8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 5

Producer’s Note 8.111283 The performances presented here were made during a period of great transition in recording technology and published formats. From around 1944 until its adoption of magnetic tape late in 1949, RCA Victor recorded on two Great Conductors • Koussevitzky ADD master formats: direct to 78-rpm wax matrices for commercial issue and to lacquer backup discs recorded at 33 1/3 rpm. The latter method was able to capture a wider frequency range than wax, and provided a backup for dubbing purposes in case something went wrong with the 78 masters. As new vinyl media supplanted shellac for record releases, the lacquers offered a quieter source from which to prepare transfers. When American Columbia released the first modern LP records in 1948, RCA, unwilling at first to pay the Also available licensing fees, countered with the 45 rpm disc. They eventually bowed to the inevitable in 1950; but during and after this interim period, there seemed to be no general rule as to the format on which a recording would be issued. For example, the Flying Dutchman Overture and the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal were both recorded at the same session; yet, the former was issued on a quiet, wide-frequency vinyl 45 rpm disc (as well as 78 rpm shellac) while WAGNER the latter only came out on shellac 78s. Similarly, the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin and the Siegfried Idyll were done at the same session, with the former released on the 45 and 78 rpm formats and the latter on 45 and LP only. Opera Overtures and Except for the Siegfried Idyll, none of the Wagner recordings were released in the USA on LP at all. (The Flying Dutchman Overture came out in the UK on LP in the 1970s, but in a sonically compromised pseudo-stereo version.) The present disc features their CD premières. The sources for the transfers were vinyl 45 rpm discs for Preludes The Flying Dutchman and Siegfried Idyll; a mix of 45 and 78 rpm sources for the Lohengrin; all 78s for the Parsifal (their only form of issue); and an LP for the Brahms overture. Siegfried Idyll Mark Obert-Thorn 8.110105 8.110154 BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

8.110168 8.110170 Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitzky 1946 - 1949 recordings 8.111283 5 8.111283 6 8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 2

GREAT CONDUCTORS • KOUSSEVITZKY Great Conductors: Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) festival drama). The Prelude, once again displaying complete integrity as to Koussevitzky’s lovingly Historical Recordings 1946-1949 Koussevitzky’s ability to set and maintain a spacious voluble direction, which vies a movement with Historical Recordings 1946 - 1949 tempo without sacrificing direction or with tension immersed contemplation and a sense of expectancy, Richard WAGNER (1813-1883): The Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky was born in 1922, it was Koussevitzky who had asked Ravel to sagging, is an engrossed benediction, timeless in such lingering affection and growing ardour leading to a Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) on 26th July 1874, in a town outside of Moscow, into a orchestrate Mussorgsky’s piano-work Pictures at an musical significance yet palpably suggesting a devout, charged climax that features a nimble horn solo but 1 Overture 10:17 musical family from which his first musical tuition Exhibition (which is now the most famous of the many mystical, Holy Grail-related pilgrimage – solemnly perhaps a rather raucous one from the trumpeter before Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0958 came. Before developing his career as a conductor, arrangements of Mussorgsky’s original, an orchestral majestic and richly expressed, but not superficially sinking back into the rêverie of earlier. Matrices: D7-RC-7407-3B and 7408-2A which would come to fruition in 1924 when he was transcription that Koussevitzky recorded, as he did beautiful. The Good Friday Music (taken from Act 3) Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, composed appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, both now being extends these features with a powerful sense of for Breslau University, and incorporating student songs, Lohengrin Orchestra, Koussevitzky was a double bass player. He coupled on Naxos 8.110105). ceremony and deep reflection, and is very sensitively is given a lusty outing, incisive march-rhythms 2 Act I: Prelude 9:09 gave recitals on and composed a concerto for his Koussevitzky made many recordings with the played here. established from the very outset, a sense of purpose Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-1323 instrument; in 1894 he also joined the Bolshoy Theatre Boston Symphony Orchestra, not least of the Austro- Intimacy abounds in Siegfried Idyll, a gift from tempered by beguiling orchestral decoration and more- Wagner to his wife Cosima (Liszt’s daughter) that was lyrical material. Koussevitzky introduces pomp and Matrices: D9-RC-1718-1 and 1719-2A Orchestra, becoming Principal of the double bass German classics. The recordings on this release, mostly section in 1901 until 1905. Koussevitzky’s early days of Wagner, were recorded between 1946 and 1949 and first heard at the Wagners’ villa (Tribschen, on the even a hint of vulgarity into this lively, ardour-filled (before the 1917 Revolution) were not confined to are representative of Koussevitzky’s final years with the shore of Lake Lucerne) on Christmas morning 1870, performance, one in which detail is relished, with the Parsifal Siegfried being the Wagners’ son (1869-1930) who was Boston Symphony’s strings notably rich-toned and 3 Act I: Prelude 14:58 playing in the pit: he founded a publishing house, Boston Symphony. At the time of these recordings, accepted conducting engagements in the West and also Koussevitzky was in his early- to mid-70s and lacks also a composer. Koussevitzky’s conducting of the passionate. There’s light and shade, too, amidst the Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0146 and 12-0147 formed his own orchestra to tour in Russia. Post the nothing for energy – as the opening of the Overture to opening bars – expressive and rapt – also have a gentle healthy spontaneous vigour. For the final triumphant in album M-1198 momentous events of the Revolution, although The Flying Dutchman testifies. Koussevitzky, a degree of forward thrust, enough to suggest that this bars, when the Gaudeamus Igitur is introduced, Matrices: D7-RC-7409-1A, 7410-1A and 7411-1A remaining in Russia for a while, Koussevitzky left for flamboyant character, inspires a typically dramatic and will not be a ‘serenade’-type of performance. So it Koussevitzky makes a marked slowing, the trumpets’ proves, for while this account is lyrically shaped, small edge adding a brazen quality – proof that 4 Paris and cultivating his conducting engagements, often intense performance, the opening of the overture Act III: Good Friday Spell 11:46 leading premières of new music. immediately establishing a rough-hewn and fluctuations of tempo and emotionalism are enough to Koussevitzky’s conducting rarely if ever was without a Recorded 19th April 1946 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0147 and 12-0148 Koussevitzky’s tenure of the Boston Symphony tempestuous response from one of the great orchestras rustle the surface and bring a restive edge to sense of theatre and effective point-making. in album M-1198 lasted from 1924 to 1949. This was a notable time of the world. Contrast is another of Koussevitzky’s proceedings. Especially beguiling are the ‘murmuring’ Matrices: D6-RC-5716-2P, 5717-2A and 5718-1A during the Boston Symphony’s history – due to trademarks – sectionalising musical passages – as the of the strings and the very characterful woodwind solos, adventurous programming and wide-ranging ensuing cor anglais solo demonstrates in being very each musician a distinct personality who displays Colin Anderson 5 Siegfried Idyll 18:01 commissions: from international composers such as slow and very expressive, but sustained through Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 49-3414 and 49-3415 Hindemith (Concert Music for Strings and Brass), theatrical tension. This is an appropriately ‘operatic’ in album WDM-1571 Honegger (Symphony No. 1), Prokofiev (Symphony No. performance (one as much fuelled by Koussevitzky’s Matrices: D9-RC-1720-1A, 1721-1A, 1722-1 and 1723-1C 4, in its original version) and Stravinsky (Symphony of temperament as his experience of playing for many Psalms). American creators – such as Barber, Copland, years in the pit of the Bolshoy Theatre) – an enactment Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897): Harris, Piston and Schuman – were also commissioned. in miniature of the story to follow, and with all the 6 Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 9:58 In 1940 Koussevitzky, a dedicated teacher, established narrative power that that involves. Recorded 2nd April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0377 the Koussevitzky Music Center at Tanglewood (the The ethereal strains of the Prelude to Lohengrin then Matrices: D7-RC-7403-2 and 7404-2A Boston Symphony’s summer home) – where Leonard make a further contrast – this time of the music itself, Bernstein was a pupil. Then, in 1942, in memory of his beatific and magical entreaties are conjured by the high- Boston Symphony Orchestra • Serge Koussevitzky late wife, Natalie (the daughter of a successful tea- lying strings (here with perfect intonation and blend and merchant), Koussevitzky formed the Koussevitzky becoming more-lustrous in sound), the winds adding a All recordings made in Symphony Hall, Boston, USA Music Foundation. This commissioned, among other halo of light as the journey progresses to a majestic notable works, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony, summons from the brass, stridently sounded Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (which self-quoted (Koussevitzky was not afraid of making a grand gesture). Fanfare for the Common Man), Britten’s opera Peter Such spiritual connotations continue with the two Special thanks to Don Tait for providing source material Grimes (of which Bernstein conducted the American excerpts from Wagner’s final work for the stage, Parsifal première) and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Earlier, (described by Wagner as a Bühnenweihfestspiel, a sacred 8.111283 2 8.111283 3 4 8.111283 8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 2

GREAT CONDUCTORS • KOUSSEVITZKY Great Conductors: Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) festival drama). The Prelude, once again displaying complete integrity as to Koussevitzky’s lovingly Historical Recordings 1946-1949 Koussevitzky’s ability to set and maintain a spacious voluble direction, which vies a movement with Historical Recordings 1946 - 1949 tempo without sacrificing direction or with tension immersed contemplation and a sense of expectancy, Richard WAGNER (1813-1883): The Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky was born in 1922, it was Koussevitzky who had asked Ravel to sagging, is an engrossed benediction, timeless in such lingering affection and growing ardour leading to a Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) on 26th July 1874, in a town outside of Moscow, into a orchestrate Mussorgsky’s piano-work Pictures at an musical significance yet palpably suggesting a devout, charged climax that features a nimble horn solo but 1 Overture 10:17 musical family from which his first musical tuition Exhibition (which is now the most famous of the many mystical, Holy Grail-related pilgrimage – solemnly perhaps a rather raucous one from the trumpeter before Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0958 came. Before developing his career as a conductor, arrangements of Mussorgsky’s original, an orchestral majestic and richly expressed, but not superficially sinking back into the rêverie of earlier. Matrices: D7-RC-7407-3B and 7408-2A which would come to fruition in 1924 when he was transcription that Koussevitzky recorded, as he did beautiful. The Good Friday Music (taken from Act 3) Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, composed appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, both now being extends these features with a powerful sense of for Breslau University, and incorporating student songs, Lohengrin Orchestra, Koussevitzky was a double bass player. He coupled on Naxos 8.110105). ceremony and deep reflection, and is very sensitively is given a lusty outing, incisive march-rhythms 2 Act I: Prelude 9:09 gave recitals on and composed a concerto for his Koussevitzky made many recordings with the played here. established from the very outset, a sense of purpose Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-1323 instrument; in 1894 he also joined the Bolshoy Theatre Boston Symphony Orchestra, not least of the Austro- Intimacy abounds in Siegfried Idyll, a gift from tempered by beguiling orchestral decoration and more- Wagner to his wife Cosima (Liszt’s daughter) that was lyrical material. Koussevitzky introduces pomp and Matrices: D9-RC-1718-1 and 1719-2A Orchestra, becoming Principal of the double bass German classics. The recordings on this release, mostly section in 1901 until 1905. Koussevitzky’s early days of Wagner, were recorded between 1946 and 1949 and first heard at the Wagners’ villa (Tribschen, on the even a hint of vulgarity into this lively, ardour-filled (before the 1917 Revolution) were not confined to are representative of Koussevitzky’s final years with the shore of Lake Lucerne) on Christmas morning 1870, performance, one in which detail is relished, with the Parsifal Siegfried being the Wagners’ son (1869-1930) who was Boston Symphony’s strings notably rich-toned and 3 Act I: Prelude 14:58 playing in the pit: he founded a publishing house, Boston Symphony. At the time of these recordings, accepted conducting engagements in the West and also Koussevitzky was in his early- to mid-70s and lacks also a composer. Koussevitzky’s conducting of the passionate. There’s light and shade, too, amidst the Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0146 and 12-0147 formed his own orchestra to tour in Russia. Post the nothing for energy – as the opening of the Overture to opening bars – expressive and rapt – also have a gentle healthy spontaneous vigour. For the final triumphant in album M-1198 momentous events of the Revolution, although The Flying Dutchman testifies. Koussevitzky, a degree of forward thrust, enough to suggest that this bars, when the Gaudeamus Igitur is introduced, Matrices: D7-RC-7409-1A, 7410-1A and 7411-1A remaining in Russia for a while, Koussevitzky left for flamboyant character, inspires a typically dramatic and will not be a ‘serenade’-type of performance. So it Koussevitzky makes a marked slowing, the trumpets’ proves, for while this account is lyrically shaped, small edge adding a brazen quality – proof that 4 Paris and cultivating his conducting engagements, often intense performance, the opening of the overture Act III: Good Friday Spell 11:46 leading premières of new music. immediately establishing a rough-hewn and fluctuations of tempo and emotionalism are enough to Koussevitzky’s conducting rarely if ever was without a Recorded 19th April 1946 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0147 and 12-0148 Koussevitzky’s tenure of the Boston Symphony tempestuous response from one of the great orchestras rustle the surface and bring a restive edge to sense of theatre and effective point-making. in album M-1198 lasted from 1924 to 1949. This was a notable time of the world. Contrast is another of Koussevitzky’s proceedings. Especially beguiling are the ‘murmuring’ Matrices: D6-RC-5716-2P, 5717-2A and 5718-1A during the Boston Symphony’s history – due to trademarks – sectionalising musical passages – as the of the strings and the very characterful woodwind solos, adventurous programming and wide-ranging ensuing cor anglais solo demonstrates in being very each musician a distinct personality who displays Colin Anderson 5 Siegfried Idyll 18:01 commissions: from international composers such as slow and very expressive, but sustained through Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 49-3414 and 49-3415 Hindemith (Concert Music for Strings and Brass), theatrical tension. This is an appropriately ‘operatic’ in album WDM-1571 Honegger (Symphony No. 1), Prokofiev (Symphony No. performance (one as much fuelled by Koussevitzky’s Matrices: D9-RC-1720-1A, 1721-1A, 1722-1 and 1723-1C 4, in its original version) and Stravinsky (Symphony of temperament as his experience of playing for many Psalms). American creators – such as Barber, Copland, years in the pit of the Bolshoy Theatre) – an enactment Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897): Harris, Piston and Schuman – were also commissioned. in miniature of the story to follow, and with all the 6 Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 9:58 In 1940 Koussevitzky, a dedicated teacher, established narrative power that that involves. Recorded 2nd April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0377 the Koussevitzky Music Center at Tanglewood (the The ethereal strains of the Prelude to Lohengrin then Matrices: D7-RC-7403-2 and 7404-2A Boston Symphony’s summer home) – where Leonard make a further contrast – this time of the music itself, Bernstein was a pupil. Then, in 1942, in memory of his beatific and magical entreaties are conjured by the high- Boston Symphony Orchestra • Serge Koussevitzky late wife, Natalie (the daughter of a successful tea- lying strings (here with perfect intonation and blend and merchant), Koussevitzky formed the Koussevitzky becoming more-lustrous in sound), the winds adding a All recordings made in Symphony Hall, Boston, USA Music Foundation. This commissioned, among other halo of light as the journey progresses to a majestic notable works, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony, summons from the brass, stridently sounded Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (which self-quoted (Koussevitzky was not afraid of making a grand gesture). Fanfare for the Common Man), Britten’s opera Peter Such spiritual connotations continue with the two Special thanks to Don Tait for providing source material Grimes (of which Bernstein conducted the American excerpts from Wagner’s final work for the stage, Parsifal première) and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Earlier, (described by Wagner as a Bühnenweihfestspiel, a sacred 8.111283 2 8.111283 3 4 8.111283 8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 2

GREAT CONDUCTORS • KOUSSEVITZKY Great Conductors: Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) festival drama). The Prelude, once again displaying complete integrity as to Koussevitzky’s lovingly Historical Recordings 1946-1949 Koussevitzky’s ability to set and maintain a spacious voluble direction, which vies a movement with Historical Recordings 1946 - 1949 tempo without sacrificing direction or with tension immersed contemplation and a sense of expectancy, Richard WAGNER (1813-1883): The Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky was born in 1922, it was Koussevitzky who had asked Ravel to sagging, is an engrossed benediction, timeless in such lingering affection and growing ardour leading to a Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) on 26th July 1874, in a town outside of Moscow, into a orchestrate Mussorgsky’s piano-work Pictures at an musical significance yet palpably suggesting a devout, charged climax that features a nimble horn solo but 1 Overture 10:17 musical family from which his first musical tuition Exhibition (which is now the most famous of the many mystical, Holy Grail-related pilgrimage – solemnly perhaps a rather raucous one from the trumpeter before Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0958 came. Before developing his career as a conductor, arrangements of Mussorgsky’s original, an orchestral majestic and richly expressed, but not superficially sinking back into the rêverie of earlier. Matrices: D7-RC-7407-3B and 7408-2A which would come to fruition in 1924 when he was transcription that Koussevitzky recorded, as he did beautiful. The Good Friday Music (taken from Act 3) Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, composed appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, both now being extends these features with a powerful sense of for Breslau University, and incorporating student songs, Lohengrin Orchestra, Koussevitzky was a double bass player. He coupled on Naxos 8.110105). ceremony and deep reflection, and is very sensitively is given a lusty outing, incisive march-rhythms 2 Act I: Prelude 9:09 gave recitals on and composed a concerto for his Koussevitzky made many recordings with the played here. established from the very outset, a sense of purpose Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-1323 instrument; in 1894 he also joined the Bolshoy Theatre Boston Symphony Orchestra, not least of the Austro- Intimacy abounds in Siegfried Idyll, a gift from tempered by beguiling orchestral decoration and more- Wagner to his wife Cosima (Liszt’s daughter) that was lyrical material. Koussevitzky introduces pomp and Matrices: D9-RC-1718-1 and 1719-2A Orchestra, becoming Principal of the double bass German classics. The recordings on this release, mostly section in 1901 until 1905. Koussevitzky’s early days of Wagner, were recorded between 1946 and 1949 and first heard at the Wagners’ villa (Tribschen, on the even a hint of vulgarity into this lively, ardour-filled (before the 1917 Revolution) were not confined to are representative of Koussevitzky’s final years with the shore of Lake Lucerne) on Christmas morning 1870, performance, one in which detail is relished, with the Parsifal Siegfried being the Wagners’ son (1869-1930) who was Boston Symphony’s strings notably rich-toned and 3 Act I: Prelude 14:58 playing in the pit: he founded a publishing house, Boston Symphony. At the time of these recordings, accepted conducting engagements in the West and also Koussevitzky was in his early- to mid-70s and lacks also a composer. Koussevitzky’s conducting of the passionate. There’s light and shade, too, amidst the Recorded 4th April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0146 and 12-0147 formed his own orchestra to tour in Russia. Post the nothing for energy – as the opening of the Overture to opening bars – expressive and rapt – also have a gentle healthy spontaneous vigour. For the final triumphant in album M-1198 momentous events of the Revolution, although The Flying Dutchman testifies. Koussevitzky, a degree of forward thrust, enough to suggest that this bars, when the Gaudeamus Igitur is introduced, Matrices: D7-RC-7409-1A, 7410-1A and 7411-1A remaining in Russia for a while, Koussevitzky left for flamboyant character, inspires a typically dramatic and will not be a ‘serenade’-type of performance. So it Koussevitzky makes a marked slowing, the trumpets’ proves, for while this account is lyrically shaped, small edge adding a brazen quality – proof that 4 Paris and cultivating his conducting engagements, often intense performance, the opening of the overture Act III: Good Friday Spell 11:46 leading premières of new music. immediately establishing a rough-hewn and fluctuations of tempo and emotionalism are enough to Koussevitzky’s conducting rarely if ever was without a Recorded 19th April 1946 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0147 and 12-0148 Koussevitzky’s tenure of the Boston Symphony tempestuous response from one of the great orchestras rustle the surface and bring a restive edge to sense of theatre and effective point-making. in album M-1198 lasted from 1924 to 1949. This was a notable time of the world. Contrast is another of Koussevitzky’s proceedings. Especially beguiling are the ‘murmuring’ Matrices: D6-RC-5716-2P, 5717-2A and 5718-1A during the Boston Symphony’s history – due to trademarks – sectionalising musical passages – as the of the strings and the very characterful woodwind solos, adventurous programming and wide-ranging ensuing cor anglais solo demonstrates in being very each musician a distinct personality who displays Colin Anderson 5 Siegfried Idyll 18:01 commissions: from international composers such as slow and very expressive, but sustained through Recorded 27th April 1949 • First issued on RCA Victor 49-3414 and 49-3415 Hindemith (Concert Music for Strings and Brass), theatrical tension. This is an appropriately ‘operatic’ in album WDM-1571 Honegger (Symphony No. 1), Prokofiev (Symphony No. performance (one as much fuelled by Koussevitzky’s Matrices: D9-RC-1720-1A, 1721-1A, 1722-1 and 1723-1C 4, in its original version) and Stravinsky (Symphony of temperament as his experience of playing for many Psalms). American creators – such as Barber, Copland, years in the pit of the Bolshoy Theatre) – an enactment Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897): Harris, Piston and Schuman – were also commissioned. in miniature of the story to follow, and with all the 6 Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 9:58 In 1940 Koussevitzky, a dedicated teacher, established narrative power that that involves. Recorded 2nd April 1947 • First issued on RCA Victor 12-0377 the Koussevitzky Music Center at Tanglewood (the The ethereal strains of the Prelude to Lohengrin then Matrices: D7-RC-7403-2 and 7404-2A Boston Symphony’s summer home) – where Leonard make a further contrast – this time of the music itself, Bernstein was a pupil. Then, in 1942, in memory of his beatific and magical entreaties are conjured by the high- Boston Symphony Orchestra • Serge Koussevitzky late wife, Natalie (the daughter of a successful tea- lying strings (here with perfect intonation and blend and merchant), Koussevitzky formed the Koussevitzky becoming more-lustrous in sound), the winds adding a All recordings made in Symphony Hall, Boston, USA Music Foundation. This commissioned, among other halo of light as the journey progresses to a majestic notable works, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony, summons from the brass, stridently sounded Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (which self-quoted (Koussevitzky was not afraid of making a grand gesture). Fanfare for the Common Man), Britten’s opera Peter Such spiritual connotations continue with the two Special thanks to Don Tait for providing source material Grimes (of which Bernstein conducted the American excerpts from Wagner’s final work for the stage, Parsifal première) and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Earlier, (described by Wagner as a Bühnenweihfestspiel, a sacred 8.111283 2 8.111283 3 4 8.111283 8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 5

Producer’s Note 8.111283 The performances presented here were made during a period of great transition in recording technology and published formats. From around 1944 until its adoption of magnetic tape late in 1949, RCA Victor recorded on two Great Conductors • Koussevitzky ADD master formats: direct to 78-rpm wax matrices for commercial issue and to lacquer backup discs recorded at 33 1/3 rpm. The latter method was able to capture a wider frequency range than wax, and provided a backup for dubbing purposes in case something went wrong with the 78 masters. As new vinyl media supplanted shellac for record releases, the lacquers offered a quieter source from which to prepare transfers. When American Columbia released the first modern LP records in 1948, RCA, unwilling at first to pay the Also available licensing fees, countered with the 45 rpm disc. They eventually bowed to the inevitable in 1950; but during and after this interim period, there seemed to be no general rule as to the format on which a recording would be issued. For example, the Flying Dutchman Overture and the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal were both recorded at the same session; yet, the former was issued on a quiet, wide-frequency vinyl 45 rpm disc (as well as 78 rpm shellac) while WAGNER the latter only came out on shellac 78s. Similarly, the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin and the Siegfried Idyll were done at the same session, with the former released on the 45 and 78 rpm formats and the latter on 45 and LP only. Opera Overtures and Except for the Siegfried Idyll, none of the Wagner recordings were released in the USA on LP at all. (The Flying Dutchman Overture came out in the UK on LP in the 1970s, but in a sonically compromised pseudo-stereo version.) The present disc features their CD premières. The sources for the transfers were vinyl 45 rpm discs for Preludes The Flying Dutchman and Siegfried Idyll; a mix of 45 and 78 rpm sources for the Lohengrin; all 78s for the Parsifal (their only form of issue); and an LP for the Brahms overture. Siegfried Idyll Mark Obert-Thorn 8.110105 8.110154 BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

8.110168 8.110170 Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitzky 1946 - 1949 recordings 8.111283 5 8.111283 6 8.111283 bk Koussewitzky EU 16/1/08 13:44 Page 5

Producer’s Note 8.111283 The performances presented here were made during a period of great transition in recording technology and published formats. From around 1944 until its adoption of magnetic tape late in 1949, RCA Victor recorded on two Great Conductors • Koussevitzky ADD master formats: direct to 78-rpm wax matrices for commercial issue and to lacquer backup discs recorded at 33 1/3 rpm. The latter method was able to capture a wider frequency range than wax, and provided a backup for dubbing purposes in case something went wrong with the 78 masters. As new vinyl media supplanted shellac for record releases, the lacquers offered a quieter source from which to prepare transfers. When American Columbia released the first modern LP records in 1948, RCA, unwilling at first to pay the Also available licensing fees, countered with the 45 rpm disc. They eventually bowed to the inevitable in 1950; but during and after this interim period, there seemed to be no general rule as to the format on which a recording would be issued. For example, the Flying Dutchman Overture and the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal were both recorded at the same session; yet, the former was issued on a quiet, wide-frequency vinyl 45 rpm disc (as well as 78 rpm shellac) while WAGNER the latter only came out on shellac 78s. Similarly, the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin and the Siegfried Idyll were done at the same session, with the former released on the 45 and 78 rpm formats and the latter on 45 and LP only. Opera Overtures and Except for the Siegfried Idyll, none of the Wagner recordings were released in the USA on LP at all. (The Flying Dutchman Overture came out in the UK on LP in the 1970s, but in a sonically compromised pseudo-stereo version.) The present disc features their CD premières. The sources for the transfers were vinyl 45 rpm discs for Preludes The Flying Dutchman and Siegfried Idyll; a mix of 45 and 78 rpm sources for the Lohengrin; all 78s for the Parsifal (their only form of issue); and an LP for the Brahms overture. Siegfried Idyll Mark Obert-Thorn 8.110105 8.110154 BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

8.110168 8.110170 Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitzky 1946 - 1949 recordings 8.111283 5 8.111283 6 NAXOS Historical 8.111283 C Playing M

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& Boston Symphony Orchestra

2008 Naxos Rights International Ltd. Made in Germany Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951)

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883): Serge Koussevitzky’s tenure of the Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) Boston Symphony lasted from 1 Overture 10:17 1924 to 1949, a notable time Recorded 4th April 1947 during the orchestra’s history, owing to adventurous programming Lohengrin and wide-ranging commissions. KOUSSEVITZKY: 2 The recordings on this release, Act I: Prelude 9:09 made between 1946 and 1949, are Recorded 27th April 1949 representative of Koussevitzky’s Wagner • Brahms final years with the orchestra and, Parsifal although the conductor was in his 3 Act I: Prelude 14:58 early to mid-seventies, lack Recorded 4th April 1947 nothing for energy. The opening of 4 Act III: Good Friday Spell 11:46 the Overture to The Flying Recorded 19th April 1946 Dutchman inspires a typically dramatic and intense performance. • Brahms Wagner 5 Intimacy abounds in Siegfried Siegfried Idyll 18:01 Idyll, a lyrically shaped account Recorded 27th April 1949 with a gentle degree of forward

KOUSSEVITZKY: thrust, beguiling strings and Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897): characterful woodwind solos. 6 Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 9:58 Brahms’s Academic Festival Recorded 2nd April 1947 Overture is given a lusty outing but not without light and shade, proof Boston Symphony Orchestra • Serge Koussevitzky yet again that Koussevitzky’s conducting rarely if ever was without a sense of theatre and All tracks recorded in the Symphony Hall, Boston, USA effective point-making.

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Special thanks to Don Tait for providing source material 8.111283 www.naxos.com Cover Photograph: Serge Koussevitzky (late 1940s) NAXOS HistoricalNAXOS (Private collection)