David Hurwitz

[Brian]

I enjoyed these videos about the 1953 "building a record library" book by Howard Taubman.  How the standard repertoire has and has not changed in the intervening 70 years is pretty interesting.  Obviously Hurwitz just rubs you wrong. 

If you will forgive a non Hurwitzian post, I do so dearly wish the labels of that era had embraced wider repertoire. I have been assembling many of the "great artist" legacy box sets - Szell, Munch, Casadesus, Rubinstein, etc etc - and one of the side effects of this is that I now have so, so, so many duplicate recordings of pieces like Kinderszenen, L'Arlesienne, Chopin waltzes, and the Egmont Overture.

Obviously every artist had a different focus and there are occasionally rarities to be found (like Walter conducting Barber, Kubelik and Hartmann, or Munch's amazing Piston/Martinu album). The Fricsay, Markevitch, and Boston Symphony Chamber Players boxes are particularly diverse.

But several of the box sets' booklets specifically explain that the artists had more diverse concert repertoires than the recordings represent. Makes me wonder what all we missed out on. Apparently Bruno Walter programmed all sorts of American contemporaries. Would Szell have recorded the rest of Walton if he could? Rubinstein done an all Szymanowski recital?

[Spotted Horses]

I have to give this Hurwitz guy credit. People watch his videos just so they can express destain for them. There are trillions of other videos on YouTube that you probably don't like. When I don't like videos from a YouTube channel, I just don't watch them!

[Karl Henning]

I have to give this Hurwitz guy credit. People watch his videos just so they can express destain for them. There are trillions of other videos on YouTube that you probably don't like. When I don't like videos from a YouTube channel, I just don't watch them!

Of course, some of us are old school, and just forbear to watch....

[(poco) Sforzando]

And some of us continue to watch for the sheer fun of it.

[Karl Henning]

I do so dearly wish the labels of that era had embraced wider repertoire. I have been assembling many of the "great artist" legacy box sets - Szell, Munch, Casadesus, Rubinstein, etc etc - and one of the side effects of this is that I now have so, so, so many duplicate recordings of pieces like Kinderszenen, L'Arlesienne, Chopin waltzes, and the Egmont Overture.

Part of the particular appeal the Mitropoulos box has for me.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Part of the particular appeal the Mitropoulos box has for me.

I have always had a soft spot for the Mitropoulos Kinderszenen.

[Karl Henning]

I have always had a soft spot for the Mitropoulos Kinderszenen.

I was probably too curt. I did mean, breadth of rep.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I was probably too curt. I did mean, breadth of rep.

Just joking. But his Für Elise is beyond compare.

[vandermolen]

He posted a very negative review of Vaughan Williams's 7th and 9th symphonies (Brabbins/Hyperion). It is not released here yet. I've enjoyed all the rest of the series and I doubt it's as bad as he makes out but, we shall see.

[Herman]

I think the issue is not just the length of his videos but the frequency of them. He does seem to have got into a mode of releasing them so often that it's necessary to create topics that might not really warrant a video.

As long as you click he's getting paid.

[Herman]

You was wise not to, foolishly I did. Hurwitz clutching a circa 1953 catalogue simply read out entries. Clearly he hadn't bothered to listen to the selected recordings in preparation

This is the formula for many of DH's videos. Him reading out booklet contents and making brief comments based on nothing.

[Herman]

I enjoyed these videos about the 1953 "building a record library" book by Howard Taubman.  How the standard repertoire has and has not changed in the intervening 70 years is pretty interesting.     

Yes, peeps still go to Beethoven concerts, and rightly so. But in reality the concert repertoire has changed, but DH doesn't seem to know. And he knows the people who are watching his vids don't know. Because they're watching DH instead of going to concerts.

That's the whole point. Same with Lebrecht: "classical music is dying! Don't go, watch me instead!"

Seventy years ago (1950) nobody was making a name performing Mahler or DSCH, to mention two obvious names.

[Madiel]

As long as you click he's getting paid.

To an extent yes, though YouTube is known to change its algorithm from time to time to prevent people from gaming the system. However, as he is genuinely creating content (no comment as to its quality), he probably succeeds.

I personally don't actually click that much. I would've very briefly looked at 1 or 2 of the "concert programs" and "choose one piece" for example, just to understand what they were... which led me to conclude I didn't need to click on the next 50 varieties of the same thing.

[Herman]

It's not all bad. I watched 45 minute talk of his on Bruckner 6 and enjoyed it a lot.
It helped I like Bruckner's 6th best, too.

[Madiel]

Oh no, I'm certainly not saying it's all bad. The ones reviewing the best recordings of a work or set of works (and which ones to avoid) are genuinely useful, because that's pretty much what they are: reviews. I admit to often fast forwarding parts of them if I don't have patience for the asides, but the basic information in those videos is helpful in making decisions about purchases.

But that's my point: he has some categories of videos that have a long-term purpose. He has other categories that seem to serve little long-term purpose.

[Todd]

Creating YouTube content is free and available to all.  Perhaps someone here could start his or her own YouTube channel to show everyone how it's done.  Just click the camera icon in the upper right corner.

[Brian]

But in reality the concert repertoire has changed, but DH doesn't seem to know.

I'm not sure I understand this comment. Of course, I didn't watch the 1953 video. To my knowledge, DH's primary recurring complaints about concert repertoire are (a) no room for mini-concerto-like solo works of 15 minutes or so, except Rhapsody in Blue; (b) quiet endings doom pieces to be played less often; and (c) not enough of the obscure overwrought late romantic sludge he has a personal fondness for.

I'd also point out that the concert repertoires in the US and Europe are substantially different. We're about 15 years "behind" on adoption of works into the canon; Martinu is just gaining acceptance now, and Weinberg is still unknown, to cite two composers who are now in the Euro mainstream.

[Karl Henning]

As long as you click he's getting paid.

Whatever he's doing, he's succeeded in monetizing it.

[DavidW]

Creating YouTube content is free and available to all.  Perhaps someone here could start his or her own YouTube channel to show everyone how it's done.  Just click the camera icon in the upper right corner.

I took a stab at a booktube channel last summer.  What I learned from it is that if you don't create at least some idea of a script and do some editing you can end up blathering, exactly like how people describe some of Hurwitz' less inspired videos.

If any of you make a channel, I for one would watch it.  Especially if the videos are 5-10 minutes long.  Hurwitz' videos are too long and meandering for me to bother.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, peeps still go to Beethoven concerts, and rightly so. But in reality the concert repertoire has changed, but DH doesn't seem to know. And he knows the people who are watching his vids don't know. Because they're watching DH instead of going to concerts.

That's the whole point. Same with Lebrecht: "classical music is dying! Don't go, watch me instead!"

Seventy years ago (1950) nobody was making a name performing Mahler or DSCH, to mention two obvious names.

Tangentially, I was interested to learn yesterday that Mitropoulos' recording of the Mahler First was the very first (in 1940 with Minnesota)