Surprise Archive

Horenstein Early Recordings = BACH Choral Preludes (trans. Schoenberg); HAYDN: Symphony No. 94; MOZART: Overtures, Le nozze di Figaro and La Clemenza da Tito; SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 5 – Berlin Phil. Orch./ Jascha Horenstein – Pristine

by Audiophile Audition | Jul 3, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Horenstein Early Recordings = BACH (trans. Schoenberg): Gott, Schoepfer, Heiliger Geist, BWV 631; Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele, BWV 654; HAYDN: Symphony No. 94 in G Major “Surprise”; MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro – Overture, K. 492; La Clemenza da Tito – Overture, K. 691; SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D. 485 – Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/ Jascha Horenstein – Pristine Audio PASC 506, 69:02 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****:  Pristine restores Jascha Horenstein’s German-Austrian repertory of 1929 to the active catalogue.  Mark Obert-Thorn re-masters the 1929 Polydor recordings by Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973), his electrical performances of music to which he did return later in his recording career. Some collectors will recognize this program as having had prior issue on the Koch Legacy label (5-7054-2) in inferior sound. What becomes significant in this program lies in the fact that circumstances—mostly political—would prevent Horenstein’s access to the recording studio until Vox Records signed this versatile conductor in 1952. Each of the performances presents a driven, committed interpreter of the Great German Tradition, rather linear in conception and quite brightly lit in the interior vocal lines, especially in the Mozart selections. The Marriage of Figaro Overture suffers no “romantic” distortion in what proves a […]