Thomas Schippers, New York Philharmonic – Prokofiev / Mussorgsky (2003) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Thomas Schippers, New York Philharmonic – Prokofiev / Mussorgsky (2003)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 74:01 minutes | Full Art (PDF) | 4,89 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Art (PDF) | 1,44 GB

Thomas Schippers conducts the New York Philharmonic in two Russian showpieces. Thomas Schippers had a sadly short career, but these recordings show his art at the best. The Nevsky is from 1962, while the Pictures is from 1965. The sources are not entirely clear, but both were likely 3-track recordings, and both have been redone in surround for this release.

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Thomas Schippers – Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100 – Menotti: The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Thomas Schippers – Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100 – Menotti: The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:23:21 minutes | 890 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Classic

Thomas Schippers was a talented American conductors and a particular champion of the music of Samuel Barber. He played at a public piano recital at the age of six and was a church organist when he was 14. He continued his piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1944-1945). He also studied privately with Olga Samaroff (1946-1947). He went on to Yale University, where he had some lessons in composition with Paul Hindemith.

In 1948 he took second prize in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s young conductor’s contest. He took a job as organist of the Greenwich Village Presbyterian Church in New York. He and group of other young musicians formed a group called the Lemonade Opera Company, which he conducted for several years.

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Zino Francescatti, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, Leonard Bernstein – Sibelius: Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 47 / Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26 (1965/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Zino Francescatti, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, Leonard Bernstein – Sibelius: Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 47 / Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26 (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 50:43 minutes | 501 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Bernstein – Remastered Edition: Sibelius – The Symphonies collects Bernstein’s complete Sibelius recordings, newly remastered from the original analogue tapes using 24 bit / 96 kHz technology in a 7CD limited original jackets collection.

Bernstein regarded Sibelius alongside Mahler as one of “the key turning points” in the development of the 20th century symphony, though his reputation as a Mahler exponent has overshadowed a lifelong dedication to the Finnish composer. His advocacy goes back to the time of his association with Koussevitzky, with whom he studied at Tanglewood in 1940, later becoming his assistant. At Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute in 1941, he conducted the Second Symphony. And following his sensational New York Philharmonic debut in November 1943, one of Bernstein’s first engagements was a Montreal Symphony Orchestra concert in March 1944 that included his first performance of the First.

The Finnish composer’s centenary year, 1965, brought a flurry of activity. In New York, Bernstein conducted all the symphonies in a single season (only his mentor Serge Koussevitzky had done that in the US, three decades earlier in Boston). For his efforts, Bernstein was made a Commander of the Order of the Lion by the president of Finland. By this time, he was already well into his recorded Sibelius cycle, begun in February 1961 with the Fifth Symphony, completed in May 1967 with the Sixth.

Bernstein’s Sibelius, like his teacher’s, was “warm like the sun” rather than a more orthodox evocation of cold northern soundscapes. He once called Sibelius “a great and strange kind of genius”, but in his New York cycle he favors visceral excitement over strange remoteness.

This set also contains his recording of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the French virtuoso Zino Francescatti. Also included are Valse triste, The Swan of Tuonela, a rather brash Finlandia, a thrilling performance of Pohjola’s Daughter and Luonnotar – Sibelius’s haunting setting of words from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic (with American soprano Phyllis Curtin) – as well as Bernstein’s only recording of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites. But it’s the Sibelius symphonies that are the chief attraction here, and this often stunningly well-played, first completed stereo cycle has lost none of its freshness and authority in the half century since it was recorded.

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Giovanni Foiani, Leontyne Price, Robert Merrill, Richard Tucker, Shirley Verrett, Ezio Flagello, Corinna Vozza, Giorgio Tozzi, Piero De Palma, Mario Rinaudo, Rolf Bottcher, RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Thomas Schippers – Verdi: La forza del destino (1965/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Giovanni Foiani, Leontyne Price, Robert Merrill, Richard Tucker, Shirley Verrett, Ezio Flagello, Corinna Vozza, Giorgio Tozzi, Piero De Palma, Mario Rinaudo, Rolf Bottcher, RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Thomas Schippers – Verdi: La forza del destino (1965/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:55:50 minutes | 3,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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Carlo Bergonzi, Leontyne Price, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello, Fernando Iacopucci, Hartje Mueller, Júlia Hamari, RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Thomas Schippers – Verdi: Ernani (1968/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Carlo Bergonzi, Leontyne Price, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello, Fernando Iacopucci, Hartje Mueller, Júlia Hamari, RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Thomas Schippers – Verdi: Ernani (1968/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:09:58 minutes | 2,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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