BaL 5.10.19 - Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

[cloughie]

I always liken him to someone trying to enthuse a sixth-form General Studies class. I don't doubt his knowledge and expertise, but to some extent a Radio 3 Record Review audience is self-selecting, so we don't need Music 'sold' to us. We've already bought it. Maybe, come next Saturday, we'll all be surprised by a calmer persona and a well-considered review.

I’m sure he is heeding your warning ardcarp!

[Bryn]

I always liken him to someone trying to enthuse a sixth-form General Studies class. I don't doubt his knowledge and expertise, but to some extent a Radio 3 Record Review audience is self-selecting, so we don't need Music 'sold' to us. We've already bought it. Maybe, come next Saturday, we'll all be surprised by a calmer persona and a well-considered review.

I see bacon has gone up again.

[Serial_Apologist]

I often single out the final, terrifying climax (following the "love music"), as an fascinating progenitor of where Schoenberg was to take the language of music some eleven years later in "Erwartung" - a remarkable passage in terms of protracted unresolved dissonance that eclipses even much of the idiom the composer deployed in "Salome" and "Elektra", in a work I have to say that in other respects elicits little love from me.

[cloughie]

I love the battle scene and still feel the joy when it was liberated when CDs came out and there was no turnover to ruin continuity.

[jayne lee wilson]

We did a Summer BaL on Heldenleben a few years ago, instigated by Barbirollians.

Both CDs I have are Dresden Staatskapelle - Kempe, Blomstedt (the latter from Denon now seemingly deleted and not on list).

Doubts have been expressed about Tom Service. I usually find him worth listening to and will look forward to what he has to say.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=denon+blomstedt+strauss&i=popular&dc&qid=1569855157&ref=sr_nr_i_2

[cloughie]

Almost a history of recorded music. I began with CSO/Reiner, one of the very first stereo recordings, came through RACO/Haitink, through various HvKs (less favoured subjectively, despite Japanese transfers)... then the sui generis Kempe, and on to the BPO/Rattle...
Mengelberg a case apart too.
On past form (Bruckner 3, Mozart 38, Brahms D Minor Concerto....) TS should do a good job here...

Torn about the work itself though....
Great start, very moving final sections and ending, but in between...? I was never convinced by the love scene, or those critics....all a bit too self-promotingly Hollywood-Stereotypical to me....

I so want to love it, but.....

I’m surprised you don’t - it is a wonderful work! The Dresden Blomstedt was an early CD purchase for me!

[gurnemanz]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=denon+b...&ref=sr_nr_i_2

Thanks. I had seen that but assumed it was leftover stock rather than actual availability.

[LeMartinPecheur]

On disc I can field the Dresden Kempe, the Reiner and the 'leatherjacket' HMV Karajan, but will put in a special plug for the RPO/ Kempe prom performance on DVD.

Why?

Because I was there!!!

PS It seemed special at the time, and the DVD seems pretty damn good - as you might expect with Kempe in charge.

[richardfinegold]

This is one of my very favourite pieces and I have a lot of versions on my shelves starting with the 1938 Concertgebouw/Mengelberg (to whom Heldenleben was dedicated) and which comes up very well in the Dutton transfer. Also among older accounts that will doubtless not even be considered are Krauss, Beecham, Barbirolli, Reiner as well as the composer himself.

There are, I think, three live recordings from Karajan plus another three studio accounts, all fine, but I suppose HvK will be airily dismissed yet again despite his 1959 DG recording, in particular, being a real stunner. The 1985 studio DG recording is in fine digital sound and is, in some ways, an even better performance than the earlier.

Kempe with the Dresden Staatskapelle is in a class of its own, though the original issues on LP and CD were in rather murky sound. However, the latest transfer on Warner is a different matter entirely and it's come up splendidly, as if a fog has been cleared away. There is also a live Kempe with the same orchestra on Profil but, good as it is, it can't hold a candle to the studio recording.

Haitink's three recordings are all worth hearing, especially the last one, with the Chicago SO captured in state of the art sound.

I also have a couple of Böhm recordings, one live and one studio, both with the VPO but the better one is a 1973 radio recording with the BRSO on Orfeo. Really like this one.

I've got Thielemann/VPO, Solti/VPO, Concertgebouw/Jansons (but not his BRSO remake) as well as accounts from Sawallisch and Luisi which include the original ending. Both of the last two named only go to show that Strauss was right to do the amendment. Both are thus ruled out of court for this reason. Got BPO/Rattle as well but going into HvK territory so early in his Berlin tenure was perhaps not a good move.

My own first choice? I'm torn between Karajan (1959 or 1985) and Kempe on Warner. Impossible to choose so get all three would be my advice.

I didn’t realize that there was a Haitink/CSO version. I am currently listening to the marvelous Reiner/CSO, and have spun the Haitink/Concertgebouw many times

[Goon525]

Just a word about the Dresden/Blomstedt. It was a very early digital recording (of a first class performance) which is proof that early digital could sound very good indeed. I just sampled it to make sure my recollection was correct, and there's no doubt about the sound quality. Shame it's not available, it would be a serious contender. Mind you, Rattle's BPO performance is pretty good.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just a word about the Dresden/Blomstedt. It was a very early digital recording (of a first class performance) which is proof that early digital could sound very good indeed. I just sampled it to make sure my recollection was correct, and there's no doubt about the sound quality. Shame it's not available, it would be a serious contender. Mind you, Rattle's BPO performance is pretty good.

Sorry, what?
See above....It's here guys, it is here.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=denon+blomstedt+strauss&i=popular&dc&qid=1569855157&ref=sr_nr_i_2

[Goon525]

Sorry, what?
See above....It's here guys, it is here.....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=denon+b...&ref=sr_nr_i_2

Oh, thanks, Jayne. I think someone had said above that it’s unavailable. Which is obviously true as a new purchase. Anyway, strongly recommended.

[BBMmk2]

Has Karajan’s been deleted?

[gradus]

I have to thank DID for my life-long love of this piece. It was the (Top Rank - some might remember or even possess the record) Leopold Ludwig and the LSO playing the opening that caught my ear but it was Beecham's recording - his last - that really hooked me. To me everything is wonderful but never more than with Beecham, the end of the battle scene and the return of the opening and horn writing shivers my timbers every time and the work's closing section, so eloquent. If I have a favourite classical record ...

[richardfinegold]

I have to thank DID for my life-long love of this piece. It was the (Top Rank - some might remember or even possess the record) Leopold Ludwig and the LSO playing the opening that caught my ear but it was Beecham's recording - his last - that really hooked me. To me everything is wonderful but never more than with Beecham, the end of the battle scene and the return of the opening and horn writing shivers my timbers every time and the work's closing section, so eloquent. If I have a favourite classical record ...

I’ve been listening to the Reiner-CSO account, and the sixty year old recording so vividly captures those closing pages in a naturalistic concert ambience without unnatural spotlighting, and while I’ve always liked the piece at the moment I’m totally enamored of it. Strauss was surely being facetious when he referred to himself as a second rate Composer