New from Dutton this autumn is a CD containing the Symphonies in C minor by Georgy Catoire and Felix Blumenfeld. Martin Yates conducts the RNSO.
Now that's an welcome prospect. Two very attractive and slightly quirky late romantic Russian symphonies. Good coupling. Dutton really are on a roll.
The Blumenfeld symphony - "To the Dear Beloved", in C minor - was on a Russian Disc CD. I was just humming its opening bars by coincidence a few hours ago - they're a real earworm (I remember spending quite awhile trying to remember where they were from, last summer- my first thought was Tchaikovsky's Manfred, or something similar, ... -- it opens with this introduction that itself opens with , well, striking, gloomy (ok, no surprise there) and well-defined scale-fragments... that doesn't put it quite right. If you haven't heard it in the Russian Disc recording conducted by Golovschin, and you like late Tchaikovsky (the Pathetique influence has been noticed by others - the slow finale, for one thing?... - there's others too in the work, I think the scherzo reminded me a little of someone, maybe Saint-Saëns... - actually, the immediate formal parents seem to be Saint-Saëns' 3rd symphony and similar works)- anyway...! - this 2 parts-of 2 parts each work is, I think, quite good and well worth hearing.
A very welcome prospect indeed - definitely a MUST BUY.
It's now available at Dutton's website:
http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7298 (http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7298)
I see Dutton has marked the Catoire Symphony as a World Premiere Recording.....it's not, as Melodiya recorded this work with Boris Khaikin conducting....
I know there is a recording, but when was it released commercially, if ever, what are the Cnos if known? :) I was very much under the impression the Khaikin was a broadcast.
No. There's a few copies of the LP bouncing around Amazon.com with pictures. It even says "in C" rather than "in C minor" on the front of the jacket.
I can't locate the Khaikin LP anywhere. Can you provide a link, please, Jim?
As a discographer, this is of great interest to me. However, I must say that I have never seen even a hint of such a recording. So, if it isn't a phantom, someone out there must have the details.
Michael
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I can't locate the Khaikin LP anywhere. Can you provide a link, please, Jim?
No - I can't find it either!
The recording of the Catoire symphony has actually already been reported on this site, over a year ago. Anyway, it can be found here - http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Catoire/2640 (http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Catoire/2640) - I know this is a somewhat dubious site, though I think that in relation to this particular work copyright rules won't apply as it's an old Soviet recording?
Quote from: Christopher on Tuesday 30 October 2012, 03:17
The recording of the Catoire symphony has actually already been reported on this site, over a year ago. Anyway, it can be found here - http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Catoire/2640 (http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Catoire/2640) - I know this is a somewhat dubious site, though I think that in relation to this particular work copyright rules won't apply as it's an old Soviet recording?
Unfortunately this takes us no further forward as the site gives no details as to the provenance of the Khaikin performance.
Right - just a link to a digital file, such as we used to have whether it was an LP or a broadcast. Unless that site has policies opposite to our present ones- no files unless they're from LPs, in their case, instead of no files/links unless they're from broadcasts that were definitely made for radio and not for/from commercial release - I agree; doesn't do. Now even an ebay post with a jpg image claiming to be the back cover of the Khaikin would go aways (a considerable ways, though it's true those things can be forged, I don't see the reason in that case).
Well, the Khaikin performance is on YouTube for sure. And I believe it's also in our archives.
... sigh. None of that is being disputed. But if the Khaikin was a broadcast performance never released commercially, then Dutton is still entirely right to call their recording a "premiere" recording, unless of course there's yet another that was so released. That's what's been in question (see posts above.)
Exactly, Eric. The issue remains what the provenance of the Khaikin performance is.
Right- should have explained that I was trying to "unpack" what is not, outside of some circles (which I am not actually normally in :) ), the most often-encountered term (a term I would not have known, I think, if not for sites like the Bach Cantatas site, which is one of the best of its kind I ever had found up to that time and maybe up to now, too, including, indeed, the provenance where known of (the scores/parts of) every cantata listed, etc. Which I began to find fascinating and which I noticed fit in with longtime preoccupations of mine. ... Anyway. Sorry! )
Anyway, the Dutton CD is another triumph for the prolific Martin Yates and his superb orchestra. I am listening to the Blumenfeld Symphony in C minor and it's good to hear it played with such refinement and subtlety as well as such passion and power. The idiom is very much 'Tchaikovsky plus', as it were, but none the worse for that - and it holds one's interest throughout. The slow ending, by the way, is really beautiful.
More comment on the Catoire when I've auditioned it...
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 30 October 2012, 16:09
Exactly, Eric. The issue remains what the provenance of the Khaikin performance is.
I apologize for exhuming this topic from its grave after 7 and a half years, but I found some more information on this for those who enjoy trivial details like me. ;D
The Boris Khaikin performance of Catoire's Symphony in C minor was recorded on November 21st, 1965, with what was known at the time as the "Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra," or as it was known to the English-speaking world, the "Grand Symphony Orchestra of the All-Union Radio and Central Television." Its name was changed 2 years after the fall of the Soviet Union (1993) to the "Russian Symphony Orchestra," although it is known to the English-speaking world today as the "Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra."
As noted by the ensemble's English title in 1965, this symphony was recorded for
All-Union Radio, the USSR broadcasting entity, of which the "Fourth Program" (known today as
Radio Orpheus) was devoted solely to classical music. This makes it highly probable that this performance was strictly broadcast for radio, and that no LP pressings were ever made except possible acetates to be put in storage and taken out for broadcast replays. However, the medium of master tapes would be much more likely to exist in my opinion.
Sources include the website for the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, "intoclassics.net" which gives us the recording date, and the website for the Russian Museum of Radio and TV.
Thanks! And since apparently the Golovchin performance of Blumenfeld's memorable symphony was recorded in 1991, that finishes the picture :)