BaL 20.12.14 - Beethoven Piano Trio in D Op.70 no. 1 "The Ghost"

[Don Petter]

Chamber music. No one likes it.

I kea have spoken.

(But it's still available elsewhere: http://www.harrietcarter.com/product...l-toilet-roll/)

[Bryn]

I kea have spoken.

(But it's still available elsewhere: http://www.harrietcarter.com/product...l-toilet-roll/)

Start 'em early, I say:

[waldo]

Gollox!

Perhaps people are just a tad busy with other things at the moment?

Not too busy to comment on other threads - such as the Schubert Unfinished, which is already ahead of this thread, despite the fact there is almost a whole week to go before the programme starts.

Is suspect Kea is broadly right. Looking down the old threads in a fairly unsystematic way, it does look as if orchestral music is more popular. There aren't that many chamber threads - just five in the last year - but none of them have been great hits. The really monster threads are almost all monster orchestral pieces.

One alternative explanation (apart from popularity) is that there is just less to say about chamber music.........which doesn't mean that it is a lesser form, which it isn't, but only that it doesn't lend itself to the same kind of disputes. It may well be that the spread of interpretations in chamber music is inherently more narrow than that of orchestral music. Or that there are fewer recordings on average. Who knows......?

[Don Petter]

Start 'em early, I say:

One of my favourites - the Trio Santoliquido!

[Don Petter]

Not too busy to comment on other threads - such as the Schubert Unfinished, which is already ahead of this thread, despite the fact there is almost a whole week to go before the programme starts.

Is suspect Kea is broadly right. Looking down the old threads in a fairly unsystematic way, it does look as if orchestral music is more popular. There aren't that many chamber threads - just five in the last year - but none of them have been great hits. The really monster threads are almost all monster orchestral pieces.

One alternative explanation (apart from popularity) is that there is just less to say about chamber music.........which doesn't mean that it is a lesser form, which it isn't, but only that it doesn't lend itself to the same kind of disputes. It may well be that the spread of interpretations in chamber music is inherently more narrow than that of orchestral music. Or that there are fewer recordings on average. Who knows......?

Maybe we chamber music lovers are just more laid back, and less argumentative?

[gurnemanz]

Maybe we chamber music lovers are just more laid back, and less argumentative?

Listening to music in a chamber (my living room could just about encompass a string quartet), I find myself favouring chamber music (and piano-accompanied songs) more and more as times go on.

[waldo]

Maybe we chamber music lovers are just more laid back, and less argumentative?

You could be right! What else is chamber music but a democratic conversation between enlightened people?

There are also fewer sacred cows to worship and defend........in the post-war growth market, all the marketing cash went into creating semi-divine maestro figures - Karajans, Soltis, Bohms etc - and very little for humble string quartets etc

[kea]

Wait for Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli

At least that sometimes involves the all-important conductor, for some semblance of the necessary Celibidache vs Karajan debates that keep such threads going! And the HIP vs modern debate (e.g. "it's not historically correct for anyone over 5'3" to sing Palestrina, taller people have longer vocal tracts innit")...

[verismissimo]

But not playing the work in question? The only trio I can see there is Opus 1, No.3.

Lovely. Thanks for flagging this up between you. A box filled with goodies.

[Ferretfancy]

And Suk Trio as 'historic' choice.

I haven't heard the BAL yet, but I'm intrigued by your reference to the Suk Trio as a 'historic' choice. Do you have the date of recording ? I have a complete CD set of the Suk trio's Beethoven trios, Supraphon recordings dated 1983, and thus very early digital. My four discs have all the track listings and notes in Japanese and English, and include all the works for piano trio, including the Kakadu Variations etc.

They were manufactured by Denon for Nippon Columbia, and I bought them for a song years ago at an HMV sale. I like these performances very much, and the balance is excellent. I never saw a review anywhere of these performances, they seem to have slipped through the net.

[Bryn]

1963 was quoted as the year of the recommended Suk 'historical' recording, IIRC.

[verismissimo]

I haven't heard the BAL yet, but I'm intrigued by your reference to the Suk Trio as a 'historic' choice. Do you have the date of recording ? I have a complete CD set of the Suk trio's Beethoven trios, Supraphon recordings dated 1983, and thus very early digital. My four discs have all the track listings and notes in Japanese and English, and include all the works for piano trio, including the Kakadu Variations etc.

They were manufactured by Denon for Nippon Columbia, and I bought them for a song years ago at an HMV sale. I like these performances very much, and the balance is excellent. I never saw a review anywhere of these performances, they seem to have slipped through the net.

My mono Supraphon LP is dated 1963. I feel sure that was the 'historic' recording referred to - the classic Suk Trio line-up: Suk, Chuchro and Panenka. She said it was spiffing (I paraphrase), but that the slow movement was a bit too slow, with which I concur.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... didn't Beths, Bylsma & Immerseel do 70/1 with the Archduke? or was that 70/2?

Yup - I have this very coupling it's in the boxed set with the String Trios, Sextets and other unpopular chamber music

http://www.amazon.co.uk/String-Trios-L-Van-Beethoven/dp/B0065HDLDK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1419190872&sr=1-1&keywords=beethoven+string+trios

[Roehre]

Yup - I have this very coupling it's in the boxed set with the String Trios, Sextets and other unpopular chamber music

http://www.amazon.co.uk/String-Trios...n+string+trios

As e.g. the quintet arrangement of the kreutzer Sonata IIRC

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As e.g. the quintet arrangement of the kreutzer Sonata IIRC

- when I first played through the discs to check for flaws, I was sure I knew this Music!!!