What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[AuntDaisy]

WF Bach - Œuvre pour clavecin, Christophe Rousset. Lively pieces, beautifully played. Doesn't CR look young?
D'Anglebert afterwards...

[HighlandDougie]

Unlike the hack Daniel Harding who diminished Isserlis’ recording on Hyperion.

Oh dear, I'm not sure what Daniel Harding has done to give PG such a mighty scunner against him but PG seems rarely to miss the opportunity to sink the boot into him. I heard him last in the flesh in Mahler's 5th (Orchestre de Paris - OK performance) and have experienced him deliver some good Elgar. But I keep returning to his live performance of Mahler (compl. Cooke) Symphony No 10 with a good deal of pleasure - it may be the quality of the VPO's playing but, whether that or Harding's interpretation or both, I tend to a more charitable view than is clearly held by PG.

[pastoralguy]

Oh dear, I'm not sure what Daniel Harding has done to give PG such a mighty scunner against him but PG seems rarely to miss the opportunity to sink the boot into him. I heard him last in the flesh in Mahler's 5th (Orchestre de Paris - OK performance) and have experienced him deliver some good Elgar. But I keep returning to his live performance of Mahler (compl. Cooke) Symphony No 10 with a good deal of pleasure - it may be the quality of the VPO's playing but, whether that or Harding's interpretation or both, I tend to a more charitable view than is clearly held by PG.

It strikes me that Harding has absolutely no empathy at all for Dvorak’s music and simply beats time and keeps up with the soloist. He skates over all my favourite moments in this wonderful score especially in comparison with Martin Sieghart, a conductor I’d never heard of, who conducts marvellously for Harriet Krijgh and brings out aspects of the score I’d never noticed before despite having heard it 100’s of times before. It’s real hack work, imho.

I heard him conduct Bruckner with the London Symphony Orchestra and it seemed as if he’d asked the timpanist to use a couple of half bricks! Very slow tempi and a decided below par response from the LSO.

As if that were not enough, a friend who has worked with him describes him as a ‘Grade A s**t!’ He told me a couple of very unpleasant stories.

So, very little love for DH in this household.

[vinteuil]

WF Bach, Christophe Rousset. Lively pieces, beautifully played. Doesn't CR look young?

Rousset recorded the WF Bach when he was 28.

He is now 63, and recent photographs show it

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni, nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti



.

[AuntDaisy]

Rousset recorded the WF Bach when he was 28.

He is now 63, and recent photographs show it

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni, nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti

Thanks - Rumpole would be proud.

I always thought he looked like Peter Pan in this cover photo:

[vinteuil]

Would he look younger without the grizzled beard?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bach-Kunst-Fuge-Christophe-Rousset/dp/B0CKFPNW4P/

eheu, indeed

.

[Stanfordian]

Gaetano Donizetti
‘Elvida’, melodramma in one act (1826)
Amur, head of a tribe of Moors, Pietro Spagnoli (bass); Zeidar, his son, Jennifer Larmore (mezzo-soprano);
Elvida, a noble Castilian maiden, Annick Massis (soprano); Alfonso, a Castilian prince, Bruce Ford (tenor);
Zulma, Amur’s slave, Anne-Marie Gibbons (mezzo-soprano); Ramiro, an officer of Alfonso, Ashley Catling (tenor)
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir,
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Antonello Allemandi
Recorded 2004 Henry Wood Hall, London
Opera Rara, CD

[richardfinegold]

Beethoven Triple Concerto. Richter/Rostropovich/Oistrakh with Karajan/BPO.
A notorious recording. Richter later complained that he wanted to retake several sections and Karajan nixed this because he wanted to use time for photos.
I had wanted to stream it and to my surprise it is unavailable. I found an inexpensive used CD on eBay.
On first hearing I thought this is pretty enjoyable. The corporate virtuosity is impressive.
Second hearing and I begin to realize what the issues are. It’s all very tentative, the hand offs between the players and the orchestra in particular. Everyone sounds careful and it slows the vivacity of the piece. The slow movement works best.

The CD coupler is the Brahms Double, Szell and Cleveland with Oistrakh and Rostropovich. This was new to me. Again at first I was impressed but not so much the second time. The problem is Szell, who is just do brusque and efficient but doesn’t seem involved.
An interesting disc nonetheless

[silvestrione]

Beethoven Triple Concerto. Richter/Rostropovich/Oistrakh with Karajan/BPO.
A notorious recording. Richter later complained that he wanted to retake several sections and Karajan nixed this because he wanted to use time for photos.
I had wanted to stream it and to my surprise it is unavailable. I found an inexpensive used CD on eBay.
On first hearing I thought this is pretty enjoyable. The corporate virtuosity is impressive.
Second hearing and I begin to realize what the issues are. It’s all very tentative, the hand offs between the players and the orchestra in particular. Everyone sounds careful and it slows the vivacity of the piece. The slow movement works best.

The CD coupler is the Brahms Double, Szell and Cleveland with Oistrakh and Rostropovich. This was new to me. Again at first I was impressed but not so much the second time. The problem is Szell, who is just do brusque and efficient but doesn’t seem involved.
An interesting disc nonetheless

Karajan perhaps just trying to get Richter away from obsessive retakes? The latter never sounds relaxed, at his best, in studio accounts. Or rarely, I should say. Whereas HvK was in his element, and knew a good take when it was achieved (sometimes the first).

[smittims]

Dvorak: Symphony no 9 (ex no.5) : From the New World. The Vienna Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik.

I had stopped listening to this famous symphony, perhaps because I had heard it too often and thought it overrated, until I discovered the Toscanini recording which shows it to be a masterpiece. Kubleik made a famous DG version as part of a complete set, but this earlier Decca recording is much superior in my view , due to the orchestra and to Victor Olof's recording. It had a long life and was highly praised on its Ace of Clube reissue

[pastoralguy]

Despite liking the concerto a great deal, never really got round to looking for a upgrade on my one version, St Louis/ Susskind/ Nelsova. Big oversight, that needs correcting.
That sounds like a great disc, Pasty.

currently Hilding Rosenberg SQ#3, which is well worth a listen.

Currently listening to Zara Nelsova playing Dvorak’s ‘cello concerto with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Susskind. A long time since I’ve heard this recording which my introduction to this wonderful piece. Very well played and recorded and an excellent introduction. Yes, it’s been superseded by more modern performances but it’s still very good indeed.

[Pulcinella]

Currently listening to Zara Nelsova playing Dvorak’s ‘cello concerto with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Susskind. A long time since I’ve heard this recording which my introduction to this wonderful piece. Very well played and recorded and an excellent introduction. Yes, it’s been superseded by more modern performances but it’s still very good indeed.

Anyone know her recording of the Barber concerto, with the composer conducting?
Certainly worth hearing imho.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7990266--barber-conducts-barber

[DoctorT]

Brahms Cello Sonatas (+ Violin sonata no. 1 arranged for cello)
Alisa Weilerstein & Inon Barnatan
Perfect late night listening

[smittims]

I endorse Pulcinella's praise for that Naxos CD of Sam Barber's music, the contents of three ten inch Decca LPs featuring the 'New Symphony Orchestra of London' which I always think is the RPO in disguise . I love the second symphony and deplore Barber's decision to withdraw it. Fortunately we have this definitive recording.

I well recall seeing Zara Nelsova (who was originally Sarah Nelson from Winnipeg) play the Dvorak concerto,which was essentially her warhorse, though she was generous in giving time to little-known music too, such as Milhaud's first concerto, a favourite of mine.

[richardfinegold]

I obtained a set of recordings that Otto Klemperer made with the Vienna Symphony, primarily in 1951, for Vox. It’s available from Jpc, about 11 SACD(I think-it’s upstairs as I write this), and it cost around $7 a disc. Besides the previously released recordings there are a few concerts included. It comes with a nice hardbound book with a long an interesting article about OK and Vox, which I only had time to glance at yesterday but which looks quite interesting.
It arrived yesterday and I only had time to play the first disc, coupling Beethoven Pastoral with Mendelssohn Italian. I should mention that some of these Vox LPs were my first ever
records , long since gone. I think the Beethoven was my first exposure to that work, but the Mendelssohn was new to me.
I had obtained the big Warner OK box with the Philharmonia a few months back. It will be fun to make some side by side comparisons but my initial impression from disc one was quite favorable.
First, the recording quality. SACD is overkill for mono, but it’s a delightful luxury to have. I haven’t compared the stereo layer vs the SACD layer but what I did hear has tremendous clarity and low level detail. These were never great recordings compared to the best of the era but it’s a believable orchestral presence, a decent soundstage , and heck the absence of the execrable Vox vinyl is a revelation in and of itself.
The orchestra is of course not the VPO, nor is it any thing like the current Vienna Symphony. They play well however and the winds have great character.
The Beethoven will be familiar if one has the Philharmonia record. It’s measured and deliberate but still carries great sweep and sense of motion. The details are all presented without losing the big picture. And the Italian really generates excitement particularly in the saltarello.
I bought this primarily for the nostalgia factor but it promises to be much more than that