Pair of LSO Haitink/Pires Concerts today and Thursday

[Alison]

It looks as if there are to be two LSO performances of the Great C major under Sir Colin next Summer, suggesting
a recording is on the cards.

Always happy to be proved wrong, I couldn't easily imagine BH's blazing performance being equalled.

[Alison]

http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/

[Prommer]

I believe the performances of the two Barbican programmes are being repeated next week in Paris... But they are not likely to be recording them there rather than here! Go figure.

[Alison]

Interesting review from Mark Berry.

All that Furtwängler’s incandescence stuff belongs to a later stage of Romanticism than Schubert 9 IMHO.

[PJPJ]

No sign of microphones. A vital, witty, exuberant performance of the Great. Beats what we heard from the Berliners a year or two ago into a cocked hat.

Disappointing that it wasn't to be recorded, but not surprising. I'll have to imagine what the concert was like.

[JohnSkelton]

http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/

"however much we might abhor the cliché"

If he abjured the cliché he'd be left with a review which read something like:

"the ... a ... it ... and ... not."

[amateur51]

"however much we might abhor the cliché"

If he abjured the cliché he'd be left with a review which read something like:

"the ... a ... it ... and ... not."

[Nick Armstrong]

"however much we might abhor the cliché"

If he abjured the cliché he'd be left with a review which read something like:

"the ... a ... it ... and ... not."

That, JS, is my favourite post recently!

Brilliant!

[aeolium]

All that Furtwängler’s incandescence stuff belongs to a later stage of Romanticism than Schubert 9 IMHO.

The Furtwängler performance of Schubert 9 is a wonderful one, imo, and one of my favourite recordings of the symphony (together with the very different Mackerras/OAE recording). The hoary old idea that WF conducted everything as if it was Wagner is just not supported by the recorded evidence and promotes a rather condescending view that a very gifted conductor who wrote extensively about music was essentially incapable of distinguishing between different periods of musical development.

[Prommer]

I agree, aeolium. Thielemann has also been criticised for conducting the Great like it's Bruckner, and for similar reasons. At best, it's condescending and a lazy way of expressing the germ of a valid point about tempi and many other elements; at worst it is wrong and hippsterism of the worst kind. It is also a variation of the assaults on German romanticism and Wagnerism which, though not by any means one and the same thing musically, tend to get yoked together by those with axes to grind.

[Alison]

Yes, I may have been wiser to limit my comments to the Haitink concert in question.

I just really appreciated the lack of excessive weight and burden in the performance.

[aeolium]

I'm sorry the Haitink concert was not recorded for broadcast (or for LSO Live issue) as he seems if possible to have got better with age, and I've admired his work for around four decades, at least since the release of his first Mahler symphony cycle.

[PaulT]

I am in Paris for both the LSO/Haitink concerts at the Salle Pleyel tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday. Both are being recorded by France Musique for broadcast - on 25 June at 1400 French time for the Bruckner concert and 22 July at 2000 for the Schubert. Get your recording equipment out chaps!

[Prommer]

That is great news!

[PaulT]

I am in Paris for both the LSO/Haitink concerts at the Salle Pleyel tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday. Both are being recorded by France Musique for broadcast - on 25 June at 1400 French time for the Bruckner concert and 22 July at 2000 for the Schubert. Get your recording equipment out chaps!

Here's a link to the broadcast of the Bruckner concert (remember France is one hour ahead so concert starts at 1300 UK time)

http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/concert-am/emission.php?e_id=100000070&d_id=515000398

Unfortunately the following evening's LSO/Haitink concert which included Schubert 9 was not recorded which was a huge pity as the performance was magical, as was Pires' account of Mozart piano concerto 23. As some compensation I have just bought a Philips LP of Haitink's Schubert 9. Surely this must be a leading candidate for CD reissue - come on Newton or Pentatone!