What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Sergeant Rock]

CD 1 from the Brilliant Debussy box (also includes Marche écossaise, Berceuse héroique and Musiques pour Le Roi Lear):




Sarge

[Papy Oli]

Good evening all,

Listening to the Mahler 7th off the Bertini cycle.

[Papy Oli]

CD 1 from the Brilliant Debussy box (also includes Marche écossaise, Berceuse héroique and Musiques pour Le Roi Lear):




Sarge

Sarge,
are you sure you have ALL the Nocturnes on this one too ??   

[Que]

Mahler : Symphony No 1 (Live 16.X.1947)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam

Q 

[Sergeant Rock]

Sarge,
are you sure you have ALL the Nocturnes on this one too ??   

Luke will know! Luke! Luke!...where are you, man?

Sarge

[Renfield]

Mahler : Symphony No 1 (Live 16.X.1947)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam

Q 

Impressions?

[Que]

Impressions?

I posted this earlier:

Bruce,

Unfortunately the quality of the recording is a major obstacle in appreciating the Brahms' Schiksalslied: the choir sounds murky and very distant. This work really needs a recording in which one can clearly distinguish the different lines in the chorus.

BUT Mahler's 1st is a different story altogether. Here Tahra mentions the use of the original tape in the radio archives of the Dutch broadcasting society AVRO - probably quite familiar to you. And it shows, or rather sounds... A fair amount of hiss, but apart from that excellent (for 1947), detailed and very immediate sound. And the performance is real Concertgebouw: intense, yet mellow and intimate. And Bruno Walter was clearly inspired that evening - as was the orchestra. Gorgeous!

Interestingly the booklet indicates that in both works Walter used Mengelberg's scores and followed his notations. Which is of course an excellent idea for the Mahler, but perhaps not such a good idea for Brahms...

Now, after a while rehearing the Mahler at full throttle (remarkably this 1947 recording can take it!): it's marvelous, revelatory, fresh and itense and very... authentic. A must-have for any fan of old-school Mahler who is not afraid of an historical live recording, I would say. I'm surprised that I haven't read anything about this remarkable recording. BTW, the recording (made for (not from) a radio broadcast) is surprising in definition, range and depth, basically the main issue would be the hiss).

Q

[Renfield]

I posted this earlier:

Now, after a while rehearing the Mahler at full throttle (remarkably this 1947 recording can take it!): it's marvelous, revelatory, fresh and itense and very... authentic. A must-have for any fan of old-school Mahler who is not afraid of an historical live recording, I would say. I'm surprised that I haven't read anything about this remarkable recording. BTW, the recording (made for (not from) a radio broadcast) is surprising in definition, range and depth, basically the main issue would be the hiss).

Q

Excellent. Thank you, and my apologies for missing the earlier impressions.

I've spent the day fascinated with Walter, myself, over the remarkable VPO Brahms 3rd from that Andante set with each of the symphonies twice, by different conductors. It really seems to have been Walter's piece: especially in the 30's, when he still had the energy to keep up with it!

But musings on Brahms aside, I will most assuredly keep that Mahler 1st in mind. So far, I've only his Columbia recordings and a live VPO 4th, again from Andante, of his Mahler. And I'm looking to rectify that oversight. There must be more around.

[lukeottevanger]

Luke will know! Luke! Luke!...where are you, man?

Sarge

I'm glad to see I've helped you see the seriousness of this issue. 

[Drasko]

I'm obsessing last few weeks with Martinu's 3rd Symphony, love the piece! Quite possibly my favorite Martinu symphony.

[calvin]

Gustav Mahler Symphony 2 - Claudio Abbado, VPO

[Dancing Divertimentian]

[Que]

Ordre 7

Q

[M forever]

Ah, yes; has The New Grove's replied to your concern yet?

I don't know what spelling the New Grove uses. Apparently, the wrong one, too?

I didn't notice as I was reading it, but in his two-volume biography of Igor Fyodorovich, Stephen Walsh uses the spelling Rachmaninov.

Does he also explain why he ignores how the subject of his biography chose to spell his name?

[M forever]

I know this Ansertmaniac guy from Usenet. I'm still grateful he posted Magnard's Third under Ansermet once, in spite of the restricted audio...

"Restricted"? That may be the kindest understatement I have ever read. What that idiot does to the recordings he posts is so outrageously bad, even I have a hard time coming up with vocabulary harsh enough to describe it. That's a pity because he does have access to a lot of interesting material. I have downloaded and listened to several of his "remasterings" because the recordings really interested me. In one or two cases, I have even tried to undo his nonsense because I wanted to keep the recording. But with limited success. In addition to "EQing" the recordings (which can be undone with a little effort), he also seems to use some kind of effects processing to make them sound somehow different. Without exception, I have ended up deleting the recordings because they are worthless after his "treatment". Fortunately, the other day after he perpetrated his "transfer" of Sibelius 4 with Ansermet on RMCR, another poster there posted a direct transfer from reel-to-reel tape of these interesting recordings.

[M forever]

Haven't heard the Ormandy, but the Muti is fantastic--one of my faves, too.  The other I like of Ecstasy is radically different: Boulez with Chicago.  I don't know what possessed Boulez to record a Scriabin disc, but he seems inspired.  I really like it a lot.

And recently I got this one below with Sinopoli, which is great but hard to find.

It shouldn't be such a surprise that Boulez finds Scriabin interesting, after all, he was a very innovative composer.

The Sinopoli recording is indeed great, one of the too few outstanding recordings he made in NY. I have never been to impressed by Muti's Scriabin recordings. Fairly well played and competently conducted, but I don't find that Muti really brings out all the many colors of this music, and the rather dark and round and too blended recording which tries too hard and too obviously to produce something similar to the classic velvety "Philadelphia" sound only reinforces that.

A recording of these works which I found very convincing is this:

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

"Restricted"? That may be the kindest understatement I have ever read. What that idiot does to the recordings he posts is so outrageously bad, even I have a hard time coming up with vocabulary harsh enough to describe it.

I agree it would be nicer if I could hear the piece as it was recorded (another understatement). But I am used to even more atrocious audio - as a Brianite I have learnt to listen through a recording and that proved a great help in coping with Ansertmaniac's antics...

[Renfield]

Second CD now, Stokowski on the 1st, Mengelberg on the 3rd.

And still as impressive as any Brahms I've ever heard by anyone (including these two), and then some.

[Wanderer]

[orbital]