Box Blather

[Brian]

I preordered this in the fall, then (MI-style ) canceled the preorder, but recently as my circumstances have changed slightly, I reordered it and received it a couple weeks ago.

Well, buying it was a great decision. The previous EMI Oistrakh edition, released in 2008, was owned by my college library so I listened to almost all of the recordings at that time and fell in love with Oistrakh's big, generous playing style, passion, and interesting repertoire. They're all back here, newly remastered and with original album covers, which of course means more CDs and more space.

But! The real reason to own this box is the astonishing archive of live performances and USSR archival discoveries, curated by documentary filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon. The backs of these CD sleeves notate which tracks have never appeared before anywhere, and which works were never recorded by Oistrakh for any official record label.

This is a real treasure trove of jewels. Playing Weinberg with Weinberg at the piano! Playing Prokofiev with Prokofiev conducting! Violin sonatas by Martinu, Stenhammar, Medtner (the "Epica"), and Taneyev! A delicious disc of Brahms' Hungarian Dances coupled with Bartok and Kodaly folk dances! A Bach double concerto where the other violinist is Enescu! A disc and a half of Szymanowski! DVDs with video of live recitals! It's a gold mine of a box set within another gold mine of a box set.

I listened to the Weinberg this morning and have the Martinu and Stenhammar queued up next. This week also dipped into the "real" releases, including the Schubert Piano Trio No. 1, wonderfully played by his trio. What a year of discovery this will be.

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I'm looking forward to the Michel Beroff box and a couple of Eloquence releases coming up (with Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and maybe Walter Weller), but other than that, my box set wishlist is growing shorter. Mackerras/EMI would be one. I am successfully resisting the Dorati in London Mercury boxes since the repertoire is almost all standard rep that I already have many versions of.

Hurwitz just posted his updated box set wishlist which includes the complete Decca Entartete Musik. Now THERE is an idea! I'm also with him on Ashkenazy as conductor, Milstein/EMI, and possibly Slatkin.

[Madiel]

It wasn't the same Hurwitz video, but you've led me to discover that a few days ago he used the magnificent phrase "quantum mechanical cocaine hippo".

Possibly a name for a young band that will never get anywhere.

[Leo K.]

The new Ormandy stereo box is really a joy!! So many discoveries in this box!

[Mookalafalas]

The new Ormandy stereo box is really a joy!! So many discoveries in this box!

  I agree. And there is something about the sound--it's so big and warm, like a giant avuncular hug from the orchestra.

[George]

I preordered this in the fall, then (MI-style ) canceled the preorder, but recently as my circumstances have changed slightly, I reordered it and received it a couple weeks ago.

Well, buying it was a great decision. The previous EMI

 Oistrakh edition, released in 2008, was owned by my college library so I listened to almost all of the recordings at that time and fell in love with Oistrakh's big, generous playing style, passion, and interesting repertoire. They're all back here, newly remastered and with original album covers, which of course means more CDs and more space.

Hey Brian,

Who did the remastering? Art & Son?

[Brian]

Hey Brian,

Who did the remastering? Art & Son?

Correct.

[George]

Correct.

Good news!

[Brian]

Good news!

I've been so, so impressed with Art & Son's work. Glad you are too. 

[George]

I've been so, so impressed with Art & Son's work. Glad you are too. 

I find it difficult to not be impressed with their work. 

In case you haven't seen it, there's a great review of the set on MusicWeb - https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/11/48645/

[Wanderer]

A Musicweb review of the new Seong-Jin Cho recording of the Ravel concerti which I feel encapsulates my own reservations about the playing:

"...couldn't help feeling that what's presented on the disc epitomises an unspoken but accepted aesthetic around modern performances of Ravel: a soundworld which is precise, brittle, quietly lyrical, colourful, yes, when required, but above all, controlled. Seong-Jin Cho's playing seems to be principally concerned with conveying an emotional reticence, lucid but enigmatic, in what feels like a sandboxed environment created by him and the orchestra. Worse, the overly precise lyricism that Cho seems to be striving for degrades into listlessness at times. I really struggled with the enervated feel every time the music slowed in the Concerto for the Left Hand for example and his performance of the G major Concerto's Adagio can't seem to rid itself of an inherent lethargy. I longed for greater momentum, a sharper contour to the sound and some spontaneity..."

I would say that something essential is missing from these interpretations (by both orchestra and pianist - especially in the concerto pour la main gauche): a spark, an elan, the primordial that seeks to get through, Ravel's irony in a mechanical world spiralling towards chaos.

[Spotted Horses]

A Musicweb review of the new Seong-Jin Cho recording of the Ravel concerti which I feel encapsulates my own reservations about the playing:

"...couldn't help feeling that what's presented on the disc epitomises an unspoken but accepted aesthetic around modern performances of Ravel: a soundworld which is precise, brittle, quietly lyrical, colourful, yes, when required, but above all, controlled. Seong-Jin Cho's playing seems to be principally concerned with conveying an emotional reticence, lucid but enigmatic, in what feels like a sandboxed environment created by him and the orchestra. Worse, the overly precise lyricism that Cho seems to be striving for degrades into listlessness at times. I really struggled with the enervated feel every time the music slowed in the Concerto for the Left Hand for example and his performance of the G major Concerto's Adagio can't seem to rid itself of an inherent lethargy. I longed for greater momentum, a sharper contour to the sound and some spontaneity..."

I would say that something essential is missing from these interpretations (by both orchestra and pianist - especially in the concerto pour la main gauche): a spark, an elan, the primordial that seeks to get through, Ravel's irony in a mechanical world spiralling towards chaos.

I listened to Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte from the Cho set and found it insufferable. Controlled, no elan.

[Que]

I preordered this in the fall, then (MI-style ) canceled the preorder, but recently as my circumstances have changed slightly, I reordered it and received it a couple weeks ago.

Well, buying it was a great decision.[...]

Well, I guess I'm lucky to be a Milstein fan instead.    He recorded significantly less...

I'm also a Leonid Kogan fan, but his recorded legacy is a mess... 

[Roasted Swan]

A Musicweb review of the new Seong-Jin Cho recording of the Ravel concerti which I feel encapsulates my own reservations about the playing:

"...couldn't help feeling that what's presented on the disc epitomises an unspoken but accepted aesthetic around modern performances of Ravel: a soundworld which is precise, brittle, quietly lyrical, colourful, yes, when required, but above all, controlled. Seong-Jin Cho's playing seems to be principally concerned with conveying an emotional reticence, lucid but enigmatic, in what feels like a sandboxed environment created by him and the orchestra. Worse, the overly precise lyricism that Cho seems to be striving for degrades into listlessness at times. I really struggled with the enervated feel every time the music slowed in the Concerto for the Left Hand for example and his performance of the G major Concerto's Adagio can't seem to rid itself of an inherent lethargy. I longed for greater momentum, a sharper contour to the sound and some spontaneity..."

I would say that something essential is missing from these interpretations (by both orchestra and pianist - especially in the concerto pour la main gauche): a spark, an elan, the primordial that seeks to get through, Ravel's irony in a mechanical world spiralling towards chaos.

To be fair I have not heard these specific recordings - but the review and your comments speak to a current trend in performing style particularly of this kind of repertoire.  To my ear it is one that puts precision and clarity above all else.  Clearly these are elements in this music but at the same time it is surely quite wrong to neuter Ravel as though he is no more than a mechanical precision instrument.  His music might not gush emotion or passion in the way it does in some of his contemporaries wrote but at the same time it is emotional if not in such an explicit way.

[Florestan]

To be fair I have not heard these specific recordings - but the review and your comments speak to a current trend in performing style particularly of this kind of repertoire.  To my ear it is one that puts precision and clarity above all else.  Clearly these are elements in this music but at the same time it is surely quite wrong to neuter Ravel as though he is no more than a mechanical precision instrument.  His music might not gush emotion or passion in the way it does in some of his contemporaries wrote but at the same time it is emotional if not in such an explicit way.

Otoh, Ravel famously regarded performers as mere faithful executors of the composer's will made explicit in the score --- so perhaps there's some poetical justice in his getting exactly what he wanted and the results not being quite beneficial to his music.   

[Spotted Horses]

I've been so, so impressed with Art & Son's work. Glad you are too. 

I find myself surprised. The only set I remember being by Art and Son was the big Cluytens box, and it was fine but I didn't find it a clear improvement over the various prior editions. Maybe I have tin ears.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

I find myself surprised. The only set I remember being by Art and Son was the big Cluytens box, and it was fine but I didn't find it a clear improvement over the various prior editions. Maybe I have tin ears.

The remastering from Art & Son of the Sibelius and Elgar Barbirolli sets were ear-opening to me, especially the Sibelius one. I've been less impressed with their other work outside of these two sets.

[JBS]

The remastering from Art & Son of the Sibelius and Elgar Barbirolli sets were ear-opening to me, especially the Sibelius one. I've been less impressed with their other work outside of these two sets.

I have the complete Barbirolli set; the superior remastering applies to almost the whole thing.

They also did EMI's complete sets of French pianists--Cortot, Samson, Heidseck, etc--to good effect. Also I think the most recent Callas remastering was by them.

ETA: A correction is necessary. The Callas 2014 remastering was done inhouse at Abbey Road Studios.

[Spotted Horses]

The remastering from Art & Son of the Sibelius and Elgar Barbirolli sets were ear-opening to me, especially the Sibelius one. I've been less impressed with their other work outside of these two sets.

I checked the booklet and the Complete Barbirolli on Warner set I have cites Christophe Hensault, Studio Art et Sons, Annecy for mastering, so I guess that's up-to-date. The last time I listened to Barbirolli's Sibelius I streamed it and am not sure if it was the latest master, although it sounded good to me. Is there a specific release of the Barbirolli/Sibelius you are referring to?

[Brian]

I checked the booklet and the Complete Barbirolli on Warner set I have cites Christophe Hensault, Studio Art et Sons, Annecy for mastering, so I guess that's up-to-date. The last time I listened to Barbirolli's Sibelius I streamed it and am not sure if it was the latest master, although it sounded good to me. Is there a specific release of the Barbirolli/Sibelius you are referring to?

I think he means the budget reissues of those remasters, separated from the bigger box, in this line.



Here I must confess that my comment was a general one about my enjoyment of recordings from various vintages, not the result of a comparison of selected Oistrakh recordings between the new remaster and the previous one. So I can't make audiophile comments about differences between labels.

If you follow the Box Blather-esque thread on the Hoffman forum, someone there is posting pretty detailed comparisons of Art & Son's remastering of Gieseking vs. rival versions by APR, Naxos, etc. that give a little more detail.

[JBS]

I checked the booklet and the Complete Barbirolli on Warner set I have cites Christophe Hensault, Studio Art et Sons, Annecy for mastering, so I guess that's up-to-date. The last time I listened to Barbirolli's Sibelius I streamed it and am not sure if it was the latest master, although it sounded good to me. Is there a specific release of the Barbirolli/Sibelius you are referring to?

As Brian posted--Warner issued small sets from this remastering of Barbirolli's Elgar, Sibelius, and Mahler recordings, and also a double CD of the Brahms symphonies. I need mention that the smaller set of Elgar is not complete. He made four recordings of the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, and two of the Cello Concerto. All are in the big box, but the smaller set has only the best known performance of each. Which is a shame, because  Andre Navarra's performance is almost as good as DuPre's.

[Used copies of these two issues--Dutton and Testament--are relatively cheap. Warner probably has the Art & Son remastering available for DL or streaming--I didn't check on that.