Rhapsodie Espagnole (compilation of five Impressionist works)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol, op. 34
Maurice Ravel: Rhapsodie espagnole
Emmanuel Chabrier: España
Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Paul Dukas: L’Apprenti-Sorcier

Budapest Symphony Orchestra
György Lehel, conductor

for the Chabrier:
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra
Rouslan Raichev, conductor

Some of the greatest values in orchestral recordings during the 1970s and ’80s came out of Eastern Europe, which had yet to be contaminated by Madison Avenue. Every city in the Communist Bloc had an orchestra of first-rate musicians and their conductors spent more time in rehearsal than they did with publicity agents. Their performances, as a result, tended to be polished and tasteful even while their Free World counterparts were at pains to see just how quirky and individualistic they could make theirs after a bare minimum of rehearsals.

Because the Eastern European orchestras did not use advertising departments, their reputations did not travel very far and they did not command high performance fees. The most cost-conscious marketers in Los Angeles and New York City would buy the rights to Eastern European recordings very cheaply and sell them in the United States usually without liner notes or other amenities.

How this particular compilation came to be is a mystery. It includes four pieces recorded in Hungary and one in Bulgaria. The sound and ensemble are excellent throughout; the program of apparently disparate pieces is unified by the similarity of their instrumental textures.


Rhapsodie Espagnole and four other pieces
88.7 MB - no password

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Alfred Schnittke: Requiem

Requiem, music to Schiller's drama “Don Carlos” for soloists, mixed chorus, and instrumental ensemble In fourteen movements, op. 101 (1975)

Helga Therme and Gisela Burghardt, sopranos
Heidi Riess, mezzo-soprano
Albrecht Lepetit, tenor
Hermann Christian Polster, bass
Dresden Kreuzchor and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir
Martin Flämig, conductor

live performance 26 May 1982 in the Dresden Kreuzkirche
Dresden Festival 1982

Toward the end of his life, Schnittke was lionized by the West, partly because his style was more Western than Soviet.

aircheck 29 January 1983, 2000–2037h, KUSC-FM Los Angeles
(Por si la palabra «aircheck» no se traduce bien, sabed que significa una grabación sacada de la radio, a veces de un evento difundido en vivo, más comúnmente de un evento grabado en vivo para emitirse otro día. De costumbre los airchecks se identifican por las siglas de la radiodifusora y la fecha de emisión.)


Schnittke Requiem
51.7 MB - no password

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Brahms-Schoenberg: Piano Quartet

Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet in g, op. 25, as orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg
Allegro
Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo
Andante con moto
Rondo all’Zingarese: Presto

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Simon Rattle, conductor

Schoenberg’s orchestration of Brahms’s chamber work exaggerates the inherent romanticism, filling the piece with denser harmonies and stranger timbres. Rattle manages not only to keep the piece from becoming slapstick but also brings out melodies hidden among the many instruments.

aircheck 27 February 1983, 1300–1400h, KUSC-FM Los Angeles
(Por si la palabra «aircheck» no se traduce bien, sabed que significa una grabación sacada de la radio, a veces de un evento difundido en vivo, más comúnmente de un evento grabado en vivo para emitirse otro día. De costumbre los airchecks se identifican por las siglas de la radiodifusora y la fecha de emisión.)


Rattle conducts the Brahms-Schoenberg
65.2 MB - no password

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Richard Wagner: Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey (Götterdämmerung)

Minnesota Orchestra
Neville Marriner, conductor

This performace dates from when Marriner, as the music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, began venturing deeply into Romantic repertoire. The precision and moderation that made his reputation with Baroque and Classical pieces work surprisingly well with Wagner.

aircheck 20 February 1983, 1330–1400h, KUSC-FM Los Angeles
(Por si la palabra «aircheck» no se traduce bien, sabed que significa una grabación sacada de la radio, a veces de un evento difundido en vivo, más comúnmente de un evento grabado en vivo para emitirse otro día. De costumbre los airchecks se identifican por las siglas de la radiodifusora y la fecha de emisión.)


Wagner by Marriner
19.4 MB - no password

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or 78rpm discs on 33rpm turntables.

Nicolet plays Devienne

Aurèle Nicolet, flute
Christiane Nicolet, second flute
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Antoni Ros-Marbá, condutor

François Devienne: Symphonie Concertante in G for two flutes, op. 76
Devienne: Flute Concerto No. 7 in e minor

Back when Jean-Pierre Rampal was breaking all known speed records, Aurèle Nicolet was calmly setting the standard for musicianship. His performances were never less than perfect. Here he gives us a couple of works by France’s most celebrated flute virtuoso of the latter eighteenth century.


Nicolet plays Devienne
55.8MB – no password

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Oboe concerti performed by Heinz Holliger

Heinz Holliger, oboe
Christiane Jaccottet, harpsichord
Camerata Bern
Alexander van Wijnkoop, concertmaster

Johann Gottlieb Graun: Concerto in g minor for oboe
Graun: Concerto in c minor for oboe
Johann Ludwig Krebs: Concerto in b minor for harpsichord and oboe

Holliger was the top oboist of his day (later to be joined by Alan Vogel), equally at home in the Baroque and the late twentieth century. Jaccottet was known for her precise and stylish Bach. The Camerata Bern was the breeding ground for early music in Switzerland. Recorded in Berne, Switzerland, by Polydor Archiv in 1978.


Holliger plays Graun and Krebs
78.2 MB – no password

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Steve Reich: Tehillim (orchestral version)

Julianne Baird, Cheryl Bensman, Jane Bryden, sopranos
Kimball Wheeler, mezzo-soprano
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, conductor

The name of the work is Hebrew for “psalms” or “praises”. Its lyrics are drawn from Psalms 19, 34, 18, and 150. One of Reich’s more lyrical works; he manages to achieve his signature beat-frequency effects by playing five similar voices off one another.

world première performance of the orchestral version
recorded live 16 September 1982
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, New York City

aircheck 12 February 1983 1230–1300h, KUSC-FM Los Angeles
(Por si la palabra «aircheck» no se traduce bien, sabed que significa una grabación sacada de la radio, a veces de un evento difundido en vivo, más comúnmente de un evento grabado en vivo para emitirse otro día. De costumbre los airchecks se identifican por las siglas de la radiodifusora y la fecha de emisión.)


Reich Tehillim orchestral première
53.2MB – no password

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