Tír Na HiFi

Brahms – Symphonies No. 3 & 4....



I just had to finish off listening to this set....really very good!

fergus wrote:Brahms – Symphonies No. 3 & 4....



I just had to finish off listening to this set....really very good!

Is it in anyway similar to Gardiner, Fergus?

DaveF wrote:

fergus wrote:Brahms – Symphonies No. 3 & 4....



I just had to finish off listening to this set....really very good!

Is it in anyway similar to Gardiner, Fergus?

The best way that I could describe it is like Gardiner with more punch....for me it has great impact without beig OTT and is powerful woithout being "heavy" or ponderous.

Bach – Brandenburg Concertos [Busch]....



I bought this set because I wanted some older style performances in my collection for comparison purposes with my modern HIP performances and as I listened I was hugely disappointed and heartily pleased that I did not get what I wanted.
Not only did Busch use smaller forces but the speeds and energy in these performances were electric! So I did not get a big band, heavy approach as I had expected and wanted but rather a set of performances that I would say were years ahead of their time. Yes the sound is very dated (recorded in 1935) but the performances are a joy and would certainly hold their own in today’s modern HIP performance field; the only exception to this is No. 6 which is very much “old style”.
I am very happy with my purchase!

String Quartets Op. 59, 1-3....

on vinyl....

Listened to side one of this Triple LP set. Bach's Cello Suites are probably one of the few works of his that I havent paid much attention to so far but what I heard here was very pleasing indeed.

DaveF wrote:Listened to side one of this Triple LP set. Bach's Cello Suites are probably one of the few works of his that I havent paid much attention to so far but what I heard here was very pleasing indeed.

I love that record: it's full of personality and love for the music, and he really sells these pieces. But it's a bit of a guilty pleasure, because maybe it sells them a little too much, but on the other hand you forgive it because it's just so infectiously enjoyable. Other performances of that period and earlier tended to be deadly deadly earnest, because Bach's music is so important , so serious, so pure... but Maisky gets the fun and dance in Bach without which the music dies! Interestingly he rerecorded the Cello Suites in 1999:

http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo7/maisky.htm wrote:Regarding the re-recording of the cello suites, Mischa Maisky refers to a funny occurrence. Passing a hifi shop in Zurich a few years ago, he noticed some interesting loudspeakers. To try them out, the salesman put on a demonstration CD. "There was some orchestral music, a singer, a violinist and then the Bourrée from the C major Cello Suite. I thought it was someone making fun of me - it sounded like a parody. When I saw it was my [1985] recording, I was shocked. I had not heard it for a number of years." So Maisky was pleased when the Deutsche Grammophon suggested a new version for the "Bach year", although he stresses that for him, "every year is Bach Year". The result of Maisky's 1999 recordings in an abbey in the Flemish part of Belgium (called Flanders) is recommended to all lovers of classical music (review based on the booklet text by Tully Potter).

If I remember the reviews when it came out the changes were not as drastic as Maisky's reaction to his own record would suggest. At least he has something to say: I remember a BAL reviewer saying of Janos Starker that he wondered why Starker recorded them four times when he had so little to say about them. But then maybe saying very little is the result of the reverent (over-reverent?) approach.

If you like Maisky's Bach then maybe you would like Sandor Végh's record of the Orchestral Suites. HIP it's not, but on BAL Andrew Manze admitted a "shnakin' regard" for it!

Ciaran wrote:
If you like Maisky's Bach then maybe you would like Sandor Végh's record of the Orchestral Suites. HIP it's not, but on BAL Andrew Manze admitted a "shnakin' regard" for it!

Cheers Ciaran. I will certainly check out this one.