Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[Barbirollians]

I've just reviewed this for January's IRR. The phrase 'akin to drenching a Fabergé egg in cheap glitter' was used...

It sounded like Pictures crossed with a bad Overture 1812 performance ! Not to my taste.

What did forumites think of the A Sinf Shostakovich chamber symphonies performances - a bit lush sounding to my ears but judging by the Weinberg extract they played the acoustic sounded a bit reverberant.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I can't remember ever getting hot under the collar when listening to CD Review - until this morning.

That dreadful bloated arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures orchestrated by someone called Breiner. Even worse was the simpering admiration lavished upon it by Sarah Walker. This really undermines the authority of CD Review (which had until now resisted the rush to Radio 2.5). (Or was this a joke which I didn't get.)

(I need to rush to the bathroom to throw up.)

I guess you're hinting that you didn't like the Breiner orchestration and Ms Walker's presentational style? That of course is your right.

Can't quite see how that necessarily 'undermines the authority of CD Review' though

[richardfinegold]

And then the more "authentic" Rimski Korssakow or Stokowski or a "modern" Van Keulen.....

What, no critique of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

[johnb]

I guess you're hinting that you didn't like the Breiner orchestration and Ms Walker's presentational style? That of course is your right.

Can't quite see how that necessarily 'undermines the authority of CD Review' though

Me? Not liking Breiner's orchestration? What gave you that idea?

Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought that the presenters on CD Review should, ideally, give considered critical (in the best sense of the word) judgements on the recordings being played. Otherwise the programme would merely be a show case for the record companies.

Of course, some people will disagree with my opinion that the orchestration was a bloated, toe curling, seemingly electronically processed exercise in self indulgence and bore little if any relationship to the spirit of the piano original. However, my criticism of Sarah Walker wasn't really about her presentational style - it was about her judgement.

[Alison]

Sarah Walker seemed to know a lot about Mr Breiner and seemed full of enthusiasm before even mentioning the new disc. Does she know him personally one wonders? It seemed a bad misjudgment within a review otherwise containing lots of sensible and sensitive comment.

[Roehre]

Breiner is one of Naxos' arrangers-in-residence I guess, as it's he who also prepared all the orchestral suites of the Janacek operas for Naxos. He also did a couple of other "jobs", like a nice Christmas music spoof: twentieth Century Carols in an eighteenth Century sounding arrangement - very craftfully done, though of course a bit kitschy.

[doversoul1]

I thought Sarah Walker’s comments on the orchestral arrangement of Shostakovich’s string quartet were very useful from the point of a learner. She explained what made this work so powerful precisely because it was written for four instruments instead of an orchestra. It was a good way of demonstrating this point but I’m not sure about its merit for listeners.

Incidentally, did no one find anything enjoyable in the rest of the programme? Admittedly, it was rather heavy on the pieces from pre-Mozart era when, to most people, serious music was yet to begin…

[teamsaint]

I thought Sarah Walker’s comments on the orchestral arrangement of Shostakovich’s string quartet were very useful from the point of a learner. She explained what made this work so powerful precisely because it was written for four instruments instead of an orchestra. It was a good way of demonstrating this point but I’m not sure about its merit for listeners.

Incidentally, did no one find anything enjoyable in the rest of the programme? Admittedly, it was rather heavy on the pieces from pre-Mozart era when, to most people, serious music was yet to start…

Blimey, that means I have a 50 CD box of light music on the way via Santa. hey ho...or ho ho ho....

Anyway, I quite enjoyed Sarah Walkers enthusiasm, but then I had nasty cold symptoms yesterday so my judgement was probably up the creek, and TBF, she didn't seem to have researched the Breiner that thoroughly.. She is good at enthusiasm, and there is a place for it. Not sure it's on CD review though.

[Bryn]

Sarah Walker seemed to know a lot about Mr Breiner and seemed full of enthusiasm before even mentioning the new disc. Does she know him personally one wonders? It seemed a bad misjudgment within a review otherwise containing lots of sensible and sensitive comment.

She simply does her homework. After all, his Janacek suite arrangements have been around for years. You might find it interesting/enlightening to read the Jeremy Siepmann interview with Breiner on the Naxos site. I did find myself questioning Breiner's assertion that "My goal is to make it sound as close to the original composer as I can manage. Stokowski’s case was exactly the opposite. He wanted everything to sound like Stokowski".

Having sampled further via the YouTube offering (the whole of "Pictures at[sic] an Exhibition"), I have decided to make do with that for the time being. As far as I am concerned, he produces some interesting and often enticing orchestral timbral associations, and at least he did not leave the odd promenade out, as Ravel et al did.

I note that Naxos has also released his orchestrations of the 14 Preludes by Debussy. Can he have done any more damage than Colin Matthews?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I note that Naxos has also released his orchestrations of the 14 Preludes by Debussy. Can he have done any more damage than Colin Matthews?

The "damage" here being done more to Mr Matthews - the Debussy Preludes being indestructable?

[Nick Armstrong]

a bloated, toe curling, seemingly electronically processed exercise in self indulgence

I can't wait to hear this part of the programme! (I wouldn't have said that before reading this excellent thread - 'Pictures' is one of those pieces I frankly wouldn't care if I never heard again... )

[amateur51]

I can't wait to hear this part of the programme! (I wouldn't have said that before reading this excellent thread - 'Pictures' is one of those pieces I frankly wouldn't care if I never heard again... )

I've just laid out good money for Boris Giltburg's EMI recording

[EdgeleyRob]

What, no critique of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

Now yer talkin'.
This was the first arrangement I ever heard back in the day.

[Alison]

And judging by the timings now on the R3 schedule, Nicey's been allotted a full 55 minutes for this one. The ensuing Sarah Lenton / Stephen Johnson / Harriet Smith () Gush-fest isn't scheduled to start till 10am.

Let's hope Harriet picked up some tips from Nicholas Andersons wider use of vocabulary last week.

[Black Swan]

And judging by the timings now on the R3 schedule, Nicey's been allotted a full 55 minutes for this one. The ensuing Sarah Lenton / Stephen Johnson / Harriet Smith () Gush-fest isn't scheduled to start till 10am.

I love your comment, Caliban, my feelings exactly. I will be listening to Building a Library as I am looking for a blue ray recording of Parsifal.. But the Gush fest as you put it leaves me cold.