Munch's 1955 Daphnis and Chloe is one of the glories of the 1950's. The French gallic quality in this performance is unmatchable. The sound quality of the recording is amazing. Recorded on two-track tape in Symphony Hall, Boston in January 1955. Coincidentally, today is the birthday of the great flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer who played the gorgeous Pan flute solo. She was born March 6, 1922 in Streator, IL. Today would be her 102nd birthday. Happy Birthday Doriot and thank you for all the years of your fantastic artistry!
Doriot had short dark hair. Sometimes they focused in on Lois Schaefer the principal piccolo of the Boston Symphony for many years. She was assistant principal flute in the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner in the mid 1950's.
Whilst NYC and London are embroiled in civil unrest, along comes a breath of sanity every day in the form of Dave H and his much anticipated Classics Today clip. I would hope that in a (God Forbid) apolcalyptic world, Dave would still be educating and entartaining us with his musical comments of recordings from the past and present. God bless, Dave and many fetes!
Ah, this one warms my heart. The 1955 Munch Daphnis was one of the first pieces of classical music I heard as a child. My Mom, having recently moved up to Hi-Fidelity LPs in 1955, bought the Munch performance to add to her, then, very small collection of LPs. I was immediately entranced by the wonderful sounds coming out of that Mono speaker. Bit of trivia: The LP was first issued in MONO only in an oversized fold out album nearly the size of the old 78 sets with pen and ink drawings by none other than a pre-factory Andy Warhol! I was very happy when I found RCA had re-mastered the stereo version into great SACD sound in 2004! Both Munch and Monteux are reference recordings of the highest order.
Philadelphia’s 1959 recording of just Suite No. 2 is now available in the Columbia Stereo box and is virtuosity on parade. I got the Munch 1955 in the big Living Stereo box years ago and it is wonderful in every way.
As a rank musical amateur who only listens to, not plays music, Daphnis to my ears sounds like an extraordinarily complicated, perhaps even near impossible work to effectively bring off. I'm surprised there are as many as three, perhaps more, reference recordings out there. I gravitate closer to Monteux's version, but the closest I ever came to supplanting an obvious reference recording was when I first heard Cluytens'. As I said before, I'm no critic, I'm no musician, but we're fortunate to have so many remarkable recordings, even reference recordings of Daphnis. The work never gets old to me, even when I myself am old.
The trouble is the first performance you hear imprints a 'model' - and if you were a hard up teenager, you probably played the grooves off the L.P because you listened to it a gazillion times! Of course, I can now shift on to other versions - but, like all habits, listening habits are tough to break...
Very well said...I had a tough time getting past my firsts/favorites for a long time...if classical radio would play a version of a work I wasnt used to, I would sort of dismiss it for being too slow, etc...but now we have TH-cam and a million options for variety at our fingertips and I finally can listen to anything as if it's the first time, anytime
Yeah, even if that version has some technical deficiencies. As for Daphnis and Chloe, my first experiences with it is the whole ballet on an old soviet recording by Rozhdestvensky on streaming service. There's a distortion in the introduction and the pitch maybe become a microtone lower, and now I think that is an essential Impressionist sound and can't live without it!
What unlocked this work for me was the Boulez DG recording with the Berlin Phil. I’ve since acquired the reference recordings named here as well as several others. One of my very favorite pieces of music.
Dutoit was my first Daphnis, & I was lucky in that. It's still one of my top 3. Munch 61 is also in my top 3, but I wouldn't even put Munch 55 in my top 10. It's wonderful! But I really think that Munch supplanted himself. 61 is just magnificent.
I enjoy the piece a lot, and consequently, I have heard a number of recordings. However, my own personal reference, the one I cherish above all others, is the one Claudio Abbado made with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1988.
Back before lp, the reference was Koussevitzky's Boston version of the second suite. The entire work hadn't been done yet. But Dapnis 2 was Koussevitzky's unquestioned showpiece. His 2nd RCA BSO recording has an uncanny glow and luminousness and perfectly built up excitement in the final dance. Munch inherited some of that Boston sound and tradition at least as late as 1955 along with his own unique brand of thrills.
My first Daphnis was the Szell/Cleveland. It is still my favorite of the 2nd suite. The woodwind playing is spectacular. But as always, I will now seek out the 3 that Dave discussed
I have, and love all of these, but Rosenthal is the apex for me personally. It's so otherworldly. Also, Mildred fan club member here glad to see an appearance by our favorite gal.
I agree with the comments below about "first hearing" recordings. It IS hard to overcome them especially when you heard them during the teen years. It's kinda like a first human love crush. There can never be another first. Anyway, with maturity and experience as a classical musician, I started hearing the shortcomings of those first hearings. Even so, it's still hard to get over a first love. First crushes , both human and artistic, are indeed our references for life.
Hi Dennis, Let me be the first to give you a thumbs up. That is true for me too. Many of my "first hearings" during my impressionable teen years do stay with me as ones that I still love and are still my preferred recordings, even though they may not be considered "reference recordings". And you are right again that as I matured, some of those "first loves" were replaced by better performances/recordings. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique by Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw on Philips is one that really stands out for me and it's still my first love and I have yet to hear a better performance/recording even though I've heard many that were considered better by the reviewers. Thank God Philips recorded it in quadrophonic sound and Pentatone released it in Quad on SACD.
Hi Jeff. thanks for that. I think I may have been a bit misunderstood in my comment and that is probably because I could have worded things better. Anyway, we agree. For me, it was Walcha's organ recordings (first round) in the early 1960's which I basically stumbled upon in the library and when I heard them it was like an atomic bomb, so much that I pursued a career as a musician even getting to a doctorate and university position. (Unfortunately I left the field mainly due to my ignorance about academic politics and the "good old boy's club. Glad I left, frankly.@@Jeff-wb3hh
Hi Dennis, just an example of one that I fell out of love with was my first Beethoven recording of the Moonlight and Appassionata sonatas by Arthur Rubinstein. As I heard more recent better performances/recordings in my early 20's, Rubinstein's went by the wayside.
Well, I have to reciprocate withone my own "abandonments". It was Bernstein's "Messiah". It was a revelation when I first heard it (predating my discovery of Bach's organ music). After hearing other recordings while in music school, I realized just what can be revealed by different performers and performances.@@Jeff-wb3hh
Don't remember which Daphnis and Chloe on LP was the first I heard. Monteux is fine but after many different performances I return to Boulez with the Berliner Philharmoniker. What I like especially is his use of different vowels instaed of only Ah to colour with in the chorus.
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Munch's 1955 Daphnis and Chloe is one of the glories of the 1950's. The French gallic quality in this performance is unmatchable. The sound quality of the recording is amazing. Recorded on two-track tape in Symphony Hall, Boston in January 1955. Coincidentally, today is the birthday of the great flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer who played the gorgeous Pan flute solo. She was born March 6, 1922 in Streator, IL. Today would be her 102nd birthday. Happy Birthday Doriot and thank you for all the years of your fantastic artistry!
Doriot! I think we saw her highlighted in television broadcasts, no?
Doriot had short dark hair. Sometimes they focused in on Lois Schaefer the principal piccolo of the Boston Symphony for many years. She was assistant principal flute in the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner in the mid 1950's.
Whilst NYC and London are embroiled in civil unrest, along comes a breath of sanity every day in the form of Dave H and his much anticipated Classics Today clip. I would hope that in a (God Forbid) apolcalyptic world, Dave would still be educating and entartaining us with his musical comments of recordings from the past and present. God bless, Dave and many fetes!
Thank you!
NYC is "embroiled in civil unrest?" You gotta be freakin kidding me, as we say here in Brooklyn. You don't know what you're talking about.
Ah, this one warms my heart. The 1955 Munch Daphnis was one of the first pieces of classical music I heard as a child. My Mom, having recently moved up to Hi-Fidelity LPs in 1955, bought the Munch performance to add to her, then, very small collection of LPs. I was immediately entranced by the wonderful sounds coming out of that Mono speaker.
Bit of trivia: The LP was first issued in MONO only in an oversized fold out album nearly the size of the old 78 sets with pen and ink drawings by none other than a pre-factory Andy Warhol!
I was very happy when I found RCA had re-mastered the stereo version into great SACD sound in 2004!
Both Munch and Monteux are reference recordings of the highest order.
Great video
Thank you 🙏🏾
Thanks for watching!
Philadelphia’s 1959 recording of just Suite No. 2 is now available in the Columbia Stereo box and is virtuosity on parade. I got the Munch 1955 in the big Living Stereo box years ago and it is wonderful in every way.
As a rank musical amateur who only listens to, not plays music, Daphnis to my ears sounds like an extraordinarily complicated, perhaps even near impossible work to effectively bring off. I'm surprised there are as many as three, perhaps more, reference recordings out there. I gravitate closer to Monteux's version, but the closest I ever came to supplanting an obvious reference recording was when I first heard Cluytens'. As I said before, I'm no critic, I'm no musician, but we're fortunate to have so many remarkable recordings, even reference recordings of Daphnis. The work never gets old to me, even when I myself am old.
Boulez and the NY Phil was my first recording of the complete work. The NY Phil plays beautifully and has help up quite well.
I heard this and the Berlin one. The Berlin one played better, I thought.
The trouble is the first performance you hear imprints a 'model' - and if you were a hard up teenager, you probably played the grooves off the L.P because you listened to it a gazillion times! Of course, I can now shift on to other versions - but, like all habits, listening habits are tough to break...
Very well said...I had a tough time getting past my firsts/favorites for a long time...if classical radio would play a version of a work I wasnt used to, I would sort of dismiss it for being too slow, etc...but now we have TH-cam and a million options for variety at our fingertips and I finally can listen to anything as if it's the first time, anytime
Yeah, even if that version has some technical deficiencies. As for Daphnis and Chloe, my first experiences with it is the whole ballet on an old soviet recording by Rozhdestvensky on streaming service. There's a distortion in the introduction and the pitch maybe become a microtone lower, and now I think that is an essential Impressionist sound and can't live without it!
I did just that with Munch’s ‘Mother Goose’ with the Paris orchestra - especially ‘The Fairy Garden’ movement
What unlocked this work for me was the Boulez DG recording with the Berlin Phil. I’ve since acquired the reference recordings named here as well as several others. One of my very favorite pieces of music.
The Boulez is gorgeous--that whole cycle is.
Dutoit was my first Daphnis, & I was lucky in that. It's still one of my top 3. Munch 61 is also in my top 3, but I wouldn't even put Munch 55 in my top 10. It's wonderful! But I really think that Munch supplanted himself. 61 is just magnificent.
61 was better played than 55.
Dutoit was my first too, one of my earliest CDs.
I enjoy the piece a lot, and consequently, I have heard a number of recordings. However, my own personal reference, the one I cherish above all others, is the one Claudio Abbado made with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1988.
I grew up with the Szell and Toscanini suites. I will check these out. Thanks.
Back before lp, the reference was Koussevitzky's Boston version of the second suite. The entire work hadn't been done yet. But Dapnis 2 was Koussevitzky's unquestioned showpiece. His 2nd RCA BSO recording has an uncanny glow and luminousness and perfectly built up excitement in the final dance. Munch inherited some of that Boston sound and tradition at least as late as 1955 along with his own unique brand of thrills.
My first Daphnis was the Szell/Cleveland. It is still my favorite of the 2nd suite. The woodwind playing is spectacular. But as always, I will now seek out the 3 that Dave discussed
The LSO Pierre Monteux was the recording I used to practiced conducting. LOL
Yep. Struck me at same spot as most people. Including your driver. Gorgeous music. Mine is Phillips Duo. Marriner or...
I have, and love all of these, but Rosenthal is the apex for me personally. It's so otherworldly. Also, Mildred fan club member here glad to see an appearance by our favorite gal.
Bernstein did a terrific recording with the NYPO back in the lates 50s or early 60s.
I agree with the comments below about "first hearing" recordings. It IS hard to overcome them especially when you heard them during the teen years. It's kinda like a first human love crush. There can never be another first. Anyway, with maturity and experience as a classical musician, I started hearing the shortcomings of those first hearings. Even so, it's still hard to get over a first love. First crushes , both human and artistic, are indeed our references for life.
They aren't mine.
Hi Dennis, Let me be the first to give you a thumbs up. That is true for me too. Many of my "first hearings" during my impressionable teen years do stay with me as ones that I still love and are still my preferred recordings, even though they may not be considered "reference recordings". And you are right again that as I matured, some of those "first loves" were replaced by better performances/recordings. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique by Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw on Philips is one that really stands out for me and it's still my first love and I have yet to hear a better performance/recording even though I've heard many that were considered better by the reviewers. Thank God Philips recorded it in quadrophonic sound and Pentatone released it in Quad on SACD.
Hi Jeff. thanks for that. I think I may have been a bit misunderstood in my comment and that is probably because I could have worded things better. Anyway, we agree. For me, it was Walcha's organ recordings (first round) in the early 1960's which I basically stumbled upon in the library and when I heard them it was like an atomic bomb, so much that I pursued a career as a musician even getting to a doctorate and university position. (Unfortunately I left the field mainly due to my ignorance about academic politics and the "good old boy's club. Glad I left, frankly.@@Jeff-wb3hh
Hi Dennis, just an example of one that I fell out of love with was my first Beethoven recording of the Moonlight and Appassionata sonatas by Arthur Rubinstein. As I heard more recent better performances/recordings in my early 20's, Rubinstein's went by the wayside.
Well, I have to reciprocate withone my own "abandonments". It was Bernstein's "Messiah". It was a revelation when I first heard it (predating my discovery of Bach's organ music). After hearing other recordings while in music school, I realized just what can be revealed by different performers and performances.@@Jeff-wb3hh
Gee, I thought it would be John Wilson on Chandos.😜
According to the English magazines, anyway...
I’m sure you meant Thielemann.
@@richardtomasekNot only the English press eg The New York Times, LImelight (Australia) Classica mag (France)
... actually, I've also got it in my Chandos Ravel orchestral box, Pascal Tortillier (probably spelled wrongly).
The original 1955 Munch Daphnis LP has drawings inside by the young Andy Warhol.
Munch for me. But Daphnis et Chloe is one of the handful of works, for me, that seems to always sound good.
Don't remember which Daphnis and Chloe on LP was the first I heard. Monteux is fine but after many different performances I return to Boulez with the Berliner Philharmoniker. What I like especially is his use of different vowels instaed of only Ah to colour with in the chorus.
Munch does that too.
Dave - where does the Cluytens 1963 fall on this list?
Love this performance as well.
It's terrific.
Cluytens & Le Tombeau de Couperin. SWOON. @@welshtoro3256
At 9:50 you mean 2nd Munch, not Dutoit
Yes. That guy.
“You can’t not love Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe”: objective, scientific fact.