BaL 22.04.23 - Schubert: Symphony no. 5 in B flat D. 485

[cloughie]

I remember, many years ago, hearing Paavo Berglund conduct Schubert No.5 with the (R)SNO in the Usher Hall. Some late comers were admitted after the music started and he stopped the orchestra and GLARED at them! The genial atmosphere was somewhat strained after that…

I would imagine the discomfiture of being given the glare by Paavo was not easy to recover from - even with a sunny work like Schubert 5!

[pastoralguy]

I would imagine the discomfiture of being given the glare by Paavo was not easy to recover from - even with a sunny work like Schubert 5!

My teacher was a long time player in the (R)SNO and he said it was the only time in his career that he’d known a professional conductor actually stop a performance!

[MickyD]

Having conducted her in classical and romantic repertoire, I can say that her oboe playing is certainly NOT dreary and boring!

Very pleasing to see you using the Gainsborough J C Bach portrait, Tony - after all your wonderful discs of his, it's very appropriate!

[richardfinegold]

.
Sir Thomas Beecham's Schubert 3 & 5 with the RPO - sparkling with wit, elan, elegance, chartacterful woodwind solos and that recognisable Beechamesqe quality possibly brought about by a couple of White Lady cocktails before the sessions.
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I pulled that one off the shelf yesterday (Dutton). This is the most enjoyable Beecham recording I’ve ever come across (admittedly a limited sample size). Completely agree with the comments made

[richardfinegold]

I'd love to know what you think of the John Eliot Gardiner, live in Amsterdam. With the Brahms 2nd Serenade, an absolute peach of a disc, which might surprise any listeners given to stereotyping JEG's performance style with its warmth and flexibility.

Or sit up straight, take a deep breath - and find your way to one of Michi Gaigg's radical realisations. The earlier on DHM (L'Orfeo Barockorchester/Gaigg/16/44.1/CD) is the mellower; probably one of the smallest orchestras on record in this music, but still portrays the piece with startling dynamic, phrasal and textural contrast. Perhaps only a small group of such closely bonded players and director can achieve that degree of inner life and outer vivacity.

Playing now, and even better than I recalled....very distinctive, with exceptional recorded sound, so present and lifelike...how those horns in the andante can bark and rasp, then sing it to sleep so sweetly.....really wonderful!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concert-Overtures-F-Schubert/dp/B006GSRI3C/ref=sr_1_4?crid=18X1KDF19ZQO0&keywords=michi+gaigg&qid=1676775150&s=music&sprefix=michi+gaigg%2Cpopular%2C63&sr=1-4

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/sc.../0886443009127

JEG disc sounds interesting, I will have to see if Apple Music has it. I have to say that late OK in this piece doesn’t sound very appealing to me, but that is prejudice, not actual experience. The Walter stereo version is lovable for its songfulness (is that a word?) but is definitely comfy slippers and bathrobe experience-it makes the recently cited Blomstedt sound like HIPP by way of comparison. I also have a Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw recording that I haven’t listened to lately but I recall was ‘surprisingly’ mainstream.

[richardfinegold]

My teacher was a long time player in the (R)SNO and he said it was the only time in his career that he’d known a professional conductor actually stop a performance!

Barenboim did it twice in concerts that I attended when there was excessive coughing. Chicago winters can be tough on the sinuses and bronchial tubes. He was polite about it, saying that he wanted to give people a chance to clear their systems and the ushers offered cough drops—but DB said both times that the music was important and he wanted people to be able to enjoy it

[jayne lee wilson]

I must give that an audition, thanks for the tip. Very fond, myself, of Minkowski and his band. Hadn't appreciated that Gardiner had recorded it, or in fact any Schubert, so will go about remedying that omission with a spin on Qobuz later!

See #45, and make sure you tell us which Gaigg (as I keep saying..) - they are very distinct and sound very different.....! I feel Minkowski is quite safely MOR by compare. I snapped up his cycle in hi-res quickly, but don't return to it much now.

Next up I'll take a look at ICA's live COE/Harnoncourt, but have a wicked temptation to compare the Beecham GROC to the live Gaigg...throw together the most unlikely pair and see what sparks may fly....

[Maclintick]

Couple of others I'd forgotten I possessed. COE/Abbado & Staatskapelle Dresden /Davis. COE play on modern instruments but are appropriately chamber-sized (8-6-5-5-3 at a guess from the accompanying photos) slightly larger than the private rehearsal band with a string complement of 7-6-3-3-2 led by Otto Hatwig who ran through some of Schubert's early orchestral music in 1815-16. Abbado gets everything right -- crisp speeds in both outer movements, scrupulous attention to dynamics, & playing of great power & finesse from his collaborators. This has now shot to the top of my list. Staatskapelle Dresden/Davis are rather foursquare and unsmiling by comparison.

[Barbirollians]

Couple of others I'd forgotten I possessed. COE/Abbado & Staatskapelle Dresden /Davis. COE play on modern instruments but are appropriately chamber-sized (8-6-5-5-3 at a guess from the accompanying photos) slightly larger than the private rehearsal band with a string complement of 7-6-3-3-2 led by Otto Hatwig who ran through some of Schubert's early orchestral music in 1815-16. Abbado gets everything right -- crisp speeds in both outer movements, scrupulous attention to dynamics, & playing of great power & finesse from his collaborators. This has now shot to the top of my list. Staatskapelle Dresden/Davis are rather foursquare and unsmiling by comparison.

Agree the Abbado is terrific - all too easy sometimes to forget complete sets because you remember other performances more - a glorious Ninth and Unfinished in that set. The complete symphonies can still be found for £17 new .

Been listening to the Mackerras /COE on YT - a bargain indeed in a 2CD Veritas set with his 8th and 9th on Amazon for about £3.50 including postage . I knew the 9th having paid a lot more for it on cassette about 25 years ago.

[Pianoman]

It's Antonello Manacorda for me these days - very lively, modern instruments but in the 'period' style freshness we expect and superb playing from the Potsdam orchestra. I was impressed enough to get the rest of his Schubert series.

[MickyD]

Agree the Abbado is terrific - all too easy sometimes to forget complete sets because you remember other performances more - a glorious Ninth and Unfinished in that set. The complete symphonies can still be found for £17 new .

Been listening to the Mackerras /COE on YT - a bargain indeed in a 2CD Veritas set with his 8th and 9th on Amazon for about £3.50 including postage . I knew the 9th having paid a lot more for it on cassette about 25 years ago.

I think it's the OAE rather than the COE.

[Barbirollians]

Yes you are right COE with Abbado .

Listened to a number of HIPP recordings this afternoon - didn't like Gaigg at all - charmless, overemphatic and some pretty nasty string tone. Bruggen on the other hand is a delight from first note to last.

[Joseph K]

didn't like Gaigg at all - charmless, overemphatic and some pretty nasty string tone.

That's funny - the string tone was one of the positive aspects I recall of that recording!

[Maclintick]

Yes you are right COE with Abbado .

Listened to a number of HIPP recordings this afternoon - didn't like Gaigg at all - charmless, overemphatic and some pretty nasty string tone. Bruggen on the other hand is a delight from first note to last.

Listened to ORR/Gardiner as recommended by JLW & enjoyed it very much -- until the allegro vivace, where JEG displays his customary tendency to want to be the fastest kid on the block, stretching his players to the point where articulation suffers. Abbado's tempo here is within a hair's breadth of Jeggers, but the nimble COE players don't falter. JEG also indulges another favourite mannerism of hammering the first beat of the bar so that when something extra is called for at the end of the piece, he's sort of emptied the tank, or shot his bolt ( either metaphor available )....

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[jayne lee wilson]

Yes you are right COE with Abbado .

Listened to a number of HIPP recordings this afternoon - didn't like Gaigg at all - charmless, overemphatic and some pretty nasty string tone. Bruggen on the other hand is a delight from first note to last.

Yet again - yet again - I ask "which Gaigg?" Two very different sounding recordings, DHM and CPO Live, interpretatively distinct too...?
Good grief people, its a very simple question.....

(As an admirer of the Orfeo (and listening again, rapt to the CPO 5th and the 8th earlier today, this must be the 5th or 6th hearing at least since I reviewed them for MWI last year), not sure what "nasty" means in a critical context either, but I guess we can skip that level of subjectivity ......)