Review: Ansermet's 88-CD Complete Stereo Recordings on Decca

[@MrTomsudholt]

I bought the box. Glad I did because even at Australian Eloquence prices I couldn't continue buying the individual discs of their Ansermet Legacy. The delays for this edition are a puzzle. Each disc is a duplication of the couplings as they appeared on the initial Eloquence discs from down under. What is there to mess up on?!? Eloquence did the hard work already these past few years. Great, fair review David. Thanks for it!

[@stephen_pfrimmer]

Thanks!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you very much!

[@DavidJohnson-of3vh]

Thank you for all that. I still have several of those lps. The first Ansermet I heard was on a London LP mono Danse Macabre that I still have. I greatly enjoy his Russian music.

[@geraldmartin7703]

There was a time-- in the 1960s-- when Ansermet's R-K Scheherazade with the OSR was considered a "demonstration disc". For the recording, not the playing. Ansermet's 1954 recording with the Conservatoir was early stereo.

[@jaykauffman4775]

I recall that LP. It was really wonderful sound

[@richardsandmeyer4431]

As Dave mentions, almost all of this has been reissued before (especially on Australian Eloquence's Ansermet Legacy series), so I have everything except the early recordings of Beethoven Symphonies 1 and 8 and perhaps one or two of the recordings of short pieces he did multiple times. (Well, of course, I also don't have the Ansermet lecture nor the reminiscences disc.) This set would free up some storage space but only at the expense of giving up the notes on the earlier releases. Therefore, I put it near the bottom of my wishlist. If Decca had released it near the beginning of the "big box" era, I'd have bought it immediately.

[@BigE-Ian]

I know Ansermet and the OSR have a “questionable” reputation and don’t really get a lot of love from critics and listeners alike. However, I just want to go on record that I actually have enjoyed many of their recordings and still do. I’m a vinyl collector and living in the U.S. many of their recordings are available in great quality on the London label from “back in the day”. Are many of their recordings the best performances, maybe not, but I enjoy them and David always says, THAT is the most important factor when push comes to shove! Thanks for another video Dave! Love them all, so keep them coming.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you. I enjoy a lot of them too, even when I know they aren't the best.

[@ericleiter6179]

Adjust your expectations accordingly...words to live by!!!

[@dmntuba]

I'm 58 yo retired professional orchestral musician and I have a minor connection to Ansermet. When I was an undergrad (84 - 88) the conductor of student orchestra (and conducting teacher) Peter Perret who was also conductor of hometown pro orchestra. I played under Perret for 4 years + another 8 or 9 years in pro orchestra before he retired also studied conducting with him for 3 semesters. Peter was a fine musician & first class oboest. I do remember Peter telling us (conducting class) that while studying with Ansermet (must have been an assistant conductor to some degree) that he sat in on oboe when needed... now I'm curious if Peter sat in was for recordings. He is still kicking and making music so I must reach out and ask. I only remember Peter talking or telling stories about Ansermet 4 times and that was when he was trying to make a point. Perret was also deep into mathematics and studies of the brain so he and Ansermet had plenty to chat about than just music.🤣 I consider myself lucky to have had him in my early musical development. Over all good guy, and really fine teacher/ orchestra trainer 👍

[@howardfowler2255]

David is a treasure chest of musical insight.And he' s a nice guy,too.I wish I had him to guide me 50 years ago in acquiring worthwhile recordings.But better late than never!

[@bbailey7818]

I hear plaintive mewing in the background. A critique of the box? The Ansermet box I'd love to see is his NBC Symphony broadcasts, 1948-49. A chance to hear him with a truly great orchestra and conducting some important American premieres by Honegger, Martinu, Martin, and Bloch, as well as some of the solid classics. (A surprisingly hot Schubert 9th.) Things he didn't record commercially. In the best sources, the 8H mono sound actually has great impact and detail. It'd be under ten discs.

[@markpullinger2500]

When I emailed Universal a month ago, the replacements for the 2 defective discs arrived within 24 hours (am in London).

[@EddieJazzFan]

My intro to Ansermet was through the the budget "London Treasury" series LPs that I used to get at Sam Goody for $1.99 back in the late 70s. I was able to afford to get a lot of decent classical music at those prices. I did get this box months ago (without the defects), But I wonder why the upcoming mono box is listed at about the same price but only has 26 discs?

[@paulpanderson]

You are amazing! Thanks you so much!

[@detlefzahradka7581]

i LOVE this box and iam happy to get it for a wonderful price

[@MickeyCoalwell]

OSR was a second-rate ensemble, it’s true. But. Hearing core classical repertoire for the first time with Ansermet and OSR gave me a baseline for performance quality that I depend on to this day. One could do worse than learning how the music should go under Ansermet and OSR. In intervening decades I discovered that many other orchestras do it better…and many much, much worse. So, yay OSR and Ansermet!

[@bbailey7818]

Or maybe how the music legitimately "could" go.

[@renaudgautier3975]

Has anyone discovered how to et replacement discs in the US? My set was purchased recently from Amazon and unfortunately still contains all the problem CDs. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. I grew up with Ansermet and a lot of these recordings. They are old friends...

[@stephen_pfrimmer]

Thank you so munch

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It was my pleasure. Thank YOU for your kindness and support.

[@brianrein]

This reminds me, did anyone ever get a Grumiaux replacement disc? I never did so I am very reluctant to order anything else from Universal that gets flagged as having a defect.

[@brunoluong7972]

I did

[@socratez]

I did. I got two actually, because I thought the first one got lost in the mail.

[@JamesHLee-un8un]

Where do I get the replacement for defective cds?

[@bplonutube]

When will you review the stereo Ormandy box?

[@dirkh.44]

One at a time!😊

[@CortJohnson]

I think we are all excited to hear Dave’s take on that strange box - 88 CDs over 5-6 years… he was really pumping them out! How did that turn out?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Tomorrow.

[@bplonutube]

Hooray! I’ve listened to just a few things so far. A wonderfully played, and very elegant Frank D, minor symphony, and I was pleased to come back to his Carmina Burana and find it very sensible and enjoyable, as well as exciting.

[@bbailey7818]

​@@bplonutubeAnd Ormandy was one of the few "mainstream" conductors to follow up with Catulli Carmina. But that one, dating from 1967, is NOT in the box.

[@jefolson6989]

Always thought Ansermet was great but recorded with a second string orchestra. Had he had the Vienna Phil, for exmple he could have made some spectacular recording. I might be wrong.

[@paolozeccara5860]

Further to Dave Hurwitz’s review of Ansermet's 88-CD Complete Stereo Recordings on Decca, I wish to report that there are in fact 3 problematic discs in this set. The Gopak from Mussorgsky’s Sorochintsy Fair (CD 56) is not, as stated in the accompanying booklet, and read out by Dave, a world premiere stereo release, but the mono version previously released on Australian Eloquence 480 0047

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Figures.

[@ericschmidt1767]

I'm sad to report that Amazon is still selling boxes with the defective discs as of April 2024 (bought from Amazon Global Store UK via the US web site). You figure after 10 months they would have corrected the issue...but no 🙄

[@CortJohnson]

This was a fascinating review for me. I only know Ansermet from his Stravinsky recordings - which I loved! While the orchestra didn't pack the punch of other orchestras and was clearly weaker than other orchestras - time and time again it would seem that Ansermet hit it just right! He would reveal things that other conductors didn't - and all would be forgiven - so I was very interested to see if that extended to other composers - but Dave doesn't like Ansermet in Stravinsky! Do I take a chance on it? It's an expensive box. I don't know.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I don't dislike him--it's just that so many others in the intervening years have done it better. I can't ignore that.

[@CortJohnson]

@@DavesClassicalGuide and as our objective critic and guide you, above all, shouldn’t! 😎

[@jensguldalrasmussen6446]

Bear with me, I need to get one other thing of my chest: "The Orhestre de la Suisse Romande is like a [Swiss] Hallé Orchestra"....well, just worse! The only cd, ever, I paid for, listened to once, and in anger threw directly in the garbage bin, was the cd with Mozart symphonies with the OSR under Maag (Australian Eloquence), normally one of my favourite conductors in this repertoire. The orchestral playing was unbearable, schreechy and intonationally challenged (to frame it in the most positive vein possible). Granted, they got better with time, and there are many good over very good and exciting to a few excellent recordings under Ansermet (and keep in mind, we are not here discussing the excellence of Ansermet's interpretations!), but I can't recall to have heard a studio recording with the Hallé under Barbirolli, warts and all - Hallé that is - execrable and atrocius to a similar degree as that recording!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Don't worry, I've heard many.

[@cartologist]

There are two elephants in the room, the other being loathsome anti-Semitism, on which he wrote long after the end of World War II. I will not quote why he wrote to avoid being pedantic. I have purchased music conducted by figures with questionable ethics and morals, but I can’t get past it in this case.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I long ago realized if that if I made anti-Semitism a litmus test my life would be drastically limited in a way that is just what the anti-Semites hope to achieve. It's much for satisfying to enjoy whatever I want while calling them out on it. I've discussed Ansermet's bigotry on several occasions.