David Hurwitz

[staxomega]

I find "Concept albums" mostly silly, but to be fair, it's often just another way of presenting an anthology. Then it just depends if it's an attractive or sensible combination.  The closest to "concept" I have are Pletnev's "Rachmaninoff" (incl. pieces by the composer and from his repertoire as a pianist), Mustonen alternating pieces from Bach WTC 1 and Shostakovich P&F and a similar one with Joao Carlos Martins and another pianist who take turns with Chopin Preludes and pieces from Bach's WTC. I can understand people finding the last two gimmicky but I found them interesting enough to keep.

Two issues with concept albums= you either have to find repertoire that suits the concept, meaning repertoire that might not be that great* or gimmicks like the Schuch or Mustonen that alternate composer's works. I'll disagree on that Mustonen Shostakovich P&F/WTC album, I revisited it when the op. 87 thread saw a lot of activity, Mustonen is much better in op. 34, it's been longer since I have heard WTC but my memory is some pieces were almost a caricature. Assuming you like them, there is a simple fix to these kind of albums, open up MP3tag and correct the track numbers.

*Broadly speaking, I'm sure there are some fine concept albums. I agree with Madiel on lieder, these can be very good. Dawn Upshaw immediately comes to mind.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Perhaps the best way to deal with Hurwitz is not to deal with him. Give this a shot.

Saw his YouTube channel a year ago. He's entertaining, I sometimes disagree, but so what. Most importantly he talks about things which we, the serious consumers, also have in mind. Personally I have nobody else IRL for talking about music and related themes and issues. And my clarinet teacher is more of a Jazz guy 😐
For discovering decent interpretations of music I don't know yet, for a good start, he's valuable.

[Todd]

The 2022 ALDAs are here.  A most enjoyable video.  If you don't want to watch, the winners are:

ALDAs 2022 (Avoid Like Death Awards)

The White Scarf of Irredeemable Chutzpah Recipients:
Sibelius: Symphonies (Mäkelä/Decca)
Sibelius: Symphony No 5 (Celibidache/MP)


The Scarlet Scarf of Shame Recipients:
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 (Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi)
Schubert: Late String Quartets (Fitzwilliam Quartet/LINN)


The Taupe Scarf of Turpitude Recipients:
Martinu: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 (Norrington/SWR)
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Roth/Harmonia Mundi)


The Black Scarf of Lingering Stench Recipient:
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (Rattle/LSO)
Stravinsky: Early Ballets (Rattle/LSO)

[Brian]

I'll have to watch it at least partly to see what the Fitzwilliam Quartet have done.

Recently he seems to be walking around his house pulling CDs off the shelves for "Random Reviews," which has little to no interest for me.

[Karl Henning]

I'll have to watch it at least partly to see what the Fitzwilliam Quartet have done.

Recently he seems to be walking around his house pulling CDs off the shelves for "Random Reviews," which has little to no interest for me.

Has the seeming of an increase in the self-indulgence quotient.

[Todd]

KEEP ON LISTENING AWARDS (KOLA 2022)

1. Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. Philadelphia Orchestra, Yanick Nézet-Séguin (cond.) DG

2. Kapustin/Schnittke: Cello Concertos. Eckart Runge (cello), Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frank Strobel (cond.) Capriccio

3. Dvořák: Poetic Tone Pictures. Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Sony Classical

4. Enescu: Piano Quartet No. 1, Piano Trio in A minor. Various Artists (Naxos)

5. Miroslav Kabelač: Mystery of Time, Hamlet Improvisation, Reflections, Metamorphoses II. Miroslav Sekera (piano), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marko Ivanovic (cond.) Supraphon

6. Hans Rosbaud Edition: French Music. Sudwestfunk-Orchester Baden-Baden (SWR Classic)

7. Igor Markevitch Edition (Australian Eloquence, 2 vols. Decca and DG)

8. Brasil Em Concerto. Various Composers (Naxos)

9. Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas. Robert Levin (fortepiano) ECM

10. Thomas de Hartmann: Symphonie-Poème No. 4, Concierto Andaluz, Une fête en Ukraine, etc. Lviv National Philharmonic, Theodor Kuchar (cond.) Toccata Classics

Disc of the Year
Paul Wee (piano): Beethoven/Liszt: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"; Mozart/Alkan: Piano Concerto No. 20 (BIS)

[(poco) Sforzando]

For me, Hurwitz is becoming increasingly irritating. Having run out of interesting content but unable to stop running off his mouth every day, he is now turning to "one work to save by every composer," "fabulous concert programs," "Dave's faves," "random reviews," "10 essential works for beginners" (the opera video omitted anything by Mozart, but why should anyone consider him of any importance), and the like.

I gave up commenting when it became obvious that any legitimate objections would just earn one the delete button. One of his "avoid like the plague" choices from last year was Klaus Makela's Sibelius cycle. Well, thought I to myself thought I, could it possibly be that bad. And so I picked it up, and it wasn't. Quite nice in fact. Which makes me wonder if Hurwitz has some kind of vendetta against Klaus Mäkelä that goes beyond purely musical values. He blames Klaus for being young and untested, while on the other hand he praises Berglund for being "young and fresh," and "as is so often the case, his first cycle remains the best." Then he also criticizes KM for paying too much attention to the strings, while with Berglund, "the quality of those tremolos, as this outstanding interpretation reveals, is critically important to sustaining the music's momentum and creating atmosphere."

Today we get another orgasmic encomium to Nikolai Kapustin. Seems to me that anyone who dismisses Pierre Boulez's entire output as "garbage" (and BTW that's hypocritical; you will find Hurwitz's 9/9 review of "Sur Incises" on Classics Today, as well as favorable comments on "Rituel") ought to be more circumspect about dismissing subscriber comments complaining that Kapustin is an amateurish amalgam of bad movie music and bad jazz. I was listening to Kapustin's Piano Concerto 5 on YT just now. 21 minutes and it felt interminable, just endless, empty amorphous get-ready-and-go-nowhere passagework without a single distinctive idea. And if you listen to Hurwitz's defensive video, attacking all who dare to disagree, you can see the game being played. Kiss his ass and he loves you; challenge him and you get the boot.

[Daverz]

dismissing subscriber comments complaining that Kapustin is an amateurish amalgam of bad movie music and bad jazz.

Yeah, I tried the previous Kapustin disc and just couldn't get into it at all.  The jazz here is, to my ears, some kind of cheesy "Soviet Jazz" that really puts me off.  However, Marc-Andre Hamelin did think enough of the solo piano music to do a whole disc of it. 

[Brian]

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.

[Todd]

It's easy enough to avoid Hurwitz.  Just don't go to ClassicsToday or the YouTube Channel.  ClassicsToday at least has Jed Distler writing some reviews still, and Hurwitz did wax enthusiastic about the new Morales disc on Hyperion, and shared the wonderful news that it is part of a projected twelve-disc set.  Between that and the Trio Gaspard Haydn cycle, I now have two long-term recording projects to look forward to. The occasional good news and/or review outweighs the ~1 second per title scan time to determine whether to watch a video.

Since Kapustin seems to be getting more attention now, he could just be jumping on the bandwagon.  I mean, no less than YES recorded a disc of the piano music, and Dupree's mixed recital debut was very fine, so younger, or at least not old, artists of no little merit see something in the music.  I don't, but tastes vary.

[Daverz]

I gave up commenting when it became obvious that any legitimate objections would just earn one the delete button.

I was banned from his comments a long time ago. 

One of his "avoid like the plague" choices from last year was Klaus Makela's Sibelius cycle. Well, thought I to myself thought I, could it possibly be that bad. And so I picked it up, and it wasn't. Quite nice in fact. Which makes me wonder if Hurwitz has some kind of vendetta against Klaus Mäkelä that goes beyond purely musical values. He blames Klaus for being young and untested, while on the other hand he praises Berglund for being "young and fresh," and "as is so often the case, his first cycle remains the best." Then he also criticizes KM for paying too much attention to the strings, while with Berglund, "the quality of those tremolos, as this outstanding interpretation reveals, is critically important to sustaining the music's momentum and creating atmosphere."

For what it's worth, Fanfare's Richard Kaplan -- who has probably heard more Sibelius symphony recordings than any other critic -- echoed the "inexperienced" comments in his review of this set:

"Overall, Mäkelä does some attractive things in the Sibelius symphonies, but his cycle doesn't rank much above the middle of the pack. Mäkelä seems strongest in the best-known symphonies, Nos. 2 and 5. It will be worth seeing what he does with these pieces in a couple decades, but for now his inexperience shows. All praise is due, though, for the playing of the Oslo Philharmonic and for Decca's recording. A mixed bag, then."

[(poco) Sforzando]

I was banned from his comments a long time ago. 

For what it's worth, Fanfare's Richard Kaplan -- who has probably heard more Sibelius symphony recordings than any other critic -- echoed the "inexperienced" comments in his review of this set:

"Overall, Mäkelä does some attractive things in the Sibelius symphonies, but his cycle doesn't rank much above the middle of the pack. Mäkelä seems strongest in the best-known symphonies, Nos. 2 and 5. It will be worth seeing what he does with these pieces in a couple decades, but for now his inexperience shows. All praise is due, though, for the playing of the Oslo Philharmonic and for Decca's recording. A mixed bag, then."

Mäkelä may not be at the level of Davis/BSO or Maazel/VPO or Lenny at his best, but how exactly does "inexperience show"? Can you point to the exact oboe solo, or tempo in a particular scherzo, to explain what you mean? All too often, criticism doesn't go beyond fuzzy language like this. And yes, of course it's easy to avoid Hurwitz, but he sometimes has good things to offer. (The Nelson Goerner "Iberia," for example, was terrific.) One thing I will give him: whenever I feel the need to lie down for a late-afternoon nap, I have only to start one of Hurwitz's longer reviews, and invariably I'm out like a light.

Ah, I see he's got a 41-minute Karajan session going on today. Zzzzzz.....

[Daverz]

Mäkelä may not be at the level of Davis/BSO or Maazel/VPO or Lenny at his best, but how exactly does "inexperience show"? Can you point to the exact oboe solo, or tempo in a particular scherzo, to explain what you mean?

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but I'm quoting the last paragraph of a long review in Fanfare by Richard Kaplan. 

[Madiel]

Presumably inexperience = failing to shape the music in the way it requires often enough.

Though experienced hacks might do the same, so maybe it's just ageist terminology. Or maybe it's an implicit hope that he'll figure it out later, rather than getting it wrong his entire career...

[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.