The Train Keeps A-Rollin'

 

Hopefully, this is a more accurate 231 depiction than last time--I plugged "Pacific 4-6-2" into Google Images, and this is one of the many that popped up.  A lovely 1910s postcard scan came up, too, but the snow on the tracks made the wheels invisible.  My thanks to Jarbie for helping increase my limited knowledge of locomotives.

This is a repost, more or less--I had it up briefly, and then I decided to redo my London label Ansermet file, which I'd forgotten to apply the ffrr curve to.  Then I guess I lost my train of thought, becoming busy with other posts (three in the making as we speak).  Get it?  Train of thought!!

Anyway, turns out my VinylStudio program has no London ffrr curve, but it does have a Decca ffrr curve, and it worked just fine--brighter highs, more detail overall.  I guess ffrr is ffrr, whether it's Decca or London.

Eric was kind enough to share three Pacific 231 versions in last post's comment section, including a stereo recording by Ansermet, to whom this piece was dedicated in 1924. I'm pretty sure my Ansermet is different than Eric's, even though it's approximately the same length.  It sounds different, it's mono (which proves nothing, but just saying), and it was released in 1955, so I'm (possibly) totally convinced it's a different performance.  I ripped it from the 12" LP London LL1156, the U.S. edition of this British Decca album.

As much as I love the two Ansermet recordings. my favorite version remains Serge Baudo conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1963. And the Baudo is also the first recording of 231 I ever heard, so... coincidence?  I don't know.  But every musical detail is there, clear as crystal, including those incredible piano-crashing-down-the-stairs triplets at the end, which I would have sworn were quarter-note triplets but which are plain, ordinary eighth-note triplets.  Not that Ansermet doesn't do an equally beautiful and faithful job--it's just that I like the Baudo more.  I would have said "...Baudo better," but "Baudo better" sounds like some strange TV offer. 

I used to blast a cassette dub of Baudo's version on my car stereo on my way to work--back when car stereos meant cassette players (plus a radio).  Nice memories.  The piece didn't inspire me to speed, however.  I like to follow traffic laws.  It's the right thing to do, and traffic tickets are expensive.

"I couldn't help it, officer--I was listening to Pacific 231."  "Oh, okay.  In that case..."

DOWNLOAD:  Ernest Ansermet, Serge Baudo--Pacific 231 (Honegger, 1924)

Pacific 231 (Mouvement symphonique No. 1)--Ernest Ansermet, c. L'Orchestre De La Société Des Concerts Du Conservatoire, 1955

Same--Serge Baduo, c. Czech Philharmonic Orch., 1963

Lee