If I may ask, Jayne, are you completely satisfied with the audio quality of LvB Hough/Lintu?
So near to ordering!
So near to ordering!
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I guess you saw my comments on the listening thread about each piece?Originally posted by Alison View Post
Including this.....
"Not the culture shock I might have expected after OWA/Haselbock, given the FRSO sound more like a large chamber orchestra here (think COE) and Hough’s Bösendorfer has a sparkling tunefulness that would keep any Graf-lover happy....."
"Could have done with “more hall” in the balance, but the tonal character is very attractive nonetheless, string counterpoints transparent. Always draws you in".
That was early on, and after I'd traversed the very strikingly spacious Wallisch/Haselbock set - so the contrast was heightened. Suffice to say as I played through the Hough/Lintu, I only warmed to both sound and performances the more. It is an enagingly warm sound, and as I said towards the end.....
"You can’t ask much more from a modern-instrument recording than this. All the performers are stars here, but the piano is a star in itself….the “Bosendorfer Vienna Concert Model” so clear and tuneful….orchestra and piano exquisite tonal mirrors of each other…"
So I'd be surprised if anyone objects to the balance.
After the Gramophone feature, it said that the set will be reviewed in the next issue, so you could hang on for that. As ever, much will depend on who does it.(***)..
"Do I want to hear it again?"..... often the biggest question of all.... my answer is a resounding "yes!".
(***)
Digital Edition just arrived..... RO, June 2020.... will scrutinise....Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 15-05-20, 21:15.Comment
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And now the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik piano category while up against the likes of:Originally posted by ahinton View Post
Beethoven: The Last Three Sonatas. Pollini (DG)
Beethoven: Sämtliche Klaviersonaten. Say (Warner Classics)
Prokofjeff: Klaviersonaten Nr. 6, 7 & 8. Osborne (Hyperion)
Rachmaninoff: Sämtliche Werke für 2 Klaviere. Genova & Dimitrov. (cpo)
Schubert: Sonaten D 894 & D 958. Laloum (harmonia mundi)
Huge congratulations to Jonathan and his associates in this recording.
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...and a very frowning, nitpicking, equivocal review of Hough/Lintu/Beethoven (Hyperion) it is from RO..... he likes the 3rd most (genuinely high praise for this one), the 5th least.... says little about the others apart from carping at a detail or two..... mentioning such as Klemperer, Barenboim, Perahia and Haitink etc etc as his touchstones seems to me to lead away from a fairer appraisal....
What surprises me most is his failure to mention (or pick up) the lovely, involving dialogue that goes on between soloist and orchestra (which other online/press reviewers have highlighted....) and the sheer beauty and raptness of the slow movements.....not to mention the fineness of the FRSO itself as they sweep from delicacy to power & many shades between.... Osborne even describes the 2nd Concerto's 1st movement itself as "admittedly rather flimsy".....(it would be a favourite movement of mine, wouldn't it....)
This review might have put me off buying it, but isn't really helpful from that POV......... glad I didn't read it first.....!Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 15-05-20, 21:28.Comment
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To be fair it is very much Lintu rather than Hough who comes in for most of the criticism.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostComment
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Yes - and to my ears, very unfairly too!Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
Lintu, Hough and the FRSO do indeed make a lovely couple....
If you take RO's critique of the initial 4-note phrase in 1 (i).... the diminuendo isn't "dabbed" on the last note, it flows through the whole phrase; and it isn't played that way throughout the movement, far from it.... so there is a thought-through "method-in-the-madness"...which is a surely (merely!) very subtle freedom in the interpretive approach....putting this on earlier to check this detail, I had to continue through the whole movement: it would have been a self-abnegation of musical hedonism not to....
(...and complaining of "unmarked espressivo phrasing" is surely taking reverence into the realms of pedantry).
Again, just to pick out a supposedly unwritten silence in 4 (ii) cause by the piano's "etiolation" (a delicately sustained fade, a moment, and a movement, I marvelled at, breath bated, never hearing anything overextended), is to overlook the many beauties in the whole performance, not least that continuously responsive exchange between soloist/orchesta (i.e. conductor)....the very fact that Lintu isn't a "well-schooled kapellmeister" let alone a Klemperer or a Haitink, is a main reason why this cycle is so fresh and revitalising... all the performers are coming to the music with a sense of excitement and discovery.......
But as I keep saying, hearing is one thing; reading/writing/attempting to describe is another.... Hyperion really should consider a streaming service....
(Anyway - does anyone here, with RO, consider the Concerto 2(i) to be "rather flimsy"?)Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 16-05-20, 00:58.Comment
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Agreed - I bought the CD set and don't regret it at all. The partnership of Hough and FRSO/Lintu works really well, perhaps because the recordings follow previous live performances.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
I agree with RO that No.5 is the least successful though - not bad, just not quite as successful as the others to my ears. My favourite performance was actually No.1, which positively sparkles with distinctive touches.
And I love all of No.2, including the (not at all flimsy) 1st movement, which Hough delivers with panache.Comment
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Only just noticed the strange claim by QOBUZ that this recording was released on January 1st 2019. Eh!Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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It is indeed a monumental achievement on Jonathan's part and has received a large number of very enthusiastic and eminently well deserved critical appraisals. Not only has its mind-boggling 503 minutes seemed to daunt few, it is also clear that the brilliantly executed passages of blistering knuckle-busting virtuosity of which there's no shortage in the piece ("piece"? - mon Dieu!) impress less than does the music itself at all times (which is of course as it should be) and there's no doubt that Jonathan carries listeners with him throughout, both Sorabjian novices and seasoned Sorabjians.Originally posted by Bryn View Post
The entire 7-CD box set is an unmitigated triumph and is likely to come to be regarded as a peak in Sorabji's recorded legacy (which now extends to some 50 CDs issued over the past 30+ years, of which almost all remain available).Comment
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Recent,and last,release from Tasmin Little
Thanks for the wonderful recordings especially the neglected Brits
“Music is the best means we have of digesting time." — Igor StravinskyComment
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We had booked to hear her playing this with the Melbourne SO under exiting MD Sir Andrew Davis, but sadly cancelled of course.Originally posted by Barbirollians View PostComment
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Leon Fleischer was being interviewed recently. He states that during the recording sessions with Szell and the Cleveland SO during for #2 Szell just couldn’t get the orchestra to play the into satisfactorily. Fleisher says they took a break and that he told Szell that there wasn’t enough panache. Szell immediately agreed and when they regathered he told the players, “Gentleman, I want more Panace “Originally posted by Rolmill View PostComment
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Probably a minority report on the Hough Beethoven: it takes something to get me to open my virtual wallet and actually buy something these days - Qobuz meets the vast majority of my needs, and usually at high res. But I read Geoff Brown’s 5 star review in The Times a couple of weeks ago, and decided that for once I’d splash out, on the 24/96 download. I just thought this would be THE issue of the Beethoven year. I’m afraid I’m rather disappointed with my decision, and the performances (the 3rd is the best, as is becoming consensus). Hough is terrific, no complaints - but the orchestra is competent, no more, and I don’t hear this great rapport and character that others are finding (and by the way, I’ve like Hannu Lintu in lots of other stuff). I just wished that Hyperion had sprung for, say, LSO and Rattle in such an important issue. But the worst element is the recording. In and for itself, the piano sounds fine, though too forward and somewhat obscuring the orchestra, which may contribute to my feelings above. Hardly unusual for a concerto recording, though. But the piano is as wide as the orchestra - literally, the right hand end of Hough’s piano is coming out in front of the rear desk of first violins. It’s an absurd effect, which has been confirmed to me by a friend who has bought the set on CD.
So, RO is wrong about the recording quality (not for the first time), but broadly right about the performances. I’ve been reading him in G for nearly half a century, and he’s not often wrong.Comment
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Now the Benedetti Elgar, that’s a different matter (it’s already out in all but physical media). I’ve always thought her very good, but maybe not quite Champions League - the competition, even just amongst women, is incredibly strong at the moment. But this Elgar performance has persuaded me to elevate her, and also get to grips with what I’ve always found rather an elusive work for the first time. (I still think a 19 minute finale is about 10 too many in a sensibly proportioned concerto.) NB’s tone I find really winning, its not a golden stream which can get boring (think Zukerman), but there’s just a hint of edge too it which I find winning. And she’s really thought through her interpretation. All this is true of the extras too.Originally posted by akiralx View PostComment
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