The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – Schubert: Symphony No. 9 (1970-2019/2019)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 00:50:18 minutes | 2,02 GB
Genre: Classical | Publisher (label): EMI / Tower Records Japan – TDSA-110
セルとクリーヴランド管の最期のセッション録音群である”グレイト”を、本国オリジナル・アナログ・マスターテープから最新でSACDハイブリッド化。新規マスタリング。新規解説付
1970年の大阪万博で初来日した直後の7月に亡くなったジョージ・セル(1897-1970)が、直前の4月にドヴォルザークの交響曲第8番他と共に旧EMIレーベルに録音を行った、まさに白鳥の歌である”グレイト”が最新SACDで蘇りました。その年の年末に追悼盤としてLPがリリースされ、かつての雄姿を彷彿させる決定盤的演奏として長く親しまれてきた演奏です。尚、市販のSACDシングルレイヤーでリリースされています。今回の復刻のために、本国のオリジナル・マスターから96kHz/24bitでデジタル化したマスターを用い、SACD層、CD層別々にマスタリングを新規で行いました。新規解説付。永久保存盤です。
セル&クルーヴランド管弦楽団の超名盤がSACDハイブリッド盤で登場。市販でSACDシングルレイヤー盤としてリリースされていますが、SACDハイブリッド盤としては初めてのリリースです。同じステレオ録音盤では1957年録音の旧盤も強固な造形と緻密なダイナミズム、特に第4楽章における曲調に準じた機敏な反応は見事でした。本盤では加えて、両者の結び付きの強さから来る安定感と芳醇なまでに昇華された音楽性の向上が顕著に感じられます。最新の高品位でのデジタル化とマスタリングにより、さらに完成された素晴らしい両者の世界を感じ取れると思います。尚、この録音はマスターに起因するノイズ等や一部の歪、また、当時の録音による手法も散見されますが、従来通り、復刻に当たりましては原盤を尊重し、楽器の質感や音楽性を重視したマスタリングを心掛けました。この歴史的名盤の芸術観をより感じ取っていただけますと幸いです。
このシリーズでは、SACD層では伸びのある高域と柔らかなニュアンスと共に高い解像度と豊かな音場を、CD層はまとまったしっかりとした音と共に押し出される実在感ある音色を目指しています。CD自体のポテンシャルも高く、むしろ両方の良さを堪能できるSACDハイブリッド盤としてもお楽しみください。今回のDefinition Series第22弾は、計3タイトルを発売いたします。
＜制作ノート＞
マスタリングに当たりましては、本体の解説書内にも表記してあります通り、過去に発売された音源と極力比較する検証も行なった上で音楽を最大限に生かすべく、オリジナルのアナログ・マスターテープを尊重した上での最適なマスタリングを心がけております。一般的にマスターテープはあくまで製品前の段階での素材であり、収録年代や保存状況、原盤に対するレーベルの方針により状態や程度がそれぞれ異なります。そのため各最終製品形態に合わせ、程度の差はありますがほとんどの場合、基本的に必要最小限の整音が前提となっています。
The Cleveland Orchestra, Gina Bachauer, Robert Casadesus & George Szell – Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 – Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, M. 82 & Le tombeau de Couperin, M. 68a (Remastered 2024) (1959/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:32 minutes | 721 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Archipel
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, was composed in the summer of 1909. The piece was premiered on November 28 of that year in New York City with the composer as soloist, accompanied by the New York Symphony Society under Walter Damrosch. The work has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical piano repertoire.
The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major was composed by Maurice Ravel between 1929 and 1930, concurrently with his Piano Concerto in G major. The piece was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost his right arm in the First World War.
Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Grave of Couperin) is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel also produced an orchestral version of the work in 1919, although this omitted two of the original movements.
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George Szell, Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebou – Beethoven: Egmont Op.84, Symphony No.5 (1970/2021)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:19:52 minutes | 3,15 GB
Genre: Classical | Publisher (label): Decca / Esoteric
https://www.esoteric.jp/en/product/essd-90251/top
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Pierre Fournier, George Szell, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Dvorak: Cello Concerto (1962/2014)
DSD128 (.dsf) 1 bit/5,6 MHz | Time – 38:24 minutes | 3,03 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:24 minutes | 788 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet | Source: HDTT | Genre: Classical
HighDefTapeTransfers chose another genuine classic to remaster, and one can hardly argue the importance of this 1961 recording of Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, B.191 from cellist Pierre Fournier ant the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Szell.
Read more![Pierre Fournier, George Szell, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Antonín Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191 (1962/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/17/YuMil0S.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Pierre Fournier, George Szell, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Antonín Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191 (1962/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:25 minutes | 1,54 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © HDTT
…HDTT chose another genuine classic to remaster, and one can hardly argue the importance of this 1961 recording of Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, B.191 from cellist Pierre Fournier ant the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Szell.
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George Szell & Cleveland Orchestra – Schubert: Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” & No. 9 “The Great” by George Szell (2023 Remastered) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:16 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording
Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (sometimes renumbered as Symphony No. 7, in accordance with the revised Deutsch catalogue and the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe), commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony (German: Unvollendete), is a musical composition that Schubert started in 1822 but left with only two movements—though he lived for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives.
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George Szell & Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43 by George Szell (1964/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:46 minutes | 760 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording
The Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43, is a four-movement work for orchestra written from 1901 to 1902 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He began writing the symphony in winter 1901 in Rapallo, Italy, shortly after the successful premiere of the popular Finlandia. Sibelius said, “My second symphony is a confession of the soul.”
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David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rospropovich, The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – – Brahms: Violin Concerto & Double Concerto (1970) [Japan 2011]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 74:15 minutes | Some Scans included | 2,08 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Some Scans included | 1,89 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Some Scans included | 1,6 GB
Warner Music Japan # WPGS-50107 – Features the latest EMI Remastering (2011)
This is one of two recordings of the Double Concerto that Mstislav Rostropovich performed. That the cello’s repertoire has been so wonderfully enriched during the 20th century is due largely to Mstislav Rostropovich, the most influential cellist of his time, a champion of liberty, and also a noted conductor and pianist. Rostropovich was closely associated with EMI Classics (now Warner Classics) for more than 50 years, having made 100 recordings with the company between 1954 and his death in 2007, just a month after celebrations for his 80th birthday at the Kremlin.
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George Szell – Schubert: Rosamunde, D. 797, Incidental Music by George Szell (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:43 minutes | 571 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording
George Szell (* June 7, 1897 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary; † July 30, 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio) was an Austro-Hungarian conductor, pianist and composer. He had American citizenship. From 1946 until his death, he conducted the Cleveland Orchestra. With the exception of Eugene Ormandy, no conductor in the 20th century led one of the American Big Five orchestras for longer than George Szell. The conductors Szell, Ormandy, Solti, Doráti and Reiner, who all came from Budapest, brought the American orchestras from the middle of the 20th century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, to a level equal to that of the European orchestras.
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George Szell – Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by George Szell (2023 Remastered, Amsterdam 1957) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 26:42 minutes | 464 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording
George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. Considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors, he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and recorded a standard classical repertoire in Cleveland, and with other orchestras.
Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, “We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review.”
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George Szell – Ludwig van Beethoven conducted by George Szell live (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:31:17 minutes | 940 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Archipel
Immerse yourself in the timeless brilliance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music with this captivating album: a remarkable live performance led by the legendary conductor George Szell, accompanied by the virtuoso pianist Rudolf Firkušný and the prestigious Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Released by Gebhart, the album captures the essence of Beethoven’s compositions, infusing them with passion and precision. The symphonic grandeur and expressive nuances come alive under Szell’s masterful direction, while Firkušný’s piano prowess adds depth and beauty to the performances. This album is a testament to the enduring power of Beethoven’s music, brought to life by exceptional musicians in a live setting that resonates with energy and emotion.
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George Szell – Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 (2018 Remastered Version) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:33:02 minutes | 4,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
George Szell (/ˈsɛl/; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into “what many critics regarded as the world’s keenest symphonic instrument.”
Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, “We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review.”
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George Szell – Beethoven etc. George Szell and Clifford Curzon live in Cologne 1961 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:29:59 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Archipel
George Szell (/ˈsɛl/; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into “what many critics regarded as the world’s keenest symphonic instrument.”
Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, “We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review.”
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George Szell, The Cleveland Orchestra – Mahler: Symphony No. 6 “Tragic” (Remastered) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:13:40 minutes | 2,98 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
George Szell (/ˈsɛl/; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into “what many critics regarded as the world’s keenest symphonic instrument.”
Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, “We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review.”
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George Szell, The Cleveland Orchestra – Schumann: Symphonies 2 & 4: Weber: Oberon Overture (2001)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 61:28 minutes | 2,88 GB
FLAC 2.0 Stereo (PS3 ISO extract / Weiss Saracon conversion) 24bit/88.2 kHz | 1,48 GB
Japan Import | Year: 1960, 2001 | Full Scans | 3% Recovery Info
… the recording sounds as though it had been made just last week. George Szell and the Clevelanders render Schumann in the grand manner of the middle of the last century, before the horrendous politically correct, period instruments craze hit the classical world. To anyone who’s heard any of the more “authentic” recordings of the last couple of decades, this may sound somewhat bombastic, but that’s what makes this music so wonderful.!
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