Schubert Symphonies from Michi Gaigg

[RichardB]

matches up to the great conductors!

Of course it is quite possible, don't you think, that Michi Gaigg herself may be a "great conductor" in her own right, instead of having to match up with the usual DWM suspects...

[cloughie]

Of course it is quite possible, don't you think, that Michi Gaigg herself may be a "great conductor" in her own right, instead of having to match up with the usual DWM suspects...

Of course RB!

[jayne lee wilson]

Jayne I admire your enthusiasm for new recordings and making the case for new recordings being the best new recording of works but for many years now I have Schubert 5 as one of my favourite symphonies - if I want instant sunshine I reach to the shelves for it - I listen to it on my birthday each year (VPO Bohm MONO 1950s) but there are several other recordings - Beecham, IPO Solti, Jochum, Sawallisch, Abbado, Reiner... - I'll give the Gaigg a listen on Spotify and let you know how it compares - I may even see whether the great C major matches up to the great conductors!

I don't usually describe something as "the best new recording".... I try to describe what makes it special or exceptional on its own terms; it isn't easy to do that and I doubtless sometimes fail to get it across. But there is also the very different Jacobs' Cycle under way, which seems to me just as individually fascinating. The same could be said of last year's COE/Harnoncourt ICA set. The live Gaigg and Harnoncourt cycles (both recorded across a few days) do seem to have that extra edge of excitement.

Just on the 6th - and it is wonderful again, wow - I'm tempted to leap ahead to the Great C Major next, leaving D759 (only 2 and a bit movements with Gaigg, of course...) as a poignant postscript...Gaigg and her Orfeos play the five-minute D729 fragment with such conviction I long for them to record a completion.
I'll have to return to No.1 too, to make sure I wasn't too harsh about it. Great further incentive now - the Boxset arrived today....thats how fond of this I've already become....

But I can describe the recorded sound as exceptional even by CPO's excellent standards, among the best I've heard in this rep., whether on the lossless stream or the CDs...wonderful tangibility of performers and acoustic...

[RichardB]

I'm not (perhaps despite appearances) much concerned with comparisons. What I usually feel like I want from a recording of familiar repertoire is something that embodies my idea of what that music is, together with further insights that I couldn't have imagined, which can take many forms. That's my feeling about these recordings at the moment. Of course "my idea" isn't by any means static, and it grows and deepens with the arrival of each new recording that fulfils the aforementioned desire. What I want from Schubert at the moment is something not too micromanaged, where the conductor's role is to liberate the musicians' sense of ensemble playing, rather than imposing his/her own personality. This is something that Frans Brüggen was very good at, although I was never very convinced about the way his orchestra was recorded (which worse over the years), although I was willing to put up with it for the way they played Schubert (and not only Schubert of course). Here we have the best of both worlds.

[Joseph K]

I just listened to the first movement of no. 5 via youtube. I liked the rustling sound of the strings, with their slightly glassy lack of vibrato turning into a snarl with louder dynamics. I've now got the second movement on. The winds are audible and I like them, they're balanced well with the strings through these headphones. Not much further to add, since I am definitely not as familiar with these pieces as others here so thus cannot compare and contrast off the top of my head and do not have such a concept in my head of what these pieces should sound like. Wonderful music; I ought to reacquaint myself with the COE recordings released last year (but this is competing with several other things I feel I ought to reacquaint myself with in my CD collection - not to mention the guitar...)

[MickyD]

There are also complete cycles from Van Immerseel and Goodman. I have the latter and know that Goodman's 9th is highly regarded by many.
How do you think these two cycles shape up to Geigg?

[Bryn]

There are also complete cycles from Van Immerseel and Goodman. I have the latter and know that Goodman's 9th is highly regarded by many.
How do you think these two cycles shape up to Geigg?

Not forgetting Minkowski.

[MickyD]

Not forgetting Minkowski.

Now that's a set that had completely escaped my notice.

[Bryn]

I just listened to the first movement of no. 5 via youtube. I liked the rustling sound of the strings, with their slightly glassy lack of vibrato turning into a snarl with louder dynamics. I've now got the second movement on. The winds are audible and I like them, they're balanced well with the strings through these headphones. Not much further to add, since I am definitely not as familiar with these pieces as others here so thus cannot compare and contrast off the top of my head and do not have such a concept in my head of what these pieces should sound like. Wonderful music; I ought to reacquaint myself with the COE recordings released last year (but this is competing with several other things I feel I ought to reacquaint myself with in my CD collection - not to mention the guitar...)

I can't hear the 5th without thinking of the (in?)famous Feigen/Palmer Gallery recording of Cage's Variations IV and Peter Schickele's Quodlibet, the former of which features a recording of extracts, with the latter quoting from it.

[Dave2002]

Of course it is quite possible, don't you think, that Michi Gaigg herself may be a "great conductor" in her own right, instead of having to match up with the usual DWM suspects...

I think there may be merits in not being dead.

[jayne lee wilson]

So to 8 and 9….
How does one describe performances like this, of such stark, dramatic physical and emotional impact, that is inherent in the very sound itself, as to make this a unique cycle. One where intensity is bought at a cost of risks that don’t always avoid a scrape or two - no prangs but certainly a few tyres against the wall…

The 8th (D759) is simply the most starkly textured, tragically-sounded, confrontational recording I’ve heard; clashing lines and colours and shattering dynamic contrasts, even going beyond the terrifically intense CMW/Gottfried 4-movement version. It sounds stunningly modern… “contemporary for ever”….as Stravinsky said of Beethoven’s Great Fugue. But still sings poignantly in the 2nd subject of (i).
Once again, I can only emphasise how intrinsic the sound itself is to the impact of these remarkable performances.

Good-better-best can be great fun, a good game, a buzz; but sometimes a recording comes along which is so distinctive and different as to be all but impossible to “rank”.
Maestra Gaigg takes great risks with ensemble and precision to achieve excitement and drama of a new sonorous intensity, which does go over the edge occasionally: in 9 (i) as the levels rise into the allegro, the contrapuntal lines, again, clash in stark, almost shocking textural contrast. Far, far from any modern-orchestral taping post WW2… but, with little relaxation for the 2nd subject, what an earthy energy this creates, with a thrilling momentum through to the coda, at quite a lick too.
You may need, as I did several times, to hit “pause” before continuing…..

However, once you’ve been devastated by the climax of the andante you’d forgive this conductor anything - as devastatingly dynamic as I ever heard, overwhelmed by rasping brass and percussive strings. A period-instrument sound as different as this, all edges, impact, contrasts and no blend, in a work as familiar as this….. well, you might see visions, you may learn on a steep curve…., or you may simply be repelled….
The finale coda? Unlike, say, Harnoncourt, Gaigg does not observe the finale last-chord decrescendo; I guess this is now seen as “optional”….but she plays it with a devastating brevity!

So, as with the cycle generally, the whole reading is not one to come to if you always demand polish, precision, a certain richness of sound; this isn't (even) Harnoncourt with the COE. Of all the period-instrumental recordings I’ve heard, this seems to have that sense of new music newly created, being discovered by its performers, close to the limit of what they can do. Unlike any other I've heard.
The sound is a constant thrill: such spaciousness, resolution and dynamic impact, especially in the bass registers. The contrast between the thinner orchestral textures, the sheer rhythmic energy and the climactic, starkly unflinching dynamic power……quite exceptional even to this hardened audiophile.

****

To sum up: 1 is a slight disappointment; good moments, but sounds like an (under-rehearsed due to time?) orchestra adapting to the live event, not quite ready for the challenges…
2 takes a while to settle, but is sublime in the andante (reminding me of why I love this music so much), thrillingly radical and dramatic after that; 3 - 8 are among the best and most original, renewing readings on record (I go back all the way to Abbado and Bohm); 9th takes great risks, but triumphs because, not in spite of them.

A remarkable and unique Schubert Cycle. One which really does make you listen again....music is always about sound, at least as much as sense.