New releases

[cloughie]

To be played on Record Review this morning.

Looks a bit short measure, but at least no Bolero on it!

[Barbirollians]

Talking of short measure I see that Currentzis's Beethoven Fifth has been released at full price without a coupling. This may have been acceptable in the 1970s for Carlos Kleiber but it is a joke now.

It gets a muted review in Gramophone - talk about believing their own hype . Sounds like Andrew Manze"s new 5 and 7 recording is a much better buy

[Barbirollians]

The 1980s one.

fhgl is a big fan of that - but none of his other recordings comes close to his 1950s Philharmonia recording which is wonderful.

[mathias broucek]

Talking of short measure I see that Currentzis's Beethoven Fifth has been released at full price without a coupling. This may have been acceptable in the 1970s for Carlos Kleiber but it is a joke now.

It gets a muted review in Gramophone - talk about believing their own hype . Sounds like Andrew Manze"s new 5 and 7 recording is a much better buy

Yes, that's rude. It was a bit rude with hi (truly outstanding) Rite of Spring but this time there's no excuse as they've recorded other symphonies as well that could easily be added.

Pure profiteering at a time when many are struggling financially

[teamsaint]

Yes, that's rude. It was a bit rude with hi (truly outstanding) Rite of Spring but this time there's no excuse as they've recorded other symphonies as well that could easily be added.

Pure profiteering at a time when many are struggling financially

It does make you wonder about the commercial sense of that kind of decision making. The market for this kind of stuff is certainly a very small specialised market, and you can make money in such markets, but the breakout opportunity for another uncoupled LvB 5 must be exceptionally modest.
Perhaps the costs were modest too, which makes the decision whether to release much easier.

[Bryn]

It does make you wonder about the commercial sense of that kind of decision making. The market for this kind of stuff is certainly a very small specialised market, and you can make money in such markets, but the breakout opportunity for another uncoupled LvB 5 must be exceptionally modest.
Perhaps the costs were modest too, which makes the decision whether to release much easier.

It's a very irresponsible waste of polycarbonate, etc. The full capacity of a CD should be aimed at in all instances.

[jayne lee wilson]

Talking of short measure I see that Currentzis's Beethoven Fifth has been released at full price without a coupling. This may have been acceptable in the 1970s for Carlos Kleiber but it is a joke now.

It gets a muted review in Gramophone - talk about believing their own hype . Sounds like Andrew Manze"s new 5 and 7 recording is a much better buy

The Currentzis interview with PQ (3/20) wasn't hype, just an overview of this conductor's approach and a chance to hear what he has to say for himself - at length. Very good, well-written piece of reportage and representation, I thought. That Currentzis is a true audiophile doesn't hurt my impression him, of course...

Not heard this 5th yet, but I'm afraid I've had a few issues with A F-C's reviews previously (he was critical of Tognetti's Mozart in similar terms - it seems Mr. F-C (or his replay system) doesn't like being too excited...) so I wouldn't trust his comments implicitly. Whilst an admirer-with-reservations of Manze's work with earlier music and those excellent CPO Brahms Symphonies, I was very disappointed with his LvB 5th at The Proms - far too safe - and also feel very suspicious of that reviewer cliché "humane"......

What does it really mean in reviewing terms...?

***
Given streaming and selective downloading often available now, I wouldn't complain so much about "album length" as about the sheer over-familiarity of recent repertoire choices from Aeterna and Les Siècles. Seems a waste of marvellous resources to me.

But in any case, Currentzis makes it very clear in the 3/20 G-piece that he prefers each recording to be a piatto unico - sufficient unto itself. So it was a genuine artistic decision to isolate the LvB 5th.

[mathias broucek]

The Currentzis interview with PQ (3/20) wasn't hype, just an overview of this conductor's approach and a chance to hear what he has to say for himself - at length. Very good, well-written piece of reportage and representation, I thought. That Currentzis is a true audiophile doesn't hurt my impression him, of course...

Not heard this 5th yet, but I'm afraid I've had a few issues with A F-C's reviews previously (he was critical of Tognetti's Mozart in similar terms - it seems Mr. F-C (or his replay system) doesn't like being too excited...) so I wouldn't trust his comments implicitly. Whilst an admirer-with-reservations of Manze's work with earlier music and those excellent CPO Brahms Symphonies, I was very disappointed with his LvB 5th at The Proms - far too safe - and also feel very suspicious of that reviewer cliché "humane"......

What does it really mean in reviewing terms...?

***
Given streaming and selective downloading often available now, I wouldn't complain so much about "album length" as about the sheer over-familiarity of recent repertoire choices from Aeterna and Les Siècles. Seems a waste of marvellous resources to me.

But in any case, Currentzis makes it very clear in the 3/20 G-piece that he prefers each recording to be a piatto unico - sufficient unto itself. So it was a genuine artistic decision to isolate the LvB 5th.

The issue isn't so much no filler as the price for only 35 mins of music

[jayne lee wilson]

The issue isn't so much no filler as the price for only 35 mins of music

OK.... so stream it.....
I still buy physical discs.... but in the present crisis they may become a musical unobtanium...

[cloughie]

OK.... so stream it.....
I still buy physical discs.... but in the present crisis they may become a musical unobtanium...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

I thought you’d made it up but no, there it is. But there is the moral thing of not overburdening our lovely postal delivery folks - and ours are in the Thursday evening applause list - with our musical overindulgences - we’ve all got plenty on the shelves or hard drives!

[jayne lee wilson]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

I thought you’d made it up but no, there it is. But there is the moral thing of not overburdening our lovely postal delivery folks - and ours are in the Thursday evening applause list - with our musical overindulgences - we’ve all got plenty on the shelves or hard drives!

Unobta(i)nium....IIRC first heard it here.... ......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMDneicBiz
in Avatar....but in Cinema it goes back at least to humorous use in the film The Core (2003)....

Cute little word....

[Bryn]

It's a very irresponsible waste of polycarbonate, etc. The full capacity of a CD should be aimed at in all instances.

I stand by that criticism. However, I decided to stream the recording via QOBUZ. It is a worthy performance by an orchestra comprising no less than 62 players, plus conductor. How happy Beethoven might have been to have so many players at his disposal for the premiere. Unfortunately, he had to make do with a semi-pro band with around 6-8 first violins. as against Musicaeterna's 12 highly skilled professionals. So, this is hardly an authentic performance, more one the composer might have wished for. However, please do not by the plastic-wasting version. Stream or download it.

[cloughie]

Unobta(i)nium....IIRC first heard it here.... ......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMDneicBiz
in Avatar....but in Cinema it goes back at least to humorous use in the film The Core (2003)....

Cute little word....

It almost sounds like the answer to a Pointless question on the Periodic Table.

[LHC]

It almost sounds like the answer to a Pointless question on the Periodic Table.

It has been given as an answer on Pointless more than once, with the inevitable consequence of a 100 point score.

[CallMePaul]

This is due out next month, very much looking forward to it:

Why oh why do orchestras keep playing and recording this arrangement? It was made over 40 years after Musorgsky's death and there are orchestrations much nearer in time to the piano original (which I much prefer). Musorgsky's original is very Russian in both concept and detail, whereas Ravel's orchestration sounds, to my ears at least, excessively French. Can we possibly hear Tushmalev's and Funtek's orchestrations please? They were both written foir an orchestra nearer in time to what Musorgsky could have heard, whereas Ravel used all the resources of orchestras of the 1920s.

On a slightly different point, why do record labels and writers in English persist in using a German romanisation of Musorgsky? There is only one 's' in the Russian spelling (I don't have a Cyrillic keyboard so cannot show the Russian spelling!).