Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 ('Fingal's Cave')

Sir Colin Davis was born on 25th September, 1927 in Weybridge and hence this year he celebrates his 85th birthday. His instrument was the Clarinet which he studied at the Royal College of Music and was a bandsman in the Household Cavalry. His inability to play the piano hindered his wish to be a conductor as he was refused entry into the RCM conducting class as well as an apprenticeship in opera houses.

He gained experience informally with a group of RCM students and in his early 20’s his Mozart performances with the Chelsea Opera Group marked him out for potential greatness. At the age of 30 he was appointed assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra and two years later an indisposed Otto Klemperer allowed him the opportunity to conduct Don Giovanni at the Festival Hall. This year, 1959 also marks his recording debut – appropriately in Mozart.

In 1960 he replaced an ill Beecham at Glyndebourne in Die Zauberflöte and the following year he was appointed musical director of Sadler’s Wells Opera where he added success in Stravinsky, notably Oedipus Rex, to his Mozart and introduced the music of Weill and Janácek to British audiences. It was during this period that the solo orchestral recordings together with Oedipus Rex were made; the Berlioz and Tippett concerto recordings were made in 1962 and 1963 respectively.

By 1964 he was in increasing demand for orchestral concerts and he left Sadler’s Wells.

Two years later he made his Metropolitan Opera debut with Peter Grimes and in 1967 started his four year tenure as principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra where he became a hero to the younger members of the Prom audience for his adventurous programming. Following his successes at the Royal Opera, where he made in debut in 1965 (he had conducted the Royal Ballet five years previously), he succeeded Solti as musical director in 1971. He was knighted in 1980.

A collection of outstanding Monteux public performances from Boston presented in high fidelity sound; includes several works not available on Monteux’s studio recordings, such as violin concertos by Bartók and Symanovski, Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Concert Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra and Hamlet, and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.

Otto Klemperer was born on 14th May 1885 in Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) and died on 6th July 1973 in Zurich and hence next year we mark 40 years since his passing. Although disfigured by a stroke suffered whilst a brain tumour was being removed he became a world-renowned conductor whose recordings became and remain touchstones for the EMI catalogue.

Having completed the highly successful series of Beethoven recordings it was natural for EMI to seek further Romantic symphonies from Otto Klemperer. In addition to those of Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler which appear in their own specific boxes, Klemperer recorded three by Schubert, two by Mendelssohn as well as the Hebrides Overture and Midsummer Night’s Dream Incidental music, all four by Schumann as well as three Overtures, the last three by Tchaikovsky as well as Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Franck’s D minor and Dvorák’s “From the New World”. This set also contains three Overtures by Weber and Johann Strauss’s Overture Die Fledermaus and two favourite Waltzes.

Although clearly not a Symphony the charming Incidental music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn is included as Klemperer held it in the greatest affection and performed it on many occasions throughout his career.

With the exception of the Franck and three of the Schumann Symphonies all recordings are with the Philharmonia Orchestra and therefore predate 1964.