Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #1)

Thanks Jay, I had not realized that it was completed!

Have you listened to any of these, Jay? What do you think?

 

Really enjoy a lot of Hogwood / AAM of that time (or any time) and also have much respect for many other aspects; saw more than a few really good liners, covers that gave a nice reflection of the time yet with their own style, etc. But oh boy, the sound can get hard and steely.

 

I love them all, especially the three that comprise op.31. Paul Lewis' is the first complete cycle of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas I've liked that much.

 

A recording engineer friend has told me that there is an actual live edge to strings when intonation is questionable. Given Hogwood's sound, what you might have heard is just how his band sounded. I've noticed it too, and pointed it out to my friend as we listened. That's when he told me he thought it might just be the sound Hogwood, who's known to favor a kind of abrasive tone, might well have wanted.

Apparently Neville Marriner (Hogwood's previous conductor) and Christopher Hogwood disagreed publicly about this sound, in fact the importance of intonation in general. I have many Marriner recordings from the same period, same hall and engineers etc. and they don't have the same edge. However, I have not heard Hogwood live. He certainly takes a completely different approach than other conductors.

 

I understand the argument here that can be made, however, I don't prefer one performance practice over another. At least, when it comes to period instruments, as opposed to modern instruments. They both carry different emotions, weight, sound et. al.
I tend to leave the disagreeing to the music professionals, and just enjoy what is placed before me.

 

My wife and I go to hear Blomstedt and the SFS this Saturday, performing The Bruckner 2nd, and Lutoslowski's Piano Concerto, which he wrote for Krystian Zimmerman, with said Pianist performing.
I'm REALLY looking forward to the Lutoslowki.

YYEEEOOOWWW!

 

I saw her for the first time in concert at Carnegie earlier this month (she showed up!!!). She played the first piano concertos of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Both new to me. She was wonderful.

Right now:

Composer - Schumann
Work - String Quartets
Performers - Melos Quartett
Medium and Label - CD DG
Date of performance - 1988

 

Clogs,

I'm not addressing musical preferences - a lot of my enjoyment is hearing different perspectives. My comments address only the fact that so-called digital edge is sometimes a musical/performing edge. The way my recording engineer friend puts it: it's a sound you hear live through the mike feeds.

I like both Hogwood and Marriner.

 

I was at a friend's listening to his turntable and we played a Hogwood recording. My friend spent several minutes looking at the back cover to attempt to discover if it had been digitally mastered because he couldn't believe the hardness of the sound.

That said, Hogwood is riveting. I also like Frans Bruggen and the Ochestra of the 18th Century as period performers.

 

Yo, Kevin,
I didn't mean for my comment to sound like a criticism.
My apologies, if it did.

 

I wonder if the hardness is due to the different tunings found on period instruments?

 

Yesterday, I decided to listen to some Beethoven. The wonderful Sonata no 31. I sit through two readings.

Composer: Beethoven
Soloist: Rudolf Serkin
Date: 1971
on Sony Classical MPK 44838

vs

Soloist: Kempff, Wilhelm
Date: 1965
on DG 453 010-2

Again, despise the ultra-dry sound, I must admit that I was moved by Serkin much more, although Kempff's Adagio is a thing of beauty. Listening to Serkin, I feel he is playing Beethoven with just enough restraint to let the music make its way by itself, with just the right amount of dynamics and romanticsm. Kempff is just too forceful to my taste.

What always gets me is the way Serkin is playing the small transitions, like here between the Adagio and the Fuga. I felt the same way when I heard my 1st Apasionata, a long time ago. It was his, and never again did I hear one that gives me that sense of psychological tension and architecture.

Now I must hear the early 60s version that George prefer... Very soon. Thanks George for this wonderful thread.

BTW, thay say on the sleeve that the Kempff is stereo, but it is mono, or extra-narrow stereo.

 

Hogwood does some of my favorite Mozart. The LPs are digital. You may not enjoy that edgy sound. I've had these albums on both LP and CD, and I enjoy the sound. Another conductor who did Mozart on LP, and whom a lot of people enjoy, is Karl Bohm. I like his Beethoven on LP, too, much better than HVK's. And you've got Marriner and Davis on Philips LPs. They're all analog, I think.

 

A Hogwood LP will tell you right on the front cover if it's digital. If you don't see it there, it's analog.

As far as the edge, hardness, or shrillness goes, the violin can be a shrill-sounding instrument. If I'm not in the right mood, particularly if I have a headache, I may not want to hear a violin playing, regardless of whether it's a digital or analog recording, CD or LP.

 

If anything, period instruments and tuning sound a little softer to me than modern instruments, at least in the violin family.

 

I'm listening to another disc in the Grumiaux/Haskil Beethoven Violin Concerto box, at a volume that's just right for the violin, and I can barely hear the piano today at all.

 

No worries. I wanted to make sure I was communicating clearly.

 

I have and love that Kempff reading. One of my favorites, actually.

You are very welcome. I pleased that it has taken off so quick!

BTW, if you enjoy the 1971 reading, the 1960 version is sure to be treat. I haven't heard a better performance of this work and I have heard over a dozen different interpretations of the great Op. 110. It's my favorite Beethoven sonata. Why Serkin chose not to release the 1960 version it I will never know. For those who didn't know, the performance was released after his death in a 3CD set.

 

That's because there's no piano in a Violin Concerto.

 

Oh, I meant "sonata." You know I did. You did. Know. That I did. Mean "sonata."

Back in the day, I found chamber music terminology and nomenclature tres confusing, so I only bought symphonies, concertos, and operas. And it was way too many operas. I found I really don't like many of them that aren't by Mozart. I sold most of them years ago.

Chamber music is a nearly new experience for me, one that only started this year, when I put a Brahms Piano Quintet on my computer (I don't recall why). Soon after that, I heard the BAT doing the Schubert op. 100 Piano Trio on the radio, and from there I was off to the races. I've probably bought an entire shelf of chamber music. Thankfully, bmgmusic has had a lot, at astonishingly low prices at times. The rest I've bought, piece by piece, on Amazon Marketplace.

 

Yeah, but I wasn't going to pass on that chance.

Seriously though, I love chamber music. More than symphonies.

 

So, let's try something a tad different.
Two of my all-time favorite pieces are, The 4 Bach Lute Suites, John Williams, Guitar, and Bach's Suites for Unacompanied Cello, Janos Starker, Cellist.

Et tu Brutus?

 

Nice works!

I like Sharon Isbin for the Lute Suites and Wispelwey's second recording of the Cello Suites.

 

Hm. I didn't know that she recorded them. I must have been under a rock.