Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #38)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Jul 4, 2012.

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  1. Hans Graf / Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - Mahler - Symphony No.1 (complete)
    privately funded recording - Calgary, Alberta -1999

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    CD release was limited edition to IIRC, maybe 2000 copies.

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  2. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Just placed the last order for this weekend with Qualiton Imports and before my one-week vacation next week ...

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    The most interesting recordings have got to be Kempff performing Chopin and Richter performing Scriabin, though the recordings by Berman and Moravec should be quite nice as well ...
     
  3. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing CD8 from the following set for a first listen ...

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  4. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing SACD2 from the following set for a first listen on my big rig ...

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  5. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    The design of the CD sleeve for this set is just uniquely stupid, as I did end up putting a scratch on SACD2 before I could remove it from the glued down sleeve to play it ... :realmad:
     
  6. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    You of course are entitled to your opinion, but I get the impression you have dismissed the second Kaplan recording without actually listening to it. If true, this conversation is over. If not, then I find your conclusion entirely superficial, because it's based solely on the performance of the mezzo-soprano, which comprises a relatively small part of the composition's whole. As I wrote in my review, I have serious reservations concerning Ms. Michael's perfomance in Kaplan's M2, I however find it highly offensive you compare her performance to dog barf.
    Are you seriously advocating the inclusion of a movement Mahler excised from this symphony long before its first official publishment?
     
  7. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing CD7 from the following set - works by Bruch, Mendelssohn, Glazunov and Wolf and as expected Nathan Milstein on the violin with Pittsburgh Symphony and Steinberg. All in all, this has been a pretty enjoyable set since I get 20 CD's on recordings by PSO that were mostly OOP ...

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  8. WorldB3

    WorldB3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    On the continent.
    Picked up a copy of the Alban Berg recording today at the local vinyl shop. About to give it a spin. Thank you.
     
  9. WorldB3

    WorldB3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    On the continent.
    Thanks for the post. Will keep an eye out for the Cleveland /Yo-Yo Ma recording.
     
  10. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing CD1 from the following twofer for a first listen ...

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  11. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The Oregon Symphony is my local orchestra. Of course I like the DePreist. :) He's always done a great job of conducting. From Hindemith to Respighi to Shostakovich.

    I have never had any complaints with the Delos engineering. The older Delos recordings are "duller" than the newer VR2 Delos recordings, but not in a bad way. I have never considered the older Delos recordings dull. They aren't missing any of the upper harmonics. You don't get the impression that the recording is dull. Even listening with my LCD-2 headphones, which are shelved down in the treble and not at all bright, the older Delos recordings sound fine to me and not compromised. The VR2 Delos recordings are brighter and a more open sound, but the midrange and bass loses a little something. Neither are bad. Just different.

    I do have two versions of "Roman Festivals" both done by DePreist on Delos (Bravura and Respighi's Rome). Bravura is an older Delos recording and Respighi's Rome is a Delos VR2 recroding. But I believe both are the same performance. I'll have to check the liner notes. Maybe it was recorded with two different mic setups at the same time? Maybe the VR2 version is the same microphone setup just mastered differently? The VR2 version is brighter. Neither is bad or lacking. Strange though to have the same piece released twice by the same label by the same label and the same conductor and the same orchestra. But then again, Delos did release two versions of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 "1905". Once in standard Delos by DePreist with the Helsinki and once in VR2 Delos with the Oregon Symphony.

    This does remind me that I am missing some DePreist recordings as well as Oregon Symphony recordings. I need to fix that.
     
  12. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Thank you for posting this. I am surprised at the present situation. The first known recording of the complete 5 movement Mahler Symphony No 1 -with its original 2nd movement 'Blumine' intact, was I believe a CBS Odessey
    vinyl recording from the 60's with the New Haven Orchestra. I beleive some benefactor brought the manuscript for that orchestra's use - I do have that recording somewhere on my shelves. Another was the digital CD of Zubin Metha with the Israeli Philharmonic recording of it on EMI Red Line No. ( 72 5 69816 21 )- and I am looking at it right now! :) Timing 78 minutes 26 seconds!
     
  13. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    !) Regarding the Mahler Symphony no 1 ...YES! YES! YES!
    If you go back and study the history surrounding its first public performances , Mahler was sadly talked into shortening that Symphony to gain any acceptance. This was at the same time, when he also faced a sense of surrounding gathering disdain if not downright hostility. The acceptance music lovers give him today, only really started to grow in the late 50's. Before that it was more .."Mahler...who's that?" .
    Well if I am ever considerd a true Mahler Fanatic, I gladly plead guilty. I have been religiously collecting various versions of all his works for the last 50 years.

    Since there are so many versions of Mahler works now available: the shortcomings and irritants in some recorded releases -that stick out - who needs them? Regarding Ms Michel... I am as much as anything else - an avid opera fan. And regarding opera: for me - it was never a case of buying 'which version' but which version of the opera, one may want to listen to, at some time -in this house. Buy the lot - being the motto! I am not wanting to boast or trying to be arrogant. ...merely to state how also passionate about 'voice' I am. And then able to use such ready available comparisions; to be able to successfully predict, more often than not: which singers are just using their throat muscles / 'pretenders' -out of their rightful fach / not properly using their diaphragmatic support/and be able if need be, note and plot time lines of their premature vocal decline. Or quickly play and give examples why some were or are about to be headed for the vocal scrap heap, due to such said habits and practices. Want to hear Don Giovanni... 15 or 16 versions.... A Wagner Ring Cycle .. 13 or 14! All that, takes a lot of shelf space! Making quick comparisions on the spot if anything is bugging you...can bring up unflattering results -generally un-noticed-at times, that 'slipped through'. . Do you mean to tell me you would rather have Ms Michel in SACD..with her basically badly trained voice (try her present ratty excursions into Lady Macbeth(Verdi) or Strauss Salome...GAWD!!) in the Mahler No 2...instead of say I:E: previously recorded stereo examples of a Helen Watts or Marilyn Horne?


    And Kaplan ...I liken to the David Helfgott model but - for Orchestra. :D Where the background 'selling story' is more important than the final result! Remember Helfgott- our local embarassment here, who likes adding or changing 'things' as he fancies -to established works, he is performing.!
    The most classic immortal critc comment of Helfgott's Rachmaninioff 3rd Piano Concerto recording: "It is at present the 39th version in the catalogue and rest assured ...it definately rates, as No 39".

    All this talk about Kaplan 'finding all these faults' in a Mahler score... I have heard 'all that fluff promo stuff' all before -with the view for prompting attention. I have seen this 'sort of frogdust' trotted out all before ..

    Once, when I was associated with the classical music business, I even had the privlige of watching the private rehearsals of a so called Wagnerian 'expert' conductor who had allegedly researched around towns in Germany and allegedly found new discrepancies in one particular Wagner opera score - the one - I heard him rehearsing. It did not take long to realize his 'particular calling card'.. In passages where the orchestra slowly gathered instrumental complexity...that was fine...but the moment it called for greater unerring control of all these now fully detailed forces...I noticed he whipped up prematurely certain sound dynamics, to hide his own shortcomings. The moment everything appearded to be now getting a trifle muddled or congested. If one were to ask or inquire about this ...the answer would be "Oh! That was just part of my new findings". Funny how I noticed that-it was his indentifiable 'false surge -signature' when conducting say Verdi and Beethoven too!
    I say to all collectors and music fans....dare to think outside the accepted square of what record companies want to shove at you.
     
  14. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I have the Telarc disc and the Reiner SACD. Fun music to show off your stereo, but not especially appealing to me otherwise.

    Edit - I may have Ancient Airs and Dances from the Mercury box set. If so, I haven't listened to it yet.
     
  15. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Enjoy!
     
  16. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
  17. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    A correction -the timing of the Metha Mahler Symphony No 1 - 5 movement version disc should instead read 68 minutes 26 seconds.
    Addenum: If anyone objects to the additional -originally intended Blumine or 2nd movement- it is not as if it was a reconstruct - as like forming a 'completed' Mahler Symphony No 10.
    Mahler actually wrote the whole of it. And if placed inside the Symphony No 1-it neatly fits perfectly. Then "How and why is that miraculously possible?" is the only question, needing an explanation from any detractor.
    Would it be any different to some Art work done...posthumously - finally removing 'applied fig-leafs' from some of Michelangelo's work? :)
     
  18. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Those "Ancient Airs & Dances" are indeed lovely music.
     
  19. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing CD2 from the following twofer for a first listen ...

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  20. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    A very pleasant sounding LP...restraint and good taste!:)
     

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  21. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I'm pretty sure it's not in the box.
     
  22. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing CD8 from the following set - works by Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 and Handel - Water Music Suite for a first listen ...

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  23. kevinsinnott

    kevinsinnott Forum Coffeeologist

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    The recordings re-mastered were all Seattle Symphony ones. I agree with you that there was nothing wrong with the Delos releases. But, the orchestra's house engineer apparently thought the series would benefit from remastering. For all I know Delos' limited distribution simple offered the orchestra a chance to re-release through Naxos who has great distribution, but it is a fact they remastered them all and they are slightly brighter in each case I know of. Neither are the earlier ones too dull nor are the Naxos too bright, but there is a difference. In my opinion, either mastering is fine as long as they are available.
     
  24. You're welcome. When I was reading your earlier post, I went over to my classical CD section and remembered that I had the rare Calgary Philharmonic recording of the complete symphony. I thought you'd be interested in seeing the disc.

    I also have 2 other versions of the Mahler Symphony 1 including a 1982 reissue LP of the Erich Leinsdorf / Royal Philharmonic, Decca 1972 recording and a CD of the Lorin Maazel / Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra version on CBS Masterworks from the 1980s. The Mahler symphony seems to be popular among Philharmonic orchestras. :laugh: Neither the LP or CD contain the rare "Bluemine" section.
    It would have been interesting if the husband and wife who paid for the recording had been able to post in the CD liner notes, which LP version they were referencing.

    The CPO CD only contains the Mahler Symphony No.1. Total CD time is 61.04. The "Bluemine" section is 7 minutes 22 seconds.
     
  25. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
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