BaL 18.10.14 - Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail

[visualnickmos]

Did she really not mention the Gardiner? From what I have heard of it on Spotify it seems very good indeed. But, to play devil's advocate, with so many good recordings available, perhaps it is more important to know which to avoid rather than wallow too long in the good ones.

Very fair point, actually.

I have the Bohm version on DG and also (this is surprising for me - having more than one recording of an opera!) Krips on EMI. I can only think it must from a 'bargain bucket' sale in HMV or MDC, many moons ago. I don't think I've ever actually played the Krips - that's tonight sorted!

[underthecountertenor]

How anyone, having heard Wunderlich, could possibly recommend a version featuring Bostridge, is beyond me.

[aeolium]

But, to play devil's advocate, with so many good recordings available, perhaps it is more important to know which to avoid rather than wallow too long in the good ones.

Personally I can't see the point of that. Why would the reviewer say, effectively, that although I've been very impressed by versions A, B and C, I'm mostly going to play you extracts from all these other versions T to Z to show you how the work shouldn't be performed? The listener not only fails to get much idea about what impresses the reviewer in the versions s/he likes, but gets all the bad examples which, apart from anything else, show the work itself in a bad light.

[visualnickmos]

Personally I can't see the point of that. Why would the reviewer say, effectively, that although I've been very impressed by versions A, B and C, I'm mostly going to play you extracts from all these other versions T to Z to show you how the work shouldn't be performed? The listener not only fails to get much idea about what impresses the reviewer in the versions s/he likes, but gets all the bad examples which, apart from anything else, show the work itself in a bad light.

Goodness - another very fair point!

[visualnickmos]

How anyone, having heard Wunderlich, could possibly recommend a version featuring Bostridge, is beyond me.

Absolutely - Wunderlich is in a league of brilliance of his own. I hope to find a cheap-priced version somewhere, as finances being what they are, it's my best hope!

Regarding the recommended version, although with, I would imagine, much to commend it, from the extracts played, it just wasn't how I like my Mozart to sound.
A bit too 'crystalline' if I can put it that way.

[martin_opera]

Not only was there no mention of the Gardiner, Fricsay, Bohm or Hogwood (all great) but she failed to note the Bruno Weil with Cheryl Studer as a marvellous lyric spinto Constanze. This one's the recording I listen to the most although I do like the Christie. I suspect that there's an issue here with what's in print and what's not - although given strong second hand market I wish BAL would consider deleted items more often.

[verismissimo]

Irritated by the BAL, I've invested in Zurich/Harnoncourt second hand for a penny.

[Nick Armstrong]

Irritated by the BAL, I've invested in Zurich/Harnoncourt second hand for a penny.

[Karafan]

I am pleased to see (in a way) that others were as irritated as I was by Berta Jonkus' presentation. I am catching up on recorded BaLs at the moment, and as I had loaded it onto my iPod for my daily constitutional, it just so happened that before listening to it, it loaded-up the previous outing this work had on BaL many moons ago, in the learned hands of Richard Wigmore. To say that threw Prof. Jonkus into stark relief is to put it mildly. He was searching, illuminating, engrossing and absorbing. He played excerpts from Harnoncourt, Beecham, Davis and Karl Böhm and his was a textbook specimen of the perfect BaL.

How you could not refer to the superb DG set under Böhm mystifies me. I would sell my grandmother into slavery for the combination of Kurt Moll, Peter Schreier and that sparklingly perfect Mozartian, the late Arleen Auger.

Just one more shining example of the fact that, in the case of Building a Library, they just don't make 'em like that anymore!

[vinteuil]

Not only was there no mention of the Gardiner, Fricsay, Bohm or Hogwood (all great) but she failed to note the Bruno Weil with Cheryl Studer as a marvellous lyric spinto Constanze. This one's the recording I listen to the most although I do like the Christie. I suspect that there's an issue here with what's in print and what's not - although given strong second hand market I wish BAL would consider deleted items more often.

... many many thanks, martin_opera, for this. I didn't know the Weil before, but have now acquired it to add to the other half dozen...

Am listening to it now - it really is quite gorgeous. I acquired it easily and cheaply from amazon (I see there is a set on offer at £2.50 as I write... ); how the reviewer cd have failed to note it is beyond me. Except - she failed to mention half a dozen interesting performances....

Many thanks