Charles who?

If you are a lover of Classical music the name Charles Gerhardt might not have much significance to you unless your interests also gravitate to film music. Gerhardt was one of the driving forces in the 1970s RCA Victor's iconic film score series acting as both producer and conductor and forming one of the finest studio orchestras in Europe. The National Philharmonic was composed of the finest first desk players from the best orchestras in London who recorded late in the evening in order to fulfill their regular concert work. A recent Amazon search produced 2 new Gerhardt CD's, one a film score and the other a classical album. The film score in question is Richard Rogers music to the TV documentary "Victory at Sea " - Gerhardt's performance  is thrilling; you can feel the salt air in your face. The second CD is even more amazing. It is Wagner Orchestral music recorded in the 1990s including  selections from Tristan, Walkure and the Siegfied Idyll. Although each of the selections were recorded in different venues, the recorded sound remains consistently amazing. Gerhardt pulls out all the stops using not the orchestra excerpts score published by Breitkoph, but instead the full Wagner opera score which uses 8 horns instead of 4, and 4 trombones instead of 2 and 6 harps etc. This CD is reminiscent of the great Stokowski/ London Symphony recording from the 1960s on the London/Decca label. This Wagner CD was recorded on the Chesky label and is available on Amazon.com. Don't hesitate and Stay Tuned!

Leinsdorf's Beethoven

Many years ago The Philadelphia Singers were asked to perform Bach's " St. Matthew Passion" with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Michael Korn asked me to prepare the small role of Judas for the performance which was to be conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. I knew of Leinsdorf's background; his relationship with Toscanini in Salzburg, his directorships of the Cleveland and Boston Symphonies, and in fact I had heard him perform the Mahler Symphony No. 5 with Boston at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. This leads me to the recent discovery of Leinsdorf's complete set of Beethoven Symphonies on Amazon at the astounding price of $19.95. The remastering was done by Sony and is quite good; of course the originals were recorded by RCA on that horrible DYNAGROOVE vinyl. The performances are all very fine and showcase the beautiful sound of the Boston Symphony with the 1st, 8th, and 9th Symphonies being of particular interest. Anyone wanting an inexpensive set of Beethoven Symphonies would do well to purchase this.   Stay Tuned

Christmas in March

This past  holiday season while channel surfing on my car radio I heard the last few minutes of some delightful Christmas music. The arrangements on this recording sounded so unique and fresh that I paused at my destination to hear who was responsible for this brief moment of holiday cheer. The recording turned out to be " Christmas in the Country" with the New York Pops conducted by Skitch Henderson. I had once met Henderson at a Philadelphia Singers benefit and I knew that he was a fine musician but never realized what a talented arranger  he was.
Several years ago I received the CD collection of Fritz Blank, Chef and part owner of Deux Cheminees and former board member of the Philadelphia Singers. Included in that collection were at least 50 or 60 Christmas CD'S of various genres. If you include my own collection of 50 or so holiday CD'S it might seem that the inclusion of"  Christmas in the Country" would be superfluous, but this album was so charming that I decided to search for it. I found it recently on Amazon, used for $1.99. The EMI/Angel produced recording quality is also excellent. Look for it........ and a very Merry Un-Christmas! Stay Tuned.

OLD FRIENDS

  This morning I thought I would "Spin some Vinyl" as the DJs of old used to say. The record contained French repertoire with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch in music I heard Munch conduct in person. The real purpose of today's morning reflections is not so much the music, but the audio equipment that brings it to life. Many years ago, at the dawn of the CD era, I thought I would upgrade my turntable and speakers. I decided on a Shure V15 cartridge, an  Acoustic Research turntable and tone arm and these components have served me well over the years. The speakers I chose were the Dahlquist DQM-7s which were purchased at Bryn Mawr Stereo, but the the ones I fell in love with were the DQM-9s which at $ 1,400 a pair were well beyond my means. Twenty five years have passed since I have heard those speakers but lo and behold a Craig's list ad offered a pair of those DQM-9's for sale at 1/3 the original price and the seller lived only five minutes away in Moorstown. I have since purchased them and they sound great, re-coned , and in wonderful condition. This goes to prove that " All things come to those who wait".     STAY TUNED.

Rubinstein, Heifetz, or God!

When Jascha Heifetz complained to Rubinstein that his name was placed second on the concert program Rubinstein retorted,"If God was playing in the trio, it would be: Rubinstein, God, Heifetz". It has been two months since my last blog, so much singing, and caroling, and shopping for the holidays. Two of my Christmas presents were the Rubinstein-Heifetz collaborations: Beethoven and Schubert trios with Emanuel Feurmann and Brahms and Mendelssohn trios with Piatigorsky and Feurmann. Although the sound is sometimes dim (1940), the performances are electric and well worth having. I have yet to hear the Faure Violin Sonata with those two Bad Boys. Stay Tuned.

The Neglected Bloch

Is Earnest Bloch (1880-1959) one of the 20th century's most underrated composers? I think so, and his music is certainly not played often enough. Although he was born in Geneva Switzerland, he spent a good deal of his life in the United States and took his American citizenship in 1924. Some of his major works include: Schelomo ( Solomon ), a work performed by many of our greatest cellists, Suite Hebraique, Israel Symphony, and his Sacred Service. I was first introduced to Bloch's music through a recording of the Concerto Grosso no.1 for strings and piano with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Rafael Kubelik. The recording we listened to this morning featured the Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra and was recorded in Norway on the INTIM MUSIK label. Yes, I never heard of that label either but the sound is excellent and the recording also features the Concerto Grosso no.2 and another wonderful piece, the Four Temperaments by Paul Hindemith. The performances here are exemplary; look for it on Amazon. We now eagerly await a recording of Bloch's Symphony in E flat conducted by a Bloch specialist Dalia Atlas. I certainly don't expect to hear this piece any time soon in a concert hall. Stay Tuned.

A RARETY FROM KUSSY !

British music is not something you would expect to hear from Serge Koussevitzky but in fact he performed quite a lot of it including the American premiere of William Walton's " Belshazzar's Feast " in 1932. The CD we listened to this morning with our Kona coffee included a 1947 performance of the Vaughn Williams Symphony NO. 5 in D on the Guild Historical label along with the Tchaikovsky " Francesca da Rimini ". Kussy's recorded legacy is no where near as comprehensive as Toscanini's or Stokowski's but what he left us is evergreen. The live performance of the Vaughn Williams 5th shows all the earmarks of this great orchestra; voluptuous strings, beautiful woodwind playing and tight ensemble. The Tchaikovsky, which is paired with it, receives a splendid performance but one that is not quite as exciting as a live 1946 one on a now defunct  AS DISC cd. Good luck trying to find that one.