GMG Classical Music Forum

Your favourite recordings, please :)

Quote from: James on May 22, 2007, 09:22:47 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/31CYH2W0EJL._AA180_.jpg)

>> CLICK HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Alban-Berg-Concerto-Orchestra-Anne-Sophie/dp/B000001GH9/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5133537-7547013?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1179854053&sr=8-1)

yeppity yep yep yepperson

I LOVE Gitlis's recording of both the violin concerto as well as the chamber concerto (among the 8 or so recordings I have of each work).

Gitlis, Mutter, Ferras, and Hirsch all come to mind. 

I think I have only Mutter's, which is a little worrisome since I love the piece.  Have to fix that...

But she has definite empathy for this particular concerto.  I just heard her do it live a few weeks ago, and she was terrific.

--Bruce

Quote from: bhodges on May 22, 2007, 12:07:57 PMI think I have only Mutter's, which is a little worrisome since I love the piece.  Have to fix that...

Indeed you do, my good man, and post-haste!  (I suggest getting the Gitlis recording on Vox as it comes with a couple other good "modern" concertos at a nice price.)

Thanks, Todd, I'll be glad to investigate that recording.  Having heard Christian Tetzlaff play it live several times, I wish he would record it, but I don't think he has, yet.

--Bruce

I only have the Mutter recording, but I heard Leonidas Kavakos do the piece with Eschenbach and the Philadelphia SO, and brilliantly too.  I'm hoping he gets to record it, if not with Eschenbach, then with any of the other orchestras he's been performing with.

(http://www.intermusica.co.uk/files/cd/155/03dbb785-a484-458f-9b75-ebc4b0caef03.jpg)

I own Chung/Solti, Zukerman/Boulez, Szeryng/Kubelik, Wantanabe/Sinopoli and Mutter/Levine. They've all something to say about this great concerto but Mutter goes with me to the desert island.

Sarge

Quote from: bhodges on May 22, 2007, 12:41:21 PM
Thanks, Todd, I'll be glad to investigate that recording.  Having heard Christian Tetzlaff play it live several times, I wish he would record it, but I don't think he has, yet.

--Bruce

Bruce:
Don't know if you're into downloads, but this will take you to a live concert in which Tetzlaff plays the Berg.
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/OperaShare/message/27818

(It's a long "message"--look for concert #18)

FWIW...

Dirk

Quote from: Bunny on May 22, 2007, 01:04:37 PM
I only have the Mutter recording, but I heard Leonidas Kavakos do the piece with Eschenbach and the Philadelphia SO, and brilliantly too.  I'm hoping he gets to record it, if not with Eschenbach, then with any of the other orchestras he's been performing with.

If you are ever desperate, I have an off-air recording of him playing the piece (25th August 2005 at the Proms in London). I am a great fan of Kavakos's playing.

Quote from: dirkronk on May 22, 2007, 02:19:08 PM
Bruce:
Don't know if you're into downloads, but this will take you to a live concert in which Tetzlaff plays the Berg.
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/OperaShare/message/27818

(It's a long "message"--look for concert #18)

FWIW...

Dirk

Thanks, Dirk!  Will investigate...I suspect he will come out with a studio version at some point.  He clearly loves the piece. 

I also would love to hear Kavakos do this.  I'm a relatively recent Kavakos convert, but he is a superb player and I can well imagine he would be fantastic in this piece.

--Bruce

Quote from: Harry Collier on May 22, 2007, 02:24:57 PM
If you are ever desperate, I have an off-air recording of him playing the piece (25th August 2005 at the Proms in London). I am a great fan of Kavakos's playing.

He really is some fiddler!  On stage he has great presence; and the sound of his violin -- just ravishing.  I only hope that I have another chance to see and hear him live.

Quote from: Bunny on May 22, 2007, 01:04:37 PM
I only have the Mutter recording, but I heard Leonidas Kavakos do the piece with Eschenbach and the Philadelphia SO, and brilliantly too.  I'm hoping he gets to record it, if not with Eschenbach, then with any of the other orchestras he's been performing with.
(http://www.intermusica.co.uk/files/cd/155/03dbb785-a484-458f-9b75-ebc4b0caef03.jpg)

Kavakos's live Berg VC version was on a BBC Music Magazine - a few years old issue.

Szeryng/Kubelik.

I have the Szeryng/Kubelik LP & CD.

Will somebody please explain to me just what there IS to like in Berg VC?

I find it to be total, unadulterated, NOISE. Without a scintilla of beauty or tunefulness

To me, the deep emotion but also the perfect articuilation of Karel Ancerl with Josef Suk.

In second place, Grumiaux (with his beautiful sound) and Markevitch.

The worst version I heard? Perlman with Ozawa.

Quote from: Iago on May 22, 2007, 11:45:22 PM
Will somebody please explain to me just what there IS to like in Berg VC? I find it to be total, unadulterated, NOISE. Without a scintilla of beauty or tunefulness

The easiest first 8 notes any violin concerto has (G, D, A, E, E, A, D, G) - provided you tuned the violin correctly - no-one can fault your intonation.

Quote from: Bunny on May 22, 2007, 01:04:37 PM
I only have the Mutter recording, but I heard Leonidas Kavakos do the piece with Eschenbach and the Philadelphia SO, and brilliantly too. 

Perhaps it was this performance?

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/OperaShare/message/19056

I don't get much from that link; just a screen asking for my email authorization.

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 22, 2007, 01:27:01 PM
. . . but Mutter goes with me to the desert island.

You mean, her recording of the Berg Concerto, right, Sarge?  8)

Quote from: Bunny on May 23, 2007, 05:02:01 AM
I don't get much from that link; just a screen asking for my email authorization.

Sorry, Bunny. That's Yahoo intruding...as a security measure. If you don't have an "identity" on Yahoo, you probably have to sign up (it's free--and so are memberships to most groups they host, such as OperaShare) before you can access pages inside any of their groups. Or if you already have a relationship with Yahoo, they'll occasionally ask you to type in your email & password just to make sure you are who you say you are.

Anyway, the link is to a download on OperaShare of Berg Violin Concerto with L. Kavakos and the Philadelphia Orch/Eschenbach from a concert given at Verizon Hall, Philadelphia on 16 November 2006.

Cheers,

Dirk

Quote from: karlhenning on May 23, 2007, 05:02:57 AM
You mean, her recording of the Berg Concerto, right, Sarge?  8)

Hey Karl...don't squash any of Sarge's dreams. His desert island, his fantasy.
;)

I am rightly rebuked, Dirk  :-[

Quote from: dirkronk on May 23, 2007, 05:31:16 AM
Sorry, Bunny. That's Yahoo intruding...as a security measure. If you don't have an "identity" on Yahoo, you probably have to sign up (it's free--and so are memberships to most groups they host, such as OperaShare) before you can access pages inside any of their groups. Or if you already have a relationship with Yahoo, they'll occasionally ask you to type in your email & password just to make sure you are who you say you are.

Anyway, the link is to a download on OperaShare of Berg Violin Concerto with L. Kavakos and the Philadelphia Orch/Eschenbach from a concert given at Verizon Hall, Philadelphia on 16 November 2006.

Cheers,

Dirk

thanks Dirk!  I'll be downloading that asap. :)

Sorry, but the link is taking me around in a circle and not showing me any download links, and I have a Yahoo mail box, too.

May not be the 'best' performance out there, certainly is the worst sounding, but the one I always return to is the Krasner/Webern/BBCSO live second performance (Testament). Apart from its obvious historical significance, this performance is unparalleled in intensity, as if the piece is a farewell from conductor and soloist to the recently deceased Berg as well as it was his to Manon; and also, surely, a farewell to the whole Viennese artistic ferment which was about to go under. There's something in Krasner's playing, and that of the BBCSO, which I haven't heard elsewhere - the notes are new, and hair-raising, and for that reason they sound right on the edge of things. More modern performances are comfortable in comparison, and they shouldn't be, I think, in this piece.

Quote from: Bunny on May 23, 2007, 01:52:35 PM
thanks Dirk!  I'll be downloading that asap. :)

Sorry, but the link is taking me around in a circle and not showing me any download links, and I have a Yahoo mail box, too.

Hmmm. Chances are, you'll have to go through full sign-up for OperaShare membership, too. (I take it that you don't have that yet.) That means reading a few pages of info so you'll know what types of joining, cue-sheet and other software you need. All this is free to download, but it takes a little time to set up and learn...still, I've found the process well worth it. That site gets some very nice little gems on it. I just download the audio stuff, but there's tons of video stuff (opera, ballet, etc.) there too. I still do the totally free download "tickets" but have been tempted to join the premium level so I can download without waits.

Cheers,

Dirk

Dirk, I have a provisional membership now but can't access any of the pages because I'm not authorized.  I don't know how I can participate if I can't even read the conversations.  Is a puzzlement!

Kyung Wha Chung's heavenly tone/timbre/technique is a delight.



(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/83/a4/1ce892c008a06c570d526010.L.jpg)

thank you all

Boulez/Zukerman on Sony was my introduction to Berg. I still think it's a great recording.

Quote from: Bunny on May 23, 2007, 05:23:35 PM
Dirk, I have a provisional membership now but can't access any of the pages because I'm not authorized.  I don't know how I can participate if I can't even read the conversations.  Is a puzzlement!

Weird indeed - anyway - this is the DL link the page contained, to save more bother:

http://rapidshare.com/files/5537334/Berg_Kakakos.zip

Quote from: Lethe on May 26, 2007, 03:00:27 AM
Weird indeed - anyway - this is the DL link the page contained, to save more bother:

http://rapidshare.com/files/5537334/Berg_Kakakos.zip

Many thanks!  :-*

After hearing this recording I'm a big fan of this work:

(http://www.paxmusic.co.kr/html/images/3100799.jpg)

I'm no fan of Ozawa but this is one of the very few recordings where he doesn't sound either pedestrian, stiff or eccentric in conducting. But I hear the Anne Sophie-Mutter/CSO/Levine constantly tops the recommendation so should I get that too?

Already covered . . . (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,1025.0.html)

Quote from: Cuddles
Will somebody please explain to me just what there IS to like in Berg VC?

All the beautiful sounds, chiefly.

Quote from: Rabin_Fan on May 23, 2007, 02:06:02 AM
The easiest first 8 notes any violin concerto has (G, D, A, E, E, A, D, G) - provided you tuned the violin correctly - no-one can fault your intonation.

Yes, that's always the bit I recognise. After that, the music just seems to ramble on, and on, and on. Then, eventually, it finishes.

Quote from: Harry Collier on August 08, 2007, 07:37:42 AM
Yes, that's always the bit I recognise. After that, the music just seems to ramble on, and on, and on. Then, eventually, it finishes.

Quite obviously, many here find much more of substance and order in the work than that.

Another opening bit (like the opening 8 notes of the Berg) is Ysaye Solo Sonata Op 27 No 2 - after JS Bach's Third Solo Partita's opening salvo. After that, Ysaye goes his own way.

I've always found this a difficult work to love.  I have recordings by Perlman, Mutter, Suk (with Neumann), Grumiaux, Szeryng, and Zehetmair, so it's not for want of trying.  In fact, I think the only Berg work that has connected with me so far is the Lyric Suite.

(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sdSd8htJL._AA240_.jpg)What about this one?

Wanna know how it sounded on the world premiere?

Sorry, that's not possible. But click here  (http://rapidshare.com/files/1188182/Berg_Violin_Concerto.zip.html)to check how things went on its second performance.

Quote
This is not the world premiere at Barcelona, where Webern cancelled
and Scherchen stepped in, but the second performance ever, given at
London on 1 may 1936. The soloist again was Louis Krasner, the
orchestra part was played by BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Szeryng/Kubelik
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N1YCDFD3L._AA240_.jpg)

Szeryng/Kubelik, Suk/Ancerl, Watanabe/Sinopoli, Zehetmair/Holliger are worth listening among those already mentioned.
A version worth listening that no one mentioned yet, is the one by Stern/Bernstein.
I'd be very curious about what Hillary Hahn and Lisa Batiashvili could do with the Berg, after listening to their beautiful version of the Schoenberg (Hahn) and the Shostakovich 1 concertos (both).

These things are so subjective: I have not felt the creative fire leap across & sizzle my synapses with the majority of recordings I have heard of this work - Mutter, Szeryng, Stern, Zehetmair are not recordings that I feel impelled to return to. I discovered the Gitlis only recently and was compelled by it despite the less than overwhelming orchestra; Grumiaux and Suk/Ancerl are certainly very fine performances - but the two or three that still put my CNS in an uproar are Szigeti  with Mitropoulos and Krasner w/Busch (live) or Rodzinski (I don't know the prior performance conducted by Webern). I have read that the Menuhin/Ansermet is very good - anyone know it?

@mjwal: as a collector, I own many more recordings than the ones I know. I'll give the ones you suggest a listen (Grumiaux's already on the iPod) and see what I think. I must say that the Berg is an impervious piece of music for a non-professional like me (I mean: someone without a specific training in composition/musical theory).
My preferences could also be due to my having been in a particularly receptive state of mind that very time I listened to the recordings I mentioned, whereas I did not respond to other because of my and not the performers' fault.

Quote from: Iago on May 22, 2007, 11:45:22 PM
Will somebody please explain to me just what there IS to like in Berg VC?

I find it to be total, unadulterated, NOISE. Without a scintilla of beauty or tunefulness

I know this member hasn't posted in some years, but not all music is supposed to be beautiful or even tuneful. Believe it or not there are two tunes in Berg's Violin Concerto: the first is quotation from a Corinthian folk melody Berg heard as a kid and the other is from a Bach chorale. These are the only real "tunes" in the whole piece, but if you listen attentively you'll find half-melodies that lure the listener in.

Obviously, no opinion which dismisses any composition as total, unadulterated NOISE is to be taken at all seriously.

(Unless he's talking about "Weasels Ripped My Flesh," in which case it's quite a good thing.)

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 17, 2011, 07:42:01 AM
Obviously, no opinion which dismisses any composition as total, unadulterated NOISE is to be taken at all seriously.

(Unless he's talking about "Weasels Ripped My Flesh," in which case it's quite a good thing.)

But even there, Karl, there's the bit where he quotes the Symphonie Pathétique ...

You’re thinking of  "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask"!

(Which of course is more erotic than Scriabin . . . .)

Have

- Szigeti,Mitropoulos,MinneaSO/1945
- Mutter,Levine,ChicagoSO/dg
- Kogan,Rozhdestvensky,USSRSO/1966, Russian Revelation 
- Hoelscher,Wakasugi,KölnRSO/emi dhm
- Perlman,Ozawa,BostSO/dg 80
- Gitlis,Byrns,ProMus/vox - fona label
- Krasner,Webern, BBC SO

and a rare Romanian LP, coupled with a beautifully played Respighi "Concerto Gregoriano":
- Jenny Abel,Andreescu,MoldPO/electrecord 1977

   I tend to listen mostly to a good-sounding, "Romantic" and passionate rendering that invests some warmth in the rather unapproachable work - meaning Kogan and Mutter. Kogan´s is a live recording from the first-USSR-performance, on October 3rd, 1966; a lot of notable musical personalities must have been present on that occasion ...

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 17, 2011, 09:12:56 AM
You're thinking of  "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask"!

(Which of course is more erotic than Scriabin . . . .)

Yes, that's it - of course, I was thinking of the title of the whole LP and you meant the title track, a final short orgy of sound that I had "forgotten".
Isn't there a Zappa thread on this forum? On a personal note, I saw Zappa at one of his last appearances - in Frankfurt with the Ensemble Modern performing what was, I think, called The Yellow Shark. Everyone knew he was dying but the man had such presence and ironic wit.

I had never listened to Grumiaux playing the Berg. It's definetely a good performance, although I can't say I fell in love with it. But I must listen again so the jury's still out. One thing I did not like is the way he plays the double stops a while after the beginning of the 2nd movement (I must check with the score to be more precise). He plays them "sforzato" without the diminuendo that normally one hears (I guess they are normally played 'martele'). But it's definitely not enough to make me say I don't like the performance as a whole so we'll see.
With the Berg concerto it's almost always 'per aspera ad astra' for me and love doesn't normally comes at first sight. But it did in the case of Ivry Gitlis's performance (just as it did when I heard it performed by Stern). That's a performance I really love and how I think the Berg should be performed. That's music of romantic expressiveness written in a (spurious) dodecaphonic language! Gitlis (and Stern) almost make me forget about the language, while letting the emotional contents go though. Fantastic!