Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] RCA pressings of English Decca recordings

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Is this the last one or the one before? (He did 5, I believe.) There was one on 
Angel that made no impression because Capitol Canada insisted on mastering and 
pressing it domestically, to initiate their new "state of the ark" pressing 
plant, which was a disaster even for pop stuff.

Worst Planets, in no particular order:

Steinberg, DG (too damn fast)
Bernard Herrmann, London (too damn SLOW..pick it up, Benny!)
Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony (he has absolutely no concept of what the music 
is about)
Albert Coates, HMV 78s (he played only the 4 fast movements, and got Mars in 
under 6 minutes..they didn't call him Speedy Gonzales for nothing)

Best Planets on 78:
Sir Ernest MacMillan, Toronto Symphony, 1942 (unfortunately the trend at that 
time was to end with Jupiter, so he did, and didn't record nos. 5-7)

Boult on 78 was recorded via telephone lines, incidentally. Ghastly sound.

dl

phillip holmes wrote:
> I second you on the Boult.  It's phenomenal.   If Bernstein's 
> performance of Mars is like the Blitz (which it is), then Boult's is 
> like trench warfare.  I think his Saturn is head and shoulders above 
> most others.  Perhaps due to his own age, he somehow makes it that much 
> more dreadful and sad, not wanting to let it rush to the inevitable.  
> The organ glissando on Uranus will move your anus--I really thought 
> something was about to break in the room (I had two pairs of servo 
> subwoofers and large planar speakers when I first listened).  It's the 
> best I've heard and I probably had at least 12 different modern recordings.
> Phillip
>
>
> Tom Fine wrote:
> > Hi David:
> >
> > The records I'm speaking of are the Decca Jubilee series, just to be 
> > clear.
> >
> > I wouldn't call that Karajan Planets recording under-rated. It's well 
> > liked by most critics. I think it's a very good interpretation but my 
> > favorite of them all is the last one that Boult did, circa early 
> > 1970's. The recording and the performance are incredible. I also like 
> > Dutoit/Montreal from the 1980's, again for both recording and 
> > performance. The critics also seem to like Mehta/L.A. but I found it 
> > pretty generic. Planets is a bit like Pictures at an Exhibition -- too 
> > many recorded versions out there and very few of them are very good.
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick" 
> > <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] RCA pressings of English Decca 
> > recordings