Your Favorite Vox Recordings

[MusicTurner]

Interesting to read about who all he studied with.  I have recordings of him and this work with (now) Susskind, Szell with Cleveland, and with V. Neumann and the Czech Phil. (on RCA).  I remember passing on the Somogyi at the time due to what I had heard about it--which must have been re the version. 

And thanks for those links; I almost posted one to the Brilliant Classics set as it was the same as what was included in the original VoxBox set. 

PD

That's a very fine Firkusny-Dvorak collection you have, of 3x, since the Somogyi is generally less highly regarded. Maybe you'll have a favourite - I just listened to the Susskind one once again, in this lovely and fresh work.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

That's a very fine Firkusny-Dvorak collection you have, of 3x, since the Somogyi is generally less highly regarded. Maybe you'll have a favourite - I just listened to the Susskind one once again, in this lovely and fresh work.

Thank you!  Any guess who one of my favorite composers is?  And one of my favorite pianists is? 

PD

[MusicTurner]

Thank you!  Any guess who one of my favorite composers is?  And one of my favorite pianists is? 

PD

I don't tend to disagree with those choices - and when it's Czech, it tends to be good ... haven't really collected that much Firkusny, but own some, at least.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I don't tend to disagree with those choices - and when it's Czech, it tends to be good ... haven't really collected that much Firkusny, but own some, at least.

Yeah on both accounts?   

Do you have any of his recordings of Janacek MT?  One of my all-time favorites is his recordings on DG:



PD

[MusicTurner]

I know for sure I've got some Smetana, Dvorak, and Martinu, plus a Beethoven "Emperor Concerto" - but no Janacek recordings yet, though they're of course considered classics ...

[geralmar]

In no way a recommendation of the recording (the sound is dreadful); but on a single L.P. it was my pre-teen introduction to the work (purchased with my allowance) and I was transfixed by the first two movements which I played over and over on a console record player to the annoyance of my father.




Still my preferred recordings of both works.

[vandermolen]

Yeah on both accounts?   

Do you have any of his recordings of Janacek MT?  One of my all-time favorites is his recordings on DG:



PD

That Janacek recording (in its double LP manifestation) was my greatest ever classical music bargain. I was at university in the North of England between 1973-76 and I came across this fine DGG recording at the amazing price (even at that time) of 25p (1/4 of a £1.00). Apparently it was connected to bomb damage stock from a shop in Northern Ireland. I've always remembered this - a sad reflection of those troubled times (although at least I found some nice LP bargains )

[Florestan]

Walter Klien --- Mozart and Schubert complete sonatas
Michael Ponti --- Romantic Piano Concertos (3 vols, 2 CD each)
Abbey Simon, Leonard Slatkin, Saint Louis SO --- Rachmaninoff complete works for piano & orchestra
Andras Schiff, Peter Frankl --- Schumann complete works for piano duet

[Roasted Swan]

Recently David Hurwitz posted a very positive review of an old Vox twofer ;



I had this in a different cover but same compilation (missing the Schuller) so I revisited the set.  The collection of music is very good - whether or not most of the performances have been superceded by more modern versions is a moot point.  But I certainly remembering these performances as my first encounters with all of this repertoire and as such very fondly remembered.  This was another (in my mind possbily better) twofer along much the same lines;



The Piston is still a very good version and much of the rest of the repertoire is genuinely rare.  Then there is a third/single disc which I like a lot.  Mainly "Lighter" repertoire (Ruggles excluded!) but some excellent performances....



The Elie Siegmeister "Western Suite" is very much in Copland/Billy the Kid mode - right down to using some of the same tunes - Copland was first by about 7 years.....  The version of Gould's American Salute here is a cracker.  Was there ever a better short orchestral showpiece/set of variations?! (Gliere's Russian Sailor's Dance is about the only one I know to compete....)

[Jo498]

I have the last disc which I got for the weird and rarely recorded pieces by Ives and Ruggles; the other pieces are mostly light fun and it is a bit of an incoherent mix but I admittedly don't know enough about Vox' catalogue of Americana to make suggestions for better couplings.
Depite having no nostalgia or recollections of Vox from LP times (I am too young and they were not common in Europe anyway), I appreciate them offering rare repertoire in good to excellent interpretations at cheap prices and one can take the cheapo look (but it does have a certain style!) and sometimes a bit shoddy presentation.

[prémont]

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (excpts) / Joseph Payne
Biber: The Rosary sonatas / Susanne Lautenbacher
Buxtehude: Complete organ works / Walter Kraft
Bach: Complete organ works / Walter Kraft
Bach: Solo violin S&P / Susanne Lautenbacher
Beethoven: Complete piano sonatas / Alfred Brendel
Beethoven: String Quartets op. 18 / Endres Quartet
Bartok: Complete piano music / György Sandor
Bartok: Piano concertos and Sonata for two piano's / György Sandor
Prokofiev: Complete piano sonatas / György Sandor

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Recently David Hurwitz posted a very positive review of an old Vox twofer ;

Yes, I like the first set! I didn't know about the 2nd and the last sets. I will look for the recordings.

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (excpts) / Joseph Payne
Biber: The Rosary sonatas / Susanne Lautenbacher
Buxtehude: Complete organ works / Walter Kraft
Bach: Complete organ works / Walter Kraft
Bach: Solo violin S&P / Susanne Lautenbacher
Beethoven: Complete piano sonatas / Alfred Brendel
Beethoven: String Quartets op. 18 / Endres Quartet
Bartok: Complete piano music / György Sandor
Bartok: Piano concertos and Sonata for two piano's / György Sandor
Prokofiev: Complete piano sonatas / György Sandor

The Walter Kraft sounds interesting!

[Roasted Swan]

Yes, I like the first set! I didn't know about the 2nd and the last sets. I will look for the recordings.

The Walter Kraft sounds interesting!

I had 5 hours in the car yesterday which very neatly allowed me to listen to the two twofers complete.  I take back my comment about the performances being superceded by more recent versions!  The Thomson Louisana Story / Hanson 6 etc disc is a corker!  Also, I was really impressed by the Peggy Stuart Coolidge works - genuinely impressive.  I liked the jazz-inflected Rhapsody for Harp & Orchestra (not a great technical recording mind).  If you are looking for an American female composer to promote forget conservative Florence Price and try Coolidge instead - a much more individual voice.......  This seems to be pretty much the only recording(s) of her music which seems extraordinary

[staxomega]

Beethoven: Complete piano sonatas / Alfred Brendel

Of the 100+ cycles I'd say this is quite middle of the road. Better than anything he did on Philips but that is damning with feint praise. There is just far too much competition here.

I grew up in the CD era so I don't really think of things by label. Off the top of my head some of my better Vox label recordings include a set of Horwszowski from his earlier years, Guimar Novaes in some piano concerti, and most memorable Horenstein in Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht and first Chamber Symphony. I wrote about Michael Ponti's Scriabin in another thread here and they are bottom tier, he is just barely at the task of being capable of playing them. edit: on Ponti, not that there is anything necessarily wrong with this; several of my favorite performances come from Sofronitsky on those Denon CDs, his playing was messy (probably no editing on those old Russian recordings) but interpretively they are exceptional. Ponti is neither interesting interpretation wise or all that technically good.

[Jo498]

Of the 100+ cycles I'd say this is quite middle of the road. Better than anything he did on Philips but that is damning with feint praise. There is just far too much competition here.

I grew up in the CD era so I don't really think of things by label.

But CDs do have labels... I don't really understand this. I only caught the tail end of the LP era as a kid so I never knew about different vinyl/pressing quality but general label reputations did exist in the CD era as well, justifiedly or not.

[prémont]

Of the 100+ cycles I'd say this is quite middle of the road. Better than anything he did on Philips but that is damning with feint praise. There is just far too much competition here.

Yes, there is strong competition here - this is why I own about 80 complete sets.

Brendel's Vox set is in my top 15. My affection for this set is caused by the fact, that I heard him perform half of the Beethoven sonatas in four recitals around the time of the recording of the Vox set. For a number of the sonatas this was the first time I heard them performed.

And the title of this thread is "Your favorite Vox recordings". This doesn't necessarily imply, that the recordings I mention are more my favorites than some recordings on other labels.

[vandermolen]

Recently David Hurwitz posted a very positive review of an old Vox twofer ;



I had this in a different cover but same compilation (missing the Schuller) so I revisited the set.  The collection of music is very good - whether or not most of the performances have been superceded by more modern versions is a moot point.  But I certainly remembering these performances as my first encounters with all of this repertoire and as such very fondly remembered.  This was another (in my mind possbily better) twofer along much the same lines;



The Piston is still a very good version and much of the rest of the repertoire is genuinely rare.  Then there is a third/single disc which I like a lot.  Mainly "Lighter" repertoire (Ruggles excluded!) but some excellent performances....



The Elie Siegmeister "Western Suite" is very much in Copland/Billy the Kid mode - right down to using some of the same tunes - Copland was first by about 7 years.....  The version of Gould's American Salute here is a cracker.  Was there ever a better short orchestral showpiece/set of variations?! (Gliere's Russian Sailor's Dance is about the only one I know to compete....)

Oh, that 'Americana' CD looks to be of great interest (panicky internet search for a copy!) I have the other two, which are indeed excellent.

PS On second thoughts I do have this CD which I suspect duplicates much, if not all of the material:

[staxomega]

But CDs do have labels... I don't really understand this. I only caught the tail end of the LP era as a kid so I never knew about different vinyl/pressing quality but general label reputations did exist in the CD era as well, justifiedly or not.

The labels started getting swallowed up by conglomerations by the early 90s, so it starts to become a bit meaningless. For instance Arrau recording on Philips, but then in the mid to late 90s having his recordings reissued under Decca, and finally the huge Arrau box being called "American Decca." Even with the Horenstein I mentioned in this thread with the two Schoenberg works they were originally released on Turnabout, so was it even accurate for me to lump them in Vox, just because my 2 CD set is called "VoxBox." Or when I mentioned Sofronitsky on Denon, these say licensed from Melodiya, but did all of them actually come out on LP by Melodiya? Some of these are full recitals exceeding LP length so is calling them Melodiya accurate? This is why when people discuss cycles I appreciate that they for the most part use numerical designations if they recorded more than once rather than using the label. I'm not absolving myself of anything, I will still use descriptions like "Kondrashin on Decca" for X piece of music, but Kondrashin with RCO tells me a lot more.

One other thing as it comes to classical music is it's audiophiles that seem to hyper focus on labels, presumably as you could then collect the ones with great recording quality without having as much concern for the music. Another reason that label oriented discussion seems to puzzle me.

Yes, there is strong competition here - this is why I own about 80 complete sets.

Brendel's Vox set is in my top 15. My affection for this set is caused by the fact, that I heard him perform half of the Beethoven sonatas in four recitals around the time of the recording of the Vox set. For a number of the sonatas this was the first time I heard them performed.

And the title of this thread is "Your favorite Vox recordings". This doesn't necessarily imply, that the recordings I mention are more my favorites than some recordings on other labels.

Very clearly articulated, there is no confusion here now

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Interesting review article of Horenstein's Shosty no. 5.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/july00/horShost5.htm

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I forgot to mention Khachaturian's Gayenne. The best recording of Gayenne, imho. The conductor is Kakhidze, not Fedoseyev. Currently enjoying the old recording of Brendel.