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ARTUR RODZINSKI - Early Recordings MOZART: Symphony No. 35 in D, K. 385 "Haffner." MAHLER:
Symphony No 4 in G. JOSEPH SZIGETI EUROPEAN COLUMBIA RECORDINGS This site praised Pristine's issue of Artur Rodzinski's RCA recordings with the Chicago Symphony (REVIEW). Early in his career, this important conductor was hired by Leopold Stokowski as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Then he was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic 1929 - 1934,and then led the Cleveland Orchestra for a decade beginning in 1933. Rodzinski was conductor of the Chicago Symphony only for one season, 1947 - 1948) when he made his RCA disks. Rodzinski then conducted in Salzburg; Toscanini was so impressed by him that he asked him to assemble a studio orchestra for him, latere known as the NBC Symphony. The New York Post wanted to make available a budget priced series of recordings called Word's Greatest Music. issued with performers not identified. In 1939 the NBC Symphony made these recordings of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Franck's Symphony in D minor . The Cleveland recordings were made 1940 - 1941 in Serverance Hall for Columbia. This set includes Symphony No. 5 of Sibelius, and two works of Tchaikovsky, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and 1812 Overture. These have excellent mono sound, much better than the NBC recordings which are highly constricted. Still, all of these are important for the collector. The Pristine catalog also includes Rodzinski led performances of the Brahms and Beethoven violin concertos with Bronislaw Huberman, Beethoven;s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Concerto No. 1 of Brahms both with Rudolf Serkin. it is to be hoped that Pristine will issue more of this famed conductor's earlier recordings. Charles Gerhardt had a close relationship with Jascha Horenstein and made a number of reordings with him, in particuar al of the Rachmaninoff concerted works with Earl Wild and the Royal Philharmonic. Familiar with Horenstein's mastery of Mahler, particulrly from the legendary 1959 BBC performance of Symphony No. 8, Gerhardt urrged RCA to record all of the symphonies, but RCA was not interested. Now Pristine Audio is compensating for RCA;s stupidity by unearthing Horenstein Mahler peerformances, both commercial and live. Already they have issued Symphonies 1, 3, 5 (three performnce), 8 and 9. Now we have Symphoy No. 4 in a live prformance with the Gothenburg Sytmphony from a concert January 25, 1957. Briish soprano Jennifer Vyvyan, toward the end of her distinguished career is perhaps is not as tyouthfu sounding as this angelic roke should have, but that is a minor concern. Horenstein made an EMI recording of this symphony with the London Phiharmoniic in 1959, but collectors will welcome this live recording. Excellent well-balanced sound for its time. Legendary violinist Joseph Szigeti (1892- 1973) had an illustrious career
and a close relationship with many major musicians. He championed
Bartok and Bloch, often performing the latter's Violin Concerto. Szigeti
seems to be the only major violinist who championed this lengthy work
and even made a recording in Paris conducted by
Charles Munch, recently issued on Warner Classics. Pristine
now offers this first volume of Szigeti's European
Columbia
recordings with repertory listed above. Participating artists were pianists
Nikita Magaloff and Kurt Ruhrsseutz, violinist Carl Flesch (Bach concerto),
Walter Goehr Orchestra and the London Philharmonic with conductor Sir
Tomas
Beecham (Mozart concerto). Mark-Obert Thorn's superb transfers provide
a well-balanced audio picture of these recordings made a century ago
We look forward to Volume II.
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