BaL 11.04.15 - Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

[BBMmk2]

And as a CD from Amazon etc.

Thanks! Have duly ordered! (was it mentioned?)

[Rupert P Matley]

Nope. It wasn't. I'll seek it out as a few friends of mine swear by it. If it's as good as they say one wonders why it wasn't included.

[Petrushka]

All that the comments on this thread show is how urgently needed is the re-issue of the 1970 Rozhdestvensky recording. The Melodiya recording is pretty good and Rozhdestvensky had this music in his blood. The brass and percussion are forwardly placed but not too much so and what fantastic drama and spectacle Rozhdestvensky imparts especially in those final pages. Thrilling just doesn't come near to describing how overwhelming it is in that recording.

Had this recording been available it would have been top choice without question, in my view. I have the LSO/Previn as well so don't feel the need for another.

[Nick Armstrong]

Dear God, this is a terrible work

I found this BaL quite uninvolving, though this might in part be due to the music itself.

Quite.... It's simply music I don't need, so am not remotely tempted.

Nonetheless, I listened with interest to the various performing styles. I inherited the Bonynge on cassette from someone who loved it and it seemed to me to make the best of a bad job at the time. Other than that in this mercifully short BaL, the ones to make my ears prick up were Pletnev and the winning Svetlanov...

I couldn't help wishing that the coach taking the percussionists to the recording venue had broken down.

But what brass! I do love a bit of Russian brass.

Oh so do I... (And the percussionists made it sound like Shostakovich. That's a good thing!! )

For me, the best of Tchaikovsky only works if it's played with white-knuckle hysteria by vodka-fuelled Russian nutters - cf. the last 3 symphonies under Mravinsky/Leningrad PO. Anything more 'refined' or 'pretty' and it's a total non-starter, for me.

But even then... There such a lot of repetitive, banal stuff in the ballets ... and then that final reprise of the main 'swan' theme in the major at the end of the damn piece is, to my ears, so banal and crass as to TOTALLY rule this out as a piece I want on the shelves or would ever go to hear.

Only a heart of stone could forbear to laugh.

[Flosshilde]

So you're not keen on it, then?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Quite.... It's simply music I don't need, so am not remotely tempted.

Me thinks the man protesteth too much. What I mean is - if you don't need it, why bother to mention it?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

All that the comments on this thread show is how urgently needed is the re-issue of the 1970 Rozhdestvensky recording. The Melodiya recording is pretty good and Rozhdestvensky had this music in his blood. The brass and percussion are forwardly placed but not too much so and what fantastic drama and spectacle Rozhdestvensky imparts especially in those final pages. Thrilling just doesn't come near to describing how overwhelming it is in that recording.

Had this recording been available it would have been top choice without question, in my view. I have the LSO/Previn as well so don't feel the need for another.

[Nick Armstrong]

Me thinks the man protesteth too much. What I mean is - if you don't need it, why bother to mention it?

To explain why I'm not tempted to invest in the recommended version; in contrast to BaLs of the past which have proved expensive...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

To explain why I'm not tempted to invest in the recommended version; in contrast to BaLs of the past which have proved expensive...

But you don't need to justify not wanting to buy it. (If you change your mind, just go for the Previn.)

I shall not be buying it as I have 4 versions already, and no-one needs multiple copies of the same work.

[Nick Armstrong]

But you don't need to justify not wanting to buy it.

Not justifying - merely explaining, EA. No law against that, when I last looked?

I shall not be buying it as I have 4 versions already, and no-one needs multiple copies of the same work.

You are in mischievous mood, o mountainous one

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You are in mischievous mood, o mountainous one

Hardly surprising - have you seen his asparagus!

[Alison]

I'm sure that when I was at school 'received wisdom' said Tchaik's forte was the ballet compared to which the
symphonies I loved were considered second/third rate. I never did agree with Miss Baines on that one!

[jayne lee wilson]

All that the comments on this thread show is how urgently needed is the re-issue of the 1970 Rozhdestvensky recording. The Melodiya recording is pretty good and Rozhdestvensky had this music in his blood. The brass and percussion are forwardly placed but not too much so and what fantastic drama and spectacle Rozhdestvensky imparts especially in those final pages. Thrilling just doesn't come near to describing how overwhelming it is in that recording.

Had this recording been available it would have been top choice without question, in my view. I have the LSO/Previn as well so don't feel the need for another.

THIS one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000026CM4/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Don't think it's been remastered though...

[teamsaint]

THIS one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000026CM4/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Don't think it's been remastered though...

Its on youtube .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZfoK25lnY

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm sure that when I was at school 'received wisdom' said Tchaik's forte was the ballet compared to which the
symphonies I loved were considered second/third rate. I never did agree with Miss Baines on that one!

When I was at school, you weren't supposed to like Tchaikovsky at all.