Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #70)

Now playing CD7 - Bruckner 7th from the following box for a first listen ...



I have found the last 3 Bruckner Symphonies to be more attractive than the earlier ones ...

 

Has she recorded the JS Bach Cello Suites? Her fellow French cellist Ophélie Gaillard is excellent and I recently bought the following twofer ...

 

All I can say is I did not care much for Bruckner Symphonies thirty years ago but they sound fine to my ears these days ...

 

Don't know if Bertrand has, but I've seen Gaillard mentioned positively online.

 

Yesterday, I listened to Sibelius' transcriptions for violin and piano of his violin concerto. It's from this month's discounted volume of the BIS Sibelius Edition from eclassical. It's a fantastic piece of music. I wasn't sure if I'd like it but I like it a lot. The rest of the volume doesn't really live up to this one disc unfortunately. It's mostly short, light music, something the concerto transcriptions are not. This may be the only recording. I'm having problems finding another.

 

Now listening to "C.P.E. Bach - Hamburg Symphonies/Concerti" performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester led by Thomas Hengelbrock on DHM.

 

Now listening to "Bax - Symphony No. 4/Tintagel" performed by the Ulster Orchestra led by Bryden Thomson on Chandos.

 

Superhuman virtuoso Carlo Grante takes on Liszt with wonderful results. I have to say that I prefer Liszt's original version of the Mephisto Waltz rather than Busoni's transcription of the orchestral version, but Grante certainly plays it well. I have a live recording of John Ogdon playing the solo piano version of Totentanz, and no one comes even remotely close to the terrifyingly demonic playing on that disc, which was recorded during one of his more lucid periods between bouts of schizophrenia, but again, Grante plays it well...and more accurately, if far less thrillingly. Superb sound. (He plays a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand.)

 

The 5th used to be near-incomprehensible to me. It's still my least auditioned of the 7 Bruckner symphonies I regularly listen to. The 6th symphony is the one I listen to most frequently these days. Off the top of my head, there's 6 versions of the sixth in my collection, led by Jochum on LP and CD, Barenboim/CSO on DGG vinyl, Nagano and Klemperer on CD only and a partial recording from Furtwängler, also on CD. Don't care for the Barenboim, the Furtwängler headless torso isn't nearly as good as Furtwängler at his best in Bruckner. Nagano captures the lyricism in Bruckner that other conductors shove aside. Klemperer and the New Phiharmonia is predictably on-point, but I listen to Jochum's with the Berlin Philharmonic on DGG most frequently.

 

I probably made my greatest effort with the 6th. I have Jochum/EMI, Wand/Sony and Solti from the Decca Analogue box. I just could not get my ears around its architecture.

 

Here are some samples for comparison from my remaster of the Brahms 3d in lossless. The 3d is the least good sounding recording in the cycle (i.e. Karajan's 60's) and I think I was able to achive pretty good results with this one, so it sounds more consistent with the rest of the cycle.

http://www59.zippyshare.com/v/uxPrhZY2/file.html

I'll put the whole thing on YT later on.

 

Now: Bruckner: Symphony 6 - Otto Klemperer/New Philharmonia Orchestra London - Bruckner: Symphones 4-9 - 6 CDs, EMI; disc 5, tracks 2-5

 

What a shame Cello's don't have wheels...

 

Now: Schubert: Symphonies 3, D200; 8, D759 - Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - DG

 

Started another transfer exercise yesterday: Tchaikowsky's 3d Sym. as recorded in 1932 by Albert Coates leading the London SO, Victor set M-166. According to my catalogue, I've had three copies of this set along the line, the first purchased in March 1992 and the second, a much better copy, about 3 months later. The third, which I think is the one I have now, came from my wife's beloved piano teachers from her high school years. Back then, records like that used to come my way for a pittance or free pretty frequently just in the course of daily life; in fact, I can remember when the deluge of records was really more than I could handle, and as a result I ended up with an immense number of the things, like this set, that I've never played to this day. Nowadays, I seem to see them almost exclusively in record auctions or on eBay, and so I'm starting to play catch up just a bit.

Anyhow, aside from one bad scratch or pit that bangs for six revolutions at the beginning of side 8, it's a remarkably clean copy and, from side 2 on, a clear, vivid recording; side 1 gets just a bit fuzzy as it plays, leading me to think it may have been a recut. As to the performance, it's typical Coates: fast, fervid, and more than a bit untidy. I happen very much to enjoy his way with a score, but I'd be the first to admit that a Toscanini-style precisionist he was not.

A site about this sym.'s recording history (is there any subject too abstruse to generate a Web page somewhere?) indicates the recording was reissued on Biddulph. I don't know that issue, but given the label's excellent track label I'd be surprised if it weren't a good transfer.

 

The Biddulph CD has an excellent transfer, but there's a production error that results in some missing or repeated music. I forget which, as it's been some years since I heard it. Don't know if they ever put out a corrected version.

 

At least she was not on high heels ...

 

Now playing the following LP for "probably" a second listen thirty years later ...

 

Now playing CD2 - Chopin Mazurkas and Piano Concerto No. 2 from the following box for a first listen ...

 

Von Karajan's "Fidelio" from the big EMI box. The first listen to the first version of this opera I've ever owned.

 

New composers for me (father/son)--and quite a pleasant find! Some of the solo cello pieces have a slight Bach influence, but I do hear a distinctive voice. Cocsec and friends play wonderfully, and Agogique always provides fantastic sound.

 

Wonderful playing and sound.

 

Cello and guitar make interesting partners! Great playing and sound.

 

Now playing CD52 - Telemann Paris Quartets 1-12 by Barthold Kuijken, Sigiswald Kuijken, Wieland Kuijken and Gustav Leonhardt from the following box for a first listen ...

 

I'm pretty sure some of those show up in Sony's Leonhardt box.