Bach orchestral transcriptions by Saito; Schonberg; Stokowski; Webern; and Stravinsky Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa Philips, 1992
I listened to this recently acquired used LP yesterday. I was curious about Bashkirov as I did not have any of his recordings. This LP is excellent in spite of the dated sound quality. The conductors are also excellent. I have created a playlist of his available recordings on my music app to continue to explore.
Parry Piano Concerto in F sharp minor Stanford Piano Concerto No. 1 Piers Lane, piano BBC Scottish Symphony Martyn Brabbins Hyperion, 1995 first recordings of the Stanford and Parry
Ferdinand Ries Chamber Music: Octet Op. 128 Sextet Op. 142 String Trio WoO 70.2 Franz Ensemble, MDG, 2019 CD/SACD
nice version Faure: Pelleas et melisande; Dolly; Apres un Reve; Pavane; Elegie. Boston Symphony Seiji Ozawa Lorraine Hunt Jules Eskin
I don't usually do "Lookie, I just bought!" type posts, but I'll make an exception here. Given the universally good press it's received, I've been nursing a wish for the Scott Ross complete Scarlatti sonatas cycle for some years, but, given that in addition to a world of one-offs I already have Pieter-Jan Belder's perfectly serviceable cycle on Brilliant, I've always been too much of a cheapskate to buy a copy at the prices usually asked. Late last week, however, I was mindlessly browsing eBay and stumbled across a copy for $29 plus shipping; with tax, the total came to just about $40. That's a good $35-40 less than just the set, without postage, usually seems to go at "street price." One reason I bring this up is a word of warning to those who might also have or be interested in this set. The box looks perfectly square, but it isn't quite. The inner tray goes in like this: Inserted that way, it slides in and out easily. If, as my seller did, you put it in like this, however, it will go in only until about 1/4" is sticking out and then jam so hard it's nearly impossible to remove. That blemish on the tray is from my trying to pry it out with a knife blade ; eventually, I ended up violently shaking the box-mit-tray for several minutes until the impact of the discs banging around inside inched the tray out enough that I could get my fingers on it and work it out the rest of the way. Not exactly fun. As to the music, I'll be exploring some of that in coming days.
Szeryng, violin Boston Symphony Orchestra Charles Munch Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto RCA, 1960 I have always enjoyed this version among others.
I'm dipping into the Scott Ross Scarlatti set, copying to the computer server and playing this and that as I go along. Today's undertaking was to play and compare the five recordings I have on tap of K. 113 (L. 345) in A, the first Scarlatti sonata I ever heard and a long-time favorite. The candidates: harpsichordists Pieter Jan Belder (Brilliant Classics), Scott Ross (Erato), and Zuzanna Ruzickova (Suprapphon, copied from LP) and pianists Mikhail Pletnev (Virgin Classics) and Harold Bauer (Schirmer, copied from 78 RPM). It was an exercise in confounded expectations, at least to a degree. Two of these accounts, Belder and Ross, come from complete cycles, and so I was able to play their accounts of K. 113 together with the Kirkpatrick coupling, K. 114 (L 344), also in A. Remembering that I hadn't been especially taken with Belder, I started with Ross, and I found his, taken as a whole, probably the most satisfying of the recordings. At 4:15 it wasn't the fastest, but had a good sense of momentum and satisfying texture, and being able to hear it with the companion K. 114 was a distinct advantage. Belder, up next, didn't redeem himself from my earlier impression; his 4:50 timing for K. 113 seems a little sluggish, and the entire effect is very "straight," with little sense of excitement or occasion. Belder's K. 114 was much better, but here half a loaf, while better than none, can't compete with a full one. Ruzickova plays only 113. She splits the difference between Ross and Belder in tempo, taking 4:30. Ruzickova, although her hopes of studying with Wanda Landowska were dashed by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia at the outset of World War II (she spent the war in a concentration camp and was lucky to survive), was of the generation of harpsichordists who came up in the Landowska era, and thus her recording is quite different in sound from the first two. For starters, it's at modern concert pitch. Then there's the matter of the instrument she chose: throughout her life, she remained loyal to the Landowska era type harpsichords built in factories around metal frames, not wooden-framed antiques or modern handcrafted recreations modeled after them. Her performance is lively, but it sounds quite staccato compared to the other two. A lively and satisfying account, withal; too bad she didn't give us the companion K. 114. The performances by both pianists oblige us to do a bit of extrapolation, because each cuts a repeat--Bauer omits the A section repeat, presumably to fit the time constraints of a 10" 78 RPM side; Pletnev that of the B section, for no good reason I can imagine. And here come those confounded expectations. I would have thought the harpsichordists, by virtue of the instrument's being lighter on its feet, would easily outpace their pianist colleagues, but not so. Not even close to so. Bauer tosses K. 113 off in a fleet 2:50, of which 1:04 is the A section. If you add in another 1:04 to account for the repeat he omits, that would put his account at 3:54, 20 seconds faster than Ross and almost a full minute faster than Belder. A shame that he omits it, as the performance otherwise is beautifully shaped, and despite the rather dim recording the lovely piano tone of the "golden age" player is clearly on parade. Pletnev brings his account in at 3:33, with the single traversal of the B section taking 49 seconds. Add that in, you get 4:22, which would be around a half minute slower than Bauer's "extrapolated" time and not much different from Ross--but unlike Ross and even Bauer, Pletnev sounds positively frantic. Everything seems rushed, so much so that in my opinion the piece fails to make much of an impression, and bear in mind that I almost always prefer faster tempos to slower. (Witness my boredom with a Paul Lewis account of Beethoven's Tempest Sta. that was on the radio this morning--dull, dull, dull. But I digress.) In direct comparison, Scott Ross completes the first iteration of the A section in 1:11. Bauer take 1:03. Pletnev brings it in at :58. Pletnev also does an odd interpolation at the end of the B section. Again, I often enjoy that sort of thing, a willingness to depart from slavish adherence to the score, but I don't think this one works all that well; it just sounds strange. In short, as you'll have surmised, I didn't really warm to Pletnev at all. Were I feeling ambitious enough to dig them out from my shelves, I could go on with sampling several other accounts on 78 RPM and LP--among the latter, Emil Gilels (Colosseum and Westminster, once had on Hall of Fame in fake stereo, ex Melodyia), Tipo (MHS and its source, Ricordi), Gilbert Rowland (his own Keyboard label, from an abortive complete cycle that died maybe 2/3 of the way through, killed by the market's transition from LP to CD), etc., etc., but I think this is enough for today. On balance, then, to Ross, Ruzickova, and (taking note of its cut repeat) Bauer; to Belder and Pletnev. And that's more than enough from me!
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 Stucky: Silent Spring Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck Reference Recordings, 2022 There is something about this interpretation of Beethoven's 6th that doesn't click with me. Perhaps it is the conductor's sense of timing and rhythm. It seems off kilter to me. I wouldn't be following this piper. The Stucky piece is interesting and the sound is better than the Beethoven.
If you like Kalliwoda, a good 40 years ago or more Vox issued his first sym. on the Candide Label, no. CE 31073, performed by the Prague SO under Jindrich Rohan. (That's an LP; don't know if it ever made it to CD.) I bought it for the overside, Tomasek's 1st pno. cto. At the time, I think that was the sole record available of music by either composer, or at least the sole one even semi-readily available to US record buyers. I don't think I've played the sym. in a few decades now, but my dim recollection is that the performance was one of those dutiful "here's an oddity let's give it a run-through" affairs with all the notes but not a lot of emotional investment in "selling" them. [Edit: On reflection, I'm guessing the recordings probably started off life on Supraphon and appeared on Candide under license.]
After comparing almost a dozen recordings of the late Brahms solo works, I have decided on a favorite. It's nice when the best performance has the best sound and is in print and in budget sound! https://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Concertos-Violin-Sonatas-Quartets/dp/B0719PRK5P
Forgot to post that I am curious who others like in late Brahms (Op. 116-119.) For me: I was suprised to not really like Kempff (mono) in this repertoire and surprised how much I like Backhaus (Naxos), considering I previously did not like it. Mikhail Rudy was very virtuostic with the material, often in a bad way. Kovacevich was similar but I like it more. Warmer sound too. Lupu does well with the softer works, but doesn't really bring it for the faster/louder ones. Katchen I liked a lot, just didn't think he checked all the boxes. I felt the same about Alexeev, though I didn't like him as much as Katchen here. Gieseking is uniquely "light" in playing these works and while his 1951 set is more complete, his pre-war Brahms is better. Speaking of unique, Gould's is a special collection for me, sadly it is incomplete, though.
Oddly, I don't know that I've ever settled in on a single pianist in one set for any of them. In bits and pieces, I've especially liked Artur Rubinstein and--curiously, given that overall he's not one of my usual favorites--Van Cliburn. Oh, and in Brahms generally, Friedrich Wuhrer. But you wouldn't have guessed that, I'm sure. He didn't record much of the late Brahms solo music, however, I think just the op. 117 Intermezzi, and that's a "for broadcast" studio taping, not a commercial release. It's on Mode, and as I recall I thought he wasn't exactly "on" as captured on that disc. His 1st pno. cto., on the other hand, remains my touchstone for the work despite the less-than-first-rate orchestral framework. But that's a different story. [Edit] I can add that I listen for a particular kind of sound in Brahms. I like my Brahsm with a big, rich, warm, singing sound, nothing percussive or pingy. In general, I need to powerful bass to be happy.
Wuhrer, Wuhrer . . . where have I heard that name before? Is it the pre-war Rubinstein you enjoy? I bet you'd love Lupu's Brahms. Have you heard it? Here's a taste:
My favorite music professor in college once told me that he spent a whole year listening to nothing but Brahms. At the time I thought he was crazy, but now I get it. In the right mood, Brahms music can be addictive. Now enjoying Arrau's recording of the second piano concerto from my treasured Heritage box set.
I'm only a Brahms dilettante, but for Op. 117, have you heard this? Brahms - Robert Silverman - Intermezzo: Works For Piano By Brahms
Yes, I own that one. Picked it up last year. I enjoy it, but the performance didn't stand out for me, plus he didn't include Op, 116 and 118-119.
I can't imagine! Now that you mention it, yup. Victor 78s. Thanks for sharing that. He does play with gorgeous tone. Very meditative; I'm not accustomed to such slow tempos. Definitely brings out the autumnal side of the music.
