My semi-regular series of recording excerpts. Your mission: usually to identify the artist.
The artists playing the mystery track of Sibelius‘s Tapiola? The Berlin Philharmonic conducted by someone more closely associated with Bruckner, Mahler and the Second Viennese School – Hans Rosbaud, from a studio recording for Deutsche Grammophon made in 1957 – just before the label began stereophonic recordings.
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The soloist is Josef Gingold; he is accompanied by the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Hardesty in the finale of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Op.61, recorded in 1963. The complete performance is on Enharmonic Records’ invaluable 2-CD set of performances drawn from Gingold’s own archive.
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Here’s a remarkably atmospheric pre-stereo studio recording of Sibelius‘s Tapiola. Can you guess the conductor (and orchestra)?
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All will be revealed at 1500 EST on July 17.
Brahms‘s Hungarian Dance No.1 performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. I know, nowhere as obscure as Konstantin Ivanov! Recorded in 1934, first released as Victor Red Seal 1675, and now available in Music & Arts’ superb four-disc survey of ultra-rare Stoky-Philly recordings.
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Here’s one for the pianophiles: Bach‘s Prelude and Fugue in b-flat minor from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. Who is the pianist?
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Here is one of my favorite violinists, woefully underrecorded as a soloist, playing the finale of the BeethovenViolin Concerto, Op.61 with a student orchestra, who rise to the occasion quite well. You guessed it: name the soloist.
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The answer will be posted on July 10 at 1500 EST.
The storm sequence from Richard Strauss‘s Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64, captured in an aircheck from November 23, 1947. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducts the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. From Volume 1 of Music & Arts’ invaluable The Art of Dimitri Mitropoulos.
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The storm sequence from Richard Strauss‘s Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64. Can you name the conductor (and orchestra) captured in this vintage aircheck?
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All will be revealed at 1500 EST on July 3.
Polonaise, Op.29 by Dutch composer Peter Schat (1935-2003), played by Jacob Bogaart. From the 12-CD set of Schat’s (nearly) complete works released by Donemus/NM Classics.
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Here’s something a little different for the mystery track: a Polonaise for solo piano by one of my favorite 20th century composers. Don’t let the neo-Romantic elements fool you – he was a postwar composer in Western Europe and a prominent musical figure in his country
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All will be revealed June 26 at 1500 EST.
