# The Tape Deck’s Revenge



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This week's _Tuesday Blog_ is a two-for post featuring a pair of releases from my personal _cassette tape collection_. I file this post under my _Vinyl's Revenge_ series, as most releases from the late 1960's to the early 2000's would simultaneously be released in both vinyl LP and cassette formats.

In the 1980's, as the major record labels were entering the digital age in earnest, there were many re-issue series featuring vintage recordings from the late MONO / early Stereo era, and London Decca's _VIVA series _did just that. The initial run had about 20 titles, spanning then full gamut of the classical repertoire. In the case of the two recordings featured this week, the London/Decca catalog was promoting newer digital fare, and these very good titles would make bargain hunters like myself quite happy.

The common thread sewing the two releases is the great Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet and his Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Ansermet, a mathematician by training, is a "thinking man's conductor" with a penchant for the French and 20th century repertoires.

The first release featuring *Bach*'s second and third suites for orchestra stands out for the virtuosity of the first chairs in display as well as for its "old school, big sound" which contrasts with the HIP approach we have come to embrace for this sort of music. The recording was originally released in 1962 and re-issued (and remastered) several times.

The second release, from the same year, feeds our Lenten organ series. Ansermet's performance of *Saint-Saëns*' Organ Symphony with the late great Swiss organist Pierre Segond, along with that of Charles Munch in Boston from 1959 probably represent the best the industry had to offer in these early days of Stereo.

Built between 1891 and 1894, Geneva's Victoria Hall possessed an organ of considerable size, which was ingaugurated by the famous organist and composer, *Charles-Marie Widor*. This first instrument, built by Th. Kuhn (Zürich) was transformed in 1930 by the Tschanun company. In 1949, a new instrument of 82 stops was installed. Rudolf Ziegler and the Manufacture des Grandes Orgues de Genève SA were resposible for its building. The effort was completed in 1963 and refurbished in 1982; this is the instrument featured in today's recording.

This organ played an important part in the musical life until September 16th 1984; that night a fire devastated the interior of the hall. The entire organ simply melted and collapsed. In order to replace the destroyed organ, a commission of experts, namely Pierre Segond, François Delor, Louis Robilliard, Jean-François Vaucher, Lionel Rogg and organ builder George Lhôte, was constituted. Ultimately, the Dutch organ builder Van den Heuvel was chosen to provide a brand new organ built in the so called 'Cavaillé-Coll' tradition.

Happy Listening!








_All works feature l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet, conducting_

*Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)*
Suite No. 2, in B Minor, BWV 1067
(André Pépin, flute soloist)
Sonata in C Major from Cantata No. 31 "Der Himmel Lacht, Die Erde Jubiliert", BWV 31, no. 1
Suite No. 3, in D Major, BWV 1068
Sinfonia in F Major from Cantata No. 12 "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen", BWV 12, no. 1
(Roger Reversy, oboe soloist)
Decca Viva! ‎- KVIC 8
Format: Cassette, Stereo 
Details - https://www.discogs.com/Bach-Ansermet-LOrchestre-De-La-Suisse-Romande-Suites-No23/release/11884459

_YouTube_ - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbQ0GoSMNq6leYO-suKGl7u65u1vo1iN3

*Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)*
Symphony No. 3 In C Minor, Op. 78 "avec orgue"
Pierre Segond, organ
INST - Victoria Hall, Geneva
Decca Viva! ‎- KVIC 51
Format: Cassette, Stereo 
Details - https://www.discogs.com/Saint-Saëns...mphony-No-3-In-C-Minor-Op-78/release/11061055

_YouTube_ - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6swnss9F7SHhVz03obnJZZ63QEVMbi4A


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

*We are featuring the music from this post on the For Your Listening Pleasure podcast as an episode I am posting November 25, 2022. The following notes are an update with useful links we have created or discovered since the original post.*

This montage is part of our _A La Carte_ series that repackages old montages, in this case a 2019 odd-looking _Vinyl’s Revenge_ post that we more aptly titles “Tape Deck’s Revenge” as it featured two old London VIVA cassette releases by Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet. The VIVA series was a b udget re-issue platform at a time where digital releases we beginning to invade the shelves, often displacing these excellent recordings, which did merit reissue. The format of these reissues was both cassette and vinyl, not CD.

The first cassette on the original montage was packaging J.S Bach’s suites nos. 2 and 3 with a pair of filler tracks from his cantatas. Ansermet, at the time of the original release, also issued a pair of albums of Bach Cantatas, which London/Decca later packaged with this disk into a 2 CD Bach anthology by Ansermet.

The montage inserts Cantata 130 between the original A and B sides of the VIVA cassette.

I think you will (still) love this music too.

*Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)*
All works feature Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet, conducting

Suite No. 2, in B Minor , BWV 1067
André Pépin, flute
“Der Himmel Lacht, Die Erde Jubiliert", BWV 31, no. 1
[Vinyl’s Revenge #49] 

Cantata No.130: “Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir”, BWV 130
Elly Ameling, Soprano 
Helen Watts, Contralto
Werner Krenn, Tenor 
Tom Krause, Bass
André Pépin, flute
Choeur Pro Arte de Lausanne
(André Charlet, conducting)

Suite No. 3, in D Major / en ré majeur, BWV 1068
"Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen", BWV 12, no. 1
Roger Reversy, oboe 
[Vinyl’s Revenge #49]


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

itywltmt said:


> *We are featuring the music from this post on the For Your Listening Pleasure podcast as an episode I am posting November 25, 2022. The following notes are an update with useful links we have created or discovered since the original post. *


Forgot the Archive link - Ernest Ansermet A la Carte : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


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