Oskar Fried was a pioneer in recording the music of Anton Bruckner, certainly one of the most remarkable facts about this versatile conductor and a good reason why this Music & Arts album should attract attention. This is the fourth volume in the label's worthy series, Oskar Fried: A Forgotten Conductor, and its historic recordings, transferred from 78 rpm shellac records made by Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, are fascinating for their astonishing clarity and impeccable continuity. The Symphony No. 7 in E major was most likely recorded in 1924, and the performance by the Kapelle der Staatsoper Berlin was pieced together from multiple sides to make this long-playing digital master. There are scarcely any signs in the orchestra's playing to indicate where breaks occurred, and even trained musicians who know this symphony intimately will be unable to pinpoint all the joins. More importantly, in terms of the musical interpretation, Fried's reading is surprisingly modern sounding, because his tempos are fairly brisk and steady, and there is comparatively little use of rubato. Of course, this might have been due to the constraints of recording the music in timed units of three to four minutes to fit the 78s, and tempo changes might have been constrained to the briefest adjustments. Still, the running time of 56:50 and generally sprightly character of the performance suggest that Fried, like his friend Gustav Mahler, conducted a bit faster, with a stricter beat, and with more forward momentum than had previously been thought. The restoration of Fried's recording of the Symphony No. 7 is presented with a selection of famous choruses, drawn from operas by Richard Wagner, Carl Maria von Weber, and Pietro Mascagni, and recorded in 1927. The Staatsoper choir and orchestra performed these selections in the usual time allotments per record side, so they are necessarily brief. While they are less compelling than the featured work, they are attractive excerpts that are worth hearing at least once, and of value to students of Fried's work.
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