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