BaL 31.01.15 - Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 in E flat "Eroica"

[teamsaint]

I thought the final choice was a good one.

......which was.....please?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Which of his recordings was considered?

LCP - described by NK as the best of the early HIPP recordings "by some margin", and suggesting that it paved the way for such later recordings as JEG and Bruggens. (The latter whose first recording of the Eroica - which NK highly praised - was recorded two years before RN's. )

[vinteuil]

......which was.....please?

Harnoncourt, COE

[teamsaint]

Harnoncourt, COE

Thanks Vinny.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

......which was.....please?

Harnoncourt/COE


Interesting that, with the exception of the van Immerseel, Mackerras and Bruggen, I disagreed with all NK's opinions. A balanced survey of a wide range of performance styles -and I share his general approach to the work, but my tastes are almost exclusively opposed to his. No mention of Krivine ... which I find an incomprehensible (to be polite) omission.

[vinteuil]

I share his general approach to the work, but my tastes are almost exclusively opposed to his. .

... you enjoyed the Karajan?

[Petrushka]

Harnoncourt, COE

I do have that one but haven't heard it in years.

[Barbirollians]

Harnoncourt ? I assume that must be a joke - who really won .

[vinteuil]

Harnoncourt ? I assume that must be a joke - who really won .

... well, brace yourself - it most certainly was not Barbirolli. He wasn't kind about Barbirolli. Not at all...

[Barbirollians]

I assume he only played the EMI studio Furtwangler recording . The 1944 certainly is not turgid and nor is the live 8/12/52 which when the Tahra set was released Rob Cowan declared it the greatest Eroica he had ever heard . No sign of VPO/Kleiber ?

[Barbirollians]

Barbirolli's BBCSO recording is too slow for my ears though Gramophone evidently liked it at the time /

[Barbirollians]

Asking Kenyon to pick the BAL was always likely to lead to a bizarre choice . I assume Richard Osborne turned the job down .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... you enjoyed the Karajan?

Yep - and the illustration he used to demonstrate the "over-smoothness" of Karajan's approach did exactly the opposite: the accumulation of power, the timing, the morphing from spritely optimism into the scowl of fury, the energy surging from the basses in the lead into the repeated discord (not to mention the ugly sound that the trumpets provided in that climax) - never been bettered.

Reactions to performances are fascinating - I cannot help but feel that NK heard what he expected to hear in the Karajan rather than what Karajan actually gets the orchestra to play. No doubt, if he were in the slightest bit interested, he would say the same of my own responses.

(The difference, of course, is that I'm right and he's wrong!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No sign of VPO/Kleiber ?

No - the Concertgebeouw recording reached the final "Honourable mentions" but the (IMO superior) VPO wasn't.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Interesting that, with the exception of the van Immerseel, Mackerras and Bruggen, I disagreed with all NK's opinions.

It was that snivelling attitude that I didn't like, though his opinions and reasoning were generally well presented.