Classical Music Mayhem!!

Seeing as I'm going to be using CMMonline to renew my old Berwald threads I thought I'd invest in a new recording of his symphonies...



Roy Goodman at the helm of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. This one has gotten some very good reviews; tempi in the samples seems right on and I like the leaner interpretation. This may also prompt a new Berwald thread from me as it has the fragmented 5th symphony on it.

I also noticed this in the listening thread so I went ahead and ordered it as it was quite inexpensive at Amazon Marketplace...



No doubt Mel will be quite pleased with himself for prompting my first Alkan purchase! Any other recording recommendations for Alkan, Mel?

Well now that you mention it... Actually that's quite an interesting place to start as it's all short pieces and Alkan is best known for his epic tendon shredding music so you're going at things the reverse of the usual route. One of the first things you'll detect is how absolutely unique some of these pieces sound, how unorthodox. When Alkan's shorter works are played correctly they should be like flickering flames suspended over an abyss. There are some real gems which you should enjoy, Hoogland doesn't do a bad job and of course you get the Pleyel of which you'll approve. But if you really want to get your hands dirty you should get Hamelin's recording of the concerto for solo piano on Hyperion.

I'll have to check that out, since my last attempt at obtaining the Berwald symphonies fell through.

Well, just to be safe I went ahead and ordered Hamelin's Alkan...





And since I'm on an organ binge I saw this and thought, "Why not":



I do believe this qualifies as being my official, "Round of Alkan!" How you did it, Mel, I'll never know!



I'll let you know what I think after it arrives. The EMI set is still a steal, however, and with that you get the concerti as well.

LOL - Sorin you amaze me! Alkan is part of the holy trinity of romantic master pianists- we have Chopin the perfect poet, Liszt the supreme virtuoso and Alkan the great enigma (born 1810, 1811 & 1813 respectively) . Once again you are traveling backwards! It would be more traditional to familiarize yourself with Chopin's masterpieces, then progress to Liszt's transcendental wonders and THEN move on to Alkan's labyrinthine conundrums. And to storm in with the organ works too! All that Berwald and Grieg must have effected you more deeply than I realised. Should you have any qualms about Liszt I suggest you look up the story about the time Grieg visited Liszt with his new violin sonata.

Next you'll be buying the Henselt etudes because he used to play Bach on a dampened piano whilst reading, not the score, but the Bible- whilst holding a conversation!

Yes, quite daring of me, for sure. I'm looking forward to hearing all this Alkan, will be a brand new adventure! Don't push you're luck with me on Liszt, Chopin, and Henselt, though - who knows, if Alkan impresses me perhaps I'll throw a little of them in as well!

I'm quite familiar with Grieg's interactions with Liszt. The latter was very impressed with the former's piano concerto in particular.

Indeed- they seemed to get on very well with much mutual admiration. For those who don't know the tale Grieg tells it thus...

"Now you must bear in mind, in the first place, that he had never seen nor heard the sonata, and in the second place that it was a sonata with a violin part, now above, now below, independent of the piano part. And what does Liszt do? He plays the whole thing, root and branch, violin and piano, nay, more, for he played fuller, more broadly. The violin got its due right in the middle of the piano part. He was literally over the whole piano at once, without missing a note, and how he did play! With grandeur, beauty, genius, unique comprehension. I think I laughed - laughed like a child."

Yesterday, I went used-CD hunting. First, I went historical.



In March 1942, Goebbels, Goering, and Hitler sat in the front row as Furtwangler threw a fiery Beethoven's 9th right in the Furher's face.

Next, I went historically informed.



Okay, that's the wrong picture. I found Norrington's Beethoven's 7th with the Coriolan and Egmont overtures.

It will be a fun weekend's listening.

Remember to consider the complete set re-released on Virgin, over here I bought it cheaper than the cost of one of the disks from the original EMI releases.

Just a warning, Brian: the EMI sound in the last movement of the 7th is no good. The entire Virgin set is around $30 (sometimes they drop it down to $20) and the sound is beautifully handled.

I wouldn't mind downloading so much if they will provide "lossless" formats and high res artwork so I can make my own CDs but there better not be any encoding that only allows you one copy. If I pay good money for music I expect to be able to play it the where and when I want. Whether that be my PC, laptop, mp3 player, phone or whatever. That said I still prefer to own an original release CD. I don't know why but storing music on my hard drives just is not the same. I know the music may sound the same and all but I personally like having that plastic shell and the booklet to read, and the disc to play in my players or rip to my mp3 player of need be.

Kevin

That's a good point, Kevin. If they'd provide some lossless formats and all the artwork and linear notes then it might not be such a big deal; you could burn the disc and print out the artwork and it would be much the same as buying a hard copy in the first place, yet (theoretically) cheaper.

Of course to purchase a digital recording, especially in this hi-res manner, will require a computer, good broadband connection, and the necessary computer skills to use them - things not everyone in the world has. Ordering an actual CD from a catalogue is more inclusive in this regard, in the absence of a suitably handy store.

I've seen clips of the finale on YouTube, but I don't know if the whole thing is available there.

I just realised I never got around to ordering the Eroica Quartet's work with Mendelssohn, so I did just that...





Smiley will also be interested to learn that thanks to his thread I've ordered Brahms' serenades...