I just finished listening to his 4th and it was quite good in both sound and performance. I'm now listening to the Brahms 2nd from Nelsons and the Boston Symphony. I have noticed that when I listen to a Brahms Symphony one often isn't enough! I wish he had more than four symphonies as they are all superb in my opinion.
Chailly's Brahms cycle was a big disappointment for me, it sounded tired and uninspired to my ears. I think Chailly had his best years with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and is past his prime; just a personal impression. As for the sound quality of older, say, post-1940s/pre-1980s recordings, I'm probably in a minority here, I don't think many of them are lacking in lushness when it comes to Brahms. OK, they do sound "older", but "pinched"? Some sound "boxy", but not all of them and certainly not "pinched" to my ears. But maybe I am no longer qualified to judge as my ears are beginning to show their age, unfortunately
And if that's the case you can really ignore this: to my way of thinking/listening, Max Fiedler's 1931 account for Polydor of the 2d sym. with the Berlin Philharmonic is the most idiomatic Brahms I have ever heard on record. (Apologies to those who have been around long enough to hear me advance this rash opinion before. ) As to Abbado, are these recordings "early" or "late" Abbado? I've not heard them, but for a long, long time I felt much as George does about him. Then our local FM NPR affiliate started airing his most recent set of Beethoven syms., and I've been quite favorably impressed. I think I've heard some recordings he did with a group called "Orchestra Mozart" that I also enjoyed more than I would have expected from this conductor. All of these are relatively recent in the grand scheme of things Abbado; I haven't revisited his earlier recordings to determine whether he's grown with age or I was simply too much the sniffy historical recording devotee to appreciate him.
Some time back, I engage it a bit of shameless Hewitt-bashing: In the last couple of weeks I've been ripping and processing the big "complete Bach keyboard music" ("keyboard" meaning "clavier," not organ) CD set by recently deceased Zuzana Ruzickova, and tonight I came to that very Toccata. For funsies, I put it on the speakers, and what a world of difference. Ruzickova, on harpsichord and hence without any of the dynamic resources of Hewitt's piano (admittedly, a "modern" harpsichord with loads of stops, like what Landowska used to play), still contrived to make the music come vividly to life, with plenty of color and a sense of flow and drama. In short, interpreted and projected, not static like the pianist's version. Incidentally, those of us who consider themselves allergic to harpsichord might look up Ruzickova's Bach or Scarlatti on YouTube or such and give it a try. She was a holdover from the early days, when "period performance" still was partly informed by 19th century values. Her Scarlatti wouldn't be a bad place to start if you don't want to sample Bach; there's a link in a short obituary that I wrote for TNT Audio, available here: [Obituary] Zuzana Růžičková
His Brahms with the BPO are what I would call the “middle” period, late 80s-early 90s. These aren’t as much influenced by the HIP movement as some of his later recordings.
I like Angela Hewitt's second recording of the WTC. It isn't flashy and it wouldn't be something I'd listen to all that often, if I want another reference I do like to hear individual variations after hearing others and hers are one of the few I will quickly check (Nikolayeva is another). There was some criticism of hers in the classical conversation thread and I brought it up with my friend's mom who is a well known baroque violinist and she cackled and said "of course she is a musician's musician". She's French and has a dry sense of humor so the condescension was only a small part of the joke
If she's a devoted member of the HIP scene, be interesting to hear her thoughts on the somewhat anachronistic Ruzickova...
She does prefer HIP, but is really just happy to be making a living playing and instructing. She toured with the Trans Siberian Orchestra some summers ago! I will ask her about Ruzickova, I have discussed multiple interpretations with her in the past and she does find it amusing that I have so many works of the same pieces, she is completely content just having well played/interpreted pieces that aren't eccentric. Oistrakh is one of the few historical musicians she feels strongly about and that is because she saw him live several times.
Partial CD 9 from the Richter Melodiya box. Ravel M.43, 5 Pieces: Noctuelles. Très léger (D♭ major) Oiseaux tristes. Très lent (E♭ minor) Une barque sur l'océan. D'un rythme souple (F♯ minor) Alborada del gracioso. Assez vif (D minor) La vallée des cloches. Très lent (C♯ minor) Great performances from this live recording
Having figured out a way to find room to keep this set (the above fatboy plus one more) last year, I am now enjoying a listen to the first symphony.
Nice I have never heard any Sibelius by Bernstein. I do like the Sibelius symphonies I have from Ashkenazy and Gibson.
Nice, I ordered the following disc with Brahms Double Concerto with Oistrakh and Fournier. Also has the Beethoven Triple Concerto which is a piece I have never heard.
It's an attractive work, but not quite top-drawer Beethoven--enjoyable on occasional hearing, but it doesn't hold up as well in heavy rotation (as our local did with it for a while) as, say, the "Emperor" Concerto or the fifth symphony. He wrote it for two professionals and an amateur pianist; as a result, the piano part is much simpler than average for a Beethoven work.
Again, from the bog box. This time, it's Serkin's fourth (of four) recording of this great work. And it's a corker!
How are the transfers? I have the French EMI cd reissues and love the playing, especially the nocturnes, but the high end is muted and transients dull.
I can't say I ever noticed the sound on the Brilliant Classics set as being particularly good or bad. It's the playing I keep coming back for.
If I understand correctly, Brilliant Classics are (or were) a bit like Mosaic Records in the realm of jazz, i.e. they don’t do their own transfers but instead licence material from a label and that label does the transfers for them. That means if they release something from Decca for instance, it’s Decca’s engineers that do the transfers so you basically get the same quality as on a Decca set.
This is pretty much my understanding as well, although I think Brilliant licences from other labels and then uses existing masterings. That is at least the case with the few releases that I compared to the originals.
