EMI Columbia Testament - TSP8801 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl

AAA 100%  Analogue - Audiophile Mastering - Pressed in Germany

Testament has revived these classic titles from the EMI catalog using only the original EMI master tapes,cut onto lacquer at EMI's Abbey Road Studios and mastered using full analog techniques throughout production.

Michael Rabin Mosaics Volume 2 Brooks Smith - Piano First ever release of previously unpublished recordings

The Lost Capitol Tapes: Previously Unpublished

MICHAEL RABIN Mosaics Vol. 2

 

with Brooks Smith, piano

 

Do not search for an original: There are none. This is a violinist sensation of the first rank - unfortunately, little is known about the background: it seems as if the psychically unstable musician after 1959 yet once again a studio visited and for Capitol 1961 a second collection with ten entrances played, for unimaginable reasons Never published and disappeared in the archive. How this treasure got back to light is not known - the testament publication, affectionately held in the style of a 1961 Capitol LP, is in any case the first edition of these prizes. And that is the point. It has often been regretted that, in addition to Heifetz (whose stammpianist Brooks Smith takes over the piano part here), the most brilliant violinist of the twentieth century spent so much energy on so-called virtuoso repertoire.

 

Of course, one would have liked to know how Rabin had designed a Bach-Partita or a Beethoven singer, but no one, probably not even a Kreisler or Heifetz, turned these "darlings" so confidently into musical gold. The technical difficulties are also behind the music here - Rabin's tone enchants from the very first moment when he begins to work on Kreisler's work on the second "Hungarian Dance" of Antonin Dvorak. Special highlights are William Kroll's "Banjo And Fiddle", Sarasates "Introducción y Tarantela", the Joseph Achron transcription of Schumann's "Vogel as Prophet" from his piano cycle "Waldzenzen" and one by Sarasate Arranged the violin composition of Chopin's E Minor Nocturne, whose fusion and intensity actually excluded the idea that the piece was not originally written for violin. 25 years old Michael Rabin was at these probably final recordings. Once more, the loss they too soon ended career means hard to estimate. 

 

In 1950, when Michael Rabin made his official debut with the Philharmonic in his native New York City, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos spoke of him as "the violin genius of tomorrow." Sadly, although Rabin acquired a reputation as a coruscating virtuoso, his death in 1972, at age 35, prevented the full blooming of his talent. Among his celebrated recordings for the Capitol label was a 1959 album of encore pieces titled Mosaics; and his last Capitol sessions in 1961 were devoted to a second sequence of 10 pieces, with Brooks Smith — best remembered as Jascha Heifetz's accompanist — at the piano. For reasons unrelated to the quality of the playing or the recordings, this second anthology was never released, but EMI Testament is proud to present it now.

 

side 1

 

Dvorak: SLAVONIC DANCE, Op.72, No.2

 

Kreisler: TAMBOURIN CHINOIS, Op.3

 

Debussy–Hartmann: PRELUDE, BOOK 1–No.8,; La fille aux cheveux de lin

 

Kroll: BANJO AND FIDDLE

 

Sarasate: INTRODUCTION AND TARANTELLE, Op.43

 

 

side 2

 

Falla–Kreisler: LA VIDA BREVE – SPANISH DANCE No.1

 

Schumann–Heifetz: WALDSZENEN, Op.82–No.7, – Vogel als Prophet

 

Kreisler: LA CHASSE (after Cartier)

 

Chopin–Sarasate: NOCTURNE IN E FLAT, Op.9, No.2

 

Wieniawski: POLONAISE BRILLIANTE No.1 IN D, Op.4

 

 

Capitol Records LP 180g Vinyl TSP8801