Antal Doráti: The Mercury Masters - The Mono Recordings
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RIMSKY-KORSAKOV / RACHMANINOV / DEBUSSY / MENDELSSOHN / RESPIGHI / TCHAIKOVSKY/ MOZART / etc
Antal Doráti: The Mercury Masters - The Mono Recordings
Antal Doráti, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
[ Australian Eloquence Mercury Living Presence / 31 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Friday 26 May 2023
A tour de force of thrilling orchestral playing and brilliant audio engineering, Antal Doráti's mono recordings are collected for the first time. Newly remastered, this collection comprehensively documents a golden era in American classical recording and most of these vividly-characterized recordings appear on CD for the first time.
"has to be heard to be believed … is it possible to exceed this in the art of reproduced sound?" The New Records
LIMITED EDITION · ORIGINAL JACKETS COLLECTION
The Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti joined the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra as its music director in 1949, and immediately began making it into one of the orchestral powerhouses of the post-war United States. Mercury began recording the ensemble in 1952 and continued to do so until his departure in 1960. Doráti's 51 albums (24 mono, 27 stereo) are a testament to what he achieved with the orchestra during his eleven years there. They reveal a musical personality centred on dynamism, intensity, and an exceptional ability to persuasively articulate rhythms.
Eloquence presents the most complete ever reissue of the Doráti/Minneapolis legacy in two 'original jackets' boxes, faithfully representing the contents of the albums as they were first issued. New remastering made or supervised by Thomas Fine, son of Mercury's long-time chief engineer and producer, as well as original remastering for CD by Wilma Cozart Fine, bring this legacy to life as never before. Thomas Fine contributes a 'sessionography' to each box detailing the technical facets of the Mercury Living Presence recordings, and Dennis D. Rooney is the author of authoritative booklet notes surveying the history of the partnership on record as well as his personal memoirs of the period.
The mono box begins with a blistering Firebird Suite of Stravinsky and ends with a contemporary Hungarian pairing of unrivalled idiomatic flair, brilliance (Kodály's Peacock Variations) and lurid, controlled violence (Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin). Further highlights include the three Tchaikovsky ballets, in versions that quickly became gramophone classics and 'library choices' and stayed that way for decades.
Particularly noteworthy is the first CD release of Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty recordings requested time and again for reissue. Doráti's feeling for dance is further underlined by more landmark Ballets Russes scores - Sacre, Petrouchka, Daphnis - and Viennese waltzes.
The legendary 1812 Overture recording is reissued with the original 'Making Of' commentary by Deems Taylor. Taylor also narrates versions of Britten's Young Person's Guide and the Nutcracker Suite. Even rarer are the three musical stories originally released on Mercury's subsidiary 'Wing' label and narrated affectionately by Jerry Terheyden.
'Sonic spectacular' scores by Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi and Richard Strauss leap from the speakers in Mercury's Living Presence sound, remarkably vivid even in mono. Doráti's firm sense of rhythm and form gives strong contours to symphonies from Mozart to Copland.
The last two albums on the set are devoted to the two LPs Doráti recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As sequels to the Eloquence boxes dedicated to Kubelík in Chicago and Paray in Detroit, these Doráti collections comprehensively document a golden era in American classical recording.
"The lively Mendelssohn symphony finds conductor and orchestra in superlative form. Their performance of this difficult work is amply virtuosic, yet very sensitively phrased." High Fidelity, January 1953 (Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4)
"Refreshingly brisk, straightforward and unmarred by any of the usual sentimentality … The reproduction here, of course, is tops." High Fidelity, January 1953 (Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5)
"Doráti brought a keen sense of vivid theatrical effect and an enlivening imagination... The Minneapolis Symphony was honed to a fine edge of precision for the performance, the recorded sound is still the most dramatic this music has ever had." Hi-Fi Review, December 1962 (Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker)
"As performances, no others have ever won more deservedly widespread and enthusiastic praise. Technically, these discs set new standards for high-fidelity glitter and impact." High Fidelity, February 1964 (Tchaikovsky: Ballets)
"Doráti, who is a pupil of Kodály, plays this work with special perception and authority." High Fidelity, July 1953 (Kodály: Háry Janos)
"The most dramatic introduction to Beethoven … irresistible in its concentration of breathless conflict." High Fidelity, November 1953 (Beethoven: Symphony No. 5)
"Doráti grasps the fiery work with both hands, throwing none of it away." Gramophone, June 1954 (Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5)
"One of Bartók's wittiest, most colourful, and most approachable compositions, and Doráti's attitude toward it is thoroughly authoritative." High Fidelity, October 1954 (Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra)
"Doráti is a clever conductor and he makes of this symphony a memorable experience." Gramophone, November 1954 (Copland: Symphony No. 3)
"A superbly rich, vital, and sensitive interpretation." High Fidelity, September 1955 (Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé)
"The performance itself is of great brilliance. Doráti is brisk, efficient, and at all times in full control, particularly in the final fugue. Mercury's engineers deserve considerable praise." High Fidelity, November 1955 (Britten: Young Person's Guide)
"Rude, brassy, and effective sonics have a good share in making the learned jollity of the Academic Festival infectious." High Fidelity, September 1956 (Brahms: Academic Festival Overture)
"Candidly, one would not have expected Mr. Doráti, who has said naughty things about Beethoven, to harbour an Eighth Symphony so brilliantly pertinent as the one Mercury has recorded here with her best skill." High Fidelity, December 1956 (Beethoven: Symphony No. 8)
"The zestful playing of Antal Doráti and the Minneapolis Symphony, plus the fine sound, turn this ballet score into a vivid orchestral display piece." New York Herald Tribune, 1958 (Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé)
"A technical tour de force." Audio magazine, 1958 (Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker)
"Doráti and the orchestra outdo themselves … Everything about this performance and recording is right." The New Records, Philadelphia, 1958 (Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty)
"Doráti has a nice conception of these mostly familiar Strauss works, which he delivers with a firm hand and a healthy regard for the Viennese style." High Fidelity, March 1959 (Strauss: Waltzes)
"There isn't, and won't be another record like this one... it has to be heard to be believed... is it possible to exceed this in the art of reproduced sound?" The New Records, Philadelphia, April 1959 (Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture)
"The conductor can have a field day, as Antal Doráti does, leading a band that is as dazzling as it is necessary to be in this music." La revue administrative, May 1968 (Respighi)
"Arguably the finest version of the Rite on record." Gramophone, August 1977 (Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps)
"The remarkable scoring in the Suite is very faithfully rendered… and the Chicago SO unleash all the wiry strength they possess into a truly memorable performance." Gramophone, February 1955 (Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin)
"Dramatic and lyrical, with strong contrasts and outspoken brass, assuredly what the [Unfinished Symphony's] design specifies... A strange coupling but a good record, with a great dynamic range and some thunderous climaxes... this is not for playing in a small room or one sparsely furnished." High Fidelity, December 1954 (Schubert/Tchaikovsky]
Tracks:
CD 1
BORODIN Symphony No. 2
STRAVINSKY L'Oiseau de feu - Suite
*FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 2
BERLIOZ Le Carnaval romain
RAVEL Pavane; Alborada del gracioso
DEBUSSY Nocturnes
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 3
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 4
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 5
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 'Italian'
MOZART Symphony No. 40
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 6
RESPIGHI Pini di Roma
Fontane di Roma
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 7
R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 8
GERSHWIN Porgy and Bess (A Symphonic Picture)
GOULD Spirituals in Five Movements
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 9
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5; Overtures - Egmont; Coriolan; Leonore No. 3
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 10
COPLAND Symphony No. 3
CD 11
JOHANN STRAUSS II
Waltzes: Wiener Blut; Wein, Weib und Gesang; Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald; Kaiser-Walzer
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 12
STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 13
TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 14
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 15
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 16
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 17
RESPIGHI Feste Romane
Vetrate di Chiesa
CD 18
GINASTERA Variaciones concertantes
BRITTEN The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
CDs 19-20
TCHAIKOVSKY Swan Lake
CD 21
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture (including spoken commentary)
Capriccio italien
Deems Taylor
CD 22
BRITTEN The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker Suite
(with narration)
Deems Taylor
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 23
STRAVINSKY Petrouchka (Version 1947)
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CDs 24-26
TCHAIKOVSKY The Sleeping Beauty
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 27
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3; Academic Festival Overture; Tragic Overture (mono and stereo versions)
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 28
BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 29
TCHAIKOVSKY Stories with Music
The Story of the Nutcracker Prince
The Story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses
R. STRAUSS
The Story of Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Jerry Terheyden
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 30
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished'
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 31
KODÁLY Peacock Variations
BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin - Suite
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
