Victor de Sabata - Complete Berlin Philharmonic Recordings (1939) [2014]

De Sabata's magnificent Berlin Philharmonic recordings together for the first time

“De Sabata’s account of the Kodaly is thrilling, and the Respighi is, quite simply, sensational: definitive.” - Gramophone, 1999

At the time Victor de Sabata made these recordings, his discography was limited to eight sides of mainly short works recorded with an Italian radio orchestra in 1933. This was disproportionate to his rising international reputation as a conductor, both in the opera house (as director of La Scala since 1930 and a frequent guest at the theatres of Vienna and Berlin) and as an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire.
Although he would go on to record two more series of orchestral works (with the London Philharmonic in 1946 and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in 1947-48) as well as the Requiems of Mozart and Verdi and an unsurpassed version of Puccini’s Tosca with Maria Callas, the Berlin recordings occupy a special place in his slim commercial discography. They feature uniformly superb performances – boldly conceived, rhythmically flexible and executed with tremendous verve and a minute attention to detail. Never again would de Sabata work with an ensemble of this calibre for a symphonic commercial recording session. While all of the works have appeared before on compact disc, this is the first time they have been assembled in one place (an earlier Pearl set having omitted the rare Aïda Prelude).

Mark Obert-Thorn


Tracks:

BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 in E minor
R. STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod
VERDI Aïda: Prelude to Act 1
KODALY Dances of Galánta
RESPIGHI Feste Romane

Personnel:

Victor de Sabata
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra