What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[richardfinegold]

Bach Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord nos. 1-6, Gustav Leonhardt & Lars Frydén.
A beautiful mellow sound and glorious music. Slowly working through the New Gustav Leonhardt box set - lots new to me.

I used to have an lp set of this music on the Nonesuch label. Can’t recall the performers. The harpsichord sounded like one of those behemoths that Wanda Landowsca used to play, and the violinist sounded like Jimi Hendrix trying to project over it. It was very ugly and it was about 3 decades before I was tempted to buy another recording

[AuntDaisy]

I used to have an lp set of this music on the Nonesuch label. Can’t recall the performers. The harpsichord sounded like one of those behemoths that Wanda Landowsca used to play, and the violinist sounded like Jimi Hendrix trying to project over it. It was very ugly and it was about 3 decades before I was tempted to buy another recording

Please try to remember the performers - I might want to avoid it.

Wild stab in the dark (& I've not heard them)... was it Schneedberger & Müller?

[Petrushka]

I was listening to a Music and Arts transfer of that recording a few weeks ago. It would be fun to hear the luxury transfer but I’m not shelling out for that box

I have the BPO wartime Furtwangler box and I'm afraid that the 1942 Beethoven 9 calls for just too much tolerance of the very poor sound, even for 1942. The performance itself is terrific, of course, but the sound is intolerable. The ear normally adjusts to poor sound but not here. It's a great pity because just about everything else in the box sounds pretty good.

[vinteuil]

Bach Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord nos. 1-6, Gustav Leonhardt & Lars Frydén.
A beautiful mellow sound and glorious, lively music. Slowly working through the New Gustav Leonhardt ]box set - lots new to me.

... I thought Lars Frydén was the baddie police chief in the Swedish tv series Beck ...



(the Leonhardt box is a real treasure ]

.

[smittims]

The Bach violin sonatas are indeed a treasure, and not so well known as they ought to be. I know them from Yehudi Menuhin and Louis Kentner's early 1950s HMV violin and piano version.

I've just been enjoying two rarities thanks to the Richard Itter legacy: eatly 1950s recordings of the Boyd Neel orchestra playing Arthur Benjamin's Ballade and Bernard Stevens' Snfonietta, both works which ought not to be forgotten. The Benjamin is a most moving work. They're both on Spotify if anyone wants to sample them .

[AuntDaisy]

... I thought Lars Frydén was the baddie police chief in the Swedish tv series Beck ...

(the Leonhardt box is a real treasure ]

Ah, a Klas-ic mistake I'm a-Frydén.

Totally agree about the boxset (although I do miss having proper notes / booklets).

[Pulcinella]

The Bach violin sonatas are indeed a treasure, and not so well known as they ought to be. I know them from Yehudi Menuhin and Louis Kentner's early 1950s HMV violin and piano version.

I've just been enjoying two rarities thanks to the Richard Itter legacy: eatly 1950s recordings of the Boyd Neel orchestra playing Arthur Benjamin's Ballade and Bernard Stevens' Snfonietta, both works which ought not to be forgotten. The Benjamin is a most moving work. They're both on Spotify if anyone wants to sample them .

I have Arthur Grumiaux on this 2CD set, now Decca but previously Philips.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7927412--bach-complete-violin-sonatas

I was a little surprised to see that the cover claims that Christine Jaccottet is a violinist rather than the harpsichordist: so does the earlier Philips version I have.

[pastoralguy]

What do you think of the playing? I love the Chiaroscuro Quartet and have some of their Haydn and Beethoven recordings but occasionally there is that patch of squally gut string sound that jars

Many thanks for asking.

The playing of the Aeolian Quartet is rarely less than professional. Of course, it’s hardly at the exalted levels we expect from today’s quartets but for its time it’s good. Bearing in mind that these recordings were probably produced on a shoestring budget and that a lot of the music may have been largely unfamiliar to the group then it’s nothing short of miraculous. (I’m sure you know that this music is extremely difficult to play as indeed all Haydn is).

I have many of the Chiaroscuro’s recordings although, oddly, not the Op.33 Quartets and I really like their approach. I can’t say I’ve noticed any squally playing but I’ll listen more closely in future.

[richardfinegold]

Please try to remember the performers - I might want to avoid it.

Wild stab in the dark (& I've not heard them)... was it Schneedberger & Müller?

My LPs were destroyed in a flood in 1985 but that looks it. Are you familiar with the performers, A.D.?

[richardfinegold]

I have the BPO wartime Furtwangler box and I'm afraid that the 1942 Beethoven 9 calls for just too much tolerance of the very poor sound, even for 1942. The performance itself is terrific, of course, but the sound is intolerable. The ear normally adjusts to poor sound but not here. It's a great pity because just about everything else in the box sounds pretty good.

I think I remember reading a review of the box set and that the 1942 Ninth was felt to be substandard sonically but of such merit that the original curators wanted it included

[oliver sudden]

I think I remember reading a review of the box set and that the 1942 Ninth was felt to be substandard sonically but of such merit that the original curators wanted it included

They couldn’t have left it out, what with it being such a classic performance (and rightly so, in my view). For that box they’ve had access to material that had disappeared into the USSR/Russia for decades so they could hardly have held it back.

[AuntDaisy]

My LPs were destroyed in a flood in 1985 but that looks it. Are you familiar with the performers, A.D.?

No, sorry. They're new to me.
I do like the mosaic cover image, though.

[smittims]

'hardly at the exalted levels we expect from today's quartets'.

Hmm, well, that's one view, pastoralguy. Personally, I prefer the Aeolians because they sound to me more human and closer to how I imagine Haydn and his friends woud have sounded when they gathered together in their homes to play his quartets, which is, aftre all, what the music was intended for. It's easy to forget that the world of technical perfection played to a paying audience sitting passively, is a relatively recent concept.

I knew the Aeolian's playing fromtheir 1950s and '60s recordings of whatwre then rarities by Elgar, Vaughn Williams, NIcholas Maw, Hugh Wood and Fred May ; I was glad when they were asked (maybe through friendship with Harley Usill) to record all the Haydn quartets for Argo.

[Sir Velo]

Hmmm yes. Admittedly it was not Haydn but Beethoven who reportedly said to a querulous lead violinist who found the music too difficult: "Oh, they are not for you. They are for a later age.”

[rauschwerk]

Hindemith: Violin Concerto (1939). Isaac Stern/NYPO/Bernstein.

Oistrakh's recording with the composer seems to be regarded as the benchmark here, though the acoustic of Decca's West Hampstead studio is not flattering. I got to know the Stern recording from an LP in my teens, but this remastering has resulted in superb sound for the period. The enthusiasm of soloist, conductor and orchestra is palpable.

Hindemith seems to be an almost forgotten composer, though on the basis of this splendid piece, that is quite undeserved.