,1,I redid this with my "new" turntable and a new cartridge & needle.
The local recycling centre closes down, I grabbed a bunch of 1960s Music Club LPs and Melodia "souvenir" LPs (for a tourist, LPs in the Soviet Union were really cheap).
Seems the excellent recording has never been transferred to CD. I now ordered the other two Haydn Symphonies Neeme Järvi has recorded in the late 1970s with the Estonian orchestra, namely #93 and #99.
Haydn: Symphony № 82
0:01 Vivace
7:35 Allegretto
14:44 Menuetto
19:22 Finale. Vivace assai
Haydn: Symphony № 83
24:59 Allegro
31:47 Andante
41:21 Menuetto
45:24 Finale. Vivace
,1,Perhaps the key song out of all Janne's key songs.
Brings the first recording of this from 1904 to my mind, by Janne's brother-in-law Armas Järnefelt and his wife Maikki Pakarinen. It should not be possible to overload the acoustic recording system but Maikki did it in the conclusion, like the soloist does in many places here too, I cleaned up the worst of the distortion.
I was going to congratulate the singer for her perfect Swedish, but she was Swedish already.
"Kerstin Margareta Meyer
1928-04-03 — 2020-04-14
Opera singer, principal
Kerstin Meyer was a Swedish mezzosoprano, an opera and concert singer. Her career spanned three decades. She gained recognition both at home and abroad for her performances of the classical mezzosoprano opera roles. She was also an entertainer in the folk parks and in musicals. She also sang in children’s operas and premieres of contemporary works. After her stage career, she was the principal of the Opera Academy in Stockholm in 1984–1994."
https://skbl.se/en/article/KerstinMargaretaMeyer
The PIC is an AI PIC.
,1,Another old 1950s (mono) LP repaired, and my pseudo-stereo applied.
The info on the orchestra varies as is typical of Concert Hall and the associated labels, but I think it's the Swiss orchestra as the conductor and the soloist were Swiss.
Haydn: Keyboard Concerto No. 11 in D Major (ca 1780-83)
0:00 Vivace
7:35 Un poco adagio
13:54 Rondo all'ungherese - Allegro assai
,1,I started working on the Concert Hall LP, but found out the contents is on YouTube, also from an LP but from one of better quality. However, there were 6 needle jumps, but I was able to reconstitute the LP from it and mine. In the end it became presentable. I also added pseudostereo.
She seems to have a number of performances on the cheap labels under aliases.
Grieg, Tchaikovsky 1, Rach 2. I ordered the first 2 on an LP. She deserves her just space.
"A child prodigy, trained by Frank Sheridan at The Mannes College Of Music and Isabella Vengerova at Curtis Institute Of Music, she debuted in concert on November 1, 1941 at the age of almost 11,
with The New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Active in Europe during the 1950s, she performed and made a number of recordings under the direction of, among others, Carl Bamberger, Jean Martinon, Walter Goehr, Carl-August Bünte and Hans-Jürgen Walther.
Sondra Bianca performances were issued on various budget labels owned by Eli Oberstein, using, for unclear reasons, various pseudonyms including Suzanne Auber, Albert Cohen, Karl Bernhard, Frederick Antenelli and David Haines.
After her early retiring from live performances, she continued teaching other young pianists. Born: November 17, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York."
Chopin Waltzes (Complete)
0:00 No. 2 In A Flat, Op. 34, No. 1
4:45 No. 3 In A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2
10:05 No. 8 In A Flat, Op. 64, No. 3
13:21 No. 6 In D Flat, Op. 64, No. 1
15:10 No. 9 In A Flat, Op. 69, No. 1
19:12 No. 7 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2
22:22 No. 11 In G Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 1
24:13 No. 1 In E Flat, Op. 18
29:29 No. 4 In F, Op. 34, No. 3
31:55 No. 10 In B Minor, Op. 69, No. 2
35:15 No. 13 In D Flat, Op. 70, No. 3
38:11 No. 14 In E Minor (Posthumous)
41:05 No. 12 In F Minor, Op. 70, No. 2
43:58 No. 5 In A Flat, Op. 42
,1,I went through many Peters & the Wolves, but Karloff's stands out to me as not irritating nor histrionic. Additionally, I had a nice amount of work in order to make this recording pristine. The traffic noise was very high.
,1,The other side of the LP that had the Borodin No. 2. A very competent performance as well.
The same routine for the Kingsway Hall sound applied.
Capriccio Espagnol (1887)
0:00 Alborada
1:10 Variazioni
5:39 Alborada (variant)
6:50 Scena e canto gitano
11:44 Fandango asturiano
14:52 Tsar Saltan Op.57: March
,1,Walking through the Kingsway Hall recordings. This time it's a very good Borodin No. 2.
0:01 Allegro moderato
6:44 Scherzo. Molto vivo
11:23 Andante
19:07 Finale. Allegro
,1,The Kingsway Hall rumble was very strong with this one.
Nothing wrong here in the musical sense, on the contrary.
The symphony was Shostakovich's graduation work from Petrograd (=St. Petersburg) conservatory, first performed in the public when the composer was just 19.
https://houstonsymphony.org/32484-2/
0:01 Allegretto — Allegro non troppo
8:48 Allegro — Meno mosso — Allegro — Meno mosso
13:36 Lento — Largo — Lento (attacca:)
22:22 Allegro molto — Lento — Allegro molto — Meno mosso — Allegro molto — Molto meno mosso — Adagio
,1,Ricci's playing suits this uber-romantic composition.
This time the tube trains under the Kingsway Hall made short 30 sec calls and not very often.
0:00 Vorspiel: Allegro moderato
7:41 Adagio
16:08 Finale: Allegro energico
,1,Von Karajan's 1st "Pathetique" out of the "at least 5" he recorded.
He had just signed with the DGG in 1939 at age 31.
0:01 Adagio – Allegro non troppo
18:03 Allegro con grazia
26:16 Allegro molto vivace
31:51 Adagio lamentoso
An aesthetically pleasing interpretation, the music flows in a natural way, and the orchestra is an old times good one (comes with wearing ties).
Karajan was the dominant conductor all my youth so I grew weary of him and his publicity skills.
Eventually he passed (he was an early proponent of digital recording, that to his merit) so now we can have 12 Finnish international conductors for the price of one von Karajan.
The recording is thoroughly revived, without going into all the details. I've done so much of this I don't have to spend time wondering, I just do it.
Recordings of this vintage came in 78rpm disk sides of the length of 4-5 mins, with each side normally having different noise/click characteristics. The CD originals normally have them joined up, sometimes I have to do that too, or repair bad existing joints.
,1,A very nice performance. The piece was originally composed for the virtuoso Pablo Sarasate in 1875.
If you become a recording engineer some day, show your soloist a spot on the floor and tell him or her to not move about or around. Otherwise you stereo image will be out of whack, especially when you have cut a movement into several takes. Also the relative Doppler effect will change the frequency of the recorded sound. If you made bad tape splices in 1969, someone will edit them good in 2024.
Otherwise, the normal Kingsway Hall routine applies: the underground trains are gone, additionally the sound is brighter and the triangle can be heard as well.
Seems most recordings I post are now NOT playable in Russia, some are also blocked in Belarus. I get the message from the YT copyrights management. So take that Putin that will be the last straw.
0:01 Allegro non troppo
7:38 Scherzando: Allegro molto
11:49 Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo
17:51 Andante
24:40 Rondo: Allegro
,1,The Orchestra is billed as "The London Festival Orchestra", the LSO discography has the recording as their engagement.
This recording had both a heavy Kingsway Hall rumble, and a stereo image that may have been fine back in time when stereo was a novelty. I have removed most of the early stereo era L/R channel panning gimmicks and tricks. I only left the stereo panning for a short clippety - clopity "On the trail" passage.
0:00 Sunrise
5:43 Painted Desert
11:12 On the Trail
18:40 Sunset
23:20 Cloudburst
,1,The song "Sången om korsspindeln" has been voted the Finns' favourite Sibelius song. It comes from a 1898 play "Kung Kristian II" by the Swedish writer Adolf Paul. Janne composed the music for his friend. It was published apart of the Suite Op 27 which contains many other Janne evergreens.
The tyrant King has been captured for his final years, the Court Jester sings the song that carries a multitude of interpretations.
The orchestral arrangement is by Simon Parmet (1897-1969).
Hynninen (1941-) is a unique singer I think. He sings in the perfect pitch and it's him that takes the lead in the music, boldly.
,1,Radu Lupu (1945-2022) plays Schumann's Piano Concerto. I think this one is very pleasant.
The Kingsway Hall rumble was very strong on this one: one person had commented on-line it's like being inside a laundromat. Luckily there's myself and Adobe Audition to the rescue, possibly alone in the world?
See my Grieg from the same sessions as well!
0:01 Allegro affettuoso
14:33 Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso
19:56 [attacca] Allegro vivace
,1,Solid workmanship from Lupu and the rest of the crew on the Norwegian workhorse.
Lupu will return here on this channel in his Schumann concerto recorded at the same sessions.
I think he plays that one better too.
The normal Kingsway Hall low rumble artifacts gone. For the Schumann, someone had said "It's like being in a laundromat listening to this", luckily the world has Itapirkanmaa2 and Adobe Audition!
0:01 Allegro molto moderato
13:38 Adagio
20:24 Allegro moderato molto e marcato – Quasi presto – Andante maestoso
,1,A more modern K.H. recording cleaned up. This one extends to the digital recording era (1980). The last recordings in the Kingsway Hall were made in Jan 1984 and the building was demolished in 1998.
Philharmonia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit, Conductor, rec. 1980
0:01 "Danse macabre"
6:59 "Phaéton"
16:03 "Le Rouet d'Omphale"
"The Carnival of the Animals", Cristina Ortiz & Pascal Rogé, pianos
London Sinfonietta Charles Dutoit, Conductor, rec. 1980
23:49 Introduction and
24:34 Royal March of the Lion
27:33 Hens and Roosters
27:03 Wild Asses (Swift Animals)
27:33 Tortoises
29:51 The Elephant
31:21 Kangaroos
32:18 Aquarium
34:49 Characters with Long Ears
35:33 The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods
41:57 Aviary
39:18 Pianists
40:39 Fossils
41:58 The Swan
44:43 Finale
,1,The normal Kingsway Hall routine done. This recording had such a twisted stereo image. In the early 1970s there was a quadrophonic craze, could they have recorded the piece in 4 channels and somehow messed up the result? The midpoint was all over the two channels.
I could not see this one on the 4-channel recordings list though.
Anyways I used both the phase correction of the Audition and manual adjustments, and the recording now has a midpoint of some stability. Compare to the original Mov. I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHEL3rmhMOE
Artistically perhaps nothing extraordinary here. Anatole Fistoulari (1907-1995) recorded a bunch of Tchaikovsky and other Russian music for Decca mainly. He was married to Gustav Mahler's daughter. Due to his arthritis he gave up conducting in the late 1970s.
0:00 Andante sostenuto — Moderato con anima — Moderato assai, quasi Andante — Allegro vivo
20:16 Andantino in modo di canzona
31:23 Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato
37:21 Finale: Allegro con fuoco
,1,The Kingsway Hall rumbles removed.
I like crisp sound with "roundness" so here you are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets
On a site that has listened to most Planets recordings, this one is ranked in the middle.
https://petersplanets.wordpress.com/
0:01 Mars, the Bringer of War
7:00 Venus, the Bringer of Peace
15:43 Mercury, the Winged Messenger
19:34 Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
27:14 Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
37:09 Uranus, the Magician
43:12 Neptune, the Mystic
,1,Sibelius published his Christmas Songs in his Opus 1, composed between 1895 to 1913.
"Giv mig ej glans, ej guld, ej prakt" is No.4 of the 5 in the suite.
The strings arrangement is by the conductor Magnus Ericsson.
Autotranslation from the Finnish lyrics "En etsi valtaa loistoa" by Unknown.
Original is in Swedish by the Finnish poet Zacharias Topelius.
I do not seek power, glory, I do not long for gold;
I ask for the light of heaven and peace on earth
That Christmas brings happiness and lifts the mind to the Creator
Neither power nor gold, but peace on earth.
Give me a peaceful house and a children's Christmas tree
The light of God's word, that the soul brightens
Bring home, even if it's a small one, the sweetest Christmas party
The light of God's word, and a noble mind.
Make the poor man and the rich man have a wonderful Christmas
To the darkness of the world bring the light of heaven
I embrace You, I wait for You, You Lord of earth and heaven
Now sweet Christmas come to the poor as well as to the rich.
,1,The normal Kingsway hall rumble gone. There was only one train, and some lorries accelerating past, and two tape dropouts. A very nice Beethoven 4th overall with everything in place.
0:01 Adagio – Allegro vivace
12:40 Adagio
22:03 Scherzo-trio: Allegro vivace
27:51 Allegro ma non troppo
,1,The "Song of the Cross-Spider" is from Sibelius's music to Adolf Paul's 1898 play "Kungen Kristian II", Op 27. The King was also known as "Kristian the Tyrant".
The song was published separately from the incidental music Suite as Op 27/4.
The soloist here is the Finnish bass baritone Teddy Björkman (1896-1966) who was a soloist at the Finnish Opera.
Björkman sang a huge block of basic Finnish repertoire within a couple of days in 1929 in Helsinki on the Odeon label, this piece appears as xxHf115/AA210604. The orchestra is not mentioned, the arrangement is by Simon Pergament-Parmet.
Unfortunately Björkman seems to have moved around during recording so his voice appears more echoing at times from the room reflections.
,1,The standard grade Kingsway Hall rumble gone, I'm pretty sure it's the 1st time ever too.
A couple of prominent single channel tape fade-outs repaired, and a couple of not-so-prominent ones too.
Monteux manages the tempo to a good effect. Well worth keeping as a reference recording!
0:01 Allegro con brio
7:09 Andante con moto
16:26 Scherzo: Allegro
25:41 Allegro
,1,Nothing very special artistically but I love to remove the noises in these Kingsway Hall recordings, esp
the pedal noises of the piano and the ubiquitous underground noise.
,1,Some very prominent Kingsway Hall rumble removed.
This one had the worst I'd seen/heard: long-running and loud.
And of course just right on top of the "Nimrod".
00:00 Theme (Andante)
01:26 Variation I. (L'istesso tempo) "C.A.E."
03:14 Variation II. (Allegro) "H.D.S.- P."
04:01 Variation III. (Allegretto) "R.B.T."
05:23 Variation IV. (Allegro di molto) "W.M.B."
05:50 Variation V. (Moderato) "R.P.A."
07:45 Variation VI. (Andantino) "Ysobel"
09:04 Variation VII. (Presto) "Troyte"
10:00 Variation VIII. (Allegretto) "W.N."
11:55 Variation IX. (Adagio) "Nimrod" -
15:46 Variation X. (Intermezzo : Allegretto) "Dorabella"
18:24 Variation XI. (Allegro di molto) "G.R.S."
19:21 Variation XII. (Andante) "B.G.N."
21:46 Variation XIII. (Romanza: Moderato) "* * *"
24:25 Variation XIV. (Finale: Allegro - Presto) "E.D.U."
,1,The Kingsway Hall rumble and noise removal. The video is off of my Adobe Audition's workspace.
0:00 Andante con moto — Allegro un poco agitato
13:19 Vivace non troppo
17:30 Adagio
28:36 Allegro vivacissimo — Allegro maestoso assai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Mendelssohn)
,1,I must caution that the third movement is AWFUL! I did not realize how bad it was at first but I'd made the decision to post the work anyway. The brass in particular are all over the place, Gennady makes strange decisions regarding phrasing and finally somehow managed to murder even the simple and majestic "Swan" theme!
https://www.sibelius.info/english/musiikki/ork_sinf_05.htm
0:01 Tempo molto moderato - Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto)
13:24 Andante mosso, quasi allegretto
21:10 Allegro molto
,1,Sibelius published his 6th symphony in 1923. All his symphonies are distinctive Sibelius in themselves, and also all different from each other in style and expression. The 6th is largely written in the Dorian mode ("White piano keys") Some well-known tunes in it: "Scarborough Fair", "Eleanor Rigby", "Billy Jean", "Stairway to Heaven".
Rozhdestvensky does a very beautiful 1st movement and a vivacious 4th movement with the aid of the bold Soviet brass. The two middle movements I've never really liked in this symphony, almost as if Janne took some brandy and just wrote more ostinatos there. (This was a time of his final lapse into drinking).
0:00 Allegro molto moderato
9:48 Allegretto moderato
14:32 Poco vivace
18:20 Allegro molto
,1,Those Concert Hall music club LPs are everywhere in flea markets at least here. Many of them have good artists and a good recording quality too.
Nikita Magaloff, born in St Petersburg, Russia in 1912, of Russian/Georgian parents, recorded a lot of Chopin and other piano works for major labels like Decca and Philips too.
The titles and the index to be filled in later.
,1,I found a lot better original for this recording so I replaced the old one.
Previous version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RRsiKm1vEU
At 13:46 begins perhaps the most hectic 100 seconds of any of Janne's music presented.
There is a Kondrashin/Concertgebouw 1970 live recording from that is close or even exceeds this one. I'd need to time them. I repair the Kondrashin live every few years it seems. Needless to say very few orchestras would even consider trying the tempo here.
Sibelius composed "En saga" / "Satu" twice: first as a 20-something in 1892, then extensively revised in 1902. The composition soon got noticed with people like Arturo Toscanini and Henry Woods programming it.
I repaired this 1947 recording by Victor de Sabata and the London Symphony Orchestra.
This one is still from the "acetate" period.
There are very few recordings even today that would match the intensity and instrumental skill with de Sabata getting the musical progression highlighted just the right way.
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSocsNmnH4
Toscanini conducts "En saga" in his 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m7Desg89P4
Modern live concert Segerstam/Turku P.O. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2IFGPsSq44
,1,Sibelius composed "En saga" / "Satu" twice: first as a 20-something in 1892, then extensively revised in 1902. The composition soon got noticed with people like Arturo Toscanini and Henry Woods programming it.
I repaired this 1947 recording by Victor de Sabata and the London Symphony Orchestra.
The sound level was very low in quiet parts there's some effort here by me. This one is still from the "acetate" period.
There are very few recordings even today that would match the intensity and instrumental skill with de Sabata getting the musical progression highlighted just the right way.
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1YMEtaXfA
Toscanini conducts "En saga" in his 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m7Desg89P4
Modern live concert Segerstam/Turku P.O. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2IFGPsSq44
,1,I tried to insert the missing presence to the recording the best I could.
As for the the performance itself I find it rather average, although the orchestra plays well.
In places very prominent Kingsway Hall rumbles and noise removed. The L/R channel balance was strangely way off, and also changeable.
I may do a demo on the eviction of the Kingsway Hall underground rumbles.
0:00 Rêveries - Passions. Largo - Allegro agitato e appassionato assai.
16:14 Un bal Valse. Allegro non troppo.
22:53 Scène aux champs. Adagio.
41:01 Marche au supplice. Allegretto non troppo.
46:06 Songe d'une nuit du sabbat Larghetto - Allegro.
,1,This was from an old LP image:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1tCS7OAWHk since the later CD ones I saw had lost much of the treble for some reason. Also a demo of how an LP sounds after being _completely_ repaired.
0:00 Prelude, Op. 23 No. 1
5:10 Morning Mood, Op, 23 No. 13
9:49 The Death Of Ase, Op. 23 No. 12
14:24 Anitra's Dance, Op. 23 No. 16
17:59 In The Hall Of The Mountain King, Op. 23 No. 7
20:43 Ingrid's Abduction And Lament, Op. 23 No. 4
24:36 Arab Dance, Op. 23 No. 15
29:20 Peer Gynt's Homecoming, Op. 23 No. 19
32:36 Solvejg's Song, Op. 23 No. 11
37:51 Dance Of The Mountain King's Daughter, Op. 23 No. 8