BaL 29.10.16 - Brahms: String Sextet No.1 in B flat major, Op. 18

[visualnickmos]

Yes, indeed....and I have often discovered versions that passed me by. So keep up the good work, Alpie.

Yes - many times, for me....

[pastoralguy]

I'm really looking forward to this BaL tomorrow morning. I do wonder if my favourite LPO principals will get a mention.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm really looking forward to this BaL tomorrow morning.

Me too. Essential piece - of which I only have one recording! (Raphaels).

[PJPJ]

Now added.


Unrelated to this, I'm beginning to wonder whether these lists of available recordings are a waste of time, if BaL presenters are going to choose recordings that are NOT generally available, as they have done for the last three weeks.

I'll add my tuppence-worth - definitely not a waste of time, very useful, thank you!

[pastoralguy]

I'll add my tuppence-worth - definitely not a waste of time, very useful, thank you!

[visualnickmos]

I'll add my tuppence-worth - definitely not a waste of time, very useful, thank you!

Spot-on. I love examining the lists, and am regularly amazed at seeing versions that I had no idea existed, and/or which warrant "further investigation" and as has often happened, end up by reducing the coffers a little! (or a lot! )

[Beef Oven!]

I'll add my tuppence-worth - definitely not a waste of time, very useful, thank you!

essential!

[Beef Oven!]

Very much looking forward to this BaL. Although it’s only recently that Brahms has ‘snapped into focus’ for me, I always liked his chamber works. For quite a few years now, the augmented Amadeus Quartet box-set has hit the spot for me. Apart from the odd waif and stray CD, I have no other comparators.

[gurnemanz]

A favourite work (Raphaels and Berliner Octet) last seen live this year in Malmesbury Abbey (Music in Country Churches.) Nash Ensemble with Adrian Brendel on cello. Emma Kirkby (appearing the next day) was there sitting right next to us on her own in a sparse audience, I dared to chat briefly to her in the interval.

[pastoralguy]

A favourite work (Raphaels and Berliner Octet) last seen live this year in Malmesbury Abbey (Music in Country Churches.) Nash Ensemble with Adrian Brendel on cello. Emma Kirkby (appearing the next day) was there sitting right next to us on her own in a sparse audience, I dared to chat briefly to her in the interval.

Alas, I've never heard a live performance of either of the Brahms Sextets.

[PJPJ]

I'm really looking forward to this BaL tomorrow morning. I do wonder if my favourite LPO principals will get a mention.

I had that years ago - replaced it with the CD of the Raphaels........

I remembered today I have one not on the list, a fine recording with principals of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. (Amazon's price seems unnecessarily high, and doesn't seem to come with a free jar of Marmite.)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sextets-Brahms/dp/B00SI9TJ20

[BBMmk2]

ASMF or The Nashes for me.

NB Having heard this BaL, it's another one where I do not agree with the reviewer! I thought that the one chosen, The Leipzig's, with guest artists, wasn't up to scratch at all. It didn't seem to flow like the ASMF Chamber Ensemble does, for me, at any rate(or MrsBBM!)

[Beef Oven!]

On the strength of that BaL I don’t feel too much pressure to move beyond my long-standing Amadeus Quartet version. Having had a look around the internet, I failed to find any availability of the recommendation, anyway.

Enjoyable BaL, but I couldn’t help thinking that more could have been made of it (or was it that my expectation was overly inflated?).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well that's good. It's the first time for ages that the recommended version is one you can simply go out and buy.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Having had a look around the internet, I failed to find any availability of the recommendation, anyway.

Amazon is perplexed, but Presto Classical has it:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/MDG/MDG3070969

Enjoyable BaL, but I couldn’t help thinking that more could have been made of it (or was it that my expectation was overly inflated?).

I enjoyed it, too - and thought it was very well presented: a good wide selection of recordings, fair comments on each extract, and an ideal (for me) blend of involvement and detachment - no attempting to be popular with clumsy chumminess; dignified without being pompous.

At the same time (whilst I would snap up some of the versions I heard if I saw them in a charity shop) like you none made me feel that my current recordings were so lacking that I needed to order any replacements/supplements immediately. (Handy to be made aware that I really should avoid the Menuhin interpretation, too!)