Listenin' to Classical Music and Conversation

Dvořák*, London Symphony Orchestra / István Kertész – The Symphonies

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Label: London Records – 430 046-2
Format:
6 x CD, Reissue, Remastered
Box Set, ADRM = Analogue to Digital Remaster
Country: US
Released: 1991
Genre: Classical

I really appreciate Kertesz’s Dvorák cycle.

 

Now playing: Wilhelm Stenhammar - Piano Concertos 1 & 2 - Seta Tanyel, Helsingborg SO, Andrew Manze - recorded 2008

 

Now playing: Sunleif Rasmussen - String Against String - Sjælland String Quartet, John Storgårds, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orch., Juha Kangas - recorded 2007, 2006

He must be the only Faroese composer in my collection

 

On the turntable this afternoon...
Respighi: Orchestral Suites, "The Birds" and "Brazilian Impressions."
Antal Dorati / London Symphony Orchestra

Mercury "Golden Imports" LP / 1973 / Holland pressing


I'm mainly playing this for the delightful "The Birds." Superb performance and very fine recording. Originally released in 1959 on the Mercury "Living Presence" label (Mercury SR-90153).

I first heard this recording in 1978 while on a long, cross-country flight from Washington to San Francisco. In those days the airline issued you a cheapo set of plastic headphones for music listening, which you plugged into your seat's armrest and then turned a dial to select the type of music you wanted to hear. Obviously, I chose "classical," and it was like an oasis at 35,000 feet to hear such inspiring music, including this recording of "The Birds." (I believe in those days the music was sourced from pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes, which airline stewards turned on at the beginning of the flight.)
Anyway, this music made quite an impression on me and when the announcer said the composer was Respighi and the conductor was Dorati, I had an "ah-ha!" moment... as I'd bought Dorati's recording of Respighi's "Ancient Airs & Dances" the previous year. Soon after returning home I found this record in my local shop, sitting there in the "Imports" bin. Still have it, still play it, and it still evokes memories of hearing it the first time.

 

Now playing: Ignaz Joseph Pleyel - Pariser Quartette 1 - Janáček Quartet - recorded 2011

 

On the turntable...
Schumann: Symphony No. 2 and Konzertstück, Op. 86.
Daniel Barenboim / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

DG LP / 1977 / German



Very stirring performance of Schumann's Symphony No. 2 by Barenboim and the CSO. Also included is the Concerto for quadruple horns and orchestra... a piece which must be 19 minutes of sheer torture for 4 horn players, but masterfully handled by the soloists here. According to the liner notes: "...following its premiere at Leipzig in 1850, it was long regarded as 'unplayable.'"

 

Angel S-36491. Recorded 7/16-17/67, Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London. Producer: Suvi Ra Grubb. Engineer: Christopher Parker. 1965-69 blue label Scranton pressing. There's a sticker on the back from 'Walter D. Moses Co., Inc. Everything Musical' and an address in Richmond, VA. Looking on the internet I found a newspaper ad for a piano sale at the store with the same address in 1909.

 

Joonas Kokkonen - Cello Concerto
Marko Ylönen/Cello
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramu

I like Kokkonen
I like cello
I love this piece

This is a tightly but expressively argued piece of music. Ylönen's playing on the solo instrument draws out the story nicely and the integration between soloist and orchestra is beautifully balanced. This whole thing hits my ear just right.

 

An early Paillard disc to match the early Tuesday morning.

Leclair: Oboe Concerto in C major, Op. 7, No. 3
Blavet: Flute Concerto in A minor
Leclair: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 10, No. 3

Pierre Pierlot (oboe)
Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute)
Anne-Marie Beckensteiner (harpsichord)
Huguette Fernandez (violin)
Jean-François Paillard
Ensemble instrumental Jean-Marie-Leclair
1955

 

Why is the Menuet form Bach’s F Major Brandenburg Concerto recorded by Karajan/Berliner Philharmoniker (version pictured below) so insufferably slow?.. I mean is there somehow a musicological license I’m not aware of by which one may take that particular piece at such a slow tempo? Really just wondering. Surely no one can dance this minuet without falling on their face...

Too bad as it is one of my favorite pieces from that cycle.

 

Angel S-36598. Recorded 1/18/69, Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London. Producer: Suvi Raj Grubb. Engineer: Martin Benge. Scranton pressing. Like the Barenboim LP I posted, this was issued on HMV in the UK. I have it on a 1993 EMI Encore CD. I didn't realize until recently that Anievas is American, born in NYC.

 

"At 7 p.m. on May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven, then 53, strode onto the stage of the magnificent Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna to help conduct the world premiere of his Ninth Symphony, the last he would ever complete.

That performance, whose 200th anniversary is on Tuesday, was unforgettable in many ways. But it was marked by an incident at the start of the second movement that revealed to the audience of about 1,800 people how deaf the revered composer had become..."

...From Lead in Beethoven’s Hair Offers New Clues to Mystery of His Deafness - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Also from today's NYT, Daniel Barenboim writes a guest essay in the Opinion section on What Beethoven’s Ninth Teaches Us.

(Please note paywall may exist in order to access the NYT online.)

 

I somehow never listened to the Mahler 5th from the Kubelik Edition on DG; fixing that this morning.

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

Rafael Kubelík
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
1971

 

From Unlocked Recordings. Issued 4/62. Recorded 4/4-6/61, Sofiensaal, Vienna. Producer: Erik Smith. Engineer: James Brown. The actual composer of the Adagio was clarinetist/composer Carl Baermann, not Wagner. Alfred Boskovsky was the younger brother of violinist/conductor Willi Boskovsky.

 

I only have recordings by Willi Boskovsky on LP, the first digital LP released on London ...

See next post ...

 

I have the following CD, which may have Alfred Boskovsky ...







So I do have one CD with Willi Boskovsky ...

 

Interesting Faroese people or Faroe Islanders ...

Faroe Islanders - Wikipedia

 

Yundi Li: “The Sonata Project Salzburg”. Several pieces by Mozart, all playing here is ne plus ultra, however I would prefer a bit more depth in the recording which to my ears is a bit forward.

 

The 9th and only the 9th today, 200 years after its premiere, every version in my collection. Celebrate "Ode To Joy"!

 

With a somewhat scary grin, we move to CD 37 in the big Mehta Columbia box.

And a conundrum to rival the mysterious Grieg booklet carvings revealed earlier by @Alexlotl

This is the final entry in a Brahms symphony cycle recorded in 1979-82. But:

1. This was released five years after it was recorded, and
2. It was only released on Cassette, the other three symphonies were released on LP.

It's a decent performance; so I have no idea why it was released so late, and in a different physical format to the others (but with a matching front cover).

Exploring my collection is certainly interesting

<edit> I've read that Columbia and Mehta had a contract dispute mid-cycle, so perhaps this was one result of that.

 

This CD has “Ripening” by Suk and Symphony 4 by Foerster. These pieces are both new to my ears. 1968, 1959 recordings.

 

Have you heard back from her yet? Hmm, maybe too soon.

 

Not yet.