Felix Delbrueck wrote:

>Has anyone heard this 1938 Beethoven Concerto in an earlier incarnation on
>LP (it's supposed to be new to CD) and knows whether it's any good, or how
>it compares to the 1941 performance? My only hope is that H.  felt engaged
>by the concerto and then slumped during the Chopin pieces after the
>interval (perhaps he was already drunk by this stage - he certainly
>sounds like it).

I have the 1938 Hofmann and Ormandy.  Is it any good? For me it illustrates
very well why Rachmaninoff held Hofmann in such high regard.  I also have
the Barbirolli and Mitropoulos versions.  The Mitropoulos performance is
particularly disappointing, but to my ears the Ormandy Hofmann
collaboration is wonderful.  As for comparison, I should also mention that
I enjoy the Serkin Toscanini broadcast as well.  Hofmann takes the last
movement at a fast tempo, perhaps too fast for some tastes, but all of the
notes are there and right in tempo.

Also worth a mention in the new set is the Kapell Ormandy Brahms.  I
will be eager to hear what Mark has been able to do with it.  There were
pitch problems and some excessive noise in the transfer I heard some
years ago at library of Congress, but the playing of the second movement
in particular was unique.  While the pitch may have been off, Kapell
held on to each phrase so long that I felt like he was going to lose the
continuity.  Somehow he managed to keep the line going.  Pity more of his
performances have not survived.  He performed often with Philadelphia, even
doing a Tchaikovsky 1st!  Not broadcast unfortunately, but then neither was
the Brahms on the new set.

Karl