=
×

Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Head To Head
Log In
Register
Unsung Forum »
Soundtrack To Our Lives W/E 26/1/03
Log In to post a reply
60 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke
2609 posts

Re: Classical Soundtrack W/E 26/1/03
Jan 26, 2003, 16:26
Okay, you asked for it...

Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 5 (Cologne Gurzenich Orch/Gunter Wand) - newly released by Testament, these are from an incomplete Beethoven symphony cycle made by Wand in the late 50's. They are fresh, direct readings, more dynamic than the better known 80's cycle now on RCA. I wanna hear more from this series;

Beethoven: Symphony no.6 (Berlin PO/Eugen Jochum) - another recent re-release, this time from 1954. Jochum was clearly under Furtwangler's spell with this one, with the first movement taken too slowly for my taste. His later recordings with the Concertgebouw and the LSO have much more momentum;

Smetana: Ma Vlast (Czech PO/Rafael Kubelik) - stunning, tense live recording made shortly before Kubelik's death. Good music turned into great music by a master conductor;

Schubert: Winterreise (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Alfred Brendel) - this is something like F-D's EIGHTH recording of Franz's delightfully downer song cycle, and was criticised on its first release in 1988 for the obvious decline in the aging baritone's voice compared with earlier readings. Well, for my money the balance is restored by the maturity of the interpretation, with Mr Compact Discau much less mannered and OTT than before. And Brendel proves that his godlike pianistic genius extends to accompaniment as well. A belting £5.99 bargain from HMV last week;

Ravel and Debussy: String Quartets - wonderfully civilised, idiomatic readings by the Orlando Quartet, from a box set of that combo's Philips recordings I picked up in Amsterdam last year.

There. Bet you wish you hadn't asked.

DW
In reply to:
Re: Soundtrack To Our Lives W/E 26/1/03 (Son Of Alice)		 Replies:
Woodpecker..... (moey)
Topic Outline:
Unsung Forum Index