BaL 24.12.16/10.12.22 - Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 21 in C, K467

[visualnickmos]

Loved the Bal.
Didn't like the recommendation at all!

Voila!

[vinteuil]

.

... loved it.

( ... have already got most of them )

Particularly liked the Gilels - think I'll have to find a copy.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The final choice isn't really the main issue. It's the opportunity to discover more about what's available without having to buy all the recordings yourself. Sometimes I learn of a recording I'd had no intention of buying, but the reviewer alerted me to something interesting.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The final choice isn't really the main issue. It's the opportunity to discover more about what's available without having to buy all the recordings yourself. Sometimes I learn of a recording I'd had no intention of buying, but the reviewer alerted me to something interesting.

- I don't think that we Forumistas (with our libraries of thousands of CDs) are necessarily the target audience for the discs chosen as the "one-if-you-only-have-one" for the Library; but the best reviews are those that do exactly what you say here, Alpie - bring the attention of people like (some of!) us to recordings of which we might otherwise be unaware.

I've said before, too, that the advantage of BaL over printed reviews is that when we suspect that a reviewer is talking out of their armpits, the broadcast illustration shows that we were right in our suspicions, and we can use what we heard - rather than the reviewer's opinion of it - to help our buying choices.

[Alison]

A moderately enjoyable BAL for me, the expected compendium of quirky details leaving but a partial understanding of what the reviewer was seeking in his ideal performance.

Few were the extracts I wanted to hear more of. Serkin/Abbado was one.

I enjoy some of the perceptive wit without getting anywhere near trusting DON to build my library.

[Sir Velo]

I enjoy some of the perceptive wit without getting anywhere near trusting DON to build my library.

Spot on Alison. Marmite, for me, I'm afraid. Where was the sense of sweep and sheer thrill which this work has in spades?

[richardfinegold]

I think the sound of the thud as I hit the floor could be used in Mahler #6!!!

[Tony Halstead]

Spot on Alison. Marmite, for me, I'm afraid. Where was the sense of sweep and sheer thrill which this work has in spades?

Where was the sense of sweep and sheer thrill which this work has in spades?

It was all there in Malcolm Bilson's performance, wonderfully aided and abetted, meaningfully underlined and rhetorically / sympathetically 'accompanied' by 'Sir' ( he wasn't ennobled back then) John Eliot Gardiner and the 'English Baroque Soloists'.
I do know this for a fact, as I was playing in the orchestra on this recording. I was lucky enough to play on maybe 70% of the 'Bilson Mozart cycle' and will always remember his ultra-sensitive and technically scrupulous playing.

[richardfinegold]

Did Casadesus/Szell get a mention?
I listened to Marriner and Brendel last night. Hugely enjoyable.

[Alison]

Downloaded the Serkin LSO/Abbado, somewhat lacking the sweep and thrill suggested by Sir Velo, yet still affording plenty of enjoyment on a Christmas Eve. Lovely to hear the whole work after the unusually bitty nature of DON's comments.

I was still pretty young when these Serkin discs were released. I get the impression the critics didn't rate them?

[verismissimo]

It was all there in Malcolm Bilson's performance, wonderfully aided and abetted, meaningfully underlined and rhetorically / sympathetically 'accompanied' by 'Sir' ( he wasn't ennobled back then) John Eliot Gardiner and the 'English Baroque Soloists'.
I do know this for a fact, as I was playing in the orchestra on this recording. I was lucky enough to play on maybe 70% of the 'Bilson Mozart cycle' and will always remember his ultra-sensitive and technically scrupulous playing.

Happy Christmas and thanks, Tony.

[pastoralguy]

I was still pretty young when these Serkin discs were released. I get the impression the critics didn't rate them?

I seem to remember that they got short shrift from the critics. I think these recordings were made at a time when the CD was a new format and DG was desperate to have a complete cycle. Alas, the Serkin was discontinued after poor reviews, the general consensus being that Serkin was a wee bit past it.

[waldo]

Happy Christmas and thanks, Tony.

Seconded. What a wonderful set - one of my most cherished. I am obviously in a minority here, but I thought it was a good first choice. I love the sound of the fortepiano (and I am not usually a fan of the fortepiano), and particularly the orchestra, which has a richness and sonority often lacking in period performances.

[Nick Armstrong]

FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed the programme and was very pleased he found time to comment on, and not to dismiss, Annie Fischer's Busoni cadenza.

Just caught up this morning. I also found the Gilels really absorbing...

Ah...

Particularly liked the Gilels - think I'll have to find a copy.

I enjoy some of the perceptive wit without getting anywhere near trusting DON to build my library.

Yup - that just about sums it up!

Happy Christmas and thanks, Tony.

Thirded!

[jayne lee wilson]

I haven't had time to catch this but - was there any mention of my current favourites, Schoonderwoerd or Brautigam?