Topic: Recordings You Want To See in the Future

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Another Simpson symphony cycle. Much as I value the Hyperion recordings, I've always felt they could be done differently, and in some cases better.

Meanwhile, Naxos should finish its stalled Rochberg symphony cycle (currently missing 3, 4 and 6).

[Brian]

Another Simpson symphony cycle. Much as I value the Hyperion recordings, I've always felt they could be done differently, and in some cases better.

I felt this way about Atterberg, but then Chandos took it up and unfortunately chose Neeme Jarvi... so I got my wish but not really.

[Opus106]

Another thing I'd like is for period instrument specialists to dig more heavily into Schubert's solo piano works.  I mean, sure, having the Impromptus available is nice but a box set of the sonatas would be wonderful.

Just a week to go: http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BWUXJ1O/?tag=goodmusicgu0a-21

[Opus106]

That link takes me to the French Amazon Kindle page.

I apologise for that; missed the last letter of the ASIN. It's now corrected.


Update: I now see that it's also listed at UK (it wasn't, initially), and it turns out to be the cheaper and the Englisher of the two options, but the release date is in June.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BWUXJ1O/?tag=goodmusicguideco-21

[Superhorn]

   But Neeme Jarvi should be a great choice for  Atterberg . There's no one better in Scandinavian music . That's his element .

[DavidRoss]

I should add that I'd like to see more recordings of new compositions by contemporary composers performed by MTT/SFS. Heard them premiere a fine Sam Adams piece last year and know they're rehearsing a new one by his dad.

[Brian]

   But Neeme Jarvi should be a great choice for  Atterberg . There's no one better in Scandinavian music . That's his element .

The problem is Atterberg's music is very romantic, and Neeme Jarvi is not a talented romantic conductor. His style is to elicit highly skilled, polished, rhythmically sharp orchestral playing, but disregard any emotional elements and refuse to indulge melodies, tease phrases, etc. Jarvi is in essence the world's finest metronome. Thus in the past year alone he's given us soulless Saint-Saens, Atterberg about which I'm ambivalent, and new this month Chabrier so cold that I had to turn it off in sadness.

[Parsifal]

An unfair and gratuitously harsh assessment of a fine conductor, if you ask me.

Jarvi may not be one to stop and smell the roses, but knows how to balance complex orchestral passages and obtain a clear texture.  He also knows how to pick up a score no one has heard in 100 years and find the music in it. 

That said, I adore the cpo Atterberg series and don't feel the need to have Jarvi's.  We already have beautifully performed and recorded Atterberg, and I would have been more interested in more idiosynchratic performances, which is not Jarvi's thing.

[Parsifal]

Back to the topic, would it be too much to ask for Pollini to do Book II of the WTC, or Book II of the Debussy Preludes?  What is he waiting for?  He doesn't look too frisky on recent album covers.   

[The new erato]

A complete Bloch quartet cycle by the Pacifica quartet.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Jarvi may not be one to stop and smell the roses, but knows how to balance complex orchestral passages and obtain a clear texture.

You may be correct on a technicality: he probably does know how. I find his execution (as evinced in the boatload of Prokofiev he was contracted for, for the centenary) regretfully mixed.  Knowledge alone, was not power, there.

[Parsifal]

You may be correct on a technicality: he probably does know how. I find his execution (as evinced in the boatload of Prokofiev he was contracted for, for the centenary) regretfully mixed.  Knowledge alone, was not power, there.

The recordings he made with Goethenberg, particularly with BIS, are pure gold.  With those technicolor Chandos recordings, who knows what the performance actually sounded like before the engineers were finished with it.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Well, there are flaws which are the band, and no doing of the engineers; and that speaks of insufficient rehearsal, at the least.

[Parsifal]

Well, there are flaws which are the band, and no doing of the engineers; and that speaks of insufficient rehearsal, at the least.

If you rehearse a Prokofiev symphony enough you can perhaps achieve a result which is boring, instead of horrid.  (Just my opinion, of course.)  I probably should exclude the 5th from that (and the first, which requires no rehearsal to be boring).   

[Ten thumbs]

Instead of yet more recordings of Brahms' late piano works, I'd like to see top pianists giving interpretations of the better output of Heller and Kirchner. That way people will eventually realize that there is little comparative difference in quality between the one and the other (much as I love the Brahms).

[kishnevi]

A complete Bloch quartet cycle by the Pacifica quartet.

Erato, do you have this?  True it's not a full cycle, but it comes with an excitedly positive review from Jens.

And I see there's a (I think) complete cycle from the Portland String Quartet.

Regarding the Pacificas,  I'd be interested in hearing them play Bartok and/or extend their explorations of Russian/Soviet chamber works.

Back to the topic, would it be too much to ask for Pollini to do Book II of the WTC, or Book II of the Debussy Preludes?  What is he waiting for?  He doesn't look too frisky on recent album covers.   

Definite agreement with you there on the desireability of those recordings--and of his getting around to complete that Beethoven cycle he's supposedly completing.   

[The new erato]

Erato, do you have this?  True it's not a full cycle, but it comes with an excitedly positive review from Jens.

And I see there's a (I think) complete cycle from the Portland String Quartet.

Yes, I have the Griller and it is wonderful. As reported here by me on several occasions once upon a time. But it doesn't fill the bill, as somehow I imagine the Portland won't either.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

If you rehearse a Prokofiev symphony enough you can perhaps achieve a result which is boring, instead of horrid.  (Just my opinion, of course.)

A specious rationalization of insufficient rehearsal.

[Parsifal]

A specious rationalization of insufficient rehearsal.

Tsk, tsk, no sense of humor, have we?  One bad CD doesn't make Jarvi an incompetent conductor.  My only point is that, the 5th aside, I don't think I can distinguish a good from a bad performance of a Prokofiev symphony.   

[Mirror Image]

Tsk, tsk, no sense of humor, have we?  One bad CD doesn't make Jarvi an incompetent conductor.  My only point is that, the 5th aside, I don't think I can distinguish a good from a bad performance of a Prokofiev symphony.   

Jarvi is a very good conductor, but like all good conductors, he's recorded some duds. His Tubin recordings, however, have elevated this composer's status beyond obscurity. His recording of Honegger on Chandos is still a favorite. I love his Prokofiev as well.