Eugene Ormandy - Eugene Ormandy Conducts the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra: The Complete RCA Album Collection (CD Boxset)

"Eugene Ormandy’s name is inseparably linked with Philadelphia and the orchestra he served as music director there for over 40 years. But before the advent of Ormandy/Philadelphia, there was another historic partnership – Ormandy/Minneapolis – which, though much briefer, was hardly less pivotal in the Hungarian conductor’s career.

The 11-disc set contains major symphonic works which were still rarely heard when these recordings introduced them to music lovers all across the world. The pioneering 1935 version of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony dominated the record catalogues for nearly two decades, and it remains thrilling today (Gramophone, 1997: “This lithe and propulsive reading … One is immediately struck by the excellence of the orchestral playing secured by Ormandy in repertoire that was scarcely standard fare in the 1930s”). Ormandy and the Minneapolis SO were the first in the US to commit to disc Rachmaninoff’s Second (“Fervently played and grandly recorded” – Gramophone, 1936) and Sibelius’s First (“Mr. Ormandy seems to be squeezing every ounce of emotion out of it, and lovers of opulence will rejoice” – Gramophone, 1936), while their Bruckner Seventh was the first commercial American recording of any of that composer’s symphonies.

The new box set also contains the recording world premières of Kodály’s Háry János Suite, the string-orchestra version of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Honegger’s Concertino for piano and orchestra, as well as American works such as Roy Harris’s When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Charles Tomlinson Griffes’s Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan and John Alden Carpenter’s Adventures in a Perambulator. The electrifying performance of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, an Ormandy showpiece, was the first one of that work to reach a worldwide audience, while the selections from Weinberger’s Schwanda – Ormandy’s ticket to fame – also made their recording début in Minneapolis.

The conductor’s only recording of Schumann’s Fourth Symphony is here, as is his first recording of Beethoven’s Fourth, plus Hungarian Dances by Brahms, dances and overtures by the Strauss family, Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, excerpts from Smetana’s Bartered Bride, British folksong arrangements by Percy Grainger and much more."

Tracklisting

Disc 1 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Háry János Suite
2. I. Prelude. The Fairy Tale Begins
3. II. Viennese Musical Clock
4. III. Song
5. IV. The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon
6. V. Intermezzo
7. VI. Entrance of the Emperor and his Court
8. Hungarian Caprice
9. Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A Major, Op. 11
10. The Bartered Bride, JB 1:100
11. Act I, Scene 5: Polka. Moderato
12. Act II, Scene 1: Furiant. Allegro energico
13. Act III, Scene 2: Dance of the Comedians. Vivace
14. The Irish Washerwoman
15. Scherzo capriccioso, Op. 66
16. 21 Hungarian Dances, WoO 1: No. 18 in D Major  (Orch. Dvorák)
17. 21 Hungarian Dances, WoO 1: No. 19 in B Minor (Orch. Dvorák)
18. 21 Hungarian Dances, WoO 1: No. 20 in E Minor (Orch. Dvorák)
19. 21 Hungarian Dances, WoO 1: No. 21 in E Minor (Orch. Dvorák)

Disc 2 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120
2. I. Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft
3. II. Romanze. Ziemlich langsam
4. III. Scherzo. Lebhaft - Trio
5. IV. Langsam - Lebhaft
6. Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60
7. I. Adagio - Allegro vivace
8. II. Adagio
9. III. Allegro vivace
10. IV. Allegro ma non troppo
11. Leonore No. 3, Op. 72a - Excerpt

Disc 3 (Remastered)

1. Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
2. Grave
3. Molto rallentando (bar 100)
4. Pesante (bar 201)
5. Adagio (bar 229)
6. Adagio (bar 370)
7. Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, H. 55
8. 3 Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen, No. 2: Liebesleid. Tempo di "Ländler"
9. 3 Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen, No. 3: Schön Rosmarin. Grazioso
10. Tambourin chinois, Op. 3
11. Caprice viennois, Op. 2
12. 3 Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen, No. 1: Liebesfreud. Allegro
13. Träumerei, Op. 15, No. 7

Disc 4 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. La Source
2. Pas des écharpes. Allegro - Allegretto
3. Scène d'amour. Andante sostenuto
4. Variations. Moderato - Allegro moderato
5. Scherzo-Polka. Allegretto moderato
6. Sylvia - Ballet Suite
7. Pizzicato Polka
8. Cortège de Bacchus
9. The Jewels Of The Madonna: Intermezzo No. 1. Tranquillo
10. The Jewels Of The Madonna: Intermezzo No. 2. Vivace assai
11. Coppélia - Ballet Suite
12. Act II,  Entr'acte
13. Act I, No. 1 Valse
14. Funeral March of a Marionette
15. Miroirs, M. 43: IV. Alborada del gracioso

Disc 5 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Adventures in a Perambulator
2. I. En Voiture
3. II. The Policeman
4. III. The Hurdy - Gurdy
5. IV. The Lake
6. V. Dogs
7. VI. Dreams
8. The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, Op. 8
9. British Folk Music Settings, No. 16: Shepherd's Hey
10. British Folk Music Settings, No. 22: Country Gardens
11. British Folk-Music Settings, No. 6: Irish Tune from County Derr " Londonderry Air"
12. British Folk-Music Settings, No. 1: Molly on the Shore"
13. Chorale and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 4
14. When Johnny Comes Marching Home: An American Overture

Disc 6 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
2. I. Largo - Allegro moderato
3. II. Allegro molto
4. III. Adagio
5. IV. Allegro Vivace
6. String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11: II. Andante cantabile

Disc 7 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Symphony No. 2 in C Minor "Resurrection"
2. I. Allegro maestoso. Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichen Ausdruck
3. II. Andante moderato. Sehr gemächlich. Nie eilen
4. III. In ruhig fließender Bewegung
5. IV. Urlicht. Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht
6. V. Finale. Im Tempo des Scherzos

Disc 8 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. An der schönen, blauen Donau, Walzer, Op. 314
2. Die Fledermaus, IJS 481: Ouverture
3. Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald, Op. 325
4. Accelerationen, Walzer, Op. 234
5. Der Zigeunerbaron, IJS 486: Overture
6. Aquarellen, Op. 258 "Walzer"
7. Pizzicato Polka
8. Fürstin Ninetta, Op. 449, Act III: Neue Pizzicato Polka
9. Millions d'Arlequin. Valse bluette (Air de ballet No. 2)
10. Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59, TrV 227: Walzerfolge
11. Spielerei, Op. 140
12. Schwanda the Bagpiper: Polka and Fugue

Disc 9 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik"
2. I. Allegro
3. II. Romanze. Andante
4. III. Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio
5. IV. Rondo. Allegro
6. 6 German Dances for Orchestra, K. 600
7. No. 1 in C Major - Trio
8. No. 2 in F Major - Trio
9. No. 3 in B-Flat major - Trio
10. No. 4 in E-Flat Major - Trio
11. No. 5 in G Major - Trio. Der Kanarienvogel
12. 4 German Dances, K. 602: No. 3 in C Major - Trio
13. 3 German Dances for Orchestra, K. 605
14. No. 2 in G Major - Trio
15. No. 3 in C Major - Trio. Die Schlittenfahrt - Coda
16. Le nozze di Figaro: Overture
17. Moto perpetuo in C Major, Op. 11
18. Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV 727

Disc 10 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Symphony No. 7 in E Major, WAB 107
2. I. Allegro moderato
3. II. Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
4. III. Scherzo. Sehr schnell - Trio. Etwas langsamer
5. IV. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell

Disc 11 (2022 Remastered Version)

1. Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 39
2. I. Andante, ma non troppo - Allegro energico
3. II. Andante (ma non troppo lento)
4. III. Scherzo. Allegro
5. IV. Finale (Quasi una fantasia)