Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[Barbirollians]

I think we all take a similar view of all the Schumann attempts reviewed on Saturday.

Szell and Sawallisch are both in their different ways wonderful, I think - vnick, please do listen to the Sawallisch again, I love them.

But I don't know Kubelik's performances at all. I need to remedy that, it seems. I'll have a look around - but do you have any specific recommendations about which to get (assuming there's a choice of issues, remasterings etc...)?

There are two sets one on DG and the other on Sony . I prefer the DG set with the BPO and it is going cheap ( £5.69 on Amazon) on an originals double CD pack . The Spring in particular is fantastic .

[Nick Armstrong]

There are two sets one on DG and the other on Sony . I prefer the DG set with the BPO and it is going cheap on an originals double CD pack . The Spring in particular is fantastic .

Barbs, thanks - was just hastening back to say I'd discovered that - a remarkable value set on DG with the BPO and then two separate CDs with the Bavarian Radio SO.

I've ordered the DG set instantly - the whole shooting match for under £6 - and hope no one comes along and says 'don't touch the BPO versions, the Bavarian recordings are infinitely superior'...!!! From what you say, Barb, that seems unlikely

[visualnickmos]

- vnick, please do listen to the Sawallisch again, I love them.

But I don't know Kubelik's performances at all. I need to remedy that, it seems. I'll have a look around - but do you have any specific recommendations about which to get (assuming there's a choice of issues, remasterings etc...)?

I certainly will listen to Sawallisch again; As you can tell, I certainly wasn't discounting them - far from it. Maybe my interest in them merely needed rekindling.

As for Kubelik, the 'set' I have is on two individual Sony Essential Classics CDs, nos. SBK 48 269 and SBK 48 270
I don't know if he made multiple recordings of Schumann's symphonies...

[Nick Armstrong]

I certainly will listen to Sawallisch again; As you can tell, I certainly wasn't discounting them - far from it. Maybe my interest in them merely needed rekindling.

As for Kubelik, the 'set' I have is on two individual Sony Essential Classics CDs, nos. SBK 48 269 and SBK 48 270
I don't know if he made multiple recordings of Schumann's symphonies...

thanks.... see above, I've plumped for his other set on DG...

[Barbirollians]

I have both sets Caliban - they are both good but the DG has the edge to my ears !

[visualnickmos]

thanks.... see above, I've plumped for his other set on DG...

I wish you hadn't said that - I'm sorely tempted! (especially at the price at which it is being offered)

I think the DG set is the earlier of his two Schumann sets(?)

[Thropplenoggin]

Am I the only one who thought the Quatuor Hermes sounded far nicer in their tone and dynamic colour in Beethoven's op.127 than the Belcea Quartet this morning? Their Haydn was pretty darn spiffing, too.

The Danish String Quartet (new to me) also sounded lovely in Haydn.

And I also enjoyed this, too:

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C ‘Elvira Madigan’ K.467; Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb K.482
Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Arvid Engegard (conductor)
SIMAX PSC1323 (CD)

Full listing details for all discs here.

Some great discs reviewed this week. Another fine selection. Kudos to AMcG!

[soileduk]

Am I the only one who thought the Quatuor Hermes sounded far nicer in their tone and dynamic colour in Beethoven's op.127 than the Belcea Quartet this morning? Their Haydn was pretty darn spiffing, too.

The Danish String Quartet (new to me) also sounded lovely in Haydn.

And I also enjoyed this, too:

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C ‘Elvira Madigan’ K.467; Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb K.482
Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Arvid Engegard (conductor)
SIMAX PSC1323 (CD)

Full listing details for all discs here.

Some great discs reviewed this week. Another fine selection. Kudos to AMcG!

The Simax disc is a £9 pre-order at the tax dodgers.

[Barbirollians]

I am amazed that record companies continue to saddle K467 with Elvira Madigan ! A film I doubt anyone under 60 has ever seen .

[Thropplenoggin]

I am amazed that record companies continue to saddle K467 with Elvira Madigan ! A film I doubt anyone under 60 has ever seen .

That'll be me, then.

[JFLL]

I am amazed that record companies continue to saddle K467 with Elvira Madigan ! A film I doubt anyone under 60 has ever seen .

But I’d like to bet K467 is the most popular Mozart PC because of that. I don’t know why, but I’ve just never taken to that slow movement first theme, and I love almost everything else in the piano concertos. It's no doubt a fault of mine -- perhaps, if I'm brutally honest with myself, out of subliminal snobbery that it's 'film music'!

[Richard Tarleton]

I am amazed that record companies continue to saddle K467 with Elvira Madigan ! A film I doubt anyone under 60 has ever seen .

A particularly annoying doomed lover film, based on a true story. Towards the end I was wishing the "hero" would do something useful, like get a job to support them. It doesn't make it onto this list, obviously compiled by a younger person . I love K467, though.

[richardfinegold]

I am amazed that record companies continue to saddle K467 with Elvira Madigan ! A film I doubt anyone under 60 has ever seen .

Many of us bought our first recordings of K 467 in the seventies, when that sobriquet was ubiquitous. The record companies are thinking that the current purchases are made by the same listeners, and they want to make sure that they are properly jogging our receding memories. The Madigan moniker is as useless as many of the titles attached to Beethoven's music. Who gives a hoot about Count(s) Waldstein and Razumovsky? The Rusian never even paid Beethoven, but he has found immortality nonetheless.

[MickyD]

I have never seen "Elvira Madigan", but the famous slow movement was successfully used in the 1970s as a British TV advertisement for real coal fires, featuring, if I remember rightly, a cat and dog in front of glowing embers. That's when I first heard the piece as a teenager and I suspect many others too.

[Thropplenoggin]

For those who use Qobuz, here are somes link to albums played today:

Danish String Quartet: Haydn op.64 No.3, Brahms String Quartet in A Minor (only 1 minute samples) http://player.qobuz.com/#!/album/4260085532643

Quatuor Hermes: Haydn op.20, No.5 , Beethoven op.127 (full album available) http://player.qobuz.com/#!/album/3760142231102