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A 'tour de force' of thrilling orchestral playing and brilliant audio engineering, Antal Dorati'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 Dorati 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.
Dorati'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 Dorati/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 (Kodaly's Peacock Variations and lurid, controlled violence (Bartok'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 Nutcrackerand Sleeping Beauty recordings requested time and again for reissue. Dorati'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'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. Dorati'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 Dorati recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As sequels to the Eloquence boxes dedicated to Kubelik in Chicago and Paray in Detroit, these Dorati collections comprehensively document a golden era in American classical recording.
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CD 1
BORODIN Symphony No. 2
STRAVINSKY L’Oiseau de feu – Suite
CD 2
BERLIOZ Le Carnaval romain
RAVEL Pavane; Alborada del gracioso
DEBUSSY Nocturnes
CD 3
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
CD 4
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
CD 5
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 ‘Italian’
MOZART Symphony No. 40
CD 6
RESPIGHI Pini di Roma
Fontane di Roma
CD 7
STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben
CD 8
GERSHWIN Porgy and Bess (A Symphonic Picture)
GOULD Spirituals in Five Movements
CD 9
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5; Overtures – Egmont; Coriolan; Leonore No. 3
CD 10
COPLAND Symphony No. 3
CD 11
JOHANN STRAUSS II
Waltzes: Wiener Blut; Wein, Weib und Gesang; Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald; Kaiser-Walzer
CD 12
STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps
CD 13
TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker
CD 14
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra
CD 15
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
CD 16
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé
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
CD 23
STRAVINSKY Petrouchka (Version 1947)
CDs 24–26
TCHAIKOVSKY The Sleeping Beauty
CD 27
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3; Academic Festival Overture; Tragic Overture (mono and stereo versions)
CD 28
BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8
CD 29
TCHAIKOVSKY Stories with Music
The Story of the Nutcracker Prince
The Story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses
STRAUSS
The Story of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Jerry Terheyden
CD 30
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 ‘Unfinished’
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
CD 31
KODÁLY Peacock Variations
BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin – Suite
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
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