What are you listening two?

[Jose Echenique]

Well, great, really great, I´d vote for Furtwängler´s in DG.

[fergus]

Franz Schubert
Octet D 803
Schubert Ensemble, Budapest

This is a lovely light performance of the Octet D 803, it's a very impressive performance indeed. My favourite recording is by the Gaudier Ensemble so it's tIme for another comparison I expect.

I am delighted that you liked it Seán. The "light" performance only enhanced the work for me as this approach can do a great deal of good in Schubert methinks.

[fergus]

M9 - von Karajan....

[Seán]

Franz Schubert
Octet D 803
Schubert Ensemble, Budapest

This is a lovely light performance of the Octet D 803, it's a very impressive performance indeed. My favourite recording is by the Gaudier Ensemble so it's tIme for another comparison I expect.

I am delighted that you liked it Seán. The "light" performance only enhanced the work for me as this approach can do a great deal of good in Schubert methinks.

For the most part yes, except when we get to listen to his later symphonies, where Bruggen proved that lightness doesn't work well at all.

[Seán]

M9 - von Karajan....

Yeah, I love it.

[fergus]

I am delighted that you liked it Seán. The "light" performance only enhanced the work for me as this approach can do a great deal of good in Schubert methinks.

For the most part yes, except when we get to listen to his later symphonies, where Bruggen proved that lightness doesn't work well at all.

Nay....Bruggen just made a mess of it!

[fergus]

Shostakovich 15 with Haitink....

[Jose Echenique]

They keep coming and we keep buying them.
Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos first got my attention with his stunning recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in the original and revised versions for BIS. It´s hard to believe that that recording is almost 20 years old. Kavakos didn´t become a regular recording artist, but recently he has been signed by DECCA. I am glad he recorded the Brahms because I actually heard him perform it with the Concertgebouw some 5 years ago during a trip to Amsterdam. It was a gorgeous performance, his sound live is manly yet velvety, and he knows how to carry a large scale concerto like this. The recording is pretty much like what I heard in Amsterdam, it´s elegant, musical and satisfying. My only disappointment is that the sound, though not bad, is not as remarkable as Chailly´s glorious recording of the 2 Brahms piano concertos with Nelson Freire. What I loved about those recordings was that the soloist was not in-your-face, he was not unduly spotlighted. Kavakos definitely is, in the manner of Perlman, Znaider, Repin and so many others. This and any other music works so much better when you get a truthful balance between soloist and orchestra.
I also didn´t love the idea of coupling the Brahms concerto with the 2 Bartók rhapsodies, the Double Concerto would have been the obvious choice, especially since Chailly is recording all the Brahms orchestral output.
Still, a very fine recording, one worthy to put besides the Gil Shaham with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (my #1 among digital versions) and the Gidon Kremer with the Concertgebouw and Harnoncourt.

I´m only beginning the symphonies, already heard #1, as expected the playing of the Gewandhaus is marvelous, Chailly has the measure of the score. Is this a GREAT #1? maybe it is, or at least this bit close to greatness.

[Seán]

They keep coming and we keep buying them..............
I´m only beginning the symphonies, already heard #1, as expected the playing of the Gewandhaus is marvelous, Chailly has the measure of the score. Is this a GREAT #1? maybe it is, or at least this bit close to greatness.

I have his earlier recordings with the RCO and it is not my favourite cycle, do you have it Pepe?

[Jose Echenique]

Yes, I have it Seán, and in fact I heard Chailly and the Concertgebouw in Brahms 4 a number of years ago.
The playing is superb of course, but the competition is so great that Chailly clearly doesn´t make it to the top 10....or even the top 20!
The new Gewandhaus 1st is more exciting than the old Concertgebouw, Chailly clearly rethought his interpretation, but the new 3rd, always Brahms´ most difficult symphony to bring off, is ok at best, no match for the superb BPO/Abbado and the Berglund/Chamber Orchestra of Europe, my favorites among digital versions.
I´ll put aside the other symphonies for later running the risk of Brahms saturation.
And since Opera Rara´s new Donizetti´s Belisario came together with the Brahms I´ll listen to it next.