Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #59)

There is one Historically Informed Romantic Era symphony cycle I've heard that really works—David Zinman/Tonhalle in Schumann. The tighter ensemble and quicker tempos never undermines the weight or solidity of sound in these performances. About as good as this music ever gets:

 

Interesting to come back to this discussion. I just got out of my first continuing education class at Juilliard on the romantic symphony, and I get the feeling that a lot of attention will be paid to HIP for 19th century music. Tonight we heard excerpts from Beethoven's 1st performed by Norrington and HvK (70's cycle). The teacher clearly preferred Norrington, although he seemed to prefer Gardiner to both.

All in all, the lecture was a bit too basic for me, but that's because it focused on the classical era sonata form, which I have studied in the past. I'm less familiar (on an analytical level) with some of the techniques of the composers who followed Beethoven, so it should be worthwhile.

It's also interesting simply taking a class at Juilliard, surrounded by young musicians, wondering who is the next Itzhak Perlman or Sarah Chang.

 

Now playing the following SACD, which just arrived today for a first listen ...

 

I bought that a couple of weeks ago. I still haven't listened to it.

 

I have the original hanssler CDs. I love them.

 

I don't get it.

 

Now playing the following CD, which arrived earlier today for a first listen ...

 

A nice cross-section of Previn's work with the LSO, 1966-71. Recorded by Decca engineers, so you know it sounds good.

 

If I am not mistaken, this is part of the 4-CD box I have ...

 

Now another HIP set: Beethoven: Symphonies 4, Op.60; 6, Op.68 - Frans Brüggen/Orchestra of the 18th Century - Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies (earlier set) - 5 CDs, Philips; disc 4

 

Now: J.S. Bach: Violin Concertos, BWV 1041-1042; after BWV 1055-1056 - Rachel Podger/Brecon Baroque - Channel Classics

 

Amazing what these cartoon shows get away with.

 

I am not especially fond of the decision to choose such a small number of players for the group, six I think, but this is a great sounding SACD

 

A number of years ago, when I was in Venice, I went to a concert in a church. The group was 8 players and they played a Mendelssohn concerto and a number of baroque concertos. I can imagine it being iffy on CD, but live, in the small church with great acoustics, it sounded very nice.

The Mendelssohn was either the piano concerto or violin concerto, I can't remember which. The 8 players were really able to fill the small church with sound, but I have to imagine such a small group would really sound strange on CD.

 

Thanks for sharing this.
I 've also been in some small scale concerts in churches and small auditoriums and it is amazing how nicely the room is filled up with sound only by a few players. I believe that this sensation of the sound filling up the space in all dimensions is missing from the 2-ch sound reproduction.
Sometimes I wish that I had surround capability in my system so I could see at what degree this can be reproduced by a surround system.

 

A small group like that can sound a bit thin on some recordings, especially in larger-scale works, but that's not the case here. There are 7 players on this recording: 3 violins, viola, cello, violone and harpsichord.

 

That's similar to the group I saw in Venice. The keyboardist had both a harpsichord and piano. The cello player was very good and did an improvised, baroque style solo that was great.

 

I have the follow-up disc of double and triple concertos. It also features 7 players in addition to the soloists. It's a very satisfying recording made in a London church.

 

I love many HIP recordings but I can't believe that the HIP movement will last for the rest of eternity because at some point.. well... how much *more* authentic can you get? Some endpoint will be reached, people will get bored with it, and musicians will come up with some new style of interpretation, maybe some new kind of subjectivity?

 

You folks ok over here? I've been living in Beatleland the last couple of weeks.

 

I guess for the Beatles, HIP is a mono LP.

 

Nearfield listening can provide a somewhat similar sensation although not as precisely as a mathematically accurate surround sound recording. The problem is that so few surround recordings are accurate as opposed to fiddled with for effect.

 

And if you're like me, you don't have a good room to put a surround system in. My neighbor gave me his old system when he upgraded. But it's not ideally set up.

 

Lol, me too since Tuesday when I got my box set!