But the fact that Andris Nelsons was considered a potential candidate to succeed Mariss Jansons does not tell me a thing about the quality of his conducting. That was the most superficial discussion. Most of us know that true talents in classical world are very hard to find these days ...
I have a few Solti recordings and love them all! Other than his Brahms symphonies I also have the Venice SACD from Analogue Productions which is great, and also his Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture and Romeo and Juliet. Oh yes and I forgot the Solti Rite of Spring which is my favorite recording of that piece!
You said a few posts ago you didn't know who Nelsons is, whereas we did discuss his possible appointment a couple of years ago, that's what I found weird.
Talking about Nelsons' conducting, I like his Shostakovich with the Boston SO, but if I remember correctly that's not one of your favourite composers. On the other hand I wasn't impressed by his Brahms with the same orchestra and his Bruckner with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, of which he is also musical director; both sounded too slow and heavy-handed to me.
For the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig recordings, I would stick to those made by the late Kurt Masur whom I greatly admired. He used to live a few towns away from me. I attended a few NYPO concerts mainly because of Masur and Colin Davis. NYPO is not an orchestra I care for after Bernstein's tenure, which was somewhat before my time ...
So you also find his Brahms too slow and ponderous? I thought it was just me as this set has gotten good reviews.
From what I've heard, yes. As I said I like Nelsons' Shostakovich, but having heard his Brahms and Bruckner I doubt he'll become a favourite of mine among "modern" conductors. By the way, for what it's worth his Brahms set and Bruckner disc didn't get a good review on ClassicsToday; a panel on Dutch public classical radio didn't like his Bruckner very much either.
These days, I feel like reviews are only useful when my taste aligns with the reviewers. For example, many people find Furtwangler's Beethoven too slow or Celibidache's Bruckner to be too slow - while others love it more than all others. And some, like me, find Furtwanger's Beethoven to be too slow, but find Celibidache's Bruckner to be perfect.
Fredrik Ullen playing 1-25 of Sorabji's Transcendental Etudes Don't think I post inline images from AllMusic, here is the link: http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/119/MI0001119674.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
Yeah, I get it. While I acknowledge that one might favor another ensemble over Tafelmusik (I also own a lot of recordings of the orchestras you mentioned, and love them) I have yet to find a "bad" Tafelmusik performance. For me, the main selling point of these Vivarte boxsets is the inclusion of rarely recorded/almost impossible to find compositions and authors (eg Pipelare); I sampled all the ones I didn't know and/or didn't have and it would cost me about 40 euros just to purchase three or four CDs including that music, whoever performs them. Hey, just the Pipelare disc cannot be found under £20+shipping (used, maybe non tracked shipping) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pipelare-Missa-Lhomme-Huelgas-Ensemble/dp/B000025XIZ/ For € 0.89 per CD, tracked shipping included, I just couldn't resist. By the way, the Tafelmusik discs are 21 out of 60. I can risk.
Strongly . The Huelgas Ensemble/Van Nevel recording is very attractive. If there are a few of these OOP recordings, there is a strong case for getting the box for sure. But where can I find the contents of this box in any details?
Hi Stuart, Unfortunately, as you can see, this time the Amazon pic is not very detailed, but a good guy on Amazon.de wrote everything Please, scroll down and read the review of user "Von DaveH_SF", he typed all the info https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01FNAHZFY/ the list can be found on prestoclassical too Presto Classical - Vivarte Collection Vol. 2 - Sony: 88985332072 (CD) - Buy online ...even if it's slightly confusing, because it's not clear what's included on every single disk By the way, Amazon Italy raised the price but Amazon Germany is still selling it for € 59.99 and some reputable sellers on Amazon.com (eg Import CDs) have the box for $55 as for the OOP discs, most of the ones included on "Vivarte 2" are currently unavailable, some can be found as part of a few Sony Classical compilations, but they're not as cheap as this 60 Cd box, considering the price for single CD. If you're patient enough, you could watch this you tube video, I didn't make it to the end, but I believe it shows every single disc in the boxset. And its detailed booklet (I believe it's about 240 pages)
Thanks for posting that box CD listing image. Indeed, it is not easy to read that list, which is also not particularly useful as to whether a particular recording is OOP ... The youtube post is excellent!
Yeah, I know. Some days ago, I spent many hours trying to figure out what was and what was not available. Some discs could be found used on Amazon or ebay or discogs, but they're more expensive. And I should've paid shipping for every title. So -what the heck- I ordered the box. It should arrive here shortly, probably by the end of this week. I'll scan the "content" side of the box and upload it here, for future reference. In higher resolution. Weird that amazon only had that small, ugly pic.
I actually went through the entire youtube. There are at least a half-dozen of recordings by Van Nevel, a few by Leonhardt and some by Immerseel, the Kuijkens and Blysma - all are worth getting. The downside is there are somewhere between 15 - 20 recordings by the Tafelmusik that are in all likelihood redundant IMO.
These are some of the Cds in the box Schutz: Symphoniae Sacrae II: used from £18.99 (coulnd't locate volume I) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schutz-Symphoniae-Sacrae-Vater-Abraham/dp/B000024FSQ From the Court of Frederick the Great (used from £ 6.61) performed by B. and W. Kujiken with Bob van Asperen https://www.amazon.co.uk/Court-Frederick-Great-Frantisek-Benda/dp/B000024XMK/ Harpsichord music from the Dresden court (used from £24.72) performed by Gustav Leonhardt https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weckmann-Froberger-Harpsichord-Kurfüstliche-Cembalomusik/dp/B000024DA4 Music From The Court Of King Janus At Nicosia (used from £70 ), performed by Huelgas Ensemble/Paul Van Nevel https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Court-King-Janus-Nicosia/dp/B00005KKOF Las Ensaladas (used from £18.98), again performed by Huelgas Ensemble/Paul Van Nevel https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ensaladas-Paul-Huelgas-Ensemble-Nevel/dp/B000026I5J/
Of course. I considered the cost and the time of getting what I really wanted, having them all in one shot was the better solution, imho. Having some discs than I won't listen to, not a problem.
When I bought the Karajan Symphony Edition box, the only recordings I did not have were his Schumann's and the box was going for over $100 and OOP. I also did not quite have all his Haydn Symphonies. It was therefore a no brainer to get that box even though I already some 30 duplicates ...
some of these "mega boxsets" are oop for some months then are readily available again, the Karajan can be purchased for $ 42 now. Another one that was going for crazy money was "The Decca Sound", now back in print even with some minor packaging differences (I believe the opening is no more on the top, audio content is the same as the first edition)
This 3-disc set arrived today and I put on the first piece on disc one and...OMG...absolutely breathtakingly beautiful-- Salvatore Sciarrino: Variazioni for violoncello and orchestra (1974) Francesco Dillon, cello Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI/Tito Ceccherini