COMPOSERS: Mussorgsky/Scriabin/Stravinsky
LABELS: Decca Phase 4 Stereo
WORKS: Pictures at an Exhibition; The Poem of Ecstasy; The Firebird Suite; Pastorale
PERFORMER: New Philharmonia Orchestra, Czech PO, LSO, RPO/Leopold Stokowski
CATALOGUE NO: 443 898-2 ADD (1966-75)
Launched in 1962, Decca’s spatial, multi-channel Phase 4 Stereo did for classical pop and big band what Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ did for rock. You either loved or hated it. Reverberantly spectacular, it was ideally suited to the Stokowski style. These late recordings (he was over ninety at the time of the Scriabin concert in Prague – very Eastern European trumpets) remain stunning, with a Firebird of vibrant personality and attack, and a quite brilliantly outrageous Hollywood abbreviation of Pictures (dating from 1939, the year of Stokowski’s work on Disney’s Fantasia). OTT ‘big screen’ indulgence maybe – but undeniably impressive. Ates Orga
Mussorgsky/Scriabin/Stravinsky
Launched in 1962, Decca’s spatial, multi-channel Phase 4 Stereo did for classical pop and big band what Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ did for rock. You either loved or hated it. Reverberantly spectacular, it was ideally suited to the Stokowski style. These late recordings (he was over ninety at the time of the Scriabin concert in Prague – very Eastern European trumpets) remain stunning, with a Firebird of vibrant personality and attack, and a quite brilliantly outrageous Hollywood abbreviation of Pictures (dating from 1939, the year of Stokowski’s work on Disney’s Fantasia).
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:08 pm