Piston Symphony No. 4 (Ormandy, 1954)

Walter Piston: Symphony No. 4 (1950)
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded April 15, 1954, in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, under the auspices of the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation. Issued in 1955 as Columbia Masterworks ML-4992 (from LP matrix XLP 31726), coupled with William Schuman's Symphony No. 6, which has been uploaded separately.
Piston's Symphony No. 4 is in four movements:
1. Piacevole
2. Ballando (at 6:05)
3. Contemplativo (at 11:05)
4. Energico (at 19:35)

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

A friend told me about this wonderful Symphony, oh, so many years ago!

[@Twentythousandlps]

There's also a good broadcast of this on the Internet Archive, with the NY Philharmonic under Eliakum Shapira.

[@rudyd8403]

Those were the days - when the U.S. had all the money and all the best European musicians fled to the U.S.! Ormandy, Munch, Reiner, Szell, - everyone except Lenny was European. And the US had the wolrld's best orchestras as a result, with the Philly the best in the world. And now you can hear what I mean. Nurture it - you will probably never hear such musicianship in this country again. And what a gorgeous Piston No. 4! I hate to make adverse comparisons but youmight compare this performance with a recent one by the Seattle Symphony. Not bad, mind - but oh boy.

[@silentgreybox]

I prefer the Schwarz/Seattle Symphony performance, actually. There's a clarity to the performance lacking here, I think. Another much more recent recording by Leon Botstein/American Symphony is pretty good too. It's hard to make this wonderful symphony sound bad!

[@giuseppedimarco8358]

Great!

[@kuang-licheng402]

good

[@stueystuey1962]

boy I like American symphony.

[@davidmayhew8083]

Shazaam!!!

[@wab4100]

sehr gut, ist aber kein shellack.

[@rudyd8403]

Why do you think it's free from ticks and jumps?

[@davidowen1408]

Moeglicherweise von CD ubertragen? Possibly transferred from CD?

[@henrygingercat]

Perhaps this did the trick in 1950 and for a few years after. But do we, or anyone else, really need to hear it again 70 years later? I suspect not.'

[@ProfessorPille]

Yes, *you* don't need to hear it again, and we didn't need to hear that from you even once.

[@henrygingercat]

@@ProfessorPille If I think something is only so so, like everything else I've heard by Piston, why on earth can't I say so? I'd be delighted if someone rushed to defend him and explain what I am missing - it's called debate - so over to you.

[@davidmayhew8083]

I do!

[@rolandmeyer3729]

Yo, Pete, what's your top ten?

[@patrickburnsmusic]

So don't listen.