It was an excellent BaL, marred only by some gratingly bad pronunciation of some pretty basic, and fundamental, words and names ('Berg' for 'Burg' and 'Mutti' for 'Muti' to take two examples). I found this puzzling and jarring coming from such a knowledgeable and discerning reviewer.
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I echo your views - but the ugliness of badly pronounced words and names, seems to be all too apparent on BaL these days. A general example of this (nothing whatsoever to do with the topic!) that crops up regularly is Degas. Nearly everyone non-French says day-gah when it should be duh-gah. Annoys the hell out of me.....Originally posted by underthecountertenor View Post
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Degas is one and Debussy is another.
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Then there's Giovanni and Tatiana.
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Originally posted by verismissimo View PostThen there's Giovanni and Tatiana.
Quite so........ a thread of its own, perhaps?Comment
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Rather unfairly - he cut him off early in the allegro con fuoco .Originally posted by verismissimo View PostComment
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O ferney, ferney.... You must have been having a wrong-side-of-the-bed, grumpy Saturday morning? The pressures of AA question setting perhaps...Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
I concur with all that jayne. Having been won over to No 4 at the age of 16 when we did it for O-level music, and then discovered No 3 via Peter Maag, I've lately caught No 5 a couple of times and warmed to its first 3 movements without really connecting with the last movement. (I also find the 'Dresden amen' motif rather odd and intrusive, knowing Parsifal much better for far longer...). Never felt the need to own it, until Gardner's recording came out, and have enjoyed that a lot. I'm curious to hear the Fey though.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostAn excellent, very concise-and-to-the-point BaL on a symphony I've been fond of for a while after discovering it late there's Edward Gardner with the CBSO in Birmingham Town Hall, the quick and the lean on a conductor-modified modern orchestra(**).
((**)Just played Gardner's finale - wow! Not much wrong with this one is there? Terrific sound too (for a mere CD
). And despite the (lack of...!) finale transition, the pacing & dynamics thereafter are perfectly judged. Go. Get.)
I've long thought that Mendelssohn's music is the most susceptible of just about any I know to the quality of performance - can seem prosaic, plodding, hackneyed in the 'wrong' hands, whereas the same notes done 'right' can be a delight.
Case in point:
... I suspect the two halves of that sentence are very closely linked! The HvK extract from the "Allegro vivace" sounded as flat as week-old champagne....Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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OyOyOy!!! That was from another Thread - I deliberately didn't want to contribute here and thus suggest that the piece wasn't worthy of "least commented on BaL EVER" award! I found Mr Mellor's descriptions of the "programme" did little but make the Musical examples sound like the soundtrack of a 1930s Gainsborough film. I couldn't stop laughing - I kept expecting to hear a voice-over dialogue between George Arliss and Margaret Lockwood.Originally posted by Caliban View PostO ferney, ferney.... You must have been having a wrong-side-of-the-bed, grumpy Saturday morning? The pressures of AA question setting perhaps...
Oh, cali, cali ... You must have been having a wrong-side-of-the-bed, grumpy Tuesday morning? The pressures of AA question setting perhaps...... I suspect the two halves of that sentence are very closely linked! The HvK extract from the "Allegro vivace" sounded as flat as week-old champagne....
I'm REALLY looking forward to Machaut on Saturday, though![FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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I wasn't inspired to go out and buy a recording of the piece . I have the Karajan somewhere on cassette . The Italian always strikes me as a vast improvement on his other symphonies .Comment
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LSO Maag 3 has long been my yardstick for Mendelssohn Symphony performances. The Sawallisch Reformation does not seem to have had a mention - A good 'un!Originally posted by Barbirollians View PostComment
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Me too, and Abbado/LSO.Originally posted by cloughie View Post
Strangely, the Maag don't imo stand up fantastically well to comparison. For instance, when the French 'Critiques de Disques' programme covered Mendelssohn 3 a few years back, the first version (of the six 'blind-tasted') to be eliminated was one that even to my amateur ears sounded wooden and (iirc) not very together ... and it turned out to be the 'classic' Maag/LSO/Decca 1960 Kingsway Hall recording I'd loved for years!!
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Yes, it might even sound a little heavy to me now, but it will remain a classic of its day. More importantly - Maag's late work in Spain & Italy is very different from the early LSO recordings, far leaner, often swifter and rhythmically to-the-point (though his rhythmic sense is the strongest aspect of his LSO Mendelssohn or those Mozart Nocturnes/Serenades, even at a slow tempo). But the lovely, affectionate phrasing is still there. As I said upthread that Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid Mendelssohn 1 c/w 5 is very good indeed and beautifully recorded, in the same vein as his beautiful, crisp & spirited Mozart (an inner-voice, inner-rhythmical understanding in allegros, & gorgeous slow movements) with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto (names to conjure with...Originally posted by Caliban View PostMe too, and Abbado/LSO.
Strangely, the Maag don't imo stand up fantastically well to comparison. For instance, when the French 'Critiques de Disques' programme covered Mendelssohn 3 a few years back, the first version (of the six 'blind-tasted') to be eliminated was one that even to my amateur ears sounded wooden and (iirc) not very together ... and it turned out to be the 'classic' Maag/LSO/Decca 1960 Kingsway Hall recording I'd loved for years!!
). All on the ARTS label, - the Mendelssohn was available in 24/96 on Chandos TCS once, worth a look now...
THis BaL and related listening have only inspired greater love of the Reformation... it's been spring-in-my-step uplifting to have it in my head - the finale build-up especially - these two days, whether dancing in the Sainsburys aisles (mentally at least) or clearing out drowned shrubs in the boggy orchard.
I've downloaded Krivine & listened to excerpts from Fey - more close listening needed, but I think Andrew Mellor got it spot-on here - they both sound terrific, and the Fey finale exceptionally inspiring just as Mellor offered....
(oh and, cutting Abbado short... sounded like a favour to the conductor keeping exposure of THAT one brief...a large, sluggish, uninterested band...a musical misrepresentation... see my initial post (28) above etc. As Schumann, so Mendelssohn...).Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 10-02-16, 02:34.Comment
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I've not kept much vinyl, but you won't get the LSO/Maag 'Hebrides' Overture off me without a fight! Still sounds superb, especially with that deep focus to the sound you get (or I get) on vinyl, those distant fanfares in the development beautifully spaced, evoking distant isalnds, etc.Originally posted by cloughie View PostComment
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