**** Serge Koussevitzky, Boston Symphony Orchestra

SESSIONS OF NOVEMBER 22, 1944

(BSO Classics)

After a nearly a half-century of struggle, the BSO and musicians' union president James C. Petrillo negotiated a contract favorable to both parties. The BSO would finally unionize, but it would still have a free hand in selecting its membership. These were the BSO's first commercial recordings in four and a half years, and the results were splendid -- especially when you consider that 24 78- rpm sides were cut in a single day (and the majority of the masters taken from single takes).

The major work is Koussevitzky's beautifully shaped and deeply, romantically felt Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony -- a specialty of the BSO's Russian music director. French music has been more associated with the BSO's French conductors, Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch. But under Koussevitzky, with the gorgeous cor anglais solo magnificently rendered by Louis Speyer, Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture is both brilliant and alluring, and Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, with flutist Georges Laurent, becomes a hypnotic yet elegant rhapsody.

The big surprise is an extremely eloquent suite for strings arranged by Ettore Pinelli from themes by Corelli. It's "pre-authenticity" in the early-music movement, but it's extraordinarily moving (and the quicksilver Badinerie is a gem in itself -- were the BSO strings ever so mercurial?). This last piece is here issued for the very first time. Producer Brian Bell has done a superb job, using the best available sources from which to make his transfers. His liner notes, a detailed history of BSO union negotiations, make surprisingly compelling -- and, as they say, "relevant" -- reading.

-- Lloyd Schwartz