What download have you bought?

[Beef Oven!]

I couldn't resist this!

I already had some of the these symphonies, but I bought them a long time ago and they are quite low-Res.

Here you get all the Symphonies in 16 bit CD quality on the highly reputable BIS label for just £15.99. I think it's a terrific bargain, from Qobuz.

[mahlerei]

Beefy

A real bargain that, and worth every penny. If you like these symphonies do try Rozhdestvensky's recording of No. 1, made in Moscow in 1987. It's a Melodiya reissue, so perhaps not available as a download. Unmissable, though.

[Beef Oven!]

Mahleri

Is it the one pictured below? If so, it's available to stream on AppleMusic so I can easily have a listen.

P.S. After a few more plays, the Morlot Ives 2 is coming into focus for me. I think it's got more to do with what I'm used to (Bernstein's later DG and Schermerhorn). I still find the recording a bit 'perfect' and therefore slightly 'artificial' (?). But again, that could be because at around the same time I bought Bernstein's 1959 and that type of sound is what I know best and love.

[mahlerei]

Bingo :)

[Beef Oven!]

Alfred Schnitte - Piano Quintet etc. Hi-Res 24/86 download from Qobuz.

I pretty much have this program on BIS but it's an older quite low-Res recording, so I'm really looking forward to getting into this. I regret buying the low-res downloads from places like e-music. But I didn't really understand it all at the time, and to be perfectly honest, I never used to care much about sound quality, viewing it a nice bonus if it came-with.

I simply adore Alfred's piano quintet - it's a work that thoroughly deserves the title modern classic (a term gets thrown about like confetti).

[jayne lee wilson]

I couldn't resist this!

I already had some of the these symphonies, but I bought them a long time ago and they are quite low-Res.

Here you get all the Symphonies in 16 bit CD quality on the highly reputable BIS label for just £15.99. I think it's a terrific bargain, from Qobuz.

Pity I bought several of the CDs separately a few years back... I've considered packing this into a drive somewhere, though I've found that No.1 feels like a joke that, once you get it, you don't really need to get it again. "That Joke isn't funny Anymore..."
I've never really been drawn back to 2-4, though the concept of a symphony called the St. Florian has an obvious appeal for me! I don't recall ever hearing 0, and only excerpts of Opus Posthumous No 9... Well, another series ripe for revisit if ever time more generously allows...
(Away from this box I would draw attention to the Chandos/Polyansky versions of 6 and 8, musically and sonically superb in every respect. And IIRC Jurowski released the 3rd with the Berlin RSO recently.)

***

It always amazed me that after the extraordinary impact that his masterpiece, Concerto Grosso No.4/Symphony No.5 had after its Amsterdam 1988 premiere (this, or a repeat performance shortly afterward, went out live on R3 and I taped it) it only received these two studio recordings (Chailly in 1990, and this 1988 BIS one with Jarvi, by far my favourite of a conductor I don't often enjoy. I guess other live tapings may be included in various big boxes somewhere, but I've never come across them). (***)

It seemed to me that Schnittke had created a wonderful summa of his own polystylism but formed into a cogent dramatic narrative, which seems to contain a century of European conflict and musical history within it, back to the Mahler juvenilia quotes. A major statement at any rate, which did get played frequently for a while (even Pesek did it here with the RLPO during a season of adventurous programs - from which the local regulars tended to stay away.... It was back to the pops and warhorses after that...)

Both recordings are fine of course - I haven't heard Chailly in ages, but IIRC his Concertgebouw wonders (newly enamoured of them as I listen to Mengelberg) produce the more refined spacious account, where Jarvi has a stunning physical impact. The remarkable BIS recording can be hard to cope with (ears/speakers/amps) as it absolutely pulls no punches!

***EDIT: just came across this:

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/schnittke-symphony-no-5-gennady-rozhdestvensky-ussr-state-academic-symphony-orchestra/0889176323850?qref=dac_9

..out of the blue as it were.... Not much metadata, VERY vividly characterised as Rozh so often is - rather dry studio sound with some soloist spotlighting. But musically more compellingly dramatic than Järvi. Shattering percussion & Savage brasses!

[Beef Oven!]

Pity I bought several of the CDs separately a few years back... I've considered packing this into a drive somewhere, though I've found that No.1 feels like a joke that, once you get it, you don't really need to get it again. "That Joke isn't funny Anymore..."
I've never really been drawn back to 2-4, though the concept of a symphony called the St. Florian has an obvious appeal for me! I don't recall ever hearing 0, and only excerpts of Opus Posthumous No 9... Well, another series ripe for revisit if ever time more generously allows...
(Away from this box I would draw attention to the Chandos/Polyansky versions of 6 and 8, musically and sonically superb in every respect. And IIRC Jurowski released the 3rd with the Berlin RSO recently.)

***

It always amazed me that after the extraordinary impact that his masterpiece, Concerto Grosso No.4/Symphony No.5 had after its Amsterdam 1988 premiere (this, or a repeat performance shortly afterward, went out live on R3 and I taped it) it only received these two studio recordings (Chailly in 1990, and this 1988 BIS one with Jarvi, by far my favourite of a conductor I don't often enjoy. I guess other live tapings may be included in various big boxes somewhere, but I've never come across them).

It seemed to me that Schnittke had created a wonderful summa of his own polystylism but formed into a cogent dramatic narrative, which seems to contain a century of European conflict and musical history within it, back to the Mahler juvenilia quotes. A major statement at any rate, which did get played frequently for a while (even Pesek did it here with the RLPO during a season of adventurous programs - from which the local regulars tended to stay away.... It was back to the pops and warhorses after that...)

Both recordings are fine of course - I haven't heard Chailly in ages, but IIRC his Concertgebouw wonders (newly enamoured of them as I listen to Mengelberg) produce the more refined spacious account, where Jarvi has a stunning physical impact. The remarkable BIS recording can be hard to cope with (ears/speakers/amps) as it absolutely pulls no punches!

Totally agree about #1, and I love the The Smiths quote!

Depending on how many CDs you bought, this still could be sensible purchase.

Thanks for the non-BIS references, I fancy a few alternatives (I've been eying up the Jurowski 3 for a little while!).

[jayne lee wilson]

There is another Schnittke 5th.... see edit to #246 above.... well worth hearing!
(But pricing it at £3.19 isn't helpful is it?

[Beef Oven!]

There is another Schnittke 5th.... see edit to #246 above.... well worth hearing!
(But pricing it at £3.19 isn't helpful is it?

I missed your edit!

At that price it's a non-brainer. It's not the one Mahleri recommends. This one is later.

Thanks for the heads up Jayne

[Beef Oven!]

Alfred Schnittke - Symphony #5
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky

16 Bit CD Quality download from Qobuz £3.19 as pointed out in Jayne's post #246

Into the third movement now, it really downloaded quickly! As Jayne said, soloists are spotlighted, which I'm enjoying very much and is an interesting alternative to the Järvi.

[Beef Oven!]

I've finally succumbed!

I've been ambivalent to Morlot. Liked his Ives 4. Wasn't convinced by his performance of 'The Shadows Of Time' (not mad about that piece, anyway) and was left cold by his Ives 2. Found his performance of Amerique a bit OTT in the wrong way, His Dvorak 9 I enjoyed. But a few more listens to his Ives 2 and I began to come 'round. So in for a penny, in for a pound!

24/96 Hi-Res download from Qobuz.

Good value at £23.59 for 3 CDs' worth of top-notch music, performance and recording, IMV.

[Richard Barrett]

3 CDs' worth of top-notch music, performance and recording

Really? I'd never heard of this set. Really? I think I'd better buy it and hear for myself.

[Beef Oven!]

Really? I'd never heard of this set. Really? I think I'd better buy it and hear for myself.

That's too cryptic for me!

[Richard Barrett]

That's too cryptic for me!

It wasn't cryptic at all, just me thinking aloud that if there's another worthwhile recording of these pieces I probably need to hear it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Really? I'd never heard of this set. Really? I think I'd better buy it and hear for myself.

This is the boxset of the individual releases whose praises I've been singing for a fair bit.....as on the early-2016 BaL thread....

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?14490-BaL-9-01-16-Music-by-Henri-Dutilleux/page2

"...it was soon obvious that one of the latest is also the greatest, to wit:
Seattle SO/Ludovic Morlot. 24/96 Seattle Symphony Media 2015. Symphony No.2. L'Arbre des Songes & Metaboles. (Augustin Hadelich is ASTOUNDING in Tree of Dreams; SQ beggars description).
As the same team have already released:
Symphony No.1. Tout un Monde Lointain. Shadows of Time. 24/96 Seattle Symphony Media 2014.
- And this is outstanding too, there's your luxury-buy capsule-collection Dutilleux right there, in state-of-the-art sound - important for a composer of such instrumental, rhythmic & colouristic subtlety.

Having always hymned the qualities of the 4-disc Chandos Complete Orchestral Music with BBCPO/Tortelier, I was a little abashed to find their recording of Le Double sounding rather distant and, at lower levels, expressively anonymous compared to the subtlety, power, thrilling scale & spaciousness of Morlot in hi-res. Tortelier is not bad at all (the 4-disc set still a fine buy), but the best is the enemy of the good.
Bychkov with the Orchestre de Paris (c/w Timbres Espaces Mouvement and Metaboles) came across very well too - a little tauter and more dramatic than the Morlot, in excellent 1992 Philips sound, and with an especially clear concertante group; but the beauty, scale and subtlety of both the Seattle albums, the bar-by-bar sensitivity of the playing, are in a class of their own, and probably more rewarding to live with. Anyway, why have only one?"

Having listened to most recordings of the symphonies across a few years, I'd still hold with that view now. Which is not to say various others (Tortelier, Graf etc) aren't worth hearing of course... a new cycle has just begun on Naxos.
DG was fairly welcoming in Gramophone: "...Ang's forthright approach, generally brisker & brighter than Ludovic Morlot in his acclaimed Seattle sequence..." Generally he felt that it lost some mystery or poetry but was very enjoyable on its own more immediate terms... as I can't get enough of Dutilleux' Symphonies, it's one for the shortlist.

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/dutilleux-symphony-no-2-le-double-darrell-ang/0747313359677