On Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:12:53 PM UTC-8, JAC wrote:

It's interesting that the third Ansermet, which used to be as
reflexive an early-stereo recommendation as Beecham and Reiner, has
rather fallen from sight. (I know the article mentions it, but mostly
as a sidebar to the conductor having made the first recording of the
work.)
The one that I'm surprised to see unmentioned is the Haitink/London Philharmonic version. I've always found this one of his finest
achievements, the beauty of the playing and the unpushy "rightness" of
the interpretation adding up very satisfyingly.
JAC

In the Youtube Comments section of "Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin - Scheherazade, Polovtsian Dances (reference recording: Sir Thomas Beecham)":

- But they could never transfer the bass frequencies onto vinyl because the vibration of the 'needle' in the groove wrecked the tracking. So we NEVER heard these tapes properly until the era of digital. Don't listen to the nonsense from vinyl fans. They
were just fishing for the music with a hook on a rod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOFUpuBlu4&t=86s

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:12:53 PM UTC-8, JAC wrote:

It's interesting that the third Ansermet, which used to be as
reflexive an early-stereo recommendation as Beecham and Reiner, has
rather fallen from sight. (I know the article mentions it, but mostly
as a sidebar to the conductor having made the first recording of the
work.)
The one that I'm surprised to see unmentioned is the Haitink/London Philharmonic version. I've always found this one of his finest
achievements, the beauty of the playing and the unpushy "rightness" of
the interpretation adding up very satisfyingly.
JAC

From the Youtube Comments section of "Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin - Scheherazade, Polovtsian Dances (reference recording: Sir Thomas Beecham)":

- But they could never transfer the bass frequencies onto vinyl because the vibration of the 'needle' in the groove wrecked the tracking. So we NEVER heard these tapes properly until the era of digital. Don't listen to the nonsense from vinyl fans. They
were just fishing for the music with a hook on a rod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOFUpuBlu4&t=86s

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 7:05:24 PM UTC-8, Frank Berger wrote:

On 3/1/2022 6:41 PM, Kerrison wrote:

On Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 6:43:37 AM UTC, gggg gggg wrote:

On Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:12:53 PM UTC-8, JAC wrote:

It's interesting that the third Ansermet, which used to be as
reflexive an early-stereo recommendation as Beecham and Reiner, has
rather fallen from sight. (I know the article mentions it, but mostly >>> as a sidebar to the conductor having made the first recording of the
work.)
The one that I'm surprised to see unmentioned is the Haitink/London
Philharmonic version. I've always found this one of his finest
achievements, the beauty of the playing and the unpushy "rightness" of >>> the interpretation adding up very satisfyingly.
JAC

Concerning Beecham's Scheherazade, if you have been less than impressed with your cd of that, I understand that the lp has been transferred to cd more than once and that not all cd transfers are equal.

According to the COMMENTS section of the Youtube upload "RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade op. 35 / Staryk · Beecham · Royal Philharmonic Orchestra":
- Performance is ok but not the sound. Except for the french horn and trombones most of instruments sound too distant including the tympani.

(REPLY):
- This has been remastered, which means they used noise reduction and ruined the harmonics. There was an earlier issue on EMI, from the time when they weren't trying to filter out tape hiss, which sounds like the original LP, which was quite

impressive. Good luck trying to find it, though. This is muffled by comparison, as are most re-issues made after 2000. Believe it or not, we had high frequency in the 20th century, even though you couldn't prove it with the stuff they're putting out now.

The 1955 Morton Gould 'Victrola' stereo version still sounds pretty good for its age. Presumably the 'Symphony Orchestra' he conducted was an 'ad hoc' ensemble of New York players selected from the NY Phllharmonic, the NBC SO / Symphony of the Air,

and the freelance session pool? ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDaqNORch0&t=15s

And this review says the 1999 remaster released on EMI 66998 sounds better than the original CD release EMI 47717 and more like the LP. Go figure.

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/emi66998a.php

From the Youtube Comments section of "Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin - Scheherazade, Polovtsian Dances (reference recording: Sir Thomas Beecham)":

- But they could never transfer the bass frequencies onto vinyl because the vibration of the 'needle' in the groove wrecked the tracking. So we NEVER heard these tapes properly until the era of digital. Don't listen to the nonsense from vinyl fans. They
were just fishing for the music with a hook on a rod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOFUpuBlu4&t=86s

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Friday, April 28, 2023 at 10:25:29 PM UTC-7, wrote:

On Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:12:53 PM UTC-8, JAC wrote:

It's interesting that the third Ansermet, which used to be as
reflexive an early-stereo recommendation as Beecham and Reiner, has >>> rather fallen from sight. (I know the article mentions it, but mostly >>> as a sidebar to the conductor having made the first recording of the >>> work.)
The one that I'm surprised to see unmentioned is the Haitink/London >>> Philharmonic version. I've always found this one of his finest
achievements, the beauty of the playing and the unpushy "rightness" of >>> the interpretation adding up very satisfyingly.
JAC

Concerning Beecham's Scheherazade, if you have been less than impressed with your cd of that, I understand that the lp has been transferred to cd more than once and that not all cd transfers are equal.

According to the COMMENTS section of the Youtube upload "RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade op. 35 / Staryk · Beecham · Royal Philharmonic Orchestra":
- Performance is ok but not the sound. Except for the french horn and trombones most of instruments sound too distant including the tympani.

(REPLY):
- This has been remastered, which means they used noise reduction and ruined the harmonics. There was an earlier issue on EMI, from the time when they weren't trying to filter out tape hiss, which sounds like the original LP, which was quite

impressive. Good luck trying to find it, though. This is muffled by comparison, as are most re-issues made after 2000. Believe it or not, we had high frequency in the 20th century, even though you couldn't prove it with the stuff they're putting out now.

The 1955 Morton Gould 'Victrola' stereo version still sounds pretty good for its age. Presumably the 'Symphony Orchestra' he conducted was an 'ad hoc' ensemble of New York players selected from the NY Phllharmonic, the NBC SO / Symphony of the Air,

and the freelance session pool? ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDaqNORch0&t=15s

And this review says the 1999 remaster released on EMI 66998 sounds better than the original CD release EMI 47717 and more like the LP. Go figure.

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/emi66998a.php

From the Youtube Comments section of "Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin - Scheherazade, Polovtsian Dances (reference recording: Sir Thomas Beecham)":

- But they could never transfer the bass frequencies onto vinyl because the vibration of the 'needle' in the groove wrecked the tracking. So we NEVER heard these tapes properly until the era of digital. Don't listen to the nonsense from vinyl fans.

They were just fishing for the music with a hook on a rod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOFUpuBlu4&t=86s

Also read the 90+ overwhelmingly positive comments in many languages.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:12:53 PM UTC-8, JAC wrote:

It's interesting that the third Ansermet, which used to be as
reflexive an early-stereo recommendation as Beecham and Reiner, has
rather fallen from sight. (I know the article mentions it, but mostly
as a sidebar to the conductor having made the first recording of the
work.)
The one that I'm surprised to see unmentioned is the Haitink/London Philharmonic version. I've always found this one of his finest
achievements, the beauty of the playing and the unpushy "rightness" of
the interpretation adding up very satisfyingly.
JAC

According to Chatbot BARD:


I like the recording of Scheherazade by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. It was recorded in 1958 and released on EMI.

I like this recording because it captures the magic and mystery of the story of Scheherazade. The orchestra plays with great passion and excitement, and Beecham's conducting is masterful. The recording also has excellent sound quality.

Here are some of the things that I like about this recording:

The orchestra plays with great passion and excitement.
Beecham's conducting is masterful.
The recording has excellent sound quality.

If you are looking for a recording of Scheherazade that captures the magic and mystery of the story, I highly recommend this one.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)