Classical ♫ Music only | Some you listen now or recently, some you love...

[dualazmak]

Otto Klemperer...!
Please let me repeat my post here #297.

I still very much like and love the amazing collaboration of Otto Klemperer and Christa Ludwig on Brahms, Wagner and Mahler recorded in 1962.
This is remastered CD release TOCE-13219 Toshiba - EMI:

I have this CD as well as the original vinyl LP.

Even though I have several disks (CDs and LPs) of Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Wagner Wesendonk Lieder, I always come back to this one after all...

 

[Robin L]

I wonder what you think of Klemperer's Mahler 9?

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Sat down and listened to the Klemperer/New Philharmonia recording of Mahler's 9th Symphony yesterday. The sound is a touch better than the NYPO Bernstein recording. It's a very good performance. I'd say the emotional temperature is slightly lower than that of Bernstein's 1960's performance. Then again, Bernstein's Concertegebouw performance is also more emotionally reserved than that of the younger Bernstein.

However, my next post on the subject will be of a performance that is the most emotionally desolate I have heard in some fifty-five years of listening to this music.

 

[Robin L]

Jascha Horenstein made the first studio recording of Mahler's 9th Symphony with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1953. As an interpretation, it is great. However, the quality of sound is so-so mono, and the orchestra was not a world-class ensemble. There are a number of live performances caught on airchecks from Horenstein and various ensembles. The BBC legends series released a two-CD set of a September 16, 1966, performance with the London Symphony Orchestra. David Hurwitz hates it. As I hate David Hurwitz, no loss. Tony Duggan says this:

This new release records a great performance of Mahler's Ninth and should not be missed by admirers of this work and this conductor. It's the kind of version needed in any profile of it: hors concours in the pantheon of recordings like Furtwangler's 1942 recording of Beethoven's Ninth. A never-to-be-repeated experience that deserves hearing but which is maybe too truthful to stand many repetitions, inevitably carrying the marks of battle of live performance but wearing them as badges of honour. Like all the best recordings taken from live broadcasts it has the element of tension, of concert hall theatre, that ought to override any passing concerns regarding execution and sound.

MAHLER Symphony 9 Horenstein [TD]: Classical Reviews- November 2001 MusicWeb(UK)

Classical CD reviews posted every day

www.musicweb-international.com

The opening movement has a greater sense of tragedy, of doom, than that of any other performance I have heard so far. Maybe some sections of the two middle movements are a bit of a muddle as regards execution, but the finale movement, like the opening movement does not offer "restful ease". It's still the dark night of the soul. Note that the CDs are no longer in print and go for silly money used. I don't find this recording on Tidal, but the You Tube transfer is serviceable, the sound is good for an aircheck and does not suffer from commercial interruptions:

 

[TLEDDY]

OK - I don’t understand why I like this piece, nor why it brings tears to my eyes! Thank you for the referral!

Tillman

 

[TLEDDY]

I am cursed! I discovered this thread and decided to listen to those pieces suggested herein… my taste in classical music is catholic, encompassing essentially all genres. That said, music exists on the inexorable arrow of time!

As I type this, I am on the 45th page - i doubt, being in my 85th year, that the arrow will provide me enough future to appreciate all of the recommendations on this thread!

I am thrilled to have found this!

Thank you!!

Tillman

 

[Keith_W]

@Robin L thank you for taking the time to listen to the Klemperer. What I like about this version is the clarity. It's not just the recording, it's the tempo chosen by Klemperer which allows each instrument space to breathe. This is most evident in the Rondo-Burleske. I am familiar with that Horenstein recording you mention (IMO he is a vastly under-rated conductor who never had a good orchestra and never truly shined). Horenstein is very good at giving instruments space to "breathe" and not crowding them together like say, Bernstein. But even he does not have the same clarity as Klemperer.

If you want a truly devastating performance of Mahler 9, may I suggest Bruno Walter 1938?

 

[Robin L]

@Robin L thank you for taking the time to listen to the Klemperer. What I like about this version is the clarity. It's not just the recording, it's the tempo chosen by Klemperer which allows each instrument space to breathe. This is most evident in the Rondo-Burleske. I am familiar with that Horenstein recording you mention (IMO he is a vastly under-rated conductor who never had a good orchestra and never truly shined). Horenstein is very good at giving instruments space to "breathe" and not crowding them together like say, Bernstein. But even he does not have the same clarity as Klemperer.

If you want a truly devastating performance of Mahler 9, may I suggest Bruno Walter 1938?

I am familiar with that recording. My understanding is that the Dutton transfer is superior—Tidal has it. I will take the time to listen to it soon.

Of course, Bernstein has a different agenda. He is not seeking clarity; he is mining disaster.

I suspect that Horenstein's problem is that he was never in one place long enough to engage in orchestra building. So, his concerts and recordings wound up being under-rehearsed.

You are right about Klemperer. The clarity and precision of the playing in the inner movements is notable. At first, I was let down by the slower tempo, but as the piece progressed, I could note just how "modern" the two inner movements were realized. I will listen to the Boulez/Chicago S.O. performance in its entirety soon, his performance of the first movement also has that "clarifying" quality that Klemperer's does.

 

[Robin L]

OK - I don’t understand why I like this piece, nor why it brings tears to my eyes! Thank you for the referral!

Tillman

 

[Robin L]

And, now for something completely different:

 

[Andolink]

Superb recording and perfomances of some delectable chamber music from the mid 1690's (though not published until 1707):

Elisabeth JACQUET DE LA GUERRE (1665 - 1729)
Sonates pour le violon et basse continue (1707)
Sonata I in d minor [15:45]
Sonata II in D [7:38]
Sonata III in F [9:05]
Sonata IV in G [10:15]
Sonata V in a minor [9:27]
Sonata VI in A [16:28]
Lina Tur Bonet (violin), Patxi Montero (viola da gamba), Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord)
rec. 11-13 January 2011, Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Getafe, Madrid, Spain. DDD
VERSO VRS 2114 [69:06]

 

[dualazmak]

HIMARI Yoshimura, age 9 (at the time of the concert), plays Paganini Violin Concerto No.1 D major, in January 2021, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Junichi HIROKAMI (cond), at Suntory Hall, Tokyo;
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1D...ther.whitelist&t=467.429891&bvid=BV1Dv411Y7nn
The actual full concert starts at 3:30.

Please PM me if you would like to have local files of full .mkv videoclip and full .flac audio track.

 

[Robin L]

I've been continuing my current obsession with Mahler's 9th symphony. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the time of year—we have fallen back out of daylight savings time, it gets much darker much sooner. Here in the Pacific Northwest the rainy season has taken hold, so it cold, dark and usually wet.

There are other performances I've heard recently, but I want to focus on the performance I've just heard, one that should have had a wider release a long time ago but didn't. George Szell had a live performance with the Cleveland Orchestra taped in 1969. The ensemble is predictably tight, doing wonders for the inner movements, full of focused snarl and anger. The performance takes about 75 minutes, but the outer movements are flexible in their tempos. One doesn't get a sense that anything is hurried in the outer movements, the opening Andante comodo takes 24:47, the closing adagio has a duration of 21:35. The sound, while not SOTA, is more than good enough. The usual virtues of Szell's performance can be heard in the clarity of the weave of the voices, all ringing out with a focus I have yet to hear in any other performance. It's "cooler" emotionally than, say, Horenstein or Bernstein, but it still has a lot of feeling. I would have thought it would have been released by Sony as Szell's performance of the 6th symphony was, but I've read that it originally appeared in a big, expensive box before wandering off to Urania. Tidal has it, so does YouTube:

 

[olieb]

I've been continuing my current obsession with Mahler's 9th symphony.

Wow! What a tour de force.
As I did not listen to the 9th for some time, you inspired me to listen to the first movement, but after that I could not think of going on and on and on.....
I began with Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. I did not have Szell on my short list of Mahler conductors. I agree about the clarity that is a signature of his and the fluent tempi that I like as for my taste even Wagner and Mahler are sometimes played too slowly.
But then I switched to my go to conductor for Mahler (Michael Gielen) and well, that was different. For me it becomes clear rather quickly whether an interpretation of Mahler hits the/my sweet spot or not. My feeling is that Mahler's music has a very specific idiom, a characteristic tone that not many interpretations can bring out. (This is not about the somewhat melodramatic dimension that many interpretations seem to aim for.) After one more round of comparison I stayed with Gielen and the SWR Orchestra.

 

[Robin L]

Wow! What a tour de force.
As I did not listen to the 9th for some time, you inspired me to listen to the first movement, but after that I could not think of going on and on and on.....
I began with Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. I did not have Szell on my short list of Mahler conductors. I agree about the clarity that is a signature of his and the fluent tempi that I like as for my taste even Wagner and Mahler are sometimes played too slowly.
But then I switched to my go to conductor for Mahler (Michael Gielen) and well, that was different. For me it becomes clear rather quickly whether an interpretation of Mahler hits the/my sweet spot or not. My feeling is that Mahler's music has a very specific idiom, a characteristic tone that not many interpretations can bring out. (This is not about the somewhat melodramatic dimension that many interpretations seem to aim for.) After one more round of comparison I stayed with Gielen and the SWR Orchestra.

But do go on with the Szell performance, it is at its strongest in the two inner movements.

 

[olieb]

But do go on with the Szell performance, it is at its strongest in the two inner movements.

You're right, the second movement of the symphony, with its shrill and ever-increasing ambiguity (not really the right word, “having a false bottom” would be the German expression), suits Szell, but if you consider the description (“somewhat clumsy and very coarse”), then Szell's interpretation sounds more like sparkling jewelry with a dark sheen and flashing reflections. There is always this elegance. It's beguiling, and here it almost fits, because the shine is always on the verge of bursting.

With Gielen it's more like a shattered mirror whose shards reflect the world in multiple ways at once: gloomy and naive, cheerful and full of pain. No elegance.

And Szell's recording has too little bass, far too little, IME. I used a low shelf, 90Hz, Q=0.5, +12dB (!) and that wasn't too much.
Interestingly, this adds a bit of gloom without taking anything away.

If you like another fluent interpretation of the middle movements, take a listen at Inbal, either with Frankfurt RSO (good sound) or even faster tempi with Tokyo MSO (superb sound, but he is humming along). Maybe it's too fast (for some), but the Ländler can even tolerate a stumble.

 

[Robin L]

You're right, the second movement of the symphony, with its shrill and ever-increasing ambiguity (not really the right word, “having a false bottom” would be the German expression), suits Szell, but if you consider the description (“somewhat clumsy and very coarse”), then Szell's interpretation sounds more like sparkling jewelry with a dark sheen and flashing reflections. There is always this elegance. It's beguiling, and here it almost fits, because the shine is always on the verge of bursting.

Guess you have a point there. However, I also think Szell's performance has "glamour" in the negative, metaphysical, sense.

With Gielen it's more like a shattered mirror whose shards reflect the world in multiple ways at once: gloomy and naive, cheerful and full of pain. No elegance.

Got to try that.
Have you heard Klemperer? I think he's rather good in the central movements, albeit slower, However, he catches a clumsy quality in the Landler that sounds appropriate.

And Szell's recording has too little bass, far too little, IME. I used a low shelf, 90Hz, Q=0.5, +12dB (!) and that wasn't too much.
Interestingly, this adds a bit of gloom without taking anything away.

Like I said, it's not the greatest sound quality.

If you like another fluent interpretation of the middle movements, take a listen at Inbal, either with Frankfurt RSO (good sound) or even faster tempi with Tokyo MSO (superb sound, but he is humming along). Maybe it's too fast (for some), but the Ländler can even tolerate a stumble.

Thanks, as long as I'm this obsessed . . .

 

[JustAnandaDourEyedDude]

Calling an all-hands meeting of the Bored!

Duo for guitar and piano six hands? Apologies if anyone has already posted this on ASR.

Will the next edition of Dr. Toole's book include an appendix on optimal microphone and speaker placement when the musical instruments are played in acoustic media with different speeds of sound? Any thoughts on tank wall reflections?

 

[Robin L]

With Gielen it's more like a shattered mirror whose shards reflect the world in multiple ways at once: gloomy and naive, cheerful and full of pain. No elegance.

Listening to Gielen again, right now. It reminded me (a lot) of Klemperer with the New Philharmonic. Michael Gielen takes 17:53, Klemperer a little bit more at 18:41. The conceptions are similar. Klemperer's sonic capture is closer, seems a little like chamber music, or Mahler's 7th symphony at the very least. Both performances are appropriately lead-footed:

 

[dualazmak]

I have already shared/touched-on several times (including here on my project thread and here on another thread) about the stunning pipe organ performance and the amazingly excellent recording quality (down to 35 Hz zone) of "Recit de Tierce en taille / Grigny ND", by organist Jean Guillou, CD Dorian DOR-90134.

For long years, I have been much fascinated and impressed by the music written by Nicolas de Grigny 1672 - 1703 (wiki in English here, French wiki here), and today I very much enjoyed this 2-CD set album performed by famous organist André Isoir and chant vocal ensembles, GRIGNY/MESSE/HYMNES 4509-91722-2, MUSIFRANCE.
Edit:
Untimely/premature passing-away of de Grigny always reminds me the life of Henry Purcell and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

 

[dualazmak]

Let me continue a little bit more about Nicholas de Grigny by sharing additional portions of the wonderful liner notes (book let) of the 2-CD album...