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Incredible Out-of-Print Recordings AvailableNews: Wonderful audio restorations of rare, out-of-print classical performances. Must hear to believe.From Scott Hawthorn Hello, Vcom, I know I've been scarce around here for a while, and I think we can all breathe a hearty sigh of relief for that. However, this came to my attention while reading the New Yorker yesterday. This audio genius (the guy who exposed the infamous Joyce Hatto hoax), has figured out how to restore and enhance these priceless old classical performances, many of them from 78 records. You can hear long free samples via their embedded player. I listened to a couple of them so far, and they are breathtaking. So far I have heard Nivaeu and Grumiaux.. Wow! www.pristineclassical.com/index2.html You can thank me later.
From Anthony Barletta
Posted on August 15, 2009 at 02:44 AM No, I want to thank you now. Can I just say: Wow!? From Bill Busen
Posted on August 15, 2009 at 05:17 AM The site includes a free streaming of a movement of the Heifetz recording with maybe the most bizarrely amusing backstory, the Mendelssohn with Cantelli. This recording was made the day after their first public concert of the Mendelssohn together, with the New York Philharmonic. In rehearsals, Cantelli had been rude and dogmatic, overruling Heifetz's tempos for something more leisurely. In concert, Heifetz made it clear in the first measure that the only way Cantelli could avoid a complete disaster was to follow him as best he could, and he was in no mood to be followed. Perhaps he had always wondered exactly how fast the Mendelssohn could be played in concert. Faster than it could be conducted, certainly. The Axelrod biography may be worth its price for its account of this performance alone, including the term, if I recall correctly, "whipped puppy." With that background, some of the spots in the recording say a lot more than they would otherwise. They are professional to the point that without that background, you might not see what was going on, like a married couple throwing incomprehensible verbal daggers at each other in public. From Scott Hawthorn
Posted on August 15, 2009 at 03:35 PM Anthony Barletta wrote:
>No, I want to thank you now. Can I just say: Wow!? Sometimes 'wow!" is the only word that will do. This would be one of those times. :-)
From Jay Azneer
Posted on August 17, 2009 at 01:22 AM Bill-- THe back story notwithstanding--the Heifetz/Cantelli performance only proves to me what a self absorbed prig Heifetz really was. The ones who lost out were the audience who sat through one of the most stupid performances imaginable. Could you imagine Oistrakh behaving in such a way? When Milstein ran into a similar situation with Steinberg he did the responsible thing and withdrew from the performance--and the recording which was to have followed. From Sander Marcus
Posted on August 17, 2009 at 02:03 PM Hi, Jay: Your comment raises an interesting question. When (not only as a violinist, but in almost any aspect of personal and work life) does one consider the need to compromise? And when, on the other hand, does one stand one's ground and refuse to accede to the wishes (demands?) of another? Doesn't every orchestral musician to a great extent play it the way the conductor wants? If you are soloist, are you in a sense just another member of the orchestra, or are you a kind of co-conductor? Should the conductor conduct it the way the soloist wants, or vice-versa? As that great philosopher, Casey Stengel (the great manager of the New York Yankees in the 1950's), said so eloquently - "Good pitching always beats good hitting.....and vice-versa." Cheers, From Ronald Mutchnik
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 03:53 AM Speaking of diagreements between soloists and conductors, one of the more celebrated of these occured on April 25, 1962 between Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein. Here is a link: http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/04/25/ In theory and in practice, the conductor is responsible for the whole, of which the soloist in a concerto usually represents the most important part. I have been witness though to soloists who could have their way with the conductor through gentle persuasion as well as through intimidation and outright anger. Usually, however, it is the conductor that has the final say. None of this serves the music well because in these situations there is tension, disharmony, rancor, ill-will and invariably the music suffers. It would be nice to believe that the desire to make beautiful music would bring out the best in people but it is sadly often not the case. To his credit, I witnessed Joseph Silverstein, the eminent former concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, put his rebelious colleagues in their places with the utmost tact and decorum when they resisted the sincere efforts of the conductor during a rehearsal of the Mass by John Knowles Paine, a nineteenth century American composer. Would that there were more like him to show that civility has its place! The concert went quite well and one would never have known that there had been disagreements and in-fighting in the rehearsal. From Pauline Lerner
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 06:23 AM Welcome back, Scott. I've missed you. Thank you SO MUCH for telling us about this. I would not have believed it possible to make such beautiful recordings from recordings made on old tech devices. The wonderful performances of some of the greatest classical music will not be lost to current and future music lovers. I now have a new world of msic to explore. Thanks again! From Pauline Lerner
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 06:07 PM Has anyone subscribed to any of Pristine Classical's paid services? Is it worth the money? How does one convert Englisn pounds (I assume that's the currency quoted on their website) to American dollars? From Bill Busen
Posted on August 20, 2009 at 01:53 AM Without disputing Jay's main contention :-), I'll add one detail of that concert that shows that extrapolating Heifetz's willfulness into its presumed disastrous musical effect can be risky. The audience reaction, as reported by the narrator (Schuyler Chapin): "The audience, whipped to a frenzy by the performance, burst out cheering."
From Ausar Amon
Posted on November 1, 2009 at 11:42 PM o my god i had no idea that the heifetz/cantelli was recorded. I read about the performance in that gigantic heifetz book (you know the one that has around a thousand pages). ....what can i say HEIFETZ IS UNBEATABLE |
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