BaL - Long Overdue Works

[Guest]

For all the inclusive interaction that Radio 3 has promoted in recent years - Email us! Tweet us! Ovulate in synch with us! - one area that seems perfect for this approach is Building A Library. But the whys and hows of selecting which CD to cover and how each reviewer approaches it remains a frustratingly arcane process!

Some symphonists - Beethoven, say - seem to cry out for new recommendations, with the number of new HIP and historic recordings now available, not to mention the rise of SACD and Studio Master downloads. Some haven't been done in aeons (Beethoven's Eroica Symphony), despite the proliferation of new recordings, whilst Ravel's Shéhérazade was done in 1999, 2005, 2007!

I used these two lists here and http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cl...ew/bal1112.pdf to find records which haven't been covered for over a decade. Which of the following would you like to see done?

Bach - French Suites (last done in 1996)
Bach - Cello Suites (last done in 1999)
Bach - Magnificat (last done in 1998)
Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 'Eroica' (???)
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4 (???)
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 (???)
Bruckner - Symphony No. 5 (last done in 1996)
Chopin - Preludes (last done in 1996)
Mahler - Symphony No. 4 (last done in 2000)
Mahler - Symphony No. 5 (last done in 1999)
Mahler - Symphony No. 7 (last done in 1996)
Mozart - Don Giovanni (last done in 1998)
Mozart - Così fan tutte (last done in 1997)
Mozart - Mass No. 18 in C minor, "Great" (last done in 1996)
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 (last done in 1999)
Mozart - Symphony No. 40 (???)
Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht (last done in 2002 - both sextet and orchestral versions)
Schubert - Symphony No. 9 (last done in 2000)
Schubert - Schwanengesang (last done in 2000)
Schumann - Symphony No. 2 (last done in 1999)
Verdi - Macbeth (last done in 1999)
Wagner - Parsifal (last done in 1996)

(???) indicates not listed i.e. possibly not covered since 1996.

I may forward the results onto Mr. McGregor.

[Nick Armstrong]

Great thread / post, Ruhevoll. Some surprising gaps there.

(Was one of the LvB piano concertos intended to be 3 or 5?)

[Ruhevoll]

Great thread / post, Ruhevoll. Some surprising gaps there.

(Was one of the LvB piano concertos intended to be 3 or 5?)

Thanks! 5.

PC 3 was done in 2000 and again in 2005, bizarrely.

[BBMmk2]

Hmm, what about some Berlioz, Messiaen, etc?

[verismissimo]

On the occasions that I've started Our Summer BAL threads, it's always on the basis that I'm interested in the work and that it hasn't been done on proper BAL in recent memory.

[Barbirollians]

I note also missing from those lists

Brahms Piano Concerto No1

Bruckner 6

Many Mozart Piano Concertos

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Rachmaninov Symphony No 3

and even - unless I missed it Tchikovsky Piano Concerto No 1

There were some bizarre choices and many of them by David Owen Norris and Chris de Souza !

[visualnickmos]

and even - unless I missed it Tchikovsky Piano Concerto No 1

If I'm not mistaken I think this was the subject way back in the 90s(!) with Ashkenazy/Maazel winning the laurels (Decca)

But Beethoven's 'Eroica' - I don't ever remember that being studied - unless it was before my time....

[mikealdren]

LvB PC 5 was notoriously covered by Joseph Cooper (IIRC) in the early 1970s when he selected Hanae Nakajima!

Mike

[amateur51]

If I'm not mistaken I think this was the subject way back in the 90s(!) with Ashkenazy/Maazel winning the laurels (Decca)

But Beethoven's 'Eroica' - I don't ever remember that being studied - unless it was before my time....

I remember one from the early 1970s but I can't remember what version was selected. As always I remember it because the reviewer pointed out different approaches to interpretation.

[Ruhevoll]

LvB PC 5 was notoriously covered by Joseph Cooper (IIRC) in the early 1970s when he selected Hanae Nakajima!

Mike

Ha! Probably a good thing these boards weren't in existence then...I don't think they would have coped!

(He could have been more provocative, I suppose, and picked someone playing it on a toy piano. )

[amateur51]

LvB PC 5 was notoriously covered by Joseph Cooper (IIRC) in the early 1970s when he selected Hanae Nakajima!

Mike

I remember this one well -wasn't the conductor Rato Tschupp? - I'm not sure that Joseph Cooper ever reviewed for BaL after that. There was nothing wrong with his reasons for choosing this performance (on the Windmill label I seem to remember) but the unlikely outcome caused quite a stir, a bit like DON's recent review of Beethoven op.111 recordings.

[Ruhevoll]

I remember this one well -wasn't the conductor Rato Tschupp? - I'm not sure that Joseph Cooper ever reviewed for BaL after that. There was nothing wrong with his reasons for choosing this performance (on the Windmill label I seem to remember) but the unlikely outcome caused quite a stir, a bit like DON's recent review of Beethoven op.111 recordings.

So curious was I about this selection, I dug out some more info here: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/forum/re...hanae-nakajima

[amateur51]

So curious was I about this selection, I dug out some more info here: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/forum/re...hanae-nakajima

Thanks for the memories, Ruhevoll

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks for the memories, Ruhevoll

Still available :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dclassical&field-keywords=rato+tschupp

[amateur51]

Still available :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...s=rato+tschupp

At a price, I see

I'm happy with my Curzon/VPO/Knappertsbusch thanks, ferney (as recommended by the late Trevor Harvey )