RCA’s Monteux box, containing 39 CDs of music and 1 interview disc, seems to be back in print for the nonce. If you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance. Check out the video to see if it makes sense for you.
17 thoughts on “Review: Monteux's Complete RCA Collection Is Back (For Now)”
Glad I got it when it first came out. It's a real treasure. I understand that the early stuff is in "grotty" sound, but still…for the completist, this set is essential. And for what you get, it's really not that expensive.
This was probably my original "Got to get that!" Complete Box Sets. I got it as well, when it first came out. In fact, I also own that earlier RCA box set version with all the plastic cd covers making it a larger box, but without the original jacket covers. LOVE THIS SET for all the reasons you name. Monteux was a great conductor, whether or not many of these performances have been outdone by later interpreters. A real treasure, this box. So comforting that this has been released again — it's been my "poster child" for buying boxes as they come out, having watched the price of this one skyrocket after I bought it. I'm hoping this is a good sign — that some of the great boxed sets of I didn't purchase before they went up to $2,000+ may return. Any hope of that?
Good day Dave! bit of a weird request maybe, but would you be willing to do some video’s on your experience with percussion? I’ve gathered from some of your videos that you’ve played in an orchestra before and I remember your story on playing Mahler 2 and what a blast that was. Id love to hear some personal stories on what it’s like to play percussion (semi?) professionally and maybe explaining some of the technical aspects (like I always wonder how they know when to play after 100 bars of rests, haha). Well anyway, my favorite videos are your anecdotal ones so something like this could be very interesting imo.
Some of us have asked for this in the past. Please review the big RCA Munch box. I’m curious about your reactions. I’m currently working my way through it and have found much to enjoy. and while we’re at it, I can’t remember if you have done the big Reiner RCA box. That’s sitting on my shelf and waiting for me.
No doubt about it. Monteux was one of the great ones. His mono LP of the Symphonie Fantastique was my introduction to the piece, and one could hardly do better back then. I will add that Monteux founded and directed a school for conductors in the coastal hamlet of Hancock, ME, which, I believe, still exists today. He gave of his time to mentor budding talent.
I don’t even especially like the Franck D Minor, so it’s a testament to Monteux’s genius that he made of it one of the greatest performances in history. I grew up around the principal horn on that great reference recording. He could be cranky, and never had much of anything positive to say about the conductors he worked with—the big exception was Monteux. From the way he spoke of Monteux you could see the halo. In his view there were two truly great recordings he made with the CSO, and the Franck D Minor was obviously one (the other was the Brahms 2nd Concerto with Cliburn and Reiner).
As you say Dave, Monteux attended the first performance of the Franck Symphony at the age of twelve! – I suspect he remembered enough of the performance to influence his later renditions of the piece, and so he came equipped with the best of credentials… encouraging lots of string-playing vibrato for example? I hope enormously for the return of the big RCA Munch box by the way… please Sony!
Love your point about living links, and here's my example. When I was a teenager in in Reading, Berkshire in the 70s I used to chat on the bus into school to an old German lady called Mrs Ball who told me that her father was a composer friend of Liszt's. Really? I was sceptical, asked his name – Ertel – but I couldn't find any reference to him. Mrs B used to rhapsodise about knowing Bruno Walter, Richard Strauss etc, all very surreal in the surroundings of one of Reading's hideous dirty buses. To cut a long story short, last year I tracked down Jean-Paul Ertel, and he was indeed part of Liszt's circle (not a note of his has been commercially recorded, not even his once celebrated concerto for solo violin). And I found proof that my Mrs Eva Ball was his daughter. So there we go: a living link to Liszt in the grim late-70s dystopia of Reading.
When this box came out the first time, some of the recordings were found to have been transferred at the wrong pitch (I think some of the d'Indy pieces). Has that been corrected in this reissue? I don't have perfect pitch, so I'd probably never notice if it were just a little off. Still, it would be nice to know whether the correction has been made. I'll probably buy the big box anyway, although I'd settle for the stereo-only small box if I could find it.
Yes, the Traviata is oddly and heavily paced. An odd choice for Monteux.But Carteri knows how her part goes and Valletti and Warren were top flight. The original RCA Victor lo issue is something else. A huge box with one side of the partition containing the lp smaller box and the other with a 12" hardcover illustrated book of the original novel. The only thing lacking would have been an additional recording of the creaky old play with Eva la Gallienne or somebody. Alas, the recording is in mono only. RCA hadn't stereo equipment in Italy yet. One thing I love about the Orfeo, which IS in stereo, is he uses the Berlioz/Saint-Saens edition so we get every bit of the copious and lucious ballet music in every act. Not great playing by the Rome orchestra but the pacing, pointing and variety are superior to RCA's later Fasano set.
I was so happy to get this set when it was first released by RCA. I was disappointed, however, that they left out two of my favorite Monteux recordings with the SF Symphony: the 1950 Franck D Minor Symphony, which I prefer to the CSO recording (as great as that one is), and the 1952 Symphony Fantastique, which is my favorite of the five(!) studio recordings Monteux made of this work. (Monteux said his favorite of the five was the the first. the 1929 Paris recording, and listening again to that one, it's hard to disagree.) But thank you RCA – this is a great set for anyone interested in Monteux's recorded legacy. (Postscript: If I heard Dave correctly, the 1950 Franck Sym is included in this reissued set.)
Thank you so much for this video! Monteux is my favorite of the 19th century conductors who lived to make recordings and the moment I saw the box is back immediately ordered it. Toscanini and Furtwaengler may be more famous, but they both have some real weaknesses – Toscanini sometimes can deprive the music of its atmosphere by being overdisciplined and micromanaging (like in his NBC Brahms cycle), and Furtwaengler just couldn't get the orchestra to play the right notes in most performances! Monteux managed to be disciplined enough and still deliver the full emotional impact most of the time (like van Beinum – another very underrated conductor of that period). The only problem with him really is the variable sonics, but that is unavoidable for such old recordings. By the way, I saw your videos on the two Sony Rodzinski boxes and they seem like a good deal. There is a Scribendum set as well, witch you briefly pulled out in one of them, but never made a video on it. I was wondering if you could talk about it, because, however much I searched, I couldn't find witch performance is from witch year and with what orchestra it is played (even on the Scribendum website they never mention it!). So basically I have no idea witch of the performances of the Sony boxes are duplicated and is it worth it to get the Scribendum set if I have the Sony ones (I am especially wondering if the Shostakovich 5 is the same, because I believe he did it twice)? Of course I am also very interested in your takes on the individual performances, and how well do you think they held up over the years, Rodzinski is in my opinion one of the greats from that time period and he deserves the attention! Anyway, thanks again for the video, I was looking forward to it for quite some time! It was very enjoyable and insightful, as always!
Glad I got it when it first came out. It's a real treasure. I understand that the early stuff is in "grotty" sound, but still…for the completist, this set is essential. And for what you get, it's really not that expensive.
This was probably my original "Got to get that!" Complete Box Sets. I got it as well, when it first came out. In fact, I also own that earlier RCA box set version with all the plastic cd covers making it a larger box, but without the original jacket covers. LOVE THIS SET for all the reasons you name. Monteux was a great conductor, whether or not many of these performances have been outdone by later interpreters. A real treasure, this box. So comforting that this has been released again — it's been my "poster child" for buying boxes as they come out, having watched the price of this one skyrocket after I bought it. I'm hoping this is a good sign — that some of the great boxed sets of I didn't purchase before they went up to $2,000+ may return. Any hope of that?
It's Bach? Does it even have any Bach in it?
Has this, too, already gone out of print? I can't find it on presto or amazon. Anyone know where & how it's listed?
I shudder to think what I paid for this set on eBay. Anyway, Monteux is one of my “guys“ and I’m glad I have it.
Good day Dave! bit of a weird request maybe, but would you be willing to do some video’s on your experience with percussion? I’ve gathered from some of your videos that you’ve played in an orchestra before and I remember your story on playing Mahler 2 and what a blast that was. Id love to hear some personal stories on what it’s like to play percussion (semi?) professionally and maybe explaining some of the technical aspects (like I always wonder how they know when to play after 100 bars of rests, haha). Well anyway, my favorite videos are your anecdotal ones so something like this could be very interesting imo.
Kind regards, Björn from the Netherlands
Some of us have asked for this in the past. Please review the big RCA Munch box. I’m curious about your reactions. I’m currently working my way through it and have found much to enjoy. and while we’re at it, I can’t remember if you have done the big Reiner RCA box. That’s sitting on my shelf and waiting for me.
No doubt about it. Monteux was one of the great ones. His mono LP of the Symphonie Fantastique was my introduction to the piece, and one could hardly do better back then. I will add that Monteux founded and directed a school for conductors in the coastal hamlet of Hancock, ME, which, I believe, still exists today. He gave of his time to mentor budding talent.
I don’t even especially like the Franck D Minor, so it’s a testament to Monteux’s genius that he made of it one of the greatest performances in history. I grew up around the principal horn on that great reference recording. He could be cranky, and never had much of anything positive to say about the conductors he worked with—the big exception was Monteux. From the way he spoke of Monteux you could see the halo. In his view there were two truly great recordings he made with the CSO, and the Franck D Minor was obviously one (the other was the Brahms 2nd Concerto with Cliburn and Reiner).
As you say Dave, Monteux attended the first performance of the Franck Symphony at the age of twelve! – I suspect he remembered enough of the performance to influence his later renditions of the piece, and so he came equipped with the best of credentials… encouraging lots of string-playing vibrato for example? I hope enormously for the return of the big RCA Munch box by the way… please Sony!
Haha. "Symphony on a French Mountaineer." I can see an arrogant French Alpinist saying, "Oui, oui, that is my theme song."
Any word on whether the Reiner box might be back?
Love your point about living links, and here's my example. When I was a teenager in in Reading, Berkshire in the 70s I used to chat on the bus into school to an old German lady called Mrs Ball who told me that her father was a composer friend of Liszt's. Really? I was sceptical, asked his name – Ertel – but I couldn't find any reference to him. Mrs B used to rhapsodise about knowing Bruno Walter, Richard Strauss etc, all very surreal in the surroundings of one of Reading's hideous dirty buses. To cut a long story short, last year I tracked down Jean-Paul Ertel, and he was indeed part of Liszt's circle (not a note of his has been commercially recorded, not even his once celebrated concerto for solo violin). And I found proof that my Mrs Eva Ball was his daughter. So there we go: a living link to Liszt in the grim late-70s dystopia of Reading.
When this box came out the first time, some of the recordings were found to have been transferred at the wrong pitch (I think some of the d'Indy pieces). Has that been corrected in this reissue? I don't have perfect pitch, so I'd probably never notice if it were just a little off. Still, it would be nice to know whether the correction has been made. I'll probably buy the big box anyway, although I'd settle for the stereo-only small box if I could find it.
Yes, the Traviata is oddly and heavily paced. An odd choice for Monteux.But Carteri knows how her part goes and Valletti and Warren were top flight.
The original RCA Victor lo issue is something else. A huge box with one side of the partition containing the lp smaller box and the other with a 12" hardcover illustrated book of the original novel. The only thing lacking would have been an additional recording of the creaky old play with Eva la Gallienne or somebody.
Alas, the recording is in mono only. RCA hadn't stereo equipment in Italy yet.
One thing I love about the Orfeo, which IS in stereo, is he uses the Berlioz/Saint-Saens edition so we get every bit of the copious and lucious ballet music in every act. Not great playing by the Rome orchestra but the pacing, pointing and variety are superior to RCA's later Fasano set.
I was so happy to get this set when it was first released by RCA. I was disappointed, however, that they left out two of my favorite Monteux recordings with the SF Symphony: the 1950 Franck D Minor Symphony, which I prefer to the CSO recording (as great as that one is), and the 1952 Symphony Fantastique, which is my favorite of the five(!) studio recordings Monteux made of this work. (Monteux said his favorite of the five was the the first. the 1929 Paris recording, and listening again to that one, it's hard to disagree.) But thank you RCA – this is a great set for anyone interested in Monteux's recorded legacy. (Postscript: If I heard Dave correctly, the 1950 Franck Sym is included in this reissued set.)
Thank you so much for this video! Monteux is my favorite of the 19th century conductors who lived to make recordings and the moment I saw the box is back immediately ordered it. Toscanini and Furtwaengler may be more famous, but they both have some real weaknesses – Toscanini sometimes can deprive the music of its atmosphere by being overdisciplined and micromanaging (like in his NBC Brahms cycle), and Furtwaengler just couldn't get the orchestra to play the right notes in most performances! Monteux managed to be disciplined enough and still deliver the full emotional impact most of the time (like van Beinum – another very underrated conductor of that period). The only problem with him really is the variable sonics, but that is unavoidable for such old recordings. By the way, I saw your videos on the two Sony Rodzinski boxes and they seem like a good deal. There is a Scribendum set as well, witch you briefly pulled out in one of them, but never made a video on it. I was wondering if you could talk about it, because, however much I searched, I couldn't find witch performance is from witch year and with what orchestra it is played (even on the Scribendum website they never mention it!). So basically I have no idea witch of the performances of the Sony boxes are duplicated and is it worth it to get the Scribendum set if I have the Sony ones (I am especially wondering if the Shostakovich 5 is the same, because I believe he did it twice)? Of course I am also very interested in your takes on the individual performances, and how well do you think they held up over the years, Rodzinski is in my opinion one of the greats from that time period and he deserves the attention! Anyway, thanks again for the video, I was looking forward to it for quite some time! It was very enjoyable and insightful, as always!