Past Purchases (CLOSED)

[madaboutmahler]

Yeah, I'm beginning to really enjoy Beethoven's SQs. I listened to the String Quartet No. 14 on YouTube and thought the work was excellent. People keep telling me Beethoven's true genius was in his chamber music. Perhaps they are right? I know I read a quote somewhere where Stravinsky said he admired Beethoven's late SQs, so that kind of sparked my interest in these works.

This is great to hear, John. Yes, the C# Minor Quartet is absolutely beautiful, it is one of my favourite chamber pieces of all time. It really moved me the first time I heard it, and always has done since. Really powerful, beautiful music!
I hope you enjoy it all, John! Please do let us know!

[Mirror Image]

This is great to hear, John. Yes, the C# Minor Quartet is absolutely beautiful, it is one of my favourite chamber pieces of all time. It really moved me the first time I heard it, and always has done since. Really powerful, beautiful music!
I hope you enjoy it all, John! Please do let us know!

You got it, Daniel! By the way, again, some nice purchases. You'll love the Debussy with Maazel. In fact, I'm thinking about listening to it again tonight.

[Karl Henning]

It's only a pity that neither Debussy nor Beethoven wrote a piece with a hammer.

[PaulR]

It's only a pity that neither Debussy nor Beethoven wrote a piece with a hammer.

At least, none that has been discovered so far.

[Karl Henning]

Morceau de marteau

[Mirror Image]

Just bought these:

[Sadko]

Just bought:

Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze
Schubert: Wandererfantasie

Anatol Ugorski

[asin]B000025L5Q[/asin]

[eyeresist]

Finally taking the plunge with Tennstedt's Mahler after his 8th, which everyone raved about when I got into Mahler... except that I really didn't like it, had kept me away from him for about a decade. But the mind broadens and shelf-space narrows. Cheapo-production, befitting the bargain basement price... with only three out of 13 symphonies contained on one disc; everything else is shuffling back and forth between discs.    Makes me love the latest version of the Sony Bernstein set all the more.

I admire Tennstedt, but don't care much for his 8th either. He doesn't seem to really have got to grips with the work (and one of the tenors misses a couple of notes in mvt II). I think maybe the praise for it is residue from the time when it was so rare to find on disc. I think T, in this box, is best in 3, 7 (studio) and DLvdE.

(Re disc shuffling, look at his symphony timings and I think you'll see why it was necessary.)

[Mirror Image]

Just bought:

[asin]B00129XQ9A[/asin]

This is not my first exposure to this composer, but this will be the first recording I own of any of her music.

I'm really anxious to hear this work on a recording:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0IVH8mAs6Es

[Brian]

I'm really anxious to hear this work on a recording:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0IVH8mAs6Es

I was there for that.

[Mirror Image]

I was there for that.

...and?

[jlaurson]

Listen what the Cat Dragged In



B. Britten
War Requiem
Gianandrea Noseda / LSO
Bostridge, Keenlyside, Cvilak
LSO Live, SACD
So far, so dramatic.



G. Mahler
Studio Cycle, Sys. 1-9, LvE
+ live recordings of
Symphonies 5, 6, 7
K.Tennstedt / LPO
Finally taking the plunge with Tennstedt's Mahler after his 8th, which everyone raved about when I got into Mahler... except that I really didn't like it, had kept me away from him for about a decade. But the mind broadens and shelf-space narrows. Cheapo-production, befitting the bargain basement price... with only three out of 13 symphonies contained on one disc; everything else is shuffling back and forth between discs.    Makes me love the latest version of the Sony Bernstein set all the more. http://ionarts.blogspot.de/2009/12/best-recordings-of-2009-1.html

I admire Tennstedt, but don't care much for his 8th either. He doesn't seem to really have got to grips with the work (and one of the tenors misses a couple of notes in mvt II). I think maybe the praise for it is residue from the time when it was so rare to find on disc. I think T, in this box, is best in 3, 7 (studio) and DLvdE.

(Re disc shuffling, look at his symphony timings and I think you'll see why it was necessary.)

Yes, re: the history of reception of Tennstedt's M8... for many listeners, esp. in the Anglo realm, this was the first 8th. It may have been my first spirited Mahler-recording-choice argument, when, with youthful exuberance half way between ignor- and arrog- ance, I chastised Ted Libbey for choosing that, of all the then available recordings, as the exemplar in a talk he gave on Faust-in-Music. 

But No!: re: disc-shuffling. I understand that Tennstedt has timings that are just awful for CDs. Almost every symphony exceeds what easily fits on one CD. But EMI couldn't be bothered to squeeze some of them onto one disc (I haven't checked the times, but there must be some that just barely exceed 80 minutes, which is now possible to put on CDs even when it wasn't in the older days). Well, if they don't want to futz with Red-Book standards, I understand. What I really mean by inconvenient shuffling is that the beginnings of Symphonies follow another symphony's conclusion... rather than starting with a new CD (two-CD pair) for the next Symphony. As long as people still listen to the physical product, that sort of thing (the latter solution) makes life easier. So what if it takes 4 or even 5 extra CDs. That costs very little. (The cost of the CD being the smallest factor, after weight and shipping.) That's how the Bernstein sets do it now...

[eyeresist]

I guess this didn't bother me, as I already had the shuffle-tastic Bertini box.

Tennstedt timings, snipped from an Amazon comment:

Symphony 2 = 88.45 minutes
Symphony 3 = 97.35
Symphony 7 = 82.40
Symphony 6 = 86.58
Symphony 8 = 82.32
Symphony 9 = 85.40

I do wish the Symphony 10 adagio preceded the 9th, as having it follow the 9th finale completely destroys the mood. (Even though the adagio is in fact a deliberate inversion of the 9th finale yada yada yada.... It was meant to be the beginning of a complete symphony, not a stand-alone work. Gosh it's fun to complain!)

[jlaurson]

Symphony 2 = 88.45 m.
Symphony 3 = 97.35
Symphony 7 = 82.40
Symphony 6 = 86.58
Symphony 8 = 82.32
Symphony 9 = 85.40

Gosh it's fun to complain!)

It sure is. Golly. 

Yes, I suppose those timings are difficult. Maybe 82'30" and 82'40" could be squeezed together, but not without some ingenuity (= cost) and possibly making a few CD players sputter. (DG did it, though, with Thielemann's Bruckner 5th.)

I hear  you, re: Adagio 10... extraneous materials should always come before the main course, because it's easier to skip something in the beginning than it is to stop at the end. But the habit of putting the appendix at the end (in printed form) is so deeply ingrained in us (or CD producers)...

[eyeresist]

I hear  you, re: Adagio 10... extraneous materials should always come before the main course, because it's easier to skip something in the beginning than it is to stop at the end. But the habit of putting the appendix at the end (in printed form) is so deeply ingrained in us (or CD producers)...

Another example of this is Rattle's Mahler 3. It's one of the highlights of his (first?) cycle, and comes with some nifty Wunderhorn songs relevant to the symphony (including an orchestration of 'Ablosung im Sommer'), but unfortunately they are tagged on after the finale (the booming timpani of 'Der Schildwache Nachtlied' bursting the serene mood), when they'd work better as an aperitif. This arrangement would also work to introduce the pause after the 1st mvt, as Mahler indicated, rather than before the finale. Stupid record companies.

I was about to launch into another complaint, but caught myself in time!

[madaboutmahler]

You got it, Daniel! By the way, again, some nice purchases. You'll love the Debussy with Maazel. In fact, I'm thinking about listening to it again tonight.

haha Thank you, John!

It's only a pity that neither Debussy nor Beethoven wrote a piece with a hammer.

At least, none that has been discovered so far.

Just bought:

[asin]B00129XQ9A[/asin]

This is not my first exposure to this composer, but this will be the first recording I own of any of her music.

I'm really anxious to hear this work on a recording:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0IVH8mAs6Es

hmmm.... wasn't that work in the same concert as the Janacek Glagolitic Mass, and was commissioned for the concert, Weir being told she could write for the exact same forces as the Janacek? Lucky woman...
Anyway, I am rather fascinated in this composer's work too, so please do let me know what it's like, John! Hope you enjoy it!

[Mirror Image]

Hmmm.... wasn't that work in the same concert as the Janacek Glagolitic Mass, and was commissioned for the concert, Weir being told she could write for the exact same forces as the Janacek? Lucky woman...

Anyway, I am rather fascinated in this composer's work too, so please do let me know what it's like, John! Hope you enjoy it!

I'm not sure, Daniel. I've been running across Weir's name for the past three years and have only now decided to pursue some of her music. I've only heard one work by her and it's called Forest which is a tone poem. Beautiful music.

[North Star]

It's only a pity that neither Debussy nor Beethoven wrote a piece with a hammer.

I'll get my Hammerklavier doesn't have quite the same effect 

[springrite]

I'll get my Hammerklavier doesn't have quite the same effect 

Only if Hammer Klavier are two words of which the first one is a verb!

[Sadko]

Only if Hammer Klavier are two words of which the first one is a verb!

In German Hammer is a noun, the verb is "hämmern".