Felix Mendelssohn – Incidental Music To A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Philharmonia Orchestra And Chorus, Otto Klemperer (1960/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:39 minutes | 957 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: e-onkyo | @ EMI Classics
Recorded: 1960, EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
These 1960 performances are classics among the classics, and there is little need to emphasize their qualities. Otto Klemperer conducts the incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream with an audible keenness for this magic music. If the tempos are not the liveliest on disc, the Maestro’s natural aptitude for orchestral balance certainly allows the listener to taste every bit of Mendelssohn’s fairy orchestration, as in the vivid Scherzo or the delicate anxiety of the Intermezzo. Heather Harper and Janet Baker are irresistible in the sung episodes, and so is the Philharmonia Chorus. –Luca Sabbatini, ClassicsToday
Tracklist:
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61
1 Overture, Op. 21 12:53
2 Scherzo, Op. 61 No. 1 5:28
3 March Of The Fairies, Op. 61 No. 2a 1:16
4 Ye Spotted Snakes, Op. 61 No. 3 4:38
5 Intermezzo, Op. 61 No. 5 3:56
6 Nocturne, Op. 61 No. 7 7:02
7 Wedding March, Op. 61 No. 9 5:00
8 Funeral March, Op. 61 No. 10a 1:00
9 Dance Of The Clowns, Op. 61 No. 11 1:47
10 Finale, Op. 61 4:47
Personnel:
Janet Baker, contralto (#4)
Heather Harper, soprano (#4,10)
Philharmonia Orchestra And Chorus
Otto Klemperer, conductor
About the Mastering :
Four engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London have remastered these historic EMI recordings from their original analogue sources for release in pristine hi-def. Between them, Simon Gibson, Ian Jones, Andy Walter and Allan Ramsay have many years of experience remastering archive recordings for EMI and other record labels. The process always starts with finding all of the records and tapes in EMI’s archive in London and comparing different sources and any previous CD reissues. We consult each recording’s job file, which contains notes about the recording made by the engineer and producer. For example, this sometimes explain why there is more than one set of tapes to choose from. All of the tapes are generally in good condition and we play them on our Studer A80 π inch tape machine, after careful calibration of its replay characteristics.
In order to have the best digital remastering tools at our disposal for the remastering, we transfer from analogue to the digital domain at 96 KHz and 24-bit resolution using a Prism ADA-8 converter and capture the audio to our SADiE Digital Audio Workstation.
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