Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F. Archive

BEETHOVEN: Symphony Nos. 1 & 6 – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F./ Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Serge Koussevitzky – Pristine

by Audiophile Audition | Feb 19, 2018 | Classical Reissue Reviews

The Beethoven “Nine” with Serge Koussevitzky conducting has become a recorded reality! BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21; Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral” – Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F./ Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Serge Koussevitzky – Pristine Audio PASC 522, 59:55 [www.pristineclassical.com] *****:   Ask, and ye shall receive! In the course of my review of PASC 515—the first ever release—of Serge Koussevitzky’s conducting Beethoven’s 4th Symphony coupled with a previously unissued Seventh, I noted that, except for a reading of the Beethoven C Major, posterity could boast of a complete Beethoven Nine with Koussevitzky. Now, Andrew Rose and Pristine deliver another coup: the first ever issue of Koussevitzky’s conducting Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, this time coupled with an unissued live performance (23 October 1943) of the Sixth. The First Symphony hails from a French radio re-broadcast of a 25 June 1950 live performance with the Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F., obviously made on tour, after Koussevitzky had turned his long tenure with the BSO over to Charles Munch. The recording delivers reliable sound, but it does suffer from cross-talk interference from another station, allowing one to hear from time to time another piece of music bleeding […]