Recordings That You Are Considering

[Karl Henning]

Entirely understandable, both being a sucker for the a minor concerto, and musical interest in Kavakos.

[Bogey]

Entirely understandable, both being a sucker for the a minor concerto, and musical interest in Kavakos.

There's a sucker born every day, Karl.  Cheers, my friend.

[Wanderer]

Addendum.  I ordered the newest installment Symphony 9 and the First Violin Concerto and will report on it.  But I got it for the VC. I am a sucker for that concerto.  Kavakos is the soloist.

I ordered that one, too, as an added bonus to a series of other purchases that will start arriving next week. I listened to a bunch of these live Gergiev/Mariinsky recordings on Spotify (I particularly liked their 5th and the 7th) and I was impressed by what Kavakos does with the concerto. Too often performers rely on histrionics and over-indulgence, as if the music isn't on the verge of saturation already, rendering the work overbearing on one end and kitsch on the other. Kavakos is sensitive, fleet-footed, quicksilver with a full but airy, non-whiny tone, intelligent (aided by brilliant, like-minded conducting), obviously relishing the qui(r)cker parts and lets the music speak for itself. A revelation of a performance that made me love the work all over again.

[king ubu]

how about:

[asin]B004QHK9EK[/asin]

?


I don't know (nor own) the Berman Années, and I don't think I have any of the other stuff that's included (if, it's merely a few piano solo things) - mainly I don't have much orchestral music by Liszt at all yet. Would that set be a good introduction to those? They're be LPO/Haitink (discs 5-8) - the price is more than right in Italy, there's pics with more info there, too:
www.amazon.it/dp/B004QHK9EK/

[ritter]

how about:

[asin]B004QHK9EK[/asin]

?

I bought this dirt cheap several years ago...very sloppy presentation: the 16 CD's come in 4 double jewel-cases (so they annoyingly and unnecessarily take up about 15 cms of shelf-space), with a very thin cardboard wrapper holding them together, and no liner notes of any substance (just tracklistings and performers).

It is a good selection of Liszt's  music. AFAIK, this 16 CD set is a sort of digest of this 34 CD collection:

[asin]B004WQ2L9G[/asin]

The Berman Années are perfectly fine; actually, I recently bought Ciccolini's set on Erato--ex-EMI--and was rather dispponted by the brittleness of the playing and the lack of poetry. I usually like Ciccolini very much, but here, I found myself thinkng: "hmmm, I much prefer Berman in this music"  ...

[Karl Henning]

There's a sucker born every day, Karl.  Cheers, my friend.

Cheers, Bill!

[Wakefield]

Do not know his Goldbergs, but I own his Art of Fugue, the style of which I would call middle of the road.

I have only heard his Italian Concerto and I found it quite pedestrian and indistinctive.

[king ubu]

I bought this dirt cheap several years ago...very sloppy presentation: the 16 CD's come in 4 double jewel-cases (so they annoyingly and unnecessarily take up about 15 cms of shelf-space), with a very thin cardboard wrapper holding them together, and no liner notes of any substance (just tracklistings and performers).

It is a good selection of Liszt's  music. AFAIK, this 16 CD set is a sort of digest of this 34 CD collection:

[asin]B004WQ2L9G[/asin]

The Berman Années are perfectly fine; actually, I recently bought Ciccolini's set on Erato--ex-EMI--and was rather dispponted by the brittleness of the playing and the lack of poetry. I usually like Ciccolini very much, but here, I found myself thinkng: "hmmm, I much prefer Berman in this music"  ...

Many thanks! Hm, that big one looks much more encompassing. I've got loads of Liszt piano music around, would be interested in exploring at least some orchestral music eventually, but the big one might be too rich (yet the scaled down might be silly, assuming it might again lead me to want and get the big one  ) - guess I might have to consider other options for the time being.

As for Ciccolini, I'd not consider his my favourite Liszt, but I quite enjoyed it. Haven't played it often yet ... got his big EMI box and there's such a wealth of good stuff there that I've not been able to make my way through it all, leave alone multiple times yet.

[prémont]

I have only heard his Italian Concerto and I found it quite pedestrian and indistinctive.

This do not surprise me, since I also have heard his recording of some Bach piano concertos with Gewandhaus Orch. and Richard Chailly, which I at best would describe as indistinctive, even on the part of Chailly.

[Wakefield]

This do not surprise me, since I also have heard his recording of some Bach piano concertos with Gewandhaus Orch. and Richard Chailly, which I at best would describe as indistinctive, even on the part of Chailly.

I have an undeniable preference for Bach's music played on "original instruments"; but, even so, I enjoy it when is played on modern piano. But the keyboard concertos are an exception; for some reason, I feel they miss all their charm and joie de vivre when are played on piano. 

[Karl Henning]

Agreed about the concerti;  goodness knows I love the keyboard music played on piano solo.

[prémont]

I have an undeniable preference for Bach's music played on "original instruments"; but, even so, I enjoy it when is played on modern piano. But the keyboard concertos are an exception; for some reason, I feel they miss all their charm and joie de vivre when are played on piano. 

In principle I agree with this. And I only know very few recordings of these concertos on piano, which after all may cause a passing interest on my part.

This is one of them:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-1685-1750-Klavierkonzerte-BWV-10441052-10581060-1065/hnum/9829348

[Wakefield]

In principle I agree with this. And I only know very few recordings of these concertos on piano, which after all may cause a passing interest on my part.

This is one of them:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-1685-1750-Klavierkonzerte-BWV-10441052-10581060-1065/hnum/9829348

Yes, I know some of them included into an EMI twofer... Probably, I'm biased against piano versions because there are several almost perfect complete versions on harpsichord... all of them of an unusual high quality.

[prémont]

Yes, I know some of them included into an EMI twofer... Probably, I'm biased against piano versions because there are several almost perfect complete versions on harpsichord... all of them of an unusual high quality.

This argument also applies to the solo harpsichord music, maybe even more than to the concertos.

[Karl Henning]

A good point:  just because there is an abundance of excellent recordings on harpsichord, is no reason not to enjoy the music on piano solo! 

[Wakefield]

A good point:  just because there is an abundance of excellent recordings on harpsichord, is no reason not to enjoy the music on piano solo! 

I would agree if I had written what you say; but I didn't. I never offered the abundance of good harpsichord versions as an argument in favor of the harpsichord versions. On the contrary, I said quite carefully that I'm "probably biased" in their favor because of that abundance.

My reasons are different:

- the harpsichord isn't, as the modern piano, an instrument built to fight against an orchestra. So (I think) the balance tends to sound unnatural when these early keyboard concerti are played on modern piano (a soloist instrument by definition).

- many pianos playing together tend to sound more like a mass than like different instruments playing together. I guess it's because the pianos have a sound more standardized than the harpsichords.

[Karl Henning]

I would agree if I had written what you say; but I didn't. I never offered the abundance of good harpsichord versions as an argument in favor of the harpsichord versions. On the contrary, I said quite carefully that I'm "probably biased" in their favor because of that abundance.

My reasons are different:

- the harpsichord isn't, as the modern piano, an instrument built to fight against an orchestra. So (I think) the balance tends to sound unnatural when these early keyboard concerti are played on modern piano (a soloist instrument by definition).

- many pianos playing together tend to sound more like a mass than like different instruments playing together. I guess it's because the pianos have a sound more standardized than the harpsichords.

Points well taken.

[Wakefield]

Points well taken.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Not much of an Ozawa fan but this new release looks tempting:



http://www.amazon.com/Seiji-Ozawa-Complete-Warner-Recordings/dp/B00UI8TSCU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432567914&sr=8-1&keywords=seiji+ozawa

It borders on the criminal that a lot of the discs come in at under 50 minutes (including disc 25 that clocks in at a wallet-draining 21min 48sec) but looks like there is a lot of interesting 20th century stuff here.

[Mirror Image]

Not much of an Ozawa fan but this new release looks tempting:



http://www.amazon.com/Seiji-Ozawa-Complete-Warner-Recordings/dp/B00UI8TSCU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432567914&sr=8-1&keywords=seiji+ozawa

It borders on the criminal that a lot of the discs come in at under 50 minutes (including disc 25 that clocks in at a wallet-draining 21min 48sec) but looks like there is a lot of interesting 20th century stuff here.

Probably the only Ozawa set I'm interested in actually. Yes, some great 20th Century music in this set.