Hamilton Harty - Dvorak, Smetana, Liszt & Brahms (1927-33) [2012]

"The work and the interpreters are as happily met as one could wish" The Gramophone

Sir Hamilton Harty demonstrates why his Hallé was "the soundest orchestra in the country" in 1928!

The sources for the present transfers were primarily American Columbia pressings from the late 1920s through the late 1930s a “Royal Blue” shellac copy for the Smetana; a combination of a blue “microphone” label pressing and a laminated Australian Columbia for the Liszt; “Full-Range” era copies of the Brahms pieces and the Dvorak Slavonic Dance; a “Viva-Tonal” pressing of the Carnival Overture; and a c.1935 “large-label post-Viva” set for the New World Symphony, with two sides taken from a “Viva” copy.

The New World posed particular restoration problems in that it required not only significant pitch corrections throughout each side, but also volume level adjustments to counteract the frequent gain-riding of the original engineers. Once fixed, however, this early set rather surprisingly revealed the best recorded sound of any of the discs, with a level of detail and breadth of frequency range associated with recordings made a decade later.


Tracks:

SMETANA The Bartered Bride - Overture
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamilton Harty

LISZT (arr. Doppler) Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 on Columbia LX 132
BRAHMS (arr. Parlow) Hungarian Dance No. 5
BRAHMS (arr. Parlow) Hungarian Dance No. 6
DVOŘÁK Carnival Overture
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”)
Hallé Orchestra, Hamilton Harty

DVOŘÁK Slavonic Dance No. 1 in C major, Op. 46, No. 1
Myra Hess & Hamilton Harty piano duet

Personnel:

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Hallé Orchestra
Myra Hess, piano
Sir Hamilton Harty, piano, conductor