Cyclomania ** Symphonies **

[Sergeant Rock]

WHAT?!??! THERE'S A FEY MENDELSSOHN CYCLE??!?!?

There is, on Hänssler...and it's thrilling (well, different, just like the Hobbit's Haydn).





Sarge

[Jo498]

I have the Hartmann-Box on Wergo, but I was not sure about that because it is not all conducted by the same person.
I also have all symphonies of Mendelssohn, Prokofieff (I think.. not really familiar with them except 1 and 5...), Bruckner (and probably Mozart and maybe CPE Bach (not sure how many there are besides the great Hamburg 6+4)) but never from one conductor.

Even with the Gielen Mahler I was somewhat cheating because I bought them all separately on two different labels but they are all with the same conductor and orchestra and I bought the 5th only to get it complete, maybe I'll get rid of that one, the last time I listened to it I was not that fond of it. But despite not having a Bruckner cycle from one conductor I have about 9 recordings of the 7th and about 6 of the 5th and 8th.

Other cycles:

Bach:
Brandenburg Concerti: Britten, Leppard, Harnoncourt 80s (60s on LP), Goebel/MAK, Akademie f. Alte Musik, Giardino Armonico
WTC I: Fischer, Gould, Richter, Gulda, Horszowski, Koroliov, Jaccottet, Ross, Levin
WTC II: Fischer, Gould, Richter, Gulda, Shepkin, Jaccottet, Koopman, Dantone, Levin

Handel: op.6 Scherchen, Pommer, Marriner, Harnoncourt, Hogwood, Manze, de Vriend

Haydn: String Quartets: Angeles Quartet
op.33 Apponyi, Buchberger, Casals, Weller, Auryn

Mozart
"Haydn Quartets": ABQ, Hagen, Petersen, Melos
String quintets: Griller (lacking the early one), Melos, Smetana/Suk, Talich
Piano Concertos: Bilson/Gardiner, Barenboim/EMI (I prefer diverse recordings on single discs and hardly listen to those in these two boxes...)

Beethoven
Pianos sonatas: Schnabel, Gulda, Arrau, Gilels, Heidsieck, Lucchesini (+ many singles)
violin sonatas: Heifetz, Francescatti/Casadesus, Frank/Frank, Kremer/Argerich, Faust/Melnikov, Ferras/Barbizet
cello sonatas: Casals/Serkin, Rostropovitch/Richter, Tortelier/Heidsieck, Vogler/Canino, Wispelwey/Lazic
string quartets: Juilliard 1960s, Vegh/Naive, Melos/DG, Musikverein/Platz, Hungarian (stereo),
"almost" cplte: Budapest 30s/40s (no 18/5, 59/1, 133), Hagen (except their most recent disc), Emerson (w/o op.18), Petersen (no op.18/5, 59/1+3, 74)

Bartok quartets: Hungarian, Hagen, Tokyo, Juilliard (1960s)
Shostakovitch quartets: Borodin (Chandos 1-13), Borodin/Melodiya, Sorrel, Brodsky

As I wrote elsewhere, I think these are way too many in some cases... and some are going to be culled in the months to come...

[George]

Update from the last time I posted four years ago:

Favorites in bold (requested by George)

Thanks, buddy! 

Not suprisingly, we have a lot of common ground:

BEETHOVEN 13
BARENBOIM STAATSKAP BERLIN
SZELL CLEVELAND


BRAHMS 14
WAND SONDR


BRUCKNER 7
CELIBIDACHE MUNICH (3-9)


DVORAK 6
KERTESZ   LSO


ELGAR 9
BOULT LPO


SCHUBERT 6
HARNONCOURT CONCERTGEBOUW
WAND KÖLNER RSO


SCHUMANN 7
SZELL CLEVELAND


SIBELIUS 18
BERNSTEIN NY PHIL

[amw]

For the purposes of this thread I'm defining a cycle as "more than one CD" and discounting mix-and-match cycles. I've also discounted any discs from the Bernstein Symphonic Edition that I never bothered to rip. Partial cycles are those that include a majority of the symphonies by the composer but have not been completed; not completed cycles of which I only own part.

Atterberg Rasiläinen/CPO

Bax Handley/Chandos

Beethoven Fricsay/DG [partial] // Gardiner/Archiv // Howard/Hyperion // Martynov/Zig-Zag [partial] // Norrington/EMI (4 1/3 + single discs)

Bernstein Bernstein/DG

Berwald Järvi/DG

Brahms Jochum/EMI // Thielemann/DG (2 + single discs)

Chaikovsky Bernstein/Sony // Jansons/Chandos (2 + single discs)

Chávez Mata/Vox

Dutilleux Tortelier/Chandos (+ single disc)

Dvořák Kertész/Decca // Neumann/Supraphon (2 + single discs)

Enescu Andreescu/Olympia // Rozhdestvensky/Chandos (2 + a single disc + the completed 4th and 5th symphonies on CPO)

Farrenc Goritzki/CPO

Foerster Bäumer/MDG

Foss Rose/BMOP

Frankel Albert/CPO

Fuchs Müssauer/Thorofon

Gade Hogwood/Chandos

Gál Woods/Avie

Gerhard Bamert/Chandos

Gernsheim Köhler/Arte Nova

Goldmark Butt/ASV

Guarnieri Neschling/BIS

Hamerik Dausgaard/Dacapo

Hanson Schwarz/Delos

Harbison various conductors/BSO

Hartmann various conductors/Wergo

Haydn Hogwood/L'Oiseau-Lyre & BBC Music Magazine [partial] (+ 2 sets of the London and 2 of the Paris symphonies)

Holmboe Hughes/BIS

Honegger Dutoit/Erato

Ives Litton/Hyperion // Tilson Thomas/Sony (2)

Jadassohn Griffiths/CPO

Kabalevsky Oue/CPO

Krenek various conductors/CPO (+ a single disc)

Landowski various conductors/Erato

Langgaard Dausgaard/Dacapo

Lutosławski Lutosławski/Polskie Nagrania // Salonen/Sony (2)

Madetoja Storgårds/Ondine

Magnard Ossonce/Hyperion

Malipiero de Almeida/Naxos

Martinů Bělohlávek/Onyx

Melartin Grin/Ondine

Mendelssohn Abbado/DG [numbered symphonies] // Goodman/RCA [string symphonies] (1)

Myaskovsky Svetlanov/Warner

Nielsen Bernstein/Sony [partial] // Blomstedt/Decca // Chung/BIS [partial] // Oramo/BIS // Schmidt/don't remember [LP] // Schønwandt/Dacapo (5 1/3)

Nosyrev Verbitsky/Olympia

Nystroem various conductors/BIS

Onslow Goritzki/CPO

Pettersson various conductors/CPO

Prokofiev Järvi/Chandos (+ single discs)

Raphael various conductors/CPO [partial]

Rautavaara various conductors/Ondine

Ries Griffiths/CPO

Riisager Holten/Dacapo

Rimsky-Korsakov Polyansky/Chandos

Roussel Dutoit/Erato

Rubbra Hickox/Chandos

Saint-Saëns Martinon/EMI

Schat various conductors and orchestras/Composer's Voice

Schmidt Järvi/Chandos

Schubert Minkowski/Naïve (+ single discs)

Schumann Chailly/Decca // Gardiner/Archiv // Holliger/Audite // Ticciati/Linn (4 + a single disc)

Shebalin various conductors and orchestras/Olympia

Sibelius Blomstedt/Decca (+ single discs)

Simpson Handley/Hyperion

Spohr Shelley/Hyperion

Stenhammar Järvi/BIS

Svendsen Mikkelsen/CPO

Tippett various conductors/Decca

Tubin Volmer/Alba

Ustvolskaya Malov/Megadisc

Valen Eggen/BIS

Vaughan Williams Haitink/EMI

Vermeulen various conductors and orchestras/Composer's Voice

Vierne Roß/Audite

Walton Litton/Decca

Weingartner various conductors/CPO

Wellesz Rabl/CPO

Yun Ukigaya/CPO

Possibly a bit excessive. (Don't we have a "spoiler" tag?)

[Jo498]

I forgot some:

Kraus/Concerto Köln (apparently not complete because I have another disc "Vol.3 from a Naxos series, probably a mess with alternative versions)
Balakirev/Svetlanov (Melodiya/BMG)
Rimsky-Korsakov/Butt (Brilliant)
Magnard/Plasson (EMI)
Honegger/Plasson (EMI)
Ives/Litton (hyperion)
Weill/Bertini (EMI)
Stravinsky/Stravinsky (without the early one, though)
Bernstein/Bernstein (DG)

I wonder how many "symphonies" are usually counted for Hindemith and whether I have them all (not from one conductor, though).

Some cycles of which I bought one or (usually) more discs but stopped on purpose because boredom or happy with a few representative works or just could not be bothered and stuff became unavailable, or there had never been a complete set available:

Sammartini
F.X. Richter (one of my favorites of the mid 18th century, though)
J. Chr. Bach
Boccherini
Michael Haydn
Onslow
Ries
Spohr
Gade
Glasunov
Myaskowsky
Krenek
Schulhoff
Lajtha
Wellesz
Simpson
Henze

[amw]

I have a few volumes of the Kraus/Concerto Köln series but don't know if it's complete or even partially complete, thus didn't include it. (Anyway I'm missing at least one volume) Some of my favourite non-Mozart/Haydn classical era symphonies though. There are also undoubtedly a few other cycles of which I stopped acquiring volumes as well (Boccherini, CPE Bach, Lajtha, Henze—have all but No. 9, because I really disliked it when first hearing it—etc) and I certainly don't need all of the volumes of the Spohr, Gade, Tubin, Rautavaara, Atterberg, Pettersson etc cycles but it's nice to have them just as a library-building thing.

Tracking down all the single-disc 'cycles' (Borodin, Weill, Kalinnikov, Arensky, Lilburn etc) would probably take ages. Offhand I can remember the following "frankencycles" though:

Bruckner (partial)
2 - Pinnock/Linn
3 (original) - currently awaiting an interlibrary loan of Blomstedt/Querstand
3 (final) - Szell/CBS
4 (original) - currently awaiting Young/Oehms
4 (final) - Honeck/Reference
5 - Davies/Arte Nova // Dohnányi/Cleveland
5 (Schalk) - Knappertsbusch/Decca (I don't strictly need this, but it's fun)
6 - Eichhorn/Camerata // Norrington/Hänssler // Sawallisch/Orfeo // Stein/Decca
7 - Herreweghe/HM // Norrington/Hänssler // Wand/RCA
8 - Chailly/Concertgebouw/Decca // Jochum/ORF // Païta/Lodia
9 - Rattle/EMI

Mahler
1 - Bernstein/Sony (from the box—didn't like) // Hengelbrock/Sony (new acquisition, not yet listened)
2 - Bernstein/Sony (from the box—don't like the symphony particularly, though)
3 - Salonen/Sony
4 - Fischer/Channel
5 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
6 - Bernstein/Sony (from the box—unsatisfied with) // Kubelik/Audite
7 - Klemperer/EMI (perverse, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of) // Bernstein/Sony (from the box—somewhat better, but more routine I think)
8 - Solti/Decca
9 - Neumann/Berlin Classics
10 - Harding/DG

Shostakovich (partial)
1 - Haitink/Decca // Kondrashin/Melodiya
2 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
3 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
4 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
5 - Sanderling/Berlin Classics // Kondrashin/Melodiya
6 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
8 - Sanderling/Berlin Classics
9 - Haitink/Decca
11 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
12 - Kondrashin/Melodiya
14 - Currentzis/Alpha
15 - Sanderling/Berlin Classics

(I don't know why I never bothered to get the whole Kondrashin set, maybe that's a thing to do for the future, not that I am particularly interested in Shostakovich's symphonies)

Schnittke
0 - Hughes/BIS
1 - Rozhdestvensky/Chandos
2 - Rozhdestvensky/BBC Radio Classics
3 - Jurowski/Pentatone
4 - Kamu/BIS
5 - Chailly/Decca
6 - Polyansky/Chandos
7 - Polyansky/Chandos
8 - Rozhdestvensky/Chandos
9 - Davies/ECM

Some symphonic cycles I have are only available as "frankencycles" eg Ruders (the first two on Dacapo, the next two on Bridge) or Weinberg incomplete (divided between Naxos, Chandos, Melodiya and Toccata Classics at the moment). There is a complete Hindemith cycle of the non-concertante orchestral works I believe (including all 5 orchestral symphonies—Mathis der Maler, E-flat, Symphonia serena, Harmonie der Welt & Pittsburgh—and the two Sinfoniettas, but maybe not the B-flat symphony for wind band), that being Werner Andreas Albert's on CPO.

[Jo498]

Borodin is almost always two discs, I think, because the three symphonies do not fit onto one, despite there only being a fragment of the 3rd. Balakirev's can be put on one, but my issue is on two with fillers.

I think the Naxos Kraus symphony series has 4 volumes and is as complete as the current state of Kraus scholarship allows whereas the two discs with the Concerto Köln give the 8 most important works. I agree that he is the most interesting symphony composer of the ca. 1780s after Haydn and Mozart I have heard, mainly because with his serious "Gluckian" (this sound silly...) style he is rather different from Haydn and Mozart, therefore not sounding like "lesser" Haydn or Mozart (as Michael often does).
And FX Richter ist the most interesting of the 1740s/50s but I am far less familiar with what else was around at that time.
I checked that I have about 8 or 9 symphonies from the Berlin period of CPE Bach; this seems reasonably complete together with the 10 from Hamburg, so I will not get out of my way to find more.

If you like Kondrashin, get at least his Mahler 7th, probably the 6th as well (it's the only Mahler of his I know but they are very interesting and fairly unique).