| Home | Audio Magazine | Stereo Review magazine | Good Sound | Troubleshooting |
|
Solti and Chicago George Movshon's interesting article "The Parallel Careers of Georg Solti" [October 1969] perpetuates an error in stating that Fritz Reiner recorded with the Chicago Symphony in Medinah Temple. Dr. Reiner's recording as well as the early releases of the Chicagoans under Martinon (Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No. 2) issued from Orchestra Hall when its acoustics were, for my money, unsurpassed-miraculously bright and spacious. Medinah Temple's acoustics are quite good as heard in Ozawa's Pictures at an Exhibition but lack the matchless ambience of old Orchestra Hall. In your "Letters" column [February 1969] Robert C. Marsh replied to my letter of December 1968 lamenting the loss of Orchestra Hall's acoustics by suggesting that Ozawa's recording of the Tchaikovsky Fifth recaptured the old hall's special sound properties so evident on the Reiner pressings. Now in your October 1969 issue, R. D. Darrell, comparing the acoustic properties of a new Chicago release of Ravel pieces with the Tchaikovsky Fifth, compounds the confusion by suggesting the latter was recorded in Medinah Temple. He further states that the recording is "extremely rich and warm" while the Ravel release, by contrast, has a "lean, sinewy, see" ambience appropriate for Ravel. I disagree with Messrs. Marsh and Darrell, respectively, on two points: l) The Tchaikovsky Fifth recording captures none of the spacious quality of the old Orchestra Hall; in fact, it seems drier than Ozawa's Pictures recorded in Medinah Temple. 2) The new Ravel release is by no means drier in ambience than the Tchaikovsky recording, the beefier orchestration of the latter notwithstanding. Excuse my arrogance, but I feel I can always identify a recording of the Chicago Orchestra by virtue of their matchless first trumpeter's stunning virtuosity and by the acoustics of old Orchestra Hall. which are unmistakable and always recognizable. No, Mr. Marsh, I fear we have lost the glories of Orchestra Hall. -Garry D. Whitlow, M.U. Phoenix, Ariz. The Solti article and discography were very interesting. There were a few misprints (the Beethoven Fourth was LL 316 and the Tchaikovsky Second was CS 6118) and a few asterisks were out of place (the two Decca records were deleted long ago but the Mahler First was not ). Still. it was very nearly complete. I thought you might be interested in the following omissions: 1) Rossini's overtures to the Barber of Seville and L'italiana in Algeri on a ten-inch English Decca disc LW 5207 with the LPO. 2) Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings on London CS 6066 with the Israel Philharmonic. Rev. Jerome F. Weber; Utica, N.Y. I greatly enjoyed George Movshon's article on the career of Georg Solti. However, I must point out that the accompanying Solti discography does not include one of my favorite records: Solti's program of opera overtures and intermezzos, featuring the preludes to Acts I and III of La Trariata. the overtures to Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri and Semiramide, Offenbach's Barcarolle, and Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours. The record is RCA Victrola VICS 1119, which is still listed in Schwann. The sound is first-rate with a dynamic range nearly as wide as the London Rheingold. -Tracy R. Killeen, Jr. Schenectady, N.Y. The Music of Africa I would like to call your readers' attention to the work of the African Music Society of South Africa, founded in 1947 by Dr. Hugh Tracy. Besides recording and publishing African music, the AMS endeavors to bring African art to a wider public. The AMS has made available a series of 210 LP records called "The Sound of Africa," mainly intended for universities and other educational institutes. These discs constitute a valuable documentation of African music south of the Sahara. There is also available a selection of nineteen discs from this series aimed at the general public. Although not stereo, the recorded quality is of a high standard: the recordings may also be obtained on tape. Interested parties should contact The Director, International Library of African Music, P.O. Box 138. Roodepoort. Transvaal, South Africa. -G. Nardini Winterthur, Switzerland Opera Reissues from RCA Since I am one of those opera lovers addicted to duplicating as described by Leo Haber in his amusing article "The Perils of Record Collecting" [February 1969], I was overjoyed to read in your September 1969 issue that RCA is returning to circulation the recording of Aïda--namely the 1955 Rome Opera performance with Milanov, Bjoerling, Barbieri, and Warren. Having only the highlights of this great recording, I have been making do with five "stopgap" versions. But that doesn't mean I will throw out my Toscanini, Tebaldi, or Price /Vickers Aïdas: I have grown quite attached to them too, but there is still room for one more-especially if it is the best of the lot. Thanks are also due to RCA for reissuing the Albanese /Bjoerling /Merrill Mahon Lescaut from 1954, another great performance that should never have left the catalog. Maybe next year we can hope that RCA will give us back the Peters /Bjoerling Rigoletto, the Milanov/ Bjoerling Cavalleria rusticana, and the Carteri / Valletti / Warren / Monteux La Traviata which Conrad L. Osborne praised so highly in your December 1967 issue. Dr. Murray R. Steinbart; Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada Superstars "Enrico Caruso, Father of Us All. The great tenor who virtually created the classical record industry is still in demand" [HIGH FIDELITY, September 1969]. This statement is like saying that Callas took pot in 1949 and that, since she was so big a star, Gigli, Schipa, Albanese, Klose, Berger, Lemnitz. Ralf, Svanholm, Farrell, Stignani. Milanov, Flagstad, Barbieri, Bjoerling. Warren, Stevens, Pinza, Merrill, Melchior, Sayao, Pons, Tagliabue, Tagliavini. Tobin, Traubel. Peerce, Hotter, and Lehmann followed suit. Who was Callas in 1949? Part of the Caruso legend seems to be that he was already a superstar in 1902 and that he alone was responsible for the commercial success of the gramophone. The fact is that he was an exciting and only relatively successful newcomer, teetering on the brink of a fantastic career. When London objected to Gaisberg's payment to Caruso for the Milan session, they were in no way being unreasonable. But superstars did record at that period. The trip to the St. Petersburg Opera in which Mei-Figner and her husband made discs had been made two years before. The real arrival of the gramophone as an operatic medium, though, came with the signing of Melba, Tamagno, Patti, et al. to make special series with special label colors (pink for Patti, mauve for Melba, and--I think--green for Tamagno) and with special prices to match. Once that began, the real mark of arrival as an operatic superstar was the exorbitant price set on his or her records. Melba fought tooth and nail to keep her prices higher than anyone else's. But Caruso never stood among the special-label elite. Twenty years later, he would have; but before 1905 or so, he was one among many. Indeed, his importance is almost the reverse of the legend-his voice was so finely matched to the properties of the "improved" acoustic recording process that it helped to establish hint rather than the other way about! Ron Tolberg, Bayside, N.Y. Woody and Gene Gene Lees has scored again with his magnificent piece on Woody Herman. [ "Woody 'n' Me," September 1969]. His consistent efforts on behalf of "better" popular music through his reviews and columns, and perhaps even more through his sensitive lyrics, put me (and should well put others) to shame. Woody Herman has been my favorite band leader for many years, and I've always felt that even though his hard-core fans are a devoted group, he has never really achieved the popular acclaim or financial success he deserves. This may be partly because, as Gene says, he is "seemingly cocky and flippant on the bandstand "; it may also be due to the fact that he has always used his own taste and judgment on tunes and arrangements. To reach the largest mass audience, perhaps he should have swallowed his personal standards and gone after "hits." Instead, he has always interpreted the trends as he saw them at the time. I, for one, am eternally grateful to Woody for hours and hours of pleasure. I'm happy I've had the chance to talk with him for a few minutes here and there. I'm also extremely thankful to Gene Lees and HIGH FIDELITY for such a warm portrait. -Rod Baurar Brandon, Fla. Julius Katchen As Proust's tea-dipped madeleine evoked a world of memories, so Ned Rorem's tribute to Julius Katchen [September 1969] restored a rich, music-filled era when each week my mother dispatched all five of us children to the Svet Music Studios in Newark for lessons and orchestra practice. Mandel and Rosalie Svet, products of an east European conservatory, were dedicated teachers of violin and piano, and Julius Katchen was their grandchild. His grandmother was his teacher. Friday nights at the Studio were obligatory for all students. Orchestra practice was preceded by theory instruction: during intermission, anyone who had something ready played a solo to a highly critical audience of his peers. I recall that Julius' mother, who had studied with Isidore Philipp in France, played the Mendelssohn G minor Piano Concerto with grace and polish; but Julius, as a young boy, threw off the same Concerto with the bravura, speed, and nervous control of a winning auto racer. Disaster seemed inevitable at such speed, but he rounded the curves with confidence. Concerning his enormous repertory, Mr. Rorem attributes Katchen's learning capacity to "eidetic fingertips," an apt use of a psychological term ordinarily reserved for a clear visual image possessing an external or perceptual character, though recognized as subjective. The eidetic image is a perfectly retained image of something seen once. If, then, Julius had true eidetic imagery as well as "eidetic fingertips"--and, in addition, practiced twelve hours a day--the large, ever-ready repertory comes as no surprise. Julius died too soon. But he justified his talent and fulfilled his promise, a fulfillment granted to few. -Grace Ruhin Rahcun; Los Angeles, Calif. Mudslingers I intended to stay out of the "Letters' column of your magazine, but Michael P. Schulman's blast of October 1969 has provoked me into breaking my silence. I have become fed up with the attitude that-"if I don't like his work, he is, therefore, an idiot"--which some of your readers take, such as William Trotter [March aid September 1969], and now Mr. Schulman. In both of his letters, Mr. Trotter's statements about some of the major conductors amount to name-calling and poorly veiled insults: Steinberg is "as close to a total nonentity as one can get and still be sentient." and is referred to as "the Spiro Agnew of the podium "; Leinsdorf "belongs in a second-rate Italian opera house-no second-rate German opera house would have him." Granted that Mr. Trotter is entitled to his own ideas about how a piece of music should be performed; however. just because a certain conductor's ideas about a given piece differ from one's own does not mean that the conductor in question is automatically incompetent. Personally, I'm no great admirer of Steinberg's interpretations, but it stops there. I do not resort to mudslinging. My feeling is that if you like a conductor, fine; if you don't, say so, but don't make judgments on his talent or intelligence. Michael P. Schulman, I feel, makes the same mistake as Mr. Trotter. Mr. Schulman's letter talks about Sibelius as either a first--or second--rank composer, and then goes on to imply that Nielsen is a fifth-rate composer. All questions of merit aside, why must people always feel a need to put composers in various ranks? Can't people simply listen to a piece of music and determine whether they like it or not without putting it in some sort of dehumanizing numerical rank and file? -Jams Plank; Reading. Pa. Antecedents of the Cassette In the article "Are Cassettes Here to Stay ?" [July 1969]. the authors appear uncertain as to the exact origins of magazine or cartridge tape recording. I am sure they will be interested to learn that the first cartridge-loaded magnetic recorder was the Peirce Wire Recorder Model 200. introduced in 1948. This machine introduced the twin spool concept. Cartridges were available pre-loaded with fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, and one hour of magnetic wire. Although wire had problems of breakage which do not exist on tape, this machine was the forerunner of all magazine and cartridge tape recorders. The second such machine on the market was the "Scribe" dictating machine which utilized a large cartridge of quarter-inch magnetic tape. "Scribe" was invented and first distributed in Canada as the Sonograph machine back in 1952. You also may be interested to learn that the original Peirce Wire Recorder, the Model 55B, which was sold at Macy's in August of 1945, was the first commercially available magnetic recorder. Peirce, however, devoted their efforts to the dictating machine market rather than the home entertainment and music field. -S.J. Kalow; New York, N.Y. Musical Truths Gene Lees certainly took a beating in the October "Letters" column. Weren't there any letters in his behalf? Here is one. First of all, disgruntled readers, music is the name of the game, and music is what Mr. Lees reviews. The medium of music has been put to many uses by the "now" generation. Music has served as the accompaniment to freaking out, finding your own thing, putting over the message, etc. If you are going to pick on music as your medium, then make it melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically interesting. Give it an intelligent performance. I trust Mr. Lees's very musical ears to tell me if the music lives up to these requirements. Too much of the rock scene maintains that ugly is beautiful, trivia is profound, mediocrity is great. You simply can't put Mr. Lees down if he says it isn't so, for he speaks the simple, eternal truth. -Michael MacFarland; Tipp City, Ohio High Fidelity, January 1970. Vol. 20, No. 1. Published monthly by Billboard Publications, Inc., publisher of Billboard, Vend, Amusement Business. Merchandising Week, American Artist, and Modern Photography. High Fidelity /Musical America Edition published monthly. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. Editorial correspondence should be addressed to The Editor, High Fidelity, Great Barrington, Mass. 01230. Editorial contributions will be welcomed. Payment for articles accepted will be arranged prior to publication. Unsolicited manuscripts should be accompanied by return postage. Subscriptions should be addressed to: High Fidelity. 2160 Patterson St., Cincinnati, Oh. 45214. Subscription rates: High Fidelity / Musical America: In the U.S.A. and its Possessions, 1 year $12; elsewhere, 1 year $13. National and other editions published monthly: In the U.S.A. and its Possessions, 1 year $7; elsewhere, 1 year $8. Change of address notices and undelivered copies (Form 3579) should be addressed to High Fidelity. Subscription Fulfillment Dept., 2160 Patterson St.. Cincinnati, Ohio 45214. ------------- ( High Fidelity magazine) Also see:
|