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC 659 TT: 74:54  
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The Chicago Symphony was formed in 1889 by Theodore Thomas. Frederick Stock was hired originally as a violist with the orchestra, became assistant conductor shortly thereafter, and when Thomas died Stock became music director, a position he held for 37 years. Stock and the Orchestra made many recordings, and this new set is the first in a series to present all of his early recordings.The first disk captains Columbia recordings made 1916 - 1917. Repertory is listed above, items through American Patrol March. Because of limited time on acoustic recordings, a number of the works were severely truncated.The rest are on the second disk, electric recordings for RCA made 1925 - 1926.Splendid performances all, and Mark Obert-Thorn's remastering does what an be done to enhance the primitive recordings. A welcome issue!

Pristine already have a fine reissue of commercial and live performances conducted by famed German condutor Fritz Busch (1890 - 1951). If you check theirWEBSITE you'll find many performances including two complete operas. Many are with the Danish Statsradiosinfonie. This fine orchestra was a favorite of his, and here we have a disk primarily of Mozart in live and studio reordings listed above. Included are two brief excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 21 featuring Rudolf Serkin from a concert January 10, 1935; Serkin was Busch;s nephgew-in-law. There also is a brief excerpt from Bach's Violin Concerto in E played by Busch's brother, famed violinist Adolf Busch. All of these are fascinating historic documents of a great conductor.

A Sea Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams was premiered in 1910 to great praise. Sir Adrian Boult attended the first two performances and conducted it for the first time in 1924. Boult championed Vaughan Williams throughout his career and made numerous recordings including two of each of the nine symphonies. We are grateful to Pristine for this superb remastering of Boult's recording made in he warm acoustics of London's Kingsway Hall December 28 - 30, 1953 and January 1, 1954. Pristine plans to reissue all of Boult's recordings of the symphonies, welcome news for collectors. This massive work for large orchestra, two soloists, large chorus and organ is a challenge for recording engineers and we are fortunage to have several multi-channel recordings available. However, this first recording is of supreme imprtance.

Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel (b. 1931) has enjoyed a long distinguished career. Over the years he has made numerous recordings including all of the Mozart and Beethoven piano concertos, all of the latter's sonatas, ad other works of Schubert Haydn and Liszt. Here we have three of his earliest recordings made for Vox, the Schoenberg in 1946, the Mozart in 1957, the Prokofiev in 1951. Collectors surely will wish to investigate these first recordings by a legendry pianist. Andrew Rose's XR remastering has provided ambient stereo greatly enhancing the original audio

R.E.B. (April 2022)