BaL 14.05.11 - Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 17

[salymap]

Two more I didnt spot on anyone's list:

Previn/Boult on HMV
Ralph Kirkpatrick/Alexander Schneider on mono Nixa

Both on vinyl. I'm pretty sure that old Nixa will have sunk without trace, but Previn might still be around - does anyone know?

And Salymap, if you've got Richter-Haaser on the original Columbia blue and silver label LP (SAX 2426) and its in good nick, its worth a bit of money. My 2006 price guide suggests £85. You might be lucky to get that much these days, but those original Columbias are highly collectible, none the less. Look after it!

I'm afraid my Richter-Haaser is 33CX1780 in mono, coupled with no 26, Coronation concerto. Ah well.

[umslopogaas]

Post 29 vinteuil

Vinteuil, thanks for that, a fine quote! Is it from 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater', which I admit, I know of, but have not read? Just went looking through my shelves of rather randomly collected volumes, but I dont have it (and anyway, having a book on my shelves doesnt guarantee I've read it, I inherited a stack from my bibliophile grandfather, but readable, some of it, it aint. Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' in six volumes, or Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion'? They look nice in their Victorian leather bindings, but the opening pages dont inspire enthusiasm to go further). Havent got any Burke either, another gap to fill. So many authors, so little time. And there's the music, too. Time to send, I must turn over the LP.

It did occur to me though, that if alliteration is aleatorically obnoxious, would 'Poe's Poems' have given him the prosodial postcoitals (tristes)?

[vinteuil]

Post 29 vinteuil

Vinteuil, thanks for that, a fine quote! Is it from 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater', which I admit, I know of, but have not read? Just went looking through my shelves of rather randomly collected volumes, but I dont have it....

This quote was from his essay "Wordsworth and Southey", Tait's Edinburgh Magazine July 1839. I happen to have it in the Collected Works of de Quincey; but it's also in a very handy Penguin volume "de Quincey -'Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets'."

Never got into Clarendon - but Gibbon is glorious...

[verismissimo]

I appear to have Ingrid Haebler with LSO/Rowicki, Geza Anda with his Salzburgers and Annerose Schmidt with Dresdners/Masur.

It's one of my greatest favourites. But I still haven't invested in HIP performances of these concertos. Maybe I will after Saturday morning...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I appear to have Ingrid Haebler with LSO/Rowicki, ...

One of my greatest regrets has been my failure to buy the Philips box set of Haebler's Mozart Piano Concertos. I do have the performances on LP, but the CDs have been unavailable for some time.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I can field Richter-Haaser (only the CfP pressing), Shelley, Previn, Barenboim (EMI) and Ashkenazy. Probably enough to be going on with...?

If pushed to choose, my first grab would probably be for the Shelley. Can't give you any detailed reason for this but I do very much like all the WAM concerto discs of his (3?) that I've got.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Any views on the various Brendel versions?

[Roehre]

One of my greatest regrets has been my failure to buy the Philips box set of Haebler's Mozart Piano Concertos. I do have the performances on LP, but the CDs have been unavailable for some time.

I was lucky enough (from hindsight !) to get that set as Vol.2 in the Philips 1977 Mozart Edition on LP.
That was just before I got the Brendel set as a present.

Compared with him I did not care much any more about the Haebler then, but I've got the (according to Mrs Roehre unfortunate) habit not to discard LPs/CDs etc, even if I am not really liking them and have got the repertoire more than once in my collection. I keep them "for future reference" as they say :) . Therefore Haebler's Mozart-concertos are still on my shelves.

And how much I still admire Brendel -inclusive no.17, with ASMF/Marriner therefore- I think there is much to admire in the Haebler-set too. A previously rather unusual lightness of touch (AFAIR then only matched by Geza Anda on DGG) and a much lighter approach of the orchestral accompaniment than was usual in those days (late 1960s), even compared with the slightly later Barenboim/ECO-set on EMI.

Hesitatingly one might say that in that respect HIP Mozart piano concertos started with her.

[verismissimo]

Think I'd give that accolade to Anda, Roehre, much as I appreciate Haebler in this concerto. It's a Brendel I don't have.

[Roehre]

Think I'd give that accolade to Anda, Roehre, much as I appreciate Haebler in this concerto. It's a Brendel I don't have.

Verismissimo, if you mean the "HIP-"accolade, then I am afraid that Anda's recordings follow Haebler's: 1965-1968 for Haebler vs 1967-1969 for Anda. But admittedly there is not much difference in the recording dates.

[verismissimo]

I think what I meant was that Anda sounds to me more HIP than Haebler, Roehre.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't regard "HIP" or "HIPP" as an accolade at all, though there are many fine performances that fit into this particular pigeonhole. I know it's an obsession with some.

I quite like the quotation from Peter Gammond's "Bluff your way in Music":

One of the most pleasing things about Mozart is that hardly anyone can perform his music very well. Conductors who shatter us with their Beethoven, browbeat us with their Wagner and belay us with their Bartok, get so nervous when they perform Mozart that you can be absolutely certain that 95 per cent of Mozart performances are unsatisfactory - so do not hesitate to say so. As the ideal seems to be an orchestra of angels with St. Peter conducting and Mozart himself playing the piano, it is quite clear why mere mortals so often fail. Sir Thomas Beecham was, of course, St. Peter in heavy disguise and Clara Haskill and Wanda Landowska were both in psychic contact with Mozart.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

HAppily, we do seem to be getting a "balanced" BAL.

[verismissimo]

Your antipathy to HIP has been noted, Alpen. :)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Your antipathy to HIP has been noted, Alpen. :)

My antipathy is not to "HIP", but to the high and mighty attitude of some HIPPsters.