# Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture



## mfiorelli

Can someone recommend a good recording of the 1812 overture? I'm new to classical music and I don't know the best labels, conductors, etc.


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## Conor71

This one is pretty cool - least I think so! .










Amazon Link


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## david johnson

conor71 has recommended a well known and historic recording of 1812 that most listeners should hear at least once 
there are many enjoyable recordings of it available. i often listen to a fritz reiner/chicago symphony version on the rca label.

dj


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## sokol-horus

Leonarg Bernstein, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, 5/1984

http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Symphonies-Overture-Juliet-Francesca/dp/B000TLI020/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1285157191&sr=1-3

This is a great interpretation, in the final shots and the sound of a bell.


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## mfiorelli

Thanks everyone!


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## StlukesguildOhio

I'll add a third thumbs up to Conor71's recommendation.


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## elgar's ghost

And I a fourth (if I had a fourth thumb).


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## Listener

Great recording.


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## johnnyx

Yep, this one is my favorite...


Listener said:


> Great recording.


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## Redheaded Soprano

Whichever you choose, make sure it includes a CHORUS, as well as a children's chorus. It was written with chorus and should be listened to that way. some do it in Russian, and others in English. I've performed it both ways and don't have a preference, as long as there is SINGING in it...... it just sounds empty without it.


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## tahnak

Conor71 said:


> This one is pretty cool - least I think so! .
> 
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> Amazon Link


Yes ! This is good.
Antal Dorati was also the first to perform the unabridged Le Lac Des Cygnes ( Swan Lake). Gennady Rozhdestvensky followed suit. Apart from Dorati, the other electric 1812s are from Leopold Stokowski, Herbert Von Karajan and Zubin Mehta.


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## ScipioAfricanus

I tremble as this noisy shallow piece being popular.


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## TheBamf

Hi, I am ressurecting this thread in order to get input on this. What are your favorite recordsings of the 1812 Overture?


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## mitchflorida

Listen to this version and tell me what you think.

http://min.us/mqxf9ztN3


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## Lunasong

Redheaded Soprano said:


> Whichever you choose, make sure it includes a CHORUS, as well as a children's chorus. It was written with chorus and should be listened to that way. some do it in Russian, and others in English. I've performed it both ways and don't have a preference, as long as there is SINGING in it...... it just sounds empty without it.


The overture as originally composed by Tchaikovsky did not have vocal parts, playing all the song themes instrumentally. The chorus was first introduced into the score in the mid-1960s by Igor Buketoff.

Despite his Russian name, Igor Buketoff's biographical and musical pedigrees are thoroughly American -- he was born in Connecticut and educated at the University of Kansas, Juilliard, and the Los Angeles Conservatory.

He had maintained a long relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a recording artist, his repertory has ranged from late Classical to contemporary, although his most enduring release is his recording, for RCA, of his own arrangement (really almost a recomposition) of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, recorded with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Buketoff reconstructed the work, restoring for voice the choral hymns that Tchaikovsky used as his sources for the piece. The result was a dazzling expansion of this Russian Romantic warhorse.

Buketoff made the following changes:

*The opening segment, _God Preserve Thy People_ is sung a cappella by a choir.
*A children's or women's choir is added to the flute and cor anglais duet rendition of _At the Gate._
*The orchestra and chorus unite in the climax with a triumphant version of _God Preserve Thy People_ and _God Save the Tsar_.


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## TheBamf

mitchflorida said:


> Listen to this version and tell me what you think.
> 
> http://min.us/mqxf9ztN3


I really liked that, I will try to buy this tomorrow. Thanks!


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## mitchflorida

TheBamf said:


> I really liked that, I will try to buy this tomorrow. Thanks!











The album has the version with the introductory chorus as well.

I like this version very much, though some have complained that the cannons don't sound like cannons. Oh well, they wouldn't let Gergiev bring the cannons in because of all the damage he did in 2005, when he accidentally blew two huge holes in the concert hall and also destroyed the upper balcony.


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## Moira

I like this live, with fireworks.


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## Lunasong

Our orchestra plays it once a year on Memorial Day in an outdoor concert with carillon and live cannon.

Last year I participated in a band/choir concert (inside) as part of the choir and we did this with the choral parts. It also included live cannon which were shot just outside the hall by an open double door behind the choir. It was quite a loud experience...in the choir you have the best seat in the house to hear what the band/orchestra is doing. Yes, I will do it again this year and will be better prepared for the surround-sound effect of the cannon.


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## Tom Johnson

I thought I'd add my 2 cents even though this is two years old. I am surprised that the most over the top Eugene Ormandy version of the 1970's

found here on youtube 




and on these albums

https://play.google.com/store/music...ong-Tp2r4h3esvwghqexpafsmyku3gy&partner=ytctb

and

http://www.discogs.com/Tchaikovsky-...Overture-Serenade-For-Strings/release/3472584

hasn't been mentioned.

I mean, when the credits include a separate military band, the Mormon Tabernacle Chior and a "director" to make sure the cannons are properly coordinated to the music - how can you lose?

It actually is a very interesting version in that the opening hymn is sung by a chior (not so unusual), but that the transcription closely follows the 4 cello/8 violin rendering written by the T-man. Contrast to Karajan and the Berliner Philharmonic's screeching transcription in the Tchaikovsky collectors set of the early 2000's - ghastly.

The rendering of the orchestration is quick and sharp. Most interesting to me was the production decision to end the piece with the "bells" overriding the entire orchestra and ending in a most interesting (and strangely delightful) discordant note.

I know the askenazy version and the album posted earlier in this thread both get high marks. I haven't listened to either yet, but will do so and update this is if I've changed my mind. But this one is worth a listen


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## techniquest

I bought a Readers Digest 3-disc Tchaikovsky set at a charity shop for next-to-nothing a few years ago and it has the best '1812' I've found on CD. It's the National Philharmonic Orchestra, with brass bands, cannon, bells and chorus, conducted by Charles Gerhardt. At the end, everything is thrown into it - way, _way_ OTT! 
Happily it's also on Youtube...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

......................


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## Hudon

http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-M...TF8&qid=1411519602&sr=8-1&keywords=jarvi+1812

Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is the best. (And it's a nice all around disc!)


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## ArbitraryHubris

*Wow, the brass!*



Conor71 said:


> This one is pretty cool - least I think so! .
> 
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> 
> Amazon Link


Excellent recommendation. I really enjoyed it.


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## jcofer

The mono version is better:







But is apparently only available in the Mercury Living Presence, Collector's Edition Volume 3 boxed set.


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## bigshot

That Mercury recording never fails to make my dog hide under the couch until it's all over


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## Pugg

bigshot said:


> That Mercury recording never fails to make my dog hide under the couch until it's all over


Poor dog, give it a candy and my love


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## Michael B

You probably don't agree with most anything anyone else says.


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## Klassik

For me, there is only one recording worth listening to. Antal Doráti's stereo Mercury recording on CD. The mono one is good too. I know some like it better, but the remastered stereo one on CD is what I go for. Some people like the Kunzel recording on Telarc. I have that one too, but I find that it sounds almost comically artificial to me. It's nice for demoing Hi-Fi equipment, but it's not a good recording for the purpose of listening the music IMO.


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## Pugg

Michael B said:


> You probably don't agree with most anything anyone else says.


How do you mean Michael?
Welcome by the way.


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## SixFootScowl

bigshot said:


> That Mercury recording never fails to make my dog hide under the couch until it's all over


Live cannon blasts will do it every time. My dog is with me in the basement right now, hiding from the battlezone noise of constant fireworks in my neighborhood. Am playing the opera Martha (Flotow) for us. She seems to like music. Calms her, but not those cannons.


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## DavidA

Karajan did a version with the chorus.

The classic is Dorati's Mercury recording which comes with a pretty ridiculous commentary afterwards. Also the equally unmusical Wellington's Victory which apparently was Beethoven's biggest earner as a composer!


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## Klassik

DavidA said:


> Karajan did a version with the chorus.
> 
> The classic is Dorati's Mercury recording which comes with a pretty ridiculous commentary afterwards. Also the equally unmusical Wellington's Victory which apparently was Beethoven's biggest earner as a composer!


I don't mind Deems Taylor's commentary, but I wish they put it at the end of the disc instead of in the middle. Hearing his voice can be pretty jarring when you're expecting music. Of course, you kind of expect jarring when you're listening to the 1812 Overture and Wellington's Victory!


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## Heck148

mfiorelli said:


> Can someone recommend a good recording of the 1812 overture? I'm new to classical music and I don't know the best labels, conductors, etc.


Reiner/ChicagoSO...a classic rendition.


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## bigshot

The Dorati Mercury is a barnstormer.


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## SixFootScowl

bigshot said:


> The Dorati Mercury is a barnstormer.


The only 1812 Overture you'll ever need, unless you want to get one of the sets that has singing in it. The Mercury recording is great because it has real cannon blasts and a huge carillon of some 200 bells (or was it 2000 bells). The discussions of recording this and Wellington's Victory are very interesting and it is a lot of fun listing to the rifle fire in Wellington's victory.


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## regnaDkciN

Tom Johnson said:


> I thought I'd add my 2 cents even though this is two years old. I am surprised that the most over the top Eugene Ormandy version of the 1970's
> 
> found here on youtube
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and on these albums
> 
> https://play.google.com/store/music...ong-Tp2r4h3esvwghqexpafsmyku3gy&partner=ytctb
> 
> and
> 
> http://www.discogs.com/Tchaikovsky-...Overture-Serenade-For-Strings/release/3472584
> 
> hasn't been mentioned.
> 
> I mean, when the credits include a separate military band, the Mormon Tabernacle Chior and a "director" to make sure the cannons are properly coordinated to the music - how can you lose?
> 
> It actually is a very interesting version in that the opening hymn is sung by a chior (not so unusual), but that the transcription closely follows the 4 cello/8 violin rendering written by the T-man. Contrast to Karajan and the Berliner Philharmonic's screeching transcription in the Tchaikovsky collectors set of the early 2000's - ghastly.
> 
> The rendering of the orchestration is quick and sharp. Most interesting to me was the production decision to end the piece with the "bells" overriding the entire orchestra and ending in a most interesting (and strangely delightful) discordant note.
> 
> I know the askenazy version and the album posted earlier in this thread both get high marks. I haven't listened to either yet, but will do so and update this is if I've changed my mind. But this one is worth a listen


That Ormandy version is a bit "unusual." You see, although it was released by Columbia in 1971, it was recorded, and previously released by them in 1959. When Ormandy and the Philadelphians decamped for RCA at the end of the 1960s, one of their first projects was a new recording of the _1812_, this time with choruses and "electronic cannon" (presumably, a synthesized sound that could be recorded in the same acoustic as the orchestra). In an attempt to keep RCA from grabbing the market, Columbia decided to take their old Ormandy recording, overdub a new recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir doing the opening, plus throwing in new cannon and bells, and rush the thing out with new artwork and an ad campaign touting it as "Ormandy's NEW _1812 Overture_," when, in fact, it was anything but. (Columbia did this a lot, reissuing old Philadelphia recordings of warhorses like Pictures, Pines/Fountains, Finlandia, and the like, with new covers and catalogue numbers, and no mention of them being a reissue, for several years after they had made the jump to RCA.)


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## pianozach

jcofer said:


> The mono version is better:
> View attachment 82902
> 
> But is apparently only available in the Mercury Living Presence, Collector's Edition Volume 3 boxed set.


This is my favorite version, the one I grew up with.

*Antal Dorati*.

The mono and stereo versions are actually different recordings, made in different years.


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## Josquin13

I've long thought that the recording by Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam was one of the finest in the catalogue. I've tried other versions, but always come back to this performance. Haitink pays close attention to the score and turns it into music more than any other conductor I've heard, and the finale is as exciting as any I know:


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## pianozach

pianozach said:


> This is my favorite version, the one I grew up with.
> 
> *Antal Dorati*.
> 
> The mono and stereo versions are actually different recordings, made in different years.


Reflecting on this, I'd have to say that the mono recording of *Antal Dorati's 1812 Overture* was my 'gateway' to Classical Music.

I was 5 or 6 when I fell in love with it. Or maybe I was 7.

Hell, I might have been 3 or 4.

And it wasn't JUST the cannons and the bells. I also love the Deems Taylor commentary on the LP, where he explains getting the best cannon sound, and how they recorded the bells as well.

Nerd from the get-go.


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## tterrace

Reiner/Chicago on RCA. I don't like cannons, chorus and church bells, and do like the cut he makes. Exciting, purely orchestral performance.


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## adriesba

I haven't heard many, but one I like that I don't think has been mentioned is Maazel's recording which has the chorus:

View attachment 139904


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## Guest

pianozach said:


> Reflecting on this, I'd have to say that the mono recording of *Antal Dorati's 1812 Overture* was my 'gateway' to Classical Music.
> 
> I was 5 or 6 when I fell in love with it. Or maybe I was 7.
> 
> Hell, I might have been 3 or 4.
> 
> And it wasn't JUST the cannons and the bells. I also love the Deems Taylor commentary on the LP, where he explains getting the best cannon sound, and how they recorded the bells as well.
> 
> Nerd from the get-go.


It was one of the first I became familiar with too. As a child, all that with the orchestra hanging around, then going up a lot, and then coming down a lot was infuriating. I just wanted to get to the charge at the end!


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## Heck148

tterrace said:


> Reiner/Chicago on RCA. I don't like cannons, chorus and church bells, and do like the cut he makes. Exciting, purely orchestral performance.


Yes!! Great recording, great playing...


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## Geoff48

For those who prefer a choral introduction to 1812 and find Karajan too polished and Stokowski too Stokowski there is a version by Ferenc Fricsay which includes chorus at the start and at the end of the overture. It’s exciting as one might expect from this conductor. I first got to know it on a Heliodor Stereo Transcription L.P. but it is now available as part of his complete Orchestral Recordings on Deutsche gramophon.
Fricsay was a very good, potentially great, conductor who was under fifty when cancer took him. His earlier performances tended to be fairly fast, as his illness progressed he tended to slow down. Not everything he conducted was successful, his Beethoven was a bit his and miss and his 5th is frankly dull. His first Verdi Requiem is marvellous and fiery, his second over ten minutes slower.
Tchaikovsky as a specialty and his first Pathetique may well be seen as one of the greatest ever, particularly the outer movements. I have heard good things about his later version which supposedly exchanges emotion for spirituality. And his Bartok is seen as definitive. He is good in Mozart and his Magic Flute was abridged on a single Heliodor LP with Fischer-Dieskau and Streich amongst others. That was my introduction to Mozart the opera composer and I still enjoy it.


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## Brahmsian Colors

Haitink and the Concertgebouw, attractively detailed minus bombast.


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## Rogerx

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49
University Of Minnesota Brass Band (brass band)
University Of Minnesota Brass Band, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorati
Recorded: 1958-04-05
Recording Venue: Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis

And...if your speakers are well enough:

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49

(Digitally recorded cannons Fifth Virginia Regiment)
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Erich Kunzel


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## LamontCranston

I obtained a copy of Dorati's 1812, planning on enjoying the overture and hearing a line from the commentary that has stayed in my head since I was a boy. The engineers are experimenting with cannon shots and eventually achieve their goal. The commentator (Was it Deems Taylor in the original as well?) tells us that after the explosion "You can hear the men laughing with glee at their expert handiwork." And indeed you can. But it doesn't happen, which led me to discover that there was a previous mono and subsequent stereo version that I had just obtained. Magnificent performance, though, and the beginning has an almost tangible, driven pulse that I've never heard elsewhere.


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