Sad to see Jurinac/Busch deleted my favourite recording .
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Apart from the BBC MM CD (which I must listen to again, given the positive comments on this thread) I have
Harper/LSO/Hickox
Janowitz/BPO/Karajan
Norman/Leipzig Gewandhaus/Masur
Popp/LPO/Tennstedt
All very special in different ways, though I've never really taken to the Janowitz (it was a present!).Comment
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In this house it's usually a toss-up between Janowitz's thrilling silver, and Jessye Norman's burnished gold, depending on mood. The latter's Im Abendtrot is exceptionally slow - nearly 10 minutes, to most people's just over 7 - but the result is mesmerising.
Missing from the list I think is Elisabeth Söderström's BBC Legends version (BBCL 4153-2) with Dorati - not a library choice by any means (sound quality etc.) but I love it as a reminder of the first time I heard the work live, 1972 RFH with Söderström/Philharmonia/Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (followed by Schubert 9
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I doubt I'll be buying more versions - tho perhaps I should get Lucia Popp. I've heard Felicity Lott perform it with Kurt Masur....Comment
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Penguin gave Schwarzkopf/Szell a rosette, so I bought it, but I wasn't impressed, and took it to the charity shop. Interesting that several on this thread are, at best, lukewarm about Schwarzkopf/Szell - and certainly no one has handed out a rosette. I have the Janowitz/Karajan disk, which remains in my collection.Last edited by Mal; 05-07-19, 09:08.Comment
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I have this somewhere but can’t remember which one I have, off hand!Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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There is, or was, a second Janowitz recording, live from 1968 with Haitink and the Concertgebouw. It's slightly faster than her famous DG recording with Karajan from five years later, and Haitink keeps the textures a little clearer - no harm in that; but she is in truly glorious voice. She is every bit as moving as she is for Karajan, helped, no doubt, by the more favourable orchestral balance that Haitink allows her. It was available a while ago from Philips in their Dutch Masters series. If you can find it, grab it. This is my current favourite, together with Lisa Della Casa. (I keep the Schwarzkopf under the counter in a plain envelope.)
On a different topic, I too have complained to the BBC, as many on this message board have also done, about the awful discussion format for BAL; and like others here I too received the standard put down from a production assistant.Comment
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Welcome, Wolfram!
Ferney - another Janowitz recording
Yes - the format seems to be a lost cause. I won't be listening, and as ever the best discussion is likely to be here.
AMcG played some Strauss by the new Lise Davidsen a couple of weeks back, and mentioned her upcoming 4LS - I thought her voice in the Strauss songs he played was hard and unpleasant - he blamed the miking - but you may be sure they'll be discussing that version.Comment
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Thank you for the welcome. I've been following you good folks for a while now - ever since the demise of the old Radio 3 message board in fact. I was a little dismayed to find that the registration page didn't allow for enough characters for the full von Eschenbach - but never mind.
I think we are stuck with the discussion format now, no doubt because "a lot of our listeners like it". The really awful thing is that it's not the format per se that's the problem, it could be made to work really well, but rather the clumsy and amateurish way in which the discussions are conducted. Time is wasted through repetition, solid content is lost, and in the name of a revitalised and contemporary format, the baby has been well and truly thrown out with the bath water.
I'm not sure that the live Janowitz recording has ever been available in this country - I may be wrong. My copy came from Amsterdam as part of a collection of five discs of live Haitink recordings with the Concertgebouw.Comment
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Originally posted by Wolfram View Post
... I think the Janowitz with Haitink is to be found in these Janowitz boxes :
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Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
Yes. "Slightly faster" than with Karajan? Hmmm.Ferney - another Janowitz recording
There are two other Karajan recordings, too, if course - with the Philharmonia and Schwarkopf (the best of her recordings, I think - less of the "expectorant" German diction she assumed with Szell [superb orchestral playing and conducting there, though] - and with the songs ordered so that the set ends with Dennis Brain's conclusion to September) and a digital version with the BPO and Anna Tomowa-Sintow, which is very good if not as incandescent as Karajan with Janowitz
- very useful for some less familiar Strauss not otherwise conducted by Karajan.
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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So indeed it is. And it's currently available. What chance it will be included tomorrow?Originally posted by vinteuil View Post... I think the Janowitz with Haitink is to be found in these Janowitz boxes :
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Yes. "Slightly faster" than with Karajan? Hmmm
They bring in Im Abendrot at 5'28", that's one and half minutes faster than Karajan and nearly five minutes faster than Norman and Masur. But at no point does it ever feel rushed; I suppose that's one definition of great conducting: that while you are listening to it, you are totally convinced that that is the only way the piece should go.
I agree about Schwarzkopf's diction - I listened to the Szell recording this afternoon. But at least you can hear her words to complain about about the delivery. Some are just vocalise.
I shall stick with Janowitz in Amsterdam and Della Casa; Felicity Lott won last time, but I find her performance a bit matter of fact for my taste.
The horn playing from the early fifties Vienna Phil for Bohm is superb too.Comment
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Oh - as soon as that Janowitz comes on the market at a price I can afford (or when my state pension comes through, whichever is the sooner) I'll be grabbing it! 
(Haitink is normally very reliable in Strauss, too.)
I love the Lisa Casa (and Barbi's Jurinac ... and the Masur [which, IIRC, was Richard Barrett's favourite]) ... and agree with your reaction to the Lott/SNO/jarvi, which, (again, IIRC) "won" last time more on absence of "flaws" than any specific mega-virtues - a good "compromise" choice by the then reviewer.[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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IIRC, that was Caliban's chosen tipple for this work, too?Originally posted by vinteuil View Post[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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