gustavmahlerboard.com
General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: John Kim on May 18, 2008, 04:41:32 AM
-
For me it's
Barenboim/CSO/DG Bruckner Symphonies set
No other conductor has proved to be so consistently engrossing, direct but full of fresh touches and with keen sense of structure. Aided by great playing by the Chicago brass, Barenboim's Bruckner sounds as if the recordings came directly from the composer's head. No single symphony in this set is a dud, but I particularly love the B0, B1, B3, B5, B6, B8. For me this B6th is hands down the greatest. Guess I am making a bold statement here but I could live well with it if somebody tells me that's the only thing I can bring to the island (not w/o the Mahler items hidden in my bag though ;D).
John,
-
Now this is an easy one! 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis. It has everything - beautiful playing, hypnotic rhythms, style, some great tunes, and, of course, it swings. A quite perfect work of art, with a stunning group of musicians. Unforgettable.
-
I'd want Barenboim's Ring. After Mahler, there's nothing like Wagner to find something new each time you hear it again.
-
Varies a bit from day to day:
In terms of a work, St. Matthew Passion by Klemperer (on EMI).
In terms of solo instrumental performance, the Bach Partitas disc by Mullova (Philips) or LvB's last sonatas by Pollini (DG).
In terms of chamber group performance, LvB's last quartets by either Lasalle Quartet (DG) or Quartetto Italiano (Philips).
In terms of orchestral performance, somewhat reluctantly (there is not enough in the composition or the composer to justify the choice, but in the amazing performance there for sure is), the new Bruckner 4th recording by Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (http://e.lucernefestival.ch/platform/apps/shop/index.asp?MenuID=2849&Menu=13&ID=127&Item=10.6&page=detail&artId=4627 (http://e.lucernefestival.ch/platform/apps/shop/index.asp?MenuID=2849&Menu=13&ID=127&Item=10.6&page=detail&artId=4627)).
In terms of a contemporary piece (funny that we still feel this must go to a separate category), either Birtwistle's Pulse Shadows (Teldec) or something by Gyorgy Kurtag -- perhaps the perfect miniatures in the "Works for Soprano" disc from Hungaroton.
With these one could live a long rewarding life even in solitude and with nothing else to do all day long.
PT
-
Definitely Beethoven. After a few thousand hours of agonizing over which one to take it would probably be the Takacs Quartet's recording of the late string quartets.
-
For me it's
Barenboim/CSO/DG Bruckner Symphonies set
The DG set? I've been meaning to fill a gap and get a Barenboim B2, but thought the Teldec set was the obvious place to look into, for the sound and the maturity.
PT
-
Polarius,
Yes, I mean the DG set, NOT the Teldec one. I am a minority that prefers Barenboim's former Bruckner traversal. I'll delve into the comparison at a later time.
John,
-
Thanks, I'd be grateful for tips for a fine B2, and Barenboim is often excellent but regrettably underrepresented in my listening praxis.
PT
-
Thanks, I'd be grateful for tips for a fine B2, and Barenboim is often excellent but regrettably underrepresented in my listening praxis.
PT
Barenboim on Teldec is poor for B2, unusually because he is normally inspired - his B9 from that second cycle is my favourite for the work.
You may wish to read my survey of B2s from my review of the Simone Young SACD:
http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/4461
-
If I may add one more item, it will be
Slatkin/SLO/RCA/Shostakovich 4th Symphony
This is an utterly convincing performance of Shosy's most enigmatic but powerful and poignant symphony that emphasizes its symphonic structure and argument.
The playing and sound of the orchestra is simply amazing.
John,
-
hey John, Victor Carr just gave the Slatkin Shsosty #4 a 10/10 review at Classicstoday! Here's what he said:
Leonard Slatkin recorded only a handful of Shostakovich symphonies for RCA, of which this Fourth is the finest. Indeed, it's one of the best performances of this work on disc. Slatkin's highly idiomatic reading emphasizes musical values--propulsive rhythms, piercing accents, bold colors, fully fleshed-out textures, and perfectly gauged tempos--over exaggerated emotion, and the result is a powerfully affecting performance. The opening movement launches boldly: right away the first climax, with brazen brass, generates terrific energy, and it's all captured by RCA's vivid and detailed recording (which needs to be played at high volume to get its full impact). Even more impressive is the string fugato near the end of the development, which the St. Louis strings negotiate magnificently despite Slatkin's frantic pace.
In the sardonic scherzo Shostakovich's myriad instrumental effects express themselves with uncommon clarity; the woodwinds sound especially perky here, and also in the finale's rollicking dance episodes. Indeed, the entire St. Louis Symphony turns in a virtuoso performance, equaling if not surpassing the Chicago Symphony with Previn. Of course, such perfection and polish are not the only ways to do the Shostakovich Fourth--some listeners may prefer the raw, edgy playing style of Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra, or the near-militaristic virtuosity of the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony for Rozhdestvensky. But for an experience of sheer orchestral opulence Slatkin's version can't be beat. Available through Arkivmusic.com's on-demand service.
-
I've thought long and hard on this question, and I strongly feel I would bring this set to an island:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AD3P3C51L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Abbado's BPO Brahms is a revelation to me, and I have loved these recordings for years...
--Todd
-
I've thought long and hard on this question, and I strongly feel I would bring this set to an island:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AD3P3C51L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Abbado's BPO Brahms is a revelation to me, and I have loved these recordings for years...
--Todd
A brilliant choice. These are special performances, so very exquisite and luminous and with a recorded sound to match. Not just best imaginable Brahms performances but about as good as it gets in general. Like you say, they never cease to captivate, amaze, and inspire.
PT
-
I am a minority that prefers Barenboim's former Bruckner traversal. I'll delve into the comparison at a later time.
Thx, would love to hear more if that comparison ever materializes. -PT
-
Barenboim on Teldec is poor for B2, unusually because he is normally inspired - his B9 from that second cycle is my favourite for the work.
You may wish to read my survey of B2s from my review of the Simone Young SACD:
http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/4461
Thanks for pointing this out. I really will have to look into it as I don't recall the B2 being a favorite among my favorite conductors!
PT
-
Aaargh! I'd sooner kill myself than make Brahms orchestral music my desert isle choice. I would take punk, heavy metal, rap - anything but Brahms. Actually, that's not quite true, because I would go drown myself in the lagoon before being forced to listen to nothing but Vivaldi. Brahms would be pure Mahler in comparison.
-
There is a captivating and beautiful deserted-island story by Adolfo Bioy-Casares (a personal friend and soulmate of Borges, regarded by the latter as the "true and secret master") that explains the choice the best: the long-suffering governor of an abandoned and forgotten penal colony, after quietly perfecting his techniques of neurosensory manipulation, succeeds in transmuting his own pain sensations into auditory sensations and thereonafter no longer feels pain but hears, forever, the beginning of the first movement of Brahms's Symphony in E Minor... (B4). (Plan for Escape, trans. Suzanne Jill Levine.)
'nuff said.
Maybe you just haven't heard Abbado's Brahms?
:)
PT
-
I guess that in fairness, I should listen to the Abbado Brahms, but my first impression about Brahms would be to agree with Mahler, that Brahms did not really have much to say. Yes, he said it very well, but it did not have the depth and variety of Mahler's music.
-
Polarius,
It's nice to hear there is another fan of the Abbado Brahms out there.
I personally feel Mahler's opinion on Brahms is kinda vague...afterall, what can music really say? But if I compare the orchestral palette between Brahms and Mahler, I get a feeling Mahler found Brahms too intellectual perhaps, or dry.
Yet under the right orchestra/conducter Brahms can be the world, and he is under Abbado's wand.
--Todd
-
Touche, Leo K! Perhaps the fates conspired to validate your admiration of Brahms.
Just after I had made the remark about Mahler questioning Brahms, I went back to reading Natalie Bauer-Lechner. Nearly immediately I came upon some remarks that were very complimentary to Brahms, so I guess you were entirely right about how Mahler was really rather vague about Brahms. Probably, it was a case of Mahler's "hot & cold" mood swings. I'd guess he did not like Brahms' attitude toward Wagner, but I doubt that just after hearing Brahms done well, that Mahler would have anything but praise for him--something that's probably true for most of us too!
-
Let me tell you, I just listened to the Borodin 2nd symphony (Rattle/Berlin - after not having heard it for many years - and I'd take that over any of the Brahms symphonies (as a desert isle disc, that is). For me, the best Brahms symphony is Dvorak 7. I'd take D6 or D7 over Brahms anyday as well. If I had to choose any work by Brahms, it would be the "Liebeslieder Walzer". Why? . . Because I feel it's the most honest work by Brahms: a bunch of Germans sitting around in an overly upholstered parlor, singing loudly at each other in 3/4 time. What could be more genuinely honest than that? If it had to be one of the symphonies; for me, it would be the 3rd. I feel that the 3rd is the most "complete" of Brahms' symphonies - the one with the fewest deficiencies. That's just me.
Barry
-
I'll add one other thing regarding Brahms: his 1st orchestral Serenade would be my desert isle pick before any of the symphonies. Sorry, but that's how I feel. It's far more uninhibited.
-
If it had to be one of the symphonies; for me, it would be the 3rd. I feel that the 3rd is the most "complete" of Brahms' symphonies - the one with the fewest deficiencies. That's just me.
Barry
Yes, Barry, that's what I have been telling my friends for years. B3rd is the least manipulated, cooked up, the most honest and direct of all the Brahms symphonies. It's one of my favorite symphonies by any composer. Thanks for brining this point up.
John,
-
I'll add one other thing regarding Brahms: his 1st orchestral Serenade would be my desert isle pick before any of the symphonies...
That'd be a consideration, if played like these guys do it:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XvtS-IolL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
PT
-
I like your style PT! :D
-
As you can tell, Todd, I picked up all my features from you (except I couldn't figure out how to turn on that "Five-Star Hero Gold Member" line).
PT