Koussevitzky Conducts Bartók, Stravinsky, Strauss and Weber

Bela Bartok (Composer), Richard [1] Strauss (Composer), Igor Stravinsky (Composer), Carl Maria von Weber (Composer), Sergey Koussevitzky (Conductor), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Sergey Koussevitzky
• Composer: Bela Bartok, Richard [1] Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Carl Maria von Weber
• Audio CD (May 9, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Guild
• ASIN: B000N3AX3I
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #594,473 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Koussevitsky conducts Bartok, et al., December 1, 2010

By 

J. Forrest "Operabuf" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Koussevitzky Conducts Bartók, Stravinsky, Strauss and Weber (Audio CD)

The history of this recorded performance dates from a few years prior, when Bela Bartok and his wife fled Europe and came to the United States. Performance engagements were hard to come by and royalties from performances of Bartok's music were also limited, especially with the war in Europe having pretty much ended any revenue from there. Various of Bartok's friends sought to help the proud composer who was beginning to be ravaged by the leukemia which ultimately proved fatal. Fritz Reiner, then Music Director in Pittsburgh, approached Serge Koussevitsky, and the Natalie Koussevitsky Foundation commissioned a piece for the Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform. Stories abound of the composer sitting in the balcony of Symphony Hall, more than a bit unhappy with "Koussy's" interpretative approach, but the premiere weekend concert pair was highly successful, and a few weeks later, the conductor repeated the work at two more concerts, one of which was broadcast and the source of this remarkably well sounding Cd. The composer was not present for the repeat performances, but before other orchestras played the work, he re-wrote the final movement's conclusion. So, this broadcast performance is unique in more than one respect. As with so many early BSO broadcasts and recordings, the incredible quality of the orchestral execution is palpable, and I have always found it difficult to find anything to which Bartok might have taken exception. Surely few works, particularly one requiring such orchestral virtuosity, can have had such a premiere . . . . So, too, the short Stravinsky work, and a Don Juan played with the panache this conductor had previously brought to an early RCA recording of Zarathustra. This is an indispensible disc for those with an interest in the BSO, their great leader, and the composers involved.