I have to admit I’m having a ball going back through LPs, some of which I haven’t played in ages. Right now, it’s another original pressing Vox/Turnabout album from the same label and team that produced the incredible Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, namely David Johanos and the Dallas. Here, though, it’s a program of Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man, four dance episodes from Rodeo, and the ballet suite from Billy the Kid. More great sound. I’m not sure of the issue date, since there’s no copyright or production date on it, but the notes say the recording was made in April of 1967.
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Great selections, Craig. You’re on a listening roll that I’m thoroughly enjoying vicariously. 
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One can talk endlessly about historically informed performance practice versus traditional practice, and we can all have preferences. But there is no denying excellence of musicianship, insight, technical mastery, and ensemble in whichever practice style. Here we have masters of traditional performance practice from leading members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with first violinist Willi Boskovsky and comrades.
There are few performance that can match the level of authority and stylistic assurance heard in these performances. They reflect one of the most storied orchestral traditions in the world in a distinctly Viennese approach to sound and interpretation. Patrician, elegant, resonant, and redolent of the great traditions of central Europe, these are performances to treasure.
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More Copland, this time the well-known 1978 Sound 80 Recordings’ LP of Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England.” Apparently Sound 80, one of the first digital recording studios and record companies, no longer exists, though an outfit called Orfield Labs bought their Minneapolis building and are maintaining it in original condition, and even offer tours of the studios. It’s my understanding that Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks here, as well as albums from Prince, Cat Stevens and Leo Kottke. This Copland album was the first classical Grammy winner that was recorded digitally.
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A 1979 release from a small American label, Crystal Records. This is an incredibly intimate, clear recording of 20th century chamber works by Randall Thompson, Vincent Prrsichetti, William Schmidt and William Grant Still, all featuring the oboe. It has great immediacy. Sounds very much like the musicians are here in the room. The title is simply Oboist Peter Christ.
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Fascinating to hear this Giulini/EMI recording in contrast to the Britten/Decca recording of these same works. Both very different, both very valid, both with recording quality that compliments the conductor’s interpretation/style.
The edit master is the DXD version and that is what I’m actually listening to now.
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Into the “Cs” now, with a 1979 Telarc/Soundstream LP of Malcolm Frager playing a program of Chopin. The wow factor for this one when it was released was the fact that he’s playing a Bösendorfer rather than the usual Steinway, so it had a little snob appeal in the US just for the novelty. It’s a really nice recording, if not quite the last word in piano records.
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One of the more obscure LPs from Harry Pearson’s list, a 1977 EMI release of Arthur Bliss’s A Colour Symphony, also including his music from the film Things to Come, performed by Charles Groves and the Royal Philharmonic.
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That’s probably my favorite Rodeo version.
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I’m giving the turntable a rest and playing this 2003 DGG SACD of Mahler 2, in preparation for tomorrow night’s performance by the ISO and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. I’m not a Mahler-phile, so I don’t know what to think of the liner notes when it says this 2002 recording was the first to use the “new Critical Edition,” which is said to have made corrections to “hundreds of errors of almost every type.” Most of the changes were taken from a score Mahler marked up and labeled “corrected and deemed to be solely valid,” one year before his death. What I can say is it’s a thrilling performance and recording, at least by my estimation.
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Today’s listening - -
Ulrich Kreppein (b. 1979-): ensemble works (2007-2010)
Per Nørgård (1932-2025): Symphony No. 3
Benjammin Britten (1913-76): Spring Symphony
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Craig, you probably remember that Gilbert Kaplan was an amateur conductor with a lifelong obsession with Mahler’s Second Symphony. He also owned the marked up score. Hence the liner notes. None of which detracts from the performance! Gilbert Kaplan - Wikipedia
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Yes, I saw his name on the foundation that supported the research. I’ve heard some people say for various reasons his efforts may be suspect, perhaps even an example of confirmation bias, but if that score is authentic, I can’t see how that would be possible, at least not in any way that would be seriously detrimental to the music. But I freely admit the real reason I enjoy this one more than the two others in my library is the dynamic presentation of the 5-note opening motif, repeated so often through the first movement. It seems so much more alive than in my others. Plus the recording has great low frequency reproduction, in those places and all the way through the piece.
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I was always a fan of Ozawa’s work, but he doesn’t seem to be as well-represented these days as other conductors of his time. I wish I still had his recording of Beethoven’s 9th with the BSO, but it seemed to vanish from my library some time ago.
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