Classical music and space for new recordings

[JJB70]

I enjoy some modern music, for example I'm a big fan of John Adams, but I'm afraid little of the orchestral music I listen to goes beyond Prokofiev in terms of modernity. I do listen to a lot of contemporary performances of the classical repertoire and whilst I wouldn't criticise it (well, no more than I criticise anything else) in most cases I do not find anything that hasn't been done many times before and if I already have a good recording then unless there is something new and original to be found in a new recording I see no reason to add to or replace what I already have. This is nothing new, if you look through the back catalogue although there are sometimes 20, 30, 40..... or whatever recordings of a particular work few of them are genuinely memorable (although most are perfectly serviceable and competent performances). Schaller's Bruckner is one of the exceptions, a truly memorable set of recordings. And sometimes a well performed conventional interpretation is just the ticket, for example I'm still a huge fan of Bohm's Mozart symphony cycle recorded with the BPO. I've got multiple recordings of a lot of works where I find that different recordings add something new or have their own particular take on a work as well as having a very good straight up recording, but even then it gets to a point where I question whether I want or need another version. From a financial perspective the presence of such a huge back catalogue must act against taking risks in funding new recordings.
On recorded quality, I think many older recordings are excellent and lose noting to current ones in terms of audible enjoyment in two channel. Some are less good, and I think my IEMs do expose some less great recordings but then not all current recordings are great either. I tend to only listen in two channel because I can't face the faff of setting up a true surround sound system but I do enjoy multi-channel music. Even then, multi-channel doesn't necessarily mean new, Steinberg's recording of the Planets with the Boston PO is in quadrophonic despite being the best part of 50 years old. I find it is a bit like audio hardware in that if the performance is good and draws me in then provided the hardware is competent it fades into the background.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I agree with Kal Rubinson about the experience of listening to multichannel music. Spectacular and with video screen.

There's no video at all on the recordings to which I was referring.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Maybe I shouldn't buy the Asher Fisch Ring Cycle with Seattle, I already have the Solti, and nothing tops that!

Indeed, why? His Fisch's original Ring was soporific and there are several superior Rings in MCH. Of course, I am not saying any are superior to Solti's but there are interesting alternatives for those of us who like hearing different approaches to great works.

Who needs another Mahler recording when we already have Bernstien and Abbado?

Depends again on whether you can restrict yourself to hearing only one approach for the rest of your life. I will note that there is an Abbado (almost complete) set in MCH and a few of the Bernsteins as well.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Even then, multi-channel doesn't necessarily mean new, Steinberg's recording of the Planets with the Boston PO is in quadrophonic despite being the best part of 50 years old.

The Karajan/BPO Beethoven 9 from the early '70s are spectacular in Dolby ATMOS!!

 

[JJB70]

I also have the 1970's Bernstein Beethoven cycle with the VPO in multi-channel. I bought the current DG delux set which includes a high res blu ray disc with both stereo and multi-channel versions. To be honest I think the high res bit is just marketing spin, but if you listen using a physical disc then having the complete cycle on one disc is useful and the surround sound does add to the experience.

 

[Daverz]

The old stuff still says nothing to me about my life.

The last thing I want from music is for it to say something about my life.

 

[Hugo9000]

The Karajan Bruckner cycle (Berlin, recorded from 1975 to 1981) is coming out in a new edition in a couple of weeks. Blu-ray audio, plus 9 CDs. Symphonies 1-3 were recorded digitally (16/44.1) and have been remastered and upsampled to 24/192 for the BD, and the others were presumably analogue, and have been newly remastered from the session tapes to 24/96. This release and his 1970s set of the 6 Tchaikovsky symphonies will be released by DG to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Karajan's death.

Here is the amazon.de page for preorders:
https://www.amazon.de/Bruckner-die-...ajan+bruckner&qid=1560627515&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Good price for a full set, if you like Karajan and Bruckner. I don't see anything about multichannel mixes on the upcoming release. I have Karajan's Bruckner 7 (his final recording, and it's gorgeous!) & 8 with Vienna. The only full set of Bruckner symphonies I own is Jaap van Zweden's multichannel SACD set from Challenge Classics with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.

Most of my own 3000+ CD collection of classical music was originally recorded from the late 1950s through the 1990s. I used to think it was almost pointless for anyone to bother recording any of this music any longer, but I have to say that around a dozen of my favorite Handel recordings of operas and oratorios are from the last 10 to 20 years, and I have a lot of fantastic recent BIS recordings, so I'm thrilled I didn't completely give up haha! About a dozen of the BIS recordings are in steady rotation for me, and I couldn't live without them now.

 

[reza]

I always thought it was common practice to own multiple versions of the works you like. I have over 20 different recordings of Bach's WTC, probably 10 or so versions of Shostakovitch's string quartets, and yeah, several Bruckner cycles. Many of them have very questionable sound quality, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying them. To me, listening to different performances of your favorite pieces is like watching your favorite story made into movies by different directors.

As an example: I would have thought that there already are more than enough recordings of the Goldberg variations, and there shouldn't be room for a new one. But a few years ago I came across a new performance (Simone Dinnerstein) that became my favorite over all other versions I had heard. Who's to say in a few years that won't be superseded by yet a newer one?

 

[Daverz]

This is why I like Tidal and Qobuz. A huge back catalog is available and most new releases. You can then decide what recordings you really want to add to your collection.

 

[ChrisH]

Indeed, why? His Fisch's original Ring was soporific and there are several superior Rings in MCH. Of course, I am not saying any are superior to Solti's but there are interesting alternatives for those of us who like hearing different approaches to great works.
Depends again on whether you can restrict yourself to hearing only one approach for the rest of your life. I will note that there is an Abbado (almost complete) set in MCH and a few of the Bernsteins as well.

I didn't find the Fisch Ring to be boring at all, it was quite enjoyable and has one of the best Hunding's on record. I don't put it above the Solti, but I tend not like ranking things; it's generally quite pointless.

My post was an attempt at humor, which seemed to have failed. Personally, I enjoy the bounty of recordings available these days. It's nice to have 20+ Rings and 600+ Mahler recordings.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I didn't find the Fisch Ring to be boring at all, it was quite enjoyable and has one of the best Hunding's on record. I don't put it above the Solti, but I tend not like ranking things; it's generally quite pointless.

Hmmm. Soporific for emphasis but not to my taste. Otherwise, I agree.

My post was an attempt at humor, which seemed to have failed.

Ooooph! I missed that.

Personally, I enjoy the bounty of recordings available these days. It's nice to have 20+ Rings and 600+ Mahler recordings.

Yeah. An embarrassment of riches, almost. Of course, space is no longer an issue with digital; just add more NAS space.

 

[JJB70]

When I first got into classical music buying the ring cycle was quite a big investment and there's no way I'd have been able to justify multiple ring cycles. Now I have two on my DAP (Bohm & Solti) and classical music is cheap. I have three Bruckner symphony cycles on my DAP (Karajan, Inbal, Schaller), four Beethoven symphony cycles (Bernstein, Harnoncourt, Karajan 70's, Szell), two Schubert symphony cycles (Abbado, Bohm) and so it goes on, along with multiple versions of particular symphonies such as Kleiber's Beethoven 5 & 7. And this is just what's on my DAP, it doesn't include the stuff on my drive at home. At one time I'd have accumulated multiple versions of some of this music but not all of it, and the idea of carrying so much of it around in my pocket in CD quality (FLAC) would have been fantastical. So we do live in a golden time in so many ways, music has never been so accessible and great audio quality has been commoditised. I listen to music using my DAP which was not expensive (£170) using Etymotic ER4 SR IEMs (£220 as B stock clearance) and to be quite honest see no reason to spend any more to enjoy music via headphones. However, for all that, I've already got more music than I can properly enjoy and it's got to the point where unless something rather special is released or something I do not have then I don't know whether there is any point just accumulating more. And for record labels the presence of such a back catalogue must affect the business model for new recordings I think.

 

[Tom C]

Thank you. That was a treat.