Debussy First Modern

[lennygoran]

There are clips you can link to. Opera is briefly mentioned. Len


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/arts ... hough.html

[maestrob]

I've loved Debussy since I can remember, since my grandmother and mother used to play bits and pieces of his piano music when I was a child. We also had Toscanini's rendition of La mer on 78 RPM discs with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune's inventive harmonic structure wasn't revealed to me until much later, but I loved the piece instinctively on first hearing. Stephen Hough is a fine pianist. I wish him well in his new recording project, but he's up against stiff competition from Gieseking to Bavouzet.

[John F]

Hough's choice of piano recordings is the same as mine, prewar Gieseking for the preludes, Cortot for Children's Corner (the 1928 recording), Michelangeli for Images. Not so for the orchestral works.

Look what I found!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcDmOHfEkLA

We also had Toscanini's rendition of La mer on 78 RPM discs with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

No you didn't. That recording was first published in 1976 on LP. The versions on 78s were by Koussevitzky, Rodzinski, Ansermet, Munch, Franz André, and Piero Coppola. Toscanini recorded "La Mer" with the NBC Symphony in 1950; it was published on 78s only in the UK, over here the first edition was on 45s.

RCA Victor held extensive recording sessions with Toscanini and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1941 and 1942, but for technical reasons the masters were unusable. Then came the AFM recording ban from 1942 to 1944, precluding any make-up sessions, so the whole project had to be written off. Finally in the 1970s RCA fixed the masters as best they could and published them all.

[maestrob]

Thanks, John! The Toscanini La Mer I have on CD was recorded with the BBC in 1935, and the Philadelphia was indeed recorded in 1942, according to the liner notes, issued by EMI and RCA. I wonder where I got the impression that our 78RPM set was by Toscanini/Philadelphia? Ah well, memory does indeed fade with time......