Shostakovich 8/Haitink on London/Decca CD

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Joe071, Apr 20, 2014.

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  1. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    This is the best recording of this piece I've heard. Despite its age, the sound is really of demonstration quality and it blows out of the water my supposedly audiophile Shostakovitch 8/Litton on Delos. Does anybody know how its sound compares to the Shostakovitch Symphonies (Haitink) red box? shost.jpeg
     
    M.Deutrom and Adam9 like this.
  2. HiFi Guy 008

    HiFi Guy 008 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Is this a cd or lp?
     
  3. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    CD, sorry, I should've mentioned that.
     
  4. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    If you have a TT, try UK EMI vinyl of Previn's S8.
     
  5. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    Yes, I've heard it, unfortunately on CD only, and it blew me away. When I said "the best recording" I really meant recording only, the performance is indeed exceptional, but I like Mravinsky better. Will definitely try to get my hands on the vinyl of Previn's 8th.
     
  6. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    The Haitink is my favorite performance and recording of this Symphony. I have the 1993 Decca Ovation midprice reissue.

    The Concertgebouw hall in Amsterdam has exceptional acoustics and Decca had great engineers. All the Concertgebouw/Decca recordings from the early 80's sound fantastic, the only limitation being the early digital resolution. Other favourites of mine are Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov orchestral works and piano concertos.

    I haven't heard any other release of this recording, but in my experience with many other Universal Classics CDs, the reissues of early digital Decca recordings don't sound significantly different from the first CD release.
     
  7. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    Hey Claude, thank you for your input. The early digital resolution, as you referred to it, doesn't bother me on this release at all and I'm aware of the excellent acoustics of the Concertgebouw Hall and more than capable Decca engineers. I'm tempted to get the Complete Symphonies box, but am afraid that some silent remastering might've taken place in the meantime, which might do away with the resolution thing, yet ruin the sonics completely.

    Are you familiar with Haitink's Mahler cycle? I've never heard any Haitink's Mahler and there is a new set available (together with his Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schumann and Tchaikovsky) for peanuts. I wonder if the transfers are the same as with the earlier releases or they remastered them for this set. If they did, I'll probably go for the earlier sets (Bruckner and Mahler only).
     
  8. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Just for information since you are a New Member. There is a Classical Corner thread here at the Forum where people interested in classical music tend to hang out and post.

    http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/classical-music-corner-thread-54.345884/page-17#post-10311423
     
  9. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
  10. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Dear Joe

    It is not a question of offending anyone or at least I hope not. But as a practical matter 90% of the posters at SHF don't listen to classical music so the Classical Corner is a convenient place where other classical listeners are likely to see your post. When you post elsewhere they may not find the thread. Welcome to the Forum BTW.
     
  11. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    All right, gotcha. Thank you very much for your welcome. :tiphat:
     
  12. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Haitink recorded the Mahler symphonies several times, first with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (some symphonies more than once), and later several symphonies - but not all - with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I have no idea which versions are included in the new set or which masterings were used; they usually go back to the most recent masterings for sets like this.

    To my ears the various performances vary musically, I prefer the Berlin ones; unfortunately, the Berlin cycle was halted before Haitink could record Mahler 9 with the Berliners.
     
  13. carledwards

    carledwards Forum Resident

    Yes, I have that CD but haven't heard it in years. Might have to dust it off. No idea if this was remastered for subsequent release.
     
  14. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    I'm pretty sure the RCO performances from the sixties/early seventies are in the new set too, just hope they didn't mess with the sound, but used the same transfers they used for the 1994 set. All the Decca CD reissues from the early nineties I heard seem to have excellent sound. I remember reading raving reviews of his Berlin performances, and though I have about 100+ recordings of Mahler symphonies, I've somehow never gotten around to Haitink's Mahler.
     
  15. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    I remember reading in a french classical music magazine that it was a financial disaster. The less popular 7th symphony, which was released on a full price 2CD set to boot (35 Euro), because of the lenght of the Haitink performance, only sold a few hundred copies at the time of release, at the height of the classical CD boom in the mid 90's.

    Haitink's 1970s and 90's Mahler cycles were released on Philips.
     
  16. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cayuga
    Speaking of Mahler's 7th, Solti/CSO 1971 has always been my favorite, but I've been listening to the live Horenstein/NP lately, not as passionate as Solti's, but quite interesting. Of course, Bernstein's 1965 account ain't shabby at all. I wonder why this symphony is so often neglected and overlooked.
     
  17. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Philips recordings are reissued on Decca by Universal; they ditched the Philips label.
     
  18. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

  19. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    Yes. I mentioned the original label, because it means a different recording team was in charge than for the Shostakovich recordings on Decca. IMHO, the Philips recordings don't sound as spectacular as the Decca productions.
     
  20. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Correct, and I agree that Decca recordings from that era generally sound better.

    I mentioned the Philips reissues on Decca to avoid any misunderstanding.
     
  21. EasterEverywhere

    EasterEverywhere Forum Resident

    Location:
    Albuquerque
    I need to check and see if I have the Haitink Number Eight.I was just playing another early digital Shostakovich by Haitink yesterday.The Number 2 and 3 on London LDR 71035,with the London Philharmonic,early pressing with the blue ffrr label.It is very good too.For too long early digital LPs have been unfairly maligned by a lot of the audio snobs out there,but I sense this is changing.There are some real winners out there,especially from DGG and Decca/London.
     
  22. Sordel

    Sordel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    The Haitink cycle was the second full cycle of Shostakovich symphonies I bought and it's nearly always my go-to. My first cycle was the Rozhdestvensky: the only reading by him that I feel to be absolutely superior is the much slower tempi at the climax of the Bloody Sunday movement from the 11th.
     
  23. EasterEverywhere

    EasterEverywhere Forum Resident

    Location:
    Albuquerque
    Rozhdestvensky and Mravinsky are my favorites for Shostakovich.Lenny did some good ones too.This one is a classic.
    [​IMG]
     
  24. Black Elk

    Black Elk Music Lover

    Location:
    Bay Area, U.S.A.
    Another excellent version to add to the list (Mravinsky, Previn, etc.) is Gergiev with the Kirov on Philips Classics from the mid-90s. A stunning recording on CD too.
     
  25. Andrew

    Andrew Chairman of the Bored

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