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In Reply to: RE: Szell/Cleveland Beethoven Symphonies on SACD posted by Doktor Brahms on August 30, 2016 at 12:21:33
Thanks for your overview, DB! Just by chance, I just today received Brusilow's "Shoot the Conductor" memoir, and I can't wait to read all the dirt that it no doubt contains! ;-)
I'm somewhat more of a skeptic about Szell than you and many other posters on this board are, but I still have the older SACD of Szell's Eroica in my collection. I also admire the Fleisher set of Beethoven Concertos (with Szell), and I'm probably more interested in that set than in the Beethoven Symphony set. As I've mentioned before, when it comes to the Szell/Cleveland recordings, I greatly prefer the older Epic recordings, engineered by Howard Scott, over the later Columbia/CBS recordings, especially the ones so horribly engineered and multi-microphoned by Andrew Kazdin. I believe all of the Beethoven symphonies were Epic productions, with Scott at the engineering helm, although documentation in the SACD booklet is sketchy to say the least. (The Overtures were not so lucky - horrendous examples of the really bad sound quality that began to intrude on recordings from such companies as DG, CBS and RCA in the mid-60's, although DG didn't get REALLY bad until the mid-70's IMHO.)
BTW, I just finished reading Fleisher's "My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music", and, although I enjoyed it, I do feel that Fleisher comes off as just a bit too self-serving and self-satisfied in his writing. That won't prevent me from wanting to get a decent re-mastering (probably the SACD set you mention) of his Beethoven Concertos with Szell! ;-)
One last thing: who is the re-mastering engineer for the new Japanese SACD re-masterings?
Follow Ups:
Don't be surprised if you come away from the Brusilow autobiography with the same impression. The juicier gossip comes not from Cleveland but from his Philadelphia years and his complex, conflicted relationship with Ormandy. When Brusilow decided to pursue conducting, friction with his boss was inevitable. My overall take is that Brusilow was misguided in taking up the baton; one must conclude that the music world exchanged a first-rate concert master for a so-so conductor. After the Dallas fiasco, he never really got a shot at any sort of position with a major orchestra. (I'm going by his account, not my own research.)
As for the Szell/Beethoven: here's some of the pertinent data according to Sony's booklet:
Tape transfer and remix from original analog master tapes, DSD remastering (2016): Andreas K. Meyer (Meyer Media LLC)
Original recording session producers: Howard H. Scott, Paul Myers, Thomas Frost
Original recording engineers: Edward T. Graham, Frank Bruno
This set of SACDs was accompanied by a disc of Beethoven overtures. Perhaps they'll get to the Fleisher concertos in due course.
I loved Shoot the Conductor. Fascinating reading. Chris, you will enjoy it
Alan
But I'm not the library expert in the family so it might be there and I am not searching correctly.
I've seen him at a couple of shows, and I don't share his enthusiasm for DSD, but I can't argue with his very fine results.
Regarding the Brusilow book, I've read only the first couple of chapters so far, but the writing strikes me as being considerably more witty and funny than Fleisher's (or is it Midgette's?) is. I can see how it might have been easy for Brusilow to get into trouble! ;-)
Are you going to post a message about your view of the book when you've finished it? I would certainly hope so. I found it delightfully readable.
I learned great chunks of the standard repertoire by collecting Ormandy/PO LPs, so Brusliov's account stirred a lot of pleasant memories. Eventually you'll get to his droll retelling of preparing to play Ginastera's Concerto for Strings (in anticipation of a concert performance in the presence of the composer!). This called to mind my old Columbia LP of that piece (coupled with the Bartok Divertimento). I hope that Sony-Japan, which has served the Ormandy/PO legacy so well via CD reissues (love that original cover art!) will eventually get around to this one as well.
. . . has certainly made me want to re-listen to my Ormandy recordings (and possibly investigate some more) and has also confirmed my view of Szell. I especially like the part where the audience is wildly applauding after what Brusilow implies is one of Szell's perfect but soulless performances, and, as Szell comes out to accept the ovations, Gingold leans over and whispers to Brusilow, "Big deal". I loved that!
Also, the part where Szell stepped in and prevented Brusilow from going to Finland (with the Philadelphia) and getting some coaching on the Sibelius Concerto from the composer himself just confirmed to me what an a**hole Szell was.
Priceless!
Yes, I've seen those. Amusing faux pas brought about by someone for whom English was not a native tongue. (Actually, I'm guessing English was Ormandy's third language, after Hungarian and German.)
There may be a darker side to this. I remember a lengthy obituary of Ormandy published in Fanfare magazine (written by Roger Dettmer, IIRC). In it the author mentions this collection of verbal gaffes and suggests that it was collected and distributed by orchestra members wishing to subject the elderly conductor to public ridicule. (The assumption here is that the sheet was distributed in the later stages of Ormandy's career, when his relationship with the orchestra had started to deteriorate.) The author expressed his hope that Ormandy was not aware of them because they would have caused him pain and embarrassment.
I don't think we have any way of confirming or refuting this; I'm simply passing along what was in the article. What I find so amusing about the "Ormandyisms" is how often the intent comes through despite the mangled language. When Ormandy asked, "Who is sitting in that empty chair?"--well, there's a beautifully bizarre sort of logic to that.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me of these. I'm sure they're out on the web somewhere.
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