BaL 21.04.12 - Prokofiev's Symphony no. 5

[BBMmk2]

I don't think I heard Neeme Jarvi mentioned. Or did I miss it?

[Dave2002]

I'll be very surprised if LSO/Gergiev doesn't get an honourable mention.

In Interpretations on Record around 1970 (ie before Karajan's recording) Ormandy (then unavailable) came out top and I bought the LP as soon as it was reissued. I now have the Karajan CD and Gergiev (whose No.6 was a BaL recommendation not long ago). I have listened only to the first movement from Gergiev but I very much like the way he keeps it on the move compared with HvK. I'm not a fan of the Barbican acoustic as recorded but it's in the same league as the sound that Karajan gets.

The reviews of the Kletzki recording suggested at the time that Ormandy was even better. This may still be available http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphonies-O...4999402&sr=8-1 - just! Spotify has Ormandy in Russia, which is presumably not the same version. The Kletzki version is very easy and "comfortable", really rather lush. I like it, but if you want a much more hard edged version look elsewhere. Prokofiev doesn't always have to sound like factory music. The Tilson Thomas version may be hard to find, though Spotify has just one track! http://open.spotify.com/track/5rHsQ4SL6gGphR9t2kFvcf

[verismissimo]

It was recorded at Abbey Road 10-12th June 1963 so was before the Legge official abandonment of the orchestra which was on 10th March 1964 when he issued a press statement to that effect. This from the Stephen Pettitt history and discography of the Philharmonia. EMI bought Legge's stake in the orchestra and so got all the pre-1964 royalties!! The last sessions of the old Philharmonia were in November 1964, Mahler's Lied von der Erde with Klemperer who stood by the orchestra.

Legge resigned from EMI as a producer in 1963 and it was that that led him to go off to Berlin.

Thanks, Gordon.

[BBMmk2]

Despite the decades that this recording has been out, itstill is the version to be reccomended!

[antongould]

I'm looking forward to this one. I have Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. To date it is all I've found I need. I am not so knowledgeable on Prokofiev symphonies. So am looking forward to the BAL next Saturday.

John

Seemingly it is all you need but to me it did still sound magnificent - ordered it on Amazon Marketplace.............................

[Charles_Smith]

[QUOTE=Eine Alpensinfonie;153219]

Thank's for the info re the omission - duly added to the list.

Thanks for adding Temirkanov to your list. Unfortunately I don't think he was on Geoffrey Norris's list. A pity when he appeared to be interested in finding a high-quality St Petersburg recording.

[Barbirollians]

This was an enjoyable BAL - well he did choose my two favourites but it sounded like a reversion to the old available recordings format . No mention of Koussevitzky,Kletzki or Ormandy .

[visualnickmos]

Yes - a good BaL, but I was surprised that neither Gergiev nor Jaarvi got a mention. I have the Karajan, and complete Gergiev, Jaarvi and Naxos sets...
I'm in two minds about the Rozhdestvensky live at the RAH... indeed, it is a great performance, but the coughing, I don't know. I enjoy recordings where one has a sense of it being live, but intrusive coughing is another matter altogether.
Knowing me, I'll probaly succumb to searching it out - but only at a bargain price.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't think I heard Neeme Jarvi mentioned. Or did I miss it?

You missed it! Not surprising: it was a swift "also ran" comment in the middle of a list of names about 5-10 mins into the broadcast. (Sort-of "Not bad at all, but there are others much better" kind of comment).

[visualnickmos]

Well, I had only just got up!
I just quickly played the start of the last movement of my 4 versions in rapid succession - I felt the HvK sounded a little too much like HvK - style over substance... just my first impression. Based on that micro-sample Gergiev "won".

[BBMmk2]

You missed it! Not surprising: it was a swift "also ran" comment in the middle of a list of names about 5-10 mins into the broadcast. (Sort-of "Not bad at all, but there are others much better" kind of comment).

Ah right. Thank you Ferney. Hmmm, I still think Jaarvi's was one of the front runners though.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Rattle for me.

Anything to oblige - any particular time or frequency Alison?

[LeMartinPecheur]

As mentioned above, Geoffrey Norris did a Prok 5 BaL c1979 when he picked the LSO/Weller which appears to be still available. Yet he didn't even mention it today IIRC. To be fair to him in 1979 his contenders at the furlong pole were Cleveland/ Maazel, Moscow RO/ Rozhdestvensky, BPO/ Karajan and LSO/ Weller. The caveat on the Roz was that it was part of a 6-LP set. Maazel just disappears for no stated reason in the printed version of the programme leaving just HvK and Weller. He concludes that 'choice [between the two] is well nigh impossible' before giving Weller the prize because 'it was new to me and, particularly in the slow movement said something - albeit an indefinable something - that I had not heard before'.

Perhaps more frequent hearings led to disillusion?

But his views on the HvK appear to have held up pretty well (thus rendering another 33 years of effort by the record companies utterly fruitless?? ).

[Nick Armstrong]

I have Karajan/BPO .. (will probably be dismissed after a single extract!)

Right again, ferney!!

[Nick Armstrong]

I have Karajan/BPO ... (Going by recent BaLs, probably... dismissed after a single extract!)

Right again, ferney!!