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DIMITRI MITROPOULOS CONCERT PERFORMANCES. BRAHNS: Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90. Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 ROUSE: Symphony No. 5 (2015). Supplica (2013). Concerto
for Orchestra (2008) Greek conductor Dimiri Mitropoulos (1896 - 1960) had a phenomenal careen, r respected throughout the musical world . He led a troubled life described in some detail in Gary Lemco's perceptive CD notes. He had a remarkable memory; it is said that after he first was introduced to players of the Minneapolis Symphony he then identified each by name. Mitropoulos had a wide-ranging repertory, focusing on contemporary music. He was principal conductor of the Minneapolis Sykmphony 1937 - 1949. In 1949 he began a long association with the New York Philharmonic and made many recordings with them.. He also was remounted as a conductor of opera; his 1951 live performance of Elektra is a classic. Mitropoulos conducted more than 200 performances at the Met (1954 - 1968), mostly Puccini (Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly), Verdi (Ballo in Maschera, Ernani), Strauss (Salome and Elektra), Mussorgsky's Boris Godounov, and in 1958 the premiere of Barber's Vanessa. This new three-disk set contains broadcast performances from The Academy of music 1946 - 1947, with The Philadelphia Orchestra, also known as the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra. Of particular interest is Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, the conductor's only known recoding of a Beethoven symphony. And we have some rarities, the seldom performed Reger Suite, Menotti's Sebastian Ballet Suite, Ibert's Escales, and some brief oddities (Puccini, Leoncavallo, Wolf-Ferrari). It is surprising Mitropoulos performed Chopiniana, Dmitri Pascal-Levitsky's 'orchesral transcriptions of five Chopin piano pieces. Performances are sometimes a bit ragged. It is a tour de force for Mitropoulis to play the solo part in Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 as well as conduct it. It is a very difficult work and I cannot imagine he actually did much conducting. This work was a favorite of Mitropoulos, and he made a recording for RCA with the NBC Symphony in 1945. Also available is a live performance of Concerto No. 2 with Piero Scapino and the New York Philharmonic from a 1943 Carnegie Hall concert. Audio throughout reflects the arid acoustic of the Academy of Music. Even Andrew Rose's admirable XR remastering cannot enhance this dry, restricted audio. Of course, admirers of Mitropoulos will wish to investigate this unusual release It is unfortunate source material was not of higher quality. Music of Brahms always figured prominently throughout Leopold Stokowski's long career. He made his first acoustic Brahms recordings in 1917, two Hungarian Dances; these, and many other early Stokowski Brahms recordings, already have been issued on Pristine, and they akso have issued his 1927 - 1935 recordings of all four symphonies. Now we have this CD of broadcast performances with the NBC Symphony, No. 3 ( November 4, 1941), and No. 4 (November18, 1941). Performances were given in the Cosmopolitan Opera House in New York which later became known as City Center. Original broadcast were excellent for their time and Andrew Rose's XR remastering enhances them. Stokowski's brief introductions to both are included. This is a fine addition to the Stokowski discography. Baltimore-born Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Christopher Rouse (1949-2019) was recognized as a major figure on America's musical scene, and composed profusely. His works include six symphonies and ten concertos. He was awarded numerous major prizes, and had close associations with the New York Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony. This welcome CD contains three of his later major works which seem to be first recordings. Symphony No. 5 daces from 2015, a half-hour work that was a joint commission from the Nashville Symphony, the Dallas Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival. It was inspired by Rouse's fond remembrance of hearing Beethoven's mighty Symphony No 5 when he was very young, and is a modern abstraction of the fanmous opening theme. It is a compelling work of imagination and vitality. The single movement 12-minute Supplica was commissioned by the Pittsburgh and Pacific Symphony Orchestras. It is one of the composer's somber pieces reminiscent of Mahler and Bruckner. Concerto for Orchestra was written in 2008, lasts almost a half-hour, and I find it to be the least interesting of the three works on this disk. The fine performances are by the Nashville Symphony under its Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, and the recording made in the Laura Turner Concert Hall in Nashville has expert engineering. This is an important issue. R.E.B. (July 2020)
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