Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #39)

You won't be dissapointed!

 

If you want 'Romantic', try Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim on EMI.

 

Kewl.

Ah, they're Beethoven chamber music is wonderful, so I bet they'd be good here. And Danny's Brahms concerti with Barbirolli is splendid. Thanks!

 

You are correct! I am listening on Spotify now and it sounds great!

 

I think I have collected every Albinoni recording by the Collegium Musicum 90 on Chandos. Chandos has to be commended for recording some of the lesser known Albinoni works in this series ...

 

Artur Rodzinski sometimes conducted with a pistol in his pocket.

 

You sure thats what it was?? GASP

 

Anyone know if this new set contains the Ward Marston masterings or was the material remastered?

 

it was mentioned in a biography i read.apparently Art was a wee bit paranoid.supposedly it was loaded.

 

WOW I guess so!
Isn't it odd how the strange ones (Scientist.....Musicians) are so talented in the creepy sense!

 

Otto Klemperer was another conductor who had problems:manic episodes in
which he would wander off,leaving family & friends frantic,only to turn up
in some bar in a remote part of the city.

 

Klemperer I heard also did recording sessions for EMI that will never see the light of day, due to his mood swings and roundabouts. It is said that with many of his later recordings, we should thank his daughter who devoted her life to getting him, healthy enough and presentable to conduct.
I heard a reliable rumour from record company engineers that the late Gottlieb Frick the bass baritone turned up at some recording sessions with two believed armed sinister heavies in leather coats- for protection, as if "WW2 with Germany was not over". Remember coincidentially, that Fritz Wunderlich died , allegedly falling down the steps of a house in the dead of night while on a hunting expedition with the same person - Frick. Similarly it was said that the late Karl Ridderbusch had a tiled swastika on the bottom of his swimming pool.

Then there was a recent case just some years ago when a well known recording conductor got on his computor and sent a racy message to his private mistress 'to be ready' at some hotel he was coming to stay at. ...except he inadventantly wrongly multiple -programmed the message to all his friends, contacts...and his wife!!! I am sure he had a lot of explaining to do.

 

I am glad that you like it George!

 

Me too, I am listening to Kremer/Afanassiev's Brahms Op. 108 this morning and they seem OK with this music, not in the same league as Suk/ Katchen.

 

I'm pretty happy with Perlman/Ashkenazy. I have the original release, not the GROC.

 

Do you have Rostropovich/Serkin for the Cello Sonatas?

 

I might, but wasn't Serkin past his prime by then?

 

Aimez-vous Brahms?

There's so many "right" ways to do this music. The Jacqueline du Pré/Daniel Barenboim is so wrong, it's right.

I first encountered the performance around 1971 on



This was a "Loss Leader" from Capitol/Angel, in the spirit of the Warner Brother's Loss Leaders but featuring an all-classical program. It was $2, I grabbed it. The disc included the Allegro molto finale of #2 in F major, Op. 99. Very strechy, pulled about as Barenboim channels [or at least attempts to channel] Wilhelm Furtwängler. Or is it du Pré? No matter, it sounds fun, in a shambolic Stevie Nicks/Gypsy-costumed on fire dancing on the edge of the stage sort of way. Borderline camp, particularly in light of the downright Classical performance of Herre-Jan Stegenga and Philippe Entremont. But the du Pré/Barnboim Brahms is Big Fun.

I've heard lots of great performances of these pieces, I'll bet cellists love it. I remember recording Claire Garabedian, a very charming lady with a very husky voice, almost as if her voice unconsciously was imitating the sound of the cello. Like every cellist I have ever known, she was very "gushy", extravagant in her vocal expression. It carried over to her performances of the Brahms cello sonatas, just lovely.




I've got the Brilliant box of Brahms Chamber music, complete. An insane bargain at Rasputin's, a 12 CD set for $12 [used]. The Cello Sonata performances feature Herre-Jan Stegenga, cello and Philippe Entremont on piano. The recording is from 2000. The focus in this performance is on beauty of tone. Like I said, it's classical in the sense that there's dynamic restraint, things are not pulled about in "High Romantic" fashion, tempos are on the fast side. It's an approach that Friedrich Gulda would admire.

That Brilliant box is full of sleepers, like the Toyko Quartet, back when they recorded for Vox, with fully engaged performances of the string quartets, and some beautifully recorded examples of Clarinet master Karl Leister, sourced from Nimbus. The performance of the Op. 111 quintet, maybe my favorite Brahms, features the Brandis Quartet with Brett Dean on the second viola. It's well recorded, well played and on the 'romantic' side without going overboard, an approach I'm sure Brahms would encourage.


Great set, worth tracking down.

 

About 80 but he handles this music beautifully.

 

If the Carl Schuricht/Vienna Philharmonic performance of Bruckner's 9th is a classic performance in notably good sound, the 8th is more of a curate's egg. On the one hand, this performance sounds and feels very much like one of Wilhelm Furtwängler's performances. It's just that it doesn't sound like one of Wilhelm Furtwängler's best performances. There are many moments where sheer sonority takes over, and the dynamics and scale are of this performance is imposing in and of itself. But the microphones are just a little too close this time, so there's little space or air around the orchestral sound and there's borderline overload in the climaxes. And it seems as though the finale doesn't quite hold together, certainly not with the kind of tenacity found throughout Schuricht's performance of the 9th Symphony. I'll have to give the recording more attention, but for the moment the Wartime recording of Furtwängler and the Vienna Philharmonic appears to be tauter and more focused, as are Jochum and Berlin.

 

Very cool, psychedelic cover on that "The New Spirit of Angel" sampler!

 

Let your freak flag fly!

There's some cool, psychedelic music by Messiaen in there too!

I was grabbing Classical LPs by covers then, usually with excellent results. I bought the Peter Serkin, Seji Ozawa, New Philharmonia Orchestra performance of the Violin Concerto [transcribed by the composer to piano] solely on the basis of the cover photo—he looked more than a little like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider at the time. He absolutely looked like a hippie, one of my kind of people:



I eventually met him, recording him in concert with the Guarneri Quartet. He turned out to be the person I imagined he would be, which hardly ever happens. I gave him a copy of the Kitka CD of Bulgarian Folk-Choral music that I had engineered. He handed me two CDs he recorded with teachers of the oboe and clarinet he really appreciated, one of them being the oboe teacher for Shira Cion, manager and vocalist for Kitka [and my partner at the time]. He was very nice and just the tiniest bit spacy. His warm-up of Bach was yet another reminder that certain sounds don't get past the microphone. A wonderful encounter.

 

HDTracks now has an "EMI/Virgin Classic Store" with a number of high def titles not available (at least yet) as part of the EMI Signature series. Is anyone familiar with any of those recordings? (I have the Brain and the Lipatti on CD.)

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=labelhome&vco=emi

 

I just tracked down a new box of this Brahms on AmazonUK for 9.99 pounds. Thanks. I do love my Brahms chamber works.

 

Anyone finds a great deal like this again for this set I'd like to know!