Review Text
It was inevitable that the Boston Symphony - hailed as "The Aristocrat of Orchestras" in the early '60s by RCA Victor, it's long-time record company - would spin off an ensemble from it's elite roster of principals. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players were duly launched in 1964 during the Austrian conductor Erich Leinsdorf's music directorship. Starting that October, RCA Victor recorded them regularly in Symphony Hall until the orchestra changed labels at the end of decade. By then, ten LPs of chamber music had been issued in four critically acclaimed releases. Sony Classical is now pleased to present all these recordings for the first time on album. The BSO's ensemble of first-chair players is led here by it's patrician concertmaster Joseph Silverstein, one of the finest American violinists of his generation as well as a highly regarded conductor and teacher. It also features such illustrious BSO principals as oboist Ralph Gomberg, flautist Doriot Anthony Dwyer, violist Burton Fine and cellist Jules Eskin, as well as two distinguished guest artists: Claude Frank and Richard Goode sharing honors in the works with piano. RCA Victor recorded these outstanding musicians in a wide spectrum of repertoire, and each LP release represented a judicious balance of classical and modern works, both European and American.
