What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Stanfordian]

Korngold – Chamber works
Piano Quintet, Op. 15
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 16
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 34
Aron Quartet,
Henri Sigfridsson (piano)
Recorded 2007-08 Vienna
CPO, CD

Dvořák
‘Stabat mater’ for four soloists, chorus & orchestra, Op. 58, B.71
Erin Wall (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (mezzo-soprano), Christian Elsner (tenor), Liang Li (bass)
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks,
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Mariss Jansons
Recorded Live 2015 Herkulessaal, Munich
BR-Klassik, CD

[richardfinegold]

I suspect that Smittins was attempting to compliment the Pianist on her appearance and chose his words somewhat poorly. Fwiw he wasn’t alone if you look at the YT comments. I had posted that video because it was sent to me by a violinist friend. I had first listened in my car on the Bluetooth and was also bowled over by the performance. When I watched it later on my phone I was distracted by her facial expressions, which made it difficult to concentrate on the music. When thanking my friend for the video he texted back and while complimenting the players he said “I thought the Pianist looked like she was having an allergy attack.”.
Such comments are generally associated with Male Misogyny but in our times are equally associated with women. My wife has a few friends who routinely talk that way. When I first started practicing I had a few female patients, all of whom were at least 30 years older than me, who swooned over my appearance and make salacious comments to office staffers after the appointment, who would then gleefully relay them to me. My standard reply would be to instruct the staff to refer them to an Opthomologist. And of course as the years went by, sadly I never heard of those comments being made.

[edashtav]

I suspect that Smittins was attempting to compliment the Pianist on her appearance and chose his words somewhat poorly. Fwiw he wasn’t alone if you look at the YT comments. I had posted that video because it was sent to me by a violinist friend. I had first listened in my car on the Bluetooth and was also bowled over by the performance. When I watched it later on my phone I was distracted by her facial expressions, which made it difficult to concentrate on the music. When thanking my friend for the video he texted back and while complimenting the players he said “I thought the Pianist looked like she was having an allergy attack.”.
Such comments are generally associated with Male Misogyny but in our times are equally associated with women. My wife has a few friends who routinely talk that way. When I first started practicing I had a few female patients, all of whom were at least 30 years older than me, who swooned over my appearance and make salacious comments to office staffers after the appointment, who would then gleefully relay them to me. My standard reply would be to instruct the staff to refer them to an Opthomologist. And of course as the years went by, sadly I never heard of those comments being made.

I’m glad to have your interpretation of smittims’ post which I had found offensive. Furthermore, I was surprised that he, a very experienced and respected poster, did not grasp, fully, the points made by others on this thread. We are on a site dedicated to supporting / discussing Radio 3 programmes. Radio transmissions are not reels unlike Youtube and we listeners are blind when we comment on Radio 3 programmes. Only the music matters to us and I feel we should be careful when discussing material encountered via ‘viewing’ platforms.

[visualnickmos]

I apologise to Highland Dougie and visualnickmos for annoying them. Funnily enough , I'm usually the one castigated for not having a sense of humour .

But I make no apology for my original remark.

You didn't annoy me, so your apology is meaningless. Your remark saddened me, in that this sort of thing is tolerated on boards like this. Frankly insulting to the pianist.

[richardfinegold]

Goldberg Variations, Sergey Schepkin, piano

a superb Bach Pianist

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcXAEOATtXfEliFOAoXeZ15N5fHi7i7Zj&si=JSx-FmK4wraJqqkS

[smittims]

Brahms : Symphony no.2 in D,The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwangler.

This recording, and performance, have received bad publicity over the years, but I've always enjoyed it, first on a Naxos CD ad now in the Aceof Clubs issue of the original Lp.

It was one of only two studio recordings he made of any Brahms symphony, both on 78s, the other being an HMV set of the first symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. Listeers would have been surprised to see Furtwangler on Decca and with the LPO too, though he had performed with them in the 1930s , notably in a complete Ring at Covent Garden, fragments of which survive in disc. .

It was Sidney Beer who was the first to approach Furtwangler after the war to get him to record for Decca , probably hoping he would conduct Beer's own National S.O. . But by the time F. was cleared by a de-Nazification tribunal and allowed to conduct in alled-occupoied territory the NSO was no more, and Walter Legge had got him recording for HMV in neutral Switzerland . Nevertheless he came to Kingsway Halll in 1948 and made this fine set of the second symphony.

[Stanfordian]

Finzi
Cello Concerto,
Eclogue for piano & orchestra
Grand Fantasia & Fugue for piano & orchestra
Tim Hugh (cello) & Peter Donohoe (piano)
Northern Sinfonia / Howard Griffiths
Recorded 2001, Jubilee Theatre, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Naxos, CD

Howells – Songs
John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Catherine Pierard (soprano), Benjamin Luxon (baritone), Lynne Dawson (soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)
Recorded 1993 St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London
Chandos, 2 CD set

[richardfinegold]

Brahms : Symphony no.2 in D,The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwangler.

This recording, and performance, have received bad publicity over the years, but I've always enjoyed it, first on a Naxos CD ad now in the Aceof Clubs issue of the original Lp.

It was one of only two studio recordings he made of any Brahms symphony, both on 78s, the other being an HMV set of the first symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. Listeers would have been surprised to see Furtwangler on Decca and with the LPO too, though he had performed with them in the 1930s , notably in a complete Ring at Covent Garden, fragments of which survive in disc. .

It was Sidney Beer who was the first to approach Furtwangler after the war to get him to record for Decca , probably hoping he would conduct Beer's own National S.O. . But by the time F. was cleared by a de-Nazification tribunal and allowed to conduct in alled-occupoied territory the NSO was no more, and Walter Legge had got him recording for HMV in neutral Switzerland . Nevertheless he came to Kingsway Halll in 1948 and made this fine set of the second symphony.

I didn’t realize that Furtwangler had ever recorded with the LPO, and in the studio no less. I own a Furtwangler reissue of supposedly complete EMI recordings, but you said this was made for Decca. I also don’t recall hearing of this when I read reviews of the DG reissue of Furtwangler (I think Petrushka owns this box?) but again that wasn’t Decca. I would have thought that DG or Warner could have licensed the Decca for the sake of completeness.
Perhaps Pristine Audio will issue it, if they haven’t already

[HighlandDougie]

I didn’t realize that Furtwangler had ever recorded with the LPO, and in the studio no less. I own a Furtwangler reissue of supposedly complete EMI recordings, but you said this was made for Decca. I also don’t recall hearing of this when I read reviews of the DG reissue of Furtwangler (I think Petrushka owns this box?) but again that wasn’t Decca. I would have thought that DG or Warner could have licensed the Decca for the sake of completeness.
Perhaps Pristine Audio will issue it, if they haven’t already

It's in the, 'Wilhelm Furtwängler: Complete Recordings on DG and Decca', box which dates from 2019, as in:

https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/furtwaengler-complete-recordings-on-dg-decca-5635

Although I've had the box for some time (it was cheap on, I think, Amazon), I must confess to having never listened to the Brahms 2nd.

[richardfinegold]

It's in the, 'Wilhelm Furtwängler: Complete Recordings on DG and Decca', box which dates from 2019, as in:

https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/furtwaengler-complete-recordings-on-dg-decca-5635

Although I've had the box for some time (it was cheap on, I think, Amazon), I must confess to having never listened to the Brahms 2nd.

Thanks for that. There have been many reissues so hard to keep track. The link you provided seems to be CDs, not SACDs. Perhaps the box that I am remembering was issued by the orchestra and not by DG .

[smittims]

That DG/Decca box includes what was a discovery for me , the 1953 Franck Symphony. I'd assumed this was a transfer of the 1945 live Vienna concert but it's a Decca studio recording made in the Musikvereinsaal, and very good it is too.

[Petrushka]

I didn’t realize that Furtwangler had ever recorded with the LPO, and in the studio no less. I own a Furtwangler reissue of supposedly complete EMI recordings, but you said this was made for Decca. I also don’t recall hearing of this when I read reviews of the DG reissue of Furtwangler (I think Petrushka owns this box?) but again that wasn’t Decca. I would have thought that DG or Warner could have licensed the Decca for the sake of completeness.
Perhaps Pristine Audio will issue it, if they haven’t already

The Brahms 2 with the LPO was recorded by Decca on March 20, 22 and 24-25 1948 and was licensed to Warner for them to include it as disc 17 in the complete Furtwängler EMI recordings.

To slightly complicate matters, EMI released a box in 2011 called Wilhelm Furtwängler the Great EMI Recordings and they included a live Brahms 2 with the VPO recorded in Munich on May 7 1952. In issuing their own box in 2021 Warner eschewed this approach and kept to the studio recordings only. This is why I've hung on to the earlier EMI set as it contains a complete Brahms cycle.

The 1945 recording of Brahms 2 was made in Vienna on January 28 1945 and has been available from various sources. The first half of that radio concert was given over to the Franck Symphony and it was after the concert of this programme given on the next day that Furtwängler made his escape to Switzerland.

[cloughie]

That DG/Decca box includes what was a discovery for me , the 1953 Franck Symphony. I'd assumed this was a transfer of the 1945 live Vienna concert but it's a Decca studio recording made in the Musikvereinsaal, and very good it is too.

https://www.colinscolumn.com/eloquence-releases-wilhelm-furtwangler-the-decca-legacy/

[smittims]

Thanks, cloughie. Eloquence have often put me in their debt with wonderful reissues of forgotten gems from the past, too many to mention here. .

[richardfinegold]

.

To slightly complicate matters, EMI released a box in 2011 called Wilhelm Furtwängler the Great EMI Recordings and they included a live Brahms 2 with the VPO recorded in Munich on May 7 1952. .

That’s the EMI box that I own