Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[Sir Velo]

Finally got round to listening to the Bezuidenhout segment, and enthralling listening it was too. In particular, the Alla Turca finale of K331 sparkled in a way in which even a great Mozartian such as Schiff cannot manage on a later grand. The concerto excerpts were equally enlightening. Clearly there are gains and losses when this repertoire is played on replica instruments (even KB admitted as much) with some very thin, reedy violin tuning at times. Elsewhere. the trumpets and percussion were ebulliently festive in a way in which their modern counterparts cannot match. Moreover, Bezuidenhout made an excellent interviewee, never falling prey to the trap of being too chummy/matey with AMcG which can mar otherwise interesting interviews. Not a trace of a Sarf Efriken accent either.

[aeolium]

Yes, and KB was not dismissive of those who chose to use the concert grand in this repertoire, though he made his own preference clear. I'm still not entirely convinced about the use of ornamentation - not denying of course that its use is historically justified, only that now its use may be artificial and mannered and not, as it presumably was in the C18, instinctive and improvisatory. I have heard it done well, but there are times in the Mozart concertos where I would wish the piano part played unadorned: in the conclusion to the F-sharp minor slow movement of K488 for instance.

[jayne lee wilson]

I bought the Bezuidenhout/Mullejans/Freiburg disc of K453 & K482 when it came out and have hymned its sonic & musical qualities many times since! I don't listen to a lot of Mozart now but I often go back to this one - a great CD!

[DublinJimbo]

I bought the Bezuidenhout/Mullejans/Freiburg disc of K453 & K482 when it came out and have hymned its sonic & musical qualities many times since! I don't listen to a lot of Mozart now but I often go back to this one - a great CD!

Yes indeed. Terrific stuff. This Bezuidenhout interview is worth a look.

[Nick Armstrong]

Caught up with the CD Review segment on Brahms's German Requiem broadcast yesterday. Very interesting...

On the totally unfair basis of the extracts played, Gergiev's tempo relationships seemed all wrong to me, a lumpy and mannered performance.

But on the same unfair basis, the recording on Berlin Classics featuring the Dresdner Kreuzchor & Dresdner Philharmonie under the choir's chorus master Roderich Kreile sounded wonderful to me....

... and I'm sitting entranced by it on the big hifi here having acquired the download version

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IZUOMMY/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp?ie=UTF8&qid=1407073067&sr=1-1-catcorr

Choir, orchestra, interpretation and recording quality (it's a live performance in the Kreuzkirche last November) are wonderful - airy and atmospheric yet detailed, rich orchestral and choral sound but leavened by the freshness of the impeccable boys' voices on the top line. Pity about the soprano but you can't have everything

[Nick Armstrong]

Anyone else think the 'Elektra' in Thielemann's new Elektra sounded awful...?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Listening to today's CD review, it seemed to me that this is Radio 3 at its very best. Andrew McGregor discusses, interviews and comments as though listeners are intelligent people. Music that may not have interested me before now seems worth investigating. Unlike when listening to weekday Radio 3 programmes, I have never been tempted to switch off. Indeed, on leaving the room to answer the door, I wanted to return as soon as possible - a feeling I never get during Breakfast/Essential Classics/In Tune an all similar CFM/R2 programmes.

To Andrew McGregor and CD Review:

[teamsaint]

Listening to today's CD review, it seemed to me that this is Radio 3 at its very best. Andrew McGregor discusses, interviews and comments as though listeners are intelligent people. Music that may not have interested me before now seems worth investigating. Unlike when listening to weekday Radio 3 programmes, I have never been tempted to switch off. Indeed, on leaving the room to answer the door, I wanted to return as soon as possible - a feeling I never get during Breakfast/Essential Classics/In Tune an all similar CFM/R2 programmes.

To Andrew McGregor and CD Review:

Completely agree, EA. Really good radio.
The Sculthorpe, piece, for instance, was a great discovery.

Every time I hear his work I am strongly drawn to it, but haven't got round to proper investigation.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I agree - and I think that if any listener had been magically transported from the 1970s to hear this morning's programme, they would have recognized the standards as not dissimilar to those they took for granted.

Are there, I wonder, any listener figures to suggest which morning programmes on R3 attract the greater number of listeners?

[Barbirollians]

I liked his interview with Petrenko very much as he very much let the interviewee talk and very interestingly too .

[Don Petter]

I liked his interview with Petrenko very much as he very much let the interviewee talk and very interestingly too .

While I agree with the plaudits for the programme, I got fed up listening to so much Petrenko and switched to a CD.

[french frank]

Are there, I wonder, any listener figures to suggest which morning programmes on R3 attract the greater number of listeners?

There is a strongish tendency for listening to reflect the time of day, at least as much as the nature of the content. By 'morning programmes' I suppose you mean Breakfast v Essential Classics v CD Review? I believe that for R3 the mid morning is currently better than the traditional breakfast slot during the week; I haven't seen any figures which separate CD Review from Sunday Morning for the weekends, though I think weekends have lower audiences than the weekdays, though the same probably applies that mid morning does well.

[vinteuil]

... I liked what I heard of the Maometto 2do this morning. I also liked Flora Wilson's comment on the bravura brass playing - that it was very jolly and exciting to hear the blare of loud trombones and tubas - but that this was not what Rossini wd have been expecting - narrower bore trombones and quieter ophicleides being his intention. Maometto Secundo seems to be an important transitional work; it wd be marvellous to have an appropriately coloured HIPP version...

[aeolium]

... I liked what I heard of the Maometto 2do this morning. I also liked Flora Wilson's comment on the bravura brass playing - that it was very jolly and exciting to hear the blare of loud trombones and tubas - but that this was not what Rossini wd have been expecting - narrower bore trombones and quieter ophicleides being his intention. Maometto Secundo seems to be an important transitional work; it wd be marvellous to have an appropriately coloured HIPP version...

Yes, I also found the opera discussion interesting & liked the Rossini extracts (having been exploring some of the lesser-known Rossini operas of late) as well as the Meyerbeer ones. The Mayr opera was in a curious style, I thought, hard to pin down (and yet another Torquato Tasso-influenced opera). Agreed about the brass colours. There was some interesting use of brass in the WNO Mosè in Egitto I attended recently in Cardiff and perhaps that would have benefited from original instruments too.

[Black Swan]

I have agree with most of the comments. I only listened to selective bits before 9:30 and after 10:30 as I purposely missed the BAL section as I had no interest. But I did enjoy the rest.