Lovely singing on this:
Lovely singing on this:
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I'm Alan.
^ Good is it Jerry? I only have 5 recordings of the 4th, so probably need to bolster that.
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Yes, up there with the best imo - Wand, Bohm.
And the sound quality is spectacular!
The recent Honeck on Reference Recordimgs with the Pittsburgh is also mighty fine.
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Location: Edinburgh
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I'm Alan.
OK so I got the 24/192 download of the new Nelsons Bruckner 4.... Hmmm, Jerry I'm going to have to disagree!
The performance is quite good but not great, doesn't come close to Bohm or Abbado IMO. But the sound..... murky and too distant IMO. Decca's recording of the Gewandhaus with Riccardo Chailly were better defined but suffered the same problems in the bass, especially over-reverberant timpani which swamp everything else.
For reference I looked out the live recordings Herbert Blomstedt made of the Bruckner symphonies with Leipzig Gewandhaus that were issued on SACD about 10 years ago, on the orchestra's own label (looks like they are currently unavailable). Had a listen to the 5th from that series.... wow, that's how to record in the Gewandhaus!
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^
Good.
Fine.
I'm glad to see that our long standing diversity of opinion on such matters remains unsullied, Alan.
I also rate very highly Nelson's Bruckner 3. One of the very best of recent years imo.
Classics Today hated it ....
David Hurwitz
"This is an atrocious performance of Bruckner's Third Symphony: sluggish, heavy-handed, superficial, and larded with the kind of bloated, false grandeur that makes a mockery of the composer's intentions."
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I really enjoyed discovering this album yesterday, and played it 3 times on the trot!
- sluggish, heavy-handed, superficial, and larded with the kind of bloated, false grandeur that makes a mockery of the composer's intentions
Just like I likes 'em!
https://open.spotify.com/album/1lUOr...T_GJSohbiYjXhA
Last edited by jandl100; 20-02-2018 at 08:18.
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Hmm, OK.
I'm having another listen, this time on Audiolab MDAC / Fostex TH600 headphones.
The pacing of the opening horn call, OK, a bit slow, but glorious! (Surely one of the most wonderful openings of any symphony - echoing through the Austrian Alps!).
Then Nelsons picks up the pace nicely.
The ebb and flow of pacing is just spot on for me. I can't fault it.
There are a hundred, a thousand, ways to successfully play this music, but this is one of them imo.
Yes, OK, the bass is a bit thick sounding - the cellos and double basses more of a whoom than a well defined rasp.
The brass, though, is nicely caught.
The acoustic space as recorded is a bit reverberant, but that is just fine & dandy imo for this music with Nelsons' chosen pacing. I don't hear it as murky.
But hell, listen to the music!!
I've fallen in love with the music all over again. I remain enthused.
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Location: Edinburgh
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I'm Alan.
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Hans Rott's symphony.
An early period work, he wasn't to have a middle period or a late one. He died age 26 in a mental institution.
Brahms can't have helped - he was the leader of the other side of the musical politics of the time and, on seeing the manuscript for the first movement of the symphony, informed Rott that he had no musical talent and should change his career. Bruckner was a great supporter, though.
Wiki link
Have a listen - it's rather fine! Large scale and magnificent. Certainly not short on aspiration!
https://open.spotify.com/album/7nmaO...QMCV3HQsqGYCEw
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I'm not usually a fan of Prokofiev, but the lovely Miss Wang has won me over in the 2nd piano concerto
https://open.spotify.com/album/1oRI5...SC2Q2SPYbAWz_A
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