What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Barbirollians]

Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K488
Mitsuko Uchida (piano / director)
Cleveland Orchestra
Recorded Live 2008, Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio
Decca, CD

Marlis Petersen – Dimensionen Innenwelt (Dimension Innerworld)
Teil 3 der Dimensions-Trilogie (Part 3 of Dimensions Trilogy)
Lieder: Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Reger, Weigl, Rößler & Füstenthal
Mélodies: Fauré, Hahn & Duparc
Marlis Petersen (soprano)
Stephan Matthias Lademann (piano)
Gregor Hübne (violin) (track 22, R. Strauss)
Recorded 2019 Konzerthaus Blaibach, Germany
Solo Musica, CD

I bought a couple of instalments from Uchida's Cleveland Mozart but did not really get on with them- found K271 in particular rather cold .

Brahms 2 now from Solti - this is rather lovely too . I see from Gramophone these records were well received in the 1970s but they seem rather to have been lost from view.

[richardfinegold]

I bought a couple of instalments from Uchida's Cleveland Mozart but did not really get on with them- found K271 in particular rather cold .

Brahms 2 now from Solti - this is rather lovely too . I see from Gramophone these records were well received in the 1970s but they seem rather to have been lost from view.

I had the Brahms 2 and didn’t much care for it. I was at a performance that preceded the recording and I thought the first movement was directionless and I nodded off. It’s been a while so perhaps a relisten is in order. I don’t think I heard any other symphonies from that set.

[pastoralguy]

£80's not bad for NM+.........presuming it's flat!!!...........are you mounting a rescue operation?......or just suggest that they 'Shelter' that particular item!

I don’t know enough about vinyl to invest such a large amount on an unknown quantity. I mentioned it on Facebook with a photo and many contributors felt it was worth the money if it was in good condition.

[smittims]

JS Bach: Mass in B minor: Amsterdam Philharmonic chorus and orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr, with a fine team of soloists including Leopold Simoneau, Grace Hoffman and Heinz Rehfuss. A Concert Hall Record Club recording made in 1960 and released in 1961. It's on YouTube.

I was impressed by this. Goehr's tempi are all very natural and logical , flowing nicely from movement to movement, the only surprise for me the opening Kyrie rather fast.

[Roger Webb]

I don’t know enough about vinyl to invest such a large amount on an unknown quantity. I mentioned it on Facebook with a photo and many contributors felt it was worth the money if it was in good condition.

Condition is everything for the serious Lyrita (and many other labels) vinyl collector. I've told elsewhere that I managed to buy the bulk of Lyrita LPs when they ceased selling vinyl....these were mainly the coveted Nimbus pressings, and after replacing any poor ones I had in my own collection, I advertised them in Gramophone, and a New York dealer bought the lot....at £25 each (in the late '90s!) - he told me he could get $80 each - by then, brand new Lyritas were highly sought after in the US....now? well I did see a copy of the Arnold SRCS109 going for £470 a while back, purporting to be unused Mint!

PS there was an auction of LPs from Richard Itter's (Lyrita's owner) personal collection a while ago...bids above £25 considered.

[Petrushka]

I had the Brahms 2 and didn’t much care for it. I was at a performance that preceded the recording and I thought the first movement was directionless and I nodded off. It’s been a while so perhaps a relisten is in order. I don’t think I heard any other symphonies from that set.

I like Solti's Brahms cycle which I now have in the Solti/Chicago big box having had the LPs when they first came out. I heard them perform the 3rd in London in 1978 (followed by the Mahler 1).

The performances are not hard driven and a relisten might have you thinking better of them.

[Barbirollians]

I had the Brahms 2 and didn’t much care for it. I was at a performance that preceded the recording and I thought the first movement was directionless and I nodded off. It’s been a while so perhaps a relisten is in order. I don’t think I heard any other symphonies from that set.

That’s a while ago . It was recorded May 1978 - you must have been very young !

[smittims]

I bought the Chicago Brahms 3 when it came out on LP and was very impressed wth the detail . Elsewhere also, in Wagner and Schoenberg for instance, Solti achieved new standards in orchestral playing.

[richardfinegold]

That’s a while ago . It was recorded May 1978 - you must have been very young !

College, around 20. That experience made me avoid Brahms2 for many years

[richardfinegold]

I like Solti's Brahms cycle which I now have in the Solti/Chicago big box having had the LPs when they first came out. I heard them perform the 3rd in London in 1978 (followed by the Mahler 1).

The performances are not hard driven and a relisten might have you thinking better of them.

Perhaps. Btw I was looking at that Solti box on Amazon a few days ago. It’s almost a thousand dollars. I decided to buy the big Szell box, however, which to my surprise has remained available since its release. Reportedly the Szell box continues to szell…er, sell, and Sony has decided to keep it going at present

[richardfinegold]

Speaking of big reissue boxes, last night listening was from one of the Ormandy tomes, a disc featuring Stravinsky Petrouchka and Firebird Suites sandwiching Hary Janos.
The Stravinsky was vey good. There were a few rhythmic stiff spots at the beginning of Petrouchka and Firebird lacked just that extra few grams of atmosphere that the very best records have, but the playing is superlative and had I heard either of these in concert I would have been well satisfied.
The Kodaly however was the proverbial knockout. It was one of those times I heard a thrice familiar score and found myself listening as if the first time. My comparators are Szell and Dorati on Mercury (coincidentally 3 records of comparable vintage led by 3 Hungarian conductors). Ormandy’s cimbalon player truly sounds like he is improvising. The viola solo is earthy and the horns sound laced with paprika. Ormandy takes a few pauses that seem pregnant with anticipation, as I was holding my breath waiting for the next notes. Marvelous stuff

[Jonathan]

Listened to Busoni's Violin Concerto yesterday as I work through the Hyperion Romantic Violin concerto series. A most interesting piece, maybe I should investigate Busoni more?

[smittims]

Have you heard Busoni's piano concerto, jonathan, his most famous work? It's on YouTube.

Re Ormandy, I've always enjoyed his recordings. Although I wouldn't put him in the very first rank, I've always disagreed with those who consider him overrated (and indeed worse things have been said). His Shostakovitch and Rachmaninov are surely second to none.

[Jonathan]

Hi smittims, yes ages ago! I also heard Marc-Andre Hamelin playing the solo part at a friend's house - really quite astonishing to hear. I really should give it another listen as I do have his recording (again, on Hyperion). Thanks for the recommendation 🙂

[oliver sudden]

Had a listen to some of this TTN:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0029xhw

I’d been curious for literally decades how the Smyth would be, and, um, oh dear, it was so much better in my head. (Very unusual to hear Stefan Dohr sound overstretched!)

And my next Bruckner phase seems as far away as ever.

Oh well, it was instructive.