Back over to the French Radio Transcriptions this week for a performance from the 1949 Besancon Festival featuring legendary Belgian conductor Andrè Cluytens leading an orchestra he was closely associated with for most of his professional career, Orchestre de la Sociètè des Concerts du Conservatoire, or Paris Conservatory for the shortened version, or simply PCO for collectors.

A wonderful orchestra with a rich, distinctive (some call it heady and pungent) sound, Cluytens made some memorable recordings with this organization, many which are still in print via CD reissue.

This weekend it's a performance of Paul Dukas La Peri, a work he has recorded commercially with this orchestra, but this live performance, I don't think, has seen the light of day.

So with probability, you may be getting to hear it here first.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

I always talk about how many concerts are broadcast any given day by the radio networks in Europe, and how many of them are live on-the-spot. Well, to prove that point, here is a concert that was recorded lived earlier today (8:00 pm Paris time - 11:00 am Los Angeles time) featuring Orchestre National de France led by podium superstar Daniele Gatti and featuring Antonio Meneses, cello in music by Faure`, Saint-Saens, Debussy and Ravel.

Both the orchestra and soloist are given rousing ovations and, as is customary, they play rousing encores.

Great concert all the way around, and to hear it live as-it's-happening is a bonus.

The concert is divided between two players and the intermission feature has been edited out (no interviews, just commercial recordings featuring Meneses) and the announcements have been edited down in order to take the concert down from its original three hours to a reasonable length.

Here's what's being played:

Part 1 - Gabriel Fauré

Pelléas et Mélisande, Musique de scène pour la pièce de Maeterlinck(1902)

Camille Saint-Saëns

Concerto N°1 en la mineur Op.33 (1869)

Part 2 - Claude Debussy

Jeux (1912)

Maurice Ravel

Daphnis et Chloé, Suite N°2 (1913)

Antonio Meneses, Violoncelle
Orchestre National de France
Daniele Gatti, Direction

Who says music is dead? Not around here.

Remember, it's Anti-Road Rage Wednesday so step away from the computer and turn the speakers up.

And enjoy.

Back over to the Radio Transcriptions of Radio France this week. A radio studio recording circa 1957 (no exact dates on the labels, I'm sorry to say) by The Parrenin String Quartet playing the music of 20th century composer Jean-Louis Martinet.

His Variations For String Quartet written in 1946. The Parrenin Quartet were one of the pioneering performing ensembles in France in the 1950's and 1960's. I am not sure they recorded this work commercially and I highly doubt this broadcast recording has been available in any form.

Like a lot of contemporary music from this period, it can take some getting used to. Not helped is the fact the original discs were damaged in spots with some pretty nasty scratches to contend with, and I'm not certain if this piece has gotten much in the way of exposure since it's 1946 premier. Suffice to say Martinet was a prolific composer who only died two years ago (at the age of 98) and had been active for a very long time and made a substantial contribution to the music world.

Not all listening is easy the first time around, but if you stick it out, the benefits can be substantial.

And so ends the weekend.

Those rather cumbersome, oversized, disgustingly fragile records again this week. Only instead of by way of France they're local. A weekly program that began life in the late 1920's and continued until the 1950's featured two major orchestras on the West Coast - The San Francisco Symphony and The Los Angeles Philharmonic. Sponsored by Standard Oil this one hour program featured some of the greatest names in the Classical Music World performing live in specially arranged concerts.

This one, originally broadcast on March 4, 1945 featured the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by their Music Director at the time Alfred Wallenstein with the legendary Artur Schnabel as piano soloist.

The program is pretty mainstream and aimed at the musical novice (there's nothing wrong with that - we all were). Starting with the Overture to Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, and the Prize Song from Wagner's Die Meistersinger. Schnabel joins the orchestra in the Schumann Piano Concerto (with a bumpy start) and ends with Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Certainly historic in retrospect, but if you looked at the broadcast schedules from most American radio networks at the time who carried Symphonic concerts, it was no big deal. Every major (and many minor) symphony orchestras were regularly broadcast around the country. Some were dedicated to new music, some were dedicated to the meat-and-potatoes repertoire, but all of them were performing a service in introducing our culture to everything that was available. And the airwaves were filled with legendary figures at just about every spot on the radio dial

Something that, sadly, exists only in pockets today. With all this access in recent years you'd think we'd be drowning in an embarrassment of riches these days. But no.

Maybe someday. In the meantime - check out this slice of history. You may have heard of Artur Schnabel and you may have his benchmark series of complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas in your collection. Or maybe you just heard about him and never knew what he sounded like.

Now's your chance.

Over to Toulouse, France this week for a concert featuring the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, led by the wonderful Spanish conductor Josep Pons and featuring the vocal talents of Raquel Lojendio, soprano, Gustavo Pena, Tenor and Joan Martin Royo, Baritone in music of Richard Strauss and Manuel de Falla. Recorded live in concert on January 6th of this year by Radio France Musique.

A short concert (the last piece, the Brahms Symphony No. 1 wasn't broadcast) but still on two players.

Here's the rundown courtesy Radio France Musique from their February 10th broadcast.

Un épisode de don Quichotte comme source d'inspiration, trois voix solistes, un petit orchestre et des marionnettes : avec ces moyens modestes, Falla a composé une œuvre pleine de charme et de vitalité, Le Retable de Maître Pierre, où passent tour à tour drame, bouffonnerie, réalisme et féerie.

Richard Strauss
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Suite pour orchestre Op.60 TrV 228c (1911, 1920)

1. Ouverture de l’acte I

2. Menuet

3. Le maître d’armes

4. Entrée et danse des tailleurs

5. Menuet de Lully

6. Courante

7. Entrée de Cléonte

8. Prélude de l’acte II

9. Dîner et danse des marmitons

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Le Retable de Maître Pierre (1922) d'après le Don Quichotte de Cervantès (Episode du 26e chap. de la 2e partie)

1er tableau :

2e tableau : Melisandra

3e tableau : le supplice du Maure

4e tableau : les Pyrénées

5e tableau : la fuite

6e tableau : la poursuite

7e tableau : finale

Raquel Lojendio, Soprano
Gustavo Peña, Ténor
Joan Martin Royo, Baryton
Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
Josep Pons, Direction

Great concert, wonderful orchestra, terrific soloists, not often heard music. Perfect Anti-Road Rage Wednesday.

Enjoy.

Over to the Angelika Kauffmann Hall, Schwarzenberg Austria during the 2011 Schubertiade Festival for a recital by British Piano virtuoso Paul Lewis in a program of, you guessed it, Schubert.

The concert was recorded by Radio France Musique on June 19, 2011. And for you note takers:

Schwarzenberg : Récital Paul Lewis, Piano

Franz Schubert

Valses Op.18 D.145 (1815, 1821)

Impromptu en ut mineur Op.90 N°1 D.899 N°1 (1827)
Impromptu en Mi bémol majeur Op.90 N°2 D.899 N°2 (1827)
Impromptu en Sol bémol majeur Op.90 N°3 D.899 N°3 (1827)
Impromptu en La bémol majeur Op.90 N°4 D.899 N°4 (1827)
Mélodie hongroise en Si mineur D.817 (1824)
Sonate N°18 en Sol majeur Op.78 D.894 (1826)

Concert donné le 19 juin 2011, Hall Angelika Kauffmann dans le cadre du Festival des

Schubertiade

The almost 90 minute concert is broken up between two players. The announcements are in French and somebody in Master Control forgot to flip the switch, so the first part of the concert is in Mono and the second half is in Stereo.

I know. You'd think . . . .

Still, France Musique runs two of these concerts a day and most of them are live-as-it-happens and off-the-cuff. So you can't really blame them for spacing out every now and then.

Besides, it's Anti-Road Rage Wednesday.

And then there was 1968. The year just about everything came unhinged. The Vietnam War escalated and got very personal. The protests escalated accordingly - people who weren't against the war were violently opposed to it now. President Johnson declined re-election, leaving the field open for former Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy to run. The Civil Rights Movement was becoming increasingly violent, culminating in the assassination of Martin Luther King. France went on strike and took it to the streets, shutting the entire country down. Robert F. Kennedy would be assassinated. Chaos would erupt at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Nixon would emerge as President and that era would soon start.

And beyond all that Apollo 8 made the very first orbit of the moon. A rehearsal for the landing to take place in 1969. Even from outer space, the view of earth from the landscape of the moon gave one the impression Earth was just not a happy place to be.

But we were stuck there.

Those highlights and a ton of other news from that year, all via the BBC and their Radio 1 Year-end retrospect for December 31, 1968 which looked at the year from a world wide standpoint.

And some people say 2012 will make 1968 look like a picnic.

One wonders - at least you have some frame of reference to consider.

Over to France this week for one of the many Jazz festivals that went on in Europe this past summer. Charles Lloyd and His "New Quartet" at the Charlie Jazz Festival in Vitrolles France on July 1, 2011. The concert was recorded by Radio France as part of its Jazz Club weekly series (an amazing series of interviews, concerts and rarities - check 'em out).

Here's the lineup and particulars via Radio France:

vendredi 1er juillet 2011

En direct du Moulin à Jazz
Domaine de Fontblanche
13127 Vitrolles
dans le cadre du Charlie Jazz Festival

Charles Lloyd New Quartet
Charles Lloyd, saxophone
Jason Moran, piano
Reuben Rogers, contrebasse
Eric Harland, batterie

The concert runs around 90 minutes and was live from the stage on July 1, 2011. It also includes an interview with Charles Lloyd for the first 10 or so minutes.

A great concert and a good way to end the week by one of the legendary figures in Jazz.

Enjoy.

As we're heading into the dog days of Summer, the festivals across Europe don't seem to have any intention of slowing down. Jazz, particularly American Jazz, is such a staple in the diet of most Europeans that any festival worth its salt has at least one legend on its concert schedule. Most of the time, several.

The Jazz Festival in Marciac France is no different - in fact, this festival appears to be hosting a who's who of Jazz greats this year (it's ending on the 15th so it might be way too late to get tickets). And this weekend's Downbeat features two of them; Ahmad Jamal and Yusef Lateef.

Broadcast live and direct from the stage last week by Radio France, this one hour set has a wildly appreciative crowd digging in to the timeless music of these two icons. Jamal and Lateef have been an integral part of the Jazz scene, making great music as solo artists since the mid 1950's.

Today they are the grand and revered figures in America's art form. And thankfully, still going strong.

Festival season is thankfully alive and wonderfully well.

Continuing with festival season. This time it's a live and direct concert recorded this past Sunday (the 23rd) at the prestigious Aix en Provence Festival in Provence France. One of the really great European festivals, this year they featured the London Symphony as Orchestra-in-residence and they turned in some memorable concerts.

This concert features the LSO with Valery Gergiev in a program of music by Debussy and Shostakovitch. Debussy's La Mer and the Shostakovitch Symphony Number 8.

From all reports, the festival was a sell-out within the first day tickets were offered. So, in case you missed it this year, here is a reasonable substitute . . .or not.

The concert is broken up into two players. The top player is the Debussy and the bottom player is the Shostakovitch.

Here are the notes.

samedi 23 juillet 2011
En direct du Festival d’Aix en Provence : Debussy, Chostakovitch

Claude Debussy
La Mer (1903, 1905)

Dmitri Chostakovitch
Symphonie N°8 en Ut mineur Op.65 (1943)

London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, Direction

Concert donné au Grand Théâtre de Provence d’Aix-en-Provence

Announcements are in French but have been cut down as it was live and they were padding quite a bit while the orchestra set up, tuned and took a fifteen minute break between numbers.

Enjoy and consider Anti-Road Rage as an answer.