What download have you bought?

[Dave2002]

I don't know the Heath Quartet, but they have a good reputation from the Tippett recordings etc.

They are good. They featured in an opera at ENO a few years ago, suspended in cages.

Their Bartók quartets can be streamed from Qobuz for anyone who wants to sample them. I'm starting with number 1.

[Dave2002]

THIS looks very intriguing....

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/schubert-the-finished-unfinished-symphony-no-8-d-759-reconstructed-by-mario-venzago-kammerorchester-basel/0886446412306

Hope to listen later (between what should be compelling editions of Any Questions & Newsnight...!)...

Redefining "strong" and "stable" no doubt. Not sure I can be bothered - what a fiasco. I'd rather continue listening to Bartók quartets. I do wonder if the Heath Quartet is really gritty enough though - perhaps I need to turn the volume up. Sounds a bit over refined to me so far.

[HighlandDougie]

I do wonder if the Heath Quartet is really gritty enough though

Um, 'gritty' is not a word I would normally associate with Bartok but à chacun son goût.

[Dave2002]

Um, 'gritty' is not a word I would normally associate with Bartok but à chacun son goût.

It's certainly a word I would associate with some performances of his string quartets I've heard. Thay are not Mozart nor Haydn, and playing them with beautiful smooth tones is, IMO, not the way to go. For other pieces by Bartók I might choose other words - and now you are making me think about the words to describe those.

Can you suggest ways of describing a few: e.g Music for Strings percussion and Celeste, Violin concerto 2, Concerto for Orchestra, Bluebeard's Castle,
Piano concerto 2, 3 and the Viola concerto.

[Beef Oven!]

They are good. They featured in an opera at ENO a few years ago, suspended in cages.

Their Bartók quartets can be streamed from Qobuz for anyone who wants to sample them. I'm starting with number 1.

I have since taken in 3 & 5 and I do think this set is rather special.

I think I know what you mean by 'gritty', but it's hard to get the right word. I also said muscular and I'm not sure that's right either. But what ever the word is, it's there in thesis performances.

Further listening reveals what might by a very special new set that has some real subtlety about it. I'm finding the performances very hard to describe.

During the more dramatic moments of the music, the playing is deceptively assertive. It's as powerful as some of the most powerful performances (like the Emersons. IMO), but much more subtle.

I've really enjoyed what I've heard so far.

[Beef Oven!]

THIS looks very intriguing....

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/schubert-the-finished-unfinished-symphony-no-8-d-759-reconstructed-by-mario-venzago-kammerorchester-basel/0886446412306

Hope to listen later (between what should be compelling editions of Any Questions & Newsnight...!)...

....Just read the notes to the Schubert on Qobuz - they go into long and fascinating detail so, even if you end up disliking Venzago's re-creation, at least you'll know exactly why!

OMG! That is soo tempting!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think that "gritty" is a very good description of some pieces/movements by Bartok - the Fourth Quartet, the Allegro Barbaro, the First two Piano Concertos, The Miraculous Mandarin amongst them: the friction created in these works by accented semitonal clusters and the resulting harmonic "sparks". Other pieces are more "molten" - the opening movements of the Music for S, P, & C, and the Sixth Quartet - or "glacial" (all those nocturnal, insect-y pieces) - but I can hear examples of what Dave means when he talks of the "grit" in Bartok.


(But I'd also say that playing Mozart and/or Haydn with "beautiful, smooth tones" all the time is equally abominable to me - turning this energetic, impudent Music into a wax doll. And there is some Bartok that can benefit from beautiful & smooth playing - in particular, the slow movement of the Third Concerto, and perhaps, the finales of the second and sixth Quartets.)

[Dave2002]

I've really enjoyed what I've heard so far.

I'll try more of these over the weekend.

[HighlandDougie]

I think that "gritty" is a very good description of some pieces/movements by Bartok - the Fourth Quartet, the Allegro Barbaro, the First two Piano Concertos, The Miraculous Mandarin amongst them: the friction created in these works by accented semitonal clusters and the resulting harmonic "sparks". Other pieces are more "molten" - the opening movements of the Music for S, P, & C, and the Sixth Quartet - or "glacial" (all those nocturnal, insect-y pieces) - but I can hear examples of what Dave means when he talks of the "grit" in Bartok.


(But I'd also say that playing Mozart and/or Haydn with "beautiful, smooth tones" all the time is equally abominable to me - turning this energetic, impudent Music into a wax doll. And there is some Bartok that can benefit from beautiful & smooth playing - in particular, the slow movement of the Third Concerto, and perhaps, the finales of the second and sixth Quartets.)

Point very much taken. If by "gritty" Dave means what I might think of - to borrow Beefy's word - as "muscular", then, yes, of course, there are numerous examples in BB's music (PC 1 etc). And, if gritty means not smooth, which, on reflection, is the case, then, yes, Dave's description is wholly apposite. I blame Teresa May for my lapse into false consciousness. Whatever, BB was my first love among 20th century composers and remains up there, hence my keenness to experience a string quartet which I rate bigly in music which I rate even more so.

[HighlandDougie]

Brahms: Symphonies Nos 1 - 4

Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (24/96)

While the world probably needs another cycle of Brahms symphony recordings like it needs, say, 'special advisers', my digital library has been singularly lacking in a modern, middle-of-the-road, well-played and well-recorded set: one where one can sit back and just wallow in the music. Celibidache in Munich is a touch idiosyncratic at times and the Chailly in Leipzig I only have on disc. Track-by-track download - and the metadata combined with i-Tunes leads to a bit of a jumble. But, until something better comes along, these performances will do just fine.

[Beef Oven!]

Brahms: Symphonies Nos 1 - 4

Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (24/96)

While the world probably needs another cycle of Brahms symphony recordings like it needs, say, 'special advisers', my digital library has been singularly lacking in a modern, middle-of-the-road, well-played and well-recorded set: one where one can sit back and just wallow in the music. Celibidache in Munich is a touch idiosyncratic at times and the Chailly in Leipzig I only have on disc. Track-by-track download - and the metadata combined with i-Tunes leads to a bit of a jumble. But, until something better comes along, these performances will do just fine.

Thielemann might be of interest to you.

[Pulcinella]

I have about 14 sets on CD, I can only imagine how many you have!

I haven't checked if one has been done (singly or as a cycle); if not, maybe they would be a good subject for one of our Summer BaLs?

[HighlandDougie]

Thielemann might be of interest to you.

Not a huge CT fan in what I have heard of him in what I think of as core 19th century repertoire: Beethoven and Bruckner so I've never been greatly attracted to the idea of him in Brahms ( I did very much like the Schumann 2nd I heard, though). But I shall investigate. I do much/(yeah, why not say it) "bigly" - an excellent neologism - like the Nelsons, which I listened to straight through as I was enjoying it so much.

[Bryn]

... Bryn, buy this set!!! You will not regret it. I gave the link to the Guardian review and I really don't think the reviewer has listened properly (ok, I've only listened to #4). They have such a marvellous balance between muscular attack and otherworldliness that I hear in the best performances.

I have listened to sections via QOBUZ streaming. I was not much taken with what I heard. Perhaps I was out of sorts. I will try again but to me there seemed a lack of 'bite'. Some of what I heard just seemed very matter of fact - more English than Magyar. Have you tried Brooklyn Rider's recording of the 2nd Quartet on A Walking Fire? I do hope they record more Bartok.

[Dave2002]

I have listened to sections via QOBUZ streaming. I was not much taken with what I heard. Perhaps I was out of sorts. I will try again but to me there seemed a lack of 'bite'. Some of what I heard just seemed very matter of fact - more English than Magyar. Have you tried Brooklyn Rider's recording of the 2nd Quartet on A Walking Fire? I do hope they record more Bartok.

You seem to be be echoing my msg 287 - though I've still got more to listen to.