Recordings That You Are Considering

[Ken B]

Considering this, since I've liked the Manze and Gardiner interps in a HIP-ish direction

[asin]B000003D2C[/asin]

I like it a lot. Much lighter sounding Brahms than the traditional approach.

[Mandryka]

Liuwe Tamminga plays De Macque. I'm getting more and more interested in Neopolitan music, but I know it's not easy to make it work -- hence my reticence to take the plunge on this one. One big question is whether Liuwe Tamminga and his machine bring out the chromatic dissonances -- if not the music sounds tame to me.

[prémont]

Liuwe Tamminga plays De Macque. I'm getting more and more interested in Neopolitan music, but I know it's not easy to make it work -- hence my reticence to take the plunge on this one. One big question is whether Liuwe Tamminga and his machine bring out the chromatic dissonances -- if not the music sounds tame to me.

Having owned this for many years, I haven´t listened to it more than a couple of times and not recently. Nevertheless I have planned a relistening in the foreseeable future as a result of your recent focusing upon Italian baroque keyboard music.

[André]

I like it a lot. Much lighter sounding Brahms than the traditional approach.

I like it too, after having disliked it after a first hearing. TBH the 'traditional approach' has given us some spectacularly good recordings. But one never has too many Brahms recordings  .

[TheGSMoeller]

Considering this, since I've liked the Manze and Gardiner interps in a HIP-ish direction

[asin]B000003D2C[/asin]

+1. And I like the Manze and Gardiner as well.

[Mandryka]

Having owned this for many years, I haven´t listened to it more than a couple of times and not recently. Nevertheless I have planned a relistening in the foreseeable future as a result of your recent focusing upon Italian baroque keyboard music.

That's kind of you. I'll just mention that the recording which made me think that De Macque wrote interesting music is by Christopher Stembridge, the CD is called Consonanze Staveganti. It's such a shame that Paola Erdas didn't record any de Macque on her recording of music from Gesualdo's court - the level of intensity and commitment of her playing is very winning.

There a huge amount of great early keyboard music! It seems like it's one discovery after another.

[king ubu]

Here is a review from MusicWeb. It seems to be an odd mixture of recordings.

Okay, no matter how intriguing the whole story sounds, after reading (partly skimming) through the detailed reviews there, it's quite easy to take a pass.

[Moonfish]

Okay, no matter how intriguing the whole story sounds, after reading (partly skimming) through the detailed reviews there, it's quite easy to take a pass.

Yeah, that was my impression as well. The reviewer seemed to have had a painful auditory journey....

[king ubu]

Yeah, that was my impression as well. The reviewer seemed to have had a painful auditory journey....

Yeah - yet there seem to be enough good material (more by Bernhard Hermann for instance, and by Dorati, too) for a good box to have been possible ... but will we ever understand marketing concepts (or lack thereof) on the side of major labels? I for one have long given up.

[amw]

I don't know why but I feel like I need this. It's calling to me. Please someone send help before I spend money on a fifth version of nine symphonies I've pretty much known by heart for about 15 years.

[jlaurson]

Ludwig's Symphonies
J.E.Gardiner / ORR
Archiv

I don't know why but I feel like I need this. It's calling to me. Please someone send help before I spend money on a fifth version of nine symphonies I've pretty much known by heart for about 15 years.

Oh no, sorry... this one is a must-have, I'm afraid. By far the least aged of the first larger wave of HIP Beethoven, rivaled (not to my ears, but others') only by Immerseel.

Unlike the recommendation by Que, below, I wouldn't recommend Brueggen in place of this. They have very little in common. In fact, although Brueggen has one my favorite Schubert cycles (therein Immerseel also succeeds greatly!) and my handsdown favorite LvB Concerto, I wouldn't really recommend his LvB Symphony cycle at all. Tempi more like those of Barenboim (which might be accurate, depending on whether you find the arguments of Harke de Roos convincing or not) and certainly quite unlike in spirit from Gardiner and Immerseel. Nice, for that, I suppose, but a supplement, not a replacement.

And five versions of the greatest symphonic canon of Western Civilization really isn't all that much overdoing it. (That's not even 3% of the LvB cycles that have been recorded.)

[Que]

I don't know why but I feel like I need this. It's calling to me. Please someone send help before I spend money on a fifth version of nine symphonies I've pretty much known by heart for about 15 years.

What are your reasons to want this?
If you're looking for a HIP cycle Immerseel and/ or Brüggen would take priority IMO. If you already have those, perhaps spend your money on something else...

Q

[amw]

What are your reasons to want this?
If you're looking for a HIP cycle Immerseel and/ or Brüggen would take priority IMO. If you already have those, perhaps spend your money on something else...

I'm not looking for anything I have Dohnanyi (one cd missing) on modern instruments, Norrington (and Herreweghe's 9th) on period instruments, Howard on modern piano, Martynov (two volumes) on period piano, some string quintet arrangements from Prague, whatever was in the Fricsay box. And the piano trio version of the 2nd on Musica Omnia. My parents' LP and CD collection, which I made use of at a young age to familiarise myself with the symphonies, further contained Karajan, Toscanini, Szell, Klemperer's 3rd, Kleiber's 5th and 7th, and Abbado's 6th and 8th. These pieces are in my blood. Imprinted on my DNA, man. I am Beethoven.

The first Brüggen is the only other one I'm interested in right now actually—can't get into Immerseel. It seems like Frans's interps might be infinitesimally better than Jeggy, but Eroica openers over 17 minutes have stopped sounding right to me for whatever reason. Def on the table though. The 9th seems really promising.

[aligreto]

I don't know why but I feel like I need this. It's calling to me. Please someone send help before I spend money on a fifth version of nine symphonies I've pretty much known by heart for about 15 years.

I am afraid that I am another one telling you that this is a must have.

Also, the Bruggen 2 cycle is IMHO better than Bruggen 1.

[aligreto]

Considering this, since I've liked the Manze and Gardiner interps in a HIP-ish direction

[asin]B000003D2C[/asin]

Smaller forces used here and this seriously benefits this music IMHO. Great transparency in the music lines and orchestral textures brought these works to life for me at a time, many years ago, that I did neither understood nor therefore like these symphonies. This set by Mackerras changed all of that for me.

[king ubu]

Love that Gardiner/Beethoven cycle (but don't know Brüggen and Immerseel yet).

Question: did anyone here ever shed some light on the three Dutilleux boxes (EMI/Warner, Erato/Warner and DG)? Please point me there, or to a comparative review if you've seen one!

[jlaurson]

I'm not looking for anything I have Dohnanyi (one cd missing) on modern instruments, Norrington (and Herreweghe's 9th) on period instruments, Howard on modern piano, Martynov (two volumes) on period piano, some string quintet arrangements from Prague, whatever was in the Fricsay box. And the piano trio version of the 2nd on Musica Omnia. My parents' LP and CD collection, which I made use of at a young age to familiarise myself with the symphonies, further contained Karajan, Toscanini, Szell, Klemperer's 3rd, Kleiber's 5th and 7th, and Abbado's 6th and 8th. These pieces are in my blood. Imprinted on my DNA, man. I am Beethoven.

The first Brüggen is the only other one I'm interested in right now actually—can't get into Immerseel. It seems like Frans's interps might be infinitesimally better than Jeggy, but Eroica openers over 17 minutes have stopped sounding right to me for whatever reason. Def on the table though. The 9th seems really promising.

That sounds pretty good. The Fricsay (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9) is terrific... the 9th still reference material. Dohnanyi is very fine, modern, none-too-fancy...
Looks to me that you could nicely supplement your collection with Barenboim I. Big, modern, exciting, brawny Beethoven.
And one of the modern zip and zap versions... O.Vanska, P.Jaervi, or T.Dausgaard.

[prémont]

I have never warmed to the Gardiner cycle, which I find - yes, perfect but cold.

[amw]

That sounds pretty good. The Fricsay (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9) is terrific... the 9th still reference material. Dohnanyi is very fine, modern, none-too-fancy...
Looks to me that you could nicely supplement your collection with Barenboim I. Big, modern, exciting, brawny Beethoven.
And one of the modern zip and zap versions... O.Vanska, P.Jaervi, or T.Dausgaard.

For modern I was looking at Chailly, but his singers are awful. And he pulls a lot of punches in the Eroica, articulation wise. I'm sorta curious about Dausgaard just because Simax isn't available on Qobuz and he's an interesting artist.

Meanwhile in Qobuz Desktop... having started with Gardiner's Eroica about two hours ago, I'm currently on the Pastoral and am not sure when I'm going to stop. These woodwinds, man. They're so woodwindy. Nomesayin? How do you get string players to maintain perfect intonation with no vibrato for five hours? Whoooaaaa.

[jlaurson]

For modern I was looking at Chailly, but his singers are awful. And he pulls a lot of punches in the Eroica, articulation wise. I'm sorta curious about Dausgaard just because Simax isn't available on Qobuz and he's an interesting artist.

Meanwhile in Qobuz Desktop... having started with Gardiner's Eroica about two hours ago, I'm currently on the Pastoral and am not sure when I'm going to stop. These woodwinds, man. They're so woodwindy. Nomesayin? How do you get string players to maintain perfect intonation with no vibrato for five hours? Whoooaaaa.

Yes...  Chailly is a bit like the aforementioned, on steroids.
Review here, 10 pages from the back: http://issuu.com/listenmusicmag/docs/spring2012 or here: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=670016

I wouldn't say "awful", at all, as per Chailly's singers.  Lilli Paasikivi,  Robert Dean Smith,  and Hanno Müller-Brachmann are good; I'm not the biggest RDS fan, but I find him no worse in this than a score of others. HMB I like very much. I admit to feeling indifferent about Katerina Beranova here.