The recorded legacy of Albert Wolff is one of the most sought-after by collectors. Of Dutch parentage, but born in Paris, Wolff was something of a polymath: pianist, organist, conductor, composer, and had a long career in recording studios beginning in 1920. His first recordings for Decca, starting in the summer of 1951, were a complete Carmen (with Suzanne Juyol), a Manon (with Janine Micheau) as well as several French orchestral suites and individual pieces. This collection includes Wolff’s much-praised versions of the Charpentier and Massenet picture-postcard suites as well as the thrilling music of Lalo’s Rédemption and the searing (and very rare) recordings of instrumental music from Massenet’s Werther. The mono versions of the Franck and Lalo pieces were never published, so those 1956 recordings had to wait nearly twenty years for their eventual (stereo) publication on the Decca ‘Eclipse’ imprint in August 1975.
CHARPENTIER
Impressions d’Italie
MASSENET
Scènes pittoresques
Scènes Alsaciennes
FRANCK
Le chasseur maudit
Rédemption
LALO
Rapsodie norvegienne
Scherzo, Op. 26
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra
Albert Wolff
LALO
Overture: Le roi d’Ys
MASSENET
Overture: Phèdre
Werther: Prelude & La nuit de Noël
Orchestre de l’Opéra-Comique Paris
Albert Wolff
FIRST RELEASE ON DECCA CD
Recording Producers: John Culshaw (Glazunov); Victor Olof (Liszt); Ray Minshull (Ravel, Weber, Falla); Michael Williamson (Adam)
Balance Engineers: Roy Wallace (Glazunov); James Brown (Liszt); Kenneth Wilkinson (Ravel, Weber, Falla); Ken Cress (Adam)
Recording Locations: La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, September 1954 (Liszt), May 1956 (Glazunov), October & November 1957 (Adam); La Maison de la Chimie, Paris, France, November 1958 (Ravel, Weber, Falla)
‘beautifully warm and clear orchestral sound … a most excellent recording’ (Liszt) Gramophone
‘played with finesse and recorded with clarity’ (Massenet) Gramophone