SACD / DSD

Pierre Monteux

BBC Northern Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Beethoven, Haydn & Others: Orchestral Works (Live) (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By · June 23, 2024 · 0 Comment

BBC Northern Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Beethoven, Haydn & Others: Orchestral Works (Live) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:39:52 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce Pierre Monteux Live, a two-CD set comprised entirely of first releases including never-before-issued performances led by the legendary conductor. Among these is a spectacular 50th Anniversary performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the composer in attendance, given a half-century to the day after Monteux himself conducted the storied Paris world premiere! This recording captures an extraordinary moment of historical continuity: between 1913 and 1963 five decades elapsed in the evolution of 20th-century music, in the taste and understanding of the public and in the lives of both creator and pioneering interpreter. The concert was broadcast live on the BBC from the Royal Albert Hall and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra who referred to Monteux affectionately as their “Maître”. Both the devoted playing and the emotional audience acclaim are preserved in vividly present sound.

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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’ (1955/2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/176,4kHz]

Studio Masters By · October 18, 2023 · Comments off

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’ (1955/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 44:14 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Records

One of the earliest stereo recordings by legendary RCA Living Stereo engineer Lewis Layton, the “Pathetique” was recorded with a handful of microphones feeding a pair of mono mixers, each feeding one channel of an RCA RT-21 quarter-inch 2-track tape recorder, running at 30 inches per second.  RCA engineers favored Neumann U-47 and M49/50 condenser microphones and RCA 77DX ribbon microphones.

Reunited three decades later with the orchestra he led in the early 1920s, Pierre Monteux produced a “Pathetique” both gripping and exhilarating. Monteux and the Boston Symphony Orchestra interpret Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 with unbelievable musicality. The RCA Living Stereo production team gave the music its due in a clear and dynamic landmark of early stereophony. This album is a treat for an audiophile’s ears.

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Pierre Monteux – Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, Pavane & Rhapsodie by Pierre Monteux (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By · May 12, 2023 · Comments off

Pierre Monteux – Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, Pavane & Rhapsodie by Pierre Monteux (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:42 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

Pierre Benjamin Monteux, born April 4, 1875 in Paris 9e and died July 1, 1964 in Hancock (Maine, United States), is a French musician, naturalized American in 1942. In parallel with his brilliant career as a conductor, he had an important pedagogical activity, both in France and in the United States.

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Pierre Monteux – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ by Pierre Monteux (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By · February 17, 2023 · Comments off

Pierre Monteux – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ by Pierre Monteux (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:37 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

Pierre Monteux born into a Jewish family from the Comtat Venaissin, Pierre Monteux studied the violin from the age of six. Three years later, he entered the Paris Conservatory, in the chamber music and viola classes of Benjamin Godard and harmony of Lavignac. In 1896, he obtained the first violin prize, the same year as Jacques Thibaud. From fourteen to seventeen years old, pushed by his older brother, he worked as second violin at the Folies Bergère.

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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique” (1955/2004) SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By · November 4, 2022 · Comments off

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique” (1955/2004)
SACD ISO: 818 MB | FLAC @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 847 MB | Full Artwork | 3% Rec. Info
Label/Cat#: RCA Red Seal “Living Stereo” # 82876-61397-2 RE1 | Country/Year: US 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

Pierre Monteux was one of those conductors who could make the most anguished music sound effortless. You might think that this isn’t an advantage in the Pathétique Symphony, but it is. His innate musicality keeps the allegro sections of the first movement pressing smartly forward, while the lyrical second subject never turns sticky. Other performances may be noisier, but Monteux’s cogency offers its own exciting and perfectly valid argument. Certainly no one would take issue with the idiomatic lilt he brings to the second-movement waltz, or with the rhythmic lift he provides in the ensuing march (this really is Tchaikovsky as his most French, isn’t it?). There have been more intense accounts of the finale, but the beautiful playing of the Boston Symphony and Monteux’s refusal to get hysterical remain all of a piece: it’s a very satisfying reading by any standard. The 1955 Living Stereo recording still sounds excellent both in stereo and on (two-channel) SACD, without a large enough difference between them to make a significant difference. This is a very welcome reissue. –David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Pierre Monteux – Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 by Pierre Monteux (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By · October 26, 2022 · Comments off

Pierre Monteux – Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 by Pierre Monteux (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 29:19 minutes | 530 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

Pierre Benjamin Monteux, né le 4 avril 1875 à Paris 9e1 et mort le 1er juillet 1964 à Hancock (Maine, États-Unis), est un musicien français, naturalisé américain en 1942. Parallèlement à sa brillante carrière de chef d’orchestre, il a eu une importante activité pédagogique, tant en France qu’aux États-Unis.

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