229.00 PLN

LP-180G 33rpm:

Nr kat.: CLP7001
Label  : Cisco Music USA

(...) Freidrich Witt's "Jena" symphony is a controversial rarely heard and even more rarely recorded work than any Mozart symphony. The relatively unknown Witt was better known as a fine cellist and composer of chamber works. I am in complete agreement with the liner notes about this selection which fortunately I did not read until listening sessions were finished. Not only did I find it to be a particularly joyous and entertaining composition, I definitely preferred it to the companion Mozart "Haffner" symphony! Not knowing the composition does not let me completely separate composition from performance. Is it a pretty good composition with a superb performance or a superb composition with an adequate performance? Whatever your feelings, how would you begin to prove it? In the quieter movements I kept hearing hints of Haydn as light or lilting melodies sprightly performed and in the outer movements there were definite underpinnings in form and structure that I remember from Beethoven's sixth and I believe eighth symphonies. As good as most aspects of the Mozart performance and recording are, Witt's "Jena" symphony tops it slightly but definitely in essentially every way. The orchestral playing is a bit more cohesive, microphone placement better, detail a bit clearer, as is the separation of instruments in the lower registers and greater clarity of the winds. Not really remarkable for its time, 1959, (remember some of the great RCA recordings from the mid and late fifties) the excellent quality of this recording is probably due to the great simplicity of the recording technique and process and here pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Celebrate an excellent performance and recording of an essentially unknown composition by a very rarely heard-from composer! Highly, very highly recommended recording.