Nominee's for best recording & performance, or release 2008.

[Harry]

I have the urge to tell you which cd's where most important to me this year. It was a difficult year for me, as some of you know, and would not have known what to do, without my music, and friends at GMG. So that is one of the reasons for me to start this thread. It may die on the spot, but maybe you find some merit in it, and it would be lovely if you post in it, as I will do. It would give me certainly much pleasure and joy, which I need, I am not ashamed to say.
Okay here come my first contenders. O, there is no limit for the amount of cd's you post, and a brief description why would be fine.

[Harry]

A few more!

[Harry]

Yet more! But I let it to you further, otherwise I would post this thread full.

[Brian]

My nominees for Best Releases of 2008 so far...the current winner is in bold!

ANTILL | Corroboree, An Outback Overture
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
James Judd, conductor

FIESTA | Latin American Classics
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

MENDELSSOHN | String Quartets
New Zealand String Quartet

MENDELSSOHN | Violin Concerto (original version), Octet
Daniel Hope, violin
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Thomas Hengelbrock

TCHAIKOVSKY | Symphony No 6 "Pathetique", Dumka
Philadelphia Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor and piano

Runners-up include: Antoni Wit conducting Karlowicz symphonic poems, Thomas Dausgaard conducting Rued Langgaard's Symphony No. 1, and BIS' Villa-Lobos Choros album.

[Bulldog]

I have the urge to tell you which cd's where most important to me this year. It was a difficult year for me, as some of you know, and would not have known what to do, without my music, and friends at GMG. So that is one of the reasons for me to start this thread. It may die on the spot, but maybe you find some merit in it, and it would be lovely if you post in it, as I will do. It would give me certainly much pleasure and joy, which I need, I am not ashamed to say.
Okay here come my first contenders. O, there is no limit for the amount of cd's you post, and a brief description why would be fine.

Harry:

That Gretchaninov/Hyperion disc was released 6 years ago.  You gotta keep up.

[M forever]

I think no one is qualified to post in this thread except Harry, because he is the only one here who has bought every single disc that has come out this year.

[Harry]

Harry:

That Gretchaninov/Hyperion disc was released 6 years ago.  You gotta keep up.

It is a re release Don.

[Harry]

My nominees for Best Releases of 2008 so far...the current winner is in bold!

ANTILL | Corroboree, An Outback Overture
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
James Judd, conductor

FIESTA | Latin American Classics
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

MENDELSSOHN | String Quartets
New Zealand String Quartet

MENDELSSOHN | Violin Concerto (original version), Octet
Daniel Hope, violin
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Thomas Hengelbrock

TCHAIKOVSKY | Symphony No 6 "Pathetique", Dumka
Philadelphia Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor and piano

Runners-up include: Antoni Wit conducting Karlowicz symphonic poems, Thomas Dausgaard conducting Rued Langgaard's Symphony No. 1, and BIS' Villa-Lobos Choros album.

The Antill disc is awesome indeed, I agree, after listening to it several times. The first volume of the Karlowicz is a good runner up too, and the second one I already ordered.

[hornteacher]

Big shock for me I know.......but it is a great CD.

[Brian]

Big shock for me I know.......but it is a great CD.

Hate to break your heart, but the first movement of her Sibelius is a yawn-fest for me. Why do violinists these days play the piece so slowly?

[M forever]

Because they think they can fake "profundity" that way, Brian. For me, this recording isn't so much a "yawn-fest" as simply massively annoying. Hahn's thin, inflexible and wiry sound grated so much on my eardrums, they still hurt (I happened to listen to it last night). She is technically obviously a very accomplished violinist, except for the lack of tonal variation, but there is very little musical personality there. The simple poetry of the slow movement completely eludes her. She obviously doesn't know what to do when there aren't a whole lot of notes to play. On the other hand, the finale isn't flamboyant and exuberantly virtuoso, it is just a lot of hectic fiddling. Add to that Salonen's flat, colorless and uninterested accompaniment which doesn't really seem to be related to what she is playing either and the unathmospheric sound with Hahn placed so much in the foreground as if she was in a different acoustical space, and you have a basically solid, but so completely mediocre and pointless product which is really sad because there are a lot of highly accomplished violinists out there who don't get hyped as much as she completely undeservedly does.

[not edward]

I'd agree with the comments about the Sibelius, which I found entirely mediocre (after the second and thusfar last time I listened to Hahn's Sibelius, I put on Heifetz/Beecham for a recording full of color and personality--not to mention one that doesn't fall entirely flat due to flaccid tempi at times).

However, I don't mind having paid for the disc at all, as it was the recording that unlocked the Schoenberg for me. That, not the Sibelius, seems to me to be the raison d'etre for the disc.

[Josquin des Prez]

However, I don't mind having paid for the disc at all, as it was the recording that unlocked the Schoenberg for me.

What was wrong with the Szeryng?

[Brian]

I'd agree with the comments about the Sibelius, which I found entirely mediocre (after the second and thusfar last time I listened to Hahn's Sibelius, I put on Heifetz/Beecham for a recording full of color and personality--not to mention one that doesn't fall entirely flat due to flaccid tempi at times).

Yes. That's exactly what I did after listening to her Sibelius - put in Heifetz/Beecham. It is remarkable how much more musically interesting, how much more expressive the Heifetz is, since they are not weighted down by such slow tempi.

[karlhenning]

Edward & Brian:  Agreed that musically the Sibelius is something of an unfortunate false step for Hahn.

Hard to imagine the label agreeing to gave her record the Schoenberg, though, without a "safe" coupling.

[M forever]

There is nothing wrong with the coupling, in fact, I think a good recording of the Schönberg concerto is definitely welcome as it has been so rarely recorded, and we always like to hear Sibelius' concerto when played really well. The problem here is the artists. Not that there aren't a lot of people on the loose who could have done that much better. But DG these days almost exclusively feature young, hip artists which they think are very marketable. Maybe they are right. But the outcome is that most of what they release now is high end mediocrity. A much better choice for this recording might have been, to name just one example which comes to mind spontaneously, Isabelle Faust who we heard play Berg's chamber concerto technically and musically spectacularly well in Boston just a few months ago. Although quite good looking, too, she is apparently not cute enough to market her to young, hip people and frustrated school teachers. She doesn't do cute stuff like hitting gongs with her head either. She is just an extremely good and musically very intereting violinist.

[karlhenning]

. . . She doesn't do cute stuff like hitting gongs with her head either.

Have you asked?

[Brian]

She doesn't do cute stuff like hitting gongs with her head either.

Now that I think about it, maybe Dave Hurwitz' problem is that he hit gongs with his head a few too many times.

[hornteacher]

Hate to break your heart, but the first movement of her Sibelius is a yawn-fest for me. Why do violinists these days play the piece so slowly?

No offense taken.  Everyone's got a way they'd prefer to have the piece played.  For me though the strength of the recording is the Schoenberg.

[M forever]

Everyone's got a way they'd prefer to have the piece played.

Except for you. For you, it's more important who plays it.

Now that I think about it, maybe Dave Hurwitz' problem is that he hit gongs with his head a few too many times.

You are probably right about this.