RODZINSKI NBC 1938, Volume 4 (1938) - PASC767

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overviewfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fHUMPERDINCK Hänsel und Gretel - Prelude BACH Two Chorales BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 VIVALDI Concerto in D minor SC RIABIN Symphony No. 3 RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte DEBUSSY Nuages & Fêtes R. STRAUSS Rosenkavalier Waltzes Broadcast recordings, 1938 Total duration: 2hr 37:46 NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_titlefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fGramophone Review578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_quotefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fPristine Classical continues to dazzle us with astoundingly vivid broadcast recordings from the NBC Symphony in 1938.578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_bodyfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fPristine Classical continues to dazzle us with astoundingly vivid broadcast recordings from the NBC Symphony in 1938 under the direction of the orchestra’s principal trainer prior to the arrival of Toscanini, Polish-born Artur Rodziński. Volume 4 features concerts from Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve with a host of significant works. Vivaldi’s Concerto grosso in D minor, Op. 3 No. 11, is broadly paced and very emphatically played - ‘old style’ Baroque with cast-iron biceps and steel-capped boots, very ‘physical’ you might say, but with little in the way of period awareness. Beethoven’s First Symphony is lean and virile, swift too, and although Rodziński drops the first movement’s exposition repeat (and the repeat in the second movement), he includes the repeat of the Scherzo’s Trio and the finale. The playing is mostly deft and well drilled, but some might find the orchestra’s tense delivery just a little uncomfortable. By way of a contrast, I turned to Eugene Ormandy’s Sony recording from early 1965 (reissued in Sony’s box-set ‘Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra: The Columbia Stereo Collection 1964-1983’) - the first movement in particular - and sat back to relish afresh the music’s poise, classical composure and keenness of attack. Energy and precise pointing are in plentiful supply there too, but ‘tenseness’ doesn’t really come into it. Here Rodziński is thrilling but breathless.The set’s opening number is a lively and musically sympathetic account of the Prelude to Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera Hänsel und Gretel, where Rodziński appreciates both the music’s lyrical flow and its affectionately up-beat faster music. Two Bach chorales orchestrated by Respighi draw a generous sonority from the NBC strings (parallels with Stokowski spring to mind) and there’s a rare showing (certainly in terms of this orchestra) where Brahms’s First Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, is presented in Schoenberg’s affectionately OTT orchestration. Rodziński indulges the Andante con moto slow movement with considerable warmth then makes an enthusiastic beeline for Schoenberg’s colourful take on the Rondo alla zingarese finale, with its brittle xylophone and varied perspectives (at times returning to solo strings from Brahms’s original). An appreciative audience signals a definite ‘thumbs up’ and the orchestra acquits itself brilliantly.Rob CowanGramophone, July 2026578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9main_samplefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fsamples/PASC767.mp3578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fProducer's Note578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcontent578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fBy the late 1930s the National Broadcasting Company had created something unprecedented in American musical life: a full-time symphony orchestra assembled specifically for radio. The NBC Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1937 primarily for the broadcasts of Arturo Toscanini, but before Toscanini’s first appearance on Christmas Day of that year the orchestra needed to be tested, disciplined and moulded into a working ensemble. That crucial preparatory work fell largely to the Polish conductor Artur Rodziński. Rodziński had already established a formidable reputation in the United States through his transformative leadership of the Cleveland Orchestra. NBC engaged him first for a trial broadcast in November 1937, followed by three concerts in December that effectively served as the orchestra’s public dress rehearsal before Toscanini assumed the podium. Rodziński returned to conduct further NBC Symphony broadcasts in April 1938 and again in December of the same year. The present recordings preserve the last two of four concerts he conducted on consecutive weekends that December. These broadcasts therefore represent the closing chapter of Rodziński’s brief but significant association with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The New Year’s Eve programme heard here would prove to be the final concert he conducted with the ensemble. The Christmas Eve broadcast opens atmospherically with the Prelude to Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, music whose luminous orchestral writing made it a favourite seasonal curtain-raiser. From there Rodziński turns to Johann Sebastian Bach as orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi. Respighi’s Bach transcriptions were widely admired in the early twentieth century for their rich orchestral palette, and here two chorales from the set of Three Chorales were performed: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland and Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. The central work of the programme is Beethoven’s First Symphony, music that bridges the Classical world of Haydn and Mozart with the emerging individuality that would soon transform the symphonic form. Rodziński follows it with one of the most striking orchestral transformations of the twentieth century: Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor. Schoenberg explained that one reason for making the arrangement was that he wanted to hear everything in Brahms’s densely written score more clearly than was possible in the original chamber version. The result is a dazzling re-imagining of the work in which Brahmsian architecture is expanded into a vibrant orchestral showpiece. The New Year’s Eve broadcast presents an equally colourful programme. It begins with Alexander Siloti’s orchestral arrangement of a concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico. Siloti’s late-Romantic treatment of the Baroque original reflects the era’s fascination with adapting earlier music to the modern symphony orchestra. From there Rodziński launches into Alexander Scriabin’s Third Symphony, Le Divin Poème, a vast mystical canvas whose ecstatic climaxes and shimmering orchestration stand at the threshold of musical modernism. Scriabin’s ecstatic vision is followed by a sequence of orchestral miniatures: Ravel’s nostalgic Pavane pour une infante défunte and two movements from Debussy’s Nocturnes, Nuages and the exuberant Fêtes. The concert concludes in celebratory fashion with the first waltz sequence from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, music whose swirling Viennese rhythms provided a fitting close to a New Year’s Eve broadcast. The original transmissions were introduced by NBC announcer Gene Hamilton. His commentary survives in full on the source recordings, but because the complete broadcasts run slightly longer than a standard compact disc allows, much of this material has been edited here in order to accommodate the music within a single CD. Short excerpts of Hamilton’s introductions to the Christmas Eve concert and his closing remarks at the end of the New Year’s Eve broadcast have been retained. Despite their broadcast origins the surviving recordings are remarkable for their warmth, dynamic range and clarity. In these new XR remasterings the sound reveals impressive orchestral colour, with quiet surfaces and extended frequency range that allow Rodziński’s incisive conducting and the NBC Symphony Orchestra’s brilliance to emerge with striking immediacy. These final NBC broadcasts not only complete Rodziński’s recorded association with the orchestra but also offer a vivid glimpse of American orchestral broadcasting at the end of the 1930s.578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fFull Track Listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5ftrack_listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fRODZINSKI NBC 1938, Volume 4 disc one (79:45) 1. RADIO Introduction to Christmas Eve Program (0:28) 2. HUMPERDINCK Hänsel und Gretel - Prelude (8:00) BACH (arr. Respighi) Chorales from the Orgelbüchlein 3. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (5:38) 4. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 (4:10) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 5. 1st mvt. - Adagio molto - Allegro con brio (6:46) 6. 2nd mvt. - Andante cantabile con moto (6:56) 7. 3rd mvt. - Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace (3:27) 8. 4th mvt. - Finale: Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace (5:43) BRAHMS (arr. Schoenberg) Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 9. 1st mvt. - Allegro (13:44) 10. 2nd mvt. - Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo - Trio: Animato (8:51) 11. 3rd mvt. - Andante con moto (8:35) 12. 4th mvt. - Rondo alla zingarese: Presto (7:26) disc two (78:01) VIVALDI (arr. Siloti) Concerto in D minor from L’estro armonico, Op. 3 No. 11, RV 565 1. 1st mvt. - Allegro (5:33) 2. 2nd mvt. - Adagio e spiccato (4:37) 3. 3rd mvt. - Allegro (3:22) SCRIABIN Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 43 - Le Divin Poème 4. 1st mvt. - Lutte (17:05) 5. 2nd mvt. - Voluptés (8:11) 6. 3rd mvt. - Jeu divin (9:47) 7. RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte (6:17) DEBUSSY Nocturnes 8. Nuages (8:35) 9. Fêtes (6:01) 10. R. STRAUSSDer Rosenkavalier Waltzes - First sequence (7:55) 11. RADIO Conclusion to New Year's Eve Program (0:38) NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Artur RodzińskiXR remastering by: Andrew Rose Live broadcast recordings, 24 & 31 December 1938 Studio 8H, NBC Radio City, New York Cover artwork based on a photograph of Artur Rodziński Total duration: 2hr 37:46578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fCover Art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcover_art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers/thumbs/PASC767.jpg578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers/PASC767.pdf578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f Show more