Catoire & Blumenfeld Symphonies from Dutton

[eschiss1]

... sigh. None of that is being disputed. But if the Khaikin was a broadcast performance never released commercially, then Dutton is still entirely right to call their recording a "premiere" recording, unless of course there's yet another that was so released. That's what's been in question (see posts above.)

[Alan Howe]

Exactly, Eric. The issue remains what the provenance of the Khaikin performance is.

[eschiss1]

Right- should have explained that I was trying to "unpack" what is not, outside of some circles (which I am not actually normally in ), the most often-encountered term (a term I would not have known, I think, if not for sites like the Bach Cantatas site, which is one of the best of its kind I ever had found up to that time and maybe up to now, too, including, indeed, the provenance where known of (the scores/parts of) every cantata listed, etc. Which I began to find fascinating and which I noticed fit in with longtime preoccupations of mine. ... Anyway. Sorry! )

[Alan Howe]

Anyway, the Dutton CD is another triumph for the prolific Martin Yates and his superb orchestra. I am listening to the Blumenfeld Symphony in C minor and it's good to hear it played with such refinement and subtlety as well as such passion and power. The idiom is very much 'Tchaikovsky plus', as it were, but none the worse for that - and it holds one's interest throughout. The slow ending, by the way, is really beautiful.
More comment on the Catoire when I've auditioned it...

[Justin]

Exactly, Eric. The issue remains what the provenance of the Khaikin performance is.

I apologize for exhuming this topic from its grave after 7 and a half years, but I found some more information on this for those who enjoy trivial details like me.

The Boris Khaikin performance of Catoire's Symphony in C minor was recorded on November 21st, 1965, with what was known at the time as the "Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra," or as it was known to the English-speaking world, the "Grand Symphony Orchestra of the All-Union Radio and Central Television." Its name was changed 2 years after the fall of the Soviet Union (1993) to the "Russian Symphony Orchestra," although it is known to the English-speaking world today as the "Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra."

As noted by the ensemble's English title in 1965, this symphony was recorded for All-Union Radio, the USSR broadcasting entity, of which the "Fourth Program" (known today as Radio Orpheus) was devoted solely to classical music. This makes it highly probable that this performance was strictly broadcast for radio, and that no LP pressings were ever made except possible acetates to be put in storage and taken out for broadcast replays. However, the medium of master tapes would be much more likely to exist in my opinion.

Sources include the website for the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, "intoclassics.net" which gives us the recording date, and the website for the Russian Museum of Radio and TV.

[eschiss1]

Thanks! And since apparently the Golovchin performance  of Blumenfeld's memorable symphony was recorded in 1991, that finishes the picture