Cyclomania ** Symphonies **

[nesf]

I hate to nitpick, but Karajan never completed Sibelius's symphonies.

Noted and removed.

Yeah, just checked, I was thinking of the Kamu/Karajan series. Misremembered it as only Karajan.

[Mirror Image]

Noted and removed.

Yeah, just checked, I was thinking of the Kamu/Karajan series. Misremembered it as only Karajan.

You know I always found it interesting that Karajan didn't do a complete Sibelius cycle. He would have excelled in the other symphonies I think.

[Brian]

Beethoven symphonies (12 or 13)
Karajan '62
Mackerras/SCO
Abbado (red "Rome" box)
Barenboim
Hogwood (No. 4)
Gardiner
Bruggen
Immerseel (No. 5)
Haitink/LSO Live
Szell
Harnoncourt
P. Jarvi (except #9) (No. 2)
Vanska (I think complete? Not sure)

Sibelius (6)
Ashkenazy
Berglund/EMI
Maazel/Pittsburgh
Davis/LSO Live
Bernstein
Vanska
(favorites varying widely by symphony: 1 Segerstam/Ondine, 2 none, 3 Segerstam/Ondine, Davis/LSO Live, Mustonen, 4 Maazel/Pittsburgh, 5 Bernstein, 6 Ashkenazy, 7 Segerstam/Ondine, Inkinen!)

Beethoven sonatas (3)
Lucchesini
Lipkind
Gilels (incomplete)
Had Kempff, previously

[George]

Can you indicate your favorites, please, Brian?

[Brian]

Can you indicate your favorites, please, Brian?

Edited them in, but especially in the case of Sibelius they're not very clear-cut!
The Beethoven bolded numbers indicate my favorites for particular symphonies.

[George]

Edited them in, but especially in the case of Sibelius they're not very clear-cut!
The Beethoven bolded numbers indicate my favorites for particular symphonies.

Thanks, we are on the same page for Barenboim's LvB and Gilels's LvB.

[kishnevi]

Beethoven:
Gardiner, P. Jarvi, Immerseel, Goodman-Huggett (Hanover Band), Toscanini, Muti, Harnoncourt, Bohm VPO, Karajan 1963, Zinman. Bernstein VPO,  the Naxos hotchpot of Central European orchestras  12, no partials at the moment

(I could have sworn I have more, but I can't think of any others!)

Mahler:  Bernstein Sony and Bernstein DG, Tennstedt, MTT, Gergiev, Zinman, Inbal, Bertini, the not complete Levine, and large portions of Boulez, Abbado Chicago, and Rattle. 8 plus Levine, and three partials.

Other composers are considerably less.  Brahms is probably the nearest: Eschenbach, Rattle, Muti, Gardiner 4 (no very clear favorite)

Schumann--Kubelik, Zinman, Sawallisch, Vonk 4

Everyone else is no more than two, even Bruckner (Jochum EMI and Wand) and Shostakovich (Haitink, Barshai) although I've got all of Gergiev's and Petrenko's, and if those become completed cycles,  I'll have four Shosty cycles.

Non symphonies--only Beethoven really counts here.  I've got at least two cycles each of the string quartets, the piano trios, the piano concertos, the violin sonatas and the piano sonatas.

ETA:I've also got what Norrington has released as his series of Mahler and Bruckner recordings . and Chaillys Mahler cycle is part of the Presto order that got lost in transit, so I both have and don't have that one.

[eyeresist]

I have cycles of some other symphonists, but these are the ones who matter most to me (may be incomplete, because I don't keep records of these things!):


SHOSTAKOVICH: Kondrashin, Mravinsky (incomplete), Barshai, Jansons, Rozhdestvensky, Slovak

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Previn, Handley, Thomson, Boult EMI, Haitink

PROKOFIEV: (order of preference) Kuchar, Rozhdestvensky, Weller, Gergiev, Jarvi

SIBELIUS: (all pretty good overall) Collins, Berglund Helsinki, Maazel Vienna, Barbirolli, Karajan (DG & EMI - incomplete), Ashkenazy

MAHLER: Tennstedt, Bertini, Rattle, Bernstein Sony

DVORAK: Pesek, Gunzenhauser, Kertesz, Suitner, Anguelov

BRUCKNER: Karajan (I might 'bold' this if it ever gets remastered!), Tintner, Jochum EMI

You may be interested to know that "Climatic cyclicity with a period of about 35 years is known as the Bruckner cycle."

[jlaurson]

Non symphonies--only Beethoven really counts here.  I've got at least two cycles each of the string quartets, the piano trios, the piano concertos, the violin sonatas and the piano sonatas.

Re: Non-Symphonies: If Brahms and Schumann Sys. count as 'cycles', or Bartok Quartets (to me, they don't, at 2 CDs each), certainly Mozart Piano Sonatas & Quartets, Haydn Quartets & Piano Trios, Bach Organ Works, etc. etc.  They all make lovely, collectible sets. 

Certainly LvB Piano Sonatas are very collectible, as Todd can tell you.
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/05/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html

LvB Sonatas
Schnabel, Kempff I, Kempff II, Backhaus II, Gulda II*, Kuerti, Ashkenazy, Arrau II, D.A.Wehr, Oppitz, Lewis, Brautigam**, Gilels**

LvB SQ4ts
Alexander II, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Takacs, Q.Italiano, Guarneri I, Tokyo I, Tokyo II, Vegh II, Juilliard II...

DSCH SQ4ts
Borodin I, Borodin II, Brodsky, Emerson, Mandelring, Sorrel,...

Haydn SQ4ts
Auryn, Kodaly, Festetics...

Haydn Symphonies
Fischer, Dorati, DRDavies

Haydn Piano Trios
Beaux Arts, Eisenstadt, 1790, Van Swieten

Mozart Keyboard Sonatas
Brautigam, Uchida, Larrocha, Pires II, Eschenbach, Wurtz, Gould...

Mozart Piano Concertos
Perahia, Uchida, Schiff...

etc.

only symphonic cycles!

fine.  Jawohl.


B R A H M S:

Furtwangler, BPh
Wand, NDR
Eschenbach, Houston SO
Rattle, BPh
Dohnanyi, Philharmonia
Giulini, Philharmonia
Haitink, RCO
Alsop, LSO
Gardiner, ORR
Karajan, BPh (mixed)
Levine, WPh
Janowski, Pittsburgh
Bernstein, WPh, DVD

Maybe Celi, Stuttgart

I had Haitink, LSO, but found it awful and let it go quietly at some point.

Could be interested in the Gielen, but probably nothing else. Well, maybe Jochum / BPh or Kubelik / BRSO.
But I need only one cycle, and that's Wand. And one alternative, and that's Rattle, which is awesome in its own, unique way: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/03/dip-your-ears-no-100.html

[Mirror Image]

Beethoven:
Gardiner, P. Jarvi, Immerseel, Goodman-Huggett (Hanover Band), Toscanini, Muti, Harnoncourt, Bohm VPO, Karajan 1963, Zinman. Bernstein VPO,  the Naxos hotchpot of Central European orchestras  12, no partials at the moment

(I could have sworn I have more, but I can't think of any others!)

Mahler:  Bernstein Sony and Bernstein DG, Tennstedt, MTT, Gergiev, Zinman, Inbal, Bertini, the not complete Levine, and large portions of Boulez, Abbado Chicago, and Rattle. 8 plus Levine, and three partials.

Other composers are considerably less.  Brahms is probably the nearest: Eschenbach, Rattle, Muti, Gardiner 4 (no very clear favorite)

Schumann--Kubelik, Zinman, Sawallisch, Vonk 4

Everyone else is no more than two, even Bruckner (Jochum EMI and Wand) and Shostakovich (Haitink, Barshai) although I've got all of Gergiev's and Petrenko's, and if those become completed cycles,  I'll have four Shosty cycles.

Non symphonies--only Beethoven really counts here.  I've got at least two cycles each of the string quartets, the piano trios, the piano concertos, the violin sonatas and the piano sonatas.

ETA:I've also got what Norrington has released as his series of Mahler and Bruckner recordings . and Chaillys Mahler cycle is part of the Presto order that got lost in transit, so I both have and don't have that one.

Karl, wants you to list all of your symphony cycles ---- nothing else, so string quartet cycles, piano sonatas, etc. do not count.

[madaboutmahler]

Wonderful thread idea. My collection is rather small at the moment, but it shall continue to grow! So, at the moment, my 'cyclomania' posts would be:
Symphonies:
Mahler: Bernstein DG, Bernstein Sony, Solti, Rattle, Sinopoli, Bertini.
Elgar: Solti, EMI Boult, Lyrita Boult, Barbirolli, C.Davis LSO Live, A.Davis BBCSO, Elder, Elgar Naxos Historical, the Naxos cycle (Hurst for no.1, Downes for no.2), Handley. I think that's it...
Beethoven: Haitink, Rattle, Zinman, Karajan DG, Goodman.
Brahms: Rattle, Karajan, Wand

will return with more later... don't get complete cycles too often though, unfortunately.

[jlaurson]

Brahms: Rattle, Karajan, Wand

will return with more later... don't get complete cycles too often though, unfortunately.

Interesting Elgar-Overkill. 

Brahms: PERFECT TRIUMVIRATE! Nothing really that you'll ever need to add to that, in my opinion.

[chasmaniac]

Symphony cycles, eh?

Johann Ernst Hartmann (Mortensen), complete on one disc!
J Haydn (Fischer)
JC Bach (Halstead)
Mozart (Tate)
Beethoven (Mackerras, Immerseel)
Schubert (Marriner)
Mendelssohn (Abbado)
Schumann (Zinman)
Brahms (Karajan)
Dvorak (Valek)
Vaughn Williams (Handley)

Only one repeat. A tidy and respectable lot, I think.

[North Star]

My collection is rather small at the moment

Pffft!

The EMI Mahler box ought to suit you.
You don't have any Schumann sets, any reason for this?

[jlaurson]

Symphony cycles, eh?

J Haydn (Fischer) 
Mozart (Tate) 
Beethoven (Mackerras WHICH ONE?, Immerseel)  , 
Schubert (Marriner)  -
Mendelssohn (Abbado) 
Schumann (Zinman) 
Brahms (Karajan) 
Dvorak (Valek) 
Vaughn Williams (Handley) 

Only one repeat. A tidy and respectable lot, I think.

Too bad one cannot introduce Surveys to thread already ongoing.
Would be great if we could all vote on our favorite cycles in one neat thread.

M E N D E L S S O H N:

Karajan, 
Dohnanyi,  0:)
Sawallisch, 
Masur, 
Flor, 
Maag, 
Abbado, 
Ashkenazy, 

[DavidW]

I think I want to see that smily face rating system alot more often, it's awesome!!

[mahler10th]

Updated favs, forgot to add Previn to RVW but now added, don't know why forgot becuase its a great set.
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,19814.msg595131.html#msg595131

[Lisztianwagner]

Nice thread My collection is growing up, but it's not still very big at the moment:

Beethoven Karajan, Abbado/BPO
Mahler Bernstein DG, Solti
Sibelius Ashkenazy, Maazel/VPO
Brahms Karajan
Tchaikovsky Karajan
Bruckner Karajan
Schumann Karajan
Nielsen Blomstedt

I will return later......

[Karl Henning]

Wagner Karajan, Solti, Barenboim

They all recorded the symphonies? ; )

[Lisztianwagner]

They all recorded the symphonies? ; )

If only, it would have certainly been very interesting.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread was about cycles in general and not only about symphonies; my mistake