Saturday, September 10, 2016

Rare Baroque Music from Fiedler's Sinfonietta

Those of you seeing my title for this post, and then seeing the label picture above, must be thinking, "he's joking, right?" Because the Pachelbel Canon is so familiar to us nowadays, that it's hard to imagine a time, not so long ago, that the piece, and its composer, was almost as unknown as two of the other composers whose works Arthur Fiedler's little orchestra (composed of Boston Symphony players) recorded during the same week. (Doubtless many people, particularly cellists, wish this were still the case! I myself always had fun with it, as a continuo harpsichordist, because I could slip in tunes like "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" with the right hand and see if anybody noticed. Nobody ever did.) The other two composers represented here are, even today, hardly household names: the lutenist Esajas Reusner (1636-1679) and Rev. William Felton (1713-1769):

William Felton: Organ Concerto No. 3 in B-Flat Major
E. Power Biggs with Arthur Fiedler's Sinfonietta
Recorded March 17, 1940
Victor Musical Masterpiece set DM-866, two 10-inch 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC file, 33.74 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 21.69 MB)

Esajas Reusner: Suite No. 1 (arr. J. G. Stanley) and
Pachelbel: Canon in D Major
Arthur Fiedler's Sinfonietta
Recorded March 21, 1940
Victor Musical Masterpiece set M-969, two 10-inch 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 35.35 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 24.25 MB)

It's taken six years, but between 8 and 9 o'clock this morning this blog passed a milestone: one million pageviews! It now stands at 1,000,301. My thanks to you, my loyal fans, for making this possible.

13 comments:

  1. Alternate links:

    Felton:
    FLAC:
    http://www.mediafire.com/download/qd3k0ha9174qxq6/Biggs-Fiedler_Felton_FLAC.zip
    MP3:
    http://www.mediafire.com/download/k4hitv4m3ft348h/Biggs-Fiedler_Felton_MP3.zip

    Reusner-Pachelbel:
    FLAC:
    http://www.mediafire.com/download/j14e7is47jopaf1/Fiedler_Reusner-Pachelbel_FLACs.zip
    MP3:
    http://www.mediafire.com/download/u8grsk88kshfasz/Fiedler_Reusner-Pachelbel_MP3s.zip

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  2. Hi Bryan - Congrats on the milestone! Did the one millionth viewer get a free download?

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  3. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary !!!

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  4. Brilliant! Both your latest offering, as ever fascinating and rewarding, and your milestone - well done and again many thanks! All the best, Nick

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  5. Congratulations, and many thanks again for giving us such interesting and unusual repertoire.
    Chris

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  6. congratulations! Always a great pleasure to follow your blog, also thanks for sharing!

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  7. congratulations! Always a great pleasure to follow your blog, also thanks for sharing!

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  8. Congrats Bryan. I'm fairly new to the site, but really enjoying the music you're laying down. Great job!

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  9. Thank you for always having something interesting (and informative) on your blog!--Bill

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  10. You have contributed greatly to my musical education. It is a wonderful milestone and I hope you continue.

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  11. Great Upload! Many Thanks. Hope you're still active to see this comment

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  12. Hi Brian, I am looking for that 78rpm recorrd, of Pachelbel's canon in D. Would you happen to know where I could find one ? Many thanks!

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