BaL 9.03.24 - Schubert: Symphony No 9, Great

[Goon525]

Solti’s VPO recording was an unexpected success - not a composer where he’d come immediately to mind.

[Goon525]

I sense another Abbado victory coming. His many BaLs has he won?

[RobP]

I have about 50 recordings of this, many of which are excellent and a few are great. What is worrying about the BAL reviewer is that she skated through the first movement without mentioning the expo repeat, which, like the one in the last movement and the ones in the Scherzo & Trio, was until recently ignored and when all the Scherzo repeats are played the movement can end up the longest.

[Goon525]

Actually I think she did a good job - though, yes, she should have mentioned the exposition repeat - but I was just wrong - just - about the winner. I really enjoyed the COE/Harnoncourt set when it came out, so am happy enough with the outcome.

[RobP]

The Harnoncourt is good but far too lightweight. The work needs a full symphony orchestra not a chamber one.

[Retune]

I should have made that an each way bet on Blomstedt. Thought she was going with Abbado, which sounds like a fine performance, but no complaints about Harnoncourt. Pity it only seems to be available on CD in a full price box set, though it was recorded in the 80s. Will listen to the full performance on Extra (an option we are soon to lose).

[Pulcinella]

I should have made that an each way bet on Blomstedt. Thought she was going with Abbado, which sounds like a fine performance, but no complaints about Harnoncourt. Pity it only seems to be available on CD in a full price box set, though it was recorded in the 80s. Will listen to the full performance on Extra (an option we are soon to lose).

Yes: a delightful bit of irony there in the way that Andrew encouraged us to listen.
Not for much longer, I fear.

[Barbirollians]

I should have made that an each way bet on Blomstedt. Thought she was going with Abbado, which sounds like a fine performance, but no complaints about Harnoncourt. Pity it only seems to be available on CD in a full price box set, though it was recorded in the 80s. Will listen to the full performance on Extra (an option we are soon to lose).

It was possible to get it not too expensively when it came out - former member JLW waxed lyrical about the set . I bought it but I am afraid it is in the jnlustened to box set pile. Abbado as expected flew high and delighted to see Lenny go close . A bit odd that having herself waxed lyrical about Bruno Walter he disappeared from view .

Biggest surprise no HIPP contenders and no mention of the recent Savall.

[Cockney Sparrow]

IIRC it was Jayne Lee Wilson who heartily recommended the BAL selection - COE / Harnoncourt set of Symphonies on ICA classics. (The set does appear on streaming services).
EDIT: (I now see my post crossed with Barbirollian's)

[south west ear]

For me, of the last 4 the only 2 serious contenders were Blomstedt and Abbado. I would have eliminated Harnoncourt because of the sort of exaggerated gesture which for me disfigured the final extract too, supposed to clinch his supremacy. I was fascinated by some of the details and colours of the Abbado but was never less than totally convinced by all I heard of Blomstedt's. Impossible to separate them without hearing more. Like many here I imagine I was surprised to find no mention of Mackerras. It was an impossible task with so many recordings, given which choosing an older reviewer might have been beneficial.

[Sir Velo]

That old chestnut about Schubert requiring outsize symphony orchestra proportions deserves to be well and truly knocked on the head. Harnoncourt has recorded the entire corpus of Schubert's symphonies three times, with the Concertgebouw in the 90s, again in the 2000s with the Berlin Phil and this one, last to be released, but ironically first to be recorded in the 80s. In many ways it is the most unsettling. I listened to this a few weeks back and it is certainly a febrile account, brilliantly played, like the Berlin Phil lite as someone once described it. Greater articulation and movement. Very much the music of a young man not going gentle into that good night.

[Goon525]

For me, of the last 4 the only 2 serious contenders were Blomstedt and Abbado. I would have eliminated Harnoncourt because of the sort of exaggerated gesture which for me disfigured the final extract too, supposed to clinch his supremacy. I was fascinated by some of the details and colours of the Abbado but was never less than totally convinced by all I heard of Blomstedt's. Impossible to separate them without hearing more. Like many here I imagine I was surprised to find no mention of Mackerras. It was an impossible task with so many recordings, given which choosing an older reviewer might have been beneficial.

What an odd thing to say. We got Toscanini, Furtwangler, Walter. She demonstrated knowledge of the complete history of recordings of this work.

[Goon525]

IIRC it was Jayne Lee Wilson who heartily recommended the BAL selection - COE / Harnoncourt set of Symphonies on ICA classics. (The set does appear on streaming services).
EDIT: (I now see my post crossed with Barbirollian's)

Is anyone in touch with JLW? I miss her contributions (well most of them), and worry for her health.

[RobP]

That old chestnut about Schubert requiring outsize symphony orchestra proportions deserves to be well and truly knocked on the head. Harnoncourt has recorded the entire corpus of Schubert's symphonies three times, with the Concertgebouw in the 90s, again in the 2000s with the Berlin Phil and this one, last to be released, but ironically first to be recorded in the 80s. In many ways it is the most unsettling. I listened to this a few weeks back and it is certainly a febrile account, brilliantly played, like the Berlin Phil lite as someone once described it. Greater articulation and movement. Very much the music of a young man not going gentle into that good night.

The BPO and Concertgebouw recordings have reduced string sections. The BPO version also has some peculiar choices of tempo etc. With regard to the size of orchestra I should have said 'for me'. But it is worth saying that HIPP is not de rigeur, although all of Toscanini's accounts from the 1940s with a full symphony orchestra are decidedly modern in conception.

[visualnickmos]

Is anyone in touch with JLW? I miss her contributions (well most of them), and worry for her health.

Yes, I'd been worrying too. I know she and I, had our 'differences' but I do hope she is OK.