Zubin Mehta: Los Angeles Philharmonic—Complete Decca Recordings

I’d like to thank my Audiophilia colleague and one of my favourite musicians, James Norris, for getting me back into CDs. It’s because of him and my three months without vinyl (hopefully, ending soon with the imminent arrival of pandemic delayed goods) I’ve thrown in my lot with my meagre CD collection and HiRes streaming (Qobuz).

While I and other Audiophilia staffers (you know who you are) have spent the past years agonizing over that one vinyl gem, Jim has been quietly cleaning up with fantastic CD box sets as they debut. He’s got a flat full of them and has encouraged me to invest and listen.

Also, you can read the post I published recently about the ‘Return of the CD’. I also wrote an article about my ESOTERIC Japan SACD collection. There’s a video, too.

Most readers will know of my predilection for everything vinyl, but the recent supply chain issues threw me headlong into digital. And what a pleasure it has been. None more pleasurable than my daily search for amazing CD box sets, usually for a couple of bucks a disc.

I’m vacillating over the Previn/Warner 96 disc set, also a couple of bucks a disc. Lots of fluff in that set, though, and much of his world beating stuff is from earlier RCA. Yet another box set. A 41 disc set ‘Decca Phase 4 In Concert’ arrived yesterday—remember when any audiophile west of the Thames held their noses at ‘Phase 4’. I’ll report on the 2014 release to you here. Also, the 2021 DG 55 CD Orpheus Chamber Orchestra box set review will be published in late February.

38 discs (not in recording date chronological order), original Decca record covers, detailed booklet with all recording dates, engineering/production personnel and location.

You want this stuff? Better be quick. These monster boxes usually receive one printing, sell out quickly and then command big money second hand on Ebay, etc. Happened to the Reiner, Munch, ‘The Vienna Phil—The Orchestral Edition’ and other large boxes.

The box at issue is still available as of publication and I would suggest stop reading, take a moment to slide over to Amazon (no financial affiliation) and grab the ‘Zubin Mehta Los Angeles Philharmonic Complete Decca Recordings’ box. Now! Yes, it’s that fabulous. I’ll tell you why.

I would be hard pressed to find a box set where every disc is a winner; a gem. Even old Reiner and Munch have a few plonkers in their large boxes, Previn’s Warner set, a lot more. However, Munch, Reiner (both RCA) and Previn (EMI, now Warner) boast superb recorded quality, whether from Boston Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center or London’s Kingsway. Yet, I would posit Zubin Mehta, during his long 16 year LA tenure (1962-1978), produced just as many or more legendary audiophile recordings from Decca and the team’s discovered jewel, UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. Decca engineers discovered a gem for the orchestra, but made the sound even more resplendent by covering the plush chairs with wood for more direct reflection and resonance. Star Decca producer Ray Minshull was to repeat his Royce Hall success almost two decades later in Église de Saint-Eustache for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra recordings.

I dare say you could dip into the Mehta/LA box and chose one or two CDs a day and almost a month later come out nothing but inspired and thrilled with the music making, the recording quality, and Mehta’s unassailably tasteful and beautiful interpretations. You will not have missed a step focussing on LA. As such, almost all are highly recommendable.

Without getting into a 38 CD play by play, I’ll give you my recommendations for top billing in the set. As the discs are so good, nearly all will serve as a solid choice for your particular repertoire pleasure. The very few exceptions—merely, good performances—include a 1967 Pictures and the Verdi Quattro pezzi sacri featuring good but not excellent singing from the Los Angeles Master Chorale; a 1970 recording.

I’ll leave my absolute favourite ‘till last (it may be a surprise), but the Tchaikovsky Symphony set (with an especially fine 6th), Alpine Symphony, Ravel Daphnis et Chloé - Suite No. 2 (Anne Giles’ exquisite flute playing on this 1971 record was one of the inspirations and reasons I pursued a career as a flutist), Nielsen’s Inextinguishable, Scheherazade, Dvořák Symphony No. 8 and a superb Le Sacre and Petrushka and equally fine Mahler 3 and 5 (Mehta’s hire, Tom Stevens’ magnificent on solo trumpet—Mehta would hire 86 players during his tenure) would all make my top ten recommendations for all recordings extant. If you can get them on AAA vinyl reissues or, be still my heart, mint Decca originals, more power to you. But vinylphiles won’t be missing much by purchasing this set of CDs.

Making a Top 5 recommendation would be some of the justifiably famous releases. I heard Mehta’s The Planets and Also Sprach Zarathustra when they were first released. Even in high school, I could tell there was something special about them. Our audiophile godfather, the late, great Harry Pearson said of ‘Saturn’: The opening notes of ‘Saturn’ played by the string basses, are an effective test of your woofer's midbass clarity and authority-gotten right, you can hear the players in a row stretching from the front of the right speaker in a convex curve backward. Both The Planets & Zarathustra are sonic knockouts, but never unmusical, with a golden sheen on the strings, glistening brass and the aforementioned stunning bass response. Best timps, too, in the Strauss.

The 1969 recording of Strauss’ problematic but effective Sinfonia Domestica is putty in Mehta’s and the orchestra’s hands. A superb performance never bettered. Listen specifically for the mighty trumpet of Robert DiVall.

Mehta is famous for his Vienna Phil Bruckner LPs but his LA Symphony No. 8 is an absolute knockout in performance and recording (his 4th slightly less so). But, it’s his interpretation of the 8th I have enjoyed reconnecting to. So intimate, so beautiful. The orchestra, by this time (1974), was under Mehta’s spell, or, at least as deep any of the musicians would allow. The connection is real, though. Unseal the box and play the ‘Adagio’ first. You’ll be a sopping mess by the end, guaranteed.

Also making a Top 5 appearance is the Ives and Elgar release from 1972 which I purchased when I was in Grade 9. Ives’ Symphony No. 1 and Elgar’s Enigma Variations receive pretty well definitive performances in incredible sound with a ‘Nimrod’ to die for. A beautifully played, if odd, coupling.

Before we get to the CD that is the tops in recorded history for the particular repertoire, I’ll mention some absolute beauties that I heard only once in the distant past then shamefully forgot. CD 1 begins the celebration with as good a Beethoven concert as you’re likely to hear: Egmont Overture (with final 6 picc high Fs perfectly in tune—thanks, Mr. Zentner) a wonderful Emperor Concerto with an on form Alicia de Larrocha, piano, ending with a sizzling Symphony No. 7, blended skillfully and with perfect tempos. Also, the Liszt release from 1971, including three tone poems to get to know: Hunnenschlacht, Orpheus and Mazeppa on a demo disc that’ll impress your friends and/or customers.

So, to my favourite. A disc so good, I get goosebumps even thinking about it. Edgard Varèse: Arcana, Integrales and Ionisation. My favourite version is either an original mint Decca LP or the superb AAA Speakers Corner vinyl reissue. It’s a demo recording to end all recordings. But, equally demo-worthy on this CD. Mehta also gets the orchestra to play out of its skin in these three weird and wonderful works from the ‘20s.

Arcana was was so challenging for both conductor & orchestra, engineer James Lock and producer John Mordler cobbled together a performance out of many short takes. They did a great job as it’s pretty seamless.

There’s a ton more to enjoy including Star Wars, some Hollywood Bowl favourites and a very fine concerto recording featuring some of the orchestra’s star players.

Decca producers John Culshaw and Ray Minshull knew they were onto a winner when they signed the sexy Mehta/LaLaLand combo. Minshull picked another dynamite pairing in 1982 when he signed Dutoit and his Montrealers (the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Decca box set is long out of print, coveted, expensive and very hard to find).

Sure, the earlier Mehta/LA recordings show a burgeoning relationship—not quite the finished product—but by 1969, the team was producing recordings that over fifty years later still rank among the best. So, this is a box set to savour again and again. And with 38 CDs, it’ll keep you busy for the foreseeable future. Buy and enjoy.

Release Date: 29th May 2020

Catalogue No: 4850374

Repertoire not mentioned in the review includes:

Bizet: Carmen: Prelude to Act I; Prelude to Act IV

Copland: Appalachian Spring - Suite; Fanfare for the Common Man; Lincoln Portrait

Dvořák: Carnival Overture, Op. 92; Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World'; The Wild Dove, Op. 110 (B198)

Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob. VIIe:1

Ives, C: A Symphony: New England Holidays: II. Decoration Day; Symphony No. 2

Kraft, William: Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists & Orchestra; Contextures

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; Rückert-Lieder; Symphony No. 10 in F sharp major - Adagio

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K492: Overture

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version) with Vladimir Ashkenazy

Ravel: Boléro; La Valse; Ma Mère l'Oye

Rossini: La gazza ladra Overture

Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 'Organ Symphony'

Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 9; Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31; Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

Scriabin: Symphony No. 4 - 'Le Poème de l'extase', Op. 54

Strauss, J, II: Die Fledermaus Overture

Strauss, R: Don Quixote, Op. 35; Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

Stravinsky: Circus Polka; Instrumental Miniatures (8)

Suppe: Dichter und Bauer Overture

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49; Marche slave, Op. 31; Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture

Verdi: La forza del destino Overture

Vivaldi: Flute Concerto in E minor, RV 445

Wagner: Rienzi Overture

Weber: Clarinet Concertino in E flat major, Op. 26; Der Freischütz Overture

Wieniawski: Polonaise brilliante No. 1 in D major, Op. 4; Scherzo-Tarantelle in G minor, Op. 16

Williams, John: Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Suite; Star Wars - Suite