Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture/Capriccio Italien/Beethoven: Wellington's Victory
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Free Music Notes for Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture/Capriccio Italien/Beethoven: Wellington's Victory
Free Music Review: Brilliant
Hit: 5 Stars
Bought this for Beethoven's Wellington's Victory and got a stupendous rendition of 1812 Overture. Using period weapons from West Point this is a great recording of all three songs. The commentary was great, but I only care about the music and skip it most of the time. I highly recommend these versions of these great songs!Free Music Review: Beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
I owned the original record version. It saw better days, but when I saw the CD version, I hesitated, since some productions don't have the same depth as the album. This does, with great clarity. The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra's version of the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture I think, with the canons is the best version of all. Don't hesitate to buy this, you won't be disappointed.Free Music Review: Booming cannon makes your feet vibrate
Hit: 5 Stars
I have the original LP version of this CD. The booming cannon can simulate an earthquake. If you like to feel the vibraions with your feet buy this cd.
Free Music Review: The Choir is missing!
Hit: 4 Stars
I really do hate to be a nit picker, BUT! Seriously, I greatly enjoy this version of the 1812 overture. It has to be one of the all time if not THE all time best selling classical LPs (over 2 million) and I do get a WOW! reaction each time I listen. BUT! To go to all of this bother with the cannon and church bells and NOT include the choir is just a little disappointing.
There is a great version by Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra with the Mormon Tab Choir that I have on LP that has the entire recipe including choir, church bells, and great sounding cannon.
Free Music Review: An 1812 for the ages, plus other goodies!
Hit: 5 Stars
So many others have reviewed this disk that I hesitate to add a word. Still, as I've been re-examining some Russian music of late, I'll put in my two cents.
First, this 1812 is still spectacular, even after almost 50 years! Antal Dor?ti, a specialist in the music of Tchaikovsky (and Haydn), brings out the best in the Minneapolis players and provides the surefooted leadership needed to make it all work out brilliantly. (He was a particularly inspirational conductor--as I recall from playing under his baton in Stuttgart just before this recording was made--and he led more than one struggling orchestra back from the graveyard.) His conducting of the London Symphony in Beethoven's Wellington's Victory is also well-conceived, resulting in a very satisfactory--as well as exciting--performance. The Capriccio Italien, while often lively and showy, is not the same sort of bombastic music, yet here too Dor?ti brings out all the brilliance and charm of this fine, colorful, and delightful piece.
I want to point out here one particular programmatic element in the obviously rather programmatic 1812. Just after the first 5 cannon shots are fired amid repetitions of the French Marseillaise motif--seemingly denoting Napoleon's domination of the battle--which occurs just before the climactic ending, there is quite a long passage of all the strings in unison starting at a relatively high pitch and then descending in tetrachords down to the lowest range. I believe that is Tchaikovsky's depiction of the fall of the French forces, for just afterwards we hear the return of the opening Russian Orthodox hymn "God Preserve Thy People" played in force with (Russian?) cannons firing and all the bells of Moscow ringing out: obvious victory music. And from there on it's all glorious celebration to the smashing close!
Inevitably the physical sound quality here does not rise to the purity and sumptuousness which digital recording can ideally produce, but, as experience has shown time and again, the overall effect of a recording depends more upon other factors, which in this case are overwhelmingly favorable. This recording holds its own--and then some--against the more modern takes on the music, so it merits five stars.
Recently I reviewed here the 1998-99 Telarc CD recording with Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops. My conclusion on the 1812 is that both are fine recordings, and I delight in having both at hand. Sometimes I may prefer the great sound quality and fine choral singing of the Telarc; other times I may want the sheer sonic excitement and more satisfying interpretations of this Mercury disk. It's great to have both, but if you must choose one, I hope these few words will help.