The Romantics in Period Performances

[Que]

Is that a good recording/performance? I need a disc of th Beethoven work, and wouldn't mind a Brahms version on an natural horn either.

Absolutely, a marvelous performance. Warmly recommended.

The Beethoven is with a French "Cor basse" with F-crook from ca. 1795 and a fortepiano copied after a Conrad Graf from ca. 1824. The Brahms with a French horn from 1855 with E-flat crook and a Bösendorfer piano from ca. 1854. The recording is from 1991.

PS The first CD pictured with Faust and Van der Zwart is rather new and I haven't heard it.

Q

[Superhorn]

   The double horn did not come out until 1898. Therefore, if one really wants to be 100% Kosher, you would not use the double horn in any music written before this date.
  Richard Strauss, son of the great horn player Franz Strauss (1822 - 1905), was delighted by the invention of the new-fangled double horn. The double horn has two layers of tubing, a shorter B flat horn beneath the F tubing, which enables the player to combine the greater accuracy of the B flat horn in the high register with the superior tone of the F horn in the middle to lower range.
  The tone of the B flat horn is not as good in the middle register.
   Recently, some horn players have started to use a TRIPLE horn, which also has tubing in high F for the very difficult parts with a great deal of high notes.

[Que]

Anyone heard Gardiner's Brahms yet? 

 
                     click picture

REVIEW at Musicweb International.

Q

[Que]

Aye, I did!  I thought Mendelssohn and Brahms deserved their own threads, though!  I also didn't see much on either Mendelssohn or Brahms there...  Alas, Que has spoken - so be it.  0:)  Thanks for the link.

Well Sorin, unfortunately there isn't that much HIP Brahms around - here's a list!
(period instruments only, and no claim for completeness...)

German Requiem: Gardiner (Philips)
Symphonies: Norrington/London Classical Players (Virgin/EMI), symphony no.1 - Gardiner (Soli Deo Gloria - see last post)
Serenades: Spering/Capella Augustina (CPO)
String sextets: L'Archibudelli (Sony Vivarte); Hausmusik (Signum)
Clarinet quintet: Hoeprich/London Haydn Quartet (Glossa); Veilhan/Quator Stadler (K617)
Piano quintet & piano quartet op. 60: La Gaia Scienza (Winter & Winter)
Horn trio: Greer/Chase/Lubin (HM); Van der Zwart/ Faust/ Melnikov (HM); Clark/Govier/Martin (EMI)
Clarinet trio & clarinet sonatas: Boeykens/ Dieltiens/ Vanden Eynden (Ricercar - early HIP with no information on the used instruments, sounds absolutely wonderful though.); Hacker/Clarke/Burnett (Amon Ra)
Cello sonatas: Bylsma/Orkis (Sony Vivarte); Wispelwey/Komen (Channel Classics); Pulford/McDonald (Doremi)
Violin sonatas: Korol/Grigorieva (Challenge); op. 78 Faust/Melnikov (coupled with the horn trio - HM)

Piano sonata op. 2, Variations op. 9, Ballades op. 10: Hardy Rittner (MDG)
Klavierstücke, Op. 118, Klavierstücke, Op. 119, Intermezzi, Op. 117, Fantasien, Op. 116: Boyd McDonald (AIG Recordings)
Die Schöne Magelone: Prégardien/Staier

Q

[Sorin Eushayson]

Well Sorin, unfortunately there isn't that much HIP Brahms around - here's a list!
(period instruments only, and no claim for completeness...)

German Requiem: Gardiner (Philips)
Symphonies: Norrington/London Classical Players (Virgin/EMI), symphony no.1 - Gardiner (Soli Deo Gloria - see last post)
Serenades: Spering/Capella Augustina (CPO)
String sextets: L'Archibudelli (Sony Vivarte); Hausmusik (Signum)
Clarinet quintet: Hoeprich/London Haydn Quartet (Glossa); Veilhan/Quator Stadler (K617)
Piano quintet & piano quartet op. 60: La Gaia Scienza (Winter & Winter)
Horn trio: Greer/Chase/Lubin (HM); Van der Zwart/ Faust/ Melnikov (HM); Clark/Govier/Martin (EMI)
Clarinet trio & clarinet sonatas: Boeykens/ Dieltiens/ Vanden Eynden (Ricercar - early HIP with no information on the used instruments, sounds absolutely wonderful though.); Hacker/Clarke/Burnett (Amon Ra)
Cello sonatas: Bylsma/Orkis (Sony Vivarte); Wispelwey/Komen (Channel Classics); Pulford/McDonald (Doremi)
Violin sonatas: Korol/Grigorieva (Challenge); op. 78 Faust/Melnikov (coupled with the horn trio - HM)

Piano sonata op. 2, Variations op. 9, Ballades op. 10: Hardy Rittner (MDG)
Klavierstücke, Op. 118, Klavierstücke, Op. 119, Intermezzi, Op. 117, Fantasien, Op. 116: Boyd McDonald (AIG Recordings)
Die Schöne Magelone: Prégardien/Staier

Thanks, Que.  There certainly isn't much, is there?  A shame.  I was hoping for some good HIP recordings of his concerti.  Ah, well; das ist leben.   Thanks for the list.

For symphony 1: Norrington or Gardiner?  From what I hear, Norrington has the upper-hand.

[Opus106]

To be released shortly...



I'm afraid not much was spoken about the recording of the first symphony in this part of the intertoobs.

The new disc also contains the Alto Rhapsody, Op.53 and Schubert's Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, D714 (1821), Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, D583 (1817, arr. Brahms 1871), and An Schwager Kronos D369 (1816, arr. Brahms 1871).

Soli Deo Golria

[Sorin Eushayson]

Figured I'd try here too...

Anyone heard this recording or know where on Earth I can find it?  I've looked all over!



Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (Lobgesang) on period instruments, the only one of it's kind from what I can tell.  Looks like another one of those albums that went down with the Opus111 ship... 

[rubio]

Figured I'd try here too...

Anyone heard this recording or know where on Earth I can find it?  I've looked all over!



Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (Lobgesang) on period instruments, the only one of it's kind from what I can tell.  Looks like another one of those albums that went down with the Opus111 ship... 

Well, there is a copy for 22 Euro here. Maybe the seller will agree to ship outside of Germany?

http://www.amazon.de/Symphonie-Nr-2-Logbesang/dp/B0000260TE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1235926519&sr=1-5

[Bunny]

Sorry to derail the Brahms discussion, but has anyone heard or heard about Andreas Staier's new recording of Schumann entitled "Homage à Bach"?

[Antoine Marchand]

Another addition to the thread:

The 27 Chopin's Etudes performed by the American fortepianist John Khouri on his own 1832 Broadwood Grand Piano (Music & Programs Arts of America, 1999).

The playing and sound are both very good.

It is intended to respect very closely the metronome marks of the Chopin's manuscripts.

John Khouri himself has written the documented liner notes, explaining some reasons to choose the instrument that was used and some insights about the relationship between Chopin and the previous generation of pianists (Fields, Cramer, Clementi et. al). Finally, Khouri gives brief but interesting guides to each individual piece played.

Here an example:

http://www.goear.com/files/external.swf?file=0a589a1

http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-The-27-Etudes/dp/B000777IQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1235941722&sr=1-1

[hautbois]

Sorry to derail the Brahms discussion, but has anyone heard or heard about Andreas Staier's new recording of Schumann entitled "Homage à Bach"?

I have......and no......i am not going to bash it, but i don't recommend it highly either. Beautiful programme notes though. 

Staier is a fantastic pianist, produced some of the most beautiful things ever to have existed in recorded music. Not this one.

Howard

[Bunny]

I have......and no......i am not going to bash it, but i don't recommend it highly either. Beautiful programme notes though. 

Staier is a fantastic pianist, produced some of the most beautiful things ever to have existed in recorded music. Not this one.

Howard

Ouch!  That certainly qualifies as damnation with faint praise, if not quite a bashing.

[Brian]

Anyone heard Gardiner's Brahms yet? 

I was running short on time one day, so I listened to the third movements of each of Gardiner's two Brahms symphonies. Haven't heard the rest of them yet. 

For what it's worth, the third movements were fabulously lively and quite colorful.

[Sorin Eushayson]

Well, there is a copy for 22 Euro here. Maybe the seller will agree to ship outside of Germany?

It's always worth a try, though it might be tricky since I don't speak German... 

Thanks for the heads-up, Rubio.

[rubio]

It's always worth a try, though it might be tricky since I don't speak German... 

Thanks for the heads-up, Rubio.

Several times I've requested the seller to ship an item to Norway through Amazon.de and it usually works out fine. I've always written my messages to the seller in English as well. It can be worse dealing with some sellers in France... 

[Antoine Marchand]

Sorry to derail the Brahms discussion, but has anyone heard or heard about Andreas Staier's new recording of Schumann entitled "Homage à Bach"?

Hi, Bunny. I did read your question some days ago, but I had not heard the Staier's recording yet.

Today, I was listening to the disc all the morning and can say that, IMO, it's a great disc, beautifully performed and recorded.

But I must do some warnings: It's a very intimate and SOBER recording, especially because of the pianoforte chosen by Staier (with a very beautiful tone, but not too much color) and because it's devoted to research the nature of the relations of these pieces with Bach. Therefore, the plenty enjoyment of this recording supposes not only a Schumann fan, but a Bach fan too.

On the other hand, all the works included are short pieces. But all of them are great art in the smaller forms, which is, as you know, preferable to inferior art in the larger forms (Horowitz dixit)  .

All in all, a must-have for those few moments of total calmness.

Here a fair review about the disc (I just disagree about one point: the Erard pianoforte has not a "clunky" sound at all):

http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-schumann-a-tribute-to-bach

[Bunny]

Thank you, Antoine, for your well expressed opinion and the link to the description of the cd.  

[Sorin Eushayson]

Several times I've requested the seller to ship an item to Norway through Amazon.de and it usually works out fine. I've always written my messages to the seller in English as well. It can be worse dealing with some sellers in France... 

Addendum: it can be worse dealing with the French! 

I went ahead and sent a letter to the seller.  I printed it in English then again in German using Google translator, which, in retrospect, I'm sure will give the seller a giggle or two! 

[Antoine Marchand]

Thank you, Antoine, for your well expressed opinion and the link to the description of the cd.  

You're welcome, Bunny  .

[Antoine Marchand]

Some CDs recently purchased:

Schubert: Drei Klavierstücke – Moments Musicaux – Valses Nobles
Played on a Clementi fortepiano of 1832.
DDD, Athene.

http://www.divine-art.com/CD/athcd7info.htm


Chopin: First and Last
Early and late works played on a Collard & Collard square piano of c. 1836
DDD, Divine Art Limited

http://www.divine-art.com/CD/24116info.htm


Schubert: Der Tod und das Mädchen - Rosamunde
Quatuor Tersycordes
Ricercar, 2008

From the booklet:

"Why, indeed, record yet another version of these works? Rosamunde and Der Tod und das Mädchen have figured in our repertoire for as long as we have been playing together, first as works we dreamt about, then as pieces that we discovered and then experienced. Over all these years of work and concert-giving, our performance of these works has gradually been influenced by the research that we have carried out as a quartet into historical instruments and performance practice. The grain of the sound of gut strings, like that of a black-and-white photo, gives an inimitable timbre to the quartet's sound, one that is ideal for displaying the colours of Schubert's music. The curve and weight of historical bows when used on these strings creates a palette of articulations that links the notes with a play of consonants that is related to vocal production and that is therefore also related to the Lied that was so dear to Schubert's heart. And to abandon the modern technique of a continuous vibrato is a great aid to both the transparency of the music and to how its dissonances are perceived. Our interpretations often take the instruments themselves as their base; our wish as a quartet is to reveal the infinite beauty and complexity of these compositions to the best of our knowledge and ability.

"For this recording, the Quatuor Terpsycordes performs on four instruments made by the Vuillaume studio of luthiers that have kindly been made available for the quartet's use by the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva. They use two violins by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, the first being a mid-19th century copy of a Guarnerius del Gesù and the second being a copy of the Stradivarius Messiah made in Paris in 1864. The viola is also attributed to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume and is a copy of a del Gesù. The cello, an exact copy of the Servais Stradivarius, is the work of Nicolas- François Vuillaume, the brother of Jean-Baptiste and was made in Brussels in 1861. The instruments have been prepared for historical performance with gut strings and have been tuned for this recording to A=430 Hz. Bow maker Bruno Sporcq has constructed four 'classical' bows for the quartet, taking his inspiration from bows made in England by Dodd at the end of the 18th century".

The Quatuor Terpsycordes