SAX 2484: Maazel conducts Pictures at an Exhibition ... so close to being a winner
Moussorgksy-Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Debussy: Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un Faune
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Philharmonia Orchestra
Pressing: UK, ED1 blue/silver
Condition: NM
Stampers: YAX 953-4, 954-2Date first published: 1963
Performance: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Price range: $26-137 (mean $66)
Comments: This album is so close to being a winner, it's a disappointment that anything should detract from it being an audiophile's ideal find. Lorin Maazel conducts the Philharmonia in another one of his rare recordings for the Columbia SAX series (also see SAX 2467). The album pairs Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun with the orchestral powerhouse work, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The Debussy is given a lush performance with gorgeous sound. My expectations were raised for the rest of the record after this piece. Think quiet vinyl surface with a black background, combined with wide soundstaging, excellent imaging, and clarity. Pictures, which is one of my favorite orchestral works, period, had so much potential to be an outstanding recording but unfortunately fell short in the first movement. I don't know if the orchestra overloaded the mikes or what, but as soon as the brass start playing loudly, there is distortion. It's not subtle. The strange thing is that after the first movement, that's pretty much the end of the distortion. The rest of the work and record sounds fantastic. Dynamics are impressive, all the characteristics that I mentioned with the Debussy are present, and thank goodness, there is heft to the bass, which is really critical to making a work like Pictures visceral. I have a few small reservations about the performance. The Hut on Fowl's Legs, referring to the house of Baba Yaga, lacks the terrifying energy of Reiner (RCA), Szell (Epic or UK Columbia), and Muti (EMI). Maazel also chooses to take his time in The Great Gate of Kiev, which at first sounds grandiose but then tends to drag a bit. There's also a hint of distortion at the climactic end, but it's far less discrete and more forgivable than it is in the opening Promenade. Honestly, if it weren't for these misgivings I have with the record, it would be a real winner. Sonically, it is mostly very impressive, and if you can get over the transient distortion, it's well worth picking up. I have never seen this released as a semi-circle pressing, but I believe that there is an SXLP reissue. 
I have the SXLP and it is fine. A friend of mine got the two 45rpm record of Power of the Orchestra which also includes Night on a Bald Mountain. The chesky and the original of this are also pretty good. He really likes the record and the sound was very good the last time I heard it. The performances are excellent. I prefer the Power of the Orchestra over the Reiner Pictures.
ReplyDeleteThis is also on a very fine, pre-dmm, transfer on the EMI Eminence label (EMX ****)
ReplyDeleteFinally, a Tin Ear mention that I can find! (at least in sold items) EMX2007. I've got the Menuhin Paganini VCs coming in a late 1983 Concert Classic and I am curious to see how it does versus my older pressing. I looked up the lone amazon review of this CD and it lauds the La Valse which is not on the LP!:
ReplyDelete"Currently Lorin Maazel has 229 recordings listed at Tower Records, many of them duplications. On this super-budget EMI release, we get a middle-of-the-road version of Ravel's elegant orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, along with the immortal (or is it simply unending?) Bolero and La Valse. Maazel has recorded them all at least twice, and yet he never hits the mark.
His Pictures doesn't contain a memorable moment and many flaccid ones. At 13 min. his Bolero is one of the fastest you'll ever hear, but was it a good idea to remove all sensuousness and langour from this sexy showpiece? We go from foreplay to climax in record time. Maazel made a memorable audiophile version of La Valse for RCA, and it's the best thing here, too, a nasty and blustery burlesque rather than a sophisticated parody. Again, Maazel moves fast, but he is such a technician that this edgy reading generates genuine thrills. I'm just not sure it's worth the price for only 12 min. of excitement." (Santa Fe Listener)
Now I see why I can get the EMX.