Bargains

[teamsaint]

Thanks for the advice all. The Haselbock is on Naxos online, and the Haitink in full on youtube(!!) so I am going to compare as well as I can , and see how it goes.
Great stuff to be discovering anyway !!

[HighlandDougie]

This, in an earlier incarnation, has served me well over the years:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liszt-Orchestral-Works-Orchestra-Germany/dp/B00564WMV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361382620&sr=8-1

although I also very much like what I've heard of the Haitink.

If HIPP performances are acceptable (am I allowed to say that in Liszt I find them preferable?), I'm with Vinteuil on the Haselbock (wonderful orchestral sonorities; very good sound), although it's a lot more expensive. F-X Roth and Les Siècle's Dante Symphony is excellent, as is the Jos van Immerseel/Anima Eterna Liszt disc.

[Julien Sorel]

Thanks for the advice all. The Haselbock is on Naxos online, and the Haitink in full on youtube(!!) so I am going to compare as well as I can , and see how it goes.
Great stuff to be discovering anyway !!

At the risk of enraging the Haitinkians I've found Haselböck's recordings fresh and enlivening to the extent they've really changed how I think about Liszt's orchestral music (I wish they'd record the Faust Symphony). I had Haitink in an earlier Philips Duo issue (two duos) and I'm afraid thought them a bit lacklustre. At any rate I parted company with them.

[Nick Armstrong]

c'mon, c'mon, out with it.......

No. I got a yellow card for putting the boot in on this topic a while back... I've learned to walk away from confrontation!

[Thropplenoggin]

No. I got a yellow card for putting the boot in on this topic a while back... I've learned to walk away from confrontation!

Is there a statute of limitations?

[Thropplenoggin]

I just bought Pergolesi's Salve Regina which also features the very forward-looking (think Mozartian) take on the same hymn by Leonardo Leo for €0.10 c/o the French tax evaders. I wonder if this was a mistake and it will be honoured, as the re-seller claimed it was 'neuf' (new).

It's an exquisite account (Fabio Biondi, Alessandrini, Europa Galante and Barbara Schlick) worth paying full-price for (around 7 quid):



More info here: http://www.musicweb-international.co...ve_op30444.jpg

[amateur51]

Thanks for the advice all. The Haselbock is on Naxos online, and the Haitink in full on youtube(!!) so I am going to compare as well as I can , and see how it goes.
Great stuff to be discovering anyway !!

Looking forward to hearing about your deliberaciones, teams

[MickyD]

My money's still on the Haselbock set. Cheaper on amazon, but the info on the presto site (kindly flagged up by Julien Sorel) might be helpful:

"This 5-CD set comprises a series of live recordings made by the Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck of orchestral music by Franz Liszt. They were released to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. It features all of the Symphonic Poems, the Dante Symphony and the beautiful Évocation à la Chapelle Sixtine. These critically-acclaimed performances from 2011 and 2012 are unique in that the orchestra performs on the original instruments or copies of the original instruments that were used at concerts conducted by the composer himself.

For “The Sound of Weimar” project, Liszt expert Martin Haselböck deployed the orchestra Wiener Akademie in exactly the size adopted for the original performances given by the Weimar Hofkapelle, and for the recordings made use of instruments that had either been played in concerts conducted by Franz Liszt himself or were faithful copies of such instruments. When the early CDs of the series appeared they were immediately described in such terms as “definitive recording”, “exemplary editions”, “a resounding success” or “a tonal phenomenon”. In addition to the symphonic poems this special edition also includes the Dante symphony, a work that was also composed at Weimar, and Évocation à la Chapelle Sixtine. Volumes 1 to 4 of the series won the International Franz Liszt Record Grand Prix in 2011 and 2012, and the series has received outstanding reviews in specialist magazines around the world."

Thanks, Vints...I had no idea that Haselbock had undertaken this project. The only period instrument version I knew of was the single disc of Liszt recorded by Anima Eterna and Immerseel. This set is tempting indeed!

[teamsaint]

Looking forward to hearing about your deliberaciones, teams

well , TBF, I didn't have spanish food for dinner Ams, but thanks for asking !

Any how, I have had a good listen to "Hunnenschlacht" on both the Haitink and the Haselbock, which was fun.
Allowing for a (I suspect) rather poor sound on Youtube for the Haitink, I have to say so far I preferred the Haselbock by a bit. Whether I enjoyed it by enough more to pay treble is another question, as this would be a first buy for me.
Might try another piece. Testing my technical skills toggling between the two!!
It is great to be able to try these at zero cost, so one "plus" for the modern world.

[Ferretfancy]

Teamsaint,

I first heard Hunnenschlacht on an old Ansermet LP, and thought it was one of those unintentionally funny pieces, especially the clashing cymbals in the bombastic ending. Howard Goodall discussed it at some length the other night in his TV series, and it's made me resolve to listen again to the Haitink set of the symphonic poems. I also have a BBC MM disc of Noseda conducting the BBC PO, do you know it?

[teamsaint]

Teamsaint,

I first heard Hunnenschlacht on an old Ansermet LP, and thought it was one of those unintentionally funny pieces, especially the clashing cymbals in the bombastic ending. Howard Goodall discussed it at some length the other night in his TV series, and it's made me resolve to listen again to the Haitink set of the symphonic poems. I also have a BBC MM disc of Noseda conducting the BBC PO, do you know it?

Don't know any of it, FF. Just got a bit of a Liszt bug after listening to "Faust" . I just picked Hunnenschlacht at random to test the two sets, to be honest, and I don't know the Noseda either.
Sorry, duff and uninformative post of the day, really !!

[Barbirollians]

Not sure what is not to like about Haitink's Liszt set unless you just can't stand the works as I know some cannot . I had a tape of some of the Masur in the 1980s and it was fine - when I came to look at these works afresh Haitink was recommended on here and I was very pleased by the performances .

[Sir Velo]

No. I got a yellow card for putting the boot in on this topic a while back... I've learned to walk away from confrontation!

I hope you're not implying that Liszt is guilty of occasional moments of bombast or lapses in taste are you Cali? Heavens, I mean, where would that leave your man Shosty?

[Nick Armstrong]

I hope you're not implying that Liszt is guilty of occasional moments of bombast or lapses in taste are you Cali? Heavens, I mean, where would that leave your man Shosty?

It ain't what you do, it's how (and how often) you do it, as I am sure Lady Velo would corroborate (assuming a fortunate woman enjoys the felicity of that position!)

PS:

I hope you're not implying that Liszt is guilty of occasional moments of bombast or lapses in taste are you Cali?

Certainly not!

[Roehre]

Not sure what is not to like about Haitink's Liszt set unless you just can't stand the works as I know some cannot . I had a tape of some of the Masur in the 1980s and it was fine - when I came to look at these works afresh Haitink was recommended on here and I was very pleased by the performances .

IIRC Haitink/LPO were the first to do all 13 of them, it was their first "big" project together, it made Les Preludes
-abused by the Nazis- a fashionable piece again, and -after 40 years- it still stands very well among the competitors (Joo, Masur i.a.). I heard Die Ideale and Mazeppa the day before Christmas Eve in 1972, and had to scrape a couple of weeks of pocket money as that 5LP-set was for me an absolute must (and it still is).