Continuing with radio transcriptions of the 1960's this week. Featuring the Hollywood Bowl debut of 25 year-old Wunderkind Indian Conductor Zubin Mehta, who began his long association with the orchestra in 1961 with this performance, featuring pianist Byron Janis, of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3, recorded by the Armed Forces Radio Service on August 1, 1961.

Mehta was something of a shot-in-the-arm for the Orchestra, which had gone through much of the previous decade in the musical doldrums, highlighted by the occasional guest conductor or soloist. Mehta brought enthusiasm back to the orchestra and the audience, by introducing a lot of adventuresome programming and trying unconventional things. Who could ever forget the L.A. Phil and The Mothers Of Invention at UCLA? Zubin Mehta came along and was at the right place at the right time.

And this recording is right about where it all started.

Another one of those concerts that hasn't seen the light of day since it was recorded. Even though it was pressed by AFRTS for use overseas, it's not likely it got a lot of airplay. And it certainly hasn't been reissued.

So yes, we're looking at yet another rarity here. Lucky you.

Over to Germany this week for a concert by the Wuppertal Symphony, conducted by Toshiyuki Kamioka and featuring legendary Hungarian pianist Dezso Ranki in music of Liszt and Bartok. The concert was broadcast live by WDR3 in Germany.

Here's what they play:

Montag, 23.04.12 um 20:05 Uhr
WDR 3 Städtekonzerte NRW
Live - Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal

Franz Liszt
Zwei Legenden

Béla Bartók
Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 Sz 95

Béla Bartók
Konzert für Orchester Sz 116

Dezsö Ránki, Klavier

Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal
Leitung: Toshiyuki Kamioka

Live aus der Historischen Stadthalle Wuppertal
Redaktion: Christoph Held

The concert is broken up between two players - the top player features the Liszt and the Bartok Piano Concerto and the bottom player features Concerto For Orchestra.

Announcements are in German, so drag out your translation books.

Otherwise, perfect Anti-Road Rage Wednesday music. No?

(The del Valle Brothers, serving up very tasty Poulenc with a side of deFalla)

(believe me, if I didn't absolutely have to . . .)

This week's concert takes us back over to Spain to an Orchestra I'm not familiar with, a conductor I'm not familiar with, a Piano duo I'm not familiar with and one Spanish composer I'm not familiar with.

Well, what is life without adventure . . right? I was very pleasantly surprised by just how good this band sounds, Orquesta Sinfonica de la Region de Murcia and how good this conductor (Jose Miguel Rodilla) is and the piano duo of Luis and Victor del Valle really did some nice stuff to the Poulenc double Piano concerto, as well as an encore of pieces from La Vida Breve by deFalla. And I've got to do some research on Manuel Manrique de Lara, whose Symphonic poem Agamenon had me wanting to find out more about this composer.

All in all, what a good concert is supposed to be all about - pleasant surprises and discoveries.

It comes from Radio Nacional Espana from one of their daily matinee concerts recorded on November 6, 2009. I'm really rather blown away by the fact that RNE cranks out three of these concerts a day; one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. And, even though some of the concerts are beamed from other parts of the world, most of what you hear is homegrown with mostly local talent. There is something to be said about the state of Arts and Culture in Spain right now and it's pretty high.

As always, the concert is complete - in addition to the de Lara and Poulenc pieces, the second half of the concert is the Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony. A familiar work, but with a fresh perspective.

So here's the rundown:

Matinés de Radio Clásica
Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia.
Concierto celebrado en el Auditorio y Centro de Congresos Víctor Villegas de Murcia el 6 de Noviembre de 2009.

MANRIQUE DE LARA: Agamenón. POULENC: Concierto para dos pianos y orquesta en Re menor. CHAIKOVSKY: Sinfonía nº 4 en Fa menor, Op. 36. Luis y Victor del Valle (p.), Orq. Sinf. de la Región de Murcia. Dir.: Jose Miguel Rodilla.

Top player (up there) is the de Lara and Poulenc (and de Falla encore). Bottom player (down here) is the Tchaikovsky.

Announcements are in Spanish, so is the orchestra, so are the performers. The music is universal.

Something to take on the road with you.

(Yvgeny Kissin - flawless Chopin)

This week's concert comes from the Salle Pleyel, via Radio France and recorded on February 23rd of this year. It features the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung with Yvgeny Kissin playing the Chopin 2nd Piano Concerto and several Chopin encores. The concert program is below:

Salle Pleyel : Evgeny Kissin. Weber, Chopin, Schumann
Concert donné le 23 février 2010, Salle Pleyel
Carl Maria von Weber
Ouverture du Freischütz

Frédéric Chopin
Concerto N°2 en Fa mineur Op.21
Etude N°12 en Ut mineur Op.10 N°12
Valse N°14 en Mi mineur op.Posth.
Valse N°7 en Ut dièse mineur Op.64 N°2

Robert Schumann
Symphonie N°2 en Ut majeur Op.61

Evgeny Kissin, Piano
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung, Direction

The concert, as always, is complete with the Weber and Chopin on the top player and the Schumann is on the bottom player.

Announcements are in French and edited down for time. The music however, isn't.

(Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, guest conducting in Berlin)

This weeks concert comes direct from RBB in Berlin and features the Berlin Radio Symphony led by guest Conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder in a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto Nr. 5 "Emperor" and a lively performance of Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring". The concert is broken up into two parts with part One (above) featuring Beethoven (Egmont Overture and Piano Concerto Nr.5) and Part Two (below) is Stravinsky. The announcements (a few) are in German.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ouvertüre zu Goethes Trauerspiel „Egmont“ f-Moll op. 84

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Leitung: Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos

10:00

Eigenproduktion

Ludwig van Beethoven

Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 5 Es-Dur op. 73

Rudolf Buchbinder, Klavier

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Leitung: Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos

38:16

Eigenproduktion

Igor Strawinsky

„Le Sacre du Printemps“

Das Frühlingsopfer. Bilder aus dem heidnischen Russland

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Leitung: Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos

This week's concert comes from Stockholm and it features the Swedish Radio Symphony, conducted by Daniel Harding and featuring one of the legendary figures of the keyboard, Menahem Pressler playing the Mozart G Major Piano Concerto K. 453. After the break, the orchestra embarks on a seamless presentation of music by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg. The concert was recorded on February 10th by Sveriges Radio.

Since there was a rather lengthy intermission, I just decided to break the concert up between two players, with part one (the top player) featuring the Mozart along with a Chopin encore. And part two (the bottom player) featuring the Schoenberg, Webern and Berg.

Here are the Program notes from Sveriges Radio:

"

Publiken var i extas" rapporterade en P2 Live klassiskt-medarbetare efter Menahem Presslers och Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkesters konsert i Berwaldhallen den 10 februari. Lyssna på detta ljuvliga framförande av Mozarts pianokonsert nr 17 och triptyken av Schönberg-Webern-Berg som har kallats för "Mahlers elfte symfoni".

21:30: Konsert med Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester
Solist: Menahem Pressler, piano. Dirigent: Daniel Harding.

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Pianokonsert nr 17 G-dur.

2. Arnold Schönberg: Fem orkesterstycken.

3. Anton Webern: Sex orkesterstycken.

4. Alban Berg: Tre orkesterstycken.

Konsert 10/2, Berwaldhallen.

Announcements are in Swedish and I've kept them to a minimum.

A great concert featuring one of the founding members of the Beaux Arts Trio (Pressler) who is still actively touring and teaching and one of the truly bright lights of the music world.

Enjoy.

Back over to some Americana tonight. Phil Moore established his reputation in the music world as a Jazz musician, composer and arranger, working with many of the greats of the day. He was also a prolific film soundtrack composer, but most all of his work in that area went uncredited owing to the racial barriers of the day (Phil Moore was black). Rather than let that thwart his career, he flourished and branched out into a number of musical idioms, among them Classical, or in his case a melding of Classical and Jazz. One of the results was his concerto for Piano and Orchestra which he recorded for the Los Angeles label Discovery Records in October of 1947. The Orchestra consists of some of the biggest names in the L.A. session scene in the 1940's, including Gerald Wilson and Red Callender along with members of the MGM Studio orchestra and Calvin Jackson at the Piano.

Like most of the attempts at fusing Classical and Jazz, it never quite figures out what it wants to do and it probably could have used a couple more takes here and there (it was recorded during the dreaded October of 1947 just before the great Musicians Strike at the end of that month). But it's a glimpse into another place and time when a lot of contributions were being made to the cause of contemporary music and they were coming seemingly from everywhere. That they have become mostly forgotten now is rather sad because it does ignore a particularly innovative period of time in music and certainly in American music. Whether these attempts are viewed as successful or not isn't as important as that they happened at all and happened in an atmosphere of acceptance - and where the color line meant nothing and creativity had full reign.

It happened and that's a good thing.

(Mitja Nikisch - A tragic case of timing)

Probably one of the more tragic stories in the history of classical music is the story of Mitja Nikisch. Son of the great conductor Arthur Nikisch, whose recording of Beethoven's fifth symphony in the early years of the 20th century went down as the first recording of the symphony, Mitja was torn between his duty as keeper of the family tradition of classical music and his overpowering love for Jazz. For a time he split his loyalties between both, gaining fame and notoriety as a gift Classical pianist (this recording of the Mozart Piano Concerto no. 20 is a rare example) while at the same time, achieving a reputation in Berlin Jazz circles as an extraordinary band leader. And for a time he was able to succeed in both. It was as a result of the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and Nazism virtually banned all Jazz and dance bands as "degenerate" that Nikisch's life took a tragic turn. While he was able to straddle both worlds for a time, by 1936 he was able to do neither and the result was a tragic and premature death by suicide of a promising and gifted talent at the age of 36.

Of the handful of recordings Nikisch made, only this one features his playing of Mozart. The Piano Concerto Nr. 20 K. 466 with The Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Rudolf Schulze-Dornberg, recorded for the Telefunken label in 1934.

(Wilhelm Stenhammar - one of the "bubbling unders" from early 20th Century Sweden)

Something a little more traditional tonight. Wilhelm Stenhammar, although not a household name has not become an obscure figure in Classical music. Thanks to smaller labels like BIS, music of Stenhammar and his Swedish contemporaries are gaining a place with music lovers, and that's a good thing because Stenhammar had a considerable output of great music.

This piece, his 2nd Piano Concerto, comes from a set of 78 rpm discs, performed by the Swedish Pianist Hans Leygraf, accompanied by the Goteborgs Radio Symphony conducted by Sixten Eckerberg in a recording made in 1946. I'm not sure this particular recording has been reissued, either on lp or CD, but it is one of the first, if not the first recording of the concerto to be made. In addition, Stenhammar was Chief Conductor for the Goteborgs Symphony in the early 1920's. And for that, there is a degree of historic importance attached to it.

The discs are a little noisy this time, but the performance is well worth it.

And so broadens the Musical horizon.