Saturday, November 13th, 2010
This recording of RK’s “Scheherazade” was an earlier restoration that I had bumped back releasing to accomodate customer requests for other titles. I am trying to get all the of 2010-series Klassic Haus CDs posted on my website before the end of the year. I have yet to do cover art for the remaining CDs, and some other projects have been pre-empting my efforts. I have 10 to go, and I may not get around finishing the Handel Concerti Grossi Op. 6 set with Alexander Schneider conducting as I promised for November. I may try for a December release. In the meantime, please check out this new release – here is an MP3 sample: KHCD-2010-043 sample (low quality – there is a better quality sample on my website). Description of the disc contents, as found on klassichaus.us, follows below. Cheers! – Curt
KHCD-2010-043 (STEREO) – Rimsky-Korsakov: Scherherazade – Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Mario Rossi – Khatchaturian: Dance of the Shields and Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from “Spartacus” Ballet Suite – Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra/Edouard van Remoortel – Vanguard Records issued the “Scheherazade” recording as “Vanguard Stereophonic Demonstration Disc” in late 1959. Half of the LP back cover was devoted to how stereo discs were produced, type of playback equipment required, balance and phasing, and placement of loudspeakers. The recording itself is middle-distance perspective, with subtle highlighting of solo instruments (typical of some early stereo recordings). The CD was produced using a near-mint Stereolab black-label LP. The Khatchaturian recording, derived from a Philips Universo blue-label disc, was a filler for Herbert Kegel’s recording of Shostakovich’s “Execution of Stepan Rasin”. The Monte Carlo orchestra plays with appropriate brashness in the Dance of the Shields, and lyric passion in the Adagio.