Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Archive

“MAHLER Rarities” = Symphony No. 2 in c minor “Resurrection”: Andante moderato; Sym. No. 4 – Soloists/ Hilversum Radio Philharmonic/ Paul van Kempen – Pristine Audio

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 15, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

The Mahler legacy adds two rare documents of innate interest to the history of recorded sound.  “MAHLER Rarities” = Symphony No. 2 in c minor “Resurrection”: Andante moderato only; Sym. No. 4 in G Major – Cadillac Sym. Orch./ Arnold Schoenberg (Sym. No. 2)/ Corry Bijster, sop./ Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orch./ Paul van Kempen – Pristine Audio PASC 466, 62:08 [avail. in var. formats from www.pristineclassical.com] *****:  Restoration engineer and producer Mark Obert-Thorn revives two significant documents for Mahler acolytes: the NBC broadcast (8 April 1934) of composer Arnold Schoenberg’s appearance before a pseudonym ensemble – likely members of the Blue Network Orchestra – leading music by the very composer who had championed his own scores in turn-of-the-century Vienna. The other, the G Major Symphony (January 1950) from the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam led by Paul van Kempen (1893-1955), a former violinist under Willem Mengelberg who himself enjoyed a strong career in Dresden, Hilversum, and Berlin. The Schoenberg recording – in music other than his own – impresses us with its stylistic sympathy for a movement fraught with a pantheistic fervor and touched by nostalgia. A small break in the recording suggests that a change to another shellac disc had been required […]