I quite like the Tatrai recordings. On the strength of listening to the above on Spotify and reading an article praising Hungaroton vinyl, I bought the complete quartets on LP. We'll see.
I have recently listened to Symphonies 1-4 from this set, i.e. the first two CDs. The playing style is very much informed by Mackerras' HIP experience, even though modern instruments are used here. Strongly recommended!
This LP issue was not available for long. RCA was excited to discover the stereo tapes of this performance, until then issued only in mono. But even though RCA Victor made the original recording, EMI had paid for the sessions and still owned all the rights. The big companies' vaults (as Steve Hoffman has reminded us in another thread) have plenty of tapes for which they no longer have rights to issue.
Tatrai's performances are among my favorites for the Bartok String Quartets. This was a random purchase at some music store years ago, I'd never heard them play other composers. Have you heard Takacs? This group is not usually to my taste, I have been meaning to revisit this cycle (never gave it more than a single listen) since it was what was included in the Bartok Decca box. I could see their style being more suited to modern music.
Listening to "Love's Illusion - music from the Montpellier Codex 13th-Century" by Anonymous 4 on Harmonia Mundi.
Really like the Takacs Bartok, they were recorded after one of their members had died there is real feeling here, but most of their awards have been in Beethoven and Schubert.
Listening to CD 7 from "Gilels - Complete EMI Recordings." Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto 3 with the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire led by Andre Cluytens Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto 2 with the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire led by Andre Cluytens Shostakovich - Preludes & Fugues 5 & 24
CD 1. Symphony in C, G. 515: Symphony in D Minor, G. 517: Symphony in A, G. 518: Conductor: Michael Erxleben New Berlin Chamber Orchestra
This is still my favorite recording. Some newer ones might have a bit more transparency (although this LP still sounds pretty good), but I love this interpretation and performance.
Interesting. I plan to listen to Haitink's 1981 recording with the Concertgebouw today or tomorrow. Love the Karajan also.
I still have that one from the Magazine days. I haven't listened to it in forever. Do you think it's worth another spin?
CD 4. William Wordsworth’s Third Symphony was one of a number of good British symphonies premiered by Barbirolli and the Hallé at the Cheltenham Festival in the 1950s. It’s the sort of piece that would have suited JB very well. I particularly enjoyed reminding myself of the first movement which is effectively and attractively scored and founded on good ideas. The slow movement – it’s a three-movement score – is eloquent. In such a collection as this it’s inevitable that not everything will appeal in equal measure and I’m afraid my blind spot is Humphrey Searle’s Second Symphony. I’ve tried with this piece before and still I don’t ‘get it’ – though I must say that I found the middle movement, a Lento, more rewarding than previously. Perhaps I should continue to persevere but I’m afraid that so far it’s an unequal struggle overall and yet again I’ve been defeated. I hasten to say, though, that my reaction is entirely a matter of personal taste. The set concludes with John Joubert’s First Symphony. This performance was originally issued as a CD “single” to mark the composer’s 80th birthday. It’s a very good piece including a rhythmically vital first movement and an intense Lento, ma non troppo. The last of its four movements has a very substantial slow introduction in which the music is tense and dramatic. It’s not until 4:18 that the mood changes to lively good humour, in which vein the symphony ends. Once again Vernon Handley is on the rostrum; what a servant he was to British music. British Symphonies LYRITA SRCD.2355 [JQ] Classical Music Reviews: January 2017 - MusicWeb-International he Symphony no.3 by William Wordsworth that begins the set’s final CD is another three-movement work, though unusual in that it is in the central movement, Andante espressivo, that the centre of gravity lies. The scoring of this fine movement is notable for a most telling use of the celesta, which enters to play a tune of almost nursery rhyme simplicity. The effect is disturbing, even sinister, and suggested the influence of Shostakovich, something felt strongly at the opening of the symphony as well. The finale, Allegro deciso, is dominated by a splendid string melody, and resolves the tonal conflicts of the earlier movements. Humphrey Searle worked for a time at the BBC, and was an important early influence on the corporation’s promotion of new music. (Later he apparently contributed music for a ‘Dr.Who’ serial – sadly lost. True distinction!). His Second Symphony dates from the mid-50s, when he had become heavily involved in film music, writing scores for such movies as ‘Action of the Tiger’ and the brilliant comedy ‘Law and Disorder’. But it was a time of personal tragedy too, with his wife’s death from cancer at the end of 1957 while Searle was in the midst of the composition of this symphony. Searle’s music is an unusual amalgam of Romanticism and modernism; he was a life-long admirer of the music not only of Franz Liszt, but also of the Second Vienna School, and indeed studied with Anton Webern before World War 2. Both those strands of his work are well demonstrated in the Second Symphony, which is based on a tone-row presented in the brief but imposing slow introduction. A powerfully rhythmic allegro follows, then a slow movement which is both lyrical and dramatic, with long, elegant lines for the strings often accompanied by terse fanfares. The third movement begins with a return to the rhythmic propulsion of the first allegro, but concludes with a lento solenne of almost brutal finality. Throughout, Josef Krips draws playing of total commitment from the LPO, fully conveying the burning intensity of this work. What an appropriate gesture to complete this final disc with a symphony by John Joubert, his first, who is the only composer in this collection still to be alive – and still composing, having had his St Mark Passion premièred earlier this year. This is a four-movement work, with a superficially conventional profile. The opening Allegro energico is a compelling affair, skilfully blending dancing woodwind, expressive string melodies and emphatic descending scales, dominated by brass. The slow movement, beginning with a cry of despair, opens out into a deeply-felt elegy, while the Presto that follows offers contrast without losing the tensions that have pervaded the first two movements. Those tensions persist into the slow introduction of the finale; but they are dissipated in the brilliant and entertaining final allegro vivace, which develops an almost Beethovenian energy and positivism. It’s an encouraging way to end this set, so many of whose tracks have dwelt on the darker side of human emotion. British Symphonies LYRITA SRCD.2355 [GPJ] Classical Music Reviews: August 2016 - MusicWeb-International
No love for Karajan’s later recording, done with the Wiener Philharmoniker shortly before his death? It’s a-mazing! (along with an equally great 7th done around the same time)