this was the premier recording of the Mazzetti edition. Gramophone review here:
3 Likes
Petrushka might be my favorite work by Stravinsky. I’ve heard it performed live but, unfortunately, I’ve only seen video of the actual ballet.
Recently, I’ve been working my way through recordings of Petrushka I’ve not heard but I keep coming back to the 1991 recording by the Baltimore Symphony and David Zinman (Telarc). It may come down to the elite brass playing but the tempos really work for me whereas a few other recordings seem to take a little too much time.
A very close second is Chailly with the Royal Concertgebouw (Decca1995). Chailly is a Stravinsky master.
What are your recommended recordings?
3 Likes
I’m listening to a variety of works produced by HDTT (mostly in DSD), who I think do a terrific job of reinvigorating classic recordings, which sound superb to my ears.
2 Likes
This excellent box set is a steal right now on Presto. And it’s really a very good collection of music.
3 Likes
Wonderful recommendations, particularly the Petrushka recordings. Thank you.
Still mining in the Francis Poulenc vein and finding Alexandre Tharaud’s 1996 (Arion label) Poulenc: Pièces pour Piano particularly wonderful. The Nocturnes are exquisitely expressive and wonderfully articulate with poignant dynamics. Particularly enjoy Les cloches de Malines, but all the nocturnes are deeply engaging.
Ever attentive to new classical guitar releases, I’ve been greatly taken with Sean Shibe’s latest, Vesper, on the Pentatone label. All the pieces are either world premiere and composed specifically for guitar and for this guitarist or are new transcriptions. Mr. Shibe is such an amazingly articulate, slur-free guitarist, bringing tones, semitones, overtones out with the superb guitars he plays. In this case he performs on either a Simon Ambridge Hauser I, 1940 replica or a Torres replica for the Harrison Birtwistle miniatures (Mr. Ambridge brings his own deep skill sets to his guitars and is a luthier chosen by Julian Bream and other great guitarists), painted by one of Picasso’s muses, his neighbor, Lydia Corbett. You may enjoy Mr. Ambridge’s conversation with her.
You can see Mr. Shibe carrying the “Sylvette” guitar on the cover. I find every piece on this recording remarkable, with Mr. Shibe on Apollonian form at his favorite recording venue, Crichton Collegiate Church in Midlothian. I cannot find a favorite among these pieces on the basis of musical merit, but I am particularly amused by the musical rendition of a spider’s lunge in Thomas Adès’ Forgotten Dances, Overture, Queen of the Spiders. That fly is toast. Harrison Birtwistle’s Beyond the White hand, originally commissioned and interactively revised with Julian Bream, is wonderful, as are each of the miniatures. The James Dillon 12 Caprices are challenging, but brilliantly carried off by Mr. Shibe. A promise of more to come, I hope.
To come back to where I started in this note, I went back to relisten to Mr. Shibe’s Camino, another example of the most superb guitar playing (this time on a Michael Gee double top) and was delighted by Francis Poulenc’s Sarabande for Guitar.
2 Likes
Definitely not going to replace my SACDs of Bernstein’s Mahler cycles, but splurged (nice hefty discount on Native DSD) on the Bychkov/Czech Phil cycle now available as a box set in DSD 256 and it really does sound incredible with some really excellent performances…1, 2, 3, 5, 8 def standout so far but all are very good and huge dynamic ranges (in the 20’s!)…really just spectacular music performed by musicians who get it and a label (Pentatone) that knows how to record classical music as well as anyone in the business…check out the streaming box on Qobuz/Tidal.
D
5 Likes
Interesting symphony. A good example of music in the first quarter of the 20th century. Good sound too.
1 Like
A veritable treasure chest of rarities for the lover of Romantic piano music. And a real bargain too - I purchased all but three of four of them when they were first released. I’m not going to calculate how much extra I paid!!
i made a playlist of these when they were first released:
I was double-checking against the Hyperion website how much of the series is included in the box. it goes up to volume 43 (CD44 in the set). The final 6 discs includes releases that were not issued as part of the original series such as the Hough/Litton/Dallas SO Rachmaninov concertos:
2 Likes
Paavo Järvi and the Bremer Kammerphilharmonie are both really underrated, when it comes to late classical and early romantic works. Love their Beethoven and Brahms cycles as well!
An alternative reading of Schubert´s #1-6, following a similar approach, a bit more vivid maybe:
Very interesting recording of that particular version. It really sounds to me as instrumentation could be Mahler´s own, yet a bit more leaning towards the style of the earlier symphonies (like 1st and 5th).
I personally prefer the more radical revisions loosely based on Cooke´s completed version. Yes, this recording sounds slightly incoherent, with the Scherzo II and Finale overly ´modern´ and a bit radical in terms of instrumentation:
I would opt for Mariss Jansons, who is a master of combining complexity and simplicity to a particularly ´Russian tone´, without making it an audiophile showcase piece, it that makes sense:
2 Likes
I agree, recording quality is excellent, and Bychkov gets the orchestra to form a very homogeneous yet bold-sounding entity, spectacular, enormously detailed, but also rhythmically sloppy, legato-rich, at times stomping and broad.
Which, in my understanding, is not a good match with Mahler´s subtle shades, as well as the naive movements, inspired by folk dances, Romantic Lieder, children’s songs or alike. In case of the #3, I don´t think the choice of mezzo-soprano and choirs is ideal. Could offer an unusual alternative:
It is not a world-class orchestra, and the combination of a Wagner-hardened mezzo (Big fan of Mihoko Fujimura since I had experienced her live as ´Fricka´ some 25yrs ago) and two very natural, slightly amateurish choirs is not an obvious combination. In the sense of the typical Mahler tone, this is ideal in my understanding. It never gets boring, it is never over the top.
3 Likes
Well, this project is remarkable so its a stellar purchase.
1 Like
Great performance.
2 Likes
Superb recording
1 Like