Music Ramblings: Dec 3, 2003, Rozhdestvensky Mahler 10 adagio question
Rozhdestvensky Mahler 10 adagio question
Dec 3, 2003
I don't know anything about the Yedang label, and I noticed this on Berkshire:
Mahler, Symphony #4 {Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano w.Moscow Phil./ D.Oistrakh. Rec.1/22/67}; Adagio from Symphony #10. (USSR State Orch./ Rozhdestvensky. Rec.1963. Total time: 78'59')
What I'm wondering is whether or not the 10th on Yedang might be the same recording that was issued on Musical Heritage Society LPs (coupled on MHS w/ Kondrashin's 5th)? The MHS issue has no recording info, besides "licensed from Melodiya." I do know that the MHS lists the orchestra as the USSR Large Radio & TV Orchestra (I think, anyway. I do remember that it has "Large" in its name), but I wouldn't be surprised if either Yedang or MHS might be off in naming the orchestra. To make it more confusing, an online Mahler discography has this listing: "1963 Gennadi ROZHDESTVENSKY Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio and Television Adagio Live RUSSIAN Revelation." Now that orchestra sounds like the one on MHS, but I'm pretty certain that the MHS is not a live performance.
I love that MHS recording. If the Yedang isn't that same one, anyone know if that recording has ever appeared on CD?
Dave Royko
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Re: Rozhdestvensky Mahler 10 adagio question--Mystery solved (Yedang blew it)
Dec 6, 2003
I just received the Yedang disc. After listening to the Yedang CD of the Adagio, and listening to the MHS LP version, I'm virtually certain that they are in fact the same performance.
Now here's where Yedang (or Pipeline or whatever they are) screwed up.
First, after using headphones, it turns out that the Yedang version is indeed mono, and on top of it, not a particularly good mono transfer. But the MHS LP definitely IS genuine stereo, though not all that wide a spread. So strike one against Yedang. But even more amazing is that the Yedang transfer has lopped off the first 80 or so seconds. The track begins without the Adagio's introduction, simply beginning immediately with the main theme.
However, I'm glad I laid out the $2.99 for the CD (I haven't heard the M4 yet, so maybe it'll be even more worth it after that), because my LP has one skip in the M10 Adagio, and I just finished making an LP-to-CDR transfer, splicing in from the CD the two seconds that are missing from my LP due to the skip. Sure, it lapses into muffled mono for those 2 seconds, but it's better than the skip.
But that's about all the Yedang CD transfer of the Adagio is worth to me: exactly 2 seconds.
Dave Royko
RMCR