Nagano/Montreal/DLvdE

[Phaedrus]

Hi,

I saw this CD in the store yesterday, but didn't have the time to give it a listen.  All I read on the Internet is that Nagano's approach seems almost chamber music like.
Has anybody heard it yet?
I like his M8 with Berlin very very much and would appreciate your views on this one very much.

Thanks to you all from the Netherlands.

Best regards,

[John Kim]

I heard Nagano's M3, M6, M8, and DLVDE and I very much liked all of them.

John,

[Russell]

This is exciting news!  Who is the baritone soloist?  (Assuming Nagano's using a baritone, that is.)  I'm hoping it's Christian Gerhaher, who performed it with Nagano in Montreal last year to great reviews.  (He also performed it with Harding last year, too, also to great reviews.)  He's one of my very favorite Lieder singers (his Schubert discs are terrific) and he's done a good version of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen on Arte Nova (w/chamber orch).

Russell

[Phaedrus]

Hi,

Soloists are Klaus Florian Vogt and Christian Gerhaher

Best regards from the Netherlands,

[Russell]

Great--thanks!

Found this review of a DLVDE concert these same forces gave in Paris just last month:

http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2009/04/orchestre-symphonique-de-montréal.html

Russell

[Russell]

I see this disc is already out in Japan (released May 5).  HMV Japan lists it as 'in stock':

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3572879

MDT still has it for pre-order (predicted release date: June 1):

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//88697508212.htm

I wouldn't count on Sony/BMG to release this in the US; Gerhaher's last disc (all Schumann Lieder) issued in Europe over a year ago was never released here, and there are a number of other Sony titles that I know of (Jansons/Bavarian Radio Symphony recordings) that have never been released here, either.  Still hoping, though, that they see Nagano and Mahler having some 'pull' here.

Russell

[barry guerrero]

I'm sure this is very good, but I'm just not crazy about yet another tenor/baritone version.

And maybe it's just me, but I'm not that thrilled with Nagano's Mahler 8. Three things: I'm not crazy about the more "French" sounding organ; the fact that the two loud, Wagnerian-sounding orchestral passages near the start of Part II have absolutely no Wagnerian fire to them at all (before the baritone solo); the fact that tenor Robert Gambill actually switches into falsetto for some of his high notes (I really think he sounds terrible). Beyond that, I like much of it.

I would like to see Sony release the Fabio Luisi/Staatskapelle Dresden Bruckner 9 and "Alpine Symphony" here.

Barry

[Jules]

I attended the performanced that these forces gave in Madrid a month ago; I found it quite impressionistic, and this is a quality I have never associated to Mahler's music, but I must say that I enjoyed the concert a lot.

[sperlsco]

MDT still has it for pre-order (predicted release date: June 1):

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//88697508212.htm

Russell

I ordered it from there yesterday.  They also have a pre-order for a live 1983 PROMS Tennstedt M6 on the BBC label, which I also ordered. 

[barry guerrero]

"I found it quite impressionistic, and this is a quality I have never associated to Mahler's music"

Interesting. I attended a semi-staged version of Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" at the Disney Symphony Hall, and it struck me as being rather cubistic in nature. It made me think of Picasso. Maybe it was the big, primitive looking masks on stage.

[Phaedrus]

Timings:
I 8:29
II 9:38
III 3:11
IV 6:48
v 4:10
VI 29:07

Recorded live 01/13+14(live)+15(studio)/2009 + overdub Klaus Florian Vogt 02/15/2009
Recording venue: Salle Wilfried Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montréal (January) and BavariaMusikstudio, München (February)

Just listened briefly to I; the woodwinds are particularly well recorded.

More news will follow.

Best regard from the Netherlands,

[barry guerrero]

"recording venue: Salle Wilfried Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montréal (January) and BavariaMusikstudio, München (February)"

Huhhhh? Two different locales? The Place des Arts is known for having very poor acoustics for symphony concerts. Perhaps for "Das Lied" that's not such a problem.

Barry

[Russell]

Recorded live 01/13+14(live)+15(studio)/2009 + overdub Klaus Florian Vogt 02/15/2009
Recording venue: Salle Wilfried Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montréal (January) and BavariaMusikstudio, München (February)

Looks like the tenor "overdubbed" his part from Munich.  Since I'm mainly interested in this recording to hear what Gerhaher does with his part, that's OK. 

Russell

[Phaedrus]

Hi everybody,

The info about the recording venues have been copied out of the booklet. I also assume that Muenich was used as an overdub location.

Best regards,

[barry guerrero]

You can hear some very brief excerpts here.

http://www.sonybmgclassical.de/artists2.php?iA=7&artist=325019&product=88697508212

Sorry, but I'm just not that impressed. The tenor sounds kind of wimpy to me - no wonder they did overdubs in Munich. The baritone sounds a bit like Fischer-Dieskau; but without the "barking", I suppose. I'd like a bit more tam-tam at the beginning of the "der Abshied" too (6th movement). Can't really judge from brief excerpts though.

Barry