Classical Great Conductors Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol.31 - Artur Rodzinski
Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol.31 - Artur Rodzinski
Great Conductors of The 20th Century Vol.31 - Artur Rodzinski
CD1 1. Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture 2. Mussorgsky: Prelude ‘Khovanshchina’ Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 in E Minor 3. I Largo - Allegro Moderato - Moderato 4. II Allegro Molto 5. III Adagio 6. IV Allegro Vivace 7. Rossini: Overture ‘Guillaume Tell’ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1-2) New York Philharmonic (3-6) Columbia Symphony Orchestra (7) CD2 Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries & Magic Fire Music (‘Die Walküre’) 1. Der Walkurenritt 2. Feuerzauber 3. Morgendammerung Und Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt 4. Trauermarsch Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod (‘Tristan und Isolde’) 5. Prelude To Act I 6. Isoldes Liebestod Richard Strauss 7. Tanz Der Sieben Schleier 8. Tod Und Verklarung, Op. 24 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1-4) Chicago Symphony Orchestra (5-6) Philharmonia Orchestra (7-8) Artur Rodzinski – conductor
Artur Rodzinski was born into a Polish military family in Dalmatia. He spent the First World War in Vienna, studying law and music. He made his conducting debut in 1920 and established himself in opera and concert in Warsaw, where Leopold Stokowski heard him and invited him to become his assistant in Philadelphia (1926-9). Rodzinski then led four of the major American orchestras in succession [Los Angeles (1929-33), Cleveland (1933-43), New York (1943-47) and Chicago (1947-48)] and became known as one of the greatest orchestra builders in the US. He also helped Toscanini form the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Poor health interrupted his career from 1948-52 but, having settled in Italy, he enjoyed an ‘Indian Summer’ of recordings from 1954-58. His final performances were of Tristan und Isolde in Chicago in 1958.
The programme can roughly be divided into two halves: Russian and German repertoire in which Rodzinski excelled. The powerful account of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony with the New York Philharmonic in 1945 makes its first appearance on CD. The remaining Russian works, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina Prelude and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture, are the familiar stereo recordings from 1958. Also new to CD is the 1947 Chicago recording of the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, an opera of central importance to Rodzinski, who enjoyed enormous success with it in the US. The remaining Wagner extracts were recorded in 1955 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and have previously appeared on CD only in Japan. Rossini’s William Tell Overture with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra from 1950 makes its first appearance on CD. The famous stereo accounts of Richard Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils and Tod und Verklärung from 1957-58 with the Philharmonia Orchestra are essential to Rodzinski’s discography. All the recordings have been newly remastered. --- bayreuthclassical.blogspot.com
download: