Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This is one of the all-time classic recordings. It was made with the famed Mercury Living Presence one-microphone technique and was the first ever to incorporate precisely timed cannon (and, in the case of Wellington's Victory, muskets). The producer of the original recordings, Wilma Cozart Fine, oversaw their remastering; the sound holds up very well. The 1812, recorded in 1958, includes the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (since renamed the Minnesota Orchestra), the University of Minnesota Brass Band, a bronze cannon cast in France in 1775 and lately resident at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon in Manhattan's Riverside Church. Wellington's Victory, recorded in 1960, is played by the London Symphony Orchestra with a pair of 6-pound cannon and a 12- pound howitzer, along with French and British muskets, also courtesy of West Point. The sound holds up well, as does the excitement. --Sarah Bryan Miller

Amazon.com essential recording
It's hard to believe that this, the BEST EVER 1812 Overture was not only recorded in the 1950s, but it still sounds better than any other version. This last fact is a tribute to the remastering expertise of producer Wilma Cozart Fine, and a still greater tribute to her late husband, a recording genius, for leaving her with such fantastic quality original tapes to work with. If you want real cannon, the sound of a zillion bells, and a really sensational brass band, all perfectly blended together... read more

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture/Capriccio Italien/Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

Tracks:

1812 Festival Overture, Op.49 (Original Scoring)
1812 Festival Overture, Op.49: Commentary By Deems Taylor
Capriccio Italien, Op.45
Wellington's Victory ('The Battle Of Vitoria'), Op. 91: First Part: Battle
Wellington's Victory ('The Battle Of Vitoria'), Op. 91: Second Part: Victory Symphony
Wellington's Victory ('The Battle Of Vitoria'), Op. 91: Commentary by Deems Taylor

Amazon.com essential recording

It's hard to believe that this, the BEST EVER 1812 Overture was not only recorded in the 1950s, but it still sounds better than any other version. This last fact is a tribute to the remastering expertise of producer Wilma Cozart Fine, and a still greater tribute to her late husband, a recording genius, for leaving her with such fantastic quality original tapes to work with. If you want real cannon, the sound of a zillion bells, and a really sensational brass band, all perfectly blended together to produce the ultimate in audio spectacle, then baby this one's for you. Wellington is, if anything, even noisier--though a lot less valuable musically. Still, it's the only logical coupling, and every single cannon blast and musket shot comes over with thrilling immediacy. What a disc! --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

high praise?.......2007-02-17

i am completely at a loss for words as to why so many people say this is the best 1812 ever. my band director in high school played this for us as a demonstration on how brass players should not play. at no point does the brass sound good. they are constantly out of tune, out of balance, and out of character. the strings sound like they are using a branch instead of a bow.
the canon and bells are extraordinary though. if all you are buying 1812 for is the canon shot, then by all means purchase this disc as it will not disapoint. the commentary is great too, discussing the selection of canon and bells.
this CD is in extraordinary contrast to Dorati conducting Stravinsky. those recordings are fantastic and highly recommended. i would suggest purchasing any other version of 1812.
0 stars for the performance. 2 stars for the commentary, canon, and bell work.

Wonderful.......2007-02-12

The CD came quickly just in time for a last minute gift idea. Was exactly what I was looking for.

Nicely Done Recording.......2006-03-24

The original recording was a product of the 60's. It is well done musically and the cannons heard in the pieces are synchronized to the musical score, as the composers indicated.
The cannons are authentic of the time of the battles and the sound of the firings good. The explanation of how they engineered the microphone setup and fired the cannons is given in commentary as an extra. This is interesting as well.

The music itself is well known in the case of Tchailovsky's 1812 Overture. Beethoven's Wellington's Victory is not as well known. It's a lesser Beethoven but still interesting. It's written for popular consumption so lively. In the Beethoven, the different armies, French and English, are separated in the right and left speakers. Their approach, the battle, and the conclusion is indicated in the separate speakers. The battle is between the forces of Wellington and those of Bonaparte in Vittoria, Spain June 21rst, 1813.

The 1812 in excellent (3 mic) stereo.......2005-11-28

I own the Telarc LP version of the 1812 and recently transferred that to CD - with a lot of surface noises to fix due to the bulk of that recording being so very low in volume (except of course for the cannons). Early this week I purchased an iTunes download of this Dorati version, along with the commentary and I was so impressed that I immediately ordered the whole CD through Amazon.

Contrary to Sarah Bryan Miller's comment about Mercury's famed "one microphone technique", which had been applied in their 1954 version, this is the 1958 re-recording which has been downmixed to stereo (on DAT) direct from the restored 3 channel mastertape. It has been trasferred manually by the original engineer using restored original equipment - no noise reduction, filters, limiters etc which might colour the recording.

It's an amazingly dynamic analogue recording, and in every aspect it stomps all over the Telarc - which sounds wimpy and hollow by comparison.

Heavy canon and great bells!.......2005-06-11

This is the largest selling version of the 1812 overture ever recorded. All because of the tremendous canon fire. After all, it is the 1812, so the larger the cannons, the more impact it makes. But there is music too. So how does Dorati fare against his fellow competitors? Farely well, but it doesn't fare as well as his remake for Decca. Dorati was never a Tchaikovsky specialist. Fortunately, the 1812, more than any other piece of music Tchaikovsky wrote, can take all the jerky, precisionless playing. The Mercury sound is acoustically VERY dry. Lacking in any sense of natural studio sound or reverbaration. The string sound in the introduction is not the greatetst. Compare this to Reiner or Stokowski. Both have lush string sound that will have you captivated from the beginning. But a lush string tone is not essentially required for the 1812. After all, it is a war piece. Herman Scherchen's version is a good example. Mediocre strings, but thoroughly fresh and insightful reading. It's incredibly exciting. Dorati has great bells and that adds to the effect of the finale, along with the powerful canons. Great percussion and a forward drive make Dorati's a good performance. Most people. Sure it may not be as smooth as Stokowski, but the artillary makes it exciting. Capriccio Italien does not fare as well. The opening trumpet fanfare sounds great, but the performance is rather jerky, and lacking in finesse. Compare this to old,long out of print Phase 4 recording by Stanley Black. Black's finale gets that spirit moving. Kondrashin is another good choice. What's nice is that there is recording analysis by Deems Taylor that explains how the canons were recorded. Interesting, but once you hear it, you don't need to listen to it again. Wellington's Victory has always been grouped with the 1812. Lightweight Beethoven with plenty of musket shots. Dorati's version is fine, nothing spectacular other than the musekt fire. Buy this for the 1812, but if you're anything like most classical collectors, you already own this recording.

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Festival Overture; Capriccio Italien; Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

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Tchaikovsky: 1812 Festival Overture; Capriccio Italien; Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000PMFTE0
Release Date: 2007-07-10

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture / Beethoven Wellington's Victory / Liszt Battle of Huns / Kunzel, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Average customer rating:

Making music of bombast?

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture / Beethoven Wellington's Victory / Liszt Battle of Huns / Kunzel, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven , Liszt , Tchaikovsky , and Erich Kunzel
Manufacturer: Telarc
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Binding: Audio CD

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Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture; Beethoven: Wellington's Victory
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture/Capriccio Italien/Beethoven: Wellington's Victory

ASIN: B0002IQGYO
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Tracks:

1812 Overture, Op.49
Capriccio Italien, Op.45
Cossack Dance
Wellington's Victory, Op.91
Battle Of The Huns
Hungarian March To The Assault

Customer Reviews:

Making music of bombast?.......2005-07-15

Here's 70 minutes of bombast that Eric Kunzel tries hard to turn into music, with some success. Kunzel has become something of a middle American pops success in crossover classical recordings and now has more acclaim in crossover than in top 200 classcial recordings.

His work here competes in two very discrete arenas -- with CDs like Antal Dorati's souped up 40-year-old Mercury recording of "1812 Overture" and others that has sold more than 2 million copies; and in the so-called "battle" CDs that always include "1812 Overture", "Wellington's Victory" and "Battle of the Huns". These are all performed on this CD along with Tchaikovsky's "Capriccion Italian" and "Cossack Dance from 'Mazeppa'" and Liszt's "Hungarian March to the Assault".

What typifies Kunzel's approach is musicality in the face of bombast and a tendency to clip phrases at the end of loud sections of the music. His style works best in "Capriccio Italian", a warhorse lots of conductors turn into 15 real loud minutes of piercing tones. Kunzel restrains the Cincinnati Symphony and used flexible tempos to create a muscial picture of Italy.

He tries this with "1812 Overture" and "Wellington's Victory" too, but it doesn't work very well because this is not very good music. It is, in fact, bombast. Ditto for "Battle of the Huns", which is still best performed all out by the young Zubin Mehta and the L.A. Philharmonic on a CD now only available from Australian Decca.

I did not particularly enjoy the digital enhancements engineered into Kunzels' "1812 Overture" and the digitally-created muskets of "Wellington's Victory". The "1812" closing pages are simply too loud for anyone except people that want to blow their woofers or really anger their neighbors. The CD case even includes a warning that the recording could damage your equipment!

The best version I ever heard of "Wellington" was an old Musical Heritage Society recording of a woodwind quintet and timpani group. They played it as music, not bombast, without all the silly marching and shooting. Antal Dorati's later recording of "1812" with either the Detroit or National Symphony Orchestra on a London collection does all the things Kunzel does here with better style.

Until the final "Hungarian March to the Assualt", I wondered why the engineers didn't do much with the timpani on this recording. It is not at all prominent in "Wellington" or "Battle of the Huns" while it would like to drive you through the wall in "1812". They pumped up the drum volume a great deal in the closing march, which is a fitting end to this 70 minute collection of noisy stuff.

This will probably satisfy people that want this music on one CD in modern DDD sound. It is probably as good as the similar collection by Maazel although it also includes a lot of artificial noise. Yet Kunzel tries hard to make music of this hay and sometimes succeeds. Other times, he'd have been better off just blowing the roof off the place like he does at the end of "1812 Overture".

Average customer rating:

Boring 1812, vibrant Beethoven, lusty Lizst
Ratchets instead of muskets? Puleeze....

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Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture; Beethoven: Wellington's Victory
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture / Beethoven Wellington's Victory / Liszt Battle of Huns / Kunzel, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

ASIN: B000003G1X
Release Date: 1997-11-11

Tracks:

Capriccio italien, Op. 45 - Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Ouverture solennelle 1812, Op. 49 - Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Drums And Trumpets On The English Side
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Marcia: Rule Britannia
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Drums And Trumpets On The French Side
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Marcia: Marlborough
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Invitation And Response
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Battle
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Storm; March
The Battle Of Vittoria, Op.91: Victory Symphony
The Battle Of The Huns

Customer Reviews:

Boring 1812, vibrant Beethoven, lusty Lizst.......2004-06-29

I very much enjoyed the Beethoven "Wellington's Victory" and Lizst's "Battle of the Huns" on the Musical Heritage Society version of this CD, released under contract from the parent recording. "Wellington" springs forth with vigor and fire, the battle sequence is very exciting, and the ending is monumental. The Lizst is another very good recording, surging forth with emotion and vision. Alas, if only the "1812 Overture" had been the equal of one of better versions on the market, this would have had only one major flaw -- a deadly dull version of Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italian". So this is really a half and half proposition -- half excitement and vigor in the Beethoven and Lizst, half limp-wristed in the Tchaikovsky. So this really only deserves three stars but I gave it four because of the outstanding Beethoven and Lizst. If you buy it for the Tchaikovksy, be forewarned.

Ratchets instead of muskets? Puleeze...........1999-09-12

Though the program is well-chosen, the musicianship is masterful, and the trumpets shine, a powderless "Victory" just doesn't cut it. Sure, it's a cheesy piece, but one of my favorites when it's done up to the nines--and that includes real cannon and muskets.

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