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being released by Eloquence Classics. Recordings made in the early to late 1950s.
Edits: 04/23/21Follow Ups:
Tom Fine was in charge of the Kubelik/CSO box and, once again, he's used the Plangent Process in his remastering. Fantastic! But possibly even more exciting is that Bert Whyte's experimental stereo recordings from 1952 (!) will also be included. In fact, you can hear a bit of the Mozart Prague Symphony IN STEREO from 1952 at the end of this little sales blurb video about the box on YouTube:
View YouTube Video
As I listened to this, with the spectacular playing of the CSO on display, I almost begin to wonder what Reiner actually did (in terms of "improvements") when he "took over" for Kubelik. These Mercury recordings are just outstanding for their time!
This was the era of the one-microphone Mercury technique. Unique, I think, and the beginning of a very easily recognized Mercury sound. That sound endured into their three microphone stereo period even though others used three mikes as well. The Mercurys always sounded, and still sound, like . . . Mercurys.
As for Kubelik in Chicago, Wikipedia says:
In 1950, Kubelík became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, choosing the position over an offer from the BBC to succeed Sir Adrian Boult as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.[5] He left the post in 1953. Some hold that he was "hounded out of the [Chicago] job" (to quote Time magazine) by the "savage attacks" (to quote the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) of the Chicago Tribune music critic Claudia Cassidy.[6] But Chicago Sun-Times music critic Robert C. Marsh argued in 1972 that it was the Chicago Symphony trustees who were behind the departure. Their foremost complaint, and that of Cassidy as well, was that Kubelík introduced too many contemporary works (about 70) to the orchestra; there were also objections to his demanding exhaustive rehearsals and engaging several black artists.[1] Many recordings made by Kubelík in Chicago for Mercury Records are available on CD, and have received critical praise.[7]
As I mentioned at the time, I consider Robert C. Marsh a credible source of info, although Claudia Cassidy's unwarranted influence on the Chicago cultural scene (as reported by Time Magazine) could have been another factor in Kubelik's dismissal. From what I've read of her writings, she does sound like an idiot. (BTW, there's a 1993 article in the "Chicago Reader" by Ted Shen, where Shen, possibly following the conventional wisdom of the Time article, writes: "After Frederick Stock's death in 1942 a parade of maestros tried out--the last of whom, Rafael Kubelik, was practically hounded out of town by the Tribune's Claudia Cassidy." Much of Shen's article is however concerned with what a "petit rien" Daniel Boringboim is - consequently, I greatly enjoyed most of it!)
As I've already mentioned in this thread, I'm eagerly awaiting access to this forthcoming Kubelik/CSO release, whose contents I expect to sound better than ever before (not to mention its inclusion of those 1952 stereo recordings, which I hope are complete movements, not just excerpts).
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