About 25 years ago when I was a student in Chicago I was listening to a
discussion of Kubelik's tenure with the Chicago Symphony on WFMT.  On this
particular program they played the last movement of Kubelik's 1953 version
of Hindemith's SYMPHONIC METAMORPHOSIS OF THEMES BY WEBER, and, as the
saying goes, I was floored.  It was some of the most exciting music-making
I had ever heard.  So I was delighted when I learned it was available again
on the Mercury Living Presence CDs, but I was also a bit anxious.  I've had
the experience of revisited recordings not living up to the memory I had of
them, and I feared similar disappointment here.  Well, it is just as
riveting as I remember.  What a performance!  Does anyone share my
enthusiasm for this reading or have similar tales to tell of returning with
trepidation to recordings heard long ago?

Nick
[log in to unmask]