Re: Re: Re: San Francisco Youth Orchestra Concert


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Posted by Richard on May 21, 2001 at 22:16:04:

In Reply to: Re: Re: San Francisco Youth Orchestra Concert posted by Chuck Jackson on May 21, 2001 at 21:11:20:

Your point is well taken, and I don't want to argue against the merits of old recordings which I also admire, but by 1928 Beethoven was standard repertoire. What about Oscar Fried's recording of Mahler 2, from the 20s? A fascinating document, but it was a lot harder for them, and sounds it, than it is for many of us now, at whatever age, or place in the profession. For an even more dramatic example, try Monteux's first ever recording of Rite of Spring (ca.1928) with a Parisian orchestra. I have no doubt that the SFYO would nail it in a way that those players simply couldn't because the idiom and the complexity were too overwhelming. Same for Stokowski/Philadelphia a few years later. Stravinsky himself managed somewhat better with the New York Philharmonic in 1945, and around that same time Monteux got a much improved one with San Francisco. But it wasn't until 1950 or so that Monteux managed to get the ideal Rite of Spring with the Boston Symphony (albeit with a re-barred Danse Sacrale.

I was at Ravinia in 1963 when Robert Craft rehearsed the CSO's first Rite of Spring in over a decade. They were scuffling with some of it, it doesn't help that the overinflated Craft can't conduct electricity, but they managed to JUST pull it out of the hat by concert time. Now of course they and other professional orchestras can wing their way through it without rehearsal if necessary.


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