David Hurwitz

[Brian]

I listened to some, but not all, of the Mäkelä. Two things stuck out to me as on the poorer side: tempos that seemed always about 5% too slow, and that the attention he lavished on string detail didn't seem to be equally applied to the winds and brass. On the positive end of the balance, the string sound really was gorgeous, and the conceptions, though slightly broad, were always sensible and flowing.

Oddly - maybe uniquely - I like the longer Hurwitz videos better than the shorter ones on average, because they tend to mean that he has discussion points to make, musical examples to give, and a prepared argument of some kind, vs. the 8-ish minute videos where he basically provides a written CD review, but in unedited form.

He's right about that Goerner Iberia. I played that at far too loud a volume recently and thoroughly, totally enjoyed.

[Madiel]

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.

[Irons]

The random reviews series especially is egregious. Just wait until you have something to say! Or maybe go back to the website you're neglecting - he's only written two reviews (using printed words) in the last four months.

He did have a couple of good videos recently on timbre and a comparison between Haydn and Mahler, where he'd clearly organized his brain enough to be coherent, on-topic, and insightful for whole minutes at a time. But it's hard to scroll through and find those videos amidst all the random reviews. And there is a new series that I assume is a practical joke, discussing every recording made in 1953. I won't watch to find out.
  

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, as he offered no critical analysis whatsoever. The oddest part of this charade though was he found the whole thing humorous, giggling like a schoolboy telling a dirty joke. I found it perplexing that he found it funny by simply naming a work and conductor from the period.   

[Daverz]

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, as he offered no critical analysis whatsoever. The oddest part of this charade though was he found the whole thing humorous, giggling like a schoolboy telling a dirty joke. I found it perplexing that he found it funny by simply naming a work and conductor from the period.   

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.   

[Madiel]

How the standard repertoire has and has not changed in the intervening 70 years is pretty interesting.

There are ways of discussing this beyond reading out entries in a catalogue, surely.

I mean yes, there is some interest in how views on composers change, such as the whole Bach revival in the 19th century. But he's not really doing that. And he's not even talking about 'repertoire' as much as what had managed to make it onto an LP. It's a bit basic.

I find some of his material quite interesting, but he's now churning out multiple videos a day and really the only way to do that is to not spend much time on preparation. He seems to be taking his cues from the kinds of websites that have all sorts of clickbait lists that are nothing more than lists. There was value in rating the best versions of repertoire that has a lot of versions, but it's hard to see the point of say, picking one work from a composer because that has no practical basis - you don't have to pick one work from a composer out of the myriads available. You can listen to as many works as you want. It's a game for the sake of playing the game.

He also seems to be creating concert programs for people who apparently don't have the imagination to pick things to listen to, presumably because Spotify algorithms have taken away their ability to choose what's on in the background.  This kind of stuff conveys a guy who feels the need to keep creating content, just to keep the clicks going. I'm just grateful it's fairly easy to search the channel and find the more useful videos in between the trivial stuff.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Today we are enlightened as to the one work to save by Prokofiev. Not Romeo, not Symphony 5 or 6, not Pf Concerto 3, but  Pf Concerto 2. "He wrote so many pieces that are incredibly popular, and also some that are less popular." Now you know.

[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.