What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[richardfinegold]

I know nothing about this! What have I missed?

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.1 in D major, “Titan”
(Hamburg-Weimar 1893-94 version)
Les Siècles
François-Xavier Roth

Bruckner
Symphony No.4 in Eb major, “Romantic”(1886 version)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle.

Re: Mahler
I’ve never seen it referred to as “Hamburg-Weimar....version”
What exactly does that mean?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Re: Mahler
I’ve never seen it referred to as “Hamburg-Weimar....version”
What exactly does that mean?

It's one of the earlier versions of the work, when it was still a five-movement Symphonic Poem (different orchestrations throughout, too) - definitely a recording I want to get.

[visualnickmos]

Beethoven
Complete piano trios
Stuttgart Trio
(Naxos)

Absolutely untarnished enjoyment throughout. Such great playing, sounding as fresh, and yet confident as ever. I don't recall if this version was mentioned on the recent BaL; I think I would have noticed.

Certainly more than cuts the mustard, for me.

[Richard Barrett]

It's one of the earlier versions of the work, when it was still a five-movement Symphonic Poem (different orchestrations throughout, too) - definitely a recording I want to get.

If I'm not mistaken, at that point it didn't have the title "Symphony no.1 in D Major".

I've been listening again to the 10th in the López-Cobos recording of Mazzetti's 1997 version. Of course no version of this piece should ever be considered definitive, but if like me you regard Deryck Cooke's version as unsatisfactory to listen to on account of its threadbareness (for good reasons of course), and most of the others (especially Barshai, though that does have some interestingly eyebrow-raising moments) overdone, I think this should be the one to keep coming back to. I'm surprised it hasn't been taken up by more conductors rather than Cooke, which was is a musicological exercise first and foremost.

[Joseph K]

Schubert Piano Trio no. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6HTkmXtoqY

[Stanfordian]

Beethoven
Complete piano trios
Stuttgart Trio
(Naxos)

Absolutely untarnished enjoyment throughout. Such great playing, sounding as fresh, and yet confident as ever. I don't recall if this version was mentioned on the recent BaL; I think I would have noticed.

Certainly more than cuts the mustard, for me.

Yes, the are some real gems amongst the massive Naxos output which I believe is often overlooked by BAL reviewers. Some people I know look down their noses at Naxos discs often quoting Jenő Jandó's over productivity. The stand out recording for me that springs to mind is the Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets on 8.550406.

[Bryn]

If I'm not mistaken, at that point it didn't have the title "Symphony no.1 in D Major".

Heh, heh. Don't get me started. I had a recent friendly critical exchange with Robert von Bahr on this very issue. Though Harmonia Mundi rightly names the work on the front cover of this new recording, eClassical had it down as Symphony No. 1 'Titan'. At first, RvB though I was having an aggressive go at his company, but I soon clarified that and described how Mahler has dropped the "Titan" when he further reorchestrated four of the symphonic poem and dropped "Blumine" (though quoting from it in the final movement) to create his Symphony No.1 (with no soubriquet), and that as Roth has previously recorded the 4-movent 1st Symphony, describing the Symphonic Poem as the 1st Symphony could surely lead to confusion. He conceded the point.

Of the Budapest version, only three movements remain extant, the scores of Blumine and the Funeral March are missing from what has been found of that version. A performance of that Budapest version, with the missing movement, interpolated from the Hamburg score and played by the students of the NEC Philharmonia, conducted by Hugo Wolff, can be found on YouTube.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The stand out recording for me that springs to mind is the Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets on 8.550406.

[pastoralguy]

Bartok. Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion.

Martha Argerich and Stephen Bishop Kovacevich, pianos.

Willy Goudswaard and Michael De Roo, percussion.

PHILIPS.

[vinteuil]

Yes, the are some real gems amongst the massive Naxos output which I believe is often overlooked by BAL reviewers. The stand out recording for me that springs to mind is the Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets on 8.550406.

... ah, with the Kodaly and Jenő Jandó

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0000274CN/

.

[teamsaint]

... ah, with the Kodaly and Jenő Jandó

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0000274CN/

.

Best Naxos discs would make a good thread.

Have to say I think they undersell themselves sometime in their covers, but I suppose it is( generally) their look.

[Pulcinella]

Best Naxos discs would make a good thread.

Go for it!

[pastoralguy]

Go for it!

Absolutely!

[silvestrione]

I remember that, around the time he recorded the Rachmaninoff Second with the LAPO, Rattle mentioned in interview that he wasn't a great admirer of Tchaikovsky's Music, and that he much preferred Rachmaninoff. (IIRC, and this is by no means a "given" - I think he suggested that he thought Rachmaninoff made Tchaikovsky "redundant" for him, in that everything Tchaikovsky achieved was done better by Rachmaninoff.) I don't know how accurately this represents Rattle's views on Tchaikovsky these days.

Ah, very interesting! Especially as, for me, as regards Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, it's rather the other way around (orchestrally anyway)!

[pastoralguy]

Ah, very interesting! Especially as, for me, as regards Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, it's rather the other way around (orchestrally anyway)!

Why choose, I wonder? Just enjoy both!