Unwittingly I started an interesting debate when I responded to a message board poster who said he couldn't hear the organ in the finale of the the Solti/LSO Mahler 2. Shome mishtake, shurely? Actually, no. Even though the recording was made in Kingsway Hall, which did have an organ, it seems the organ part was indeed omitted.
One poster, who has been listening to this particular recording for years, admitted he hadn't even noticed the organ was missing, while others suggest it's nothing short of heresy to leave it out. It certainly would have been possible to over dub the organ part - as was done in Bernstein's LSO Mahler 8 - so I'm puzzled as to why Solti and co decided to do without it.
And reviewing the recent Originals remastering of this set, the esteemed Mr Hurwitz appears to hear the organ but wishes it were more prominent!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Interesting. In the score it's marked in capital letters in the instrument list - hard to miss, though the player may have fallen asleep or have been forgotten to be called back from the pub by the time those final few bars came around. It comes through clearly enough on the Solti Chicago cycle on Decca, so the conductor doesn't appear to have been against it in principle.
ReplyDeleteA mystery! I have the Originals remastering, but the liner notes don't mention the organ at all. They seem to be a Michael Kennedy set from the 80s, and may not have been written for the Solti set's first issue on CD (which may actually have been early 90s?). I have, in a box in a garage somewhere, the box of LPs that houses Solti's London Mahler 1-3, and even though Deryck Cooke's notes for that set were fabulous, I don't recall any mention of the missing organ...
ReplyDeleteTim Perry
I understand the organ at Kingsway Hall - where this recording was made - was not in very good shape in the early 1960s, so I suppose it's possible the decision to omit it was a practical one. That said, dubbing it in would also have been possible (the organ part in the Bernstein/LSO Mahler 8 was recorded in Switzerland).
ReplyDelete