In August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around 120,000 people, of which 95% were civilians, were killed outright. It is estimated that a further quarter of a million died from the after effects of the explosions. Six days after the second bomb was dropped Japan surrendered unconditionally, removing the requirement for an invasion of the Japanese mainland by Allied forces , an engagement that would undoubtedly have resulted in dreadful casualties on both sides. Hopefully the music community, as well as the world, will remember 2005 as the sixtieth anniversary of these terrible events, as well as the year of the premiere of an opera by John Adams . My attempts to understand the almost incomprehensible events of 1945 led me to the recently published 109 East Palace by Jennet Conant . This is the story of the extraordinary secret community of allied scientists at Los Alamos in New Mexico that, in a race against the clock, created the t
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If this cycle was produced by James Mallinson and not Anna Barry, Gergiev's usual producer for Phillips, one can reasonably deduce that the Classic Sound team agreed to make this recording speculatively without financial or logistical support from Phillips, who most likely only agreed to release the recording(s) once they'd heard the result. So if the outcome is less than inspiring I can think of a number of reasons why the buck ought not to stop with the production company, who are likely to have benefitted little enough from their enterprise as it is.
London - May 2004
LSO LIVE GERGIEV PROKOFIEV SYMPHONIES
Jonathan Stokes with Producer James Mallinson embarked on a ten day recording period of the Prokofiev Symphonies with the LSO under the direction of Valery Gergiev.