Composer: Robert Schumann
Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor: Guido Cantelli
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Release: 1954/2020
Size: 818 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120
01. I. Ziemlich langsam – Lebhaft
02. II. Romanze. Ziemlich langsam
03. III. Scherzo. Lebhaft – Etwas zurückhaltend
04. IV. Langsam – Lebhaft
Newly remastered – These important and very rare live recordings featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra derive from the Music Preserved archive and have never been released before. They have been carefully restored by Paul Baily.
The Glasgow Herald stated that Cantelli’s Schumann nearly raised the roof with its excitement but it also noted ‘the plasticity of line and transparent textures’. Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien was a Cantelli speciality and was noted by the Glasgow Herald for ‘its breathtaking moments’ which held the audience in rapt silence. Similarly, Debussy’s La Mer got praise for the conductor’s feeling for orchestral colouring and ‘rhythmic exactitude that mark the conductor at his best … There is no mistaking the greater impetuosity and attack in the Edinburgh account compared to the Kingsway Hall recording made four days later.’ (Mark Kluge)
These performances offer an intimate glimpse of a wonderful partnership between Cantelli and the Philharmonia Orchestra which was so tragically cut short.