Last evening was a Mendelssohn/Schumann evening.
Mendelssohn:
Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" and
Symphony No. 4 "Italian"
-Leipzig Gewandhaus Orch., Kurt Masur - Teldec
Mendelssohn:
Overtures: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage; The Hebrides; Son and Stranger; The Fair Melusina
-Bern Symphony Orch., Peter Maag - IMP
Schumann:
Symphony No. 1 "Spring" and
Symphony No. 4 (1841 Leipzig vers.)
-London Philharmonic Orch., Kurt Masur - Teldec
Schumann:
Symphony No. 1 (again!
) and
Symphony No.2
-Cleveland Orch., Christoph von Dohnanyi - London
Masur's
extremely spacious Leipzig recording of Mendelssohn has grown on me a bit with each listen. Fine performances and recordings of
3 and
4 are also included on the Maag from Bern, which are still my primary listens for this music.
Some days I like Schumann, some days not. Last night I enjoyed them very much! I also have the
No. 3 "Rhenish" from Berlin PO/Levine on DG, paired with
No. 2 -- like it a lot! There's also the
3rd and
4th (1851 vers.) with Norrington and the London Classical Players - not too bad, at least more consistently "listenable" than their Beethoven!
I was wondering what everyone's choice would be for a new complete set of Schumann symphonies. If the subject has been touched upon (hopefully not
ad nauseam), a link to that discussion would suffice. I'm considering the more recent Barenboim/Berlin Staatskapelle on Warner Classics and the Zinman/Zurich Tonhalle on Arte Nova based solely on David Hurwitz's ebullient, practically gushing reviews of each; as well as the Szell/Cleveland on Sony, the Sawallisch/Dresden on EMI, and the later Bernstein/Vienna on DG. These can all be had somewhat inexpensively on the used market and I get the impression they're all appreciably different from each other -- but I only have room for one of them, and even that's thanks to slim "two-fer" packaging, the greatest invention since the lightbulb.
Intense sampling on Amazon only goes so far.
I suppose what I'm really asking is what am I "missing" in this music that perhaps other recordings can elucidate better than what I have; there's certainly no dearth of choices available.
Currently preparing an initial listen to:
Sibelius:
Symphony No. 4; Pohjola's Daughter; Finlandia
-Helsinki Philharmonic Orch., Leif Segerstam - Ondine