Schoenberg: Transfigured Night, Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Strings of the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulos. Sony Japan SRCR 8463 (1991) barcode 4988009846323:
Sony Japan SRCR 1702 (1996) barcode 4988009170237:
Compiled in 69-CD set Sony 19439888252 “Dimitri Mitropoulos Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra New York Philharmonic The Complete RCA And Columbia Album Collection” (2022) 194398882529
Recorded 3 March 1958
TT is short, but Mitropoulos fills these two works with unique passion and intensity
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 17 February 2014, slightly amended upon repost (11 March 2025)
For fans of Mitropoulos and/or Schoenberg, these Japanese CD reissues (from 1991 and 1996) have been and remain great blessings. Mitropoulos’ recording of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis has been made available on CD in the West by Sony in 1993, together with Mitropoulos’ recording of the 4th Symphony and Stokowski’s 6th (SMK 58933 barcode 5099705893326 see entry on Discogs.com, link will open new tab), and in 2001 it was also reissued on a sub-label called Retrospective Recordings 
(SBK 89594 barcode 5099708959425), but the two Japanese editions under review were the only CD representation of the conductor’s Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht/Transfigured Night (recorded on the same day as the Tallis Fantasia) until Sony published its mammoth Mitropoulos Edition in 2022, 19439888252 (see entry on Discogs.com for details) – a thing of beauty, but since it entails buying a 69-CD set, it may be too much for many a wallet. As far as I can establish, the two Japanese reissues remain the only way to get Mitropoulos’ Verklärte Nacht on a single CD.
The CD is worth it. First, the sonics: the recording was made in March 1958, and it is, in Sony’s transfer (I have the 1996 reissue), a sonic splendor, of breathtaking presence, vividness, detail, transparency of textures. I can’t recall having heard, or having been so alert to Schoenberg’s dense and intricate part-writing, in any other recording of Transfigured Night. The cellos are awesome, not only in sonic presence, but in virtuosity: you can hear every one of their fast sixteenth-note, clearly articulated. Who needs digital, when you have this? In Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia, the separation between the full string orchestra and the string quartet registers well (and the quartet is beautifully clear when it plays alone at circa 5:30), although some inner parts of the full orchestra (second violins) don’t come out clearly at some points.
And then, Mitropoulos: this was his last recording with the New York Philharmonic and for Columbia. Bernstein had shared co-directorship with him in the 1957-58 season, and Columbia was betting their money on their young American hero, as the recording schedules in those months clearly indicate (see James H. North’s discography of the New York Philharmonic, ISBN 0810858541) – and a clever choice, too: much was gained of course in Bernstein’s rise to unshared stewardship of the orchestra, but something was lost as well. From top, Mitropoulos leads a uniquely urgent and intense Verklärte Nacht. Compare the 25:13 it takes him to get through, to Stokowski’s 27:49 (in 1952 for RCA, reissued on Guild GHCD 2388/89 barcode 795754238921 with Stokowski’s live 1961 Gurrre-Lieder) and 28:16 (in 1957 for EMI, first CD reissue in the West in 1986 on CDC 7 47521 2 barcode 077774752121 with Bartok’s Music for Strings Percussion & Celesta and Barber’s Adagio), Horenstein’s 28:52 (in 1956 for Vox, reissued in 1996 on VoxBox Legends CDX2 5529 barcode 047163552922 with Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 and works of Richard Strauss, Wagner and Mahler) or to Ormandy’s languid 32:00 (with Minneapolis in 1934, the premiere recording of the orchestral version, first CD-reissue by Dante on LYS 057 barcode 3421710410571 “Early North American Recordings Eugene Ormandy in Minneapolis Vol. 1” with Sibelius Symphony No. 1, published in 2022 in Sony/RCA’s 11 CD set “Eugene Ormandy Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra The Complete RCA Album Collection”, barcode 194399523926, see Discogs.com) and 30:25 (in 1950 with Philadelphia, reissued in the orchestra’s 12-CD Philadelphia Centennial, POA POA100-1/7 barcode 0679211000026, see entry on Discogs.com for details). The approach lacks perhaps the sense of large breathing and slow unfolding at the beginning and at the end, it presses a bit and Schoenberg’s arch-romantic composition can take a touch more languor, but as the passion develops Mitropoulos fills it with unique tension.
But the approach works even better in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis. Great pairing, the Tallis Fantasia is one of the most immense works for strings alone of the literature, all centuries included. Even considering that approach to tempo was generally swifter before the 1960s (witness the recordings of Toscanini live in 1938 and 1945, Boult in 1940 and still in 1954, Walter live with New York in 1953, Karajan in 1953, Steinberg in Pittsburg in 1958 and Ormandy still in 1963, all between 14 and 15 minutes – almost everybody since has been above 16, with Bernstein the most extreme at 18:04), Mitropoulos fills it again with breathtaking urgency and intensity: he runs through in 12:42! I can’t say that Mitropoulos is entirely unique here, because Pierre Monteux, recorded live in 1963 with Boston, has been as swift, even a touch swifter, in a strikingly similar approach – if possible even a hair more passionate (available only in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 12-CD centennial box, BSO CB 100 barcode 828020000127 – also documented on Discogs.com). Their climax (with Mitropoulos from circa 8:15) is unique and uniquely intense, with a way of hurling into it that belongs only to them, even counting the numerous subsequent versions. With them, the Tallis Fantasia is no grandiose and noble and solemn and brooding and mourning processional as it is under the baton of Barbirolli or the later Boult or Silvestri, it is a passionate and intense tribute to the dead – or, who knows, the longing remembrance of a summer of love. The Tallis Fantasia is a possible candidate for the music you’d want to be played at your funeral – but NOT in the interpretations of Mitropoulos and Monteux. This is for declaring your love to the woman – sorry, partner – of your life. Perfect match with Schoenberg’s lushly erotic fantasy.
The CD is only 38 minutes long, but it is a CD to cherish.