Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #13)

Fixed. It is politically incorrect to use the word "old" ...

 

Now playing CD10 - Piano Concertos by Liszt and Chopin, the last CD from this set for a first listen ...

 

Jeff,
Do you not like this version of the 6th? I think it's terrific.

 

I like the Beethoven 9th by Dohnanyi and Cleveland Orchestra. The only Beethoven 9th by an American orchestra ...

 

I like that one too by Dohnanyi/CO, but their LvB 6th is a real standout, IMHO.

 

George, This is a wonderful set IMO.

 

Yes, I was eyeing it this morning, reading a review.

I need to save my dough right now for a Princeton Record Exchange trip, though.

 

You want to buy it from Presto Classics, where I bought this set for under $26on sale. The shipping was $2.95. It would cost you a bit more buying it stateside. Most BC sets can be had for a bit less at either MDT or Presto than at most American e-tailers ...

 

On a sweep, I bought all the Rosalyn Tureck's Bach recordings on VAI from Presto, which arrived yesterday. Now playing this CD for a first listen ...

 

Does PRE have much better selections than Academy Records now that the latter has started selling its better stuffs on eBay?

 

We'll see. I haven't been there in awhile. PREX prices always were better though.

 

It is hard to top NYC prices ...

 

Now playing CD1 from this set, which arrived from MDT a number of weeks ago for a first listen ...

 

You know, I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'll listen to it again. I've just had so many Beethoven symphonies, and I hardly ever listen to them. I mean, I like this music, maybe I don't love it, but I never play it. I've bought all the ones on the "approved" list (HVK '63 and '78, Kleiber, Walter, Bohm, Abbado, Harnoncourt), but the only ones I really listen to are, well, really, none of them, not in the obsessive way I've listened to Mahler or Linda Ronstadt or early Warren Zevon, or Schubert, or the girl groups, or (in the distant past) the Beatles.

I don't hate Beethoven. I mean, it's not rap. But I never listened to it obsessively until 2005, when I found Paul Lewis' first disc of the piano sonatas. I'd had the sonatas back in the '80s and '90s, by all the right names, but they were always "bleah, who cares?" I discovered I liked Andras Schiff's set while I was waiting for Volume 2 by Paul Lewis, and I now enjoy listening to both of them.

I thought maybe this would bring me back to the rest of Beethoven, but somehow, that just hasn't happened.

At the moment, I'd say my symphony favorites are by Bohm and Harnoncourt.

 

It's difficult for me to get excited over anything Tchaikovsky, but for some reason I was in the mood.

The funny thing is that Karajan himself always struck me as easily recognizable, not anonymous at all - so recognizable, in fact, to often suffocate the composer's individual voice: stuff from 3 centuries and 4 continents, all too often sounding just like Karajan.

Which, I think, is not a bad thing per se: people like Savall and wife do exactly the same thing, Savall spans 10 centuries and several places from Scotland to Morocco, and they all sound like Savall & Figureas - this has not prevented me from becoming a fan

However, it must be noted that Savall is the star and the reason why his fans attend his performances/buy his recordings.
He is, in a way, entitled and even expected to be Savall.
HvK on DG, however, is the Pasta Barilla of classical music, so I think it could be a little more controversial than that. But I'm repeating myself

 

But I didn't use the word 'old'.
Why, much less did I claim to be 'less dumb'.
You see, you're getting old

 

Any interesting story to share, maybe?

 

I am not familiar enough with it to tell, but I bet a google search would get you a more accurate account.

You have a PM.

 

I don't know, I love Beethoven from when I was like 6 years old, but rarely listen to it myself (but when I do, I do with great pleasure)..
Reason: I could pretty much write down stuff like 5th, Pathetique and PC5 from memory.
I'm trying to catch up with the less famous works, but after a couple of listens I move on as well.

 

The extreme legatos practiced by Karajan from the 70's on sucked a lot of life out of many works in my opinion. Though there is no doubt his 1963 Beethoven cycle is one of the best. I have everyone of his Beethoven cycles and the 1977 is probably the worst. He did redeem himself somewhat with his 1984 Beethoven cycle ...

 

Interesting indeed.
Thanks, and thanks Robin.
I'll keep an eye on both the recordings/works you suggested.
BTW, I tend to like Barenboim.
For some reason, he's big in Eye-taly, he speaks fluent Spaghettispeak and appeared in many a talk show, often discussing music in a quirky, smart and unassuming fashion, making for some very welcome digressions from the usual ******** on TV.

 

Te Biggest selling pasta in the world

I take by Pasta Barilla you mean to say that the great Saltzburgian was Numero Uno among brands of stamped and processed vinyl/polycarbonate, and BTW yer right. As one would find in any other corporate line of products, a certain uniformity of style is expected within the brand. Like McDonald's, HVK probably took it a little too far.

 

LOL!

 

Now playing CD2 from this set for a first listen. CD1 was excellent ...

 

And So It Goes

And Grammophone was all over it like a teenybopper pair tossing aside their copies of the Vampire Dairies for the first time. It was such a lovefest, it was soooooooooooooo much better than any other version in the history of recorded music, usw . . .

The Philharmonia Beethoven cycle is better played than the the first Berlin Cycle, but the original Tulip label stereo pressing's are audiophile if they haven't already been trashed. Later re-pressings on vinyl got gradually worse—the Time Life bicentennial edition [pressed in the good ole' USA] is atrocious. The CDs aren't as good as the good LPs. Haven't heard the SACDs, can't get excited enough to bother.