d***@aol.com
2008-09-18 03:23:32 UTC
There are at least a few Boulez recordings from the CBS era that have
never seen the light of day, including these:
Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (with Barry McDaniel)
Debussy: Symphonic fragments from Le martyre de Saint Sébastien (with
the NYP)
I keep hoping the Martyre fragments will be included the next time
Boulez’s CBS Debussy recordings are released as a set, but the
remaining recordings will fit comfortably on two discs, and it has yet
to happen. The CSO has reissued a live performance of the Fragments
with Boulez and the CSO, and Col legno has released a complete (!)
live recording of Le martyre de Saint Sébastien with the chorus and
orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony recorded October 28, 1960.
A projected Volume II of the complete works of Webern including
Boulez’s recordings of various works without opus numbers and
recordings of numerous early songs with Heather Harper and Charles
Rosen has never been issued on LP or CD. Sony actually planned on
reissuing this stuff together with the material that had already
appeared on LP, but it turned out that some of the tapes had been lost
while others had become degraded beyond the point where they could be
used. (Boulez and CBS had already reached an impasse in 1979 when CBS
declined to plan a recording of Berg’s Lulu around the Paris première
of the complete opera: needless to say, DG stepped in, and the
resulting recording has never been out of print since.)
I think the NYP recording of Stravinsky’s Chant du rossignol was only
released for the first time when the NYP Firebird was first reissued
on CD by CBS. Oddly enough, the NYP Firebird and Chant du rossignol
were not reissued on CD a second time within Sony’s Boulez edition.
Boulez’s NYP recording of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy was released for
the first time in Sony’s Boulez edition coupled with works of Bartók.
When Sony planned its Boulez edition, Boulez asked Sony to suppress
exactly two recordings: the LSO Symphonie fantastique and the New
Philharmonia recording of Beethoven’s Fifth. Understandably enough,
Sony nevertheless reissued the Fantastique together with Boulez’s
other CBS Berlioz recordings, a compilation that would have looked
pretty odd otherwise, especially since it included Boulez’s recording
of Lélio, Berlioz’s grab bag pendant to the Fantastique. I like the
performance and especially the performance of the Scène aux champs a
lot more than Boulez does (and much more than the deadly dull
Cleveland Orchestra performance on DG).
Sony did reissue the New Philharmonia Beethoven disc, which included a
remarkable performance of Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage as well as the
5th, in Japan. The Calm Sea was also included in a Sony anthology of
music by Beethoven for voices and/or chorus and orchestra that
included Beethoven’s 9th (Ormandy), the Cantata on the Death of
Emperor Joseph II (Schippers), and the Choral Fantasy (Serkin/
Bernstein).
To my knowledge, these are the only recordings Boulez made for CBS
that were released on LP but never reissued on CD and not included in
Sony’s Boulez Edition:
Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 (New Philharmonia)
Berg: Seven Early Songs (Heather Harper, BBC SO)
Berg: Altenberglieder (Halina Lukomska, BBC SO)
Boulez: Le marteau sans maître (Yvonne Minton, Ensemble Musique
Vivante)
A later live recording of Marteau was already in the CD catalogue Sony
inherited from CBS: presumably that’s why the Musique vivante
recording was not reissued. I wish they’d have found a place for
Charles Rosen’s recordings of Boulez’s 1st & 3rd piano sonatas in the
Sony Boulez Edition: Boulez invited Rosen to record the sonatas and
was at the recording sessions, and there was plenty of room for the
sonatas on the rather short Boulez Edition disc that included Boulez's
Éclat/Multiples and Rituel. Too bad the four LP’s worth of Boulez
that Columbia released on LP weren’t gathered up into a single 3-CD
box (Pli selon pli; Livre pour cordes; Le marteau sans maître; Éclat/
Multiples; Rituel; Piano Sonatas 1 & 3). All of these recordings
except the sonatas were reissued as a set by Japanese CBS/Sony in the
80’s, and the Marteau is the only recording with Boulez conducting
that didn't make it into Sony's Boulez edition.
Am I missing anything?
-david gable
never seen the light of day, including these:
Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (with Barry McDaniel)
Debussy: Symphonic fragments from Le martyre de Saint Sébastien (with
the NYP)
I keep hoping the Martyre fragments will be included the next time
Boulez’s CBS Debussy recordings are released as a set, but the
remaining recordings will fit comfortably on two discs, and it has yet
to happen. The CSO has reissued a live performance of the Fragments
with Boulez and the CSO, and Col legno has released a complete (!)
live recording of Le martyre de Saint Sébastien with the chorus and
orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony recorded October 28, 1960.
A projected Volume II of the complete works of Webern including
Boulez’s recordings of various works without opus numbers and
recordings of numerous early songs with Heather Harper and Charles
Rosen has never been issued on LP or CD. Sony actually planned on
reissuing this stuff together with the material that had already
appeared on LP, but it turned out that some of the tapes had been lost
while others had become degraded beyond the point where they could be
used. (Boulez and CBS had already reached an impasse in 1979 when CBS
declined to plan a recording of Berg’s Lulu around the Paris première
of the complete opera: needless to say, DG stepped in, and the
resulting recording has never been out of print since.)
I think the NYP recording of Stravinsky’s Chant du rossignol was only
released for the first time when the NYP Firebird was first reissued
on CD by CBS. Oddly enough, the NYP Firebird and Chant du rossignol
were not reissued on CD a second time within Sony’s Boulez edition.
Boulez’s NYP recording of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy was released for
the first time in Sony’s Boulez edition coupled with works of Bartók.
When Sony planned its Boulez edition, Boulez asked Sony to suppress
exactly two recordings: the LSO Symphonie fantastique and the New
Philharmonia recording of Beethoven’s Fifth. Understandably enough,
Sony nevertheless reissued the Fantastique together with Boulez’s
other CBS Berlioz recordings, a compilation that would have looked
pretty odd otherwise, especially since it included Boulez’s recording
of Lélio, Berlioz’s grab bag pendant to the Fantastique. I like the
performance and especially the performance of the Scène aux champs a
lot more than Boulez does (and much more than the deadly dull
Cleveland Orchestra performance on DG).
Sony did reissue the New Philharmonia Beethoven disc, which included a
remarkable performance of Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage as well as the
5th, in Japan. The Calm Sea was also included in a Sony anthology of
music by Beethoven for voices and/or chorus and orchestra that
included Beethoven’s 9th (Ormandy), the Cantata on the Death of
Emperor Joseph II (Schippers), and the Choral Fantasy (Serkin/
Bernstein).
To my knowledge, these are the only recordings Boulez made for CBS
that were released on LP but never reissued on CD and not included in
Sony’s Boulez Edition:
Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 (New Philharmonia)
Berg: Seven Early Songs (Heather Harper, BBC SO)
Berg: Altenberglieder (Halina Lukomska, BBC SO)
Boulez: Le marteau sans maître (Yvonne Minton, Ensemble Musique
Vivante)
A later live recording of Marteau was already in the CD catalogue Sony
inherited from CBS: presumably that’s why the Musique vivante
recording was not reissued. I wish they’d have found a place for
Charles Rosen’s recordings of Boulez’s 1st & 3rd piano sonatas in the
Sony Boulez Edition: Boulez invited Rosen to record the sonatas and
was at the recording sessions, and there was plenty of room for the
sonatas on the rather short Boulez Edition disc that included Boulez's
Éclat/Multiples and Rituel. Too bad the four LP’s worth of Boulez
that Columbia released on LP weren’t gathered up into a single 3-CD
box (Pli selon pli; Livre pour cordes; Le marteau sans maître; Éclat/
Multiples; Rituel; Piano Sonatas 1 & 3). All of these recordings
except the sonatas were reissued as a set by Japanese CBS/Sony in the
80’s, and the Marteau is the only recording with Boulez conducting
that didn't make it into Sony's Boulez edition.
Am I missing anything?
-david gable