Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #48)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Jun 27, 2013.

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  1. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    Walter conducting Mahler 9. The pre-SBM CD sounds FANTASTIC and smokes every other M9 CD.

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  2. George P

    George P Way Down Now Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
  3. heman__

    heman__ Forum Resident

    Location:
    California


    I picked up a 'Super Analogue Disc' vinyl pressing of this, sealed, for around $30. Guy didnt know what he was selling!
     
    RiRiIII likes this.
  4. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    I agree. IMO, they should have stayed solely with the legendary 50s/60s Decca stuff.
     
  5. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Backwards in time - interesting ordering.

    I might bite, but I've got so many CDs I haven't even listened to. . .

    If it's still available 6 months from now, I may well buy it. If not, I won't be desolate.
     
  6. jimsumner

    jimsumner Senior Member

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    Note number 32 on the Decca box set. Isn't it about time to make the Schmidt-Isserstedt Beethoven symphony cycle readily available at a competitive price? I had some of these on LP back in the day and recall it as a pretty good main-stream Central European cycle.

    As for the box set itself, these always present a conundrum for me. I already have enough of it to give me pause but lack enough of it to make it somewhat attractive. What to do, what to do?
     
  7. alankin1

    alankin1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philly
    Edvard Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16
    — RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (RCA Victor Red Seal)
    Franz Lizst – Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat, S.124
    — Dallas Symphony Orchestra (RCA Victor Red Seal)

    Arthur RubinsteinAntal Dorati

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  8. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    I was digging deep in the Complete A Rubinstein box and I assume you also. This Grieg PC recording is the best IMO among the numerous other ones left by Rubinstein. Also I liked a lot the Schumann PC w/Steinberg and Mozart 23 w/Golschmann.
     
  9. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    The same here. I just cannot spring for every big box.
     
  10. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I use the same words to keep me out of trouble buying more stuff.:D
     
    Graphyfotoz likes this.
  11. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Now playing:

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    More information (including some excellent liner notes) at http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA66824

    Hindemith is something of an enigma regarding his place in the context and history of 20th century classical music. While never that popular with the public save for one or two works like the Symphonic Metamorphosis and the Mathis Maler symphony, up until about the 1960s he was almost routinely regarded among the critics as one of the "big four" of 20th century giants including Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Bartok, but much like the main work on this CD, even among that part of the classical cognoscenti, opinions are today much divided regarding the worth of his work, even within the several different periods of his long and varied career. I think most people acknowledge him as the most important German composer of his day, and quite an important influence on artists as various as Weill, Henze, Tippett, Shostakovich, Walton and Keith Jarrett, but his music, with its reputation for dryness and the impression for many that its creator viewed composing more as a 9-5 job than something he was genuinely emotionally invested in, tends to command respect more than love. While I wouldn't quite put him among my top 10 favourites, he's definitely the kind of composer I'm always eager to hear more of when I have the time and opportunity, and who I almost always enjoy, even if it's on more of an intellectual than emotional level.

    What I like about his music is, in addition to his expert craftmanship (a quality usually agreed on even among those who otherwise aren't engaged by his work), is his distinct sound (including his often strikingly original instrumentation) and harmonic language, strong melodic sense and fascinating fusion of the old and new with his combination of baroque forms and counterpoint with bracing modern dissonances, all of which have had a pronounced influence on me as a composer. But for me his music has also plenty to offer on a purely emotional basis, far belying his reputation for Teutonic reserve, with a verve, wit and vitality but with a deeper expressionist undercurrent during his earlier daring years, adding more warmth, grandeur, lyricism and humanity during his later more consonant period, in works as various as the Kammermusik 1-7, Kleine Kammermusik, String Quartets 3-5, Concerto for Orchestra, the Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass and Harps, the Mathis der Maler symphony, Symphonic Metamorphosis, Violin Concerto, The Four Temperaments, Symphony in E, the three Piano Sonatas, Clarinet Sonata, Sonata for Two Pianos and the late Octet, and with more variety than is often given credit, incorporating influences into his unmistakable style as diverse as Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Les Six, Bartok, Stravinsky, jazz and rag time, all of which when combined with the above strong points, is what makes his best music so rewarding to me.

    As Hindemith's answer to Bach's 48, like I said above, Ludus Tonalis is a bit of a polarizing work, with some regarding it as one of the greatest piano masterpieces of the 20th century and others little more than mechanical if clever note-spinning. I'm sort of on the fence (although with my feet touching the ground on the more positive side) as I love a lot of the interludes and some of the fugues and it's certainly a satisfying and often quite exciting listen, varied with quite a wide emotional range, but it's not among my favourite works of his. The Suite '1922' is a more than welcome bonus, belonging to his more acerbic youthful period, with prominent popular music influences, but all absorbed into a fiercely dissonant modern idiom that at times verges on atonality, succeeding in being both innovative and highly entertaining - definitely one of many Hindemith works that deserves to be better known.
     
    John S likes this.
  12. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I got that disc a month or two ago when it was on sale at arkivemusic. I like it quite a bit. I've Hindemith music that I don't like although I haven't heard all that much. Besides Symphonic Metamorphosis and Mathis der Maler, I've heard a dozen or so chamber pieces.
     
  13. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Add to that his Symphonic Dances - very different from Rachmaninov's work of the same name for around the same period, but equally enjoyable.

    This box set, despite a couple of not so inspired works at the end, is essential for any Hindemith fans and includes that work in addition to five from the above list (in bold):

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    http://www.amazon.com/Hindemith-Conducts-P/dp/tracks/B0000U1NHE/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1

    Also this very fine historical recording, which includes another performance with Hindemith as conductor - I asked for it as a birthday/Christmas present specifically for the beautiful violin concerto after reading a very favourable appraisal of the work in Gramophone:

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    http://www.amazon.com/Hindemith-Mathis-Concerto-Symphonic-Metamorphoses/dp/B000028CTW

    As Amazon don't make it very clear, Hindemith conducts the LSO for the Violin Concerto (performed by David Oistrakh), Claudio Abbado conducts the same orchestra for the Symphonic Metamorphoses, and Paul Kletzki L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for Mathis der Maler. The concerto in particular, like much of Hindemith's work, is a still much overlooked masterpiece; unmistakably modern but also quite romantic and lyrical in style, like a lot of other 20th century violin concertos.

    Taking about artists Hindemith influenced, I think I can hear traces of his style in some of the more progressive popular music acts like Frank Zappa and Van der Graaf Generator, although I've never seen them mention him as an influence.
     
  14. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Currently spinning my favorite Glenn Gould recording and one of my favorite solo piano works. Bizet's Variations Chromatiques Opus 3. Anyone else have this recording?

    513IjT81IrL__SL500_AA280_.jpg
     
    Robin L likes this.
  15. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I have it in his Great Pianists of the 20th Century sets. It's one of the most interesting volumes of that series. No Bach. http://www.allmusic.com/album/glenn-gould-mw0001834803
     
    Rose River Bear likes this.
  16. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    One click checkout is just too easy ... :winkgrin:
     
    John S likes this.
  17. goldwax

    goldwax Rega | Cambridge | Denafrips | Luxman | Dynaudio

    Location:
    US of A
    I do, too, but it's still a must-buy for me. These label-based sets tend to go OOP quickly and then shoot up in price. If I never get around to listening to it, god forbid, at least I can sell it for two or three times what I paid, if need be.
     
  18. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    A little different take on works that I have on other CD's...but its great nonetheless.

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  19. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    The distributor of this label, Qualiton Imports, is supposed to be shutting down this month ...
     
  20. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ

    yeah, so I read...but I have been getting emails from them till not too long ago...Its a crying shame!
     
  21. WilsonTTC

    WilsonTTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA

    Dutoit/Montreal is a very nice recording, but I think it's digital.
     
    PH416156 likes this.
  22. Graphyfotoz

    Graphyfotoz Forum Classaholic

    Location:
    South-Central NY
    Is this worthy of my collection??
     
  23. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    017.JPG
    four recent CD purchases @ $1.95 each.
     
  24. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I really don't know that much Hindemith, but I have worked on the clarinet parts for both the sonata and concerto. I prefer the sonata; my teacher prefers the concerto. One interesting thing about the sonata in particular. Hindemith clearly understood the instrument. It is eminently playable, especially by 20th century music standards. (The concerto is trickier - I think he wanted to make Benny Goodman work a bit.) Hindemith's sonata clearly influenced Leonard Bernstein's clarinet sonata (his Op. 1).

    Hindemith's quartet and quintet for clarinet et al are also worth checking out. As for The Four Temperaments - see the ballet (for which the music was commissioned).
     
  25. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    Mathis der Maler, along with a handful of pieces by other composers, was my gateway to the 20th century. I am therefore embarrassed to admit I don't know that much Hindemith either, but I will correct that to some degree. I passed for some reason on the DG Hindemith conducts box, but since I've been a good boy lately, I have it coming my way soon. It is mono, though Amazon reviewers say the mid-fifties recordings are pretty good.
     
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