Composer: Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Modest Mussorgsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Peter Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performer: Peter Serkin, Arnold Steinhardt
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Number of Discs: 6
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: RCA
Catalogue: 88985392102
Release: 2017
Size: 1.39 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1, BB 91, Sz. 83
01. I. Allegro moderato – Allegro
02. II. Andante – attacca
03. III. Allegro molto
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127, Sz. 119
04. I. Allegretto
05. II. Adagio religioso
06. III. Allegro vivace
CD 02
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
01. Promenade I
02. Gnomus
03. Promenade II
04. Le vieux château
05. Promenade III
06. Les tuileries
07. Bydlo
08. Promenade IV
09. Ballet des poussin dans leurs coques
10. Samuel Goldenberg et Schmuyle
11. Le marché de limoges
12. Catacombes
13. Con mortuis in lingua mortua
14. La cabane sur des pattes de poule
15. La grande porte de kiev
Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
16. Theme: Full Orchestra
17. Theme: Woodwinds
18. Theme: Brass
19. Theme: Strings
20. Theme: Percussion
21. Theme: Full Orchestra (Reprise)
22. Variation I: Flute, Piccolo (Presto)
23. Variation II: Oboes (Lento)
24. Variation III: Clarinets (Moderato)
25. Variation IV: Bassoons (Allegro alla marcia)
26. Variation V: Violins (Brilliante alla pollaca)
27. Variation VI: Violas (Meno mosso)
28. Variation VII: Cellos
29. Variation VIII: Doublebasses (Comminciando lento, ma poco accel.)
30. Variation IX: Harp (Maestoso)
31. Variation X: French Horns (Il stesso tempo)
32. Variation XI: Trumpets (Vivace)
33. Variation XII: Trombones & Tuba (Allegro pomposo)
34. Variation XIII: Percussion (Moderato)
35. Fugue: Full Orchestra (Allegro molto)
CD 03
01. Stravinsky: Fireworks, Op. 4
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
02. Introduction
03. Harbingers of Spring (Dances of the Young Girls and Boys)
04. Mock Abduction
05. Spring Rounds
06. Games of the Rival Tribes
07. Procession of the Wise Elder
08. Adoration of the Earth (Wise Elder)
09. Dance of the Earth
10. Introduction
11. Mystic Circles of the Young Girls
12. Glorification of the Chosen One
13. Summoning of the Ancients
14. Ritual of the Ancients
15. Sacrificial Dance (Chosen One)
CD 04
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto, Op. 42
01. I. Andante
02. II. Molto allegro
03. III. Adagio
04. IV. Giocoso (moderato)
Schoenberg: Klavierstücke (5), Op. 23
05. Nr. 1: Sehr langsam (1920)
06. Nr. 2: Sehr rasch (1920)
07. Nr. 3: Langsam (1923)
08. Nr. 4: Schwungvoll (1920 / 1923)
09. Nr. 5: Walzer (1923)
Schoenberg: Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47
10. Grave – Più mosso – Meno mosso – Lento – Grazioso – Tempo I – Più mosso
11. Scherzando – Poco tranquillo – Scherzando – Meno mosso – Tempo I
CD 05
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
01. I. Andante – Allegro con anima
02. II. Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza
03. III. Valse. Allegro moderato
04. IV. Finale. Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace
05. Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain
CD 06
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
01. I. Allegro con brio
02. II. Andante con moto
03. III. Allegro
04. IV. Allegro
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D759 ‘Unfinished’
05. I. Allegro moderato
06. II. Andante con moto
He is “one of those rarities, a natural conductor”, exclaimed one reviewer after Seiji Ozawa’s Chicago Symphony debut on July 16, 1963 at the orchestra’s Ravinia Festival. “His technical facility is phenomenal, his sense of rhythm both solid and subtle, and his knowledge of scores… detailed and intimate.” Another Chicago critic concurred: “His conducting technique reminds you of his teacher, Herbert von Karajan, in that it lays the score in the lap of the orchestra with transparency of gesture and human communication, then commands acceptance.” At the end of the season, the 27-year-old podium sensation was appointed the festival’s first-ever music director, and in the years that followed Ozawa also became a regular CSO guest at Orchestra Hall, its downtown home.
Between 1965 and 1968, he and the orchestra made a series of remarkable albums for RCA. Collected here for the first time in a single box of 6 CDs, they represent an early high-point – perhaps unsurpassed – in the Japanese maestro’s long and distinguished recording career. Featured among these dynamic Ozawa/Chicago performances are three cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire: the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphonies and the Schubert “Unfinished”, all remastered from the original analogue tapes for this edition.
“The Chicago Symphony is one of the greatest orchestras I have ever conducted, and I have had no greater glory in music than I have experienced here.” With those words, Seiji Ozawa singled out the significance of his Ravinia tenure and ensuing collaboration with the CSO.