John Smyth wrote: >I finally found London's good 'ole Phase 4 Scheherazade, remastered >by Cala, in a Tower Records. ... > >The performance is just as exciting as I remembered it to be. May >I blaspheme though? The Phase 4 recording: The soloists step out >of their chairs, walk into the audience and sit in your lap to >play. Some of the harp glisses actually startled me, spot-lit as >they are. Why imagine this is blasphemy. Phase Four recordings have long been (in)famous for their almost cinematic production. In fact I think a number of critics would consider the recordings themselves blasphemous. And Stokie approached this at times: the first time I heard the opening of the last movement of his Beethoven 9 (as reorchestrated by LS) I nearly fell out of my seat and from far away I imagined I heard the faint rumbing of Ludwig turning in his grave... Speaking of which, anyone else familiar with Mahler's version of B9? I've been listening to a live performance of this recently and again jumped several times; the amazing thing is that Mahler didn't add any notes, but his "retuchen" really make certain things (especially counterpoint) stand out. Sort of Phase 4 orchestration...:-) Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]>