Do you know the 1959 Cologne recording by Mitropoulos, Stanley? A very dramatic performance from the old days and a tremendous achievement for that time.

Ooh, nice! That's going on the wish-list too.

Agreed, though I have not heard the first volume. Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all available at sensible prices via Amazon Marketplace. Volume 1, however, got a five star review, and is holding its full price.

It's on the list, Stanley.

And thank you for the phrase about the birds.

The Svetlanov set arrived and is spinning now, Alison.  



As well as the two symphonies, there are three suites, some overtures and a ballet suite, The Egyptian Nights.

  # 1686     Thanks again, Pim      Your comments on the Mitropoulos recording of  Mahler's 7th symphony also made a connection in my mind with Bernstein and how one of his many lives concentrated on his study at the Curtis Institute; together with his liaison with Koussevitzky at Tanglewood and the fortuitous developments with Mitropoulos.  

Earlier, yesterday, a friend sent me a copy the Sondheim magazine, published by The S S Society.   A central feature was the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of "West Side Story" (don't tell me it's true; I don't want to know as it seems like yesterday when Anthony Hopkins, musicologist and broadcaster, introduced us to the score on 'Talking Music' in those antediluvian days!)   As a reminder,  there on the magazine cover was an A4 size photograph of  Sondheim, at the piano, and 'Lenny' conducting a dozen or so 'Sharks', I assume.   Composer and lyricist looking so young and with the obligatory short back and sides haircuts.

I wanted to refresh my memory on the Mitropoulos/Bernstein connection so after listening to the Abbado/Lucerne, Mahler 7, I watched the scary French film of 13 (Tzameti) on BBC 4, and took advantage of the extra hour before BST ended to read the chapters on Mitroupolis/Bernstein relationship  in Humphrey Carpenter's 1994 biography of LB.    This 'special edition' also has an extra outside cover with a 2CD collection, Man of Music, indented: CD 1 Bernstein - the composer and CD 2 Bernstein - the conductor.   Fascinating listening for 'the witching hour' and beyond; I rounded off the early morning with Lenny conducting Ives's 'Central Park in the Dark' and a generous snifter of Glenlivet.  Nae bad at a'.

I will make a copy for you, Stanley. This live studio recording was made at the Klaus von Bismarck Saal of the West German Radio, Cologne, on 31 August 1959. It was re-released in the "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" series a few years ago. Michael Tanner writes in the booklet: "A later American performance, from 1955, is famous, but the one presented here with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra is still more annihilating."

Mitropoulos was a wonderful conductor. His recording of the Berg Violin Concerto is really something special. It made a great impression on me when I heard it earlier this year on the much missed CD Masters programme.


Marvelous stuff, Stanley. Many thanks. I have to think now of a lovely anecdote by Sondheim:

"He had two street kids singing, "Today the world was just an address, a place for me to live in." Now, you know, excuse me, that's okay for Romeo and Juliet, that's a perfectly good line, but … That was Lenny's idea of poetry, very purple …"


"Central Park in the Dark": one of my first introductions to classical music. When I was fourteen years old, I got interested in radio plays. At that time, Dutch radio plays were already hard to find but there still was a drama hour on Sundays at six o'clock. I remember that a certain play lasted for about 40 minutes and in the remaining 20 minutes of the hour, "The Unanswered Question" and "Central Park in the Dark" were broadcast (the Bernstein recordings). I was very moved by "The Unanswered Question" and puzzled by "Central Park in the Dark": the only classical music that I knew of were Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" and the "Dance Macabre" by Saint-Saens. The most surprising for me was the quotation from the rag time song played by the brass instruments: I knew this song from Chuck Jones's "One Froggy Evening", one of the funniest cartoons I've ever seen.

Humphrey Carpenter. His book "The Brideshead Generation" was my introduction to the works of Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell. I read it ten years ago, around the time when Dutch radio was broadcasting those "Banana Blush" recordings of John Betjeman:

"Graham Greene had been working productively in the cinema - The Fallen Idol, scripted by him from one of his own short stories, was released during 1948 - and he too visited Hollywood, to discuss a new project with David O. Selznick. When Greene explained that the film would be called The Third Man, Selznick shook his head reproachfully: "You can do better than that, Graham."

That's a lovely piece of music, Stanley!

I didn't know that Kennedy made a recording of it. I suppose it's a lot better than the old Hungaroton disc that I have of this work: certainly one of the worst out of tune discs in my collection!