PARAY conducts German Music (1953/55) - PASC241

Paul Paray conducts Brahms and Wagner in Detroit

Superb Mercury Living Presence recordings, newly remastered

Both of these albums were recorded in the mid-1950s using Mercury's famous single-microphone 'Living Presence' technique, which they were always keen to promote on their LP sleeves:

For Paul Paray this recorded performance of the Brahms Fourth Symphony with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the organization he has molded into a great body of musicians, has special significance; for with this disc, and those of the works of Wagner (Mercury MG50044, MG50021) and Beethoven (MG50045, MG50022), Mr. Paray feels he has achieved some proper representation on discs of his work as interpreter of the great classics of the German repertoire. Already critics and public in the U.S.A. and overseas have widely acclaimed Mr. Paray's immensely warm and vital readings of Beethoven and Wagner released earlier. The Mercury recording staff for its part has brought to bear every resource of its Living Presence single microphone recording technique in an effort to achieve a definitive realization of Mr. Paray's interpretive intent and the composer's music. The recording took place in Orchestra Hall, the original home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, on March 26, 1955, a single Tele-funken microphone being maintained in set position throughout with the orchestra seated in normal concert arrangement. Advance preparations were such that re-takes were kept to a minimum, thus insuring the maximum continuity of line throughout the whole of the music in its final recorded form. The entire gigantic finale is heard on this disc as one uninterrupted and unedited performance.

For those particularly interested in the sonic realization of this music through the medium of Living Presence recording, we call particular attention to the final pages of the slow movement beginning with the return of the secondary theme in the massed strings, as well as to the whole of the final movement in which brazen wind sonorities are placed in violent opposition to brilliant violin figuration.

It's interesting to note that, as with many other Mercury Living Presence LPs, the Brahms 'benefits' from a mild lift in the treble, peaking at around 3.5kHz. The fact that this is heard in badly exaggerated form on another Mercury Paray disc from the era leads me to conclude that this is a deliberate 'sweetening' of the sound by the recording engineers rather than a natural characteristic of the recording or the microphone used.

It is interesting that the earlier of the two LPs from which this release is derived shows no sign of either this lift nor the slight dip at about 1.25kHz that also seems to characterise something of the 'Living Presence' sound. Indeed the Wagner has a much more realistic tonal profile than any of the other LPs from which both this and our Paul Paray Conducts French Music (PASC240) release were drawn.

However, the 1953 recordings have slightly more tape hiss than the 1955 Brahms which, following XR remastering, turns out to be a remarkably clean and very well-balanced recording. Together with the Wagner they represent an excellent collection of recordings which have been unduly neglected by th e company which recorded them.

Andrew Rose