Glière Symphony No.3 'Ilya Murometz'

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, yes. I have merged the threads involved.

FBerwald: Please find the discussion of Falletta's recording earlier in this newly merged thread.

[Alan Howe]

I'd say the Falletta is a fine performance of a piece that, frankly, needs the kitchen sink thrown at it (as far as commitment is concerned). In other words, it demands more than a fine performance. It needs the sort of slavonic intensity that few conductors really understand or can command.

[Alan Howe]

I'm now blown away by the Rakhlin performance. Wow: it has real Russian spirit...

[adriano]

Thanks, Alan, for your opinion - using that unique English expression having but a poor German translation of "alles Mögliche versuchen um..." 

[Alan Howe]

I'm afraid my anti-virus software won't allow me to access these files.

[adriano]

... and my own "brain hard disc" tells me too, that this may be a dangerous link... Anyway, I made a mistake by offering my own digital transfer in here, not knowing that Amazon offers its own. Next time I keep such kind of transfers just for myself :-)

[Mark Thomas]

Ken's upload of the Rakhlin performance has been moved to the Downloads Board here.

Moderator's Note: It has been removed from the Downloads Board as it is commercially available. MT.

[JP]

Wow, I can just imagine that a full-blooded no-holds-barred concert performance of Gliere's Sym 3 Ilya Murometz preceded by an equally luxuriant premiere and sensuous rendition of Jaroslav Kricka's Bluebird Overture as the warm-up prelude item would make a most astoundingly titillating and unprecedentedly aural sonic treat. Now that's what I'd call imaginative repertoire programming.   

[Alan Howe]

To my ears Ken's upload sounds identical to the commercially available download.

[adriano]

In all modesty: still considering it was done from an LP and not from a master tape, my transfer has more bass and mid-range presence and reflects much more the original spacious balance and depht. Groove noise is minimal, even while listening with earphones. Once I have enough time I will also do a transfer of the EMI pressing, in order to see what's coming out :-) I haven't listened it since a long time, and it was bougth before the Columbia CBS album. I may have had a good reason for ordering this last one too... Perhaps because it had one movement per side and wider grooves. The EMI has The Bronze Horseman Suite on side 4 (conducted by Algis Zuraitis).

[Alan Howe]

it's probably the best out there until Sony releases the Ormandy recording he made for RCA. (There is a Japanese release.)

I've ordered the Ormandy from Japan. Yes, I know it's cut, but I couldn't resist hearing the Philadelphia Orchestra in this music.

[adriano]

I remember I liked the Ormandy. I actually had all LP versions of this Symphony. Stokowski, Fricsay, Rachmilovich etc. And, later on, all CDs. But then I sold my LP collection and kept only the Rakhlin. Of the Scherchen I had already done a private digital transfer before Westmister's (its official version of can also be downloaded from Naxos). So now I only have the Golovchin, Downes, Farberman and Feltz CDs. I gave away the other versions; most probably the next ones leaving will be the Falletta and that (the most) boring performance by Farberman. I am still madly in love with this Symphony - after 50 years when I first heard it (I think it was the Fricsay)! To record it myself belongs to Utopia, of course, but, would I win a lottery, I would do it - together with Respighi's complete "Belkis" and Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights" :-)

[Alan Howe]

Well, the Ormandy arrived today - all the way from Japan in four days! Of course, its great glory is the playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra; but the drawback, as we know, is that 20+ minutes of music are missing. However, I also bought this to hear what a great conductor in this repertoire - which I take Ormandy to have been - makes of the music. And he's wonderful - no holding back here; no playing it safe (he doesn't have to with his magnificent Philadelphians); and above all fabulous colour and richness of sonority without the 'glare and blare' of a Russian orchestra of that period (1971).

So: shame about the cuts. But what a disc!

[Mark Thomas]

My original exposure to Ilja Murometz was the Ormandy LP. I loved the full-blooded exoticism of both the music and the peerless performance of the Philadelphians. Of course, I was ignorant of the cuts way back then. Somehow, none of the CD replacements I've bought over the years have cut the mustard, despite having fewer, or no, cuts, So maybe I'll invest in the Ormandy transfer, it would be wonderful to hear his performance again.

[Alan Howe]

Here it is:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB-%E4%BA%A4%E9%9F%BF%E6%9B%B2%E7%AC%AC3%E7%95%AA%E3%80%8C%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A0%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A1%E3%83%84%E3%80%8D-%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A2%E7%AE%A1%E5%BC%A6%E6%A5%BD%E5%9B%A3-%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3-%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3/dp/B0000QWYSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543051914&sr=8-1&keywords=gliere+Ormandy