Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #28)

I bought a 2010 Dutton reissue of Cortot's Schumann Piano Concerto and I thought it was pretty bad, very filtered and 'interventionist'. I have some older Dutton label reissues that are good, however, and Michael Dutton mastered some CD's for Pye in the mid-1980's that have awesome sound. So he is a little bit all over the place.

 

Good to know, thanks, Eddie!

That Cortot has been reissued many, many times. I have it in at least two different masterings, Opus Kura, Biddulph and maybe more. Opus Kura does nice, non-interventionist work. Their issue of the Casals Bach Suites is better than Seth Winner's and Ward Marston's masterings of the same performances.

 

On the Cortot Schumann there was a high-pitched 'whirring', for lack of a better word, for part of the first movement that was just hideous to listen to and totally annoying. I don't know who does QC for Dutton, but they need to replace him stat!

 

Thanks George, what is PREX?

 

Princeton Record Exchange

http://www.youtube.com/princetonrecords

http://www.prex.com/

 

I've always had good luck with Dutton. I have some of their Griller Quartet and Busch Quartet releases. They seem to have some things that I haven't seen elsewhere and the prices are reasonable.

 

Ah I see, great record store, very famous,
well....it's going to be about 3 hours drive so not as close as I would like it but not too far either, I might get a chance to check it out.

 

My beloved home state . . . good luck with the move!

 

Thanks

 

Now playing the Haffner from this set. It's a wonderful reading. My prior diss on Bohm's Mozart was due to the fact that he doesn't do well with 40th symphony, my favorite Mozart symphony. Luckily, for #40, I have Szell. This Haffner is great, though. I found a quote in a review that sums up Bohm's Mozart well, I think:

 

His Magic Flute is one of the very best.

 

Added to (22 Page! Amazon) Wish List.

 

On the subject of Karajan, why is he disliked by so many?

I've heard he is fine in Beethoven and Mahler, but not so good with Mozart and Brahms - there have been several reviewers on Amazon one-starring his Brahms symphonies, which IMO is ridiculous, because the greatness of the music itself and the immaculate playing of the Berlin Phil alone should be enough to rise the set among the bottom rating regardless of any interpretation issues. One star should only be reserved for the worst of pop or classical music and/or something which is so badly recorded to be nigh on unlistenable.

Anyway, I have the Karajan Brahms from the 70s which I certainly enjoy and have no problems with the interpretation; actually to me the 4th may rank amongst the best performances I've heard. Is the problem that he's too precise and literal, doesn't probe enough into the emotional core of the music etc?

 

I think that line about how he avoids prissiness and bombast is pretty accurate. He had sound judgment and integrity, no doubt. That two-disc "Originals" set is good and I have no plans to part with it. I think though that if that was all one heard by way of Mozart's symphonies one would be missing something (in a way that one probably would not be missing Bruckner's Fourth if all one heard was Bohm's). JMO, SB

 

His political associations and his tendency in late recordings (post 1960s or so) to blend the orchestral sound into one homogenous texture, rather than revealing the different sounds available from the different parts of the orchestra.

On the other hand, the tension I hear in his 1963 Beethoven set is breathtaking, edge-of-your-seat music making.

 

"The Rest is Gaslight"

His total hegemony during his reign as Europe's Generalmusikdirector, his fussy obsession with tone at the expense of everything else, the fact that he made way too many recordings, the fact he peaked in the sixties. That may be carping—at his best, he was incredible.

But for a lot of people, it's the simple fact that he joined the Nazi party twice just to make sure the authorities noticed. I know for some that might seem petty, and the story is more complicated than that. But and still, for many that one inarguable fact is enough.

Love his Sibelius, BTW.

 

His 1977 Beethoven cycle is probably my favorite. It's my imprint Beethoven, anyway.

As for why he is disliked, I think in part it's his Nazi connection. He joined the party twice, no?

 

Genghis Kah'nt

What makes that story complicated is that subsequently he married a woman who was considered part Jewish. He wasn't exactly run out of town on a rail by the powers that be, but his gigs started to dry up. And post war he actually had a stab at breaking the all-boys club that the Berlin Philharmonic was at the time to much controversy. He's no saint, but he's not exactly Genghis Kahn either.

 

Indeed! This point seems to get lost in the shuffle. That Kubelik LvB 5th always gets cited as being "the" one to get, but to me, it sounds tame next to Karajan's intensity in the 1963 set.

 

Just Rattling around

You mean Kleiber?

There's also many great performances with the Philharmonia before the mannerisms crept in. One of my favorites was a fine performance of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste that introduced me to his work.

His Mahler Fifth makes most other versions sound disorganized in comparison. Playing his version of the finale after Rattle's was a revelation for me.

 

Correction - I meant Kleiber, not Kubelik.

 

Today, my Brendel Beethoven box set arrived, and I'm listening to disc 2, Sonata No. 8, "Pathetique" *. I liked this set very much on Spotify, though whether as much as the Paul Lewis, I don't know. I'm not thinking much about "good, better, best." It's a lot of music, and I've gotten three complete sets in the past week.

* Does anyone remember the pop song that ripped off the melody to the second movement of the "Pathetique" sonata?

 

Are these the recordings from the 60s that are also in the Brilliant Box?

Louise Tucker & Charlie Skarbek - Midnight Blue? Shudder!

 

No, these are his first set on Philips, recorded in the '70s.

That obviously is such a song, but I'm thinking of something else. Billy Joel's "This Night" is one example, but I thought there was an older song, maybe from the '50s. Maybe Billy Joel is so convincingly doo-wop, I just think "This Night" is from the '50s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXgdP5w7vTc

 

Billy Joel - "This Night" and he credits LVB