30 January 2010

Exciting New Releases

Following the excellent first box-set of Günter Wand and the DSO, a second set is coming soon. It will include Beethoven 5th, Bruckner 6th & 8th, Mozart KV550, Stravinsky Firebird and others. After what was really a surprise from the first set, this second set will be very much eagerly awaited by me.

Another live recording which will be issued, so I heard, is Thielemann conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden in Bruckner 8th. It might just be the concerts he was asked at short notice to stand in for the ailing Fabio Luisi, on 13-15 September, 2009. If it is not the case, the last time he conducted this orchestra was in 2003. Another recording to look out for. He is still using the Haas edition of B8, quite rare among "young" conductors these days.

This year being the 200th birth year of Chopin, many new releases and also old commemorative re-issues will appear sooner or later. We will be spoilt, if not overwhelmed, with choices. It will also be a year when pianists will face the harsh reality of survival of the fittest.

Mary Wang introduced to me this beautiful cover art of a DG compilation disc.
 

It was designed by Olaf Hajek.

11 comments:

  1. i've heard the 2 thieleman performance and don't feel impressed since the sound quality is not good. it's odd that at the end of the file,somebody shout out:"can't believe it's the same orchestra !!" it reminds me of the inaugural performance of mpo. the result of his approach is kind of clamity then (and has been attack severely under david hurwitz), but he has proved that he can be a great bruckner performer later! the b9 of fabio lusi is not satisfying. yes, i can feel the melody singing,but what else left? bad english again^^
    eaquson from tw

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comments.
    Thielemann is one who has been hooked on the "old school" and he likes to romantise nearly everything he conducts.
    The B9 by Fabio Luisi has only sonic beauty without anything down under the surface for me to admire.
    BTW, I'm going to Taiwan during the Chinese New Year, and can you please introduce me to the places where I can find some classical CDs?
    Thanks
    Horace

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you very much indeed eaquson. I respect your wish and do what you requested. I'll go to Taipei and not the city where you live, but I really hope I can go there some day.
    Thanks once again and I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year of the Tiger.
    Best regards,
    Horace

    ReplyDelete
  4. i listened to thielemann's b8/bpo in the chinese new year,and it sounds like wand's RCA recording with the same orchestra. when i listened wand's performance again, i realized that the two are actually quite different.

    Again,thielemann is confused (or he just hate it)with the contradiction in b8. In his b7 1st mov,he treat the "problem" with kind of hesitation that can be found in furtwangler's tristan. here he try to soften the brutal part of the 1st mov,and connect different fragment as smooth as he can.

    in wand's case, he too soften the brutal part, but he just soften(not try to erase) it and keep the contradiction. i think he intend to turn our attention to some point that lies in the structure which are more subtle not so easy to be recognized.

    what does "style" really means ? the young conductor want to creat his own style,and his style "looks like" romantic but has nothing to do with bruckner.

    the old one care about the work more. in my opinion,the gentleness and the bold landscape under the mild sunshine are just superficial impressions. they're just results of his strategy, not his goal.

    sad that i known nothing of the eighth and i can't even find the score of any 1890 edition.

    ReplyDelete
  5. May I ask whether the Thielemann BPO B8 is a record (if so which company?), or a streaming from Youtube or BPO live concert?

    I've sort of followed Thielemann since his first recordings (Beethoven 5th & 7th, then Schumann symphonies), and I think he sells himself as a true descendant of the old German school. He likes deep basses, slow tempo, romantised phrases with rubato usually as rallentando, and a good orchestral blend modelled somewhat on Karajan. However he sometimes sounds rather contrived and conceited in these mannerisms. It'll be interesting to see how he will do in Dresden when he takes up the post later.

    The study score of B8 1890 version is available on Amazon UK.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No-minor-version-Orchestra/dp/B000E97V8G/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266747430&sr=1-15

    I bought the same Eulenburg score more than 10 years ago when I attended Barenboim's Staatskapelle Berlin Beethoven cycle in London. These "yellow" scores are cheaper than the original "blue" study scores.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for ur informations. However,i don't have a credit card and i can only wait for the Dover's Hass edition which will be on sell May 2010. i'm not familiar with the bruckner problem and this one looks like Nowak edition?

    i still like thielemann's bruckner, they are just so lovely. his schumann symphony is especially praised by native music lovers here.
    by the way,i can't figure out the information of his bruckner set on abruckner.com and i wish they could be found in tw.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, this is the Nowak edition. The Haas edition has long been unavailable in the market since the publication of the Nowak edition, so it's a good chance to pick up this inexpensive Dover reprint of the Haas edition. In fact many of my study scores are Dover's, e.g. Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky. The Barenreiter sets of Beethoven symphonies and Bach Brandenburg concertos are ur-texts which are of value and interest.

    Do you mean the Antec recordings of Thielemann? Antec is a HK-based "pirate" company, I'm sad to say, which issues CDs (or CD-Rs) with the content from suspect sources, usually radio broadcasts. This company only accepts mail orders and for legal reasons it doesn't sell discs to HK customers. I've never bought any discs from this company although I can use my friends' overseas addresses if I want to.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not until i see your post do i know that the haas edition are out of print for a long time.
    the reissue is a good news for bruckner fan. i have bought dover's B4&B7,and i really appreciate that they list the english translation of german musical terms. i don't know why the on sell date of B6&8 has delayed twice and i hope soon the reissue will be complete. now i can only find the b8 score on IMSLP,and it looks like the rare editon used by Hans Knappertsbusch.

    i found the thielemann set on this web page:http://www.abruckner.com/newreleases/newreleases/

    i have once visit the Antec's web site before. they have cds of several broadcast files which are excellent performances. i don't know they are at HK. it seems that thay just copy the file from the internet and sell them =_= No one should buy things from such company.

    what's your opinion on B8 1887 version? i listened to Tintner's recording yesterday and they sound really strange for me. It is said that Simon Young's recording is excellent,and i hope i can find it in tw some other day.

    regards

    eaquson from tw

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Eaquson,

    Oh I see. What you're referring to is the ongoing set made by Unitel. Unitel is a production company which makes some recordings and then sells them to TV stations for broadcast or some music companies for issuing DVDs, etc. So far, no DVDs of this Thielemann series are on the market AFAIK.
    I don't have high hopes of Simone Young judging from my experience with her recordings. Tintner is a special case. I'll try to write something on him if I have time.
    As for the 1887 B8 version, I'm neutral to it. Again I'll try to leave some comments later re; recordings using this version.

    Best regards,

    Horace

    ReplyDelete
  10. thanks for ur information ! judging from the broadcast files,i suppose the sound quality of this Unitel set would be quite good. but i'm hesitate to try it since i don't now whether the sound of dvd would be as good as cd.

    i read your previous b4 post today. i've been listened to simone young's performance of pathetique symphony with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (also a broadcast file) and i sense a kind of dullness which is a rare experience for me.it really has something to do with transparency.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just now I got the info that this Unitel recording of B4&7 will be issued by the label C major in March.

    ReplyDelete