Favourite BALs of the year

[BBMmk2]

ITYM Savlonic - very soothing music.

New Year resolution: Now that we have an 'Edit' facility, I must use it!!

[Don Petter]

New Year resolution: Now that we have an 'Edit' facility, I must use it!!

maestro,

Thanks for good humour. I try to hold back from typo-sniping, but I couldn't resist that one!

[ostuni]

Unlike pilamenon (14), I still enjoy BaL, finding it a useful way of getting to know aspects of a work I didn't know previously (Brahms Cmi 4tet, Wolf Moericke), and enjoying hearing my own favourites come out on top (Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Dvorak Slavonics). Thanks, doversoul (5) for that useful link to the whole series. And my personal useful link is the Presto website, http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/buildingalibrary.php, where you can see what the covers look like, should you be so inclined...

[StephenO]

Mahler - Ruckert Lieder
Dvorak - Slavonic Dances
Rachmaninov - Isle of the Dead

Was going to say the Shostakovich Cello Sonata but I've just checked and that was 2007. How time flies!

[rubbernecker]

Missed the Dvorak Slavonic Dances, but I love those Kubelik performances. Sonically, one of DG's finest LP recordings.

The survey of the Honegger Liturgique Symphony was also penetrating, I already have Karajan and Mravinsky and now I will have to get Janssons, dammit.

My award goes to David Owen Norris for the BAL on Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. I just loved the way he dissed Gieseking: "More of the same, but with wrong notes".

[Alison]

My favourite library builders are by some distance David Owen Norris, Piers Burton -Page and, best of all, Jonathan Swain.

The return of Richard Osborne would surely warm all our hearts in the new year.

I also enjoyed David Fanning in Tchaikovsky's the Seasons.

[Karafan]

Well, I guess I'm on my own on the preserving a library of BaLS! And there's me thinking I was one of a small, but dedicated, army of recording devotees!

Right, I'll get my anorak....

K.

(PS - Oh and I so agree about Richard Osborne, but then I think you already know that).

[PaulT]

Whatever happened to Richard Osborne? He still writes for Gramophone but did someone at R3 upset him?

[Panjandrum]

My award goes to David Owen Norris for the BAL on Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. I just loved the way he dissed Gieseking: "More of the same, but with wrong notes".

Norris' BAL has to take the award for the most perverse of all this year. As I recall, he spent a good third of the review going over and over the opening bars of the first piece. He summarily dismissed many highly acclaimed performances (Michelangeli, Roge, Gieseking et al) before awarding the palm to a sonically challenged recording which had absolutely no discernible flair or charm. A clear case of a reviewer overstretching his brief; and definitely not a library choice.

[rubbernecker]

Norris' BAL has to take the award for the most perverse of all this year. As I recall, he spent a good third of the review going over and over the opening bars of the first piece. He summarily dismissed many highly acclaimed performances (Michelangeli, Roge, Gieseking et al) before awarding the palm to a sonically challenged recording which had absolutely no discernible flair or charm. A clear case of a reviewer overstretching his brief; and definitely not a library choice.

Perverse? Possibly. Opinionated, definitely. Maybe that's why that programme stood out for me. I have always rather admired those unmannered Ericourt LPs in much the same way as Thyssen-Valentin's even earlier Faure piano recordings. If sonic limitations are a problem, you can always go for a more modern runner-up.

[Parry1912]

Least favourite: 'Boris Godunov'

With only 3 recordings of the original version to consider and Gergiev's unavailable it was a waste of time!

Apart from that I still enjoy BAL as much as I ever did (although I would welcome the return of Richard Osborne )

[Barbirollians]

Has he been heard of on there since they replaced him, Jonathan Swain and Anthony Burton with Andrew McGregor as the only presenter of CD Review ?

I bet Discovering Music would be a much better programme with him rather than the increasingly mannered Stephen Johnson .

[Alison]

But Stephen Johnson knows everything.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, I guess I'm on my own on the preserving a library of BaLS!

I'm a bit of a nerd too, storing them on my iPod - useful recently when I was wondering which version of Britten's War Requiem to buy.

[salymap]

I enjoyed Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle wih Andrew, aided by several emails from Rob Cowan,one of which advised me to "Look out for the Duke,but not the one who seduced young girls with swing". I still find it difficult to get into but it was a review to remember.