Bargains

[mathias broucek]

Link here

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9613977--the-swedish-orchestra

[HighlandDougie]

Is there an attachment missing mathias?

I think that this may be the set in question??

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9613977--the-swedish-orchestra

[Retune]

A nice free download from ClassicSelectWorld this week. Despite the unpromising title, 'The Bach Guild Big Beethoven Piano Box', there is some interesting stuff here.

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/big-beethoven-piano-box-10-hour-digital-download

Central to the set are 20 Beethoven piano sonatas by Bruce Hungerford:

https://www.thepianofiles.com/bruce-hungerford-at-100/

Hungerford was never to complete his Beethoven cycle for Vanguard; he was tragically killed in a car crash in 1977. He seems to have recorded 22 in total, but the Op.49 'sonatinas' are not included here. They do feature in an earlier compilation on Piano Classics, 'Bruce Hungerford: The Beethoven Legacy', but that oddly omits four sonatas that are in the CSW download (assuming CSW has labelled the artist correctly). Hungerford's sonatas are supplemented by Guiomar Novaes's account of Les Adieux, one that Hungerford apparently did not record. The rest of the download is filled out by Peter Serkin's Diabelli Variations, various short pieces played by Jorg Demus, and sets of Bagatelles and Variations from Denis Matthews.

[Dave2002]

A nice free download from ClassicSelectWorld this week. Despite the unpromising title, 'The Bach Guild Big Beethoven Piano Box', there is some interesting stuff here.

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/big-beethoven-piano-box-10-hour-digital-download

Central to the set are 20 Beethoven piano sonatas by Bruce Hungerford:

https://www.thepianofiles.com/bruce-hungerford-at-100/

Hungerford was never to complete his Beethoven cycle for Vanguard; he was tragically killed in a car crash in 1977. He seems to have recorded 22 in total, but the Op.49 'sonatinas' are not included here. They do feature in an earlier compilation on Piano Classics, 'Bruce Hungerford: The Beethoven Legacy', but that oddly omits four sonatas that are in the CSW download (assuming CSW has labelled the artist correctly). Hungerford's sonatas are supplemented by Guiomar Novaes's account of Les Adieux, one that Hungerford apparently did not record. The rest of the download is filled out by Peter Serkin's Diabelli Variations, various short pieces played by Jorg Demus, and sets of Bagatelles and Variations from Denis Matthews.

Sad to read about the demise of Bruce Hungerford - about whom I knew very little.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Hungerford

I probably already had this one - but downloaded it again anyway - and so far listened to the fugue from the Diabelli Variations played by Peter Serkin.

I don't know enough about Bruce Humgerford's recordings to know how many he did, but looking at the track listing the offer here includes:

1 in F minor
2 in A major
4 in E flat
5 in C minor
6 in F major
7 in D
8 in C minor [Pathetique]
9 in E major
10 in G major
12 in A flat
13 in E flat
14 in C sharp minor [Moonlight]
17 in D minor
18 in E flat
21 in C [Waldstein]
24 in F sharp
25 in G [Cuckoo]
26 in E flat [Les Adieux]
30 in E
31 in A flat
32 in C minor

Some resorting of the tracks may be needed for some of the sonatas, but the recordings themselves sound quite good.

There are also some other free recordings available at IMSLP - for example of the sonata no 7 in D, courtesy of the Isabella Gardner Museum, though that particular one is somewhat quirky and taken at a very fast tempo. Hungerford's performance is steadier.

[Retune]

I don't know enough about Bruce Humgerford's recordings to know how many he did, but looking at the track listing the offer here includes:

1 in F minor
2 in A major
4 in E flat
5 in C minor
6 in F major
7 in D
8 in C minor [Pathetique]
9 in E major
10 in G major
12 in A flat
13 in E flat
14 in C sharp minor [Moonlight]
17 in D minor
18 in E flat
21 in C [Waldstein]
24 in F sharp
25 in G [Cuckoo]
26 in E flat [Les Adieux]
30 in E
31 in A flat
32 in C minor

That's right I think, except that 26 is by Guiomar Novaes.

The 'Legacy' box seems to be missing 9, 10, 18 and 25 from this list (odd for a release with that title), but it does include 19 and 20 (the Op.49 sonatinas).

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/102508/Bruce_Hungerford:_The_Beethoven_Legacy.htm

Some editors and performers do exclude Op.49 from their Beethoven cycles as not 'proper' sonatas, but I doubt CSW have a position on this debate! There are more obscure sonatinas without opus numbers in the Demus recordings they do include. Perhaps they didn't have access to the Op.49 tracks, or it was simple carelessness.

I've just noticed that the beginning of the first movement of 32 is missing, which I should probably tell them about - they have fixed issues with downloads when informed about them in the past. The full recording is certainly extant, and very good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EGeKNnXQik&t=2s

But now I'm wondering if there might be other issues with the download...

Edit: And there are! What is supposed to be the first movement of 9 is in fact the first movement of 21. Even for free, you expect the right music, and this is a download they usually charge for.

Edit 2: There is an explanation of sorts here, at least for that Waldstein substitution:

https://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=47399

'Vanguard/Bach Guild digitized 9, 10, 18 & 25 in digital "big box downloads" several years ago (Big Beethoven Box, Big Beethoven Piano Box) but they seemed only to be available in VBR MP3. Worse, several minor blips in the tapes for No. 9's first movement got translated during digitization into jarring, intolerable digital hash--so bad that Vanguard Bach Guild substituted the Waldstein 's first movement for No. 9's first movement early on.'

What a bizarre 'solution'! I suppose you get what you pay for, but it's a pity the legacy of a fine pianist is being treated this way. A tragic footnote in that thread from Hungerford's student, Donald Isler:

'The saddest thing about this is that he never recorded the Hammerklavier, which he had apparently been practicing before he left his studio for the last time (a little while after my last lesson.) The score was found on the music rack later when the studio was opened after the accident.'

[Dave2002]

Thanks for the update. Yes - indeed 26 is by Guiomar Novaes - or at least declared to be. Indeed also the first part of 32 is missing. It also seems that the second movement is missing - but actually it is present, but just labelled incorrectly. Whether it's in a sensible order in the track list I don't know - I only found it by doing a text search on the folder listing.

As a freebie - this is really still rather good - but when it's not offered as a freebie [not on a sale or offer] it would be annoying to have to fix the issues with the tracks.
Tha's the kind of problem which drives me to buy CDs often, though even CDs sometimes have totally wrong music, or wrong track orders.

I haven't checked out the incorrect movement of 9 being a movement from 21. Thanks for posting that detail.

This is slightly disappointing as the performances do sound really good. Not sure about the piano sound. Some of the earlier ones sound as though they were played on an older piano.

[Dave2002]

I tried to find out if there are other sources of Bruce Hungerford's recordings. Yes - there are - apparently - but most of them are isolated movements in fairly random collections - also of downloads.
Typically "Favourite Beethoven piano music" - or "Best of Beethoven" - so even more of a mess than this freebie download, so probably best for the time being to get this one, and identify the problems, and then put things right, either by burning to CD or by using a reliable mp3 player to put the tracks and pieces back into order. Where there are definite problems - like the opening of 32 - then it may be difficult to get a good and authentic fix.

Europadisc lists CDs - which are no longer available. Presto only seems to have the aforementioned download collections.

[Retune]

I tried to find out if there are other sources of Bruce Hungerford's recordings. Yes - there are - apparently - but most of them are isolated movements in fairly random collections - also of downloads.
Typically "Favourite Beethoven piano music" - or "Best of Beethoven" - so even more of a mess than this freebie download, so probably best for the time being to get this one, and identify the problems, and then put things right, either by burning to CD or by using a reliable mp3 player to put the tracks and pieces back into order. Where there are definite problems - like the opening of 32 - then it may be difficult to get a good and authentic fix.

Europadisc lists CDs - which are no longer available. Presto only seems to have the aforementioned download collections.

I had a nice email from the chap at CSW who compiled this one (but did not make the problematic files!). He seems open to the idea of fixing the issues, and potentially even adding Op.49. Their intention had been to collect all of Hungerford's extant sonatas for this release, and missed that they had the rights to these two as well.

I hadn't noticed that they have the wrong movement number for the Arietta of 32 - I'd been sorting by the file names in Windows, which still gave me the correct order because the track number is the first part of the name. I usually fix things like this using Mp3tag:

https://www.mp3tag.de/en/

One slip I did spot is that 'WoO 50' in the Demus set seems to be WoO 51:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsv3mgubGOc

Apparently this one was completed (the last 11 bars) by Ferdinand Ries, pupil of Beethoven, which led me down another rabbit hole - an interesting and prolific composer who is completely unknown to me.

I might preview at least the start and end of each movement of the Hungerford sonatas to see if everything makes sense and feed any issues back to CSW.

Meanwhile, they have a free Debussy box this week:

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/little-big-debussy-box

[Dave2002]

Presto are currently having offers on Brilliant Classics recordings. Some of these look interesting - though which ones?

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/promotions/brilliant-classics-24

[Dave2002]

Presto will release the Dover Quartet's set of Beethoven quartets as downloads shortly at really rather modest prices. Release date around 13th September.

[Dave2002]

Another offer from Presto is some Chandos CDs at lower prices. Not sure if there's anything I want - but the offer runs to the end of October.