Vintage Mengelberg In Superb Transfers
Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 04/17/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you are already a Mengelberg enthusiast, this set is self-recommending. But if you are new to the Dutch conductor's uniquely exciting interpretations, this 3-disc Andante set is an ideal place to start. Lavishly packaged with perceptive notes, it contains what are probably the finest transfers these performances have ever received.
Every performance here simply exudes passion, extraordinary precision, and absolute commitment. Just listen to the bronze-like glow of the horns at the opening of the Suppe, the trenchant lower strings in the Brahms Academic Festival Overture, or the delicate filigree throughout the enchanting Dopper piece. While Mengelberg's arbitrary gearshifts in the Beethoven Eroica may raise eyebrows, the quality of the playing is beyond belief: this is arguably the best-PLAYED Eroica ever recorded. Likewise the Liszt Les Preludes, one of the greatest performances of ANYTHING I have ever heard.
I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that this superb set deserves to be in any serious classical music collection.
Highest recommendation."
Excellent transfers of 78's
J. Grant | North Carolina, USA | 03/19/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For some reason Mengelberg was constantly overshadowed by fellow contemporaries Stokowski and Toscanini. I still fail to comprehend the reason for this, as Mengelberg infused more energy and passion into his conducting than either of the two aforementioned. Unfortunately, unlike Toscanini and Stokowski, nearly his entire output was recorded on 78's with a few on magnetic tape. Regardless of the rather poor source, Andante does an amazing job on these transfers. They chose the method of preserving the natural sound and leaving some surface noise rather than having no noise at the expense of the musical tone. Michael Dutton and Marc Obert-Thorn are the only engineers I have heard that do an equal or better job on recordings from this era. This set is highlighted by his famous 1928 Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 and the 1929 Liszt Les Preludes, but everything is really quite good if not excellent. I do wish that his Mahler No.4 from 1939, the Tchaikovsky No.6 (1941) and Strauss Ein Heldenleben (1941) would have been included. The playing of the Concertgebouw is outstanding throughout."