Rudolf Kempe - Music From Bohemia

180-gram vinyl cut from the original analogue EMI master tapes at Abbey Road Studios!

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs Smetana, Weinberger, and Dvorak conducted by Rudolf Kempe. Rudolf Kempe was associated with the Royal Philharmonic (RPO) from 1955. In 1960, he became its Associate Conductor, chosen by the orchestra's founder, Sir Thomas Beecham. From 1961 to 1962 he was Principal Conductor of the RPO, and from 1963 to 1975 its Artistic Director.

A member of the RPO later said of Kempe, "He was a wonderful controller of the orchestra, and a very great accompanist ... Kempe was like someone driving a racing-car, following the piano round the bends." Kempe abolished Beecham's male-only rule, introducing women into the RPO: an orchestra without them, he said, "always reminds me of the army". In 1970, the RPO named him Conductor for Life, but in 1975, he resigned his post with the orchestra and died the following year, aged 65. His distinguished career in both the opera house and concert hall led to the first quadraphonic Beethoven cycle with the Munich Philharmonic for EMI in the mid '70s.

Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional 'advance' playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

 

 

Side 1

Bedrich Smetana (1824 - 1884)

The Bartered Bride

1. Overture

2. Polka, Act I

3. Furiant, Act II

4. Dance of the Comedians, Act III

Side 2

Antonin Leopold Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

1. Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66

Jaromir Weinberger (1896 - 1967)

Schwanda the Bagpiper

2. Polka and Fugue

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