Recordings you have forgotten how good they are

[Barbirollians]

If you have a large collection of recorded music there can be a tendency to forget how good records are or that you even have them ! . I have probably started a thread on this before and forgotten that !

Today when trying to retrieve Giulini's Bruckner 2 off the shelf fell the Mutter /BPO/Karajan copy of the Mendelssohn/Bruch G Minor . I cannot remember when I last played it - possibly 15 years ago.

For these two old warhorses it contains extraordinarily fresh and well though out recordings. I cannot remember in particular when I last was so impressed by a performance of the Bruch concerto which I have become rather bored with when it kept turning up at Proms etc in recent years . The Adagio is particularly beautiful but without any signs of shallow prettiness . The playing all round is outstanding .

I really had forgotten just how good a record this was I have always thought of it as one of the well known recommended couplings of these two works so joined at the hip but it was really rewarding to listen to it .

Any forgotten records that have surprised you recently on reacquaintance .

[pastoralguy]

I'm exploring my Karajan '1960's' DG box set and I have to say that I'm really enjoying them. I believe they were re-mastered to expunge some of the Maestro's 'knob twiddling' and I find the balance to be infinitely better. Coupled with the fact that I'm listening to them on a pretty fabulous system (as opposed to an Alba record player which is how I first encountered them!) make them sound tremendous. I hear so many details I missed back in the 70's when I first discovered them. My goodness- those strings!!

I do wonder if re-hearing these discs on good equipment makes a difference. Mind you, it's a double edged sword since some recordings can be shown up as not being as accurate as one initially thought.

[kea]

almost anything I have by the Emerson Quartet—maybe because virtually everything I read about them is a negative review, a complaint about thin tone or fast tempi, or whatever. But when I end up actually listening to a recording by them I always think "wow, this is actually really good!" Maybe that's just the magic of low expectations!

Also Chailly's Bruckner 8 with the Concertgebouw was this for ages before I heard it again sometime last year after going off Bruckner for a while and decided it was my favourite performance.

[Stanfordian]

almost anything I have by the Emerson Quartet—maybe because virtually everything I read about them is a negative review, a complaint about thin tone or fast tempi, or whatever. But when I end up actually listening to a recording by them I always think "wow, this is actually really good!" Maybe that's just the magic of low expectations!

Also Chailly's Bruckner 8 with the Concertgebouw was this for ages before I heard it again sometime last year after going off Bruckner for a while and decided it was my favourite performance.

Hiya Kea,

In the last few years I have been fortunate to have attended recitals by the Emerson Quartet in both the Herkulessaal, Munich (2012 with David Finckel) and Kammermusiksaal, Berlin (2015 with Paul Watkins). The Emerson played repertoire ranging from Haydn and Beethoven to Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. I have heard most of best known string quartets on the international scene and I have no hesitation in saying the Emerson are the finest around today.

[Petrushka]

There are quite a few recordings in my collection that could do with re-discovery but mention of Karajan upthread prompts me to put in a word for those legendary 1960s VPO/Karajan recordings from Decca. I've just bought the box and hearing some of these performances for the first time in very many years has reminded me of how wonderful they are. Also Sprach Zarthustra was one of the very first classical LPs I ever bought with my own money in February 1971

Listening to the fabulous sound of the VPO on these CDs makes one regret that HvK didn't throw in his lot with them instead of the Berliners.

[Pianoman]

I posted on the WAYLTN a while back that the Klemperer/ Brahms symphony cycle was one I grew up on but hadn't listened to properly for some years now. Coming back to it, I have no doubt that it is one of the most all-round recommendable out there. Yes, my own tastes have changed somewhat, and I have listened more in recent times to cycles by Mackerras, Berglund. Manze etc. BUT the playing of the Philharmonia, the superb recording quality and above all Otto's rock-solid grasp of the overall structure and momentum of each symphony really is so gripping that it's like an old friend coming back into one's life !

[pastoralguy]

Listening to the fabulous sound of the VPO on these CDs makes one regret that HvK didn't throw in his lot with them instead of the Berliners.

There's a lovely quote from Karajan re. this. 'You ask the Berliners to do something and they do it. You ask the Vienna players to do something and they too do it. Then they ask why!'

[Parry1912]

almost anything I have by the Emerson Quartet—maybe because virtually everything I read about them is a negative review, a complaint about thin tone or fast tempi, or whatever. But when I end up actually listening to a recording by them I always think "wow, this is actually really good!" Maybe that's just the magic of low expectations!

I've got the DG Emerson box. It's superb.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Listening to the fabulous sound of the VPO on these CDs makes one regret that HvK didn't throw in his lot with them instead of the Berliners.

He did continue to work with the VPO, making a number of superb recordings with them for Decca and DG, including his last ever recordings.

[Petrushka]

He did continue to work with the VPO, making a number of superb recordings with them for Decca and DG, including his last ever recordings.

I know, but it is still a source of regret that he didn't record much more with them, especially a Beethoven cycle, more Bruckner, Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler. The Berlin recordings are naturally very fine but after hearing these VPO discs one imagines that highly distinctive sound that Karajan and the orchestra would have given us. The two Haydn and Mozart symphonies recorded in the very early 1960s with the VPO are miles better than his later Berlin accounts.

[HighlandDougie]

Spurred by Petrushka’s positive response and seeing it in my local bookshop (which was doing a 3 for the price of 2 offer), the Eloquence reissue of the Solti/LSO Mahler 3rd has renewed my acquaintance with a performance last heard over 40 years ago. I bought the LPs (Decca SETs - so in a posh boxed set) with 16th birthday money, played them endlessly and then Horenstein came along and, alas, they were put away in a cupboard. I agree with Pet about the last movement (music of a particular sensibility which was never Solti’s strongpoint) but otherwise it has been a delight, not least Helen Watts’s “Oh Mensch”.

[Barbirollians]

Yes but that I suspect may be because Karajan was less set in his ways rather than the choice of orchestra .

[silvestrione]

I know, but it is still a source of regret that he didn't record much more with them, especially a Beethoven cycle, more Bruckner, Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler. The Berlin recordings are naturally very fine but after hearing these VPO discs one imagines that highly distinctive sound that Karajan and the orchestra would have given us. The two Haydn and Mozart symphonies recorded in the very early 1960s with the VPO are miles better than his later Berlin accounts.

Oh no, shut up you people....I see I am going to have to splash out on another Karajan box!

[Petrushka]

Oh no, shut up you people....I see I am going to have to splash out on another Karajan box!

Don't worry it's only 9 discs at around £35 or less from Amazon. Can't do link on this phone but should be easy to find.

The Mozart 40 & 41 in this set are a revelation.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The boxed set with Herbie playing Air Violin on the cover:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karajan-Legendary-Decca-Recordings-Herbert/dp/B00114LF4E