"Drinking the Kool-Aid"

[Beorn]

I thought he didn't get 'WHY' the big whoop is. 

Yes, [for] what [reason] is the big whoop?

[Mandryka]

Yes, [for] what [reason] is the big whoop?

Debussy was very good at expressing visual things with sounds

[MishaK]

Debussy was very good at expressing visual things with sounds

Hmmm.... never thought of it that way. Debussy was more expressing the intangibles of an atmosphere of a time and a place, but not just the visual. See, e.g., Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir - the title itself is completely non-visual, yet entirely sensual. If I think of a composer who manages to turn the visual into music almost photographically, I think of Richard Strauss (especially Alpensinfonie).

[not edward]

To be a little provocative:

Bernstein's BPO Mahler 9. Superficial and histrionic.

Gardiner's Missa solemnis. All the notes are there, and very well played too, but where's the music?

Let me add the name of Marc-Andre Hamelin in here (I do like some of his recordings, but the praise for him seems to me hysterically overstated at times).

[Sergeant Rock]

Gardiner's Missa solemnis. All the notes are there, and very well played too, but where's the music?

I don't have many CD purchase regrets but...Gardiner's Missa Solemnis is one of them.

Sarge

[MishaK]

Bernstein's BPO Mahler 9. Superficial and histrionic.

I'm not that bothered with his 9, but I don't get why people like his VPO M5 so much. It's a total and complete miss for me.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I'm not that bothered with his 9, but I don't get why people like his VPO M5 so much. It's a total and complete miss for me.

It's been ages since I heard it, but that was my reaction too.

[kishnevi]

To be a little provocative:

Bernstein's BPO Mahler 9. Superficial and histrionic.

Gardiner's Missa solemnis. All the notes are there, and very well played too, but where's the music?

Let me add the name of Marc-Andre Hamelin in here (I do like some of his recordings, but the praise for him seems to me hysterically overstated at times).

But it's the sheer histrionic quality of that M9 that makes it so great--although I don't really think it is a superficial reading.  The M5 from that cycle comes close, but doesn't go over the line quite so much as the M9. 

For maximum histrionics in M9,  I'd suggest Levine's Munich Philharmonic (to be found on Oehms), which I love, but I suspect you wouldn't. 

I also disagree with you about Hamelin;  I don't think I've heard a single recording of his I don't like. 

But Gardiner's Missa Solemnis--I've played it, and five minutes after it was over,  I couldn't pick out a single thing to remark on, either negative or positive.   Missa Solemnis as Muzak?!

[Opus106]

But it's the sheer histrionic quality of that M9 that makes it so great--although I don't really think it is a superficial reading.  The M5 from that cycle comes close, but doesn't go over the line quite so much as the M9. 

[Emphasis mine]

Edward was referring to the Berlin 9th; it was a 'single', as it were, made during the Karajan era and it's not part of a cycle.

[kishnevi]

[Emphasis mine]

Edward was referring to the Berlin 9th; it was a 'single', as it were, made during the Karajan era and it's not part of a cycle.

Goes back to look.

Oh, yes.  Well, you know how a B and a V look like each other! 

In that case,  I'm even more negative about the Berlin 9th than Edward is;  superficiality and histrionics don't even come into it:  too much noise from audience and other offstage sources (for instance, a door that insisted on banging shut several times) make it not worth listening to.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

In that case,  I'm even more negative about the Berlin 9th than Edward is;  superficiality and histrionics don't even come into it:  too much noise from audience and other offstage sources (for instance, a door that insisted on banging shut several times) make it not worth listening to.

It's also notorious for a mysterious error in the finale: at the climax, the trombones (all of them) fail to come in. How they all missed it in the first place, I don't know. But why they didn't fix it in editing is even more puzzling.

[Pat B]

Who will defend Gardiner's Missa Solemnis? Not me. I sold my copy years ago after I got Herreweghe '95.

[Brian]

I still don't "get" Carlo Maria Giulini.

[mc ukrneal]

I still don't "get" Carlo Maria Giulini.

I've always been a fan of his Rossini overtures. Of course, his opera is quite good too - you could try his Don Giovanni if you ever have the interest.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I still don't "get" Carlo Maria Giulini.

Maybe you just don't like slow tempi exposing a wealth of detail. (As far as I can tell, that's what there is to "get").

[Mirror Image]

I still don't "get" Carlo Maria Giulini.

His Bruckner 9th recording with the VPO is one of my all-time favorite recordings. It doesn't get more glorious than this!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I still don't "get" Carlo Maria Giulini.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I enjoy Giulini's Brahms German Requiem very much, and what I've heard of his Bruckner 9th makes me believe it could be a first choice (alongside Kubelik's, which I already have).

But beyond that his tendency towards slowness is a put-off for me. And it's not like he hasn't been on my radar...he's been a presence for 25 years!

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Oh, this is a fun thread that deserves resuscitation.

I agree with several mentions; Todd's of the Goode LvB Sonatas, which were terribly hyped in their day (but I suppose are no longer)... and the Furtwängler LvB9 (or Eff-it: anything by Furtwängler, if we're honest and/or insensitive)... The M9 with Lenny in Berlin is certainly overrated because it was rare and special for having been possible... but then, isn't a lot of Bernstein overrated? Important/exciting then... but wouldn't be that special if the same performance was conducted by, say, Juraj Valcuha. Most anything Perlman. Emerson String Quartet in anything pre-20th century.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I agree with several mentions; Todd's of the Goode LvB Sonatas, which were terribly hyped in their day (but I suppose are no longer)...

"Terribly hyped" is the sort of thing I typically associate with the likes of Solti's Ring®, or Furtwängler's Bayreuth 9th®, or Mravinsky's DG Tchaikovsky®, or Heifetz's®®® anything.

I find it hard to believe a tiny American label recording a practically unknown American pianist - even in high-profile music like Beethoven's piano sonatas - could generate anything like "terrible hype". Add to that I've been listening to classical music for over 30 years and my reaction to this "terrible hype" tag is..."what hype?"

When I bought my first two-disc set of Goode's Beethoven sonatas (the last sonatas) 25 years ago I hadn't heard word one about the man. In fact, I didn't even know he existed until that purchase.

Fast forward 25 years and as I look BACK I see good things written about him here and there in the classical press, but nothing on the hyperbolic level of a whole host of other (undeserving) musicians. He's about as freaking under the radar as a musician can get!

The 1999 Gramophone Good CD Guide gives his set a "Three G" rating, which is tops. The review opens with this line, verbatim: "Until the last few years Richard Goode was active principally as an ensemble player, in chamber music, a field in which he excels". That's a strangely understated way to open a "terribly hyped" review.

The 2003/2004 edition of the Penguin Guide gives his a set a "Key" designation, as in, it could be looked upon as a key part of a collection. The ensuing review is again full of understated praise, using descriptors such as "wit and parody", "beauty", and "natural gravity".

Contrast that with the review immediately following Goode's, which, when describing Mr. Hyped himself Kempff's® mono Beethoven set, descriptors such as "magical spontaneity", "visionary concentration", and "a magical (again with the "magical"??) series" are free flowing. Hype Central®.

So, I dunno, as far as "terrible hype", I just don't see it with Goode.

[amw]

Who will defend Gardiner's Missa Solemnis? Not me. I sold my copy years ago after I got Herreweghe '95.

The 90s studio recording did very little for me, but the 00s live recording is not only an order of magnitude better but my favourite recording of the Missa Solemnis full stop. (The only one I can think of that comes close, at the moment, is Jochum.)

I know more than a few people with the exact opposite reaction though.