Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is a classic recording of these two works, led with grand authority by Fritz Reiner. The Chicago's brass and wind section play gloriously throughout, and the final movement of Scheherazade (we learn from the original producer [1960] in an accompanying essay) was recorded in one take--an almost unheard-of feat. This fast movement is taken at breakneck speed, with no loss of clarity or power, with the strings in the hands of magicians. Stravinsky's Nightingale has never sounded so exotic, so bristling over with color, since this 1956(!) recording under Reiner, and the wonderful surprise with this new release of old material is the revamped sound: the original "Living Stereo" was a fantastic breakthrough in recording, and this new SACD format has returned the spatial relationships to something so "real" that it comes as close as I've ever heard to a true concert hall experience. Simply glorious. --Robert Levine

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD], Music, Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sidney Harth, 20th/21st Century Tone Poem/Symphonic Poem, Classical, Classical Composers, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Suite for Orchestra

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD]
Average customer rating:

Scheherazade

Definitive SACD of Scheherazade - Outstanding!!!!

best recording I could find

Russian rousers!

Amazing Sound

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Stravinsky | Stravinsky, Igor | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0006PV5VC
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Tracks:

The Sea And Sinbad's Ship
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Amazon.com

This is a classic recording of these two works, led with grand authority by Fritz Reiner. The Chicago's brass and wind section play gloriously throughout, and the final movement of Scheherazade (we learn from the original producer [1960] in an accompanying essay) was recorded in one take--an almost unheard-of feat. This fast movement is taken at breakneck speed, with no loss of clarity or power, with the strings in the hands of magicians. Stravinsky's Nightingale has never sounded so exotic, so bristling over with color, since this 1956(!) recording under Reiner, and the wonderful surprise with this new release of old material is the revamped sound: the original "Living Stereo" was a fantastic breakthrough in recording, and this new SACD format has returned the spatial relationships to something so "real" that it comes as close as I've ever heard to a true concert hall experience. Simply glorious. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews:

Scheherazade.......2007-07-08

This specific performanace of this album is excellent. The musical content is excellent and is a real crowd pleaser that anyone would want to listen to frequently. The technical recording (Hybrid SACD) is muddy when played back on ordinary equipment. That is the loudest passages are truncated (i.e. made quieter) and the softest passes are truncaded (i.e. made louder). This assessment is made in comparision to my original vinyl LP of this same recording. Presumably to get the best audio from the CD recording you will need SACD playback equipment. If you don't have a decent copy of vinyl version I would highly recommend this CD.

Definitive SACD of Scheherazade - Outstanding!!!!.......2007-02-18

This multichannel SACD is recorded in the front 3 channels only, as this is what the technicians and their top notch analog equipment recorded more than 40 years ago. At that time the Chicago Symphony and conductor Fritz Reiner were both at the top of their game, and this recording has not been equalled to this day. Absolutely puts the listener in the middle of the ninth or tenth row, and provides the clean dynamic sound of the best recordings made today! This is the wonderful Scheherazade I grew up with, but much better because of SACD technology and my current audio system.

best recording I could find.......2007-01-19

I heard Scheherazade live with the NY Phil. The power of that full orchestra in Russian forte was something, but even more memorable was the beautiful violin played by the concert master. This recording manages to balance the two opposites sonically. Mr Bill

Russian rousers!.......2007-01-06

"The Song of the Nightingale" is not my favorite Stravinsky...it just doesn't work that well as a piece of music, especially when compared to the opera original. But Reiner makes it work somehow: the pacing is terrific and the playing as usual is razor-sharp. "Scheherazade" may be pretty tired by now but when you hear this performance it comes to life again and you realize why it has been such a popular score. Sure there are other ways to play it but this one is sensational...and the last movement was done in a single take!

Amazing Sound.......2006-09-19

Best Scheherazade I ever heard. The performace was exciting and touching. The SACD provides so much details and dynamics of the recording that it makes me really feel that I was there.

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade for orchestra Op35; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale

Average customer rating:

Amazing Scheherazade
Wonderful music and an awesome recording
Not the best version, despite what people say!
Get it for the finest Scheherazade on disc!
Absolutely magnificent!

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade for orchestra Op35; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B000003FWQ
Release Date: 1996-02-27

Tracks:

Scheherazade, Op.35: The Sea And Sinbad's Ship
Scheherazade, Op.35: The Story Of The Kalender Prince
Scheherazade, Op.35: The Young Prince And The Young Princess
Scheherazade, Op.35: Festival In Bagdad: The Sea; The Ship Goes To Pieces On A Rock Surmounted By A Bronze Warrior (Shipwreck); Conclusion
Song Of The Nightingale: Presto
Song Of The Nightingale: Chinese March
Song Of the Nightingale
Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale
Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale: The Emperor's Displease At The Departure Of The Real Nightingale
Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale: The Emperor's Sickroom
Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale: The Real Nightingale Returns To Thwart Death
Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale: Funeral March And Finale

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Scheherazade.......2007-01-04

In this review, I will mainly be talking about the recording of Scheherazade on the album. While the Song of the Nightengale is a very good piece, and this is an excellent recording of it, but if you are buying this album, it should be for this amazing-dare I say difinitive-recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's greatest piece.

Fritz Reiner and the Chicagoans really outdid themselves here. Every member of the orchestra plays with inspiration, fire, and technical mastery. The solos are all amazing, especially Sidney Harth's beautiful playing of the prominent violin solos.

Some will say the first movement is taken too fast by Reiner. Don't listen to them. Reiner's tempo is almost right on Rimsky-Korsakov's marked tempo, so everyone else plays it too slow. The faster tempo brings the movement to life. You will feel Sinbad's ship braving a massive storm, tossing around in the relentless waves of the sea. With a slower tempo, this feeling is completely lost.

Beecham's recording is NOT better than this one.

The narrative of the piece is based on the stories told to the Sultan by Scheherazade during her captivity. Each movement is loosely based on one of the stories. The violin solos that reappear throughout the piece represent Scheherazade. The theme is not followed closely enough to take away from the form of the music, but enough to really draw you in to the piece. The orchestra changes their style according to the theme well.

The last movement is especially exciting. Legend has it that, after spending all day recording the first three movements, the orchestra nailed this movement on the first take. The climax, where the main theme from the first movement returns, is truly explosive.

Basically, this is one of my personal favorites in my collection. I don't think it would be stretching it too much to say this is one of the greatest recordings ever made, and definitely the greatest recording of Scheherazade.

Wonderful music and an awesome recording.......2006-01-02

What a treat for the ears!

The Living Stereo series was wonderful then and it's even better now. There are two editions of this music: this CD and a hybrid SACD that has both a 3 channel and this, 2 channel, track. Review is of the SACD but applies to this standard CD.

The SACD release has fantastic sound quality and, thankfully, is completely true to both music and the original recording. Originally recorded in "3 channel stereo" that's what you get here--no, there's nothing in the rear channels of the surround mix but that's exactly the way it should be. Taken directly from the nearly 50-year old (!) masters, the engineers did nothing at all to the sound except digitize and transfer each track to the SACD/CD master. Nothing added, nothing subtracted. And the quality of those masters is astounding--clear, bright and full. No tape hiss. No loss of highs. Just wonderful music expertly performed.

Dissapointed you're only getting 3 channels and not 5-7? Don't be. You'll hear musicians across the broad but shallow Chicago Symphony Hall just as the engineers heard them in the recording sessions in 1960 and 1956. And those musicians are superb, particularly to my ears, on the Sheherazade portion. This is an excellent orchestra caught at its prime resulting in a truly world-class performance of this well known and well loved music.

In short, get this CD! Even if you don't have a universal player now, the 2 channel transfer is equally good, a faithful recreation of a classic LP. And if you can play the SACD layer so much the better because for the first time you'll hear exactly what was recorded and what the engineers heard in nearly 50 years ago.

Not the best version, despite what people say!.......2003-03-05

Ok so... yes, the sound is brilliant, especially for the time. The performance is full of passion. The chicago brass have never been surpassed. The fourth movement is so loud it gives me chills!
But... has no-one noticed that the all important first movement is taken way too fast. Most conductors clock in at 10 minutes for the movement. But Reiner shaves off a whole minute! Its just too rushed! As for recommending a better recording, I'm not too sure. I still haven't heard the Mackerras/LSO or the Spano/Atlanta ones, but I think the famous Beecham recording is a safer bet than this one. Thats the one I'm sticking with until I find a better one... if one actually does exist that is!

Get it for the finest Scheherazade on disc!.......2003-03-04

Certainly one of reiner's most famous recordings of the many superlative ones he made with the CSO, this remains an absolute favorite, from the time i first heard it, until now, while i currently listen to it while i type.
I love the commanding opening the brass announce, and sidney harth, not john weicher as another reviewer said...it simply gets better, as harth doesn't indulge in the solos as many other violinsts have done, and continue to do. the first movement is a tidal wave of energy, and reiner's rubato has never been approached.
the second movement solos by the principal winds are inimitable as well, proving that this piece is an orchestral showoff one as if reiner were saying, "look how good my orchestra is!" He was absolutely right.
The third movement is wonderfully seductive in the strings, which were much better then than now, and the quirky clarinet and flute solos. Again, Reiner's rubato is unparalled.
What absolutely stuns me is the last movement, played at such a dashing pace that reiner proves only the chicago symphony under his direction could do what they did. Listen to the incredible virtuosity of the strings, winds, percussion, and esp. the brass (how bout those 32nd notes, all you brass players?) any brass player ought to own this recording fo it proved that the brass of the CSO were indeed, the best of their era, and that includes the vienna and berlin philharmonics. sidney harth really does sing his heart out on the violin in the end, smartly opting to play the stratospheric high notes instead of opting for less invigorating and more dull harmonics that one usually hears. whether that was harth's decision or reiner's i don't know, but it works. oh, by the way, this movement was done in, get this...ONE TAKE! what orchestra today could do that? not many is the correct answer. Or, what conductor could make this cartoony music not sound incredibly cheesy? not many either. Hence why reiner and CSO have the best scherazade there ever will be.
I've heard quite a bit of fritz reiner's recordings, and this, i must say, might be his finest.

Absolutely magnificent!.......2000-12-08

This is *the* classic recording of Rimski-Korsakov's masterpiece. This magnificent work requires a first rate virtuoso orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchesta at its peak under Fritz Reiner delivers in spades. The playing is nothing short of breathtaking -- the woodwinds are gorgeous, the brass and percussion climaxes are thrilling, and the strings are mellifluous. The recording, although 40 years old, easily holds its own with today's digital recordings. This is truly one of the finest classical music recordings of all time.

Average customer rating:

A true portrait of Ansermet, despite two weak performances
Great Conductors of 20th Century = Best Reissues of the 21st

Ernest Ansermet

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

French | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005UUOY
Release Date: 2002-06-04

Tracks:

Chant Du Rossignol: Introduction - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Chant Du Rossignol: Marche Chinoise - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Chant Du Rossignol - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Chant Du Rossignol: Jeu Du Rossignol Mecanique - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Scheherazade, Op.35: I The Sea And Sinbad's Ship - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
Scheherazade, Op.35: II The Story Of The Kalender Prince - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
Scheherazade, Op.35: III The Young Prince And The Young Princess - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
Scheherazade, Op.35: IV Festival Of Baghdad - The Sea - The Shipwreck - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
Prelude A L'apres-midi D'un Faune - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande

Tracks:

Concerto For Orchestra, Sz116: I (Introduzione) - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Concerto For Orchestra, Sz116: II (Giuoco Delle Coppie) - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Concerto For Orchestra, Sz116: III (Elegia) - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Concerto For Orchestra, Sz116: IV (Intermezzo Interrotto) - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
Concerto For Orchestra, Sz116: V (Finale) - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande
The Isle Of The Dead, Op.29 - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
La Valse - Orchestre De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire
Le Roi Malgre Lui: Fete Polonaise - Orchestre De La Suisse Romande

Amazon.com

One of the best of EMI's Great Conductors releases, this features the Swiss maestro performing the Modern, French, and Russian music in which he excelled. The first disc includes a terrific 1956 version of Stravinsky's Chant du Rossignol, brilliantly recorded, full of bold rhythms and atmospheric scene-painting, illustrating Ansermet's long experience as a ballet conductor. The Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade that follows it is the second of Ansermet's three recordings of the piece, from Decca's first 1954 Paris stereo sessions and still sounding good. Ansermet captures all its moods and colors, from the tension of the first movement to the flowing, languorous Orientalisms throughout. Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra is a well-judged, energetic interpretation. Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead derives from the same sessions as the Scheherazade, and captures its brooding quality with a rare transparency, another trait of Ansermet's conducting. His affinity for French music is heard in a lovely version of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, a sparkling Ravel La Valse (which, like the Stravinsky, he premiered), and a scintillating "Fète Polonaise" from Chabrier's Le Roi malgré lui. Most of the set's contents remain among the better versions of these works, so its appeal extends beyond the ranks of conductor collectors and Ansermet fans. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

A true portrait of Ansermet, despite two weak performances.......2005-11-06

Ernest Ansermet was Decca's house French conductor, even though he was Swiss, preceding the rise of Charles Dutoit to that post. He is a more interesting condcutor than Dutoit, and one of the last to form and train his own orchestra, as Koussevitzky did in Russia. All the music on this double CD is Russian or French, with the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra thrown in.

Ansermet was an intellectual conductor who began life as a mathematician. He had a refined, precise style that wasn't rigid, and perhaps because of his intellect, he made Stravinsky sound like an easy composer to conduct. Far and away the best thing in this collection is the first item, a mono reading of Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale (1954) that bristles with quirky life and exotic orchestral noises. It's unfortunate that the compilers waste so much space with two big pieces, Scheherazade and the Barok Concerto for Orchestra, both quite substandard in sonics ad orchestral technique--they make Anermset sound provincial, and he was hardly that. The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande certainly was.

The samller pieces, like a fresh-sounding, charming Afternoon of a Faun, an Isle of the Dead in mono (1954) that manages not to sound lugubrious, and an unbuttoned 1954 mono La Valse show off the legendary sound that Decca gave Ansermet througout his career--odd that the Rimsky and the Bartok are wiry and substandard. Altogether, this is a true portrait of a French-styled conductor who released dozens of recordings over three decades and deserves even more reissues (such as his incomparable Sleeping Beauty ballet).

Great Conductors of 20th Century = Best Reissues of the 21st.......2003-05-19

It's sad that the "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" reissue series has not gotten more notice on Amazon and in other places, because it has my vote for the best reissue program thus far of the 21st Century. Drawing from the archives of all the major classical labels (EMI, Sony, BMG, DG, Decca, Philips, Supraphon, etc.), EMI and IMG Artists have assembled a wonderful series of affordable two-disc sets by the leading conductors of the last century. And unlike its counterpart, "The Great Pianists of the 20th Century," which are basically compilations of material already available on other CDs, the "Great Conductors" features rare and, for the most part, previously unreleased performances!

This particular CD, Volume 2, features the great Ernest Ansermet leading L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the orchestra he founded, and the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire. A mathematician prior to his life as a conductor, Ansermet had his critics as he was virtually self-taught, though he did study music as a youth. But that mathematics background served him well in the studio as his early stereo recordings of everything from Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky to Ravel and Chabrier are engineered to perfection, and often sound better than the recordings by so-called more famous conductors.

Whether you are a serious collector of classical music or a beginner, the "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" has something for everyone. If the prized, rare performances previously unreleased on CD (or ever!) doesn't excite you, then use this as an opportunity to check out one of the greatest conductors ever recorded. Chances are, since stores are offering increasingly homogenized classical music sections, this conductor isn't even in your collection. And that would truly be a shame.

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