Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[Nick Armstrong]

"mains hum" peut-etre?

Ah! ... yes... is that a thing....? It sounds like a HiFi thing....

[cloughie]

Ah! ... yes... is that a thing....? It sounds like a HiFi thing....

Mastertape rumble was always another problem in quiet passages.

[Nick Armstrong]

Mastertape rumble was always another problem in quiet passages.

So is "mains hum" what he's likely to have said?

[amateur51]

So is "mains hum" what he's likely to have said?

I reckon, Deputy Dawg

[LaurieWatt]

Rattle/BPO Rite of Spring

I am afraid I have to agree about Tennstedt - his EMI Mahler 3 put me off the composer for years .

I picked on this mention from Barbirollians just to insert myself into this thread on another recording entirely. So just to say that, although not an admirer of KT's studio recordings, I have always loved his recording of Mahler 3, ditto his live one on ICA Classics which I 'helped'! Chacon a son gout!

No, this is about Rattle and the BPO's recent Rite of Spring on EMI. If there is another thread dealing with it, my apologies, and this should be transferred (please Cali). I have found the succession of recordings enshrined by Rattle and his BPO generally very depressing in their mediocrity. Rarely anything much wrong with them but they are always so easy and so safe. Never any sense of going to the edge; no wonder they play everything so wonderfully, they never test themselves. Also, the recordings are so often very soft edged, too.

I am clearly not alone in this view and everyone just assumes that this will be the position, to the point when i wonder whether Rattle's recordings are properly listened to before print or the air waves are committed to. I do not have a fixed view about it and always hope for something better. His 'safe', 'fine but 'boring' mantra has also, entirely predictably, been trotted out over this new centenary Rite of Spring.

Well, I think that this view in relation to this performance is quite wrong. Rattle certainly has quite a sensuous view of the work but, with the Adoration of the Earth and the Dance of the Earth, and, as the temperature rises in the second half towards the Sacrificial Dance, where the Berliners truly raised the hairs on the back of my neck, it cannot possibly be said that they are not throwing themselves fully into the fray. Equally, the recording, generally, does them full justice, too. So, I think a considerable success.

Just one additional point on the recording, my comments some while back, might be recalled about the hair-raising pyrotechnics that the horns have to surmount in the Dance of the Earth which are so wonderfully audible in Haitink's LPO recording from the Kingsway Hall, are equally audible here, although if I do have a criticism the horns, elsewhere, could be more in the picture, but then I would wouldn't I!?

[Thropplenoggin]

I picked on this mention from Barbirollians just to insert myself into this thread on another recording entirely. So just to say that, although not an admirer of KT's studio recordings, I have always loved his recording of Mahler 3, ditto his live one on ICA Classics which I 'helped'! Chacon a son gout!

No, this is about Rattle and the BPO's recent Rite of Spring on EMI. If there is another thread dealing with it, my apologies, and this should be transferred (please Cali). I have found the succession of recordings enshrined by Rattle and his BPO generally very depressing in their mediocrity. Rarely anything much wrong with them but they are always so easy and so safe. Never any sense of going to the edge; no wonder they play everything so wonderfully, they never test themselves. Also, the recordings are so often very soft edged, too.

I am clearly not alone in this view and everyone just assumes that this will be the position, to the point when i wonder whether Rattle's recordings are properly listened to before print or the air waves are committed to. I do not have a fixed view about it and always hope for something better. His 'safe', 'fine but 'boring' mantra has also, entirely predictably, been trotted out over this new centenary Rite of Spring.

Well, I think that this view in relation to this performance is quite wrong. Rattle certainly has quite a sensuous view of the work but, with the Adoration of the Earth and the Dance of the Earth, and, as the temperature rises in the second half towards the Sacrificial Dance, where the Berliners truly raised the hairs on the back of my neck, it cannot possibly be said that they are not throwing themselves fully into the fray. Equally, the recording, generally, does them full justice, too. So, I think a considerable success.

Just one additional point on the recording, my comments some while back, might be recalled about the hair-raising pyrotechnics that the horns have to surmount in the Dance of the Earth which are so wonderfully audible in Haitink's LPO recording from the Kingsway Hall, are equally audible here, although if I do have a criticism the horns, elsewhere, could be more in the picture, but then I would wouldn't I!?

I bought his CBSO Mahler 2 for Baker, but found Rattle's paw prints all over the symphony. I'm not qualified to say whether his interpretation was literal i.e. exactly what the score asked for, but it sounds like no other 'Resurrection' I've ever heard, and I found most of it anathema to me, the exception being Baker's 'Urlicht'.

I haven't gone near a Rattle disc since, even when they can be streamed free.

[LaurieWatt]

I bought his CBSO Mahler 2 for Baker, but found Rattle's paw prints all over the symphony. I'm not qualified to say whether his interpretation was literal i.e. exactly what the score asked for, but it sounds like no other 'Resurrection' I've ever heard, and I found most of it anathema to me, the exception being Baker's 'Urlicht'.

I haven't gone near a Rattle disc since, even when they can be streamed free.

I am with you all the way on that particular recorded performance. I bought the CD fairly soon after it came out when all the reviews raved and also said how amazing the CBSO under Rattle was now serious competition for the best London orchestras. I couldn't understand why it left me completely cold although he did a lot of things that I like with the symphony. However, it just didn't get to me as this work usually does. So, I passed it on. I then discovered some while later that in the first movement alone there had been more than 200 edits! It was clearly a flat-earth construct and I fully understood why I could not engage with it!

[Petrushka]

Rattle's CBSO 'farewell' concert of Mahler 2 in 1998 (I was there) was sensational and how I wish that this had been chosen for CD and DVD release. Quite why it never has is one of life's mysteries.

On the general question of Rattle's BPO recordings I have to agree that they are not really up to it. I like the Brahms cycle, the Stravinsky symphonies CD and the Nutcracker but much else is done far better in other hands. I don't know where the fault lies here. Recorded sound? Repertoire? I have many of them but they rarely make it into the CD player these days and thumbing through some CD's the other day I can't even remember buying, let alone playing, his BPO coupling of DSCH 1 & 14.

[amateur51]

Rattle's CBSO 'farewell' concert of Mahler 2 in 1998 (I was there) was sensational and how I wish that this had been chosen for CD and DVD release. Quite why it never has is one of life's mysteries.

On the general question of Rattle's BPO recordings I have to agree that they are not really up to it. I like the Brahms cycle, the Stravinsky symphonies CD and the Nutcracker but much else is done far better in other hands. I don't know where the fault lies here. Recorded sound? Repertoire? I have many of them but they rarely make it into the CD player these days and thumbing through some CD's the other day I can't even remember buying, let alone playing, his BPO coupling of DSCH 1 & 14.

I've bought these two recently and thoroughly enjoyed them, but then I don't have golden ears

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Rattle-Second-Viennese-School/dp/B003TYOAAU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1369665304&sr=1-1&keywords=rattle+second+viennese

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Brahms-Piano-Quartet-No/dp/B00369K1GA/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1369665359&sr=1-1&keywords=rattle+schoenberg%2Fbrahms

I have always experienced his live concerts as great occasions and agree completely with Petrushka's advocacy of the Brum farewell Mahler symphony no 2

[Rolmill]

I heard part of this morning's discussion of requiems, but frustratingly missed the details of the Suppe (how do I insert accents??). Although the CD Review web page mentions Suppe, they seem to have omitted this disc from the actual playlist details, unless I am looking in the wrong place - can anyone recall the performers and/or label?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(how do I insert accents??)

1) Put your Number Lock on.
2) Hold down your "Alt" key down and type in the relevant number from the following list:

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html

... so, to change Suppe to Suppé, type "Supp" as normal, then "alt - 132" (all without the inverted commas, by the way) and the accented e will appear (you don't need to type the "e" itself).

[cloughie]

I caught the bits of Debussy this morning and liked the Roth but agree with Andrew about the value for money aspect - l'Apres-midi would be a nice addition.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Debussy-Mer-Premiere-Suite-dOrchestre/dp/B00B9GZHPM/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370091957&sr=1-4&keywords=debussy+la+mer

Maybe I'll just settle for a download of the Premiere Suite -I quite like messed-about Debussy!

[Rolmill]

1) Put your Number Lock on.
2) Hold down your "Alt" key down and type in the relevant number from the following list:

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html

... so, to change Suppe to Suppé, type "Supp" as normal, then "alt - 132" (all without the inverted commas, by the way) and the accented e will appear (you don't need to type the "e" itself).

Suppé - tada!! Thanks fhg.

[Thropplenoggin]

For those tantalised by Christine Busch's account of the 'sei solo' - Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin - in yesterday's programme, it's available to stream here: http://player.qobuz.com/#!/album/5400439000087

[amateur51]

For those tantalised by Christine Busch's account of the 'sei solo' - Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin - in yesterday's programme, it's available to stream here: http://player.qobuz.com/#!/album/5400439000087

I confess that I had not heard of Christine Busch before yesterday's BaL but that's all down to my iggerance, innit

I'm very grateful for the Quobuz link Throppers - some lovely playing & I think that Andrew was right when he said that she provides an beautiful alternative to the more assertive style of Rachel Podger (that Bodger gets me every time ).

Does anyone else have other thoughts about this - I'm going to listen to some more Busch Bach