02. Fikret Amirov - Kyurdi Ovshari 'Azerbaijan Mugam' [13'40]
Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Everest SDBR 3032 (recorded March 1959; this digital remaster 2008)
(24bit/96kHz digital download flacs, booklet & cover scans)
Recording location: Somewhere in Houston, Texas
Recording engineers: Bert Whyte & Aaron Nathanson; Producer: Bert Whyte
As kindly advised by FrankB in his comment to my earlier post of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, the likely venue for Everest's recordings in Houston was Music Hall (the predecessor of the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts).
This is another fine-sounding, if short measure, remaster of Everest original recordings from Countdown Media - some harshness is probably down to the music and the at times, less than top-class orchestral playing. The lushly colourful nature of both works suit Stokowski down to the ground - although I have to confess that neither work is really to my taste. At least the Amirov has rarity value - a little-known Azerbaijani composer's 1949 Stalin Prize winner. This seems to have been its first, and only, recording in the west.
Download from MEGA.