Enescu - Sym No. 1 - C Silvestri & Bournemouth SO (1966) - [Philidor; FLAC]

In 1961, the Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri took up residence in the UK, becoming the Bournemouth SO's principal conductor. A brilliant musician and excellent communicator, he strove to turn the disciplined but conventional orchestra into one capable of delivering impassioned, insightful performances. By every account, he succeeded. As the orchestra's manager, Kenneth Matchett, put it, "He made the orchestra hang on the end of his baton."

Silvestri and the Bournemouth were recorded live numerous times for subsequent broadcast, once it became apparent what a splendid job he'd done of building up his orchestra. This derives from analog tapes made of one of those concerts, and it unfortunately possesses much of the congestion that obscures Enescu's textures. That to one side--and the occasional imperfections, like the french horn at the start of the second movement--this is an exceptionally energized, beautifully shaped reading, flexible and radiant.

I'd love to put up Silvestri's version of the Enescu Octet, but the released CD of it was a botched job, incredibly compressed with much frequency attenuation, and I haven't yet gotten around to transferring my LP version. Perhaps in the future. For now, there's this.

Note: you can find all my classical uploads on KAT by searching on Philidor, or by checking out this thread:

http://kickasstorrents.ee/community/show/philidor-s-classical-stuff/#post15649610