I picked up a couple Telarc warhorses on the cheap, piggybacking them on a used CD order: Orff's CARMINA BURANA and Mozart's REQUIUM. What the heck, I always like their stuff, even if I have the same repertoire from another label. Good Lord, these two Telarc recordings are phenomenal sounding. The Orff in particular knocked my socks off with its dynamics, and it's not like I haven't heard other performances of this piece. Why doesn't every disc recorded since the mid-eighties sound as good as these discs from the dawn of CDs? It's almost hard to reach for anything except the Telarc when perusing my classical shelves.
I quite agree! I've always been impressed with the quality of every Telarc CD and LP that I've bought.
The sound quality, for sure, but I've yet to find a single performance on Telarc that I would count among my favorites.
Same here. Except maybe Lorin Maazel's “The Ring without Words”, which is a pretty unique project and still better in my opinion than similar projects that came afterwards.
On the whole, I lean toward agreeing with George. One or two discs do stand out, however: the Frederick Fennell/Cleveland Symphonic Winds account of Holst's two suites for symphonic wind band springs immediately to mind, and I need to revisit a Chopin recital by Malcolm Frager. I should do likewise with a Saint-Saens "Organ" Sym. under Ormandy (Michael Murry playing the eponymous keyboard instrument). The Telarc "Omnidisk" is a useful tool for setting up a turntable. On the other hand: Unfortunately, by the time Rudolf Serkin came to make records for Telarc, he'd long passed his peak, and Eric Kunzel falls into my "gee, I wish I could like that" category--evidently, he was a very nice guy and a tireless and appealing advocate for classical music, but I must confess I have yet to hear any performance he recorded that struck me as better than mundane.
One Telarc disc I acquired recently which I think is a good performance is the Busoni Piano Concerto played by Garrick Ohlsson with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Von Dohnanyi. Excellent playing on the Bosendorfer piano by Ohlsson. Also, you mentioned Michael Murray and I have a couple of his Bach organ discs on Telarc which I really enjoy. My favorite is "The Young Bach".
More Bach this morning. Me thinks the long opening piece Chaconne is magnificent. Stokowski wants to swim in Bach' musical ocean, and so do I when I listen to him
Ha!--yes, he does look a bit sinister in that photo. A great attention-getting shot by Don Hunstein, who took many of (IMHO) the best candid and portrait shots of him. Gould was very comfortable with Hunstein and they worked well together from 1957 until Gould's passing in 1982.
I was, of course, primarily speaking of the audio quality. However, I do have a few performance favorites that get played with some frequency. David has already mentioned a couple of these. This early Telarc LP was a sonic revelation when it first came out; but aside from that, Fennell's delightful performance of the Holst "Suites" is still tops in my book. Another great performance on Telarc (also mentioned by David) that is on my "favorites" list is the stirring rendition of the great Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 with Michael Murray/Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra. I could take this to a desert island as my only version of this symphony and be quite happy. For Beethoven's Symphony No.3, I reach for the performance by Dohnanyi & The Cleveland Orchestra as frequently as Walter, Karajan, or anyone else. And for a complete cycle of Mozart Symphonies, I would not hesitate to recommend this Telarc 10-CD box set with Mackerras leading the Prague Chamber Orchestra. They use modern instruments, but their brisk (and not-overly-fast) tempos and sharp musicianship make this set a consistent delight. I would not want to be without any of these on my shelf. Then, again, to each his (or her) own.
And certainly more frequently than I reach for Karajan! I'd forgotten the earlier Mackerras Mozart recordings were on Telarc. Don't have any from that cycle of the syms. (my "complete" set is the old affair by Leinsdorf from Westminster, reissued as bargain-basement "double decker" releases by MCA fairly soon after CD established itself), but I do have and greatly enjoy Mackerras's Telarc account of the "Posthorn" Serenade. In general, what I see emerging is that Telarc was like just about any other label--it had its winners and losers. With the exception of Mackerras, the former appear to have been in the nature of "one-offs" more often than not. Maybe even Mackerras wasn't an exception; did he record anything for the label besides the Mozart cycle? Anyhow, even if the balance was tipped more to losers than winners, that doesn't take away from the good stuff. Thinking back on it, I'm fairly certain--and somebody please correct me if I'm misremembering--Telarc started off as a limited distribution label available only in venues like "high end" stereo stores. I wonder what percentage of the records we've been citing as "winners" come from that era as opposed to after the label became readily available in regular record shops?
Mackerras recorded the Da Ponte operas and Magic Flute as well, which are some the only Telarcs in my collection. I like them, and I think Mackerras has a particularly special way with Mozart, but I admit I haven’t spent a ton of time with these.
Yes, he did. In fact, he recorded one of your favorites! I quite agree. It seemed that way to me -- Telarc was not in every shop at the beginning. Certainly my smaller local shops didn't carry the first albums, such as that Holst/Handel record. The larger stores (like Tower) had them and every high-end audio salon had copies for demo purposes. Another thing about Telarc--at least in the early years-- they didn't seem to venture into any music beyond the standard classical fare or the well-known composers. It seemed they were trying to gain some market share against the big labels by trying to be the best in terms of audio quality and playing it safe with mainstream titles. Maybe if that had worked, they could have attracted more artists and become more adventurous in their music fare. Anyway, they showed what could be done in the new digital medium and, sometimes, they got the whole package right.
Mozart Requiem René Jacobs/Freiburger Barockorchester Based on the completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr this re-imagined and and stripped down version is actually refreshing. On Spotify.
That's a great album, George, and I'm glad to see you picked it up. The Bach works Some of the recordings, such as the Scarlatti sonatas, were never released on any album during Gould's lifetime -- so it's not in either of the Sony "Original Jacket Collection" boxes. BTW, Gould was considered recording all of the Scarlatti sonatas, but he stopped after these three and said something to the effect of, "a little Scarlatti goes a long way." I still love the three he did. The Bach "Italian Concerto" on that CD is also unique. It's not the 1960 release, but a new recording he made in August 1981 that he never approved for release prior to his death 14 months later. Much like the "Goldberg Variations," his tempos are just a touch slower as he reconsiders the work after a couple of decades. The finale of the '60 release (recorded in '59) was taken at a lightning fast pace--which is astonishing to hear--but I think the '81 version works better.
Thanks for all the info! Do you know if his 1960 recording of the Italian Concerto was released in the Glenn Gould Anniversary Edition series? I just checked my CDs and I don't see it. I thought I had all the Bach CDs from that series, but maybe I am mistaken.