Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting - so any suggestions? Hagen + Caussé? Takacs + Power? Currently listening to the Belcea recording on iTunes Music, not bad...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Interesting - so any suggestions? Hagen + Caussé? Takacs + Power? Currently listening to the Belcea recording on iTunes Music, not bad...

I only have the Brandis 4tet with Brett Dean (in the BRILLIANT boxed set of the Brahms Chamber Music) who are very good. Part of my paying attention to this feature on RR was that I wouldn't mind an extra set of performances. I haven't heard the sets you mention - all three Quartets have done marvellous stuff in the recording studio - and I wouldn't mind hearing Forumistas' opinions/recommendations.

[Alison]

Wasn't so impressed with the Kempff Tchaikovsky offering, virtuosic but rather matter of fact and uninvolving.

Saved me a few quid as love those pieces.

I'm still happy with Paul Crossley in the Sonata and Kolesnikov in the Seasons.

[Nick Armstrong]

I wouldn't mind hearing Forumistas' opinions/recommendations.

Relevant posts copied to existing specific thread: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...tring-Quintets

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Relevant posts copied to existing specific thread: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...tring-Quintets

[doversoul1]

8.20 am Saturday. Still no programme details. Odd.

[Nick Armstrong]

Not wishing to overstate it, but the René Leibowitz Beethoven Symphonies covered on today's programme are proving a revelation to me.

I already had one Chesky issue on my shelf, which I saw the other day and couldn't recall for the life of me why I had it.

Now I know - and am listening to others via iTunes Music.

WHAT PERFORMANCES!!

I have to say that these 1961 recordings are far more up my street than the roughly contemporary (in fact a year or two earlier) Cluytens/Berlin recordings - similarly overlooked by the 'mainstream' perhaps, but raved about by fans... on the basis of which I acquired the set. It's never 'clicked' with me, I'm afraid - expecting a revelation, I was and remain disappointed by the Cluytens.

But the opposite is true of these Leibowitz recordings - RPO on prime form (just a month or so after Beecham's death) and knockout sound quality from ... Walthamstow Town Hall.

And I love the pulse, the inflections... (I could go on. But I'll just listen).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, yes - the Leibowitz set (via the Czessky remasterings) are prized chez moi, too: near the very top of my favourite versions. I'm a little puzzled by the reviewer's comment that "not many repeats are observed" as in my memory, the Expo repeats were played??? (Just shows I need to hear them again - been distracted by Monteux and Chailly recently.) Richard Lewis is superb, but Ludwig Weber's opening recitative doesn't show him in best voice


I won't be buying the Harnoncourt CD - for all the superb instrumental playing (the microphone caught the piccolo exceptionally well - one of the few disappointments of the magnificent Krivine cycle).

[jayne lee wilson]

Oh, yes - the Leibowitz set (via the Czessky remasterings) are prized chez moi, too: near the very top of my favourite versions. I'm a little puzzled by the reviewer's comment that "not many repeats are observed" as in my memory, the Expo repeats were played??? (Just shows I need to hear them again - been distracted by Monteux and Chailly recently.) Richard Lewis is superb, but Ludwig Weber's opening recitative doesn't show him in best voice


I won't be buying the Harnoncourt CD - for all the superb instrumental playing (the microphone caught the piccolo exceptionally well - one of the few disappointments of the magnificent Krivine cycle).

The reviewer got it right, ferns - I know for sure that Leibowitz takes the repeat in No.1, but not in 2,3, or 4 (would have to check the others...). But yes, they are terrific musically, very much HIPPS avantlalettre (just very good, true-to-the-spirit Beethoven, really...). And Chesky's sound (from Wilkinson/Gerhard masters) is hi-res avantlalettre too. 20x128 proprietary conversion off an Ampex tube openreel....! Shame more CDs aren't made that way...

I didn't hear RR today, but I hope whoever reissued these hasn't ruined the sound...

I wouldn't miss the Harnoncourt 4&5 - when time allows - and I wouldn't listen to any reviewers' advice on it either. I did think RO was very fair though, and respectful to Harnoncourt's iconoclasm (mind you, if someone respects your iconoclasm, then...) in his 2/2016 Gramophone review (of the 5th):

"You may thrill to the effect, though as Dr,Johnson warned, "it has long been found that specious emendations do not equally strike all minds with conviction."
That said, I'm rather relieved to hear Harnoncourt going out with a bang rather than a whimper. He is too courageous a musician to have done anything else."


Just hope that I can cope with the familiarity problem when I settle down to hear them. Only Harnoncourt could have persuaded me to.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The reviewer got it right, ferns - I know for sure that Leibowitz takes the repeat in No.1, but not in 2,3, or 4 (would have to check the others...).

- yes, checked the timings and, sadly, my memory was correcting his error.

This means that the intro/expo in 2 and 4 take over half the movement!

Erm ... Not sure what you mean here, jayne: in #2, the Expo takes just over two minutes of a nine-and-a-half minute Movement; if the Expo repeat had been observed, it would have been just over four minutes of an eleven-and-three-quarter minute movement (and, at that length, it would have been in better proportion to the ten-and-a-half minute Second Movement).

[jayne lee wilson]

- yes, checked the timings and, sadly, my memory was correcting his error.


Erm ... Not sure what you mean here, jayne: in #2, the Expo takes just over two minutes of a nine-and-a-half minute Movement; if the Expo repeat had been observed, it would have been just over four minutes of an eleven-and-three-quarter minute movement (and, at that length, it would have been in better proportion to the ten-and-a-half minute Second Movement).

Sorry yes, thanks fhg , trying to do too much at once around here as usual (oh, you have NO idea...), got confused.... forgive me if I now correct the original post.....

Anyway, repeats observed in 5,6 and 8, but not in 7. So 4/4, honours even..... (and the reviewer should have been more precise, perhaps....)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- and they are wonderful performances (and quite astonishing recordings if the sound quality on the new set matches that on the Chesky remasterings).

[rodney_h_d]

.....I wouldn't miss the Harnoncourt 4&5 - when time allows - and I wouldn't listen to any reviewers' advice on it either. I did think RO was very fair though, and respectful to Harnoncourt's iconoclasm (mind you, if someone respects your iconoclasm, then...) in his 2/2016 Gramophone review (of the 5th):

"You may thrill to the effect, though as Dr,Johnson warned, "it has long been found that specious emendations do not equally strike all minds with conviction."
That said, I'm rather relieved to hear Harnoncourt going out with a bang rather than a whimper. He is too courageous a musician to have done anything else."

Just hope that I can cope with the familiarity problem when I settle down to hear them. Only Harnoncourt could have persuaded me to.

I haven't seen the Gramophone review but I normally frown and switch off when Harnoncourt is in one of his "let's have pause here...and there" moods.

On hearing how he ends the 5th Symphony this time, I just got the giggles! Everybody should hear it!

[Cockney Sparrow]

Not wishing to overstate it, but the René Leibowitz Beethoven Symphonies covered on today's programme are proving a revelation to me. I already had one Chesky issue on my shelf, which I saw the other day and couldn't recall for the life of me why I had it....
WHAT PERFORMANCES!!
.......But the opposite is true of these Leibowitz recordings - RPO on prime form (just a month or so after Beecham's death) and knockout sound quality from ... Walthamstow Town Hall......And I love the pulse, the inflections... (I could go on. But I'll just listen).

Listening to the Chesky recording of the Leibowitz Beethoven Symphonies 1 and 3 on Naxos Music Library (all of the Symphonies can be found there) as I wade through finance/tax household admin. As you say, they have energy, vigour, pulse and inflections. Delightful....

[Beef Oven!]

Anyone got a confident recommendation for Ives Symphony #4?

I've had the Seija Ozawa Boston Symphony/Tanglewood Festival Chorus DG, since about 1992. It has never taken off for me. Is there better out there?