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Eloquence Classics has recently released the complete Chicago Symphony Orchestra catalog recorded under the baton of fifth music director Rafael Kubelík for the Mercury label. Newly remastered by Thomas Fine—the son of C. Robert (Bob) Fine and Wilma Cozart Fine, the original recording engineer and producer of much of the Mercury Living Presence catalogue—the ten-disc set features works by Bartók, Bloch, Brahms, Dvořák, Hindemith, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Schoenberg, Smetana, and Tchaikovsky. The set is now available in the CSO’s Symphony Store.
“For these seventieth anniversary reissues of the complete Mercury recordings of Rafael Kubelík and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, new high-resolution transfers were made from the best tape sources available,” writes Fine in the accompanying booklet. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was the first release, and it “received especially positive press, including the description by the New York Times music critic Howard Taubman as ‘the living presence’ of the orchestra. Mercury subsequently adopted Taubman’s description as their classical label name.”
Kubelík “was a powerful, often daring interpreter, and Mercury’s experiments with recording technology meant that he was captured from 1951 to ’53 in some of the finest mono around,” writes David Allen in the New York Times. “Eloquence’s bundle is the first to collect those recordings in their own box, even including excerpts from early stereo tests, and they are all worthwhile: vibrant, atmospheric accounts of Mozart symphonies; a Brahms First that rivals any of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s for visionary intensity; Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, lovingly colored; performances of Dvořák’s Symphony no. 9 and Smetana’s Má vlast as ardent as you’d expect from a Czech émigré. Treasurable.”
Before and during his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s ninth music director, Daniel Barenboim was firmly committed to introducing new works to Chicago audiences. He also was instrumental in the continued cultivation of the Orchestra’s composer-in-residence program, frequently conducting works by John Corigliano, Shulamit Ran, and Augusta Read Thomas. With the Orchestra, Barenboim led over thirty world and U.S. premieres, and a complete list is below (all performances in Orchestra Hall, unless otherwise noted; an asterisk (*) indicates a work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
Barenboim and John Corigliano review the score to his Symphony no. 1 in March 1990 (Terry’s photo)
World premieres
March 8, 1990
*Tōru Takemitsu Visions
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
March 15, 1990
*John Corigliano Symphony No. 1
Stephen Hough, piano
John Sharp, cello
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 14, 1990 (Edman Memorial Chapel, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois)
*Stephen Kowalsky Last Voyage
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Barenboim acknowledges Shulamit Ran following the world premiere of her Legends on October 7, 1993 (Jim Steere photo)
April 30, 1991
*Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Concerto for Bass Trombone, Strings, Timpani, and Cymbals
Charles Vernon, bass trombone
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 4, 1993
*Melinda Wagner Falling Angels
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 7, 1993
*Shulamit Ran Legends for Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Barenboim and the Orchestra acknowledge Elliott Carter following the world premiere of his Partita on February 17, 1994 (Jim Steere photo)
February 17, 1994
*Elliott Carter Partita
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 12, 1995
*York Höller Aura
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 30, 1997
*Jay Alan Yim Rough Magic
Daniel Barenboim
May 15, 1997
*Aribert Reimann Violin Concerto
Gidon Kremer, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 5, 1998
*Sir Harrison Birtwistle Exody
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 12, 1998
Max Raimi Elegy
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Two pages of Pierre Boulez’s manuscript score for Notations VII
January 14, 1999
*Pierre Boulez Notations VII for Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 11, 1999
Elias Tanenbaum First Bassman for Contrabass and Orchestra
Joseph Guastafeste, bass
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 6, 2000
*Augusta Read Thomas Ceremonial
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 13, 2001 (Kultur- & Kongresszentrum, Lucerne, Switzerland)
*Hanspeter Kyburz Noesis for Large Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 27, 2001
*Elliott Carter Cello Concerto
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Texts for the first two sections of Bernard Rands’s apókryphos, as included in the printed score
May 8, 2003
*Bernard Rands apókryphos
Angela Denoke, soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 22, 2003
*Melinda Wagner Extremity of Sky (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra)
Emanuel Ax, piano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 29, 2003
Elliott Carter Of Rewaking
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 9, 2003
*Lalo Schifrin Fantasy for Screenplay and Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 19, 2005
*George Benjamin Dance Figures (Nine choreographic scenes for orchestra)
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Title page detail for Augusta Read Thomas’s score for Astral Canticle
October 6, 2005
*Elliott Carter Soundings
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
February 16, 2006
*Isabel Mundry Nocturno
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
June 1, 2006
*Augusta Read Thomas Astral Canticle
Mathieu Dufour, flute
Robert Chen, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
United States premieres
November 7, 1985
Siefgried Wagner Sehnsucht
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 9, 1991
Pierre Boulez Four movements from Le visage nuptial
(I. Conduite; II. Gravité. L’emmuré; IV. Evadné; and V. Post-scriptum)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano
Lucy Shelton, soprano
Women of the Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
In 1995, Teldec released recordings of three CSO world premieres, all conducted by Barenboim: Carter’s Partita, Berio’s Continuo, and Takemitsu’s Visions.
May 16, 1991
Edison Denisov Symphonie pour grande orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 7, 1993
*Luciano Berio Continuo
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 1, 1998
Rodion Shchedrin Concerto cantabile
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 30, 1999
*Wolfgang Rihm Sotto voce
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
Barenboim with Augusta Read Thomas during a rehearsal for the world premiere of her Aurora—co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic—in Berlin in June 2000
February, 24, 2000
Elliott Carter What Next?
Simone Nold, soprano
Lynne Dawson, soprano
Hilary Summers, contralto
William Joyner, tenor
Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass-baritone
Michael John Devine, boy soprano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 21, 2000
*Augusta Read Thomas Aurora
Elizabeth Norman, soprano
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
October 4, 2001
*Isabel Mundry Panorama ciego
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
December 13, 2001
Wilhelm Furtwängler Symphony No. 2 in E Minor
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
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