Arte Nova recordings

[jayne lee wilson]

Hogwood - Basel Chamber Orchestra

Michael Rische - Piano Concertos

Ooh, you got me going there for a minute... what, I've missed all these...?
It's not quite as many as it looks....(thank goodness)...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_i_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=k%3Ahogwood+arte+nova%2Ci%3Apopular&keywords=hogwood+arte+nova&ie=UTF8&qid=1503156537

I recall now buying Vol. 1 with the Honegger 4th, but wasn't too happy with it - better 4ths around & perhaps the same for the Stravinsky too. IIRC I wanted a little more spark & atmosphere, a little less close-set. (Munch at one end of the spectrum, Luisi at the other...) Still, good Honegger 4ths aren't thick on the ground, and this is a nice "virtual concert", very nicely recorded; the label consistently makes the effort to go off-the-beaten - always a good thing!

The Manz/Mandeal Brahms Concertos & Symphonies reviewed well chez Cowan (Gramophone, late 1990s) as provocatively different (!) but I never got around to them. The Romanian orchestras might well offer a good Brahmsian palette. No-one hear those?

[PJPJ]

Ooh, you got me going there for a minute... what, I've missed all these...?
It's not quite as many as it looks....(thank goodness)...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_i_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=k%3Ahogwood+arte+nova%2Ci%3Apopular&keywords=hogwood+arte+nova&ie=UTF8&qid=1503156537

I recall now buying Vol. 1 with the Honegger 4th, but wasn't too happy with it - better 4ths around & perhaps the same for the Stravinsky too. IIRC I wanted a little more spark & atmosphere, a little less close-set. (Munch at one end of the spectrum, Luisi at the other...) Still, good Honegger 4ths aren't thick on the ground, and this is a nice "virtual concert", very nicely recorded; the label consistently makes the effort to go off-the-beaten - always a good thing!

The Manz/Mandeal Brahms Concertos & Symphonies reviewed well chez Cowan (Gramophone, late 1990s) as provocatively different (!) but I never got around to them. The Romanian orchestras might well offer a good Brahmsian palette. No-one hear those?

I don't have any real Brahms on Arte Nova, but do have this tribute act - the CPO set may be better recorded and played...... I think these symphonies are really well worth a listen or two.

[Jonathan]

I have a few CDs on this label - Saint-saens complete organ works, Liszt complete organ works (which, IIRC was £15.99 for a 4 disc set in a shop in Woking!), Bruckner 0 (Die Nulte), Gernsheim - Complete symphonies (my favourite recording of these works) and Liszt Transcendental etudes with Alfredo Perl (who I think is an excellent pianist). There are probably more as well!

[jayne lee wilson]

I listened to the Brahms Piano Concertos with Manz/Mandeal etc. on Qobuz HiFi. I expected something interesting but they're quite stunning actually!

At just over 43' (!) for the B Flat and 45' for the D Minor, they don't hang about - marvellously swift and incisive, but with a true Romantic orchestral sound, warm and weighty but never excessively heavy. Those Romanian strings have a terrific cutting edge matched by very chiselled piano tone from Manz - who sings out the lines beautifully with winds or cello in the slow movements... there's a nice reverberance around the orchestra, the piano set just slightly ahead of them. (If you know the Enescu white-label issues, you'll have some idea of the orchestral character).
Slavonic Brahms always seems to dig deeper.

Downsides? Not many - occasionally the winds are a little covered by the orchestra (but still audible); the 1st movement of No.1 can seem a little too poised and "classical" - but it keeps flowing on, and still has fine, articulate impact in climaxes. But even if this holds fire a shade, the las two movements more than make up for it.
If you enjoy going off-the-beaten with familiar classics, give these a try - the 2nd Concerto is true hidden treasure here, a performance in a single breath - very "live" in feel (and even quicker than any Toscanini/Horowitzes I know of...).

My kind of Brahms! (And straight into my Arte Nova Top Ten...)

[Barbirollians]

Good Bruckner 2 by Wakasugi - couldn't abide the Zinman Pastoral .