Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique' (1955/2013) [HD...

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.

„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."