GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site - Variations on a Theme from Bizet's Carmen

12-16-2008

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JANDL100

Forest of Dean, UK
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Sibelius symphony recordings ....

Romy the Cat wrote:
.... but I never was attracted to Sibelius’s Symphonies. But here it was a totally other story. The Firth and Seventh ISymphony plated by Boston Symphony in 1975 under no other then Colin Davis, with Firth probably be more interesting then Seventh.
The Cat

I love all the Sibelius symphonies (although the 7th is quite hard to penetrate) - but the 5th is probably my least favorite. The only recording I have heard that really works for me is on the budget Naxos label - Petri Sakari and the Iceland SO. With Sakari it's not just a series of nice melodies and rythmic ideas, but a coherent symphonic whole. At least, that's the way it seems to me.

My fave Sibelius symphonies are the 6th (conductor Saraste with the Finnish RSO on BMG is wonderful) and the 4th. Mysterious, atmospheric, sparsely-orchestrated and chilling. Yummy!

Jerry

12-16-2008

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Faure, Ozawa and Boston

A rare wonderful recording form the mid of Ozawa–inspired Bostonian symphonic nuclear winter. I do not need more justification do not like Ozawa. Last Saturday he led MET with “Queen of Spade” it was beyond being bad – it was hardly recognizable. And then something like this!

It was recorded in 1987 and the CD has all Faure program: Pelléas et Mélisande, Après un rêve, Elégie, Pavane… It is truly the BSO at its best with Ozawa, and it is kind of the Ozawa-like repertoire… Truly wonderful play. Listening now the Pavane with Tanglewood Festival chorus – very impressive, in fact geniusly impressive! I need to fine if it is available on LP. The CD has very pleasant artwork, BTW…

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

12-16-2008

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tuga

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I have that recording, I think.

It was recommended by a (singer and choir director) friend of mine. A moving performance.

But my copy was recorded in 1994 and 1995 and produced in 1997... Romy, is it possible that your data is incorrect?

Regards,
Tuga

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira Pascoaes

12-16-2008

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Lbjefferies7
Southern California
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Gould and Zemph

JANDL100 wrote:

Lbjefferies7 wrote:

I played earlier the disgusting Zenph "re-performance" of Gould's Goldberg Variations. This, by the way was the worst performance of the week! Where is the music?!? Why did they do it?

It's years since I heard this on an early CBS CD (it's still on my shelves, I'll have another listen later today) but it always struck me then as a disjointed, mechanical run-through. The later 1981 recording is something else though! - I really like that.

Is it the performance that you don't like, Lbj, or what Zenph have done with it?

Yes, I too prefer the 1981 performance, though the piano did not seem as quite as capable.

The problem with Zenph is that they convert (kind-of) the audio signal into a high-def MIDI format and then play it back on a Disklaver player piano. It takes a lot of manipulation to get the transfers to playback decently. This is the first place they get into trouble. Second, they play it back on, naturally, a Yamaha piano, very nicely made, but second class sound. The recording was quite bad...Strike three.

I've heard just parts of it on a Live Performance LX player system in a ridiculously wonderful piano. It wasn't a waste (the LX is the only interesting player out there, save for the reliability-challenged Bosendorfer Ceus), but Gould should never have been mentioned...they just use him as a marketing slogan. Very sad.

Regards,
LBJ

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer. Leonard Bernstein

12-16-2008

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Ozawa's Faure and BSO

tuga wrote:
It was recommended by a (singer and choir director) friend of mine. A moving performance. But my copy was recorded in 1994 and 1995 and produced in 1997... Romy, is it possible that your data is incorrect? Regards, Tuga

The 1987 is written on the CD box. I do not know if we refer to the same recording. Your isRCA, mine is DG: Deutsche Grammophon CD 423 089-2. Here is the how the box looks like:

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

12-17-2008

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tuga

Posts 174
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Faure by BSO and Ozawa: different material

Hello Romy,

My recording also features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus but the material is not the same (Requiem, songs). It was my mistake: I was confusing it with my version of Pelleas et Melisande that I can't have access to at the moment...

Cheers,
Tuga

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira Pascoaes

01-28-2009

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mats
Chicago
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Tristan at Lyric Opera

If you missed the webcast of the opening night of Tristan on WFMT, perhaps you can catch it on your local station sometime in the future. Fortune smiled and blessed me with two 7th row seats. I leave the commentary to John von Rhein:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0129-tristan-lyric-ovnjan29,0,1343266.sto

I will just say that the cellos and basses in the opening chords of act three were just amazing. Today I found that the Bohm on Phillips 434 425-2 captures much of that yearning growl. Furtwangler is perhaps even more haunting with the PO. As usual I had to attenuate the HF quite a bit to capture the feeling of opera sound.

Mats

01-28-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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The Bayreuther 1966.

Matt, if you have the Tristan with Birgit Nilsson and Christa Ludwig from Bayreuther 1966 then you might be all set. I am not a Wagner expert but the friend of my who is Wagner-infatuated gave me that brand new sealed 5LPs album and I am “working” on it for a couple years. A truly wonderful performance in my view…

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

01-29-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Takashi Bruckner and the rice-paper walls.

This is in interesting Bruckner. Asahina plays this 9 in 2000 like someone would play Brahms. While I was listening it I did not think about the music but about audio. This Tokyo orchestra realty does not have “it”, even though I do like what Asahina was trying accomplishing. It like riding a bike on deflated tires. It is funny as the very same musicians sitting in western orders do very well. What I wonder if the course of everything are the wall of the Japanese concert holes and the slimier that makes the instrument to sound “simpler”..

The caT

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

02-20-2009

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Lbjefferies7
Southern California
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Aram Khachaturian

I listened to his Concerto-Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra today. I have only one performance of this piece, with Rostropovich/Svetlanov/Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and was wondering if anyone knew any other valuable performances.

May your ideal state be realized by living in accordance with your own nature, (I'm tired of "Regards,")
LBJ

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer. Leonard Bernstein

02-20-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Khachaturian, second echelon and the Stravinsky’s syndrome

Lbjefferies7 wrote:
I listened to his Concerto-Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra today. I have only one performance of this piece, with Rostropovich/Svetlanov/Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and was wondering if anyone knew any other valuable performances.

LBJ,

If you like the Khachaturian’s Concerto-Rhapsodyes then he had a few more of them, for different instruments and they all were identically good. It is hard to go wrong with Rostropovich and since I lately become much warmer to Svetlanov then I use to be then I think what you have might be good, I do not remember this performance now. BTW, Khachaturian the last 20 year of his live was actively conducting in Russian and abroad. If you like him then you might search for many record where Khachaturian led different orchestras with his own music. I personally feel that Khachaturian suffered from the Stravinsky syndrome in his conducting (Stravinsky never was a good conductor of his own works) but still I think the Khachaturian own performances are worth to explore.

What however I do remember from my feeling about Khachaturian’s rhapsodies and his both concertos were my feelings that it was good music BUT it was very obvious WHY Khachaturian was in some kind second echelon of composers…

The caT

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

02-20-2009

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Lbjefferies7
Southern California
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Second Echelon Conducting of Second Echelon Composing

Thanks Romy,

Yes, I will explore Khachaturian more...I like him even though he keeps company with the lesser respected of composers. It is kind of a shame that the secondary composers often get pushed aside by the major, important works of the First Echelon. Yes, it is obviously secondary and rather derivative, but does this piece deserve lesser admiration than, say, Beethoven's Appassionata or some of the other middle-period empty crap he composed? When will Monn's Cello Concerto in G Minor get its due?

The recording I have is in a box set of 10 Rostropovich CD's...Historic Russian Archives, I believe.

LBJ

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer. Leonard Bernstein

03-09-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Dupré’s Symphonie Passion for Organ by Pierre Cochereau

This performance is one of the few rare examples how to compose and to play organ properly. Pierre Cochereau plays the Cathedral of Notre-Dame’s organ in 50s, prior to the organ “improvement” in 60s. What a wonderful and tasteful play!

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

03-15-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Sonata for String Orchestra by William Walton.

Wow,

what a magnificent new for me pieces and what a wonderful new for me orchestra! It was performed and recorded by European Broadcast Union in 2007 at London’s Wigmore Hall, and stunningly-good played by Scottish Ensemble under direction of Jonathan Morton

http://www.williamwalton.net/works/orchestral/sonata_for_strings.html

The caT

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

03-22-2009

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mats
Chicago
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Variations on a Theme from Bizet's Carmen

Heard this recording, by Valery Kuleshov on the Van Cliburn Competition 1993 disc, played on WFMT yesterday. A mezmerizing performance, fantastic arrangement, and superb sound. An Amazon reviewer writes:
"Though Horowitz wrote these variations and played them regularly, they were never written down. Valery listened to recordings of Horowitz performing the Carmen Variations hundreds of times and transcribed what he heard as closely as possible to the way Horowitz played the piece."

mats

05-25-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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Clemens Krauss’s Brahms Third.

It was on March 1930. Clemens Krauss lead Vienna Philharmonic. After Walter, Bernstein (with Vienna only),Toscanini, Barbirolli, Cantelli, Levine, Furtwangler and Got only knows who esle I finally “got” the Brahms Third! What a Sound Krauss thrown!

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

06-11-2009

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
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The recorder Concertos!

I kind of pooh-pooh the Concerto for recorder. I heard a few of them but they never attracted me – the simplistic whistling recorders never stroke me as an expensive not to say leading instrument. Well, I presume that I never heard it live…

Today the WGBH broadcasted LIVE Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto for recorder and strings in F Major. The recorder was played by Matthias Maute and it was accompanied by a collage of musicians under umbrella of Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, conducted by Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs.

What a play and what an interesting music a recorder can make! Apparently the regular audio media is too devastating for sound of recorder at the recordings that I heard was always sounded too flat and basically was caring a variation of one tone. Not anymore…

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

06-11-2009

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JJ Triode
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Recorder performances

I think the recorder has a split personality. At the lowest level it is one of the easiest instruments for kids to learn to play, often used in schools, usually with very cheap plastic instruments.

At the opposite end it is one of the hardest instruments to play "as it should be" and very few musicians do it. It also requires a very small performance space as the recorder just cannot produce much SPL, especially if tone matters. Probably to record it properly is difficult too, microphone setup will demand special attention and other things need to be "right."

All the Baroque masters did some very nice concertos and sonatas for recorder, including Bach, Telemann, Handel, and Vivaldi. I listened to a recorder concerto by Vivaldi just last night. It was even more popular in the Renaissance, among others Pretorius used recorders along with his krumhorns, shawms and such.