Any Rattle/BPO/EMI CDs recommended?

[John Kim]

Happy Thanksgiving!

The new excellent recording of M9th by Rattle/BPO/EMI kindled my interest in other recordings made by this team. Can anyone recommend any CD? How about their recent installment in Hayden symphonies (2CD set)? Bruckner 4th? Strauss?

I really wish they will tackle M7th in the near future.

Thanks.

John,

[barry guerrero]

The Debussy is pretty much awful. I haven't heard the Haydn, but D.H. gave it very low marks. I thought that the "Ein Heldenleben/ Bourgeois Gentilhomme" (however it's spelled) disc was a real snooze. I haven't heard the Bruckner 4; nor do I care to. If I want to hear the BPO in Bruckner 4, the Gunter Wand is plenty good for me. "The Planets" disc is also awful. That's a piece that you would think would be right up Rattle's alley. But he never seems to do "The Planets" real well. The last Rattle/BPO disc that I thought was actually quite good was the one with the late tone poems of Dvorak. I've liked much of his Birmingham stuff more, even though I'm not crazy about that particular orchestra. A real sleeper from Rattle was his Rachmaninoff "Symphonic Dances", which has never been issued on CD. I believe that he made that recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra. 

[akiralx]

The Debussy is pretty much awful. I haven't heard the Haydn, but D.H. gave it very low marks. I thought that the "Ein Heldenleben/ Bourgeois Gentilhomme" (however it's spelled) disc was a real snooze. I haven't heard the Bruckner 4; nor do I care to. If I want to hear the BPO in Bruckner 4, the Gunter Wand is plenty good for me. "The Planets" disc is also awful. That's a piece that you would think would be right up Rattle's alley. But he never seems to do "The Planets" real well. The last Rattle/BPO disc that I thought was actually quite good was the one with the late tone poems of Dvorak. I've liked much of his Birmingham stuff more, even though I'm not crazy about that particular orchestra. A real sleeper from Rattle was his Rachmaninoff "Symphonic Dances", which has never been issued on CD. I believe that he made that recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra. 

The Schubert 9 is dull (just heard Karajan's recently reissued DG version, pretty exciting though iii and iv are perhaps a tad too robust - but the whole performance is very distinctive and fabulously played), but Rattle's Haydn set is pretty good, I don't agree with DH there.  The Bruckner 4 is perfectly OK but unremarkable, Wand's is better (Klemperer, Bohm and Celibidache are better still...).  Haven't heard the Dvorak or Debussy.

[sbugala]

I guess the only good one I can come up with is his Mahler 10 with them.  To me, Rattle has talent, but the British press machine went so insane trying to hype their Bernstein/Karajan/(insert your megastar's name here), that they've done him a disservice. 

In his CBSO days, he did a couple Haydn discs I liked.  His Bartok Concerto for Orchestra/Miraculous Mandarin disc might be my favorite disc of his.  His Szymanowski (sp?) is superb. 

It's too bad when someone has to struggle to find more selections.  Oh! He did a really fun disc of Grainger with the CBSO, too.   

[sperlsco]

The last Rattle/BPO disc that I thought was actually quite good was the one with the late tone poems of Dvorak. 

Agree.  I like this one very much.  If you are a member of the BMG music club, it is inexpensive too.