From: rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Mercury Living Presence reissues - review of 5 new titles.
Date: 4 Jan 93 23:34:49 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

It's odd how some of the best "French" orchestras have come from North
America.  Today, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has made a splash in
the French orchestral repertoire, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
(under Charles Munch) and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (under Paul
Paray) were held in a similarly high regard in the 50's and 60's. 

A new reissue on the Mercury Living Presence label contains music by
Bizet (the delightful and little-heard overture "La Patrie," and suites
from "Carmen" and "L'Arlesienne") and Thomas' overtures to "Mignon"
and "Raymond" (434 321).  Paray could drive non-French music hard
(hear his recordings of symphonies by Dvorak and Sibelius), but here his
readings are generally spacious and pervaded by a typically Gallic
sensitivity to orchestral timbres, particularly those of the winds. 
Paray pulls out all the stops when he needs to, but I was more
impressed with the way he handles the music's more intimate
moments, such as the duet for flute and harp in the "Intermezzo" from
"Carmen". 

The recordings were made between 1956 and 1960 at three different
locations around Detroit, but they all sound wonderful.  Listen to the
"Carmen" and "L'Arlesienne" suites if you want to hear a superior
soundstage and an almost magical warmth of sound, which Mercury
credits to their use of original vacuum-tube technology in making the
digital transfer from the tape originals. 

Some music for band is frankly more interesting than it is entertaining,
but a new Mercury reissue of performances by the Eastman Wind
Ensemble brings the spirit of the old-fashioned band concert in the park
back with a vengeance (434 322).  The title "Ballet for Band" may sound
like an oxymoron, but the arrangements of music from "Pineapple Poll"
(which was first arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras from music by Sir
Arthur Sullivan),  "La Boutique Fantasque" (Rossini by way of Respighi)
and "Faust" (the opera by Gounod, although some of the ballet music may
or may not be by Delibes) show that "tuba" and "tutu" can be juxtaposed,
and not just in the dictionary.  The disc closes with arrangements of
Wagner for band -- two excerpts from "Lohengrin" and the "Entry of the
Gods into Valhalla" from "Das Rheingold". 

The Eastman Wind Ensemble, made up then as now solely of
undergraduate and graduate students from the Eastman School of Music
in Rochester, New York, are a band of young virtuosos, and their
performance on this disc is bright, assured and exciting.  These
selections were recorded in October 1959 in the Eastman Theatre, a dry
location, but one which is kind to brass sound, and the percussion is
given splendid impact.  Of the  several Eastman Wind Ensemble discs
that Mercury has reissued so far, this one is my favorite, mostly
because the tunes are so good. 

The next disc in this set of Mercury Living Presence reissues (434 323)
contains the "greatest hits" of two composers from the Soviet Union: a
suite from Khachaturian's "Gayne" ballet, recorded by Antal Dorati and
the London Symphony Orchestra in 1960, and Shostakovich's Fifth
Symphony, with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra under the
direction of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (from 1961). 

Dorati always was a masterful conductor of dance music, and his
recording of excerpts from "Gayne" should be powerful enough to make
even the most devoted couch- potatoes leap up and rattle their sabres. 
The eight excerpts that  he chooses focus on the score's more brilliant
dances, opening with the (in)famous "Sabre Dance" and ending with the
"Lezghinka."  This is one of the best Gayne highlights discs available,
although one should not forget about the composer's own selection. 

Skrowaczewski's Shostakovich packs a punch, and no one could accuse
him or his orchestra (or the recording engineers, for that matter) of
precious understatement here.  His orchestra is a rough-and-ready
bunch, and together they come up with a performance which is
viscerally exciting but perhaps a bit primitive.  The recording is hyped
up and hot, just like the performance. 

A recording from 1956, "Fiesta in Hi-Fi," (434 324) takes us back to
Rochester, this time with Howard Hanson conducting the
Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra in six works which probably
haven't been heard in the concert hall for a long time.  Many of the
composers were Eastman students or faculty (or both) at one time, and
the fact that these pieces were recorded at all reflects both Hanson's
and Mercury's commitment to contemporary American music in the 50s. 

The music  on this disc is extremely colorful, drawing upon  or inspired
by Latin elements (Robert McBride's "Mexican Rhapsody" and Alberto
Ginastera's "Overture to the Creole 'Faust'") and American folk music
(Ron Nelson's "Savannah River Holiday," Lyndon Mitchell's "Kentucky
Mountain Portraits" and Charles G. Vardell, Jr.'s "Joe Clark Steps Out"). 

The disc's longest and perhaps most colorful work is the ballet "Sahdji"
by William Grant Still.  "Sahdji" tells a story of love and death among
an African tribe, and while the music is not very sophisticated, it does
have a lot of power.   The Eastman School Chorus makes an effective
contribution in this work. 

There aren't any languishing masterpieces on this disc, but the music is
certainly attractive and would be welcome on most orchestral
programs.  Hanson and his student orchestra are good advocates for
these works; they perform them with spirit and technical assurance. 
The sound from the Eastman Theatre is a little flat, but speaking from
experience, this is not Mercury's fault. 

The final disc in this set of Mercury Living Presence releases immerses
us in expressive gloom.  Antal Dorati, bass Mihaly Szekely, soprano Olga
Szonyi and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded Bartok's opera
"Bluebeard's Castle" in 1962, and this recording still is one of the most
effective ever made of this elusive work (434 325). 

Dorati favors quick tempos and high drama in this performance, and the
orchestra and the recording engineers both play crucial roles in keeping
the atmosphere tense and mysterious.  Szekely is commonly regarded as
being the greatest Bluebeard, although his voice was less steady here
than in his earlier recording of the work (which is available on a
Hungaroton CD).  Szonyi's voice is bright and not always in complete
control, but hers is a dramatically involved Judith. The work is sung in
the original Hungarian; Mercury should have supplied a complete text
and translation.  Extensive excerpts from Berg's "Wozzeck" (featuring
soprano Helga Pilarczyk) are a substantial and somewhat odd "filler."   

All Mercury Living Presence reissues are mid-priced, contain extensive
notes (usually reprinted from the LP originals), more than an hour of
music, and generally outstanding performances and sound.   This new
group of five reissues doesn't contain a single dud, but if I were forced
to limit myself to just one of them, I would choose the Paray disc. 




--
****************************************   Raymond S. Tuttle
"Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,"       University of Rochester
but it's nothing to get depressed about!   (still with his two little 
****************************************   white mice).
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical