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CD Review

Full Dimensional Sound

  • Richard Wagner:
  • Tannhäuser: Overture
  • Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries & Magic Fire Music
  • Götterdämmerung: Siegfried's Funeral March
  • Lohengrin: Prélude to Act III
  • Richard Strauss: *
  • Die Frau ohne Schatten: Interludes (arr. Leinsdorf)
  • Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Op. 28
Concert Arts Symphony Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf
* Philharmonia Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf
EMI Classics CDM 65613 ADD 72:08
Philharmonia Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf
* Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf
EMI Classics CDM 65612 ADD 71:10
Find it at AmazonFind it at Amazon UKFind it at Amazon GermanyFind it at Amazon CanadaFind it at Amazon FranceFind it at Amazon Japan

These are reissues of Capitol's vintage "Full Dimensional Sound" series, an answer to Mercury's "Living Presence" and RCA's "Living Stereo" lines. Erich Leinsdorf made these recordings in 1957-1960, and his glory days (for me, anyway) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and RCA Victor were still to come. Nevertheless, these performances are acceptable, and the "New World" is truly outstanding. The contrast between the well-groomed Philharmonia and the excitable, slightly disheveled Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra is immediately apparent on the second disc as one moves from Brahms to Dvořák. So is the contrast between the interpretations. The Brahms, apart from some excessive fluctuations in tempos, gets a standard middle-European performance. However, in the Dvořák, Leinsdorf and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra rediscover the symphony's long-gone power to thrill and charm. There's an informality to this recording that comes as a relief after the many weighty, Brucknerian interpretations (so un-American!) that have sucked the life out of this music.

The conductor's practical experience in the opera house serves the Wagner and Richard Strauss excerpts well. Note that Leinsdorf has arranged a curious synthesis of the two selections from Die Walküre, and that the Frau ohne Schatten arrangement is credited as his own. What compromises the Wagner recordings is the orchestra, particularly the strings, who turn the infamous scales that accompany the final restatement of the Tannhäuser "Pilgrims' Chorus" into an unpleasantly wiry trial. I didn't miss the Venusburg music this time around. As for the sound, it's quite fine, particularly in the selections recorded in the United States, which are more brash and "studio-y" - more "Living Presence" than "Living Stereo," for you audiophiles out there.

Copyright © 1996, Raymond Tuttle

Trumpet

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