New Releases

Started by Brian, March 12, 2009, 12:26:29 PM

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Kontrapunctus


Mirror Image

Quote from: Toccata&Fugue on September 24, 2011, 07:58:27 PM
This looks good:



I liked the Rihm violin/orchestra work, but found the rest of the recording disappointing. Currier's Time Machines, which sounded cool in the audio samples, ended up being a complete and utter failure. Nothing remotely memorable about it. I expected much better from Mutter, but I applaud her, as I always do, for taking risks like this recording.

petrarch

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 24, 2011, 08:02:49 PM
I liked the Rihm violin/orchestra work, but found the rest of the recording disappointing. Currier's Time Machines, which sounded cool in the audio samples, ended up being a complete and utter failure. Nothing remotely memorable about it.

Got this CD a week or two ago but only listened to Rihm's Lichtes Spiel and haven't gone through the rest yet. If you liked it, you'll probably like his Verwandlung IV.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Mirror Image

Quote from: petrarch on September 24, 2011, 08:39:13 PM
Got this CD a week or two ago but only listened to Rihm's Lichtes Spiel and haven't gone through the rest yet. If you liked it, you'll probably like his Verwandlung IV.

Yeah, I liked the Rihm work a lot. I'll probably end up buying all of the Hanssler recordings at some point. 8) Thanks for the recommendation.

petrarch

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 24, 2011, 08:55:20 PM
Yeah, I liked the Rihm work a lot. I'll probably end up buying all of the Hanssler recordings at some point. 8) Thanks for the recommendation.

They are all good. But I find this latest stylistic move on Rihm's part less interesting than his earlier works.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

The new erato

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 24, 2011, 07:30:08 PM
I was never attracted to Beethoven's sound-world. If Toucan was to make that comment, I'd just let it go. Toucan has every right to dislike whomever he/she wants as do I. But I'm not here to bash Beethoven, just merely expressing how I don't like what Chailly has been doing with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and that I can think of other conductors who are doing more interesting, or interesting for me, music.
I do agree that there are lots of repertoire more deserving of recording than yet another Beethoven (or Schumann) cycle, and given Chaillys superb track record in 20th century repertoire, his recording schedule the last couple of years, given that, seems like so much waste of plastic. While I have most of his Zemlinsky, Varese, Stravinsky....his recent discs are a waste of time for me. 

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 24, 2011, 07:01:10 AM
Major eye roll. Yeah, that's all we need another Beethoven set. ::) I wish Chailly would realize that his best repertoire is in Modern music

I don't agree with that at all. His Bach is superb (and what better orchestra to record Bach than the Gewandhaus with its Bach tradition?). His Bruckner is superb. His Schumann is superb. His Brahms superb. His Mahler superb.

Quote from: The new erato on September 25, 2011, 01:10:16 AM
I do agree that there are lots of repertoire more deserving of recording than yet another Beethoven (or Schumann) cycle

Every major conductor has to do a Beethoven cycle. It's what major conductors do. I'm not going to fault Chailly for finally giving us his. And give him credit for doing it now, rather than when he was 30.

As someone who has a keen interest in both Schumann and Mahler, I really appreciate his unique Schumann cycle which gives us the Mahler orchestrations. His Mendelssohn too gives us something different, allowing us to hear the original, unrevised versions of key works and a piano concerto we've never heard before.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Mirror Image

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 25, 2011, 05:00:17 AM
I don't agree with that at all. His Bach is superb (and what better orchestra to record Bach than the Gewandhaus with its Bach tradition?). His Bruckner is superb. His Schumann is superb. His Brahms superb. His Mahler superb.

Sarge

That's your opinion, Sarge and I respect it as such, but I don't agree with your assessment that all of these cycles are superb. His Brahms cycle was only average and terribly workaday. Nothing superb about it. The Schumann, which I've heard the first two symphonies, didn't do anything for me. I do like his Bruckner and Mahler though. His Bruckner especially. Great recordings of 4-8, but didn't care for his 9th, but it's hard to top Giulini/VPO in my opinion anyway.

Mirror Image

Quote from: The new erato on September 25, 2011, 01:10:16 AM
I do agree that there are lots of repertoire more deserving of recording than yet another Beethoven (or Schumann) cycle, and given Chaillys superb track record in 20th century repertoire, his recording schedule the last couple of years, given that, seems like so much waste of plastic. While I have most of his Zemlinsky, Varese, Stravinsky....his recent discs are a waste of time for me.

Hell even Rattle is doing more interesting things than Chailly. :D Yeah, Chailly used to be somebody I was very excited about, and I do like his older recordings of the more Modern repertoire, but it just seems that he's falling into repertoire that's been done to death. I'd seriously like to hear him do some Schreker and more Berg. He does well in 20th Century Viennese music, so maybe some more Schoenberg and a complete survey of Webern would be in order? :D

Kontrapunctus

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 24, 2011, 08:02:49 PM
I liked the Rihm violin/orchestra work, but found the rest of the recording disappointing. Currier's Time Machines, which sounded cool in the audio samples, ended up being a complete and utter failure. Nothing remotely memorable about it. I expected much better from Mutter, but I applaud her, as I always do, for taking risks like this recording.
I just ordered it, so I'll judge for myself soon enough!

DavidRoss

Quote from: Brian on September 24, 2011, 12:49:31 PM
Do report back on Fischer - that CD is on my wish list, though I'm a little perplexed by something he evidently does in the finale of the Sixth...
I liked it, Brian, but wasn't wowed. Beautifully judged tempos (swifter than old school but hardly extreme) and smooth dynamic shifts with the seamless orchestral play we've come to expect from Fischer's hand-picked partners in the BFO. Super big band Beethoven—listen to the storm section of the sixth to hear just how good this orchestra is and how well they play with both passion and precision.

Compared with my favorites, however, it's a bit more like Gardiner than Brüggen, just a bit too well-mannered, without the raucous brashness I think best represents Beethoven's in-your-face envelope-stretching. It reminds me of the Fischer/BFO Mahler second: damned near irreproachable in every respect, but lacking the edginess of the very best performances. Not that it's so well groomed that it's lifeless, just that it's all safely contained.

So far as the solo violin at the start of the sixth's last movement, it seemed perfectly appropriate and not at all out of place musically.  In other words, it doesn't call attention to itself.  Were it not for the minor fuss some have made over these few bars I'm not sure I would have noticed anything "amiss."

I look forward to other installments of this cycle in progress, which so far I like better than Vänskä's recent one.

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 25, 2011, 05:00:17 AM
Every major conductor has to do a Beethoven cycle. It's what major conductors do. I'm not going to fault Chailly for finally giving us his.
Far from being "played out," LvB's symphonies remain a staggering achievement likely to prove timeless, still setting the standard against which all other symphonists are measured.  In recent years we've seen at least a dozen new cycles informed by the HIPsters and post-modern values, with many receiving critical acclaim and appealing to a significant yet varied audience: Harnoncourt (20 years ago is recent for some of us  ;) ), Gardiner, Zinman, Barenboim, Immerseel, Dausgaard, Abbado, Vänskä, Järvi, Haitink, the new Fischer underway, and doubtless others.  Why shouldn't Chailly give us one, too?  Who's to say he has nothing of interest to bring to the project?

Some might be interested in his comments about these works:
http://www.youtube.com/v/mnPIShWxWtU&feature=relmfu
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Renfield

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 25, 2011, 06:47:33 AM
Hell even Rattle is doing more interesting things than Chailly. :D

Permit me a raised eyebrow, here.

Rattle may not be to everyone's taste, but saying that even he conducts interesting (i.e. non-warhorse) repertory is disingenuous.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Renfield on September 25, 2011, 02:29:27 PM
Permit me a raised eyebrow, here.

Rattle may not be to everyone's taste, but saying that even he conducts interesting (i.e. non-warhorse) repertory is disingenuous.

I didn't say he was free of not conducting warhorses. I said he's been conducting more interesting music. Go look at some of Berlin Philharmonic's concert schedules or go visit their YouTube page and take a look at what they've been playing with Rattle at the helm.

kishnevi

I think Chailly is pursuing a deliberate goal here, trying to burnish the stature of the Gewandhaus and draw on its tradition as a part of German music history.  And given public taste and commercial reality (meaning what Decca will put into its catalogue), that means traditional choices in what to record and at best transient flings into contemporary, or even post WWII, composers.  Right now he seems to be focusing on Bach;  I would suspect that the next few projects will be drawn from Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Bruckner, perhaps Shostakovich.   The only reason I don't include Mahler is the obvious fact that he's done a Mahler cycle already.  But while he might program some modern works in his concerts, I doubt any would make it into Decca's catalogue.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 25, 2011, 07:22:40 PM
I think Chailly is pursuing a deliberate goal here, trying to burnish the stature of the Gewandhaus and draw on its tradition as a part of German music history.  And given public taste and commercial reality (meaning what Decca will put into its catalogue), that means traditional choices in what to record and at best transient flings into contemporary, or even post WWII, composers.  Right now he seems to be focusing on Bach;  I would suspect that the next few projects will be drawn from Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Bruckner, perhaps Shostakovich.   The only reason I don't include Mahler is the obvious fact that he's done a Mahler cycle already.  But while he might program some modern works in his concerts, I doubt any would make it into Decca's catalogue.

All valid points, which, in turn, I think reflects poorly on Decca. I know, I know, they're trying to make money, but I'm so thankful for labels like Naxos, Ondine, BIS, Chandos, etc. that continue to record rare repertoire and want to put it out. I guess I'm just tired of the usual suspects in classical music, but I'm a 20th Century fan, so I may be a little biased. :D

kishnevi

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 25, 2011, 07:30:28 PM
All valid points, which, in turn, I think reflects poorly on Decca. I know, I know, they're trying to make money, but I'm so thankful for labels like Naxos, Ondine, BIS, Chandos, etc. that continue to record rare repertoire and want to put it out. I guess I'm just tired of the usual suspects in classical music, but I'm a 20th Century fan, so I may be a little biased. :D

Of course the devil's advocate side of me has already popped up with a counterargument--namely, that to make the Gewandhaus a truly world class orchestra (again), it is necessary to include recent modern/contemporary works, and that not doing so represents a failure on Chailly's part to persuade Decca to support such efforts.  Heck, both Gilbert in NY and Dudamel in LA felt it appropriate or necessary to start off their new conducting positions with a brand new work (even if the composers are not very obscure).

Mirror Image

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 25, 2011, 07:52:07 PM
Of course the devil's advocate side of me has already popped up with a counterargument--namely, that to make the Gewandhaus a truly world class orchestra (again), it is necessary to include recent modern/contemporary works, and that not doing so represents a failure on Chailly's part to persuade Decca to support such efforts.  Heck, both Gilbert in NY and Dudamel in LA felt it appropriate or necessary to start off their new conducting positions with a brand new work (even if the composers are not very obscure).

This is very true.

Bulldog

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 25, 2011, 07:30:28 PM
All valid points, which, in turn, I think reflects poorly on Decca. I know, I know, they're trying to make money, but I'm so thankful for labels like Naxos, Ondine, BIS, Chandos, etc. that continue to record rare repertoire and want to put it out. I guess I'm just tired of the usual suspects in classical music, but I'm a 20th Century fan, so I may be a little biased. :D

Although not rare, I don't think that Chailly conducting at least 3 Bach recordings is an ordinary or expected event.  I feel it's fairly gutsy for him, at this stage of his life, to dig into Bach. 

I don't know why some of our members seem to consider it obligatory for Chailly or any other conductor to record new and/or obscure works.  My expectation is that he would record whatever he wants, subject to reasonable market realities.

Mirror Image

#178
Quote from: Bulldog on September 25, 2011, 08:09:14 PMI don't know why some of our members seem to consider it obligatory for Chailly or any other conductor to record new and/or obscure works.  My expectation is that he would record whatever he wants, subject to reasonable market realities.

He can perform, and record, whatever he wants, but my objection is merely that he is treading on an uninteresting path (i. e. Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven). Of course, I don't have to listen to music that does nothing for me and that is certainly my right, but it is also my right to criticize any conductor I want. None of them are hands off to me. Chailly hasn't done anything remotely noteworthy in years.


Renfield

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 25, 2011, 06:27:39 PM
I didn't say he was free of not conducting warhorses. I said he's been conducting more interesting music. Go look at some of Berlin Philharmonic's concert schedules or go visit their YouTube page and take a look at what they've been playing with Rattle at the helm.

No, you misunderstand me. :) What I was saying was that the way you said it made it seem as if Rattle rarely conducts 'interesting' music, and so if even he conducts more interesting repertory than Chailly... Which, as you yourself just said, isn't quite true.