New releases

[Sir Velo]

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!).

OK, just got round to listening to the Funtek (Finnish Radio/Saraste) and the Gortchakov (Masur/LPO) orchestrations. Both are highly interesting and effective orchestrations in demonstration quality sound (Qobuz), different in character and scoring from Ravel. This has both its gains and losses. It has become customary on these pages to give Ravel's orchestration a hard time but he couldn't have committed such a bathetic slip as Funtek commits in his orchestration of the Great Gate of Kiev with bizarre xylophone effects which robs the music of much of its grandeur. Elsewhere, Gortchakov uses a far sparer, darker more obviously Russian timbre than Ravel. The orchestration of Bydlo is particularly emphatic, with the brass en masse exploding forth evoking the ox cart looming immediately in the foreground unlike the gradual crescendo of the Ravel.

Scanning Qobuz, I note that Slatkin's composite recording is listed, along with Ashkenazy's and Saraste's Funtek/Gortchakov combination. The Tushmalev is there but the remastered sound of the Munich PO under Andreae is ungrateful and I have not persisted with it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Mere indulgent hedonist as I am in this rep.,........

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/tenebrae-bjorn-schmelzer-graindelavoix/dmumcpn1hcx8b

Playing here now....drifting through the spaces.....salve for all the troubled souls.........

....seems a significant release.......

[mathias broucek]

Mere indulgent hedonist as I am in this rep.,........

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/tenebrae-bjorn-schmelzer-graindelavoix/dmumcpn1hcx8b

Playing here now....drifting through the spaces.....salve for all the troubled souls.........

....seems a significant release.......

We should glad there was no “cancel culture” in the 17th Century....

[mathias broucek]

Third instalment of the excellent Naxos Magnard series is out soon (shorter orchestral works). The download is half price at Qobuz

[jayne lee wilson]

Returning to the Currentzis Beethoven 5th for a moment - the new (5/2020) Gramophone has a full page Sony ad for "Coming Soon: Beethoven's monumental 5th and 7th Symphonies.... conducted by Teodor Currentzis etc"......

...which suggests that the physical disc release in late May will in fact include both..... subject to confirmation of course.....no cover art shown...
.....or of course there might be two separate perhaps better-priced discs.....best to wait and see...

Recalling the Blomstedt LvB discussions of a while back, this may be of interest too.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/beethoven-complete-symphonies-remastered-staatskapelle-dresden-herbert-blomstedt/bgsgz3u5d7rgb

No problem with the pricing there.....!

CD release later.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Sinfonien-1-9-Herbert-Blomstedt/dp/B082JQT1CC/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=beethoven+blomstedt&qid=1587242597&rnid=1642204031&s=music&sr=1-3

[mathias broucek]

The Blomstedt SKD Beethoven is excellent. Its initial release on Brilliant Classics can often be found for less than a fiver second hand.

I’ve just been enjoying the free Herreweghe LvB 9th from Qobuz. He follows the metronome markings which means the first movement is too fast (definitely “troppo”) but the flowing slow movement is lovely and I found the finale more coherent than I usually do. Terrific sound - listening blind I might have mistaken it for 24 bit.

[Barbirollians]

Returning to the Currentzis Beethoven 5th for a moment - the new (5/2020) Gramophone has a full page Sony ad for "Coming Soon: Beethoven's monumental 5th and 7th Symphonies.... conducted by Teodor Currentzis etc"......

...which suggests that the physical disc release in late May will in fact include both..... subject to confirmation of course.....no cover art shown...
.....or of course there might be two separate perhaps better-priced discs.....best to wait and see...

Recalling the Blomstedt LvB discussions of a while back, this may be of interest too.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/beethoven-complete-symphonies-remastered-staatskapelle-dresden-herbert-blomstedt/bgsgz3u5d7rgb

No problem with the pricing there.....!

CD release later.....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-S...s=music&sr=1-3

Not according to Presto - Currentzis’s Fifth is coming out on a full priced CD with a timing of thirty minutes . It is a money grabbing piss take designed to get those who have fallen for the hype to pay double.

His “ reasoning “ in Gramophone was utterly unconvincing . The idea that Beethoven 5th symphony recordings commonly came out as single discs without fill ups when he was young in the 1990s is just not true and if there was any merit in it rather than financial considerations the recording would be being released at half price.

[jayne lee wilson]

Not according to Presto - Currentzis’s Fifth is coming out on a full priced CD with a timing of thirty minutes . It is a money grabbing piss take designed to get those who have fallen for the hype to pay double.

His “ reasoning “ in Gramophone was utterly unconvincing . The idea that Beethoven 5th symphony recordings commonly came out as single discs without fill ups when he was young in the 1990s is just not true and if there was any merit in it rather than financial considerations the recording would be being released at half price.

It is a full-page Sony ad. in the Gramophone Barb.... not publicised anywhere else, and given the 22/05/20 release date, and the past performance record, It seems unthinkable that 5&7 won't appear together in some format. (BTW, the digital G., is often some days ahead of the physical magazine now, so....hot off the presses etc.)

Just that, if anyone were to consider the download purchase of the 5th now, they should hold off for a bit....and, if you want the physical disc....as I said, just wait and see....

Just trying to be helpful here, OK?!
Coffee-time....

[LHC]

It is a full-page Sony ad. in the Gramophone Barb.... not publicised anywhere else, and given the 22/05/20 release date, and the past performance record, It seems unthinkable that 5&7 won't appear together in some format. (BTW, the digital G., is often some days ahead of the physical magazine now, so....hot off the presses etc.)

Just that, if anyone were to consider the download purchase of the 5th now, they should hold off for a bit....and, if you want the physical disc....as I said, just wait and see....

Just trying to be helpful here, OK?!
Coffee-time....

I haven’t seen the Gramophone advert, but this statement on Currentzis’ own website suggests they will be separate releases:

Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna mark Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary with the release of two of the composer’s iconic Symphonies this year. Symphony 5 will be released April 3 and you can now listen to the first movement “ALLEGRO CON BRIO’. Symphony 7 will be released in Autumn 2020.

This seems in line with his Gramophone interview where he said he wanted each recording to be seen as separate entities.

[jayne lee wilson]

I haven’t seen the Gramophone advert, but this statement on Currentzis’ own website suggests they will be separate releases:



This seems in line with his Gramophone interview where he said he wanted each recording to be seen as separate entities.

vide #2362.... etc...

[mathias broucek]

Not according to Presto - Currentzis’s Fifth is coming out on a full priced CD with a timing of thirty minutes . It is a money grabbing piss take designed to get those who have fallen for the hype to pay double.

His “ reasoning “ in Gramophone was utterly unconvincing . The idea that Beethoven 5th symphony recordings commonly came out as single discs without fill ups when he was young in the 1990s is just not true and if there was any merit in it rather than financial considerations the recording would be being released at half price.

Back in the day, no coupling meant no end of side LP distortion but that’s not really an argument these days....

[Bryn]

Back in the day, no coupling meant no end of side LP distortion but that’s not really an argument these days....

There's a certain irony to the fact that the Currnetzis Mahler 6th squeezes some 84 minutes onto a single CD which costs considerably less than his Beethoven 5th. I am prepared to wait until decent used copies of the latter turn up at well under a fiver. The same will apply to the 7th, should it be the sole work on its CD.

[cloughie]

Back in the day, no coupling meant no end of side LP distortion but that’s not really an argument these days....

Flipping the E Kleiber Beethoven 5th was almostvexciting, anticipating that vibrant 3rd movement!

[Barbirollians]

There's a certain irony to the fact that the Currnetzis Mahler 6th squeezes some 84 minutes onto a single CD which costs considerably less than his Beethoven 5th. I am prepared to wait until decent used copies of the latter turn up at well under a fiver. The same will apply to the 7th, should it be the sole work on its CD.

Me too .

I am afraid Jayne it is clear that they are being released separately. Whether Currentzis or marketing executives at Sony are behind this fleecing of customers it is contemptible.

[teamsaint]

The obvious thing , if you feel it is poor value, is not to buy it.

The world isn’t especially short of recordings of this work.

Just had a look on amazon,astonishingly it is # 2741 in all CDs, so clearly there are plenty of takers, though frankly I can find better ways to spend £15.