Now listening to this CD of a recording originally issued in 1958. This CD is part of a wonderful box set consisting of Entremont’s Piano Concerto Recordings on Sony.
Last night I landed on a case in point. I'm picking back up with a project to "needle drop" a bunch of Murray Hill and Time Life sets that I rescued from somebody's roadside trash maybe 20 years ago now. Once done, I'll circulate them to the local thrift store; they take up a lot of shelf space and have zero "collector's value," although they contain some good/interesting reissues, admittedly in so-so or worse pressings. Anyhow, the current candidate is the T-L Brahms "Great Men of Music" box, all sourced from RCA back catalogue, and last night's eye-opener was the Hiefetz/Reiner Brahms Violin Cto. Now, I'll confess, it's not my favorite work--I wax hot and cold on Brahms, and that one shades to the cold side--but what a performance, and what a beautiful recording! I should probably break out my SACD copy of same, which couples it with the Tchaikowsky Cto., and compare. The Charles Munch/Boston SO Brahms 4th Sym., my general admiration for the conductor notwithstanding, didn't grab my attention in the same way. Revisiting the Van Cliburn side of mostly late piano pieces (four intermezzi from scattered opus sets, the op. 79/2 rhapsody, one of the waltzes), I reconfirmed that I like it, even though it doesn't have quite the kind of tonal richness that I prefer in this composer. Cliburn isn't necessarily my favorite pianist, but I enjoy his work here. I'm not bothering with the Gilels/Reiner 2d cto., as I've already ripped that one from CD. Still to go: Liebeslieder Waltzes (Robert Shaw & co.) and a couple of bleeding chunks from the German Requiem. As an aside, a question: the big RCA complete Toscanini box contains the Liebeslieder Waltzes. Why? They are for chorus/singers and two pianos; no orchestra is involved. So what was Toscanini's contribution? I've never been quite clear. Coming back to the T-L box, from the point of view of contents generally, most of them seem to be pretty well assembled, but I'd say the Brahms box is an exception. Its 8 LP sides devote 4, fully half the set, to 2 concerti; 1 to the Liebeslieder Waltzes (something of an outlier in the composer's output); 1 to piano music; 1 and a third to a symphony; and the other two thirds to outtakes from the German Requiem. Surely in a survey of this kind, purporting to give a balanced portrait of the composer, it would have been better to choose one concerto and jettison the Liebeslieder Waltzes to make room for some chamber music and lieder?
Yes, those concertos of Heifetz and Van Cliburn in particular are favorites of mine It would be like if Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, Repin, et al. were all on Reference Recordings or Delos.
Goodman didn’t only play Contrasts, he commissioned it. He commissioned a number of works, including the Copland Clarinet Concerto.
Interesting discussion on Goodman and the classical repertoire. The only classical music I have of his playing was recorded in 1940 with Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic (Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York): Debussy's Rhapsody No 1 for Clarinet and Orchestra Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major, K622 Apparently the latter was unreleased for some time; the liner notes suggest it was because Reginald Kell had released a version just prior. Both sound fine to my ears.
The first recordings I owned of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Quintet were on a budget RCA LP - both performed by Benny Goodman.
I was pleasantly surprised with the overall sound quality of the early discs in that box; though of course some are not great, depending upon the source. I also liked the performances, Barbirolli was great from the start.
I am now listening to CD2. Some sources are not as good as others as you point out, but on the clean, well-recorded ones you can be amazed by the immediacy of the music( and the warmth).
Spinning now, the second CD in this 2xCD set; discs 4 & 5 from the big Mehta Complete Columbia box: My first encounter with the complete opera, the music has greater variety than I expected considering the plot. I'll have to explore one of the two Callas versions or one of the two DVDs I have before too long.
I have been obsessed with this since I found it a few weeks ago: I have the CD but couldn't find a cover image for it online. Grieg - Olav Trygvason ragments by Dreier. Catalog: Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2056, matrix: UKCD2056 10179241 02 & MADE UN U.K. BY PDO inner ring: IFPI 045. The sound quality is incredible and so is the passion in the performance. It was recorded in a church by Bob Auger and I want to seek out more of the releases he was involved with now, I am coming late to knowing him. On a different topic, does anyone have a recommendation for Bach's Art of the Fugue?
I have and enjoy this one. It came highly recommended: Bach Art of the Fugue Delme Q [PS]: Classical CD Reviews- Apr 2003 MusicWeb(UK)
I like Lionel Rogg's old recording on organ, in part because he gives us both the final, incomplete fugue as Bach left it, breaking off abruptly, and with a decent completion by the organist. It was on LP as Angel SB 3766 (2 disks) and on CD as EMI 0946 3 81766 2 6.
Thanks guys! I bought and downloaded the Delme FLACs from Hyperion and I'm listening to those now. I'll add the EMI CD to my list. I have the Glenn Gould and Mackerras and I'm excited to try new ones.
Despite having previously bought and got rid of most of the recordings in this set, I could not resist it when I saw it today in a used shop for only $27. The copy was sealed too. I am listening to the final disc in the set, which is comprised of mostly lesser known Chopin works and I am really enjoying it! (Free) Classics Today review - Chopin: Complete/Ashkenazy - Classics Today
That's interesting, what made you sell them originally? We've talked about his Rachmaninov before, which led me to purchase this box: Price in AUD (about $US 85). I've been enjoying random dipping but haven't listened to his Chopin yet (primarily because I've been overdosing on Chopin with Entremont, Francois and Pollini). I'll have to add Ashkenazy when I'm next in the mood.
