I've thought about this after watching VPO/Levit on YT playing the Brahms Concerto #2. It's a piece I seldom listen to, except for the occasional and excellent version I have with VPO/Kna/Curzon from the late 1950s. Otherwise, my recordings of this work just sit there gathering dust.
Another 'warhorse' is the Tchaikovsky Symphony #6 in which, similarly, the CDs sit unloved on my shelves. That was until I heard the version from the BPO/Petrenko. It was absolutely on fire!! Believe me when I tell you I sat bolt upright and said, "this is a wonderful work which can glow in the dark".
Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Agree with you about the Petrenko Tchaikovsky 6. He does make it very special.
How about Jordi Savall with his ear opening Beethoven cycle, or Solti with his Brahms symphony cycle from Chicago?
How about Jordi Savall with his ear opening Beethoven cycle, or Solti with his Brahms symphony cycle from Chicago?
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Lance
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
You know, strange, of late I have not put any "warhorses" on in a while choosing to hear known and unknown works by composers from my favourite eras (Classical/Romantic), and particularly some newer artists (rather than historical), such as Bach's cello sonatas (written about elsewhere hereon), Schumann lieder and cycles. But you are making me think I SHOULD be hearing a warhorse or two (excepting TA TA TA - TAAAH). Also been listening to violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann from his complete EMI/Warner set, and Florence Price, especially her songs, which are hardly known, but sung by Christine Jobson. And, so it goes. There is just so much available at our fingertips. I will soon be digging into Decca's new "Herman Krebbers Edition." And, you have whetted my appetite for a Brahms piano concerto!
Lance G. Hill
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Yes, absolutely agree about Jordi's work. So right because, apart from Harnoncourt's Chamber Orchestra of Europe boxed set, I seldom listen to Beethoven symphonies but Jordi made me sit right up and take notice!!! And thanks to you for posting this. I would say I almost never listen to TA TA TA TAAA (as Lance describes it), but some new fresh performance might come along and arouse me from my torpor!!
I saw the CSO in Adelaide in 1988 with Solti playing the Brahms #4 and, of course, I was a wreck afterwards. Is music supposed to do that to you??!!!
The point about my thread is a discussion about warhorses we might otherwise sideline because of over-familiarity but which have had new life breathed into them by simply incandescent performances which have rekindled our love and interest. Maybe we are given a glimpse of new musical lines and textures in these performances that we never heard before!!
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jserraglio
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
All of them.
Handel Messiah, Schubert Unfinished, Tchaikovsky Fifth, and Puccini La Boheme come to mind.
Handel Messiah, Schubert Unfinished, Tchaikovsky Fifth, and Puccini La Boheme come to mind.
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
I never listen to or watch "La Boheme" but I make one exception and that's the legendary performance from Beecham, Jussi Bjorling and Victoria de los Angeles. This wonderful recording is cherished mostly because of Bjorling; I just adored that incomparable tenor. Yes, there was lots of vibrato there, but god almighty the power and the poetry was incomparable. His self-destruction was a huge tragedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6eGzzK7eM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6eGzzK7eM
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Lance
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Totally agree with you about the Beecham Boheme. It's a classic. Bjorling was gifted with a truly magical and stunningly gorgeous voice.
Belle wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 6:54 amI never listen to or watch "La Boheme" but I make one exception and that's the legendary performance from Beecham, Jussi Bjorling and Victoria de los Angeles. This wonderful recording is cherished mostly because of Bjorling; I just adored that incomparable tenor. Yes, there was lots of vibrato there, but god almighty the power and the poetry was incomparable. His self-destruction was a huge tragedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6eGzzK7eM
Lance G. Hill
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
I reviewed the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Mahler 3 for The Age yesterday. Tonight I have the Emperor concerto with Bezuidenhout and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Next week I am reviewing Holst, the Planets with the MSO. All are real warhorses. The regular reviewer is away, and I am merely the fill-in.
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Lance
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Within the last couple of months, I have prepared pianos for two performances of Beethoven's "Emperor." Suddenly, the work in the live halls, is emerging more and more. I will be curious to know about Bezuidenhout's performance. Please share your review.
barney wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 7:49 pmI reviewed the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Mahler 3 for The Age yesterday. Tonight I have the Emperor concerto with Bezuidenhout and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Next week I am reviewing Holst, the Planets with the MSO. All are real warhorses. The regular reviewer is away, and I am merely the fill-in.
Lance G. Hill
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Thanks Lance. I don't want to look egotistical by posting my own work, as though I were looking for praise or validation. So I'll PM them to you.
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Lance
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Okay, I'm looking forward to that, but I think many of us would be interested in your writing.
Lance G. Hill
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Very well. I can never resist flattery! 
And nothing is more flattering than somebody being interested. The reviews are only 300 words each.
MUSIC
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
5 stars
Hamer Hall, March 14
Mahler’s Third symphony, voted in history’s top 10 by a 2016 survey of more than 150 conductors, is a formidable challenge of will, stamina and technique for orchestra and conductor.
The longest symphony in the standard repertoire, it took the Melbourne Symphony about an hour and 40 minutes on Thursday night at Hamer Hall – 100 minutes of constant intensity and skill. This might be slightly on the longish side, but MSO chief conductor Jaime Martin kept the tension taut throughout so that it never dragged.
The third is often regarded as Mahler’s hymn to nature – he himself told his protégée Bruno Walter that it was a comprehensive image of nature’s immortality – and he gave the movements titles such as What the Flowers in the Meadows Tell Me, What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me and What Love Tells me before instantly repudiating them as leading to “horrendous misrepresentation”. Its premiere in 1902 was a triumph for Mahler, unfortunately rare during his lifetime.
Martin and his massive forces – more than 100 musicians plus upper voices choir, children’s choir and American mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis – met every challenge with panache, while the section principals covered themselves with distinction in their various solo requirements. Shane Hooton (off-stage) and Owen Morris (trumpets), guest concertmaster Dale Barltrop, Mark Davidson (trombone) and Nicholas Fleury ((horn) in particular stood out.
Once or twice I felt that Martin’s love of dramatic flair overwhelmed the musical balance, but this was pardonable in such a thrilling performance. He captured the ferocious intensity of the first movement, giving way to the flowing, lilting middle movements and the visionary final movement.
Bryce-Davis, a satisfyingly deep mezzo, sang movingly with a rich purity and emotional depth, and the choirs blended beautifully.
The MSO audience was fortunate to hear such a fine performance, and they were well aware of the fact, with many rising to their feet at the end.
AND
MUSIC
Australian Chamber Orchestra
4 stars
Recital Centre, March 16
A superbly curated program culminating in one of the most sublime achievements of the human imagination – Beethoven’s fifth and final piano concerto – brought the composer’s sound world to glorious life at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Saturday.
London-based Australian pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout directed the Australian Chamber Orchestra from his fortepiano in a program featuring some who influenced and were influenced by Beethoven, followed by a performance of the Emperor concerto of immense mastery, delicacy and near-flawless technique.
The concert opened with the allegro from the second symphony by Ferdinand Riess, for a while Beethoven’s pupil and secretary, a moderately attractive work which mostly served to highlight the contrast between the journeyman and the genius.
The same gulf from Riess was true of the second work, a fine arrangement of Schubert’s lovely Rosamunde. It started life as incidental music to a play that collapsed after just two performances, and Schubert visited it again twice, in a piano impromptu and a quartet. This version interspersed the play’s entre’acte and the impromptu.
Next came three works run together as one: A Walk to Beethoven’s First Symphony by Swedish composer Britta Byström, an excerpt from Lizst’s piano transcription of the same symphony, and the final movement of Mozart’s D minor piano concerto with a highly dramatic cadenza by Beethoven. Byström’s was an accomplished and interestingly astringent piece with themes from the symphony emerging delicately like fragrances.
The fortepiano was intended to recreate the piano sound Beethoven would have heard, but its limited power and dynamic range were not helped by partnering with a modern orchestra – the augmented ACO, as usual in top form. Occasionally, alas, it was overwhelmed by the rich orchestral sound.
Bezuidenhout, one of the world’s leading fortepiano experts, enjoyed a far better balance when he played the same work in the same hall four years ago with the specialist Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
And nothing is more flattering than somebody being interested. The reviews are only 300 words each. MUSIC
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
5 stars
Hamer Hall, March 14
Mahler’s Third symphony, voted in history’s top 10 by a 2016 survey of more than 150 conductors, is a formidable challenge of will, stamina and technique for orchestra and conductor.
The longest symphony in the standard repertoire, it took the Melbourne Symphony about an hour and 40 minutes on Thursday night at Hamer Hall – 100 minutes of constant intensity and skill. This might be slightly on the longish side, but MSO chief conductor Jaime Martin kept the tension taut throughout so that it never dragged.
The third is often regarded as Mahler’s hymn to nature – he himself told his protégée Bruno Walter that it was a comprehensive image of nature’s immortality – and he gave the movements titles such as What the Flowers in the Meadows Tell Me, What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me and What Love Tells me before instantly repudiating them as leading to “horrendous misrepresentation”. Its premiere in 1902 was a triumph for Mahler, unfortunately rare during his lifetime.
Martin and his massive forces – more than 100 musicians plus upper voices choir, children’s choir and American mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis – met every challenge with panache, while the section principals covered themselves with distinction in their various solo requirements. Shane Hooton (off-stage) and Owen Morris (trumpets), guest concertmaster Dale Barltrop, Mark Davidson (trombone) and Nicholas Fleury ((horn) in particular stood out.
Once or twice I felt that Martin’s love of dramatic flair overwhelmed the musical balance, but this was pardonable in such a thrilling performance. He captured the ferocious intensity of the first movement, giving way to the flowing, lilting middle movements and the visionary final movement.
Bryce-Davis, a satisfyingly deep mezzo, sang movingly with a rich purity and emotional depth, and the choirs blended beautifully.
The MSO audience was fortunate to hear such a fine performance, and they were well aware of the fact, with many rising to their feet at the end.
AND
MUSIC
Australian Chamber Orchestra
4 stars
Recital Centre, March 16
A superbly curated program culminating in one of the most sublime achievements of the human imagination – Beethoven’s fifth and final piano concerto – brought the composer’s sound world to glorious life at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Saturday.
London-based Australian pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout directed the Australian Chamber Orchestra from his fortepiano in a program featuring some who influenced and were influenced by Beethoven, followed by a performance of the Emperor concerto of immense mastery, delicacy and near-flawless technique.
The concert opened with the allegro from the second symphony by Ferdinand Riess, for a while Beethoven’s pupil and secretary, a moderately attractive work which mostly served to highlight the contrast between the journeyman and the genius.
The same gulf from Riess was true of the second work, a fine arrangement of Schubert’s lovely Rosamunde. It started life as incidental music to a play that collapsed after just two performances, and Schubert visited it again twice, in a piano impromptu and a quartet. This version interspersed the play’s entre’acte and the impromptu.
Next came three works run together as one: A Walk to Beethoven’s First Symphony by Swedish composer Britta Byström, an excerpt from Lizst’s piano transcription of the same symphony, and the final movement of Mozart’s D minor piano concerto with a highly dramatic cadenza by Beethoven. Byström’s was an accomplished and interestingly astringent piece with themes from the symphony emerging delicately like fragrances.
The fortepiano was intended to recreate the piano sound Beethoven would have heard, but its limited power and dynamic range were not helped by partnering with a modern orchestra – the augmented ACO, as usual in top form. Occasionally, alas, it was overwhelmed by the rich orchestral sound.
Bezuidenhout, one of the world’s leading fortepiano experts, enjoyed a far better balance when he played the same work in the same hall four years ago with the specialist Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Very interesting, Barney. I would have enjoyed the ACO Beethoven as Mahler's expansive symphonies and morbidly re-badged refulgence is beyond my patience. (For me, 'nature' is much better represented in Beethoven #6, but hats off to the orchestra for their epic walk up Grossglockner!)
Great to see the fortepiano with the ACO and in such a fine performance too. The "Emperor" needs new lights are it's a warhorse showing its age. (Isn't it Ries, and not Riess?)
Great to see the fortepiano with the ACO and in such a fine performance too. The "Emperor" needs new lights are it's a warhorse showing its age. (Isn't it Ries, and not Riess?)
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Very good pick-up Belle, and unforgiveable error by me. I'll have that fixed instantly.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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Lance
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Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed it. SEE? Don't be so modest, my friend.
Lance G. Hill
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Editor-in-Chief
______________________________________________________
When she started to play, Mr. Steinway came down and personally
rubbed his name off the piano. [Speaking about pianist &*$#@+#]
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
Yes, Barney, many thanks. Mahler III is one of my top 10 symphonies, rarely done.
We'll be hearing Mahler II (Resurrection) in Carnegie Hall this coming June in Van Zweden's farewell concert, believe it or not, my first live hearing of the work.
We'll be hearing Mahler II (Resurrection) in Carnegie Hall this coming June in Van Zweden's farewell concert, believe it or not, my first live hearing of the work.
Re: Which 'warhorses' have you paid attention to recently?
I LOVE the Resurrection - something in me just responds to it. It might be my favourite Mahler, though I acknowledge that others, especially the ninth, are "greater". I think it will be a brilliant concert, with the NYPO pulling out every stop.
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