BaL 22.09.12 - Brahms: A German Requiem

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But the sound on my LP is far too congested. Is it better on CD? Or is this a work that really needs modern recording?

Well, it certainly benefits from a decent recording that brings out the contrapuntal layers - but my Reference CD transfer of the Mono Karajan is pretty clear (a little "boxy" rather than "congested"). But then, I first heard it after hearing several other recordings and performances (and with a score) so I could pick out features that challenged the microphone technology.


I also have a Live recording from Boulez: the only work of Brahms he's ever performed, I think. Very good: Gardiner twenty years before Gardiner!

[verismissimo]

Prepping for Saturday morning, I re-visited Nanie (or Naenie - can't do accents).

What a wonderful work. Brahms at his best.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I've lived a very long time with the standard EMI Klemperer and it does seem to be in a very special niche of its own. When I first got it (for Mrs LMP actually) it seemed to be in a special category of Klemperer recordings, in LP days at least. Where there was room for arument about even such classic sets as his complete Beethoven or Brahms symphonies - i.e. you weren't treated as certifiable if you preferred other sets - you did have to be be a bit barking not to buy his German Requiem! A sentiment with which I concur, though I confess I haven't heard very many other versions, and certainly haven't felt tempted to buy any.

I just haven't felt any need to risk what seems near-certain disappointment. Which may add just a tiny bit of weight to my feelings about its truly iconic status. Still, I'll listen with interest...

[Barbirollians]

Yes - although I have the Karajan 1947 and the Gardiner if I want to listen to the work it is nearly always to Klemperer I turn . I have a vague memory of a dark grey Saturday December morning at university in the 1980s listening to a BAL of the work almost certainly with Richard Osborne which seemed to illustrate at every turn the recording's superiority.

No doubt someone will be able to tell me it was mid -June !

[BBMmk2]

I will have to try the Klemperer then!

[LeMartinPecheur]

I will have to try the Klemperer then!

Do do do bbm - be assured that one thing it's emphatically not is slo-o-ow. Incredibly, inexorably powerful - yes, slow - no!

[Black Swan]

I'm enjoying the program. I love this work but don't listen to it often. I only have one recording, Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique with Charlotte Mangiono and Rodney Gilfry.

John

[PaulT]

I hope no-one missed the start of this BAL. Despite being advertised at the usual time of 0930 on R3 web page and the weekly emailed newsletter, it started at 0925! Not clever.

[antongould]

I'm enjoying the program. I love this work but don't listen to it often. I only have one recording, Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique with Charlotte Mangiono and Rodney Gilfry.

John

Much as you John enjoying the slot - like the work but, shamefully, have no recording and there is obviously an embarrassment of riches.....................local lad Sir Thomas seems to be in the winning team

[umslopogaas]

I was interested, and rather annoyed, by the amount of time given to the arrangement for piano. OK, worth noting that this exists, no doubt if you dig deep enough there's an arrangement for bagpipes, or Peruvian nose flutes, but this is review of RECORDINGS. If you are buying a recording, who wants a drawing room arrangement?

For me, Klemperer/Schwarzkopf and Solti/Te Kanawa (unavailable at present?) on LP will suffice.

[Black Swan]

Great program. I am anticipating adding the Sawallisch recording to my collection. Although, I love Schwarzkopf so am considering Klemperer or Bonney, Guilini, VPO.

Truly spoiled for choice on this one.

John

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Such a pity Karajan never recorded this work.

[verismissimo]

Such a pity Karajan never recorded this work.

He must have got lost somewhere in the corridors of Broadcasting House, ferney.

[aeolium]

I enjoyed this BaL. I think it was creditable of Jeremy Summerly to have listened to the recordings "blind", which ought imo to be a requirement for all BaL reviewers. It was a pity that there were no extracts from the excellent Klemperer version and perhaps too much time was spent on the 2-piano arrangement (though interesting to hear extracts) but there was a good range of performance styles and useful information about e.g. Brahms' metronome indications. Also JS did not appear to show any particular bias in favour of either old performances or HIPP.

The Sawallisch sounded pretty good to me, and I'm a strong admirer of his choral recordings (for instance the Schubert Masses with the Dresden Staatskapelle). I won't be getting rid of the Klemperer, though....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He must have got lost somewhere in the corridors of Broadcasting House, ferney.

Even putting aside the damge the reviewer inflicted on his own credibility by airbrushing out at least two of the finest ever recordings of the work, I thought this a very curious BaL, in that the excerpts he chose from the recordings didn't illustrate the points he was trying to make. He described the choir on the Previn/LSO as having intonation problems which he contrasted with Giulini's - but the excerpts suggested the opposite. He played an excerpt from "the Gardiner" (without clarifying which one) which sounded lithe and touching [I've never heard a Gardiner-led performance sound so graceful] - which he said wasn't "consoling". Well, as his next illustration suggested that his idea of "consoling" was to have the choir lagging behind the tempo of the orchestra, I can see why he might think this; but it's not an understanding of the word that I share.

Ho hum. I appreciated Summerly's "blind testing" approach to his reviewing - and I thought of the Piano as a "mechanical device" a micro-second before he said it, but the I didn't think that the Sawallisch sounded such an obvious first choice, judging purely from the excerpts he played. But I shall certainly get the later Gardiner, and, if I ever see the Herreweghe or The Sixteen in a bargain basement, I shall grab them, too.