If CDs aren’t available (I can’t find any immediately) there are several like this - https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/music-...s-hd_100984417
-
-
This is the opening sections of 2 recent no-holds-barred reviews on classicstoday.com
A review by David Hurwitz of Bruckner 5 on CPO titled 'Alvin and the Chipmunks Play Bruckner'
Yes, you saw it correctly. Asking the Tapiola Sinfonietta (about 46 members) to play Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, his grandest work before the Eighth, is like asking Alvin and the Chipmunks to perform Wagner’s Ring. All of it. The result is cartoonish when not simply silly, emphasized at every point by Mario Venzago’s absurdly rushed tempos and loopy but necessary balances (to allow the strings, 28 strong, to be heard at all). CPO calls this series “A Different Bruckner”, but really it’s nothing more than stupid Bruckner; and at a time when stupid Bruckner is all the rage, that’s saying a lot...
And another review by David Hurwitz on Oehms titled: CD From Hell - The Worst Ever Mozart Violin Concertos
How long are we going to have to put up with a crew of tasteless jokers pretending to be experts in “authentic” performance practice selling us junk like this? Just about everything about these recordings is anti-musical, from the unwelcome harpsichord continuo to the patently...Last edited by Stanfordian; 22-11-18, 11:33.Comment
-
When Hurwitz writes this kind of thing I just know I'm going to like the CDs in question - in the case of the Bruckner I already do!Originally posted by Stanfordian View PostComment
-
With recommendatons like that, both CDs look to be 'must haves'. "anti-musical", eh? That's Hurwitz to a t. I see that his fellow empty-headed review troll, BMO'H agrees with him re. the Contzen and Goebel's Mozart. I wonder how it gained a 5 from Diapason in June 2014 It's on QOBUZ, so I must check it out. Ah, but not for streaming, for purchase only. Cheaper to by the CDs via the Amazon marketplace, I think.Originally posted by Stanfordian View PostComment
-
... and not a surprise that Bernard 0 Hanlon in his amazon 'review' of the Mozart agrees with Hurwitz.Originally posted by Bryn View Post
Even more clearly a must-have!
.Comment
-
That is the one - it is a cracking performance as is the Oistrakh account of the VC with which it is coupled.Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
-
The Venzago Bruckner 5th appeared as long ago as 2014 of course - the final release in a remarkable series; but, hand-on-heart, it is the only one of his cycle which I feel doesn't quite work; a bit of a misfire....as if an interesting interpretation wasn't properly thought-through, or given long enough to settle or mature, to the extent that it is almost the only performance of the set that sounds under-rehearsed.. "rushed" in a more general, discomfiting sense..Originally posted by Stanfordian View Post
It gave me cause to wonder if, in the music's very nature, which seems to reach beyond almost all other Bruckner in its Apollonian imagination, the remoteness of its serenity, it needs an interpretative approach and a sound, which Venzago's own conception of Bruckner couldn't quite encompass.
....I may revisit, but I gave it my best shot when it appeared, and I don't think I'll change my mind much...Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 22-11-18, 22:05.Comment
-
I think Hurwitz is wrong to call it 'stupid Bruckner'. Venzago obviously offered a very challenging aural experience with his Bruckner cycle. A challenge that people ostensibly welcomed and went along with, at least in theory. The trouble is, it it was just too quick, too lean and denied people of their right to be fatigued for one and a half hours with reverential, granite hewn, craggy, monolithic, gothic grandeur. They could take the Schubert stuff with 1-3, but No! Not the mighty fifth! Hands off!
Hurwtitz and the up-thread mentioned Bernard O'H do offer some interesting perspectives. Sometimes.
Hurwitz can come across as a handsome show-off. I do like his writing though.
Comment
-
Following discussion on the recent Mendelssohn thread, this is due out very soon...really looking forward to getting it as I am a fan of Ronald Brautigam. Here he's using a copy of an 1830 Pleyel
Comment
-
Me too - in the sense that if he writes an unfavourable review of something I'm almost sure to like it, and vice versa, I find his recommendations highly reliable.Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
Comment
-
The 24/96 download is already on offer on the BIS site for $11.11, but did you know about this?Originally posted by MickyD View PostFollowing discussion on the recent Mendelssohn thread, this is due out very soon...really looking forward to getting it as I am a fan of Ronald Brautigam. Here he's using a copy of an 1830 Pleyel
Never heard it though....Comment
-
I think you will find that the content of that disc, plus all the other Mendelssohn concertos, is on this disc. I got is a decade ago, and it's very good. No surround sound, just lots of 2 channel stereo.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostThe 24/96 download is already on offer on the BIS site for $11.11, but did you know about this?
Never heard it though....Comment
-
Yeah, but as the inlay makes clear on the reverse, it is strictly SACD-only, not a hybrid & unplayable on mere redbook machines. So not much use to me.....Originally posted by Bryn View Post
The earlier one is on Qobuz but I can't see the new one yet....
Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 01-12-18, 17:53.Comment
Comment