AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: New CD boxed set honors acclaimed conductor

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in the above papers.

Less than a month before what would have been his 97th birthday, conductor Carlo Maria Giulini is being honored by EMI Classics with a boxed set of four compact discs entitled “The Chicago Recordings.” Last year, DeutscheGrammaphon released a multi-disc set of Giulini’s recordings made when he was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LINK).

This EMI set offers clues as to what made Giulini’s Los Angeles tenure so memorable and — even though most of recordings have been available previously — at less than $20 it’s one of the great bargains in recent classical music recording history.

Although Giulini’s reputation in Europe was growing both in the opera house and on the symphony stage, he made his first appearance in the United States at the age of 41 with the Chicago Symphony in 1955 at the invitation of the CSO’s “feared but revered” music director Fritz Reiner (that description comes from a long essay written in 2004 by John Tolansky included in the booklet accompanying this new boxed set, a bonus for buyers).

Guilini maintained his CSO relationship until he was lured west in 1978 by Ernest Fleischmann, the L.A. Philharmonic’s executive director (later executive vice president and managing director). It was one of Fleischmann’s great coups to convince Giulini to come to Los Angeles, a move that ultimately proved to be satisfying for Giulini and a major step forward for the Phil.

However, Giulini never lost his love affair for the Chicagoans. “It was a deep love and friendship,” explained Giulini in 1980, “something that belongs to my body, my soul and my blood.” Moreover, it was definitely a two-way street, as Tolansky reports. “In five minutes,” said Victor Aitay, former CSO concertmaster, “he had an orchestra that loved him … From then onwards, it was a long-time love affair with him.” Those were sentiments later echoed by L.A. Phil members, as well.

The set includes symphonies by Beethoven (No. 7), Bruckner (No. 9), Brahms (No. 4) and Mahler (No. 1), along with Stravinsky’s 1919 Firebird suite and his 1947 Petrushka suite, and Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette dramatic symphony. The discs are crammed full, so the Berlioz is on both the first and second disc while the first movement of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 is on disc 3 and the other three movements are on disc 4.

Altogether, there’s more than five hours of music in the set, all of which was recorded in Chicago’s Medinah Temple (a better recording venue than its home, Orchestra Hall). The recordings date from 1969-1976, a period during part of which Guilini held the title as principal guest conductor (Sir Georg Solti was music director at the time).

Two of the more intriguing recordings are Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 because Giulini waited until later in his career before conducting the music of either composer (Guilini was notorious for his very limited repertory; he conducted only those composers with whom he could feel an intense emotional connection).

His tempos in nearly everything are luxuriant; it is startling for those who never heard Giulini to compare his tempo of the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 with that of the L.A. Phil’s current music director, Gustavo Dudamel.

Moreover, even though these discs use recordings from a different time than the current digital era, the famed Chicago brass sound, the overall sheen of the orchestra and Guilini’s mystical presence are present throughout each of the works. For those who had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Giulini conduct or for those who wonder what why he was so revered, this is a fine sampling.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[Dennis Bade]

Unless I'm confused, this set was actually issued several years ago, as this link to ArkivMusik indicates: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=87858

What is needed now is the Chicago installment of the DG series, which is tantalizingly titled Giulini in America.

[Bob Thomas]

Dennis: You may well be right (you usually are). The copyright on the booklet would seem to agree with you and, as I wrote, the individual recordings had been previously released. This set showed up as "new" in a link from Amazon and it was new to me. I wonder how much DGG actually recorded of Giulini beyond the L.A. Philharmonic. Thanks for commenting.
— RDT

[Dennis Bade]

Sorry to take so long for a follow up, but here's exciting news... there IS a Giulini Chicago box on the way from DG, in June.

http://www.amazon.com/Giulini-America-Chicago-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B004TNZVEY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1303534360&sr=8-8

Giulini's CSO recordings for DG include works by Britten and Mussorgsky, plus symphonies by Dvorak (9), Mahler (9), and Schubert (4 & 8). I haven't found a complete listing of the contents, but it's a 5CD box, and there might be a surprise or two.

[Bob Thomas]

Great news, Dennis. I'm following up with DGG to see if they can flesh out the contents with any more details. For Giulini fans, it will undoubtedly be a must-have. Thanks for following up.
— RDT

[Tim]

I think there's a Schubert 9 on the DG/Chicago Symphony set.

[Tim]

Also, Prokofiev's 'Classical' Symphony ...

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[Dennis Bade]

Tim is right; here's the full listing:
CD1 - Schubert 4 and Dvorak 9
CD2 - Schubert 9 and Prokofiev "Classical"
CD3 – Dvorak 8 and Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures
CD4 - Mahler 9 (I,II,III)
CD5 - Mahler 9 (IV), Schubert 8, Britten Serenade (with the late Robert Tear)

[Red Wing Stroes]

Very, very nicely done!

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Dennis: You may well be right (you usually are). The copyright on the booklet would seem to agree with you and, as I wrote, the individual recordings had been previously released. This set showed up as "new" in a link from Amazon and it was new to me. I wonder how much DGG actually recorded of Giulini beyond the L.A. Philharmonic. Thanks for commenting.

[dating after 40]

This EMI set offers clues as to what made Giulini’s Los Angeles tenure so memorable and — even though most of recordings have been available previously — at less than $20 it’s one of the great bargains in recent classical music recording history.

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ou can draw a straight line from those days and nights at the rink and the ballyard as a kid to what I do for a living right now.