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I believe NPO played on Hollow Man for Jerry.
Dan
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Posted: |
Dec 5, 2014 - 3:58 PM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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@Mitch
yes, I have them all too.
I can't say that I listen often to the "lollipops" cd's ("Stokowski encores" and "a Stokowski showcase") , not really my favorite reportoire, but some of the symphonies are special.
In particular the Brahms 2 and the Bizet are great, they rival the best.
The Rachmaninov 3 is a little less focused, but gorgeously played.
Brahms' 2nd: of the seven recordings I own, the Stokowski/NPO is the longest not-played (> 15mths ago) and I think I would opt for any of the other six in preference, especially Giulini/VPO or Wand/NDR
Mendelssohn's 4th: it's almost 17mths since I played the Stokowski/NPO recording ... I have another seven recordings, Despite its age (1958), the Münch/BSO recording packs a lively punch for this joyful symphony.
It's not that I dislike Stokowski - far from it - but I bought, and played, three collections of his works 18mths ago and more recently, collections by Ansermet, Barenboim, Giulini, Bohm, Wand, Karajan, Abbado plus label collections, so those old purchases hardly ever get a look-in.
With Bizet, these recordings (Carmen and L'Arlésienne suites), have been played this year but I think my first choice would be the alternative recordings I have by Ernest Ansermet with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, despite being much older.
That said: having upgraded my hi-fi in Jan 14, perhaps those Stokowski recordings not played this year will sound much better ... most everything else does! 
Mitch
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Posted: |
Dec 11, 2014 - 7:35 AM
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By: |
hyperdanny
(Member)
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@mitch
I'm not saying it is my reference, I don't even think it's possible to have only one reference versionof such staples of the repertoire: I do too have several versions of all these warhorses, and while my current references are others ( i.e. for the Brahms 2 Giulini / L.A. Phil much better than the Vienna, Haitink Boston SO, and among the more recent Budapest Festival O. /Fischer), I would not like to be without the Stokowski, he was quirky , but he was one of the greats.
So much (sometimes too much, but not here) personality, such beautiful sound.
I have the Abbado, but I can't stand the claustrophobic DG sound, and I almost never listen to it.
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Does anyone know what the last recording (and/or the last film score) was the National Philharmonic Orchestra performed under that name?
(I know it was a session orchestra contracted by Sidney Sax, and many of the wonderful musicians (from such respected orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra) also recorded for the National Philharmonic Orchestra, so it's not as if the musicians themselves disappeared. Just interested in when these performers came together under the NPO umbrella for the last time.)
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Does anyone know what the last recording (and/or the last film score) was the National Philharmonic Orchestra performed under that name?
Possibly the Joel McNeely conducted recording of Herrmann's Torn Curtain for Varese Sarabande (VSD-5817). Recorded February 22, 1997 at Watford Town Hall.
OK, thanks! We have that until somebody finds a recording of a later date.
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Last new movie the NPO played on was Fierce Creatures with Jerry in late 1996.
Being a pickup orchestra which never toured or played a regular season, what happened to make them disolve shortly is unknown.
Yeah, I knew they recorded FIERCE CREATURES, and that was the last new movie recording of a NPO I knew about. I just didn't know if there was an even later recording. And so then came Varèse Sarabande's TORN CURTAIN... and those may be the last.
Well, they went out with two excellent recordings. (I love both of these recordings.) Thanks for the info!
I don't know what make them eventually just dissolve, but I suppose it had to do with the fact that the NPO was basically a simple "joint recording venture" by Charles Gerhardt and Sidney Sax. Charles Gerhardt passed away in 1999, and Sidney Sax was in his mid 80s back then. So I think there was no "NPO" without these two and the orchestra name basically retired.
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I believe NPO played on Hollow Man for Jerry.
Dan
No this was an Isobel Griffiths contract orchestra.
Yes, it is possible (even likely) that there were some/many/all of the same musicians on the HOLLOW MAN sessions as there were on the NPO roster (the recording certainly sounds very much like it), but they did not use the NPO "brand term".
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I believe NPO played on Hollow Man for Jerry.
Dan
No this was an Isobel Griffiths contract orchestra.
Yes, it is possible (even likely) that there were some of the same musicians on the HOLLOW MAN sessions as there were on the NPO roster (the recording certainly sounds very much like it), but they did not use the NPO "brand term".
Likely the same or very similar roster as what was used on THE MUMMY around that time. One of my favorite performances from late career Goldsmith.
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It gets complicated, because even different contractors will often assemble a lot of the same players because they know who the composer prefers. Sometimes they change things up, especially with composers who don't care, but a lot of them do and prefer the same people no matter who's doing the hiring...
That's why the players of the National Philharmonic Orchestra continue(d) to perform and record, just no longer under the label NPO.
I remember POLTERGEIST. That was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, but they were not contracted as the LPO, but individually as contract players, so the orchestra was not actually credited in the movie or the score.
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