Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #50)

Go for it, you won't regret it.

 

Listening to Marcelle Meyer playing Rameau on the piano. One of my favorite recordings! Her notes suspend in the air as glittering rain drops... It is simply beautiful.

 

I've had that box for a while, but it's still shrink wrapped. My wife's is retiring at the end of the month and it will take about 6 months for her pension to start. Having one income will slow down my buying an allow me to at least get close to catching up.

 

I've just gotten started listening to the first 2 CDs from this set:



Don't know much about Prokofiev, but I like Russian composers and I like 20th century stuff, so I thought I'd give it a go. The first piece on disc 1, Symphony No. 2 struck me as almost too "modern": not very melodic, bigger on textures and clashing rhythms. It was hard to sink my teeth into. The second piece, Symphony No. 6 breezed past me--in honestly, I was driving to an event and was rather stressed, so I guess I didn't give it too much attention.

The first piece on disc 2, Symphony No. 3, blew me away. Very dark and brooding--parts are menacing and militaristic, sort of like Holst's Mars, The Bringer of War, but there were lots of melodies to grab onto as well. I really enjoyed this piece a lot.

 

Yahoo! I found a new set of Gulda's earliest cycle as well (for only 35 GBP). Amazing!!! Settled for.... [Thanks for pointing me to the Fischer set George!]
Finally an affordable Fischer cycle. And thanks Robin for tempting me further into the slippery circles of the CD collecting inferno.....

 

I love this!

 

My pleasure!

Actually Gulda's first cycle is on Decca:



http://www.amazon.com/Gulda-Plays-Beethoven-Recordings-1950-1958/dp/B0009A41ZQ

I happen to think his Brilliant/Amadeo set is his best, in sound and performance.

 

Question for whomever would like to express an opinion:

What is your favorite recording of Holst The Planets?

I used to have a Karajan recording on vinyl (digital recording -- not the best IIRC). Can't find it. I see I have a Levine/CSO on a DG compact disc. I guess that's it. I must have heard others at times. I'm not sure I have a preference. It seems like this is a piece that would be hard to totally screw up, though some must be better than others.

So what do you like?

 

I have this one (recommended by Robin IIRC) and like it a lot. But I have nothing to compare it to.

 

My mistake. Oops. Gulda did three cycles, right (early 50, mid50s and 67)? Thanks for correcting me. For some reason I thought about the Decca set as his second cycle.

 

The Orfeo was a broadcast, so I think of him as having only two studio sets, again, the later one being the better one.

 

My favorite, and the only one I owned until the glut of big boxes recently, is Dutoit/Montreal

Mine has this cover


I also own Gardiner/Philharmonia and Boult/London. I also have a CD of Holst conducting it and Songs without Words that I bought by accident. It was in another case at a thrift store. Sound quality isn't great.

 

I don't know how the price stacks up against those on other sites, but ArkivMusic.com has it as a "weekend special" for $12.99.

 

If you're looking for more recommendations, there are several threads on this in the archives.

 

Leinsdorf did some of his best conducting at the BSO with Prokofiev IMO. The 3rd Symphony was based largely on material from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel ( a story of satanic possession or mental delusion is not entirely clear). It was a failure and Prokofiev couldn't get it staged so he wrote the 3rd Symphony to spark interest in it. The Sixth is highly melodic and considered one of his best along with #5. The Second Sym has its moments but doesn't really hang together. Along with #4 it's the weakest of Prokofiev's symphonies. Leinsdorf never completed the cycle of symphonies before he left the BSO so #4 and #7 were not recorded. NB On the LP the Second Sym was paired with a great performance of the Lt Kije Suite which included the rarely performed vocal sections.

 

This set contains Kije as well.

 

To clarify, "vocal sections" means a couple of the standard sections that were based on Russian songs; Prokofiev gave the option of performance with a baritone singing the words or with instruments (notably saxophone) substituted, and the latter option is what we almost invariably get today. The troika is especially fun as sung, being based on a ditty that I've generally seen translated as "A Woman's Heart is Like an Inn that Charges Modest Fees."

Finding a good version of the vocal variants has long been a problem. Leinsdorf's performance is first rate, but his baritone is poor. Ozawa also led a vocal account; the performance is maybe a hair shy of Leinsdorf's standard, but his baritone is (just) a hair better. Still not very good. Up until the last month or two, the sole well-sung vocal account known to me was a pseudonymous job on the old Royale budget LP label from the early '50s, very possibly a radio account out of the Netherlands led by Walter Goehr; the singer was really quite good, but the performance was otherwise very poor, managing to drag the piece out across two (admittedly not terribly well filled) record sides, and of course like all Royales it was pressed in something that sounded like sandpaper blended with carborundum and recycled highway asphalt. What's more, the thing was sung in German, not Russian. Sigh....

Happily, as the last sentence would suggest, I've finally found an account that's both a decent performance and that features a presentable baritone. It's part of a two-CD set derived from WDR radio led by Marek Jurowski; details here: http://www.allmusic.com/album/serge...otko-suite-lieutenant-kijé-suite-mw0001856503

Jurowski takes the interesting approach of recording both the vocal and instrumental options of the movements in question. His baritone may not be a Stracciari, but he's really more than presentable, and the orchestral performance is as good as one could wish. For those wishing to hear the former, strongly recommended.

 

Boult's last performance is one of the most subtle. Mehta's with the LAPO is real vivid, wonderfully recorded. I'm also fond of the Stokowski/LAPO performance, first on Capitol. later on Seraphim then on other EMI CDs. Probably the most "Hollywood" version, both in performance and engineering. Someone mentioned Dutoit/Montreal, great performance and sound on that version. None of the HvK performances I can recall were on this level.

 

Did he only do it once with them, combined with Star Wars?

 

That was a later re-packaging, as I recall. The original was only "The Planets."



Looks like he re-recorded the work with the NYPO for Teldec.

 

Yes, thanks. I made the mistake of searching for "planets" which was a lot of threads not related to classical music.
When I searched for "Holst" all the right ones came up.

It looks like good bets would be Dutoit, Mehta, Steinberg, Previn, Boult, for a start. I just may buy them all... I think they are all pretty affordable.

 

Weird, biggish haul of LPs today. $16 discs for $13 including my favorite Glenn Gould recording, now returned to my collection:



I'm not certain why Byrd and Gibbons received special attention from the eccentric pianist, but he did. Also a three LP set of Lily Kraus playing Mozart's last sonstas for piano on Odyssey and an old, plain grey-label Columbia copy of Leonard Bernstein/NYPO performing Sibelius' Second symphony.

All this and Ricky Nelson too!

 

It appears that the Boult and Steinberg Holst Planets are available as high-def downloads from hdtracks. I could almost be tempted...

 

This looks like a Technics turntable SL12 (?) which is no longer made since Panasonic is pretty much out of the audio equipment market ...

 

Steinberg's a bit 'clinical.' Good sound, one of the first DGG productions in the states, Boston Symphony Orchestra being better recorded by DGG than Berlin's. At least at the time.