New releases

[Bryn]

Curalach, you are a bad boy. For years I have been searching for a dream Berg Violin Concerto. Usually when a new recording comes out I listen in at Collectors' Corner hoping that I can rediscover the ideal performance I once heard with Georgy Pauk. Your praise of Isobelle Faust and Claudio Abbado tempted me to pull off the shelf the only Berg VC I have (and have never played): a BBCMM from 2002 with Leonidas Kavakos. He was wonderful but Andrew Davis could not get the BBCSO to show any passion. However thanks for making me play the CD.....with the Berg comes a glorious Verklarte Nacht again with the BBCSO but Donald Runnicles is brilliant. He proves why the work is one of the truly great string romantic works of great genius...Dvorak, Elgar, Suk. Thanks for making me listen to this version

So? Why are you a bad boy? Well, I like Faust and love Abbado so I have pushed the boat out with the river people.

Cheers, Chris.

For the Berg, I still go for the combination of Suk, the Czech Phil. and Ancerl. This new Faust, Berlin Phil. and Abbado make a fine 21st Century companion for it though.

[mathias broucek]

I see that the 1966 / 67 cycle of the Beethoven Violin Sonatas by Josef Suk and Jan Panenka is due to be reissued on 23 April 2012 newly remastered by Supraphon. IMO one of the very best of all cycles of these Sonatas and surely a bargain at this price on Amazon.

Two fine artists. I have them doing the Archduke together. People remember Suk but Panenka was also a capable artist. I purchased his Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle on LP for what seemed at the time (1983) the amazing price of £6. Must listen to it again...

[Curalach]

Curalach, you are a bad boy.

Guilty as charged M'Lud. You won't regret it.
I see I have 8 recordings of the Berg but not Bryn's Suk/Ancerl. Something I will need to remedy!

All the best,
Iain

[Bryn]

Guilty as charged M'Lud. You won't regret it.
I see I have 8 recordings of the Berg but not Bryn's Suk/Ancerl. Something I will need to remedy!

All the best,
Iain

The amazon.co.uk marketplace looks like your best bet at the moment. You get the best known concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruch as the 'fill-ups'. Ancerl Gold is certainly is.

[AmpH]

That's an amazing bargain! So much for being ahead of the posse: I paid the equivalent of £17 for lossless downloads of this a few weeks ago.

It really is a magnificent set. Of recent recordings, Faust/Melnikov and Ibragimova/Tiberghien are very impressive (F/M ahead, in my opinion), but it will be the Suk that I'll return to more often.

Yes, I too like and have the F / M and I / T recordings , both excellent modern sets. I would further heartily recommend the 1958 set from Christian Ferras and Pierre Barbizet in (mono on EMI France) - three sets of the Beethoven Violin Sonata's just aren't enough !!

[Curalach]

The amazon.co.uk marketplace looks like your best bet at the moment. You get the best known concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruch as the 'fill-ups'. Ancerl Gold is certainly is.

Thanks Bryn. Ordered.
Iain

[Petrushka]

The amazon.co.uk marketplace looks like your best bet at the moment. You get the best known concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruch as the 'fill-ups'. Ancerl Gold is certainly is.

I'd second Bryn's recommendation for the Suk version of the Berg. The Mendelssohn and Bruch are equally excellent. A much played CD. Yet to hear the Faust/Abbado but it's on the wish list.

[Barbirollians]

Faust's adaptation of the cadenza in the first movement of the Beethoven is a triumph by the way. I do not have the Suk but it will have to go some to match Faust in the Berg.

As for the Beethoven sonatas - Menuhin/Kempff are marvellous .

[PJPJ]

New from Naxos - Schwarz-Schilling from Weimar with Serebrier - worth investigating?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0vk_GvJjXU

Earlier volume

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8570435

[mikealdren]

three sets of the Beethoven Violin Sonata's just aren't enough !!

The set I return to most is Grumiaux and Haskil and it's very cheap from Brilliant.

Mike

[amateur51]

The set I return to most is Grumiaux and Haskil and it's very cheap from Brilliant.

Mike

plus Ferras/Barbizet but I'm always willing to add other sets to my 'wish list'

[aeolium]

The set I return to most is Grumiaux and Haskil and it's very cheap from Brilliant.

Mike

Me too, though I also like Oistrakh/Oborin and Menuhin/Kempff.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just to reiterate a post on the what are you listening to thread, one of the best new releases for me this year is

Kalevi Aho Chamber Symphonies 1-3 / Tapiola Sinfonietta/Kantorow/Asbury (BIS 24/44.1 download).

As fine a recording of a string orchestra as I've heard, seamlessly smooth, transparent, powerful and natural. Gorgeous alto sax in no.3 (John-Edward Kelly). It's challenging music but I've become especially fond of nos. 2 and 3 over several hearings, music of great intensity, very atmospheric in its contrast of hectic activity and profound stillness. Aho is a true nature poet, the sounds and forces of wild creatures and wild places are always close.

Not a new release, but a related discovery for me was:
Kalevi Aho Tuba and ContraBassoon Concertos - Bergen PO/Litton, Norrkoping SO/Rondin, Lipnick, Baadsvik (soloists).
(BIS 24/44.1)

Right between the eyes, the roar and crackle of the tuba, in the context of a substantial, powerfully dramatic concerto, is a rare and slightly scary pleasure! (Remember Birtwistle's Earth Dances?). But both pieces are weighty and long enough to be serious symphonic statements. Highly recommended!

[Mahlerei]

Jayne

Interested to know what you make of the 'Luosto' symphony when you get there.

[mathias broucek]

Some new Sony Classical Masters available for pre-order including Fleischer in LvB and Brahms and this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leopold-Stokowski-Stereo-Collection-1954/dp/B006ZJJ70O/ref=sr_1_82?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1333352399&sr=1-82

The cost is less that his famous stereo Mahler 2 has been going for 2nd hand......