Naxos Music Library has just made available a large number of CDs from the BBC Legends label, over 150 in the last two days. The range is large from Bach to Britten with a lot of 19th century music and the famous performers include Beecham, Barbirolli, Horenstein, Curzon, Richter, Rubinstein etc, etc. But where to start? The choice is overwhelming. Do you have any treasured performances from this label that you would recommend? All suggestions gratefully received.
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Off the top of my head here are a few...
Horenstein's Mahler 8
Matacic's Bruckner 3
Barbirolli's Elgar 1
Beecham's Sibelius 2
Svetlanov's Rimsky Scheherazade
Well, there are five to be getting on with - it's a series that has a lot of great material
- have fun exploring!
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A personal list, biased towards orchestral works:
Horenstein Mahler 8 - an historically very important performance from 1959 (only the 3rd in the UK IIRC). The start is underpowered but it soon picks up.
Horenstein Bruckner 8 - not cathedral-esque but powerful stuff, especially the finale
Tennstedt Dvorak 8 - I was there and it was stunning!
Tennstedt Mahler 1 and 7 - soooo much better than the studioComment
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Barbirolli: Bruckner Symphony No.8. Flawed but sublime and recorded 10 weeks before he died. Top of my 'desert island discs'.Comment
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"Barbirolli: Bruckner Symphony No.8"
Seconded. Unaccountably forgot this when doing my own list above.Comment
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Are those champing at the bit here aware that the highest quality audio available via the Naxos Music Library is about two thirds that which is on offer from the on demand version of Radio 3 on the iPlayer, and way less than half the quality of Radio 3's HD Sound 'live' stream? It's that poor audio quality which is the deciding factor for me. If the music is worth listening to, surely it is worth hearing in very much better audio quality than is on offer at the Naxos Music Library?Comment
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That's interesting Bryn, and slightly ironic too, where the Horenstein Mahler 8 is concerned. I was at this famous concert with some BBC colleagues and I knew Dave Stripp, the stereo mastermind behind the venture. He managed to record this enormous symphony using a single pair of C12 microphones, sending the signals by landlines to a recording channel in Broadcasting House where there was a BTR2 modified with stereo heads running at 15ips. We all thought it was a wonderful recording, it was certainly a stupendous occasion.
I don't know how much restoration work went into the BBC Legends issue, or indeed how much deterioration would be caused by the poor spec. of the Naxos Library. I think I'll stick to the CD as a great souvenir, although I'm not a dedicated Mahlerite.Comment
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Thirded !Originally posted by mathias broucek View Post
The Jacqueline du Pre. Charles Groves Prom performance of the Dvorak Concerto- absolutely marvellous .
All the Richter recitals
The Michelangeli Grieg Concerto - stunningComment
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Thank you to all who have posted their suggestions for BBC Legends CDs.
Unfortunately not all of them have found their way onto NML, notably Horenstein's Mahler 8 which I was particularly keen to hear. I did, however, enjoy listening to Tennstedt's Mahler 1 and will listen to more of your ideas in the coming days.
I must admit that sound quality has never been top priority for me when listening to music so NML is fine for me. Indeed while listening to Richter's recording of 3 Schubert sonatas and hearing the audience in adding their own contributions I was pleased that I was not listening to high quality sound.
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I have a few more BBC Legends CDs that I would recommend despite flaws, all with Barbirolli conducting, if they are available :
Mahler Symphony no 3 with Kerstin Meyer
Mahler Symphony no 4 with Heather Harper
Mahler Symphony no 7 coupled with Bruckner Symphony no 9
Elgar Symphony no 1 with Barbirolli a few days before his death (you wouldn't know it)
A mixed bag with Britten Sinfonia da Requiem & Young Person's Guide, Elgar's In the South, and Walton's Partita (a delightful work)
I also have Britten's recording of Shostakovich Symphony no 14, an impressive traversal I find, and several Stokowski discs suitable for Stokey fans like myself.
Among non-orchestral discs I would recommend a recital mainly of English songs by Janet Baker and another, mainly of Schubert, by Wilhelm Kempff.
I do not know if any of these are available from Naxos.Comment
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"suitable for Stokey fans"
Alf - Do you (or others) have some Strokowski recommendations (Not necessarily from BBC Legends?) I have very little of him and would like some in my collection - preferably in reasonable sound.Comment
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I shall make a few suggestions, but please remember that Stokowski is an acquired taste for many people. He frequently altered or added to scores to create a "better" effect than the composer achieves, he sometimes cut passages from works (though not in any I shall recommend, as far as I know), and he liked to experiment with sound so that occasionally weird perspectives are created. His Decca recordings were originally Phase 4, and it sometimes shows though modern remasterings have often made them into sonic marvels.
I too prefer good sound and have few mono recordings. Therefore all my suggestions are from the stereo age when Stokowski was at least 75. Fortunately for us he did not decline as he aged.
1. Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. Quite the best performance ever recorded (my opinion, of course, though many agree with me here.) Get the latest remastering of the LSO version (he recorded it several times.) It is issued together with Marche Slave of Tchaikovsky, a quite stunning live performance on the occasion of his 90th birthday concert.
2. Brahms Symphony no 2 and Mendelssohn Symphony no 4. Perhaps a little wayward but I love the exhilaration of the Italian (though it is not too fast to register, in fact) and the warmth of the Brahms. Not everybody's cup of tea, however.
3. Elgar Enigma Variations (and Brahms Symphony no 1) - the Elgar was done with very little rehearsal (with the Czech Philharmonic!) and it shows a little, but I simply love the playing of the Czech orchestra and Stokey's moulding.
4. Berlioz Symphonie fantastique - colourful, ear-tickling sounds, even if the orchestra isn't always quite together. There is a great performance of Scriabin's Poeme de l'extase as well. (A BBC Legend)
5. Debussy Nocturnes, Prelude and Iberia and encores, with different orchestras. Stokey revelled in the sounds of French works and I am not sure why he didn't record them more. This is probably the greatest CD of the lot I'm listing. Quite wonderful playing.
6. Holst The Planets (and Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht) - quite fast speeds in the Holst but wonderful sounds and expert playing. As usual, Stokey manages to create a kaleidoscope of sounds in a work such as this. The Schoenberg is quite wonderful too, tight structurally and one of the fastest traversals I know despite all its warmth.
7. Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini - perhaps the quintessential Stokowski recording. Two stereo versions exist, both marvellous. The earlier is often thought to be better and is certainly scorching : it is coupled with a fine performance of Hamlet. The later, with the LSO, is also splendid and has a loving rendition of the Serenade for Strings with it.
8. Shostakovich Symphony no 5 & Vaughan Williams Symphony no 8 - two Proms performances from 1964, well played with little extravagance in either case. A BBC Legend.
I have many other Stokey recordings, but that will do for a start. And I haven't mentioned the orchestrations of Bach which are a peculiar delight of their own!Comment
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I'd second all the recommendations so far, especially his Debussy and Vaughan Williams.
I'm not a Mahler expert, but I remember his stunning Proms performance of the Resurrection at the Proms back in the sixties, and there's a good studio performance with the LSO, Brigitte Fassbaender and Margaret Price.
As a lollipop, if it can be so called, I enjoy his own Symphonic Synthesis on Boris Godunov, and that RCA disc simply called Rhapsody which includes a marvellous performance of the Enescu Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1.
It's probably deleted, but he made a curious but very well played recording of extracts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet which omitted most of the most rumbustious music in favour of the more gentle side, it's coupled by an attractive Menotti ballet called Sebastian.
Seeing Stokey conduct was always an event, for all his little tricks he managed to make orchestras play superbly.Comment
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