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Classic - been a while but Scheherazade WOW

flatpopely

flatpopely

Prog Rock/Moderator
Not listened to my classic vinyl for a while but did today.

Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade on Decca SXL 2268 it's quite beautiful.

It's hard to believe this was recorded in 1961!

Tears in my eyes.
 
flatpopely said:
Not listened to my classic vinyl for a while but did today.

Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade on Decca SXL 2268 it's quite beautiful.

It's hard to believe this was recorded in 1961!

Tears in my eyes.
Click to expand...

Those old classical producers and engineers (think Walter Legge at EMI) knew how to record. No wonder their stuff transfers so well to CD.
 
One of the very best performances of Scheherazade is from 1960, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

It is one of the most musical, lyrical and dramatic performances on record, and within the professional orchestral world is viewed as one of the most important recordings of the work. The technical playing of the orchestra is very high, with tightly controlled dynamics and a not-too-American orchestral sound. Plus the violin solos from the Concertmaster, Sidney Harth, are the musical yardstick against which modern interpretations are judged.

Available on both LP and CD - click here for the link to the disc info
 
Interesting that the general preference seems to be for recordings from the fifties / sixties - when recording engineers were real recording engineers maybe?
 
It's an immortal piece of music that I never tire of, on vinyl or in the concert hall.

I have always wondered why Rimsky-Korsakov never managed to compose any other music that gets even remotely close to its sublime mastery.

My lp is Haitink conducting the London Phil - managed to find an immaculate copy at Oxfam but never had the same luck since.
 
For me it isn't so much about the recordings, but about the musical performance. The 60s and 70s were heady days for the big symphony orchestras, with great musicians playing, led by conductors who had a natural affinity for making music first, and perfecting technique second. And then you had standout orchestras like Berlin Phil under Karajan, who married both musicality and technique.

Recordings from those days just sound right - they sound like a proper performance. In contrast, and IMO, recent recordings by Simon Rattle and Berlin Phil for example lack that involvement that is so important in classical music….

I remember as a kid studying the violin, having a masterclass with Yehudi Menuhin (I was at his music school), and him telling me - "technique is important, technique allows you to express yourself, but most important is to make your audience believe in what you are telling them. Technique makes you a good student. Music makes you a musician. Now stand straighter, open your chest and let the music breathe." I was 10 years old… lol
 
The Decca Sound the Analogue Years box has just come out - mine arrived today :) Plenty of good stuff from the 50s to the 70s.


Saint-Saëns: Tone Poems; Piano Concerto No.1
Bruckner: Symphony No.6
Shostakovich: Symphony No.4
Debussy: Piano Works
Sibelius: Pelléas et Mélisande; The Tempest
Prokofiev: Symphony No.2; The Love For Three Oranges; Scythian Suite
Bartók: Suite No.1; Two Pictures; Enescu: Roumanian Rhapsody
Prokofiev: Symphony No.5; Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture; Capriccio Espagnol
Debussy & Franck Violin Sonatas
Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony; Valse-Scherzo
Gershwin: An American In Paris; Copland: Appalachian Spring
Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto di Susanna
Surinach & Montsalvatge Piano Concertos
Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos.15, 8 & 9
Schubert: Rosamunde
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
Schumann & Grieg Piano Concertos
Haydn: Symphonies Nos.94, 100 & 104
Schumann: Szenen aus Goethes Faust
Schumann: Szenen aus Goethes Faust
Walton & Stravinsky Violin Concertos
Chopin: Etudes
Offenbach: Le Papillon; Massenet: Le Cid
Holst: The Planets; Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3
Scriabin: Piano Concerto; Prometheus; Le Poeme de L'Extase
Dvorak: Tone Poems & Overtures
Bloch: Schelomo; A Voice In the Wilderness; Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
Mendelssohn: Sextet; Borodin: Quintet
Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
Verdi: Requiem
Mahler: Symphony No.2 - "Resurrection"
Beethoven: Symphony No.9 - "Choral"
Britten: Cello Symphony; Haydn: Cello Concerto
Kodaly: Hary Janos; Dances of Galanta; The Peacock Variations
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos.1 & 4; Karelia Suite
Mozart: Wind Serenades
Bruch: Scottish Fantasia; Hindemith Violin Concerto
Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1; Mozart: Piano Concerto No.27, K.595
Hérold: La Fille mal Gardée; Gounod: Ballet Music From "Faust"
Martin: Etudes; Concerto for Timpani & Winds; Honegger: Symphony No.2
Verdi: Otello
Verdi: Otello
Strauss: Thousand And One Nights
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Scenes
Rossini: Overtures; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Puccini: La Bohème
Puccini: La Bohème
Sibelius: Symphony No.2; Dvorak: Symphony No.7
Schubert: Symphonies Nos.8 & 9
Tchaikovsky: 1812; Capriccio Italien; Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2
Grieg: Peer Gynt; Piano Concerto
Ravel: L'Enfant et les sortilèges
Rimsky-Korsakov: Antar; Glazunov: Stenka Razin
Rimsky-Korsakov: Antar; Glazunov: Stenka Razin

julesd68 - do you know 'Antar'? It's got that same Fry's Turkish Delight vibe going on as Sheherazade. Just listening to it now - it was Decca's first ever stereo recording in 1954 (you get the mono & stereo versions as a double album). It sounds absolutely amazing!
 
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flatpopely said:
Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade on Decca SXL 2268 it's quite beautiful.

It's hard to believe this was recorded in 1961!
Click to expand...

I have that on a Decca Wideband LP, and I agree it's remarkable. It used to be one of my demonstration tracks.

Those early stereo Deccas were something else.
 
palpnorte said:
julesd68 - do you know 'Antar'? It's got that same Fry's Turkish Delight vibe going on as Sheherazade. Just listening to it now - it was Decca's first ever stereo recording in 1954 (you get the mono & stereo versions as a double album). It sounds absolutely amazing!
Click to expand...

I do. Always loved it.
 
palpnorte said:
julesd68 - do you know 'Antar'? It's got that same Fry's Turkish Delight vibe going on as Sheherazade. Just listening to it now - it was Decca's first ever stereo recording in 1954 (you get the mono & stereo versions as a double album). It sounds absolutely amazing!
Click to expand...

Yes, I know Antar but haven't listened to it in a long, long time. Don't have a copy so checked it out on YouTube. Many thanks for re-introducing me to it - it's a bit of a 'warm-up' for Scheherazade (written some 20 years earlier) but there is a lot of quality in it and I enjoyed it immensely. Will be adding it to the collection for sure once I find a nice vinyl copy.

Interesting to read that there are actually four different versions of Antar! Most recorded is the final 1903 version, but the 1897 is meant to be more faithfull to the composer's wishes -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antar_(Rimsky-Korsakov)

The only other R-K work I really like and in an entirely different vein is 'Cappriccio Espagnol' - I can recommend DGG 135011- great recording and performance with Maazel at the controls …
 
Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. brand new 200gram analogue productions version released this week should be excellent knowing there track record & Sacd version later this year
 
I have that Fritz Reiner one (RCA 1995 CD).

Actually I prefer my other one, here are the details on CD. It's not an audiophile release or anything, not perfect, but still.

Label is Tring / Symphonia Classics. Hymisher Greenburg conducting The European Philharmonic Orchestra, code SYM011. I love it.

PS: Just uploaded it to DR Database, DR15, not surprising. But really I find the performance so much to my taste.
 
e92fan said:
One of the very best performances of Scheherazade is from 1960, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

It is one of the most musical, lyrical and dramatic performances on record, and within the professional orchestral world is viewed as one of the most important recordings of the work. The technical playing of the orchestra is very high, with tightly controlled dynamics and a not-too-American orchestral sound. Plus the violin solos from the Concertmaster, Sidney Harth, are the musical yardstick against which modern interpretations are judged.

Available on both LP and CD - click here for the link to the disc info
Click to expand...

My favourite version too. Mine's on a 180g Chessky disc and sounds superb.
 
It's worth tracking down the Classic Records first reissue set from the late '90s on 180g vinyl. They still set a standard in my view for recent pressing quality. The later Classic 200g pressings were not as well done by comparison (plenty off-centre and more handling marks) and overall I prefer the SQ from the earlier 180g LPs. IIRC the early Classic Records were pressed by RTI. I was impressed enough to buy them all. The Speakers Corner Decca reissues of the same period while generally good weren't quite at the same level, and there were a few real stinkers at the beginning such as the Maag Mendelssohn in Scotland (SXL2246) which was a poor shadow of the original let alone Decca's own AoD reissues. However the later SC reissues, particularly the Mercurys were often excellent.
 
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