BaL 1.07.17 - Janáček: Sinfonietta

[Bryn]

I've got go out, but having a very quick listen to the Klemperer Concertgebow on Naxos Music Library - sound isn't that bad (no swishing or clicks/pops) (as I say on a sample / quick listen) (Label - Archiphon - Initial "J" ; cat no : ARC-101). Bryn - you're not far from London - if you're local library doesn't provide access, have you dropped by at the Barbican Library to join there? (You don't have to answer - perhaps too personal a question).
I probably wouldn't buy it either - but as ever, its a great facility to listen before deciding. (Apologies to those of you who can't access it).
Also - I see its available in Google Play Music but no time to check my daughter's Spotify.

Through the good offices of another contributor here I have now heard the 1952 recording. It's more to my liking than the Cologne Radio recording, but still no real challenge to Ancerl or Mackerras, to my ears at least.

[Nick Armstrong]

I enjoyed this BAL and learnt things from it. My main thought was that I need to make good the sad fact that I've never heard this piece live, rather than that I need to add to my standby Mackerras/VPO disc.

Afterthought: it's amazing the thing ever came to be performed (and not surprising that a new edition is on its way) given LJ's hand - this is an image put online by AMcG of the opening:





I can't make out a thing there, apart from a bass clef and the word 'Fanfare' ....!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can't make out a thing there, apart from a bass clef and the word 'Fanfare' ....!

Well - there's clearly a part for "two Bastards (Friday)". Knowing the work, I can make out it's the Bassoons' line in parallel fifths (although the very first bar looks more like a triad reading upwards A D F ). If it's the very opening (as suggested by the numbers over the bars) I don't know what the part is above them - Trombones? Timps?? (But they don't play anything like what's written here in the first bars.) The hastily-added middle staff looks like the Timp part (rest - din-ga Din Ga dinGa!) - presumably this is a sketch?

(My own regret about this work - more so than not having heard it Live - is that the opportunity to play in a performance never arose )

[vinteuil]

Well - there's clearly a part for "two Bastards (Friday)".

... my edition has "two basmati, trilby". Clearly in both cases we're talking abt some detective's hastily taken notes...


.

[BBMmk2]

... my edition has "two basmati, trilby". Clearly in both cases we're talking abt some detective's hastily taken notes...


.

Sounds like an Indian take-away menu!

[techniquest]

Did a quick Amazon check to see what recordings were available - thought that Masur c/w Dvorak 8 and the Lenard on Naxos for 52p and 1p plus p&p might be worth a listen.

The Ondrej Lenard recording is well worth a penny (for Taras Bulba if nothing else) but you'll jar at the timpani error during the Sinfonietta's 1st movement.
While considering Naxos, has anyone any views on the Wit / Warsaw recording on that label, which wasn't mentioned on BAL?

[makropulos]

Well - there's clearly a part for "two Bastards (Friday)". Knowing the work, I can make out it's the Bassoons' line in parallel fifths (although the very first bar looks more like a triad reading upwards A D F ). If it's the very opening (as suggested by the numbers over the bars) I don't know what the part is above them - Trombones? Timps?? (But they don't play anything like what's written here in the first bars.) The hastily-added middle staff looks like the Timp part (rest - din-ga Din Ga dinGa!) - presumably this is a sketch?

(My own regret about this work - more so than not having heard it Live - is that the opportunity to play in a performance never arose )

Yes, it is a sketch - reading downwards: Trumpets, then Bass Trbn and and Timps, then two Bass Tubas - not bassoons as they don't play in the first movement (famously, they don't play in the last movement either as Janacek [probably] forgot to write a part for them). In the real thing, the trumpets don't play until bar 11 (though they do play these notes when they come in). There's a complete facsimile of the first movement published in 1964 which begins as you'd expect it to (and says Tenor Tubas rather than Bass Tubas).

[kea]

I listened to a few excerpts from some of the top-ranked versions here. Found myself surprisingly disappointed with Mackerras due to a lack of.... Czech rhythmic feel? Is that a thing? In Kubelík and Ančerl phrases seem to breathe more, shorter notes to be shortened or lengthened for expressive effect, the rhythms come closer to speech than music. I didn't notice that as much with Mackerras—more with the Czech Philharmonic than the Vienna Philharmonic.

Neither Kubelík nor Ančerl gets top-flight orchestral playing either—who can, with this piece?—with Kubelík's live recording on Orfeo actually more impressive than the studio one on DG in that respect, apart from some cringey high violin notes which are Janáček's fault anyway. So for me it would be between Kubelík on Orfeo and Ančerl, although having had the latter for ages probably prejudices me in favour of recordings that are similar to it.

Klemperer is just wrong, although in an intriguing way. I'll listen to the whole thing at some point.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, it is a sketch - reading downwards: Trumpets, then Bass Trbn and and Timps, then two Bass Tubas - not bassoons as they don't play in the first movement (famously, they don't play in the last movement either as Janacek [probably] forgot to write a part for them). In the real thing, the trumpets don't play until bar 11 (though they do play these notes when they come in). There's a complete facsimile of the first movement published in 1964 which begins as you'd expect it to (and says Tenor Tubas rather than Bass Tubas).

Many, many thanks, makro - after reading your post, the handwriting becomes actually quite clear!

[BBMmk2]

One of the things I like about this Forum, is the diverse array of opinions. For example, with this thread. I emphatically disagreed wholeheartedly about the chosen recording. Whilst other members were sounding it's praises! How boring would it be, for all of us to be the same!!

[HighlandDougie]

When you have listened, would you be so kind as to advise us here? Nobody has mentioned that the LP coupling, Taras Bulba, seems to me to be an even more intense and idiomatic recording, on my LPs at least. Many orchestras have lost their autochthonous identity. Ironically, it is probably the gramophone which is to blame.

I've now had the chance to listen to this CD (here on my return from London). The remastering has been undertaken with the skill characteristic of Japanese sound engineers. The warmth of the original 1961 recordings (the characteristic acoustic of the Rudolfinium) has been retained but with added clarity and, to use that Hifi geek cliché, a depth and width of soundspace which allows one to picture the orchestra in the hall. And to answer Alain: the idiomatic sound of the Czech Phil is well-captured, particularly the characteristic timbre of the woodwinds and the warmth of the strings. I like the Sinfonietta very much but I also prefer to listen to 'Taras Bulba' if I am in the mood for some orchestral Janacek. Very short measure for a CD but the performances are so good that it doesn't much matter.

[Alain Maréchal]

Thank you HD, You have tempted me to spend money. I knew Ancerl's Taras Bulba before Sinfonietta (which I considered empty noise), and was so overwhelmed I bought a second LP for safety's sake - Supraphon issues were not always easy to find.