Exciting coming releases from Profil in 2012

In Volume 32 of their Edition Staatskapelle Dresden (PH09025), Profil went back the history lane to the 1930's when Böhm made the first recordings of Bruckner Symphonies 4 & 5. These 2 recordings have been issued by numerous companies, but what is so special about them is that they were recorded in the old Semper Opera House before it was destroyed by bombing and subsequent firestorm in 1945. They were said to have captured the acoustic of the old building. These historic recordings have established the credentials of Böhm as an outstanding Brucknerian.
Update: The original CD release contains a poorly edited Fifth, q.v. Berky's site.

Another release, of previously unpublished content, is the second box-set of Wand's DSO recordings (PH10046). As far as Bruckner is concerned, Symphonies No. 6 and 8 are included. The 5th and 6th symphonies of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are also among the selections in this 8-CD set. The cover art shown above is an early draft and the listing is a little weird and apparently does not correspond fully to the actual contents of the CDs. (Update: the picture above is now replaced by the final cover with the correct listing). I have got news of this release almost two years ago in a previous blog entry.

The first DSO box-set has been mentioned in two posts before.

I'm sure they must be worth waiting for.

P. S. (25 Jan 2012) Now that I have more time to blog, here is the detailed listing of this 8-CD box-set which is divided into 5 volumes:

Vol. 1: Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 with rehearsal excerpts (Beethoven workshop in Berlin), recorded in the Berlin Schauspielhaus (later renamed Konzerthaus).

Vol. 2: Stravinsky The Firebird Ballet suite for orchestra (1945 version); Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5.

Vol. 3: Mozart Symphony No. 40 (K550); Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6.

Vol. 4: Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 6 and 8 (Haas version).

Vol. 5: Haydn Symphony No. 76; Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition; Mozart Serenata notturna K239.

The repertoire is very much bread-and-butter Wand, seen in NDR recordings from BMG and Munich Philharmonic ones from Profil before.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

Let me share with you the firework display in Hong Kong. I filmed this with a handheld DC and so the quality is just so-so. It is a view from the Viewing Deck, Hong Kong Cultural Centre on the Kowloon side. This video clip only records about 1 minute of the 4 minutes plus show.

From Pearl Harbour to a largely overshadowed Japanese conductor (Part 1)

Time flies. It all happened 70 years ago. Nowadays Christmas is a day of joy and fun for the new generations in Hong Kong. For my grandparents, 25 December was a day to be remembered in sorrow and fear. The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII started on 25 December, 1941. Over the years, I had a decent collection of those tragic and horrendous tales about the 3 years and 8 months of Japanese occupation told by my grandparents and even my parents who were just children at that time. Their first-hand experiences are testamentary to the sufferings and atrocities of life under Japanese occupation. These were burn marks scorched in their minds which our generation, who has always been living in peacetime, will never be able to appreciate fully. I realised this in my grandparents' eyes when the stories were told. Particularly affecting was my grandma telling me how helpless they were when her whole family clustered in a small room waiting for fate to decide their survival during the area bombing of Wanchai, Hong Kong Island at that time.

My grandma was the person closest to me, apart from my parents, during my childhood and teenage years. She passed away a few years ago. She is the epitome of all the virtues present in traditional Chinese women. Her words were always soothing to my mind. I still miss her very much. 

The Japanese attack on Hong Kong started on 8 December, 1941, only less than half a day after their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. When I think of Pearl Harbour, I start to think of the US-Japanese negotiations in the months before the attack occurred. What if the talk had been successful and the Pacific War aborted? One person involved in these US-Japanese negotiations was Kaname Wakasugi (若杉 要), Minister-Counsellor of the Japanese Embassy in the USA in 1941. How important his role was in affecting the final outcome of the negotiations is of interest to historians, and I've read a fair bit of it, but not to me here. It is his son, Hiroshi Wakasugi (若杉 弘), a conductor largely overshadowed internationally by Seiji Ozawa (小澤 征爾), and domestically by Takashi Asahina (朝比奈 隆), that I'd like to discuss.