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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: My new favorite "New World" (Karel Ancerl/Czech Philharmonic, on Supraphon)
Post Subject: Philadelphia Orchestra, OrmandyPosted by Paul S on: 10/31/2009
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Columbia ML 5115 (mono LP; sounds best in mono)
This one took a while to sink in. For one thing, it starts out with the "elite orchestra", as usual, confident in its abilities to the point where it almost sounds like a rehersal. If you listen, you can hear Ormandy catching the hot-rod musicians again and again with too little bow on a string or too little air in the lungs, and this, apparently, without Ormandy "going for broke" or anything so crass as that, but rather just holding a note here and there a little longer, or starting a little sooner than the musicians "expected".
Fortunately, the musicians decide to rise to the occasion, and the occasion becomes an Occasion. The reading is "different", sounding somewhat like Beethoven 5 or something, but not like you might dread. Rather, it's the way the sound is layered that brings Beethoven to mind, and the way the orchestra's tone is developed and used. This version is also unique to me thematically, since the way the tone is utilized actually makes for a different development of the narrative aspect of this symphony.
I have not always liked Ormandy because he has in the past seemed too conservative and cautious to me. Here, he still seems conservative, but in a way that suggests a certain comfortable insight into the score and the orchestra, both.
The LP is a 6 Eye, and it is a good one.
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site