RCO Jansons M1 Live

[Phaedrus]

Hello everyone,

As a newbie here, I figured it would be nice to start off my very first contribution with a first impression of Jansons RCO M1, available in stores in Holland since this week. It's a live recording of August 28 and November 17, 2006 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Timings: 15:55, 7:59, 10:41, 19:59 which makes for a total playing time of  54:47

As compared to RCO Chailly 1996 M1:
Timings: 16:32, 8:22, 10:58, 21:00 tpt 57:20

And Bertini's KRS M1
Timings: 15:46, 7:24, 10:46, 20:36 tpt 54:32

First impressions: Awesome sound quality, IMO best so far on the RCO Live label. Jansons goes to extreme lengths to make every part heard. Superb clarity too. I'll give it a serious spin this weekend and am really excited about it.

Also picked up these two:
Gliere Symf. 3 Ilya Muromets / BBC Phil / Edward Downes

Schumann/Mahler Symf 2 & 4 Gewandhaus Chailly
Listened to this one through crappy phones at the store and wasn't quite impressed. Heard parts of it on the car radio though and was taken aback. Stunning! It'll be next on my CD player after M1 this weekend.

Greetings from the Netherlands!

Phaedrus

[Wunderhorn]

Wow, Holland! I own the Bertini M1 and thought the strings in the opening of the finale too slow perhaps. The Chailly with RCO I thought one of the best in his cycle. Jansons surely is paying allot of attention to Mahler of recent, His M6 on the RCO label is now available in The States, though I am curious with Eschenbach's and Fischer's receiving rave reviews, it is worth the price of admition? I just bought Karajan M5 and M6, after having fallen in love with his digital M9.

[Phaedrus]

Hello Wunderhorn,

Just some additional info:  Labelnr. RCO 07001, it's a hybrid and sells around here for Euro 16,95, but it only contains M1 (Chailly at least had the Berg sonata included).

I'll be able to tell you all more this weekend but for now, I'm off to bed, as it is already after midnight over here. No disrespect.

Cheers,

Phaedrus

[Amphissa]

"Gliere Symf. 3 Ilya Muromets / BBC Phil / Edward Downes"

This is an exceptional (and sadly neglected) symphony. The Downes recording is pretty good, but to me, in the final analysis, it fails to capture the real majesty and potency of the work. It is a bit too clean, brisk, and British.

I highly recommend the recording by Farberman. Clocking in at 93 minutes, this is a recording that plumbs the depths of Gliere's masterpiece. Perhaps no other composer has attempted music on a scale this large since its completion. It stands solidly beside Mahler and Bruckner in scale and beauty, to my ears. Most recordings suffer cuts. There are few recordings of the complete symphony. The Farberman is one that should not be missed.

[Wunderhorn]

Amphissa, you are not the only one I've heard praise this symphony. There is (or was) a review on amazon that claimed it one of the top symphonies ever written, that it was grossly ignored and so on... I'll check it out sometime soon hopefully. I personally believe Martinu very underappreciated 

[barry guerrero]

That Jansons M1 looks to be pretty good. I wish it included "Blumine" as an addendum. Then again, I already have Blumine. They should have added something, though.

I'd love to see Jansons/RCOA record Mahler 7. But I'm sure that the Concertgebouw probably feels that they've already recorded M7 plenty of times. Then again, they've recorded M1 at least three times already - twice with Haitink.

Barry

[Phaedrus]

Hi Barry,

Concerning M7 I think RCO Chailly and SB Barenboim are going to give them a good run for the money. And I  wouldn't discard the '82 RCO Haitink live off hand.

Hi Amphissa,

I saw the Farbermann version of Gliere 3 in the store but was put off by the fact that it was a '60-s Melodya recording. As sound quality is a big issue with me, I'm "gonna stick to ma guns"  .

Let you all know about either recording this weekend.

Glad to be on board.


Cheers,

Phaedrus

[Amphissa]

Phaedrus, audio quality is also an issue of concern to me. And I too tend to be careful about early Melodiya. However, the Farberman recording has been remastered. Listening to this through my stereo system, it lacks the diamond-like transparency of the highest quality CD/SACD productions, but the audio stands up with most CDs out there today. It is not one of those "band in a box of snakes" recordings.

The reason I like the Farberman so much is the music itself. Gliere wrote a symphony that tells the tale of the mythic hero Ilya Mourometz. The music parallels the episodes in the tale. To my mind, the Farberman performance is the only one that really captures the truely epic proportions of the tale upon which the music is based.

This symphony cries out for a modern multichannel SACD recording.

[Phaedrus]

Well everybody, here goes:

To start with the ending, the applause is not tracked separately and is instantaneous. No time to hear the last reverberations in the Concertgebouw. But this is also a good thing, IMO, because you're constantly under the impression that you're listening to a studio recording, until the applause kicks in.

Superb sound, superb playing, especially from the woodwinds, and a special cheer for bassoon, oboe and flute.

Barry, for your information, the percussion is beautifully captured, especially a very, very deep bass drum and great tympany.

Interpretationwise, I can't offer you any info, as I don't have a score and am only a pretty mediocre amateur musician, but comparing it to Chailly and Bertini, I'd say this recording offers more playfulness (for lack of a better word). Musicians seem to enjoy and "live" the music more.

To conclude, I'd say that this live recording captures just that certain something, that Celibidache considered unable being reproduced.

Don't take my word for it, just give it a whirl when you bump into it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cheers,


Phaedrus

[Phaedrus]

Sorry Amphissa, didn't mean to be rude, but our posts just crossed.

I'm taking the Gliere back to the store, maybe I can still change it for the Farbermann. As I am a regular store visitor and buyer, I think I'l be okay.

The music reminds me a bit of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. What is your take? Are there any parallels, besides Prokofiev being one of Gliere's students?

Cheers,

Phaedrus

[Amphissa]

The music reminds me a bit of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. What is your take? Are there any parallels, besides Prokofiev being one of Gliere's students?

I seem to remember that Gliere's teachers included Arensky, Taneyev, and Glazunov. The 3rd symphony was dedicated to Glazunov, but to me it is far better than anything Glazunov ever wrote. And I hear little of Arensky in it. Instead, it seems indebted to the music of three other great Russian composers. One is Taneyev, to be sure. One listen to Taneyev's splendid Oresteia Overture is evidence enough of that. The second is Rimsky-Korsakov. Gliere uses the same theme that R-K used in his Russian Easter, and the sweeping melodies are evocative of R-K's way with orchestration. The third is Myaskovsky. There are dark places in Gliere's 3rd, especially depicting the long stasis of the hero at the beginning and end, and some of the encounters with dark and dangerous foes. These aspects are especially akin to the music of Myaskovsky. But Gliere also makes a direct quote of a passage from Myaskovsky's more beautiful work. Gliere and Myaskovsky were contemporaries. And both were influential in the country's classical music world, with Myaskovsky head of Moscow Conservatory and Gliere head of the musicians' union. (Both were ousted in the 1948 Soviet sweep of established composers, along with Myaskovsky's life-long friend Prokofiev and Shostakovich.) Of course, the two composers who most substantially influenced Russian music of the early 1900s were Wagner and Scriabin.

[MichaelO]

Hi Amphissa:

>>This symphony cries out for a modern multichannel SACD recording.<<

There is a recording on TELARC in SACD.  I think it got ok reviews.

Michael

 

[Amphissa]

Oh, right, that's Botstein's recording. I've only heard that one in standard stereo. I often like Botstein, but not so much in this recording. His tempi are too fast, curiously erratic. And for some reason, the audio is really not very good. Surprising for a Telarc CD. The audio of the Downes recording is much better. As is the Farberman. So, I did not realize it was available in SACD format, but I'm not inclined to buy it. Now, Farberman on SACD -- that would be an experience not to be missed.