BaL 29.06.19 - Mozart: Piano Quartets 1 & 2

[Mal]

Sounds like a good one to have missed (busy doing something else), and one not even worth catching up with.
...

Yes, an hour of my life wasted.

[visualnickmos]

Hi Mal,

Excellent! You really 'nailed' it. I agree with your trenchant observations and brilliant asides, 100%

I too, loved the "too lush" Ax, Stern, Laredo and Ma. The Faure - yep - nothing special, good but....

I didn't like any of the HIPs, all the pianos sounded pretty dire, however well they might have been played.

Beaux Arts omitted! - flawed BaL from the start, in my books, then.

[edashtav]

Yes, an hour of my life wasted.

I suppose the conclusion was 'Fauré's a jolly good fellow, even when not the composer'. This group came from left field , possibly because it gives a stronger performance in the second of the two Mozart piano quartets. I fear that those persuaded to buy this BaL may find it's half bad.

This BaL lacked authority and the evidence base for its conclusions was poor. Some of our colleagues on this site show better judgement.

[Stanfordian]

Hi Mal,

Excellent! You really 'nailed' it. I agree with your trenchant observations and brilliant asides, 100%

I too, loved the "too lush" Ax, Stern, Laredo and Ma. The Faure - yep - nothing special, good but....

I didn't like any of the HIPs, all the pianos sounded pretty dire, however well they might have been played.

Beaux Arts omitted! - flawed BaL from the start, in my books, then.

I'm puzzled why the most popular version namely the Beaux Arts was omitted? Talk about a guest being out of one's depth.

[Darloboy]

Thanks Mal, you’ve pinpointed the major problem with this series of BaL: not so much the twofers as the narrow range of recordings being considered. How can it be a library choice if the greatest performances have been perversely omitted?

[Mal]

I'm puzzled why the most popular version namely the Beaux Arts was omitted? Talk about being out of one's depth.

I just ordered the box set:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8261060--mozart-complete-piano-trios

Note, Presto have got the title wrong, it shouldn't be "Mozart: Complete Piano Trios" because the set does contain the piano quartets! As the box itself indicates, and the details show, the box (hopefully) contains the complete Mozart recordings of the Beaux Arts on Philips.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Prof has a very similar vocal tone to SK!

I missed this BaL, as I was doing the weekly Parkrun. I was going to catch up later, but I may reconsider in view of this apt warning.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think we can now assume that every BAL is now going to be in the twofer format. :(

I hope not, but it does appear to be the case.

Does anyone want to take over the listings?

[cloughie]

I hope not, but it does appear to be the case.

Does anyone want to take over the listings?

No mention of either Previn recordings!

[Mal]

I too, loved the "too lush" Ax, Stern, Laredo and Ma....

It's Nicholas Kenyon's top choice in his faber pocket guide of Mozart. If I was a former BBC Radio 3 controller, and Mozart biographer, I'd be asking AMcG, and any other BBC personnel involved, some serious questions. The whole tone of the programme was wrong, there was no indication that K478 is, as Kenyon puts it, "essential Mozart, you can't do without [this] unquestioned masterpiece" AMcG made them seem like quaint little numbers, not to take too seriously, in the introduction. And the "expert" involved made no attempt to disabuse us of this impression. It's a gross insult to Mozart and the listener.

[jayne lee wilson]

Professor Laura Tunbridge seems to have formidable expertise in Schumann, especially his songs, but her CV doesn't indicate any great expertise in Mozart. Looks like another Brian Cox situation, as Patrick Moore kept on pointing out, "he isn't an astronomer!" Her only Mozart publication is entitled, ‘Loving Mozart: Berhard Lang, “Ach, ich fühl’s” (Grace Moor), I Hate Mozart, Act I’, which I don't understand, but that 'I hate Mozart' is a worry, I hope she was being ironic...

https://www.music.ox.ac.uk/about/peo...ura-tunbridge/

Hey, hands off the lovely Brian Cox, a very gifted presenter & musician whose BBC2 Planets series has been one of the delights of the year....he's a personal treasure, and on the way to becoming a national one!
Do reviewers need academic qualifications to be acceptable now? Better to be an open-minded, experienced listener with a highly-resolving system, and skilled with words...as long as you have the knowledge...of the recorded catalogue (most essentially up to the present; one reason BaL sometimes omits mentions of older classics is simply that they are already so well-known. This is about recorded music, not acquiring a music degree.

***

Mal.... HIPPs... with tasteless expressions like "Period Taliban" or "bar-room piano" you only emphasise your own already obvious prejudices.
As for Bilson's group "overacting" what on Earth does that mean? Certainly tells us nothing about the reading, which is a lovely, subtle, wide-ranging performance, one I'm coming to know quite well (see #53).

It is 2019 ....these types of performance have been around for some decades, they share the musical world with modern instruments........why not get a streaming service and saturate yourself in some of those I mentioned above in #53...?
I didn't take to instruments d'époque at first... I needed to live with them a while to learn to love them, and the various artists have become more and more adept, skilful and expressive.
Listening at length and leisure to HIPPS-authentic groups, you come to appreciate the greater timbral and presentational variety, often more vividly differentiated than with modern groups. Excerpts don't really bring that across, especially using lossy codecs, which do delicate textures and gestures no favours at all.

Part of the problem with having to commit to purchase (or not) even if only speculatively, is that it can distort your view of excerpts in such a presentation as BaL, whereas high-quality streaming has simply revolutionised serious listening to classical recordings, in that you can take your time to immerse yourself in new expressive and timbral worlds....it is far more relativistic, and truer to the creative spirit of listening, instead of everything being, on some level, a buyer's guide, or simply a more sophisticated version of I know what I like and I like what I know...

Very liberating to escape from that - which is the special gift of lossless/HD streaming....
Even better - located the Fauré Quartett (sic) on Qobuz, will scrutinise later....

I'll catch up on the BaL later.... after early local errands, back to the garden now the sun's sort-of-out...

[Pulcinella]

Does anyone want to take over the listings?

Is it perhaps time to simply provide a link to availability on the Presto site?
Admittedly there are often duplications, with the same recording appearing with different couplings or in several bigger sets,
but forum members could do their own filtering (CD only, download available, etc).

I'm amazed how quickly and regularly you have been able to provide the lists in the past, and now even more so as the work under discussion no longer appears in the monthly BBC MM listings: presumably you only find out from the online schedules?
I know from the few that I have done either helping out for the regular BaL or launching a Summer BaL that it's pretty tedious work.

I wonder what others think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - I am always astonished and extremely grateful for the list that you supply each week, Alpie - all the more so having done just one such list. But, given the scale of the task, and the way in which BaLs seem to have moved away from any attempt to discuss a wide range of recordings, I don't think anyone would object if you felt the task of putting the lists together each week is both onerous and no longer relevant to the programme content. As Pulcie suggests, a link to the Presto website - together with Forumistas' own additions - might well be sufficient for the purposes of Forum discussions.

[Mal]

Yes thanks for the lists Alpie, they are wonderful, I always use them as a first resource to see if I've missed anything, or to check spellings, or which pianist played in which ensemble(s), and similar. Maybe Wikipedia could substitute?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring_discography

But can't find a discography for Mozart K478 on Wikipedia.... Allmusic seems a possibility:

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/piano-quartet-no-1-in-g-minor-k-478-mc0002370544

But you don't see the performers without clicking, and there is repetition. Maybe give a link to allmusic and/or presto and encourage people to create/add to a wikipedia discography, if necessary?

[visualnickmos]

I, for one, find Alpie's listings an absolute treasure trove. I enjoy (when I have the time to study it uninterrupted) finding versions/combos that I had no idea existed, and then researching ones that look particularly interesting and worthy of further exploration.
Therefore, forgetting BaL altogether, his listings are an invaluable source of inspiration and enjoyment. Many a time, I have acquired a recording based purely on the fact that it appears in the listing, way before the BaL is even aired.

NB This BaL was again very poor. This format is frustrating to listen to; as soon as one thinks some interesting point is about to issue forth, a damper (or is it 'dampener?') stamps on it in the form of a pointless platitude, or whatever.....

I wish David Owen Norris was given a weekly Bal all of his own. I could listen to him for hours. Best R 3 broadcaster, out there IMVHO. One learns so much from his knowledge and wonderful style of delivery.