Blomstedt

[gurnemanz]

A certain rivalry persists between Leipzig and Dresden, the two main cities of Saxony. Both are major music centres. During the 70s and 80s, despite having the redoubtable and capable, Kurt Masur, as Gewandhauskapellmeister, many Leipzigers were jealous of the Dresdeners who had Blomstedt at the Staatskapelle.

[BBMmk2]

A certain rivalry persists between Leipzig and Dresden, the two main cities of Saxony. Both are major music centres. During the 70s and 80s, despite having the redoubtable and capable, Kurt Masur, as Gewandhauskapellmeister, many Leipzigers were jealous of the Dresdeners who had Blomstedt at the Staatskapelle.

I’d rather have Blomstedt. Masur has no humour, from what a friend said.

[cloughie]

His R Strauss both by SFSO and DSO are excellent.

[gurnemanz]

I’d rather have Blomstedt. Masur has no humour, from what a friend said.

I'd agree with your friend.

[HighlandDougie]

His recent-ish Bruckner 3rd with the Berlin Philharmonic is a high point of this Bruckner cycle:

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/berliner-philharmoniker-bernard-haitink-seiji-ozawa-herbert-blomstedt-zubin-mehta-mariss-jansons-christian-thielemann-paavo-jarvi-and-sir-simon-rattle/release/bruckner-symphonies-nos-1%E2%80%939-10586526

I'm assuming that the pianist at the concert attended by RFG was the estimable Bertrand Chamayou, rather than someone called Bernard Chemoyen. Great in, inter alia, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Ravel so should have been interesting at the very least in Brahms.

[richardfinegold]

His recent-ish Bruckner 3rd with the Berlin Philharmonic is a high point of this Bruckner cycle:

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/berliner-philharmoniker-bernard-haitink-seiji-ozawa-herbert-blomstedt-zubin-mehta-mariss-jansons-christian-thielemann-paavo-jarvi-and-sir-simon-rattle/release/bruckner-symphonies-nos-1%E2%80%939-10586526

I'm assuming that the pianist at the concert attended by RFG was the estimable Bertrand Chamayou, rather than someone called Bernard Chemoyen. Great in, inter alia, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Ravel so should have been interesting at the very least in Brahms.

He played Mozart

[HighlandDougie]

Duh! Apologies - symphony by Brahms, not concerto.

[gurnemanz]

I recently watched a German TV programme via satellite called : Max Reger - Ein musikalischer Koloss in which the affable Herbert Blomstedt appears as one of Reger's most enthusiastic fans. Described as a superstar in his time, Reger is now largely out of fashion. Work obsessive and heavy drinker, he died aged 43.

The programme isn't available but here's a link - German - to a description of it should anyone be interested.

[jayne lee wilson]

Huge Reger fan here....!
I especially like the Böcklin Poems.

Guess this isn't the place for a listing, but beyond Berlin Classics there's a BIS 3-CD set with Segerstam, off-the-beaten, sui generis, could keep one very entertained for a weekend....

[BBMmk2]

I actually prefer his Danish RSO versions, with wonderful recordings of the 3 Concertos along-with.... but everything Nielsonian changed after 2014-15....!

All of his Bruckner is worth close attention, most of all the MDR Leipzig Cycle, with topnotch recordings of the original 2 and 3...

I don’t know the Danish recordings?

[Bryn]

I don’t know the Danish recordings?

On EMI/Warner. They come from earlier in Blomstedt's career.

[richardfinegold]

On EMI/Warner. They come from earlier in Blomstedt's career.

They were released in the States on EMI budget label in two seperate 3 lp boxes. I didn’t know Nielsen until then. Bernstein had recorded a few of the Symphonies about a decade earlier but that was before my time and unlike LB Mahler recordings they didn’t generate much interest in an unknown Composer. I remember the record store that I worked in University didn’t have a Nielsen section and that we had to create one for the Blomstedt Lps. I don’t think I ever heard the Bernstein recordings until this century. When Blomstedt later released his SFSO cycle on CD, over here he still had the field to himself, as the earlier Danish cycle hadn’t been transferred to CD and no other recordings existed. My lp collection had been destroyed in a flood in the mid eighties and until the Blomstedt SFSO cycle appeared I couldn’t listen to Nielsen for about a decade and would become very excited if one of the works were played on the radio. In fact, I had thought that Blomstedt was basically a Nielsen specialist, as his European recordings weren’t available here, and it took a while for the non Nielsen SFSO recordings to trickle out and change that perception

[gradus]

They were released in the States on EMI budget label in two seperate 3 lp boxes. I didn’t know Nielsen until then. Bernstein had recorded a few of the Symphonies about a decade earlier but that was before my time and unlike LB Mahler recordings they didn’t generate much interest in an unknown Composer. I remember the record store that I worked in University didn’t have a Nielsen section and that we had to create one for the Blomstedt Lps. I don’t think I ever heard the Bernstein recordings until this century. When Blomstedt later released his SFSO cycle on CD, over here he still had the field to himself, as the earlier Danish cycle hadn’t been transferred to CD and no other recordings existed. My lp collection had been destroyed in a flood in the mid eighties and until the Blomstedt SFSO cycle appeared I couldn’t listen to Nielsen for about a decade and would become very excited if one of the works were played on the radio. In fact, I had thought that Blomstedt was basically a Nielsen specialist, as his European recordings weren’t available here, and it took a while for the non Nielsen SFSO recordings to trickle out and change that perception

Visiting Denmark a few years back we shared a train compartment with two chaps whom we later learnt worked for Danish radio. We were planning to visit Carl Nielsen's birthplace but they dissuaded us as apparently nothing had been made of it unlike say that of Greig. The conversation led on to Nielsen's music and they took great delight in telling us about Bernstein's visit to Denmark to conduct Nielsen 3 (I think) which had enraptured him so much that during rehearsal and before the whole orchestra he had serenaded Carl by substituting his name for Maria in the West Side Story song. Bernstein was a passionate soul.

[Alain Maréchal]

Visiting Denmark a few years back we shared a train compartment with two chaps whom we later learnt worked for Danish radio. We were planning to visit Carl Nielsen's birthplace but they dissuaded us as apparently nothing had been made of it unlike say that of Greig. The conversation led on to Nielsen's music and they took great delight in telling us about Bernstein's visit to Denmark to conduct Nielsen 3 (I think) which had enraptured him so much that during rehearsal and before the whole orchestra he had serenaded Carl by substituting his name for Maria in the West Side Story song. Bernstein was a passionate soul.

Bernstein had been awarded the Sonning prize for his championship of Nielsen, and this performance of the Third was the occasion of the investiture (? - the appropriate English word escapes me). He and the orchestra recorded the Third the next day for CBS, and apart from one questionable tempo (the finale starts out much too lethargically) I consider it one of the finest recordings of the symphony (and one of the finest of a conductor I have never particularly admired). There is a youtube video of the performance, and it is much better than the studio recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8jyTciCedE NB - that link does not seem to work for me here, but the video exists, you may need to do a little searching.

p.s. I read somewhere that Bernard Herrmann claimed to have first drawn Bernstein's attention to the music of Nielsen. si non e vero...

To keep this on thread: I thought Blomstedt's Dresden recordings of Beethoven symphonies a little too uneventful, so was agreeably surprised when I saw him live last year. His tempi and attack (and general bearing) were those of a man sixty years younger.

[Bryn]

Bernstein had been awarded the Sonning prize for his championship of Nielsen, and this performance of the Third was the occasion of the investiture (? - the appropriate English word escapes me). He and the orchestra recorded the Third the next day for CBS, and apart from one questionable tempo (the finale starts out much too lethargically) I consider it one of the finest recordings of the symphony (and one of the finest of a conductor I have never particularly admired). There is a youtube video of the performance, and it is much better than the studio recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8jyTciCedE NB - that link does not seem to work for me here, but the video exists, you may need to do a little searching.

p.s. I read somewhere that Bernard Herrmann claimed to have first drawn Bernstein's attention to the music of Nielsen. si non e vero...

To keep this on thread: I thought Blomstedt's Dresden recordings of Beethoven symphonies a little too uneventful, so was agreeably surprised when I saw him live last year. His tempi and attack (and general bearing) were those of a man sixty years younger.

Surely, that YouTube link is to the studio recording, as licenced "by SME (on behalf of Sony Classical)".