Recordings That You Are Considering

[Sammy]

Mentioning Virginia Black elewhere (commenting Bach on piano) I thought of this:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/CRD/CRD35312

I do not know her Goldbergs (on harpsichord??).

Yes, it's on harpsichord.

[Brian]

Has anybody heard this? The lineup is truly all-star.



Mendelssohn:
Tetzlaff, Christian - violin
Faust, Isabelle - violin
Batiashvili, Lisa - violin
Weithaas, Antje - violin
Roberts, Rachel - viola
Kam, Ori - viola
Tetzlaff, Tanja - cello
Viersen, Quirine - cello

Enescu:
Tetzlaff, Christian - violin
Weithaas, Antje - violin
Faust, Isabelle - violin
Gowers, Katharine - violin
Tamestit, Antoine - viola
Roberts, Rachel - viola
Rivinius, Gustav - cello
Viersen, Quirine - cello

[mc ukrneal]

Has anybody heard this? The lineup is truly all-star.



Mendelssohn:
Tetzlaff, Christian - violin
Faust, Isabelle - violin
Batiashvili, Lisa - violin
Weithaas, Antje - violin
Roberts, Rachel - viola
Kam, Ori - viola
Tetzlaff, Tanja - cello
Viersen, Quirine - cello

Enescu:
Tetzlaff, Christian - violin
Weithaas, Antje - violin
Faust, Isabelle - violin
Gowers, Katharine - violin
Tamestit, Antoine - viola
Roberts, Rachel - viola
Rivinius, Gustav - cello
Viersen, Quirine - cello

I think you will love it, in particular the Mendelssohn... (though you may have to violate your purchase rule?)...

[Brian]

I think you will love it, in particular the Mendelssohn... (though you may have to violate your purchase rule?)...

Nah, it's on NML ...but if I love it enough, it will probably go on the 2017 purchases list...

[Jo498]

I have not heard the Mendelssohn/Enescu but I have a box with a whole bunch of the Heimbach (Vogt's summer festival) recordings and they are overall on an incredibly high level, being all live and with (youngish all star) "pickup" ensembles. I can hardly imagine this being less than very good.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Has anybody heard this? The lineup is truly all-star.

I have not heard the Mendelssohn/Enescu but I have a box with a whole bunch of the Heimbach (Vogt's summer festival) recordings and they are overall on an incredibly high level, being all live and with (youngish all star) "pickup" ensembles. I can hardly imagine this being less than very good.

I have a couple of Heimbach Festival discs (Brahms/Mendelssohn on EMI) and agree the music-making is world-class in every way. One perk (at least on the EMIs) is the impressive sonics. Whether that's due to EMI or perhaps an acoustical quirk of the old power plant building I couldn't say. Either way, sound-wise they're impressive.

[Brian]

I listened to the Mendelssohn via streaming this afternoon. It is definitely very, very good - maybe not super-distinctive if you compare it to various other well-loved readings (except an unusually physical-sounding cello attack to start the finale), but I was happy. Will try the Enescu soon.

[Angelos_05]

I was interested in buying the Rene Leibowitz boxset issued by Urania Records but the JP reviewer says the following (while awarding it with one star only)

It is a point of interest that the Reader's Digest Recordings were available as mail-orders in the past . Some of them were re-issued by Chesky and RCA. However, by comparing those with the present Urania boxset I am surprised at how bad the audio quality is. I can go as far as doubting that the people at Urania Records had a listen to their CDs when they completed the mastering-manufacturing of them. It is a boxset that I would advise people to steer clear of.


http://www.amazon.co.jp/RENE-LEIBOWITZ-Rene-Leibowitz/dp/B00O1PU2BW/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1456905864&sr=1-6&keywords=rene+leibowitz

http://www.uraniarecords.com/en/product/leibowitz-conducts/

[Drasko]

I was interested in buying the Rene Leibowitz boxset issued by Urania Records but the JP reviewer says the following (while awarding it with one star only)

Urania is a label that's worth avoiding in general if there is any other option available.

As for Leibowitz, Scribendum has released 13 CD box of his recordings, and per BBC review sound quality is excellent.



http://www.scribendumrecordings.com/our-shop/4583959841/sc510-13cd---the-art-of-leibowitz/10114478

[Angelos_05]

Urania is a label that's worth avoiding in general if there is any other option available.

As for Leibowitz, Scribendum has released 13 CD box of his recordings, and per BBC review sound quality is excellent.

Yes I have ordered the Scribendum boxset, and I am awaiting it to arrive. What interested me in the Urania Records release was the omissions by the Scribendum guys.


The amazon uk reviewer mentions the following for the Scribendum Leibowitz boxset

These are the recordings that René Leibowitz (1913-1972) made for Reader's Digest back in the 1960s.
[there are a few omissions - see below under "Points of Interest"]
Charles Gerhardt (on loan from RCA) was producer, and the Decca engineering staff - headed by Kenneth Wilkinson - was in charge of the recording sessions.
Other conductors who recorded for the mail-order program included Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Antal Dorati, Jascha Horenstein, Rudolf Kempe, Josef Krips, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner and Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Gorgeous Decca-quality stereo sound.

Despite not being sold in stores, the Reader's Digest records sold well.
[the 12 LP box "A Festival of Light Classical Music" sold two million copies.]
A lot of sophisticates never knew these recordings existed.
The Reader's Digest was not required reading for highbrows.



This is a timely release.
Polish-born but naturalized Frenchman René Leibowitz is almost forgotten today.
In the 1930s and '40s, he was better known as a composer - a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern,
Teacher of Pierre Boulez.
You'd never guess this from his recorded repertoire (the Reader's Digest wasn't interested in atonal music).
In addition to Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Stravinsky, there is a lot of light music in this collection
- not just Offenbach overtures, but even Gilbert and Sullivan (overture to H.M.S. Pinafore).

PACKAGING AND SOUND
Thirteen CDs in cardboard jackets with timings and recording information printed on the back.
Disappointing cover art - the black and white cover photo is re-used on each jacket.
Couldn't they at least find a color photo of Leibowitz?
Unfortunately no booklet is included. A major omission - Leibowitz is not a household name.
There is an excellent Leibowitz website - see the first comment following my review.

About three-quarters of this material was released on the audiophile CD label Chesky back in the '90s.
The rest is new to CD.
The Beethoven Symphonies were issued ten years ago by Scribendum in excellent sound (I don't have the earlier Chesky CDs for comparison).
I do own the Chesky CD of "An Evening of Opera" and did an A-B comparison with CD 6 in the Scribendum set.
My ears aren't perfect (I'm 66 years old) but I couldn't hear any difference.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is spectacularly engineered.

HOW READER'S DIGEST SAVED THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC:
The Reader's Digest recording program began in 1960 with recordings by London orchestras recording under pseudonyms:
The London Philharmonic recorded as the "International Symphony Orchestra".
The London Symphony recorded as "The London Festival Orchestra".
Not sure if this was due to contractual obligations or because the musicians were embarrassed to be associated with the Reader's Digest.
The "New Symphony Orchestra of London" had a long career in the recording studios (RCA recorded concerti with Heifetz and Rubinstein) but I don't think it gave public concerts (rumored to be the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House).

Sir Thomas Beecham, founder of the Royal Philharmonic, died in March 1961.
There was concern for the orchestra's survival.
Not too much of an exaggeration to say that Reader's Digest saved the Royal Philharmonic.
The orchestra's first project after the death of Beecham was a complete set of Beethoven Symphonies conducted by Leibowitz (in this box)
1962 was a busy year:
In addition to Leibowitz, the Royal Philharmonic made records with Barbirolli (Sibelius), Horenstein (Rachmaninov), Kempe (Respighi), Munch (Bizet, Tchaikovsky), Reiner (Brahms), Sargent (Handel's Messiah), and many more.
+ Piano Concerti with Earl Wild
+ Gilbert & Sullivan with The D'Oyly Carte Opera
All sponsored by the Reader's Digest.

POINTS OF INTEREST:
-- When released in 1962, Leibowitz's Beethoven Symphony set was completely overshadowed by Herbert von Karajan's first (of three) Berlin Philharmonic sets on Deutsche Grammophon.
Too bad.
Leibowitz's Beethoven is not "better" than Karajan's, but it is more interesting.
Fast and Brutal performances.
Not philosophical or spiritual, but tremendously exciting nonetheless.
A common enough approach to the Fifth Symphony, but unexpected in the Ninth.
The finale of Beethoven's Ninth is supposed to be an Ode to Joy, and the Brotherhood of Man.
This performance will have none of that.
This is an Angry Ninth - clear from the snarling phrasing of the double basses in their recitative.
When the singer comes in, he's not lyrical and comforting (like Walter Berry for Karajan).
Instead the legendary German bass Ludwig Weber (born 1899) is dark and menacing.
At Bayreuth his roles were Hunding and Hagen - Wagner's blackest villains - and there is no disguising that voice.
A scary "Ode to Joy".
This is one of the great performances of Beethoven's Ninth, but I'm not sure that I even like it.

-- The Mozart and Schubert Symphonies receive swift but not lightweight performances.
Despite the tempo, Leibowitz (and the engineers) do an excellent job of clarifying the counterpoint in the finale of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.
In Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, the performance tradition at the time was to slow down for the codas of the first and fourth movements (contrary to the printed score).
Leibowitz maintains the same swift tempo right to the end.
This is one case where I prefer tradition to the composer's score. .
[Scandalous]
I miss the dramatic sense of arrival when the tempo broadens.

-- Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is played in the familiar Ravel orchestration,
but Night on Bare Mountain is neither the Rimsky-Korsakov version, nor Mussorgsky's original (which in 1962 was known only to musicologists).
The Leibowitz orchestration starts out conventionally, but becomes progressively more wacky.
He even uses a wind machine - actually two wind machines (one for each channel).

-- Schumann's Rhenish Symphony:
It used to be commonplace for conductors to tinker with Schumann's orchestration.
[Mahler re-orchestrated all the symphonies.]
Leibowitz's version is pretty extreme, with a particularly annoying trumpet in the first movement.
Hard to recommend, although the finale is certainly rousing.

-- Leibowitz provides tasteful orchestrations for "Greensleeves" and "Londonderry Air" (aka "London Derriere" or "Danny Boy").
Uncredited orchestrations of Bach-Gounod, Bizet, Chopin, Dinicu, Dvorak and Franck.
Most are tastefully done, but Chopin's Op.53 Polonaise is grotesquely over-orchestrated.

-- The "Gade" on CD 7 is not classical composer Niels Gade (1817-1890) but bandleader Otto Gade (1879-1963).
His popular song "Jalousie" (1925) became an international hit when Arthur Fiedler recorded it with the Boston Pops.



-- Reader's Digest recordings not in this box:
---- Bach: Passacaglia & Fugue in C Minor BWV 582 (orch. Leibowitz) - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
---- Debussy: Clair de lune - RCA Italiana Symphony Orchestra (early 1960s)
---- Gershwin: Suite from Porgy and Bess - New Symphony Orchestra of London (1961)
---- Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night's Dream Overture - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
---- Mendelssohn: Scherzo from Octet for Strings - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
---- Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, with Hyman Bress - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
---- Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole - Orchestra Filarmonica di Roma (early 1960s)
---- Rossini: Dances from William Tell - RCA Italiana Symphony Orchestra (early 1960s)
---- Weber: Freischutz Overture - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
---- Weber: Oberon overture - Royal Philharmonic (1962)
[two to three CDs worth of material.]



http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Leibowitz-Rene/dp/B013S2PG8C

[Todd]

[Todd]

[Lisztianwagner]

To increase my Sibelius collection, I'm very interested in buying this set box and in knowing the opinions about it......

[asin]B00ZB7UYF8[/asin]

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes I have ordered the Scribendum boxset, and I am awaiting it to arrive. What interested me in the Urania Records release was the omissions by the Scribendum guys.


The amazon uk reviewer mentions the following for the Scribendum Leibowitz boxset

The Beethoven 9th mentioned in the review is one of my favorites of the 105 I have. I play it frequently, and just for the reasons mentioned in the review. It really is good!

[Angelos_05]

The Beethoven 9th mentioned in the review is one of my favorites of the 105 I have. I play it frequently, and just for the reasons mentioned in the review. It really is good!

Same here Leibowitz's Beethoven is my favorite.
Although the question remains whether Scribendum restored and remastered their contents from the original master tapes. Don;t know if they did for their old Beethoven boxset, and don't whether they did it now.
Indications show that Scribendum probably didn't get the original master tapes. In any case, audio quality is very good. Another amazon co uk reviewer confirms it

This box set issued by Scribendum contains 13 compact discs but no notes. I have enjoyed discovering the performances on every single single disc enormously. The range of music included is very wide indeed (the individual items are listed in other reviews here on Amazon). Most of the recordings were made around 1960, a little before and a little later, and the recording quality is excellent throughout. The complete set of Beethoven symphonies were recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra less than a year after the death of Sir Thomas Beecham and the orchestra sounds in terrific form despite what must have seemed an uncertain time for its players. I recommend this box very strongly because the performances are full of vitality, rhythmic precision and forward momentum. The Beethoven symphonies, in particular, are taken swiftly without ever sounding hurried. There are no intrusive mannerisms in any of the pieces played, which means that the set as a whole can stand repeated playings - at the same time Leibowitz's readings are characterful and certainly not lacking in individual personality. I've already said the recording quality is excellent - rich and full without any apparent 'tinkering' at the remastering stage.

Chesky on the other hand, did retrieve and remaster (from) the original master tapes, and they state it clearly on the back cover.
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-symphony-no-9-d-minor-cd66
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-symphony-no-6-f-major-pastoral-symphony-no-8-f-minor-cd69
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-leonore-overture-no-3-symphony-no-2-symphony-no-5-cd17
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/German_CD096.htm





What do you guys have to say about this Scribendum boxset?




http://www.norpete.com/c0282.html

"Most of the great conductors who have been deified on 'historic' recordings acquired Olympian status during their lifetimes, then amplified their fame beyond the grave. Jascha Horenstein is another case entirely, a conductor of marginal renown who has generated tremendous cult interest in the [many] years since his death. We finally have an adequate record of one of the most vital, idiosyncratic interpreters of the 20th century.

Among other things, Horenstein was the greatest Mahler conductor of his generation, perhaps of any generation. His authority in Mahler was challenged only by Leonard Bernstein, and in some ways Horenstein brought his listeners closer to the heart of Mahler's music, rather than the heart of one conductor's experience of it. Performances of Mahler, and of Bruckner, have grown increasingly monumental and monotone in recent years; it is deeply satisfying to go back to Horenstein's flexible, full-voiced, superbly balanced readings, in which the texture is richly varied yet all of a piece. A missionary for these composers decades before they came into fashion, Horenstein never lost his youthful ardor and awe. Whatever score lay before him, Horenstein struck straight to its heart, often sacrificing a polished veneer to draw out his central vision. He was the wandering magician among great conductors, able to summon a great performance under the unlikeliest of circumstances.

He was born of Jewish parents in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1898 and moved to Vienna with his family while in his teens. He studied violin with Adolf Busch, theory with Joseph Marx and composition with Franz Schreker in Berlin. He made his conducting début in 1923 with the encouragement of Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom he idolized. His ascent was swift: engagements with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra from 1925 to 1928, the Düsseldorf Opera from 1929 to 1933. He made his particular taste known at once: the major work on his début program was, daringly, the Mahler First, and soon after, he made the first complete recording of a Bruckner symphony (the Seventh, with the Berlin Philharmonic). In 1933 Horenstein fled Nazi Germany for Paris, and his career fell into a disarray from which it never quite recovered. For more than a decade, he wandered from orchestra to orchestra, country to country, visiting the Soviet Union, Palestine, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and Mexico. In the early 40s he tried to establish himself in the United States, conducting several concerts with the New York Philharmonic, but made little headway. Big-name orchestras did not warm to his painstaking interpretive demands and often failed to invite him back.

His reputation finally began to gain luster in the 50s. He led the Paris premiere of Berg's WOZZECK in 1950 and worked frequently with French orchestras, beginning a series of recordings for Vox. The Horenstein cult crystallized when Ernest Fleischmann, as manager of the London Symphony, engaged him as a regular guest conductor. His momentous performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in 1959 is often cited as the flash point for the Mahler revival in England. By the 60s, he was finally recording in stereo with major London orchestras. Unicorn issued splendid studio recordings of Mahler's First and Third Symphonies along with important disks of Nielsen, Hindemith and Strauss. Horenstein's Mahler and Bruckner performances were so legendary that young English listeners spent the night outside the concert hall in sleeping bags waiting to hear him. But the grueling tours took their toll, and he died suddenly on 2 April, 1973, shortly after a historic engagement conducting PARSIFAL at Covent Garden.

Horenstein held in balance two qualities that do not usually appear together: a clear grasp of linear musical structure and a ferocious concentration on individual interpretive moments. On his best days, he found an ideal middle way between the outward energy of Toscanini and the inner expression of Furtwängler. A lifelong student of Indian philosophy, he comprehended the naturalness and transcendence of music in a single breath. Horenstein was most famous for his electrifying effect in live performances, but he was also a canny presence in the recording studio, knowing how to draw the best results from meager resources.... The Mahler First has a furious energy unmatched by any recent rendition....the Mahler Third is superior to all readings before and after. Horenstein's Mahler is free of exaggeration; he never bloats tempos in the manner of Klemperer or Bernstein. He is not afraid to let certain passages play out in an ordinary narrative mode, or to shape climactic moments with an unexpected sensual restraint. Mahler's music, already vehemently expressive at every turn, does not need to have its underlinings underlined.

Why did this major musician not receive his due? Perhaps because he deliberately avoided the obvious path to posterity. He never sought a permanent appointment, and his temperament would have prevented it. The repertory that meant the most to him became fashionable only in his last years. The selflessness of his devotion to certain precious scores is rare among conductors, for whom the buttressing of the ego at all costs is usually paramount. Devotion shines through many of these recordings, and it colors the famous sentence the conductor uttered on his deathbed: 'The saddest thing about leaving this earth is never to hear DAS LIED VON DER ERDE again'."

- Alex Ross, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 16 Oct., 1994

[Gurn Blanston]

Same here Leibowitz's Beethoven is my favorite.
Although the question remains whether Scribendum restored and remastered their contents from the original master tapes. Don;t know if they did for their old Beethoven boxset, and don't whether they did it now.
Indications show that Scribendum probably didn't get the original master tapes. In any case, audio quality is very good. Another amazon co uk reviewer confirms it

Chesky on the other hand, did retrieve and remaster (from) the original master tapes, and they state clearly it on the back cover.
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-symphony-no-9-d-minor-cd66
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-symphony-no-6-f-major-pastoral-symphony-no-8-f-minor-cd69
http://www.chesky.com/album/beethoven-leonore-overture-no-3-symphony-no-2-symphony-no-5-cd17
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/German_CD096.htm

The Chesky disk is the one I have, so I can't comment on anything about the Scribendum other than that it's a great performance.

[jlaurson]

To increase my Sibelius collection, I'm very interested in buying this set box and in knowing the opinions about it......

What exactly about it? If you don't have the recordings or much Sibelius, this is a good beginner's collection with well chosen interpretations from the DG catalog (where they had choice).
I've worked my way through it (one CD still to go) and am pleased... but hardly overwhelmed. Then again, I had most of those performances except for some Jaervi tone poems. (Where he is incidentally better than in the Symphonies, I think. Or just less competition.)

Though for the purpose of an introductory box set to get you a wholesome nordic whiff of Sibelius, I'd go with this set, which cannot be beat for that purpose, methinks.


The Essential Sibelius
Vanska et al.
BIS

[Lisztianwagner]

What exactly about it? If you don't have the recordings or much Sibelius, this is a good beginner's collection with well chosen interpretations from the DG catalog (where they had choice).
I've worked my way through it (one CD still to go) and am pleased... but hardly overwhelmed. Then again, I had most of those performances except for some Jaervi tone poems. (Where he is incidentally better than in the Symphonies, I think. Or just less competition.)

Though for the purpose of an introductory box set to get you a wholesome nordic whiff of Sibelius, I'd go with this set, which cannot be beat for that purpose, methinks.


The Essential Sibelius
Vanska et al.
BIS

Thank you for the feedback; I wanted to know some general reviews about the box set: about the interpretations, the quality, the performers (actually, I only know the Karajan performances included), etc, or if there were some better Sibelius editions worth buying. Usually, DG collections hardly disappoint, and looking at the interpreters, that DG Sibelius box set must be excellent.
Thanks for suggesting that second set, it seems to be great too.

[jlaurson]

Thank you for the feedback; I wanted to know some general reviews about the box set: about the interpretations, the quality, the performers (actually, I only know the Karajan performances included), etc, or if there were some better Sibelius editions worth buying. Usually, DG collections hardly disappoint, and looking at the interpreters, that DG Sibelius box set must be excellent.
Thanks for suggesting that second set, it seems to be great too.

Ingredients: http://www.mdt.co.uk/sibelius-edition-deutsche-grammophon-14cds.html

Well, they got the symphonies right: Karajan (Sys.4,5,6,7) is excellent and so is Bernstein -- if far more exagerrated (Nos.1 & esp. 2). I wouldn't be without them whereas I *might* allow myself to be without Vanska's symphonies, but only if I had another set as good as Vanska's and in the same style. Then again, no, I wouldn't be without that, either. And Vanska is a standard from the vantage point of which I can enjoy takes like Bernstein's better than if I only knew the latter. Kamu's Third has always been fine but isn't a knock-out. The Tone Poems with ASMF / Marriner are better than expected by a cynic, but not top drawer. The Gothenburg SO / Järvi tone poems (Finlandia, Pohjola s Teenage Daughter) v.good. I like the Anne-Sophie Mutter/André Previn Violin Concerto account. But I like Vanska/Kavakos better. Quite a bit. I think better can be had than Jorma Panula's Kullervo, but it's not like it's a bad recording. (Licensed from Naxos, interestingly; DG never recorded that work.) The Kim Borg songs are old but awesome. The Emerson String Quartet in Voces Intimae excellent. Ditto Pelleas & Melisande (though dated) with the SRO/ Horst Stein. Some of the other licensed Hungarian stuff is just OK. Still, I think the BIS has on average the better performances, a real knack for the Sibelian voice (at least as I imagine it, I suppose), and greater variety on almost as many CDs for a comparable price.

[North Star]

I heartily agree with Jens's recommendation of the BIS Essential Sibelius, Ilaria. Just about the only things that could still improve it would be including Vänskä's Nightride & Sunrise, and the complete Tempest (instead of just the Järvi extraction).