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gfweis

Thanks for reminding everyone about these Suk recordings, Lance. I know them from a Crossroads lp (taken from Supraphon), which lacks only the BWV 1060. Suk plays with simplicity and reserve, and great beauty. Rather similar in style to Grumiaux, whose famous recordings of these works are, I believe...

gfweis

I too am enchanted by the Farewell, and, although all four movements have their virtues, I especially enjoy melting under the spell of that lovely adagio. I don't think I've heard a performance I didn't like, but in a world arranged for my taste a performance would have a combination of a leisurely ...

gfweis

Since Barry has mentioned Barenboim (not a particular favorite of mine as either pianist or conductor), I want to throw in a plug for the excellent, richly romantic d minor and b flat concertos he recorded with Barbirolli in the late sixties (still available, I think, on an EMI twofer). The b flat m...

gfweis

My favorite Mozart Requiem is the Gardiner (Philips). I’d also like to mention that Kempe and the BPO did the Mozart and Brahms Requiems (EMI), and they both feature the inestimable Elisabeth Grümmer.

gfweis

I heard a Mravinsky/Leningrad live 8th at Chicago's old McCormick Place in '62 before their convenient fire happened along and destroyed that horrible venue; it was replaced by a convention complex containing a hall with excellent acoustics. It was a driving, relentless performance in the typical M...

gfweis

Is that same performance sharp on the BBC Legends Edition? Or is that a different live performance? (Same orchestra, same conductor, but I'm not familiar with his work, so he may have recorded it twice with that orchestra, live, for all I know...) They are indeed different performances. The BBC Leg...

gfweis

I will send as a gift Seymon Bychkov's Shostakovich Sym. No. 8 with the Berlin Philharmonic on a Philips cd (454683-2, now deleted I believe), which was praised in the Shostakovich overview in the current American Record Guide, to anyone who will LEND me for a single day the live perfomance of that ...

gfweis

Lance...yes, I too was puzzled about the apparent absence of a stereo release of the Istomin Emperor. Surely, I thought, 1958 would mean a stereo issue as well as the mono. And I would be delighted to send you this Isotmin lp, which I got just last week at a Goodwill store here in Aiken, SC. You nee...

gfweis

Why is it not a perfect work? Well, I'm hesitant to speak against a work that I love, but there are passages that seem to fall short of DS's usual level of inspiration (certainly he flies high overall in this piece). And I do have that problem I mentioned with the fit of the long cadenza. I suppose ...

gfweis

A good example of what Lance says about Ormandy as a concerto conductor is his mono Emperor with Istomin recorded in January 1958 on Columbia ML5318 (never, to my knowledge, available on commercial cd). This is about as good as I've heard Istomin play, but beyond that, Ormandy gets his players "up,"...

gfweis

Wallingford, thanks very much for the link to the Ormandy discography. Very useful.

gfweis

Thanks for this pointer to Half Price Books, about which I did not know.

gfweis

I want to second what jserraglio said about the Piano Trio No. 2, and also put a word in for the Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 77/99. It's not a perfect work. I’ve read those who say the piece is a failure because the movements don’t fit together. I don’t agree with this (the passacaglia is full of ref...

gfweis

I agree with jserraglio about the Ormandy mono Scheherazade; in fact, it's my favorite recording, followed by Goosens/LSO, Monteux/LSO, and Bernstein/NYP (all stereo). Such committed, energized playing from the Philadelphians, and such a dramatic, involving interpretation! It's clearly superior to O...

gfweis

Just a follow-up on favorite individual recordings: No. 1-Szell/Cleveland O. No. 2-Cluytens/BPO; Szell/Cleveland O. No. 3-Monteux/RCO; Jochum/BPO (1954) No. 4-Cluytens/BPO No. 5-Szell/RCO No. 6-Boehm/VPO; Jochum/BPO (the 1951 slightly preferable to the 1954) No. 7-Munch/BSO; Steinberg/PSO No. 8-Szel...

gfweis

I like the drama and boom of Beethoven and I would like some suggestions on recordings that emphasize this... Well, for "drama and boom," and just speaking of complete sets, I would recommend the recently released, and bargain-priced, 5-cd box from DG featuring Eugen Jochum conducting the BRSO and ...

gfweis

My experience of the piece was a bit less positive. I too have the MS 6349 lp (inside a mono MS 5749 jacket!)---also picked up at a thrift store. I haven't heard it for quite some time, but my notes say that it does sound like a re-construction, with lots of repetition...a pastiche of typical Tchaik...

gfweis

Two wonderful performances of the E flat major and B flat major trios are by Gerhard Oppitz, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and David Geringas (all fairly young at the time), recorded in Germany in 1985 and put out on the Novalis label. Virtuosic and full of life. Certainly equal to the excellent Istomin-Stern...

gfweis

Lance, since you love the Schumann 4th, I wanted to mention two recordings you don't mention that I love, just on the (slight) chance you haven't yet heard them. First is an Abendroth radio broadcast with the Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk SO from 1950, which is on M&A 1065. The other is from the Klempere...

gfweis

Beyond a superficial beauty and structural certainty, Mozart has nothing to give to mind or spirit in the 21st century. Unless this is an early April Fool's joke, I believe Mr. Lebrecht's judgment is (to say the least) put into question by the above assertion. At the risk of throwing doubt upon the...

gfweis

David Ross: I am delighted you are enjoying the Kempff mono sonatas. I simply want to endorse what Corlyss and Dirk said about the Kempff/Van Kempen piano concertos. You will hear great character and brio from WK. He gets a little wilder or more eruptive at times (just the right times) than he does ...

gfweis

Agreeing with Karl Henning that tomorrow's list might be substantially different, and leaving out concerted works to make things easier for my early-morning brain, here are 11 symphonies in alphabetical order. (Sorry, I got to 11 and found I couldn't take one away.) Ranking here is simply not possib...

gfweis

Excluding Poulenc, Finzi, Walton, Bliss, Shostakovich, and others as post-1950, but not modernist composers in the sense intended, I suppose I'd give Berio a 1.5 and Britten a 2 (if Mozart & Beethoven are 10's), raising the overall average of post-1950 modernist composers to 1.01.

gfweis

There is a conductor who recorded a set of the Haydn symphonies who has not been mentioned: Ernst Maerzendorfer, conducting the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. They appeared in chronological order on, it seems, 48 lps (I surmise this since I possess Vol. 47, which has Nos. 101 & 102). They were on the Mus...

gfweis

If it's a complete set that is wanted, this would be my ranking of the sets I have: 1) Annie Fischer; 2) Kempff (mono); 3) Kempff (stereo); 4) Arrau; 5) Backhaus; 6) Schnabel. The Backhaus mono set is available from Japan (authorized) and from Italy (source material is unclear). I don't have it, but...

gfweis

Hi Glenn. I think you might enjoy Ravel's piano piece, which is often presented in an orchestrated version, entitled Pavane for a Dead Princess (Pavane pour une Infante defunte). Also, check out Debussy's Preludes, Books I&II, which are also for piano.

gfweis

I would recommend Faure's Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 15. It's full of beautiful, and quite catchy, melodies.

gfweis

A friend has pointed out that I didn't specify a label for the Steinberg Brahms symphonies, and he hasn't ever seen them. They are on two MCA cds (AAD, not ADD), and were originally on Command Classics lps. Steinberg recorded at least one of these symphonies twice, because the Sym. No. 1 I have on a...

gfweis

Thought I’d second a few recommendations by others and add some that haven’t been mentioned. Sym. No. 1 - Boehm/BSO . Also Klemperer/Philharm. O., Munch/BSO, and Kondrashin/RCO. (A shockingly good sleeper is Odd Gruner-Hegge/Oslo Philharmonic on an Allegro lp, circa 1955.) Sym. No. 2 - Steinberg/PSO...

gfweis

Thank you, herman, for answering 12tone's question for all of us.

gfweis

I find many fine things in the Stern/Istomin box, but I would make a sharp distinction between the Opp. 12/1 and 30/2, recorded in 1969, and the rest of the sonatas, recorded in 1982-83. The former are the outstanding ones, in my opinion, with Stern in much better form. Two sets I’ve come across hav...

gfweis

I've had a chance to listen intently to much of this set and personally find that Arrau was a much more convincing pianist in the early American Decca recordings from 1952 and 1953 (material all new to the CD format: Beethoven/Chopin) versus recordings from 1965, 1990, and 1991...I have also felt th...

gfweis

Geza Anda recorded Schumann's "Fantasy in C", opus 17 like no other pianist I've ever heard. I had the record in the States (coupled I believe with the "Symphonic Etudes"), but I haven't been able to locate the CD yet (if it's been re-issued). It's a shame he didn't record more of Schumann's music!...

gfweis

Here's a Backhaus gem: on an Enterprise cd from 1993, a "studio recoding" in Geneva of WB doing the Opp. 13, 27/2, 53, and 57. Recording dates are given as 1958/59. All performances are spontaneous, and find WB in excellent form. All are exceptionally good, but the highlight is the Op. 57. You would...

gfweis

MartinPh: I am so glad to hear this about the Wispelwey. I have wanted for years to hear his Bach suites. I believe he has recorded them twice. Which is the one that you like?

P.S. I too did not care for the Rostropovich.

gfweis

I know I SHOULD prefer Oistrakh, Kogan, etc., but for 30 years I have been hopelessly in love with the Kyung Wha Chung/Previn (London). Her slow movement of No. 2, for example, is about the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. It is so expressive that it's like speech.

gfweis

I have been very impressed with the Ma (Sony) (didn‘t care for the mixed-media TV presentation, however). No one I’ve heard plays better, technically; I love the sound of his cello; and he’s unfailingly extremely musical. The uneven acoustic in the different venues for the recording is, however, a b...

gfweis

My preferences in performances of this symphony have changed somewhat over the years. My favorite used to be Jochum/Orchestre National de France (live, recorded 1978, INA). It has a rapt quality that I found very affecting. But I’ve come to think that this adagio drags a bit (it’s almost 26 minutes)...

gfweis

Since no one has mentioned either of my top two picks, they are: 1. Oleg Kagan, Eduard Brunner, Natalia Gutman, and Wassilij Lobanow on Live Classics. 2. Vera Beths, George Pieterson, Anner Bijlsma, and Reinbert De Leeuw on Philips. The Kagan is more extroverted and spontaneous; the other one more i...

gfweis

The Kempff/Van Kempen (DG), is worth trying to land. If you can't get that one, try to get the Arrau/Galliera (EMI). Then move to the Fleischer/Szell or Pollini/Boehm & Jochum (DG). I was quite disappointed in the Gilels/Szell.

gfweis

I’m retired, so I was able recently to spend quite some time with the Op. 111, in order to discover where my passions presently lie. Two recordings completely satisfied me: Annie Fischer (recorded 1977 or 1978, Hungaroton) and Gary Graffman (1976, Columbia), which latter I have on lp (I’ve never see...

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Mravinsky's Shostakovich 8th

Re: Recommended Beethoven Symphonies

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First Pick: Brahms Symphonies

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Anda's Schumann

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Beethoben Piano Concerto sets

Op. 111