In 1981 Victor Japan shipped its recorders, boards and engineers to Moscow in order to record the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra on its home turf with conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. A few records were issued in 1981, then another trip was made in 1989, and finally in 1993 the last, third trip. Has anyone heard these recordings? I see Tower Japan has remastered the titles and is issuing them on SACD. To the best of my knowledge these sessions were never released in the West. The repertoire is what one would expect: all warhorses. Plenty of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, et al. I am interested to know what our resident collectors have to say.

Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:

https://tower.jp/search/item/fedoseyev

On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 2:58:14 PM, Oscar wrote:
>
> Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:

Beg pardon: top SIX hits are the new SACD releases. The first batch of 3 were issued last month, and the next three (the top 3 in the above link) will be reissued at the end of this month.

On 11/10/22 5:58 PM, Oscar wrote:
> In 1981 Victor Japan shipped its recorders, boards and engineers to Moscow in order to record the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra on its home turf with conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. A few records were issued in 1981, then another trip was made in 1989, and finally in 1993 the last, third trip. Has anyone heard these recordings? I see Tower Japan has remastered the titles and is issuing them on SACD. To the best of my knowledge these sessions were never released in the West. The repertoire is what one would expect: all warhorses. Plenty of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, et al. I am interested to know what our resident collectors have to say.
>
> Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:
>
> https://tower.jp/search/item/fedoseyev

There are several Fedoseyev recordings that are on Denon with the
"Moscow RTV Symphony" - are these related to those being reissued? I
have the "Eugene Onegin" and the sound is great, the performance is fine
- although they did manage to misspell Tchaikovsky on the cover!!

On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 2:58:14 PM UTC-8, Oscar wrote:
> In 1981 Victor Japan shipped its recorders, boards and engineers to Moscow in order to record the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra on its home turf with conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. A few records were issued in 1981, then another trip was made in 1989, and finally in 1993 the last, third trip. Has anyone heard these recordings? I see Tower Japan has remastered the titles and is issuing them on SACD. To the best of my knowledge these sessions were never released in the West. The repertoire is what one would expect: all warhorses. Plenty of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, et al. I am interested to know what our resident collectors have to say.
>
> Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:
>
> https://tower.jp/search/item/fedoseyev

Those would show up in import stores in the early 80s on JVC/Melodiya issues. They were early digital CD quality (16 bit/44.1kHz) and would be up-sampled for these SACDs. What's the point in doing that except to charge more money for something that should be on midprice CDs.

Steve

On Friday, 11 November 2022 at 10:53:02 UTC+11, Notsure01 wrote:
> On 11/10/22 5:58 PM, Oscar wrote:
> > In 1981 Victor Japan shipped its recorders, boards and engineers to Moscow in order to record the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra on its home turf with conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. A few records were issued in 1981, then another trip was made in 1989, and finally in 1993 the last, third trip. Has anyone heard these recordings? I see Tower Japan has remastered the titles and is issuing them on SACD. To the best of my knowledge these sessions were never released in the West. The repertoire is what one would expect: all warhorses. Plenty of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, et al. I am interested to know what our resident collectors have to say.
> >
> > Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:
> >
> > https://tower.jp/search/item/fedoseyev
> There are several Fedoseyev recordings that are on Denon with the
> "Moscow RTV Symphony" - are these related to those being reissued? I
> have the "Eugene Onegin" and the sound is great, the performance is fine
> - although they did manage to misspell Tchaikovsky on the cover!!

Does Fedoseyev have a Tchaikovsky cycle available to buy currently?

Ray Hall, Taree

On Friday, November 11, 2022 at 2:54:58 PM, Steve de Mena wrote:
>
> Those would show up in import stores in the early 80s on JVC/Melodiya issues. They were early digital CD quality (16 bit/44.1kHz)
> and would be up-sampled for these SACDs. What's the point in doing that except to charge more money for something that should
> be on midprice CDs.

Thanks, Steve. I think I will be buying these, at least the first 3. Not because the sound or performances will necessarily be great shakes, but the era is a sweet spot for me: the final true-red Communism of Konstantin Chernenko, nukes, Afghanistan, Solidarity in Poland, etc. And early digital was a pretty 'Communistic' sound, of course!

On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 2:58:14 PM UTC-8, Oscar wrote:
> In 1981 Victor Japan shipped its recorders, boards and engineers to Moscow in order to record the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra on its home turf with conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. A few records were issued in 1981, then another trip was made in 1989, and finally in 1993 the last, third trip. Has anyone heard these recordings? I see Tower Japan has remastered the titles and is issuing them on SACD. To the best of my knowledge these sessions were never released in the West. The repertoire is what one would expect: all warhorses. Plenty of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, et al. I am interested to know what our resident collectors have to say.
>
> Top five hits are the new SACD releases, in a search for 'Fedoseyev' at Tower Japan:
>
> https://tower.jp/search/item/fedoseyev

I have all of Fedoseyev's JVC recordings. They're excellent, with plenty of gutsy sound, although they are not as fiery as his earlier recordings. The JVC Shostakovich 5, for example, is well-rounded and muscular, but doesn't match the gripping power of his 1975 Melodiya recording (for me, one of the great Shostakovich 5s).

All those JVCs sound superb; probably the best production Fedoseyev has ever enjoyed. The fine notes are by a Japanese expert on Soviet music and Shostakovich in particular; her name escapes me at the moment.

Saw the SACDs and duly ordered them. They are waiting along with some other CDs at Tenso's warehouse. They'll probably make it out here sometime end of this week or early next. Excited to compare their sound with the CDs.

On Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 9:49:40 PM UTC-8, Oscar wrote:
> On Friday, November 11, 2022 at 2:54:58 PM, Steve de Mena wrote:
> >
> > Those would show up in import stores in the early 80s on JVC/Melodiya issues. They were early digital CD quality (16 bit/44.1kHz)
> > and would be up-sampled for these SACDs. What's the point in doing that except to charge more money for something that should
> > be on midprice CDs.
> Thanks, Steve. I think I will be buying these, at least the first 3. Not because the sound or performances will necessarily be great shakes, but the era is a sweet spot for me: the final true-red Communism of Konstantin Chernenko, nukes, Afghanistan, Solidarity in Poland, etc. And early digital was a pretty 'Communistic' sound, of course!

Speaking of which, I think the Shostakovich 5 was recorded the day the August coup attempt occurred; the recording of Song of the Forests was made a few days prior. The liner notes for the latter are really interesting to read. Apparently, the orchestra and choir was unwilling to perform the oratorio given that circumstances happening back then had discredited the ideology the work represented. Fedoseyev managed to convince them to perform it, with the original Stalinist lyrics from 1949, no less. He is quoted in the liner notes as saying, "It would be unfortunate if this masterpiece were to disappear from music history." He's right: whether Shostakovich was forced to compose the thing or not, Song of the Forests is a masterpiece, and one which despite everything is an important stylistic benchmark in his work.

Have not heard Song of the Forests. Sounds like an irrepressible piece. Prokofiev's Cantata for 20th Anniversary of the
Revolution has perhaps equally dated inspiration and claptrap text yet has great moments and really packs a wallop. I find the music very inspired and wacky.

All six titles have arrived. Report will be forthcoming.

Product selection and supervision: Susumu Kitamura (Tower Records Japan, Inc.).
Mastering engineer: Kazushige Yamazaki (FLAIR Mastering Works).
Design: Shusaku Tawara (DEPS DESIGN).
Editor: Kayoko Ohkubo (Victor Entertainment).
Product manager: Hiroshi Nagano (Victor Entertainment).
Sales manager: Shinji Nishiuchi (Victor Entertainment).
Special thanks: Tomoo Nojima (TAKT MUSIC), Fumio Hattori.

So far, so good. Victor Japan cat. no. NCS-88003, the third of the first batch issued in October 2022, contains a program of Stravinsky Rite of Spring and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. The narrow soundstage presentation is noticeable, and information above X Hz at the high end of spectrum is shorn, but other 'early digital' side effects seem to have been ameliorated by the digital remastering of Kazushige Yamazaki. Blatty Russian brass? I don't hear any. In other words, it sounds pretty good, better than I expected. The performances are also of high calibre. Rite was very good, and the Scheherazade is especially lovely. On first acquaintance it sounded 'underpowered', but on the whole it was not. Some lovely felicities and sounds came from first desk violin and flute, in particular. I would say this is a first-rate version. The conclusion to Mvt IV is sublime. I have not heard it played like this before. Again, it sounds very slow, but the effect is glorious. Surprisingly good!