Georges Prêtre - The Complete Columbia Album Collection

I was happy to purchase this box. Though Prêtre is a kind of a maverick conductor, but also a great musician. Nice to see the old covers as a kind of old friends again.The performances differ a lot in quality. For instance to start with some unidiomatic Sibelius. On the same disc there is a rather lacklustre rendition of the masterful fifth symphony , but on the last track a very beautiful account of " Night ride and sunrise". For the first time I started to like this piece. Of the second symphony I didn't know there was the existence of a recording. It isn't even listed in Stephen Pettitt's comprehensive discography of the (new) Philharmonia Orchestra. There are many good accounts of this symphony and this is just one of them.Weissenberg plays Rachmaninov's third concerto with stunning virtuosity , but for my liking everything sounds to fast and rushing over the notes, despite the excellent accompaniment of the CSO. Next disc I listened to was ' Also sprach Zarathustra'. Also here a very uneven interpretation. Tempi are on the slow side ,suddenly a couple of bars with a weird rubato and so on. Probably not Prêtre's cup of tea or does he want to do something else than other conductors to make a difference? In general the Philharmonia is playing more than adequat. Uto Ughi's version of the Bruch& Mendelssohn concertos I don't like at all. There are so many better accounts of this 'over'played concertos. I assume this recording was made solely for the Italian or Mediterrean market. In my opinion a completely redundant recording. Shirley Verrett's opera disc is making a dated impression. Her voice is quiet harsh on the ear and there is some peculiar phrasing. Typical a record you only listen to once. On the contrary Prêtre is a very exciting Berlioz conductor. Harold en Italie with the LSO & Walter Trampler on viola is one of the best account's on record. The last movement jumped out of my speakers! For the "Fantastique" applies the same as for the Sibelius 2nd; this is a very good account , but for me not in the highest class. You can do better with Charles Munch' both recordings with the same orchestra( BSO) and on the same label(RCA),resp.from 1954& '63. Maybe best of all are the opera recordings. Probably it was in Prêtre's blood to be an operaconductor. One can't do wrong with this stellar cast in "Traviata". Nowadays where can you find this?Personally I prefer in this work Toscanini or C.Kleiber, but Prêtre is a good third choice.Nevertheless in general a valuable survey of early Prêtre recordings.

Dass dem großen alten Herrn der französischen Dirigenten nun eine Box mit frühen Aufnahmen gewidmet ist, kann nicht hoch genug eingeschätzt werden, liegen doch Aufnahmen mit diesem eleganten Musiker in nicht allzu großer Zahl auf. Über die beiden Opernaufnahmen - Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata - muss nicht viel gesagt werden: sie zählen zu den besten des Kataloges überhaupt. Das Wiederhören des Opernrecitals mit Shirley Verrett lohnt ebenso, die Platte war lange nicht erhältlich. Besonders gelungen erweisen sich die Berlioz-Aufnahmen mit dem Boston Symphony Orchestra, die vortreffliche Einspielung von Rachmaninoffs 3. Klavierkonzert mit Alexis Weissenberg wurde bereits in der Collection-Box derselben Firma wieder veröffentlicht. Interessant die Aufnahmen der Werke von Richard Strauss, obwohl sich der Kenner hier doch die Wiener oder Berliner Philharmoniker wünschen würde. Entbehrlich bedauerlicherweise die Discs mit Werken von Jean Sibelius: die herb großartigen Werke des finnischen Komponisten haben sich dem Klangmaler Pretre leider nicht erschlossen, weshalb ich insgesamt nur vier Sterne für die spannende Box vergebe.

Bravissimo Georges Prêtre a dirigere queste bellissime composizioni, e grandiosa l'idea di averle così ben riunite in questo splendido cofanetto. Da regalare a chi ama la bella musica!