HvK best at ... ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

the bits which remain are presented in a clear and cogent fashion in a manner that was uncommon amongst British Provincial orchestras in the early 1950s... when I first heard the BMO playing it.

Well, with such a ringing endorsement who can resist?

(I think you'll find that that's your spade you're sticking to, ed, not your guns,)

[Bryn]

Well, with such a ringing endorsement who can resist?

(I think you'll find that that's your spade you're sticking to, ed, not your guns,)

[edashtav]

Well, with such a ringing endorsement who can resist?

(I think you'll find that that's your spade you're sticking to, ed, not your guns,)

Well, I've stopped digging, ferney, and swallowed the bitter pill suggested by Bryn, which I found as a cheap 2ndhand offer.
If I survive J.Strauss et al., I may return to the fray, later.

[Conchis]

It was actually the first recording of those works that I ever heard, although, unusually I suppose, I was already very familiar with the ASMiF recording of op.3 and numerous other Vivaldi works before the appearance of the then new HvK disc at my local library tempted me to have a listen. I remember quite liking it, but I haven't heard it since then: once Harnoncourt's op.8 came out in 1977 I realised I would probably never again have to listen to Baroque music played as if it were written in the 19th century.

Something disappointing about HvK in general is that he doesn't seem to have been at all curious about repertoire outside the established canon (with the strange exception of Honegger, I wonder how that happened, and I suppose the Second Viennese School) - with his reputation and clout he could easily have expanded that canon rather than entrenching it further, but no: for him it consisted only of works that others before him had anointed as masterpieces.

Karajan’s tastes were relatively wide for a conductor of his generation. I think it is greatly to his credit that he demanded that his 2nd Viennese School performances be recorded (I imagine DG would have been sceptical, even though it was Karajan) and his recordings of Bartoke and Hindemith were pioneering in their day. It could be that Karajan was just not in sympathy with certain other composers. His range was certainly wider than that of a contemporary like, say, Giulini, whose clock seemed to stop with Stravinsky.

As to Honegger.....Karajan had a deep and abiding love of French music and culture (he only took the Orchestre de Paris job so he could spend more time in that city), so I’d imagine he knew his modern French composers fairly well.

[edashtav]

Well, with such a ringing endorsement who can resist?

(I think you'll find that that's your spade you're sticking to, ed, not your guns,)

Until this morning , I did not know of an earlier Karajan recording with the Philharmonia that was unpublished until 2006. Of that Alex Russell wrote this ringing endorsement:

"This is by far the greatest account that I have ever heard of this symphony on either LP or CD easily surpassing the anodyne, anaemic and etiolated performances by Ashkenazy, Gibson, Litton, Rattle, Slatkin, Thomson, and Haitink. Karajan’s dramatic and powerful account is only matched by a ‘live’ recording made by Sir Charles Mackerras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from their 1980/81 concert season."


Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.co...n1_4574332.htm

'HvK retouchings included 4 Wagner tubas. Perhaps, JLW, would term that 'adding heft'.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You're still digging, ed. Click on "Buy Now from Amazon UK" on that review.

[silvestrione]

You're still digging, ed. Click on "Buy Now from Amazon UK" on that review.

OK, I fell for that one. It's not April, but June, when, as Ted Hughes put it, 'the cuckoo has begun to laugh'!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

OK, I fell for that one. It's not April, but June, when, as Ted Hughes put it, 'the cuckoo has begun to laugh'!

I did, too, when it first appeared ... but got suspicious of the Philharmonia in 1951 being marketed (in SACD) by DG.

I was also taken in (because, of course, I so wanted it to be true) by the advertised VPO/Boulez RVW 4 & 6 on DG. I even ordered it from a record shop, only to have the owner gently break the news - and subsequently listen to my explanation (between sobs) that Boulez had made (authentic) positive comments about RVW, and so such a recording wasn't an "impossibility". Shop owner gave me tea and made soothing "there, there, there" noises.

[Bryn]

Karajan’s tastes were relatively wide for a conductor of his generation. I think it is greatly to his credit that he demanded that his 2nd Viennese School performances be recorded (I imagine DG would have been sceptical, even though it was Karajan) and his recordings of Bartoke and Hindemith were pioneering in their day. It could be that Karajan was just not in sympathy with certain other composers. His range was certainly wider than that of a contemporary like, say, Giulini, whose clock seemed to stop with Stravinsky.

As to Honegger.....Karajan had a deep and abiding love of French music and culture (he only took the Orchestre de Paris job so he could spend more time in that city), so I’d imagine he knew his modern French composers fairly well.

Though, of course, Honegger, though born on France, was not French.

[cloughie]

Karajan’s tastes were relatively wide for a conductor of his generation. I think it is greatly to his credit that he demanded that his 2nd Viennese School performances be recorded (I imagine DG would have been sceptical, even though it was Karajan) and his recordings of Bartoke and Hindemith were pioneering in their day. It could be that Karajan was just not in sympathy with certain other composers. His range was certainly wider than that of a contemporary like, say, Giulini, whose clock seemed to stop with Stravinsky.

As to Honegger.....Karajan had a deep and abiding love of French music and culture (he only took the Orchestre de Paris job so he could spend more time in that city), so I’d imagine he knew his modern French composers fairly well.

Even if he didn’t in the scale of things record very much of it!

[edashtav]

You're still digging, ed. Click on "Buy Now from Amazon UK" on that review.

, I'm a right Herbert!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[cloughie]

, I'm a right Herbert!

Karajan like this and we’ll have dig you out!

[Richard Barrett]

Herbert von Karajan - champion of unfamiliar repertoire? I'm not convinced. He must have made more recordings than any other conductor. I'm not just talking about less canonised composers, but of less canonised works by the composers he did conduct. Including for example Strauss - no studio recording of Elektra let alone Daphne or Capriccio, and so on.

[cloughie]

Herbert von Karajan - champion of unfamiliar repertoire? I'm not convinced. He must have made more recordings than any other conductor. I'm not just talking about less canonised composers, but of less canonised works by the composers he did conduct. Including for example Strauss - no studio recording of Elektra let alone Daphne or Capriccio, and so on.

...and where is his Elgar - the BPO would have sounded marvellous in the symphonies, but then Rattle did not go there either - maybe with the LSO he will!