Comparison Recording:
Scheherazade, Stokowski, LSO [ADD] Decca
417 753-2
Scheherazade, Stokowski, RPO [ADD] Dolby
Surround RCA 09026-62604-2
Scheherazade, arr. for 2 guitars by
K. and N. Yamashita RCA 6777-2 RC
Like many of you I
grew up with Scheherazade on
78s, the Rodzinski recording with the
Cleveland Orchestra I recall. How many
times have I heard it? Would rather
not guess. But contrary to my reaction
to the Mozart 35th Symphony or the Beethoven
Eighth Symphony, both of which I’ve
heard far, far too many times, neither
of which I ever want to hear again,
I can hear Scheherazade again,
right now, tomorrow, the day after.
It is absolutely unkillable music, eternally
gorgeous, ever delightful. And it has
never been done better — never been
done as well — as in this recording.
That doesn’t mean other
versions aren’t also quite excellent.
In addition to the Rodzinski, which
is still in circulation as a restoration,
the (OP) Westminster LP recording with
Argeo Quadri is very worthy. Many swear
by the Beecham version; Eugene Ormandy
and Fritz Reiner recorded remarkable
performances as well. I even liked the
EMI recording with Rostropovich. Another
version you must hear is the transcription
for two guitars by brother and sister
Yamash’ta on RCA. You don’t believe
me, or course, but trust me and check
it out. You’ll be glad you did. It pains
me to urge you to avoid the Hermann
Scherchen version on Westminster/DG;
the orchestra plays so clumsily for
him as to reduce his fine performance
nearly to a shambles.
Many of you will already
have this recording in an ADD CD transfer
on the Decca label; so, is there any
reason to buy it again? This Cala transfer
has been done utilising 96kHz, 24bit
technology (but, of course, it is still
a normal CD, not a DVD-Audio). Theoretically
it could be a little better in sound,
just as the extra tape duplication step
in going from ADD to AAD could diminish
that advantage. So is there really any
improvement in sound quality and if
so how much? I compared these disks
on my "D" system, a portable
with 5" speakers I use to listen
to music quietly in bed. No mistake
— at once the improvement in power and
clarity of sound in the new version
was manifest and unmistakable. On my
"A" system, the improvement
was, naturally, far more apparent.
But even if the sound
were identical, a serious Stokowski
fan would want this disk for the rehearsal
recording. There are many gems here:
"Just be quiet, rest, don’t fiddle
with your instruments. Let me do the
talking, please .... Don’t be machines.
Music is heart ... It wasn’t together?
There are times in music when it shouldn’t
be together. You did it perfectly. You
have a talent for it [laughter] ...
Permit yourselves to get excited. How
do your wives do it for you?...[to the
producer] You want it slower here and
faster there? Oh, you have the wrong
conductor. ... [to the orchestra] You’re
going on tour? Are you going to Cleveland?
[laughter] You’re going to New York?
Cleveland goes to New York. They know
good playing in New York. ... You can
do it. If anybody can’t do it, there’s
the door. If I give everything, you
give everything. Please ..."
Much as I admire Stokowski,
I sometimes find his Tchaikovsky in
general overly sentimentalised and lacking
in tension, in comparison to recordings
by other artists. Stokowski was himself
clearly not pleased with many of his
Tchaikovsky recordings as they are quite
different from each other in general,
as though the maestro never quit searching
for the perfect balance. Or, it may
have been a case of employing unusual
tempi and dynamics as a means of waking
up a jaded orchestra who had played
the music too many times before. Tchaikovsky
advised conductors to play his music
as if it were Mozart. Stokowski is a
fine Mozart conductor (and Vivaldi and
Handel also, by the way) but he does
not follow Tchaikovsky’s advice. My
favourite Tchaikovsky conductors are
Scherchen, Dorati, Karajan and Reiner
(well, OK, I do have a weakness for
the Giulini Symphony #2). But,
this performance is absolutely unimpeachably
great, the audience obviously sharing
that opinion by their vigorous applause.
Shortly after the review
copies of this recording were sent out
the producers discovered minor defects
in the pressings, described as "largely
in the form of (very slight) electronic
clicks in the left channel" and
I also detected a bit of studio noise
during the final violin cadenza. We
are assured that these defects occurred
only in the advance review copies and
that production copies will be free
of defects, that Cala records are resolutely
committed to producing a perfect product.
Unfortunately the ‘comp list’ is rather
long, and, contrary to the producer’s
intentions, contrary to the producer’s
wishes, many of those comp copies, will
end up for sale in record shops or perhaps
jumble sales. However, the defects are
all but impossible to hear unless you
have a critically quiet music room and
listen very closely, no louder than
the occasional creaking folding chair;
and certainly not nearly so loud as
the clicks in Stokowski’s RCA CSO recording
of Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, where
a highlight microphone was inadvertently
left on as a wind soloist rattled the
keys on his instrument while practising
silently. For my part I judged it not
worth the bother of requesting a replacement
copy, but you may call +44 (0) 20 8883
7306 for information on how to obtain
a replacement.
The RCA recording with
the RPO, available on a budget price
CD pressing as well as in the "Stokowski
Stereo Collection" boxed set, was
done 11 years after the Decca version,
featuring the same violin soloist. The
perspective is a little more natural
(particularly the percussion) if more
distant, the playing as fluent if just
a tad less precise, and the surround
sound no more accurate or effective
than any stereo CD recording played
in "ambient" mode with your
Dolby surround sound decoder. But of
course if you’re a fanatic like me you
have to have that one, too. Stokowski
after all could never play anything
exactly the same way twice, and in the
RPO recording he segues the second
movement onto the first with a held
violin note.
Paul Shoemaker
Rob Barnett has
also listened to this recording
Apart from a slight
tendency to congeal at climaxes this
is a cracking version of Scheherazade.
It is a paradigm of supple shaping and
flowing vitality. The LP age 'Phase
Four' technology does produce some 'gorgeous'
spotlighting but when it means that
you are floating above Erich Gruenberg's
seductive violin you can easily ignore
any purist leanings. Listen also to
Roger Birnstingl's serenading bassoon
at the start of The Story of the
Kalendar Prince and later Roger
Lord's fruity oboe. The gritty and super-precise
attack of the brass is a joy to hear.
Stokowski is a magician in so many details
- take 1.10 (tr. 3) where the flexible
lively ascents and descents of harp
and clarinet (Osian Ellis and Gervase
de Peyer no less) are microscopically
managed to extract maximum effect. Listen
too to the elfin stabbing climax Stokowski
makes at 9.10 in the final movement.
Thanks to Cala for
making such a stunning job of this Scheherazade
which has about it nothng of
the mundane or commonplace or the tired
or routine.
The recording was made
in 1964 so you must make some allowance
for the slight stridency on the massed
violins but that is the only demerit.
My own recommendations certainly go
to this disc but would also include
Stokowski's later RCA version with
the RPO, Kondrashin, Svetlanov (BMG-Melodiya),
Serebrier (greatly underrated version
on Reference Recordings), Ormandy (Sony)
and Beecham (take your pick). Stokowski's
Scheherazade is pure magic -
a warhorse reinvented for jaded ears.
Speaking of warhorses,
next comes the Marche Slave which
is a trial at the best of times. Stokowski
keeps it flowing along and his emphases
and detailing lend some of the freshness
it so desperately needs.
For Stokowski specialists
you get the enchanting mini-speech he
gave at his 90th birthday concert and
we owe it to Edward Johnson that we
can also hear the charm and transient
ire of Stokowski rehearsing the LSO
in Scheherazade.
Rob Barnett
see also earlier
review by Jonathan Woolf
Erich Gruenberg, violin solo in the Rimsky-Korsakov.
